Josiah Thompson
Josiah "Tink" Thompson | |
---|---|
Born | |
Nationality | American |
Occupation(s) | Philosophy professor, private investigator |
Academic background | |
Alma mater | Yale University |
Josiah "Tink" Thompson (b. 17 January 1935) is an American writer, retired professional private investigator, and former philosophy professor. In 1967, he published both The Lonely Labyrinth, a study of
Early life and professional careers
Thompson was born and raised in East Liverpool, Ohio.[1] He graduated from Yale University in 1957 and immediately entered the Navy, serving in Underwater Demolition Team 21. Returning to Yale, Thompson earned his Ph.D. in 1964.[2] He joined the Yale faculty as Instructor in Philosophy and then moved on to teach at Haverford College. He remained at Haverford, including a period living and researching in Denmark, until 1976. He wrote or edited several works about Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard.
In 1976 Thompson left Haverford and moved to San Francisco, to begin a new career as a private investigator, first working for Hal Lipset[3] and then David Fechheimer.[4] [5] Thompson worked as a PI for thirty-five years, retiring in 2011. He worked mostly in criminal cases, including the investigation of dozens of murders.[6] Among his better-known cases were participation in the defense of Bill and Emily Harris in the Patty Hearst kidnapping, and of Chol Soo Lee on murder charges. He was appointed by the federal court as investigator on the defense team for Timothy McVeigh in the Oklahoma City bombing trial, and investigated the bombing attack on environmental activists Judi Bari and Darryl Cherney.[7]
In 1988, he published Gumshoe: Reflections in a Private Eye, a well-received memoir discussing his post-academic life as a private detective.[8][9][10]
Since 1976, Thompson has lived with his wife, Nancy, in Bolinas, California, a seaside village just north of San Francisco. He serves as registered agent for the Bolinas Cemetery Corporation, defending the 150-year-old graveyard from vandals, litterbugs and developers.[11][12] Their daughter, Lis, died of breast cancer in 2015.[13] Their son, Everson, practices as a criminal defense private investigator in San Rafael, California.[14]
Six Seconds in Dallas (1967)
In Six Seconds in Dallas, Thompson argued that the physical evidence available as of 1967, corroborating eye-witness accounts, showed that
The book was condensed in the
Last Second in Dallas (2021)
After many years of additional research and investigation of all available evidence, bringing to bear the latest developments in
In 1979, twelve years after publication of Six Seconds in Dallas, Thompson was hired to write part of a new book on the then-just-released
During the intervening 32 years, Thompson recounts in Last Second, the corpus of reliable evidence in the case changed. With respect to the forensic evidence in particular, advances in scientific research with regard to both acoustics and ballistics removed what had been thought to be major facts from the table of genuine evidence, by showing them to be mistaken. Last Second in Dallas weaves together the remaining, scientifically verifiable facts into a picture of singular simplicity.[21]
Thompson relies not only on the Zapruder film and the
Throughout the book, Thompson emphasizes and scrutinizes the raw facts of the case. In the last second of the shooting, the presidential limousine is at its closest approach to Zapruder’s camera, allowing a precise and detailed examination of the images. The last two shots can unmistakenly be seen hitting their target, and these impacts match exactly the timing of the shots heard on the sound recording.[22] When first struck in the head at Zapruder frame 313, almost five seconds after the initial burst of gunfire which had already wounded Kennedy and Texas Governor Connally, the President is thrown backwards and to the left. Riding to the limousine's left rear are two Dallas Police motorcycle outriders who experience brain and blood debris blown over them at high velocity. The new book subjects this next-to-last (and fatal) shot to a particularly exacting acoustic examination. Less than a second later at frame 328, when Kennedy is hit in the head a second time, from the rear, his body and head are catapulted directly forward, with blood and brain blasted as far forward as the car’s hood ornament.
In Last Second, as in Six Seconds some 54 years earlier, Thompson eschews all speculation as to who the conspirators may have been as well as their motives. Focusing on the final second, he explains how it can be known with great certainty that Kennedy was hit twice in the head, just 0.71 seconds apart, by bullets fired from diametrically opposed directions. The first of these final and equally non-survivable shots came from behind a stockade fence atop the
The Umbrella Man
In 2011, The New York Times posted a short documentary film by
Bibliography
- The Lonely Labyrinth; Kierkegaard's Pseudonymous Works (Southern Illinois University Press, 1967)
- Six Seconds in Dallas: A Micro-Study of the Kennedy Assassination (B. Geis Associates, 1967) ISBN 0394445716
- Kierkegaard: A Collection of Critical Essays (editor) (Anchor, 1972) ISBN 0385019785
- Kierkegaard (Knopf, 1973) ISBN 0394470923
- Gumshoe: Reflections in a Private Eye (Little, Brown, 1988) ISBN 0316841757
- Last Second in Dallas (University Press of Kansas, 2020) ISBN 9780700630080
References
- ^ Hoover, Bob (December 28, 1991). "Turning the page on JFK". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. p. 16. Retrieved August 16, 2014.
- ^ Trillin, Calvin (November 3, 1967). "The Buffs". The New Yorker. New York. Retrieved November 30, 2020.
- ^ "Harold Lipset: Biography". ETHW: The Engineering and Technology History Wiki. Retrieved 3 July 2022.
- ^ Thompson, Josiah (1988). Gumshoe: Reflections in a Private Eye. Boston: Little, Brown.
- ^ Trillin, Calvin (1978-11-27). "Tink". The New Yorker.
- ^ Bronstein, Phil (9/29/2020). "Last Call for Gumshoes". Alta. San Simeon Films. Retrieved 14 December 2020.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ Simkin, John. "Josiah Thompson". Spartacus Educational. Spartacus Educational Publishers. Retrieved 14 December 2020.
- ^ "GUMSHOE: Reflections in a Private Eye". Kirkus Reviews. Kirkus Media LLC. May 15, 1988. Retrieved 25 October 2023.
- ^ "Gumshoe Reflections in a Private Eye: Reflections in a Private Eye (sic)". Publishers Weekly. June 3, 1988. Retrieved 25 October 2023.
- ^ Smith, Wes (September 7, 1988). "Existential Eye". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 25 October 2023.
- ^ Rosenfield, Seth (28 February 1999). "A dividing driveway". SFGate. San Francisco Examiner. Retrieved 14 December 2020.
- ^ Rosenfeld, Seth (27 May 2003). "New life for cemetery, better days for Bolinas". SFGate. San Francisco Examiner. Retrieved 14 December 2020.
- ^ "Lis Thompson Fuchs". Legacy.com. Retrieved 14 December 2020.
- ^ Klein, Gary. "Marin Snapshot: San Rafael private eye puts his focus on defense work (3/11/2016)". Marin Independent Journal. Retrieved 14 December 2020.
- ^ Kleiner, Dick (February 1, 1968). "3 Fired at Kennedy". The Times-News. Hendersonville, North Carolina. NEA. p. 3. Retrieved September 20, 2014.
- ^ Winship, Frederick M. (November 17, 1967). "Study Of Assassination Claims Conspiracy By Trio". The Bryan Times. Bryan, Ohio. UPI. pp. 1–2. Retrieved April 11, 2015.
- ^ Updike, John. "Notes and Comment". The New Yorker. Retrieved 14 December 2020.
- ^ Cases, Copyright. "Time Inc. v. Bernard Geis Assocs". Legal Information Institute. Cornell University. Retrieved 26 October 2015.
- ^ "Time Inc. v. Bernard Geis Assoc., 293 F. Supp. 130 (S.D.N.Y. 1968)". Justia.
- ^ "Last Second in Dallas". University Press of Kansas. Retrieved 15 November 2020.
- ISBN 978-0700630080.
- ^ "Passing the Torch: Last Second in Dallas". History Exhumed. Cyril H. Wecht Institute of Forensic Science and Law. Retrieved 3 August 2020.
- ^ Morris, Errol (November 21, 2011). "'The Umbrella Man'". The New York Times. New York. Retrieved May 11, 2015.
- ^ Morris, Errol (director); Josiah Thompson (interviewee) (November 22, 2011). The Umbrella Man (documentary film). New York: The New York Times. Retrieved May 11, 2015.
- ^ Michaud, Jon (November 22, 2011). "Updike, J.F.K., and the Umbrella Man". The New Yorker. New York. Retrieved May 11, 2015.