The Men Who Killed Kennedy
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The Men Who Killed Kennedy | |
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History Channel (U.S. 1995-2003) | |
Release | October 25, 1988 November 17, 2003 | –
The Men Who Killed Kennedy is a video documentary series by British television network ITV that depicts the assassination of U.S. President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963. Originally broadcast in 1988 in two parts (with a subsequent studio discussion), it was rebroadcast in 1991 re-edited to three parts with additional material, and a fourth episode added in 1995. The addition of three further episodes in 2003 caused great controversy, particularly in the final episode implicating Lyndon B. Johnson and the withdrawal of these additional episodes.
Broadcast history and critical response
1988 to 2003
The Men Who Killed Kennedy began with two 50-minute segments originally aired on 25 October 1988 in the United Kingdom, entitled simply Part One and Part Two. The programmes were produced by Central Television for the ITV network, and was followed three weeks later with a studio discussion on the issues titled The Story Continues, chaired by broadcaster Peter Sissons.
The original broadcast was controversial in Britain. The episodes identified three men as the assassins of Kennedy: deceased drug trafficker
The United States corporation,
2003 onwards
In November 2003, three additional segments ("The Final Chapter") were added by the
"The Smoking Guns" examines claims of changes to the procedures normally followed by the Secret Service on the day of the assassination, bullet damage to windshield of the president's limousine consistent with a bullet fired through it from the front, and discrepancies between observations made by the doctors who treated Kennedy at Parkland Hospital after the shooting and the official autopsy and photographs of the president's body which were cited by the Warren Commission.[6]
"The Love Affair" focused on the claims of Judyth Vary Baker to have been Lee Harvey Oswald's lover in 1963, and to have worked with Oswald and others to develop a cancer-causing biological weapon as part of a CIA plan to assassinate Fidel Castro.[7][8]
The third of these additional segments – "The Guilty Men" – was based substantially on the book Blood, Money & Power: How L.B.J. Killed J.F.K. by
Malcolm Liggett, a retired economics professor, labor economist at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and employee of the Office for Wage and Price Stability in the Executive Office of the President from 1975 to 1981[12] sued A&E regarding the episode "The Smoking Guns," which claimed Liggett was involved in a conspiracy to kill Kennedy. Liggett and A&E reached a settlement, which required that a letter by Liggett be read on the show History Center.[13]
David Browne of Entertainment Weekly described the documentary as "well-researched, but still farfetched".[14] Addressing "The Guilty Men" episode, Dorothy Rabinowitz of The Wall Street Journal called it a "primitive piece of conspiracy-mongering" and wrote that "the documentary's ever deepening mess of charges and motives is never less than clear about its main point—that Lyndon Johnson personally arranged the murder not only of the president, but also seven other people, including his own sister."[15]
In a letter to the chief executives of the three parent companies of A & E Networks, —
Episode list
The first two episodes were followed by "The Story Continues" (16 November 1988), a critical studio discussion about them. The final episode was followed by a critical review, "The Guilty Men: A Historical Review." (7 April 2004).
- "The Coup D'Etat" (25 October 1988 [UK]) (27 September 1991 [U.S.])
- "The Forces Of Darkness" (25 October 1988 [UK]) (4 October 1991 [U.S.])
- "The Cover-Up" Timeline (11 October 1991 [U.S.])
- "The Patsy" (18 October 1991 [U.S.])
- "The Witnesses" (25 October 1991 [U.S.])
- "The Truth Shall Set You Free" (18 November 1995 [U.S.])
- "The Smoking Guns" (17 November 2003 [U.S.])
- "The Love Affair" (17 November 2003 [U.S.])
- "The Guilty Men" (17 November 2003 [U.S.])
See also
References
- ^ WorldCat, The men who killed Kennedy : the definitive account of American history's most controversial mystery
- ISBN 9780393045253.
- ^ "Rescue outlook brightens after 140 survive ferry sinking". Retrieved 2023-08-12.
- ^ Holland, Max (April 5, 2004). "The British JFK Producer Who Brought Shame on the History Channel". History News Network. Retrieved August 30, 2015.
- ^ "BAFTA Awards". awards.bafta.org. Retrieved 2019-02-22.
- ^ "The Men Who Killed Kennedy". Mary Ferrell Foundation. Retrieved February 22, 2021.
- ^ John C. McAdams, Should We Believe Judyth Baker?, Marquette University
- ^ Judyth Vary Baker, "Judyth Baker Responds to Critics"
- ^ a b Reuters, 12 April 2004, "History Channel Pulls JFK Conspiracy Show"
- ^ Amaia Legeau (January 19, 2018). "The Men Who Killed Kennedy". We Are Change TV.
- New York Times, April 7, 2004
- ^ "Malcolm Liggett (obituary)". TC Palm. May 8, 2008.
- Fort Pierce Tribune, March 19, 2005
- ^ Browne, David (November 20, 1992). "The Men Who Killed Kennedy (1992)". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved January 28, 2013.
- ^ Rabinowitz, Dorothy (February 19, 2004). "Character Assassination". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved February 4, 2013.
- ^ Weber, Bruce (February 5, 2004). "Moyers and Others Want History Channel Inquiry Over Film That Accuses Johnson". The New York Times. New York. Retrieved March 7, 2013.