Last Second in Dallas (First Edition)

Thompson, Josiah

ISBN 10: 0700630082 / ISBN 13: 9780700630080

Published by University Press of Kansas, 2021

About this Item

Lawrence, Kansas: University Press of Kansas, 2021. First edition. Third printing (number line 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3). Hardcover. Full blue cloth with silver spine lettering. Very Fine in a very fine dust jacket. A tight clean copy with no faults. Jacket design by Karl Janssen. Octavo, 475 pages, illustrated, index. A new forensic analysis of the Kennedy assassination, incorporating discoveries since 2000 that challenge long-accepted accounts and argue for a crossfire theory, while the author emphasizes that the work is not a conspiracy book. Thompson is a former philosophy professor and private investigator best known for his earlier work SIX SECONDS IN DALLAS (1967), a groundbreaking study of the Zapruder film.

Seller Inventory # Univ-Press-Annex-3

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Last Second in Dallas (First Edition)
• Publisher: University Press of Kansas
• Publication Date: 2021
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0700630082
• ISBN 13: 9780700630080
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Condition: As New
• Dust Jacket Condition: As New
• Seller catalogs:
  • American History

About this title

Synopsis

In this long-awaited follow-up to his critically acclaimed 1967 classic, Six Seconds in Dallas, Josiah Thompson reveals major new forensic discoveries since the year 2000 that overturn previously accepted “facts” about the Kennedy assassination. Together they provide what no previous book on the assassination has done—incontrovertible proof that JFK was killed in a crossfire.

Last Second in Dallas is not a conspiracy book. No theory of who did it is offered or discussed. Among the discoveries: The test showing that all recovered bullet fragments came from Oswald’s rifle was mistaken. Several fragments could have come from bullets of any manufacturer and any caliber. The sudden two-inch forward movement of the president’s head in the Zapruder film just before his head explodes is revealed to be an optical illusion caused by the movement of Zapruder’s camera. This leaves without further challenge clear evidence that this shot came from a specific location to the right front of the limousine. Detailed analysis of film frames matched by the newly validated acoustic evidence show a second shot struck the president’s head from behind less than a second later. Result: two killing shots to the head from opposite directions in the final second of the shooting—hence the book’s title.

At once a historical detective story and a deeply personal narrative by a major figure in the field, Last Second in Dallas captures the drama and sweep of events, detailing government missteps and political bias as well as the junk science, hubris, and controversy that have dogged the investigation from the beginning. Into this account Thompson weaves his own eventful journey, that of a Yale-educated scholar who in 1976 resigned his tenured professorship in philosophy to become a private investigator in San Francisco, developing a national reputation.

Profusely illustrated, Last Second in Dallas features dozens of archive photographs, including Zapruder film frames reproduced at the highest clarity ever published.

About the Author

Josiah Thompson investigated numerous high-profile murder cases during his thirty-five-year career specializing in criminal defense, including the Oklahoma City bombing as defense investigator for Timothy McVeigh. Thompson’s publications include two books on the Danish existentialist thinker Søren Kierkegaard and a memoir about his jump from professor to detective, Gumshoe. He and his wife Nancy live in northern California.