Editing Gerald Posner (section)

=== ''Case Closed'' ===
In his 1993 book ''Case Closed'', Posner contended that [[Lee Harvey Oswald]] acted alone in the assassination of [[John F. Kennedy]] and Oswald's murderer, [[Jack Ruby]], acted independently as well. ''Case Closed'' was a ''New York Times'' bestseller and a finalist for the 1994 [[Pulitzer Prize for History]]. It was also the subject of a double issue of ''[[U.S. News & World Report]]'', and featured on programs such as [[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]]'s ''[[20/20 (US television series)|20/20]]'', [[CBS]] ''Special Reports'', and [[Public Broadcasting Service|PBS]]'s ''[[Frontline (U.S. TV series)|Frontline]]''. The book was optioned for a television miniseries by [[David L. Wolper]], the producer of the miniseries ''[[Roots (1977 miniseries)|Roots]]''.<ref>"The JFK Debate Gets 'Case Closed,' The Movie," Outlook: Science & Society, "U.S. News & World Report," November 1, 1993.</ref> In his 2003 autobiography, ''Producer: A Memoir'', Wolper cited his failure to get movies made of ''Case Closed'' and the [[Cuban Missile Crisis]] book, ''One Hell of a Gamble: Khrushchev, Castro, and Kennedy'', as his two major career disappointments.<ref>{{cite book |title=Producer: A Memoir|url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780743236874|url-access=registration|author=[[David L. Wolper]]|publisher=Scribner|year=2003|page=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780743236874/page/101 101]|isbn=9780743236874}}</ref>

In 1993, Posner testified before the [[United States House Oversight Subcommittee on National Security|Legislation and National Security Subcommittee]] of the [[United States House Committee on Government Operations]] about the findings in ''Case Closed''.<ref name="LNSS">{{cite book |title=The effectiveness of Public Law 102-526, the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992: Hearing before the Legislation and National Security Subcommittee of the Committee on Government Operations, House of Representatives, One Hundred Third Congress, first session, November 17, 1993 |url=https://archive.org/details/effectivenessofp00unit |year=1994  |publisher=United States Government Printing Office |location=Washington, D.C. |isbn=0-16-043551-X |page=[https://archive.org/details/effectivenessofp00unit/page/26 26]}}</ref> In 1998, the [[Assassination Records Review Board]] briefly referenced this testimony in discussing two unsuccessful attempts to acquire the interview notes of two physicians, James Humes and J. Thornton Boswell, that Posner said he possessed.<ref name="ARRB">{{cite book |author=[[Assassination Records Review Board]] |title=Final Report of the Assassination Records Review Board |url=https://www.archives.gov/research/jfk/review-board/report/arrb-final-report.pdf |access-date=March 4, 2013 |date=September 30, 1998 |publisher=United States Government Printing Office |location=Washington, D.C. |pages=134 |chapter=Chapter 7: Pursuit of Records and Information from Non-Federal Sources|chapter-url=https://www.archives.gov/research/jfk/review-board/report/chapter-07.pdf}}</ref>

''Case Closed'' generally drew critical acclaim from the media; the ''Chicago Tribune'', the ''[[Toronto Sun]]'', ''[[The Sydney Morning Herald]]'' and ''[[Newsday]]'' all cited Posner's "meticulous" research in their respective reviews.<ref>
* The ''Toronto Sun'', February 22, 1994: "In fact, I think all conspiracy theories are blown out of the water by Posner's meticulous research and careful conclusions."
* ''The Sydney Morning Herald'', November 27, 1993: "Painstaking re-examination of the greatest murder mystery of modern times: who killed JFK? It's no mystery concludes lawyer/journalist [Posner]: lone assassin Lee Harvey Oswald did it. And who would argue after reading this meticulous analysis, complete with graphics, illustrations and detailed appendices?"
* ''Chicago Tribune'', October 3, 1993:  "Half of 'Case Closed' is a meticulous examination of Oswald's entire life, culminating in an almost day-by-day chronicle of his movements in the last two months before the assassination&nbsp;... Its appeal lies both in its thorough, apparently even-handed research, and the fact that, following the publication in recent years of a near-constant stream of conspiracy books, 'Case Closed' may be the first by a respected author to argue persuasively for the Oswald-alone theory, a scenario most Americans dismissed years ago."
* ''Newsday'' (New York), September 16, 1993: "Posner employs meticulous research to reach what counts as a novel conclusion: That, for all its flaws, the Warren Commission was right. Oswald killed JFK without help from anyone."
* ''Sun-Sentinel'' (Fort Lauderdale, FL), September 18, 1993:  "Posner's exact and thorough destruction of the conspiracy theorists gives you Oswald the man, not Oswald the brilliant secret agent or Oswald the hapless patsy."
* ''Florida Today'', April 24, 2000:  "The industry standard belongs perhaps to lawyer-turned- investigative reporter Gerald Posner, whose meticulous Case Closed in 1993 was an immersion into assassination minutiae."
* ''Entertainment Weekly'', Gene Lyons, September 24, 1993:  "As thorough and incisive a job of reporting and critical thinking as you will ever read, Case Closed does more than buttress the much beleaguered Warren Commission's conclusion.&nbsp;... More than that, Posner's book is written in a penetrating, lucid style that makes it a joy to read. Even the footnotes, often briskly debunking one or another fanciful or imaginary scenario put forth by the conspiracy theorists, rarely fail to enthrall.&nbsp;... Case Closed is a work of genuine patriotism and a monument to the astringent power of reason. 'A'"
* ''U.S. News & World Report'', August 23, 1993:  "He [Posner] sweeps away decades of polemical smoke, layer by layer, and builds an unshakable case against JFK's killer."
* NYTBR (in the review of Norman Mailer's Oswald's Tale), April 30, 1995.  "Gerald Posner's 'Case Closed' (1993), which argues with an awesome command of evidentiary detail that Oswald did it, period."
* ''The Dallas Morning News'', June 22, 1997:  "More than three decades after the Kennedy assassination, there still are Americans who wonder. Gerald Posner's masterful study of that case should have laid those doubts to rest for thinking readers&nbsp;..."
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In his review for the ''Chicago Tribune'', [[Jeffrey Toobin]] wrote, "Unlike many of the 2,000 other books that have been written about the Kennedy assassination, Posner's ''Case Closed'' is a resolutely sane piece of work. More importantly, ''Case Closed'' is utterly convincing in its thesis, which seems, in light of all that has transpired over the past 30 years, almost revolutionary. His thesis is this: Lee Harvey Oswald killed Kennedy by himself.&nbsp;... I started ''Case Closed'' as a skeptic—and slightly put off by the presumptuous title. To my mind historical truth is always a slippery thing. The chances of knowing for sure what happened in any event—much less one as murky as the Kennedy assassination—seem remote. But this fascinating and important book won me over. Case closed, indeed."<ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/1993/09/12/who-didnt-kill-jfk/| work=[[Chicago Tribune]]| author=[[Jeffrey Toobin]] | title=Who Didn't Kill JFK?|date=September 12, 1993 | access-date=March 9, 2015}}</ref>

''Case Closed'' also drew widespread criticism from academics involved in assassination research as well as from non-academic assassination researchers who contended that it contained factual inaccuracies.<ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.baltimoresun.com/1993/09/22/case-closed-doesnt-close-the-oswald-file/| title='Case Closed' doesn't close the Oswald file| work=[[The Baltimore Sun]]| author=[[John M. Newman]] |date=September 22, 1993 | access-date=March 9, 2015}}</ref><ref name="dw">[[David Wrone|David R. Wrone]]. "Review of Gerald Posner, Case Closed.", ''Journal of Southern History'' 6 (February 1995), pp. 186–188.</ref><ref>[[Peter Dale Scott]], "A Review of Gerald Posner, Case Closed: Lee Harvey Oswald and the Assassination of JFK, Deep Politics II: Essays on Oswald, Skokie, Illinois, Green Archives Publications, 1995.</ref><ref>Harold Weisberg, Case Open: The Omissions, Distortions and Falsifications of Case Closed, NY, Carroll and Graf, 1994.</ref><ref>Martin Shackelford, "Case Closed: Lee Harvey Oswald and the Assassination of JFK, by Gerald Posner: A Preliminary Critique," The Investigator, August–September 1993.</ref> For example, historian [[David Wrone]] wrote that "massive numbers of factual errors suffuse the book".<ref name="dw"  /> [[Vincent Bugliosi]], whose own book ''[[Reclaiming History]]'' largely agrees with Posner's conclusions, accused Posner of "omissions and distortions" but also described ''Case Closed'' as "an impressive work".<ref>Bugliosi, Vincent. ''Reclaiming History'', Introduction, p. xxxviii</ref> "He is perhaps public enemy No. 1 to members of what might be called the JFK conspiracy industry," wrote journalist Paul Galloway.<ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/1998/05/18/killing-conspiracy-theories/ | work=Chicago Tribune | first=Paul | last=Galloway | title=Killing Conspiracy Theories | date=May 18, 1998}}</ref>

Coinciding with the 50th anniversary of the assassination in 2013, Gallup released a national poll showing that while a majority (61%) of Americans still believed a conspiracy was behind JFK's death, the number of those who thought it was a lone assassin (30%) was the highest in 46 years.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.gallup.com/poll/165893/majority-believe-jfk-killed-conspiracy.aspx |title=Majority in U.S. Still Believe JFK Killed in a Conspiracy |first=Gallup |last=Inc. |access-date=October 6, 2016 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160801184321/http://www.gallup.com/poll/165893/majority-believe-jfk-killed-conspiracy.aspx |archive-date=August 1, 2016 |df=mdy }}</ref>  Although some mainstream media commentators such as ''[[The Independent]]'' said that "for Americans, JFK will never be case closed",<ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/for-americans-jfk-will-never-be-case-closed-8944486.html | location=London | work=The Independent | first=Rupert | last=Cornwell | title=For Americans, JFK will never be case closed | date=November 17, 2013}}</ref> others like ''[[The Economist]]'' cited "Case Closed" and concluded, "50 years on, face it, Oswald did it."<ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.economist.com/news/united-states/21590361-face-it-oswald-did-it | newspaper=The Economist | title=Face it: Oswald did it | date=November 23, 2013}}</ref>  

Historian [[Robert Dallek]] called ''Case Closed'' "authoritative,"<ref>Joseph Palermo, "The 50th Anniversary of the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy (Part One), ''The Huffington Post'', November 8, 2013</ref> and said: "the best book on this subject is by a man named Gerald Posner, called 'Case Closed', I think he has responded very effectively to all the conspiracy theories, and there are so many of them."<ref>{{YouTube|MiQyDa4N8PQ}}</ref>  Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist, [[Hector Tobar]] wrote in the ''Los Angeles Times'' that ''Case Closed'' was "the book that cured me of JFK conspiracies once and for all."<ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.latimes.com/books/jacketcopy/la-et-jc-book-jfk-conspiracies-cure-20131120,0,928971.story#axzz2mtZkTyzM | work=Los Angeles Times | first=Hector | last=Tobar | title=The book that cured me of JFK conspiracies once and for all | date=November 20, 2013}}</ref>

''Case Closed'' continued to generate widely divergent views. Film director [[Oliver Stone]] told a JFK assassination conference in Pittsburgh that ''Case Closed'' was discredited and "there's nothing in the movie (''[[JFK (film)|JFK]]'') that I would go back on."<ref>{{cite news| url=https://edition.cnn.com/2013/11/22/showbiz/oliver-stone-jfk-50th-anniversary/index.html | work=CNN | title=Oliver Stone: There's nothing in 'JFK' I would go back on - CNN.com | date=November 22, 2013}}</ref>  Posner, on the day of the 50th anniversary, told CNN's [[Anderson Cooper]] that "the only thing he [Stone] gets right in 'JFK' is the date on which Kennedy is killed."<ref>{{cite episode | title=Remembering John F. Kennedy's Assassination 50 Years Ago; Crisis Inside Air Force One; Marina Oswald Porter Remarried Two Years After JKF's Assassination; Oswald's Widow Marina Opened Up To McMillan About Their Marriage; Fascinating Story of the Pink Suit Jackie Wore the Day JFK Was Assassinated; J.D. Tippit Was Shot Four Times By Lee Harvey Oswald | series=[[Anderson Cooper 360°]] | network=[[CNN]] | url=http://www-cgi.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1311/22/acd.01.html | date=November 22, 2013 | url-status=dead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131212181214/http://www-cgi.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1311/22/acd.01.html | archive-date=December 12, 2013 | df=mdy-all }}</ref>