Honors - Novel Four

          The fourth and final book that I read for my honors project, as a look into Los Angeles in the 1960’s, was “The Assassination of Robert F. Kennedy : The Conspiracy and Coverup”, by William Turner and Jonn Christian. This book, as the title suggests, focuses on Robert Kennedy’s 1968 assassination in Los Angeles’ Ambassador Hotel, as well as the conspiracies surrounding it. This book felt a lot like the second book I read – “Helter Skelter” by Vincent Bugliosi – and kind of had the same result for me. Both are in depth looks into crime, and do a good job of that, by focusing on, and revealing to you, all of the little pieces of a certain case. While this may be an interesting and informative read, it doesn’t necessarily give me as much information about the 1960’s in Los Angeles as a whole, as I would have liked. In this way, I don’t feel that this book – or Helter Skelter, for that matter – helped me as much as the other two books I read, for this project.

          While, through research, I had learned about this assassination prior to reading this book, one thing that initially surprised me was Vincent Bugliosi’s involvement – a further connection to “Helter Skelter”, and a sign of the time and place of these stories. I thought that the introduction of this book was really good, because it gave an overview to what you’d be reading (and kind of helped you to understand it without overwhelming you with details), as well as information on the book itself. I thought it was interesting that this book was pretty much ignored when it came out. It was slated for great things, such as book tours, before it just kind of disappeared. Apparently, for reasons unrevealed (potentially due to an outside source or involvement), the books stopped shipping, and thousands were sent to the incinerator to be burned. Because of this, demand just went up, and the price for an original copy skyrocketed shortly after.

          I also liked the use of images in this novel. Like many books of this nature, there was a small center section entirely comprised of images relating to the case, along with explanatory subtitles. The images included such things as maps, artifacts, people, and places. While the text is detailed enough to imagine what happened, these images really add another layer of depth and understanding to the writing. Overall, I thought that this was a decent book – most of its interest coming from the various conspiracies revolving around the crime. As I mentioned, however, it’s not necessarily very helpful pertaining to my project, although it has definitely given me some insight on Los Angeles in the 1960’s to walk away with.