Article by the author

Lori Spencer, Independent Journalism

Article: The Kennedy Assassinations review: Who killed the political brothers?

Full review available at:
https://www.express.co.uk/entertainment/books/1679351/kennedy-assassinations-jfk-rfk-lee-harvey-oswald-sirhan-sirhan

Express

Certainly, an excellent book if you are new to the subject and even if you’ve had a passing interest
previously. A book even I enjoyed and I quite like the author and his writing style having
read his previous book Protecting the Presidential Candidates.

Read the Full Review here

The History Fella

This book explores the never ending question - Was there more than one shooter in the assignations of both Robert and John F Kennedy. There are lots of interviews and eye witness accounts. A very well researched book. Recommend.

NetGalley, Mary Cummins

Wow such an interesting and insightful read. Read this one over two days….Few events have been the subject of more conspiracy theories than the assassinations of the two Kennedy brothers. Indeed, a great many people consider that there were other individuals than Lee Harvey Oswald and Sirhan Sirhan involved in both murders. Was a shot fired from Dealey Plaza’s grassy knoll? Why did Jack Ruby shoot Oswald? Was it the CIA, the Soviets, Cuban nationalists or the Mafia that arranged John Kennedy’s assassination? Was Robert Kennedy shot from in front and behind, and who had the most to gain from his death?

These are just a few of the questions that have been put forward by a myriad of conspiracy theorists and it is those people and their ideas that Mel Ayton has tackled head-on. Over many years, Mel Ayton has examined all the more substantial conspiracy theories and, through careful analysis of documents and eyewitness statements, he has demolished each one.

In each case, Mel Ayton presented the results of his detailed investigations in periodicals as he worked through the various theories. These have now been brought together to provide a comprehensive analysis of all the main theories as to who, how and why the two Kennedy brothers met their deaths in such unusual circumstances.

Though wild ideas will continue to be proposed and efforts will still be made to demonstrate that Oswald could not have fired off three shots with great accuracy in the few seconds available to him as the presidential cavalcade passed beneath the window where he crouched, or that there were sinister reasons why three CIA men were allegedly present on the night of Robert Kennedy’s assassination, the harsh reality is that the Kennedy brothers were each killed by lone gunmen.

This is an absorbing read, brought up to date with the addition of new material as it has been uncovered. Maybe, just maybe, this book will persuade people that the official accounts of both murders, although flawed, are not cover-ups but simply statements of fact.

NetGalley, Michelle Coates

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

A very informational book. Some stuff in the book I didn't even know about or thought I knew. A great book with more detail and information. I highly recommend!

NetGalley, Noelle S

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

A well done and informative look at the various conspiracy theories and how actual facts disprove them. The author used great logic and laid out the explanations on how the conspirators were misleading the public by twisting the truth or providing falsehoods. For the history fan, this is a must read novel.

NetGalley, Ron Baumer

I thoroughly enjoyed reading how each essay worked through the theories and found ways to discredit them. I especially found it fascinating in certain essays when parallels were created between the assassinations of the Kennedy brothers and that of Martin Luther King Jr.

While this is a book for debunking theories, it is still very thought-provoking and leaves you with your own opinion in the end.

NetGalley, Kirsty Whyte

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

The author of several published works on American assassinations, Mel Ayton’s latest contribution is an examination of the 1960s Kennedy brothers’ slayings. This book is divided into two sections comprising five chapters on John’s and six on Robert Kennedy’s deaths, as well as a handy index, detailed bibliography and substantial end notes. It also includes numerous historic photos and artifacts, as significant reminders of history in the making. A clearly presented debunking of specific conspiracy theories with comprehensive analysis and an informative review of the numerous characters and their motivations for the assassinations. Those familiar with the history of these events will find it a most interesting examination, that is both illuminating and an enjoyable insight into the fixation and folly of conspiracies. Although English, Mel has taught in the United States, specialising in American History. He writes in a serious but imminently readable style, that makes for a five read star rating.

NetGalley, Michael Bradford

It is an interesting read as it systematically discredits numerous conspiracy theories surrounding the assassinations. You would need to read it to make your own opinion.

NetGalley, Steve Cripwell

The Kennedy Assassinations brings a number of Mel Ayton's essays on the conspiracy theories surrounding these assassinations together.

While this is a debunking of those conspiracy theories it is also a look at how and why conspiracy theories take hold. In a far more understanding manner than many who try to counter these theories (any conspiracy theories) Ayton first acknowledges why part of the population might be susceptible. I think this serves a couple of functions. First, if a reader is leaning toward believing them, it doesn't make them feel like they are being called stupid for doing so. Second, it highlights the areas in society that we might be able to work on so fewer people would feel that there were so many conspiracies, or one very large one, against them.

The fact this is a collection of essays from different times has both positive and negative aspects. The main negative, and it isn't a particularly big one, is that there is some repetition. This is, however, necessary since each essay/chapter is a self-contained argument, so points need to be mentioned. Which leads directly to the main positive, these can be read as just that, separate essays. While put together in book form they make a more complete argument, each is a complete argument of some aspect of the conspiracy theories. When I read the chapter titles to a friend, she immediately wanted to read "Hypnotized Assassin?" before any other, it was a theory that she found interesting even if she didn't believe it.

Some refutations of the various conspiracy ideas over the years have been almost as convoluted as the alleged conspiracies themselves. One of Ayton's strengths is in pointing out some of the most basic, and strongest, counter arguments. No doubt those who are fully invested in their theories will still resist, but those who simply want the truth (as close as we can get, anyway) will see just how unlikely all of the things that would have had to fallen into place for these theories to work are.

Will this book dispel any notion of some kind of clandestine plan? Probably not. But after this I would think most people would limit their ideas to something far more basic, with fewer people involved (really, how good do people keep secrets anyway?), and not tied into some worldwide time-spanning conspiracy.

NetGalley, Jack Messer

Conspiracy theories are everywhere these days. Not all of them are stupid - real-life conspiracies do, after all, sometimes occur (for example, the cover-ups surrounding the Iran-Contra Affair and Watergate). However, many conspiracy theories are frankly ridiculous, believed only by those who believe nothing they read in a newspaper and everything they believe on the internet.
However, even for those of us who recognise that the Earth is not, in fact, flat or that the Apollo moon landings, September 11th attacks, climate change and Coronavirus pandemic were not made-up fictional events invented by the mass media, the Kennedy assassinations of 1963 and 1968 might still give us pause for thought.
Many of us may have speculated that the mafia or CIA may have had a hand in the killings of President John F. Kennedy in 1963 and his brother, the presidential candidate, Robert Kennedy nearly five years later.
Mel Ayton's detailed, sometimes repetitive book tackles and refutes most of the outstanding doubts about the official verdicts on both assassinations head-on. It is unlikely to end the eternal, often web-fuelled speculation about such events, of course, but is a worthy and noble effort to close the door on the subject forever.

NetGalley, Chris Hallam

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