Countdown to Dallas

John F. Kennedy’s fascination with death—particularly his own—and Lee Harvey Oswald’s love of violence and desire for fame made November 22, 1963 practically inevitable. With new details from the very latest documents declassified by the CIA and FBI! The so-called “crime of the century”—the assassination of President John F. Kennedy—was almost preordained to happen. Like all presidents from decades before him, JFK played it loose with security—open cars, Secret Service agents at a distance, and a desire to be seen. Yet conspiracy buffs are certain the security setup on November 22, 1963 was unusual and suspicious. It wasn’t. And what of Lee Harvey Oswald, the drifter, the vicious wife-beating, fame-seeking narcissist? Everything in his background—dating back to his violent, disturbing grade school years, including his stated desire to murder President Dwight Eisenhower—defines the real Lee Oswald. The Oswald that conspiracists rarely talk about—the Oswald who was perched in the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository as JFK drove by—was headed for this moment of infamy years before he pulled the trigger. In Countdown to Dallas, author Paul Brandus tracks the backgrounds of both Kennedy and Oswald, the very different era in which they lived, and the incredible string of circumstances that brought them together for a few fateful moments in Dallas. He reveals: There was indeed a second person on the 6th floor of the Texas School Book Depository in the minutes prior to the assassination—but it’s not what you think. How Oswald REALLY got his job at the Depository. The OTHER president that Oswald previously discussed wanting to kill. What Oswald’s favorite TV show and favorite opera reveal about his personality and his willingness to use violence. The sinking of the Titanic—and how we process it more than a century later—is an example of how we continue to process information about the Kennedy assassination.