The Poison Patriarch

How the Betrayals of Joseph P. Kennedy Caused the Assassination of JFK

By: Mark Shaw

Narrated by: Pat Kiernan

Focusing for the first time on why attorney general Robert F. Kennedy wasn’t killed in 1963 instead of on why President John F. Kennedy was, Mark Shaw offers a stunning and provocative assassination theory that leads directly to the family patriarch, Joseph P. Kennedy. Mining fresh information and more than 40 new interviews, Shaw weaves a spellbinding narrative involving Mafia don Carlos Marcello; Jack Ruby (Lee Harvey Oswald’s killer); Ruby’s attorney, Melvin Belli; and, ultimately, the Kennedy brothers and their father.

Shaw addresses these tantalizing questions: Why, shortly after his brother’s death, did a grief-stricken RFK tell a colleague, "I thought they would get one of us...I thought it would be me"? Why was Belli, an attorney with almost no defense experience (but proven ties to the Mafia), chosen as Jack Ruby’s attorney? How does Belli’s Mafia connection call into question his legal strategy, which ultimately led to the Ruby’s first-degree murder conviction and death sentence? What was Joseph Kennedy’s relationship to organized crime? And how was his insistence that JFK appoint RFK as attorney general tantamount to signing the president’s death warrant?

For 50 years, Shaw maintains, researchers investigating the president’s murder in Dallas have been looking at the wrong motives and actors. The Poison Patriarch offers a shocking reassessment - one that is sure to alter the course of future assassination debates.

©2013 Mark Shaw (P)2013 Audible, Inc.

Well reasearched and written.

Mark Shaw's book takes us to a logical conclusion. Unfortunately it has taken half a century of details and facts coming to the surface for the public to get the bigger picture.

Excellent

I am old enough to remember the assassination of JFK, and I have never accepted the Warren Commission's lone-gunman theory. This book presents compelling evidence that there was much more to the death of JFK - and later RFK - that the government (and possibly the Kennedy family) wanted the public to know. An excellent listen!

Family tragedy

Great historical details. Somewhat repetitive. Not sure overall premise is fully supported. Very well researched.

A little hard to follow

Struggled a little to finish it only because there is so much information said. But did grasp the jist and enjoyed it thoroughly.

Must read

Another great book and read by Mark Shaw highly recommend keep an open mind and listen