Killing Kennedy: The End of Camelot

Young Bill O’Reilly is in a freshman religion class at Chaminade High School when he learns from an announcement over the loudspeaker that President John F. Kennedy has been shot. The tragedy hits home, for O’Reilly’s own Irish-Catholic family includes people with the Kennedy surname.

O’Reilly identifies seven coincidences (there are more) in the lives and assassinations of Presidents Lincoln and Kennedy and argues that these correspondences make Killing Kennedy a natural follow-up to Killing Lincoln (2011), O’Reilly’s first book with coauthor Martin Dugard. O’Reilly insists that the book presents only the facts—that he and Dugard “are not conspiracy guys”—but he also acknowledges that much remains “unknown,” while other supposed facts appear “inconsistent” (2-3).

It is Inauguration Day. Chief Justice Earl Warren administers the Oath of Office to incoming President John F. Kennedy. Standing nearby are three people incredibly important in Kennedy’s life: his brother, Robert F. Kennedy, the new attorney-general; his running mate and now vice president, Lyndon B. Johnson; and his 31-year-old wife, Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy. Some of Kennedy’s celebrity friends, including singer Frank Sinatra, partied well into the night and thus chose not to attend the swearing-in ceremony. Secret Service agents scan the crowd.