Case Closed: Lee Harvey Oswald and the Assassination of JFK

A reexamination of the JFK assassination after 30 years

Case Closed was a New York Times bestseller and a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in History. Case Closed was also the subject of a double issue of U.S. News and World Report, and featured on programs such as ABC's 20/20, CBS Special Reports, and PBS's Frontline. Posner testified before Congress about the findings in his book: that Lee Harvey Oswald had, indeed, acted alone in killing JFK. The book was optioned for a television miniseries by legendary Hollywood producer, David Wolper.

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PRESS:

"Also notable from 1993 was a terrific three-hour documentary, 'Who Was Lee Harvey Oswald?' produced by the PBS series 'Frontline.' It will reair at 9 p.m. ET Thursday on KCPT, Channel 19. Using Gerald Posner as an expert witness -- he had just written Case Closed, a meticulous brief for the lone-gunman view – 'Frontline' picked apart all of the most plausible alternative scenarios for the killings of both Kennedy and Oswald."
- Kansas City Star, November 13, 2003

In fact, I think all conspiracy theories are blown out of the water by Posner's meticulous research and careful conclusions.
- The Toronto Sun

PAINSTAKING re-examination of the greatest murder mystery of modern times: who killed JFK? It's no mystery concludes lawyer/journalist [Posner]: lone assassin Lee Harvey Oswald did it. And who would argue after reading this meticulous analysis, complete with graphics, illustrations and detailed appendices?
- Sydney Morning Herald

Posner employs meticulous research to reach what counts as a novel conclusion: That, for all its flaws, the Warren Commission was right. Oswald killed JFK without help from anyone.
- Newsday (New York)

In the flurry of publications marking the 30th anniversary of Kennedy's death, one book, 'Case Closed' by journalist Gerald Posner, was singled out for its thorough and thoughtful treatment of the subject.
- Agence France Presse

Richard Reeves' President Kennedy and Gerald Posner's Case Closed are rigorously thorough and finely crafted contributions to a confusing historical record.
- The Miami Herald

Its appeal lies both in its thorough, apparently even-handed research, and the fact that, following the publication in recent years of a near-constant stream of conspiracy books, 'Case Closed' may be the first by a respected author to argue persuasively for the Oswald-alone theory, a scenario most Americans dismissed years ago.
- Newsday (New York)

Posner's exact and thorough destruction of the conspiracy theorists gives you Oswald the man, not Oswald the brilliant secret agent or Oswald the hapless patsy.
- Sun-Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, FL)

Case Closed is not by any means a crackpot work but a thorough job with some pretensions to scholarship.
- The Toronto Star

Unlike many of the 2,000 other books that have been written about the Kennedy assassination, Posner's 'Case Closed' is a resolutely sane piece of work. More importantly, 'Case Closed' is utterly convincing in its thesis, which seems, in light of all that has transpired over the past 30 years, almost revolutionary. His thesis is this: Lee Harvey Oswald killed Kennedy by himself…. I started 'Case Closed' as a skeptic - and slightly put off by the presumptuous title. To my mind historical truth is always a slippery thing. The chances of knowing for sure what happened in any event - much less one as murky as the Kennedy assassination - seem remote. But this fascinating and important book won me over. Case closed, indeed.
- Jeffrey Toobin in the Chicago Tribune Book Review

As thorough and incisive a job of reporting and critical thinking as you will ever read, Case Closed does more than buttress the much beleaguered Warren Commission's conclusion ….More than that, Posner's book is written in a penetrating, lucid style that makes it a joy to read. Even the footnotes, often briskly debunking one or another fanciful or imaginary scenario put forth by the conspiracy theorists, rarely fail to enthrall…. Case Closed is a work of genuine patriotism and a monument to the astringent power of reason. 'A'
- Gene Lyons in Entertainment Weekly

He [Posner] sweeps away decades of polemical smoke, layer by layer, and builds an unshakable case against JFK's killer.
- US News & World Report

"Gerald Posner's 'Case Closed' (1993), which argues with an awesome command of evidentiary detail that Oswald did it, period." 
- New York Times Book Review

More than three decades after the Kennedy assassination, there still are Americans who wonder. Gerald Posner's masterful study of that case should have laid those doubts to rest for thinking readers…
- Dallas Morning News

I cannot believe that any rationale reader will finish Gerald Posner's book and still be persuaded that there was a conspiracy involved in the murder of John F. Kennedy or that the assassination was the result of any act other than that of Lee Harvey Oswald acting in solitary league with himself. This is a brilliant and meticulous analysis. With the skill of a good novelist possessed of the facts, Posner follows Oswald's tormented movements. He fully convinces me that Oswald acted alone when he killed Kennedy. Case Closed has helped lay to rest one of the great cultural and political scandals of our time.
- William Styron

Posner has done a great service, in the process proving that a single researcher, working alone, is always preferable to a committee. This is a model of historical research. It should be required reading for anyone reviewing any book on the Kennedy assassination. Beyond the outstanding job of research, Posner is a dramatic storyteller. The recreation of Oswald's, and Jack Ruby's, personalities is wonderfully well done. This case has been closed by Mr. Posner's work.
- Stephen Ambrose

Case Closed is a deliberate, detailed, thoroughly documented, sometimes brutal, always conclusive destruction of one Kennedy assassination conspiracy theory after another. Posner shows them to be in some cases improbable, in others mistaken, in many dishonest, in all wishful. Yet the book's most important contribution may be Posner's thorough, dispassionate, yet rather sympathetic account of the warped and miserable life of Lee Harvey Oswald. After his book, the case of JFK is indeed closed. Case Closed is important.
- Tom Wicker