Truth and Tales, selected by Edward Jay Epstein

The never before published diary of Edward Jay Epstein’s investigation into the assassination of President Kennedy. It reveals my interviews with investigators that re-opened the investigation in 1966.

James Jesus Angleton was by far the most fascinating intellectual spy I ever met in my 50 year career of investigating intelligence services. This new biography of him asks the question: was he right after all? Angleton was the legendary head of CIA counterintelligence during most of the Cold War. In May 1987, in one of his last phone calls, he told Dick Cheney, who was then a member of the House Intelligence Committee that he needed to tell him in person something of vital importance. Angleton died before the scheduled meeting, taking this secret to the grave with him. Such is the world of spies.
John Le Carre could not have invented a character as intriguing as Angleton.

Remember the Robert Redford movie “Three Days of the Condor?” This is the conspiracy thriller on which it is based. An employee of a literary firm goes out to lunch and, on his return, finds all his fellow employees have been murdered. In attempting to save himself, the employee finds he has unwittingly been part of a vast conspiracy. A spy thriller to remember

Condon has written the quintessential conspiracy book of modern politics. It evokes the idea of not only kidnapping but mind-napping. The plot: U.S. Soldiers are secretly kidnapped and brain-washed into become assassins.-on-demand. The Concept of mind-control blends well with politics in this classic book.

When I taught a seminar at Harvard in the craft of intelligence, I made Our Man in Havana obligatory reading. It tells how a spy handler recruits fake or “notional spies because he can’t find real ones. This brilliantly written comic novel tells more about the intelligence business than any non-fiction book.

This is my favorite unsolved crime of all time. The Vatican’s banker, Roberto Calvi, was found hanged under a bridge in London in 1982, and as the mystery unfolded suspects included the Vatican, the Mafia, the P-2 lodge, Opus Dei, other bankers, and the secret service. I conducted a 30 year investigation into the mystery and I am still looking for an answer.

Here is a non-fiction book about the JFK assassination, based on original reporting, that reads like a thriller. The plot: the Kennedy brothers are trying to kill President Kennedy but instead the Castro Brothers strike first in self defense. In my view, it is one of the best JFK conspiracy books yet written.