IT'S BEEN 47 YEARS AND WE STILL DON'T KNOW THE TRUTH ABOUT THE 20TH CENTURY'S GREATEST UNSOLVED MURDER...UNTIL NOW!
There isn't a baby boomer alive that doesn't have a theory about the assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy. Who killed him? Was it the Mafia, the Cubans, the CIA, the US military, or a glory-hungry ex-Marine who fired the shot that took the life of the president on November 22, 1963?
When news of the assassination broke schools and businesses closed, priests held special Masses, parents cried and the country mourned. Chuck Helppie was a child then growing up in Arlington, Virginia. His father worked for Bobby Kennedy. Because of that he was able to attend JFK's inauguration. A few years later, he stood with thousands and watched as the president's hearse rolled slowly down Pennsylvania Avenue. Helppie remembers the day, the time and the mood of the people. He also remembers the Warren Commission's final report. It was that report that triggered Helppie's lifelong curiosity with the Kennedy assassination.
Meticulously researched, KENNEDY MUST BE KILLED does what every great historical novel must do: It asks, 'what if?' What if Kennedy's handling of the Bay of Pigs incident had turned out differently? What if blame for the racial unrest in the South was placed somewhere other than the White House? What if Russia's bluster about its nuclear superiority had been silenced by something more than a tepid slap on the wrist?
Helppie explores these questions and others in great detail through the eyes of Patrick McCarthy, an anti-hero's hero who becomes the hinge pin in the secret plot to kill Kennedy. Every turn he takes, every choice he makes in the story is logical and plausible. Helppie instills in his assassin both the moral flaws and the personal integrity necessary to carry out his task. McCarthy becomes the perfect foil for the plotters who believed the United States would be a better country without the 'playboy politician' from Massachusetts.
With clarity and precise attention to historical detail, Helppie explores:
· The real possibility that Joseph Kennedy laid the groundwork for his son's assassination decades before Dealey Plaza.
· The CIA's extraordinary enmity for Kennedy.
· Kennedy's alleged dalliances and the non-stop efforts by the White House (and some members of the press corps) to keep them quiet.
· The simple fact that if Washington was indeed 'Camelot' and Kennedy was the modern-day Arthur, then a modern-day Mordred existed as well.
"What I wanted to make sure the book brought forth," Helppie explains, "was exploration of the social and cultural underpinnings that lead to the assassination of the president—the ever-advancing threat of Communism, the growing power of the CIA, the heated tumult of the civil rights movement, the clandestine influence of the Mafia, and the escalation of the Cold War through the numerous national security blunders of the Kennedy administration, as well as the reckless personal behavior of JFK himself."
In KENNEDY MUST BE KILLED , Helppie explores the political, personal and ethical realities that could have led to a plot to assassinate the 35th President of the United States. His intriguing theories supported by carefully researched facts provide the exciting framework for the big question: What if?
Charles 'Chuck' Helppie grew up literally in the shadow of the Pentagon. His father worked for Attorney-General Robert Kennedy as an economist in the Anti-Trust Division of the Justice Department. John Glenn lived down the street. Helppie's extensive bibliography notes that he studied over 125,000 pages of material researching the book. Today, Helppie is a Certified Financial Advisor. He lives with his wife in Michigan. KENNEDY MUST BE KILLED is his first novel.
Visit Helppie at his website: www.KennedyMustBeKilled.com.
KENNEDY MUST BE KILLED can be purchased from www.amazon.com and through all major booksellers.
