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Confessions of an Assassin

His name is James File: born James Sutton in Alabama and grew up in an Italian neighborhood in Chicago. He worked as a CIA operative in Laos in the late fifties and early sixties. His CIA “controller” hooked him up with the mafia, reminding him of his misspent youth in the neighborhood’s of the “Windy-City.” File ran with people like Charles Nicoletti, Johnny Roselli, David Ferry, and even a guy named Lee Harvey Oswald. His life led him down many paths, driving only during daylight so there were would never be any question about what he was doing. One of those paths led right into Dealey Plaza, Dallas, TX, on November 22, 1963. He surveyed the area, checked out the best places to position a gunman, picked his place behind a stockade fence on top of a grass knoll.

In Confessions of an Assassin James File admits to being a part of the conspiracy to kill President John Fitzgerald Kennedy. Not just a part of the killing, but he may have cast the final bullet, the death shot. File, while in prison for killing a police officer in Joliet, Illinois, was contacted by a private investigator named Joe West. West had plans on re-opening the case of Kennedy’s assassination. West, during his investigations, developed a trust with File, a relationship so deep that when West passed away, File was moved to reveal what he knew about that day.

The video is shown completely uncut. It’s a one camera shoot, taken probably with no more than a Super-VHS camera. Any edit seen is the camera being paused so that File could get some water and the interviewer could gather his thoughts. The interviewer had his questions well-rehearsed, but seemed afraid to probe for important follow-up questions. File had this policy of answering questions that only seemed relevant to his involvement in the assassination. Because of this, the interviewer seemed only concerned with making sure that any relevations made, were told in complete sentences, so that context would not be lost.

Despite the one camera, my attention never wavered. Everything File spoke of fit in nicely to the puzzle left at the end of Oliver Stone’s JFK. File explains the Cuba connection (File blamed Kennedy for the Bay of Pigs debacle), the Mafia (the hit was ordered by Sam Giancana of Chicago mob), and the CIA (one of the gunmen that day, according to File, Johnny Roselli, was a liason between the CIA and the Mafia, in fact, he had been flown to Dallas, on a military transport by the CIA themselves).

Now, I know that you’re very skeptical and even more so, are sick of hearing one more conspiracy theory, but File answers many of the Whos? the Whats? and the Hows? about that fateful day. Does he tell the truth? I believe he does. He has no reason to lie. Consider that there is no statute on murder, let alone the murder of the President of the United States, what would make him confess to a crime that would put him to death. Let alone what he would suffer from the hands of the FBI, CIA, and the mafia.

File is not a man, it seems, who wants fame, glory, or wealth. Only one time was File caught in a lie. This was the only time money was spoken about for his involvement that day in Dallas. In pre-interviews, he said he received $15,000 for his work that November. On the tape he doubled that figure. Why? He felt that the dollar amount didn’t matter and since everyone (the producers) were playing “straight ball”, he’d tell the whole truth.

For Kennedy assassination afficianados this tape is a MUST BUY! For those who don’t care probably haven’t read the review, but for you readers on the fringe, rent this tape, and your faith in our system may shake a little. Mine did. You see, conspiracies that reach the very top offices in our country rock our foundation of trust. Our currency tells us everyday to trust in God... He maybe the only One we can trust.

out of 5.