A sprawling account of the various, creative, often bizarre, yet incredibly disturbing attempts to assassinate Fidel Castro. Soon to be a TV series from Jed Mercurio, show runner for "The Bodyguard," and Richard Brown, producer of "True Detective" and "Catch-22." Fabián Escalante, the founder of the Cuban intelligence services, and head of the Cuban State Security Department, provides a clear-eyed first-person account of his experiences defending Fidel Castro from the extraordinary attempts to take his life. From lethal poisons to plastic explosives to bazookas, Escalante introduces and describes an array of assassination plots and historical figures and depicts the ensuing cat-and-mouse game in the midst of the Cold War. Written in the style of a political thriller yet based on real events, 634 Ways to Kill Fidel Castro is a well-researched and documented series of vignettes put together by multiple investigations in Cuba and the experiences of the author, who participated in several of them; dozens of interviews with participants; extensive documentary evidence; and the collaboration of officials, and undercover agents who dismantled these plots. Filled with harrowing stories of deceitful FBI tactics such as moles who infiltrated the revolutionary Cuban government and gained a reputation with them with the ultimate goal of bombing their military bases. As well as undercover attempts to give Fidel poison laced cigars, Escalante takes the reader from DC to New York, Miami to Havana and uncovers the intricate conspiracy to silence dissent and kill Fidel Castro. 634 Ways to Kill Fidel Castro is filled to the brim with historical details on the CIA, Cuba, the communist movement, US government officials, and Fidel himself. Escalante’s first-hand account provides evidence of the lengths to which the CIA went through to assassinate Fidel Castro and the determined efforts to protect him and what he stood for.
From Truman to Trump, the deep corruption of our political leaders unveiled. Many critiques of the Trump era contrast it with the latter half of the twentieth century, when the United States seemed governed more by statesmen than by special interests. Without denying the extraordinary vigor of President Trump’s assault on traditional ethical and legal norms, Jonathan Marshall challenges the myth of a golden age of American democracy. Drawing on a host of original archival sources, he tells a shocking story of how well-protected criminals systematically organized the corruption of American national politics after World War II. Marshall begins by tracing the extraordinary scandals of President Truman, whose political career was launched by the murderous Pendergast machine in Missouri. He goes on to highlight the role of organized crime in the rise of McCarthyism during the Cold War, the near-derailment of Vice President Johnson’s political career by two mob-related scandals, and Nixon’s career-long association with underworld figures. The book culminates with a discussion of Donald Trump’s unique history of relations with the traditional American Mafia and newer transnational gangs like the Russian mafiya—and how the latter led to his historic impeachment by the House of Representatives.
If you enjoyed the chilling reading of In Cold Blood and were at the edge of your seat while watching Oliver Stone's JFK, you'll love this investigative look into all the facets of one of the top conspiracies of the twentieth century and beyond. DiEugenio, who has spent decades researching the Kennedy assassination, takes both an analytical and conversational approach to his fascinating exploration of the pivotal historical events and scandals surrounding that day. Twenty years after the first edition of Destiny Betrayed, DiEugenio is back with his ever-expanding investigation into the life and death of JFK. But this is no simple reissue. It is a greatly revised and expanded version of the original book, including updates on all the topics it introduced back in 1992. DiEugenio has used the declassification process of the Assassination Records Review Board (ARRB) to obtain the most current information on topics like the Garrison investigation and Clay Shaw; the newly exposed fallacies of the Warren Commission; U.S.-Cuban policy from 1957 to 1963; Kennedy's withdrawal plan from Vietnam; Kennedy's challenge to the Cold War consensus in 1961, and where those ideas originated; the ARRB medical inquiry demonstrating conspiracy and cover up; and the problems with the investigation of the Kennedy case. DiEugenio's primary focus is on the Garrison inquiry, the New Orleans aspects of the Kennedy murder investigation, and the revelatory new information that bolsters Garrison's case and has been withheld from the public. All of this and more is contained in the narrative of this complex crime, with twin focuses on the victim, John F. Kennedy, and the investigator, Jim Garrison. Skyhorse Publishing, as well as our Arcade imprint, are proud to publish a broad range of books for readers interested in history--books about World War II, the Third Reich, Hitler and his henchmen, the JFK assassination, conspiracies, the American Civil War, the American Revolution, gladiators, Vikings, ancient Rome, medieval times, the old West, and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.