In the late '80s, before the term graphic novel fully entrenched itself into the literary vernacular, Atlanta native Lamar Waldron was carving out a career in the genre with deeply researched sci-fi epics such as "Lightrunner" and "MICRA."
But before you could say "grassy knoll," a side project focusing on President John F. Kennedy's assassination engulfed Waldron's career. What was originally planned to take a handful of months has hit the 20-year mark. The result produced two expansive books on the Kennedy assassination conspiracy, including the recently released "Legacy of Secrecy: The Long Shadow of the JFK Assassination."
It all began when Waldron and pal Thom Hartmann, now a popular Air America radio show host, were itching to collaborate on a writing project. Around the 25th anniversary of the murder in 1988, both found they had a shared interest in the speculation surrounding Kennedy's assassination.
While working on a newsletter for Georgia Public Television in 1990, Waldron and Hartmann secured an interview with JFK's former secretary of state, Dean Rusk, who was teaching at the University of Georgia.
Waldron figured if Rusk was hesitant to fully divulge his opinions on the Kennedy assassination, he'd begin by asking him about Kennedy's relations with Cuba. With any luck, Waldron hoped he could veer that conversation toward the topic of the assassination.
He was right.
"Once he started talking about Cuba, JFK and 1963, his demeanor changed," Waldron recalled. "It wasn't the rote-rehearsed answers that he would give you in print and on camera that he had been giving for years. ... And he told us some pretty amazing things that got very quickly into JFK's murder and the secrecy surrounding it."
Rusk said Kennedy and brother Robert were planning an invasion of Cuba to overthrow Fidel Castro, which would have taken place about 10 days after the president's murder in Dallas.
Those revelations encouraged Waldron and Hartmann to dig deeper.
"That literally set us on a course where we talked to more than two dozen people who had worked with John and Robert Kennedy," Waldron said.
They claim that after the assassination, government officials, including Robert Kennedy, scrambled to cover up the planned Cuban invasion. In turn, the cover-up put a lid on a full-blown investigation into JFK's assassination.
Waldron says that Kennedy associates "pointed us to documents at the National Archives that not only supported what they said, but eventually I even provided information to a government commission in the 1990s that allowed them to identify and release more documents about these matters."
As the years passed, Waldron continued riffling through government files. In the mid-1990s, Hartmann scaled back his involvement a bit as his own literary career began to rise with books on topics including spirituality, environmentalism and attention deficit disorder. Hartmann eventually relocated to Portland, Ore. But the mission to cull together information and uncover more remained.
In 2005, the duo's first book on the JFK assassination conspiracy, "Ultimate Sacrifice," hit shelves. But like a scattering of puzzle pieces across a living room floor, more needed to be linked. Last month, Waldron and Hartmann delivered an additional 864 pages with "Legacy of Secrecy."
This sequel of sorts expands on the Cuba coup and contains documented confessions by Mafia bosses Santo Trafficante, Johnny Rosselli and Carlos Marcello admitting their involvement in JFK's murder. It also links Marcello and Georgia white supremacist Joseph Milteer to the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.
"Their research is punctilious, overwhelming and persuasive," said Ronald Goldfarb, a Mafia prosecutor for former Attorney General Robert Kennedy. "Each book discloses key new nuggets of information, which adds to the evolving conclusion that JFK was murdered by a calculated plan of the mob who was pursued by RFK as attorney general."
Not surprisingly, Hollywood has expressed interest. The story of mobster Johnny Rosselli in "Ultimate Sacrifice" has been optioned by a production company that includes actor Dennis Farina and "24" TV show producer Stephen Kronish. And Waldron is in talks with producers and directors about documentaries and a feature film based on "Legacy of Secrecy."
But Waldron and Hartmann's work isn't over. In the coming year, Waldron hopes to persuade members of Congress to release an additional 1 million CIA files on the JFK assassination. Waldron said these files aren't slated to be opened until 2017, and the Martin Luther King Jr. files from a congressional investigation will stay secret until 2029.
As a result, the former comic book scribe has transformed himself into a historical dark knight on a quest for truth and justice.
"We didn't piece the story together from the documents," Waldron explained. "We got the story from the people who worked with John and Bobby Kennedy first, which helped get some of those documents released. So my main focus over the next few months is to try to get more of those files released, because there is more of the story to tell."
NONFICTION
"The Legacy of Secrecy: The Long Shadow of the JFK Assassination" by Lamar Waldron; Counterpoint; 864 pages; $33
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