“The truth is out there,” intones thriller novelist and television personality Brad Meltzer.
The line is from “The X-Files,” one of the more inventive television shows from more than a decade ago dealing in aliens and conspiracies.
Clearly Meltzer is comfortable giving a shout-out to the crop-circle watchers in his newest book, “History Decoded: The 10 Greatest Conspiracies of All Time,” which tells us that his work may have more in common with the ramblings of X-file heroes Mulder and Scully than, say, the Warren Report.
And why not? Meltzer accepts the distinct possibility that the spear that punctured Christ’s side still exists as an all-powerful weapon, that Leonardo da Vinci could predict the future and that the government is covering up the existence of aliens so that it can borrow their technology for reverse-engineered aircraft.
The writer will speak Thursday at the Marcus Jewish Community Center as a kickoff to its November book festival.
Derived from his popular History Channel television show “Decoded,” Meltzer’s heavily illustrated book is breezily presented and includes with each chapter a packet of facsimile documents, such as a miniature copy of John F. Kennedy’s death certificate and the form issued by the government to citizens who want to report unidentified flying objects.
“You get to look at and hold the evidence and decide for yourself,” said Meltzer in a recent telephone conversation.
“When you look at the teletype that comes across from the State Department about (Lee Harvey) Oswald renouncing his citizenship, you say, ‘Wait, you’re telling me that Oswald renounced his citizenship and spent two years in Russia?’ It has you asking questions that you otherwise wouldn’t have asked.”
Of course, the documents generated by the Kennedy assassination would fill a stadium and it would seem every question that could be asked has been asked. In fact, while writing about this particular chapter, Meltzer concludes that perhaps the Kennedy conspiracy is not much more than a Rorschach test for the American unconscious.
In the ’60s, said Meltzer, Americans blamed the communists for the assassination; in the ’70s, they blamed the government; in the ’80s, the Mafia.
“Decade after decade it was whoever America was most afraid of at that time,” he said. “It’s a giant mirror that we hold up to ourselves.”
In researching these tales, what has Meltzer learned that is new? He says the family of John Wilkes Booth approached him after watching one of his shows and told him that Booth was not killed after Abraham Lincoln’s assassination.
“They said, ‘He’s not the one in the coffin. Would you like to hear our story?” he said. “I had never heard that story, never heard that was a possibility.”
The family believes Booth escaped and a different person was buried in his stead, which sounds a lot like the never-died legends of Jesse James and Butch Cassidy.
In addition to the chapters on Kennedy and Booth, Meltzer writes about skyjacker D.B. Cooper, the missing Confederate gold and the mysterious Georgia Guidestones in Elberton, the 19-foot high granite monuments set up anonymously with 10 pieces of advice and warnings for humanity.
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