Publisher's Synopsis
The opening chapter traces the troubled history of the Balkans up to the assassination of the Austrian Archduke Ferdinand by linking the influences of the Greek-Trojan War, Alexander the Great's conquest, the creation of Islam and Catholicism, conflicts with the Ottoman Empire, and the deadly and little known secret societies of Omalinida, Black Hand, Young Turks, the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization, and the Croatian Ustasha. The Serbian terror group the Black Hand is disclosed as the force that ignited the worldwide cataclysm of World War I and the legacy that the War to End All Wars left the world when Gavrilo Princip murdered Ferdinand. This chapter uncovers the motives of the Black Hand and the possibility that other secret societies and political forces joined in the plot. It investigates the legacy of the war that created the Bolshevik Revolution and themes for film, literature, and religion that have shaped Western culture. The second chapter discloses the peculiar relationships of Franz Ferdinand and President Kennedy, Gavrilo Princip and Oswald, Oswald and his father-in-law Ilya Prusakov, Oswald and the Russian born businessman George deMohrenschildt, Oswald and CIA contract agent and alleged double agent Richard Nagell, Oswald and CIA agents and mercenaries (Jerry Patrick Hemming, and David Atlee Phillips), DavidFerrie and Jack Martin, Ferrie and Carlos Marcello, Ferrie and Clay Shaw, Ferrie and Sergio Archacha Smith, Perry Russo and Ferrie, Clay Shaw and Permindex, Jim Garrison and Ferrie, Jim Garrison and Perry Russo, Oswald and the Fair Play for Cuba Committee, film and fiction that may have motivated Oswald, Ferrie's alleged pre-knowledge of the assassination, Guy Banister and Oswald, right-wing racist Joseph Milteer's pre-knowledge of the assassination, mind control and hypnosis, Jack Ruby and the mafia.
