I found this book to be interesting, if unfortunately, yet another book that surrounds the assassination of JFK. While it covers one of the 'cabal of conspirators' conspiracies from a queer lens, it still has to rely on a conspiracy that has largely been debunked. It gives a human face to the conspiracy, which is one of the earliest ones to come out of the initial investigations into the President's death. And yet it still raises some questions about what the DA in question was allowed to continue to practice.

The writer lays out the information about the two major players, DA Jim Garrison and New Orleans resident, Clay Shaw. Jim Garrison was DA of New Orleans Parish from 1962-1973, and was well known for cracking down on prostitution and especially what could only be described as 'gay activities' on Bourbon Street. He started an investigation into JFK's assassination in 1966 when his office received a tip that some men who visited Bourbon Street's gay bars had known Lee Harvey Oswald. His focus became the man called Clay Shaw, who may have had a couple of different aliases to protect his businesses and hang out with and date other gay men.

I think what this highlights more than anything, despite the fact that the author tries to tell us that she wasn't trying to exonerate Shaw, or paint Garrison as a bad guy, that Garrison was not a good person. Based on this book, Garrison seemingly despised New Orleans' LGBT+ community and used this investigation to further attack the community and get super famous while doing so. Garrison reportedly had a huge hand in the production of Ridley Scott's JFK in which he again was able to put down the LGBT+ community.

I like looking at history through different lenses, and I was interested to see that this conspiracy had actual real world implications - Shaw lost a ton in his fight for his innocence, and it seemed like he was picked because of his vulnerabilities as a gay (or bi) man in the 60s. I am also glad that the actual assassination wasn't the focal point of the book. It is based more on the case files surrounding the 1966 investigation. But like I said before, while a unique and specific look into one of the conspiracies, it is still just another book about the the death of JFK. Which is a little unfortunate.