A review by scottjbaxter
American Tabloid by James Ellroy

James Ellroy’s American Tabloid is a wild ride through some of the seedier aspects of American history from 1957 to just before Kennedy’s assination in November of 1963. It has three point of view characters: Ward Littel, Kemper Boyd, and Pete Bondurant. The three start as FBI agents, but they go so deep it can be difficult to figure out who their loyalties are truly with. Along the way we have  Senator and, later, president, John F Kennedy, his women and his bad back, his brother Bobby on a crusade to take down organized crime, teamster’s president Jimmy Hoffa, FBI director J Edgar Hoover, Chicago mafia boss Sam Giancana, business tycoon Howard Hughes with serious drug and mental health issues, Fidel Castro, and quite a few Cuban expatriates, the CIA and heroin sales.

The book is quite a long fever swamp of conspiracies, many of which are definitely not true. Perhaps the most outrageous allegation is that Joseph P Kennedy financed much of the Teamster’s pension fund that was used for a host of illegal activities.

I first read this book decades ago, so long ago that I barely remembered it. I was reminded of the book recently when Will Sommer was a guest on the Ezra Klein show/podcast. Sommer is an expert in conspiracy theories and has written a book on Q Anon. He and Klein discussed Jeffrey Epstein and why Trump supporters care so much about him. At the end of the episode Klein always asks his guest for three book recommendations. Sommer recommend American Tabloid, Sam Tannenhouse’s biography of William F Buckly and Lucy Sante’s Low Life about the history of crime in Manhattan. Klein began his show with a joke that might explain why people like books like American Tabloid.

A conspiracy theorist dies and goes to heaven.

When he arrives, God says, “Welcome. You can ask me one question. Anything you want.” 

The man says, “I need to know: Who really shot J.F.K.?” 

God says, “Lee Harvey Oswald shot him, and he acted alone.”

The man pauses and then says, “Wow. This goes even higher than I thought.”