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Mark Lane

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Author

The Resume

    (February 24, 1927-May 10, 2016)
    Born in New York
    Attorney and author
    Best known for his books about the JFK assassination: 'Rush to Judgment' (1966), 'A Citizen's Dissent' (1968), 'Plausable Denial' (1991) and 'Last Word: My Indictment of the CIA in the Murder of JFK' (2011)
    Also wrote 'Murder in Memphis' (about the Martin Luther King, Jr., assassination; 1978) and 'The Strongest Poison' (about the People's Temple cult, 1980)

Why he might be annoying:

    The House Select Committee on Assassinations commented, 'Lane was willing to advocate conspiracy theories publicly without having checked the factual basis for them.'
    Vincent Bugliosi called him 'unprincipled' and 'a fraud.'
    He created an atmosphere in which Oliver Stone's 'JFK' could be treated as a serious work of history.
    As a lawyer for Rev. Jim Jones and the People's Temple cult, he claimed the group was the target of a 'massive conspiracy' by the CIA, FBI, FCC and US Post Office.
    After the People's Temple's mass suicide, he claimed US forces killed off any survivors.
    After he successfully defended the Liberty Lobby in a libel suit filed by E. Howard Hunt over an article implicating Hunt in the JFK assassination, he claimed that he had convinced the jury that Hunt and the CIA were part of the conspiracy. However, four of the jurors told reporters that they decided the case based on whether the Liberty Lobby had acted with 'reckless disregard for the truth' as required in a libel case involving a public figure. (Juror Suzanne Reach: 'The paper published material that was sloppy – but it wasn’t malicious.')
    He questions in an unsuccessful suit against the 'National Review' prompted editor William F. Buckley to inquire of the judge, 'Your Honor, when he asks a ludicrous question, how am I supposed to behave?'

Why he might not be annoying:

    While serving in the New York state legislature, he was arrested as a 'Freedom Rider' in Mississippi (1961).
    He fought against the exclusion of blacks and Puerto Ricans from New York juries.
    He was counsel to the plaintiff in a case that established a woman's right to sue over sexual harassment.
    'Rush to Judgment' was a best-seller.
    He survived the massacre at Jonestown when the gunmen sent to kill him and fellow attorney Charles Garry instead gave them instructions for how to exit the compound.
    'Case Closed' author Gerald Posner said, 'Although I'm convinced Lee Harvey Oswald assassinated President Kennedy, I've always believed that had Mark Lane represented Oswald, he would have won an acquittal.'

Credit: C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    In 2023, Out of 7 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 1 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 11 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 6 Votes: 66.67% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 4 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 16 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 2 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2016, Out of 25 Votes: 56.00% Annoying
    In 2015, Out of 17 Votes: 47.06% Annoying
    In 2014, Out of 10 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2013, Out of 15 Votes: 66.67% Annoying
    In 2012, Out of 11 Votes: 72.73% Annoying
    In 2011, Out of 56 Votes: 78.57% Annoying