For at least 13 years James Files, currently incarcerated in the state prison at Joliet, Illinois, has been trying to peddle an absurd story about his participation in the assassination of John F. Kennedy. And over those years his story has changed more than the number of on again, off again investigators, researchers, and hangers on claiming Files' tale is accurate. Some of those proponents were and are the late "Certified Legal Investigator" Joe West and 82nd Airborne historian John Grady, as well as, retired FBI agent Zack Shelton, Houston attorney Don Ervin, tv producer Bob Vernon, Dutch "entrepreneur" Wim Dankbaar, and self professed journalist and - the space aliens are scheming against us - guru Jim Marrs *.

Files has indicated that upon his alleged return from serving with the 82nd Airborne in Laos, he became a chauffeur and "hit man" for the "Chicago mob." And back in 1996 Files effused about his role in the assassination via MPI's for-profit videotape Confession of an Assassin.

He claims by age 21 he was recruited by, and worked with, mobster John Roselli in orchestrating the assassination. Using a Remington XP-100, known as the Fireball, Files claimed he fatally shot Kennedy in the left side of the head. No - that is not a misprint. In the video the supposed assassin manages to describe his pistol shot entering the wrong side of Kennedy's head! "To me it was like taking out the garbage." he intoned in that interview.

A serious problem for Files, as well as his defenders, is the fact that John Roselli (a.k.a. Filippo Sacco) was, as the Chicago mob's senior crime boss in Las Vegas, under routine F.B.I. surveillance. Records show Roselli was in residence at the Las Vegas Desert Inn at the time and was informed of the assassination via telephone by his long time friend, Beverly Hills Friar's Club founder, Columbia Pictures producer, and future Colpix president Joni Tapps.

Just about everybody who has taken the time to look carefully into Files' story has dismissed it. The story has been found to be filled with historical inaccuracies and preposterous scenarios. When those legitimately researching the story pointed out some of the numerous gaffes by the alleged assassin, Mr. Files simply revised his fable to fit the historical facts.

Interestingly enough he has attracted the attention of another group including Sam Giancana's 68 year old "Mafia Princess" daughter, Antoinette. It would appear Files' updated version of his involvement will be laid bare in a new book coming out in October of 2005. The book is entitled JFK and Sam - The Connection Between the Giancana and Kennedy Assassinations. We are told the book is "Written by an insider with access to key figures, it names the assassins and traces the assassination team's movements on November 22, 1963, the team leader's life, his taped confession, and his face-to-face meeting with Antoinette in the Joliet state prison where he is serving a life sentence for killing a policeman."

If the publishers had done some fact checking they would have discovered Files was misleading them from the beginning. Not only has he promoted himself from assassin to assassination "team leader" but as documented in a Chicago Sun-Times article dated August 17, 1994 Files is "serving a 50-year sentence for the 1991 ATTEMPTED murders of two police officers from Round Lake Beach (Illinois)." (emphasis mine)

So if Files has managed to delude Antoinette Giancana and the people at Cumberland House Publishing I can only imagine what new tales of intrigue he will impart to the reader. The publisher's credo is "Fiercely independent ideas. Fiercely independent books." In my view the word independent doesn't translate as accurate.