ACCESSORIES AFTER THE FACT

Sylvia Meagher's dedication of this indictment of the Warren Commision is indicative of her stance: ""This book is dedicated to the innocent victims of a society which often inflicts indignity, imprisonment, and even death on the obscure and helpless."" The author of The Subject Index to the Warren Report and Hearings & Exhibits, Mrs. Meagher probes the disparities between the Report and the findings of the Hearings and Exhibits with a close, uncompromising scrutiny that is underscored by an indignation, a determination for justice that surfaces periodically in out-right accusation. ""Misrepresentation piled on misrepresentation cannot be ascribed to inadequate work alone since it manifests a constant and premeditated motif: the incrimination of a man who received even less justice and mercy from the Warren Commission after his death than he got from the Dallas police while he was alive."" Mrs. Meagher points to the lack of motive on the part of Oswald, the possibility (to her, evidently, the probability) of his innocence, the prospect that there were two or more assassins. To this end she investigates specific evidence and testimony as regards the assassination, the accused, other crimes, the investigation. She does this selectively, but feels that ""the discrepancies, distortions and misrepresentations of crucial points of evidence are sufficient even on a selective rather than a comprehensive basis to condemn the Warren Report."" Her book has a bull-dog tenacity; it is surely to be considered among the responsible criticisms of the Commission. Lacking the dramatics of Epstein and Lane, it may not reach their audience.