From: Ed la To: "Epstein, Jeff" [email protected]> Subject: My article in Newsweek today: The O'Reilly Invention Date: Mon, 09 Mar 2015 19:16:21 +0000 Attachments: Oreilly.docx http://www.newsweek.com/oreillys-jflc-reporting-was-impossible-i-know-because-i-was-there-3 12336 O'Reilly's JFK Reporting Was Impossible. I Know Because I Was There By Edward Jay Epstein I was recently bemused to see that Bill O' Reilly, the Fox News host, managed in 2012 to parachute himself back in time to March 29, 1977 so as to make himself a witness to the gunshot that killed George de Mohrenschildt. De Mohrenschildt, a well-connected Russian émigré, was a figure of interest in the mystery of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy because he had befriended Lee Harvey Oswald, the alleged assassin of JFK. How did O' Reilly get into the act? In his 2012 best-selling book Killing Kennedy: The End of Camelot, he wrote himself-as a 29-year-old reporter-into the de Mohrenschildt death scene, stating on page 300: "As the reporter knocked on the door of de Mohrenschildt' s daughter' s home, he heard the shotgun blast that marked the suicide of the Russian, assuring that his relationship with Lee Harvey Oswald would never be fully understood. By the way, that reporter' s name is Bill O' Reilly." But O' Reilly' s insertion suffers from a reality deficiency disorder. How do I know? I was the actual—and only—reporter interviewing de Mohrenschildt on the last day of his life in 1977. I was meeting him at the Breakers Hotel in Palm Beach, Florida, because I was writing a biography of Oswald (Legend: the Secret World of Lee Harvey Oswald). Because de Mohrenschildt could have helped clarify Oswald' s putative connections with the CIA, the FBI and other intelligence services, I paid him $4,000 for an exclusive four-day interview. I also rented a blue Ford LTD sedan for de Mohrenschildt so that he could travel during those days between my suite at the Breakers and the h