Jim Marrs:
Open Your
Eyes

Jim Marrs is a journalist from Ft. Worth, Texas, who has been an active student of the JFK assassination since the day it happened. His book on the subject, Crossfire, has been extremely popular for many years, and was used by Oliver Stone in planning his movie JFK. Marrs has attended numerous JFK conferences in Dallas and is known for his friendliness and accessibility. Earlier versions of PSC482G used Crossfire as a textbook, primarily because it discusses so many conspiracy theories that it gives students a good overview.

Marrs has written two books since Crossfire. The first, Alien Agenda: Investigating the Extraterrestrial Presence Among Us, appeared in 1997. As the title suggests, it proposes that UFOs are real and that aliens from them live among us. When I noted that Marrs proposes the same broad, diffuse procedure for determining truth in Alien Agenda as he had in Crossfire, I decided to call this to our students' attention. The result was the essay Alien Agenda?

The second new book is Rule by Secrecy: The Hidden History That Connects the Trilateral Commission, the Freemasons, and the Great Pyramids, which appeared in 2000. Because it once more espouses the same system for finding truth, I will be preparing an essay on it as well, for Marrs's procedure of considering all evidence is a prescription for disaster—the careful researcher should be doing exactly the opposite.

These titles show that Jim Marrs, like so many other JFK critics and conspiracists, takes a strong interest in occult knowledge and other conspiracies of history. This qualifies him as a conspiracy theorist in the general sense, an attribute of conspiracy theorists that many deny exists. Most recently, he has become interested in remove viewing, a system of allegedly being able to detect events from great distances. To learn more of Marrs's thoughts, consult the regular column "The view from Marrs" that he writes for the web site Alien Zoo".

Some of Marrs's background is perhaps best expressed by his own words in a recent column in "Alien Zoo": First, I am a journalist. I have a Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from the University of North Texas with Graduate School work at Texas Tech. I have worked for a number of Texas newspapers and even owned a couple. I am currently a member in two journalism organizations - the Society of Professional Journalists and Investigative Reporters & Editors. I am a past president of the Press Club of Fort Worth and was both producer and director of the Texas Gridiron, a now defunct but prestigious politician/celebrity roast.

Jim Marrs has written two other books that have received limited distribution. Oswald's Confession is limited distribution and is available directly through the author. Psi Spies, which deals with remote viewing, is available as an electronic book though SoftLock.com.