James Farrell Marrs Jr. (December 5, 1943 – August 2, 2017) was an American newspaper journalist and New York Times best-selling author of books and articles on a wide range of alleged cover-ups and conspiracies.

He began his career as a news reporter in the Dallas–Fort Worth–Arlington metroplex and taught a class on the assassination of John F. Kennedy at University of Texas at Arlington for 30 years.

For the remainder of his career, Marrs was a freelance writer, author, and public relations professional based in exurban Springtown, Texas.

In 1989, Marrs's book, Crossfire: The Plot That Killed Kennedy, was published and reached The New York Times Paperback Non-Fiction Best Seller list in mid-February 1992.

[9] Beginning in 1976, Marrs taught continuing education classes on the Kennedy assassination as an adjunct professor at the University of Texas at Arlington.

Publishers Weekly said: Marrs shows little discrimination, overemphasizing dubious phenomena like remote viewing and crop circles, and giving nearly equal weight to ludicrous pretenders like Billy Meier (who claimed close encounter with Pleiadians) and sophisticated commentators like Jacques Vallée.

Marrs even devotes a chapter to theories that the moon may be a UFO, and he refuses to rule out obvious frauds like the alien autopsy tapes.

[11]In early 2000, HarperCollins published Rule by Secrecy, which claimed to trace a hidden history connecting modern secret societies to ancient and medieval times.

Marrs had on his show a wide variety of guests and dedicated the entire month of November to the latest information regarding the JFK assassination.

With a friend, Michael H. Price, Marrs wrote and illustrated a comic book (Oswald's Confession & Other Tales from the War) that was published by Cremo Studios, Inc., in 2012.

In June 2017, additional announcements were made about health issues Marrs was experiencing, including being on kidney dialysis at home, and problems with his remaining good eye.