When John
F. Kennedy was shot on 22nd November,
1963, he was taken to Parkland Hospital and was treated by Dr. Malcolm
Perry. He performed a tracheotomy
over the small wound in Kennedy's throat, therefore inadvertently
destroying crucial evidence concerning the direction of the bullet
that hit the president. At the press conference that followed the
death of Kennedy, Perry stated that he thought the throat hole looked
like an entrance wound.
Charles
Crenshaw
also treated Kennedy at Parkland Hospital. He later stated: "Two
wounds were visible. There was a small, round opening in the front
of the midline of the throat. This became the site of Dr. Malcolm
Perry's tracheostomy incision. In the occipito-parietal region at
the right rear of the head, there was an avulsive wound nearly as
large as a fist.... I considered the throat wound to be an entrance
wound and the large head wound to be an exit wound. Along with many
of my Parkland colleagues, I believed at the time that President Kennedy
had been hit twice from the front."
An autopsy on the body
of Kennedy was performed during the evening of 22nd November, 1963,
at Bethesda Naval Hospital in Maryland. This involved Commander Joseph
Humes, Lieutenant Colonel Pierre Finck, and
Commander James Boswell. When
interviewed by the Warren
Commission Humes insisted "that the
bullet penetrated the rear of the President's head and exited through
a large wound on the right side of his head." His testimony gave
support to the report's infamous single-bullet theory.
Dr. Malcolm
Perry was also interviewed
by the Warren
Commission. He admitted that he had changed
his mind and now thought that a "full jacketed bullet without
deformation passing through the skin would leave a similar wound for
an exit and entrance wound and with the facts which you have made
available and with these assumptions, I believe that it was an exit
wound."
As
Lee
Harvey Oswald
could
not fire his bolt-action rifle fast enough to wound John
F. Kennedy
and
John
Connally with
separate shots, the Warren
Commission
argued
that a single bullet hit Kennedy in the back of the neck and exited
from the throat just below the Adam's apple. The same bullet entered
Connally's back, exited from his chest, went completely through his
right wrist, and lodged in his left thigh.
The House
Select Committee on Assassinations set up a panel of forensic
pathologists to examine the autopsy materials and other medical evidence.
Most of the members concluded that two bullets, both fired from the
rear, struck Kennedy. However, one member, Cyril
H. Wecht,
rejected this theory claiming it was medically impossible, and suggested
that at least one bullet had been fired from the right front.
During the investigation
the committee discovered that the Dallas Police had a recording of
the assassination. A microphone, mounted on one of the motorcycles
escorting the motorcade, had picked up sounds in Dealey Plaza at the
time of the assassination. Acoustic experts analysed the recording
and were able to distinguish four rifle shots. They concluded that
there was a 95 per cent probability of the third bullet was fired
from the Grassy Knoll. As a result of
this acoustic evidence G.
Robert Blakey was able to state that there
were "four shots, over a total period of 7.91 seconds were fired
at the Presidential limousine. The first, second and fourth came from
the Depository; the third from the Grassy Knoll."
The House
Select Committee on Assassinations concluded that "scientific
acoustical evidence establishes a high probability that two gunmen
fired at President John F. Kennedy." It added that on the basis
of the evidence available to it, that President John F. Kennedy was
probably assassinated as a result of a conspiracy."
In the book, Assassination
Science, Robert B. Livingston,
one of the world's leading experts on the brain, has argued that "something
must have burst into the posterior fossa with sufficient force to
uproot the cerebellum and blow a substantial hole through the heavy,
covering, well-anchored, tentorium, which separates cerebellum from
the main chamber of the skull". This has given support to those
who believe that Kennedy was hit by a dum-dum bullet from the front.
Open
Debate on the Kennedy Assassination
(F1)
According to the Warren
Commission this was the path
of the bullet that hit John
Connally (right). Drawing
taken from
David Simkin's book, The Assassination of President Kennedy.
(F2)
Tom Wicker, New
York Times (23rd November, 1963)
Mr. Kilduff
indicated that the President had been shot once. Later medical reports
raised the possibility that there had been two wounds. But the death
was caused, as far as could be learned, by a massive wound in the
brain.
Later in the
afternoon, Dr. Malcolm Perry, an attending surgeon, and Dr. Kemp Clark,
chief of neurosurgery at Parkland Hospital, gave more details.
Mr. Kennedy
was hit by a bullet in the throat, just below the Adam's apple, they
said. This wound had the appearance of a bullet's entry.
Mr. Kennedy
also had a massive, gaping wound in the back and one on the right
side of the head. However, the doctors said it was impossible to determine
immediately whether the wounds had been caused by one bullet or two.
What
does Dr. Malcolm Perry account tell us about the position of the gunman
that fired at President John F. Kennedy?
(F3)
J.
Edgar Hoover made a
telephone call to President Lyndon
B. Johnson on 29th November,
1963.
Lyndon Johnson:
How many shots were fired? Three?
J. Edgar Hoover:
Three.
Lyndon Johnson:
Any of them fired at me?
J. Edgar Hoover:
No.
Lyndon Johnson:
All three at the President?
J. Edgar Hoover:
All three at the President and we have them. Two of the shots fired
at the President were splintered but they had characteristics on them
so that our ballistics expert was able to prove that they were fired
by this gun... The President - he was hit by the first and third.
The second shot hit the Governor. The third shot is a complete bullet
and that rolled out of the President's head. It tore a large part
of the President's head off and, in trying to massage his heart at
the
hospital on the way to the hospital, they apparently loosened that
and it fell off onto the stretcher. And we recovered that... And we
have the gun here also.
Lyndon Johnson:
Were they aiming at the President?
J. Edgar Hoover:
They were aiming directly at the President. There is no question about
that. This telescopic lens, which I've looked through - it brings
a person as close to you as if they were sitting right beside you.
According
to this telephone conversation, how many gunmen were involved in the
assassination of President Kennedy?
(F4)
Michael Kurtz,
Crime of the Century (1982)
About four
o'clock Saturday morning, Doctor James Humes felt relieved as the
hearse bearing John Kennedy's embalmed body and reconstructed head
departed from Bethesda Naval Hospital. It had been a grueling night
for Commander Humes, made all the more demanding on his professional
skills by the prestigious nature of his autopsy victim and by all
the high-ranking military and naval brass present to witness and supervise
his work. Now that it was all over, Humes could relax. He had just
one minor detail to complete before he could go home. He telephoned
Dr. Malcolm Perry in Dallas, since Dr. Perry had been the surgeon
in charge of President Kennedy's emergency treatment at Parkland Hospital.
Dr. Perry's
revelation that the president had a bullet hole in his throat must
have astounded Dr. Humes. At the autopsy, the three pathologists observed
only the large tracheotomy incision in the neck. The reason was simple.
Dr. Perry had sliced right through the bullet hole as he made the
tracheotomy. Thus, no bullet hole was visible by the time the autopsy
began. But now, James Humes faced a serious dilemma. He and his colleagues
had failed to include one of Kennedy's wounds in their autopsy findings.
Dr. Perry's description of the wound as very small and round sounded
like the description of an entrance wound. But with no exit wounds
anywhere in the body and no bullets found still in the body, Humes
was puzzled. It appeared that both the bullet that entered the president's
back and the one that entered his throat had not exited, yet had somehow
disappeared.
After thinking
about this, Dr. Humes telephoned Dr. Perry again to obtain a more
precise description of the throat wound. During their conversation,
Humes had a sudden inspiration and shouted, "so that's it!"
He went home, attended a school function with his son, and slept for
several hours. Then he took his original autopsy notes, stained with
John Kennedy's blood, and burned them in his fireplace. Then he drew
up a new autopsy protocol based on the new information he had gleaned
from Dr. Perry The new report stated that a bullet had entered Kennedy's
neck and exited from his throat. Even though there was only slight
medical evidence to confirm this, Dr. Humes concluded that it provided
the only reasonable explanation for the wounds in Kennedy's body.
Why
did Doctor James Humes destroy his original autopsy notes?
(F5)
The Warren Report:
Part 2, CBS Television (26th June, 1967)
Walter Cronkite:
The most persuasive critic of the single-bullet theory is the man
who might be expected to know best, the victim himself, Texas Governor
John Connally. Although he accepts the Warren Report's conclusion,
that Oswald did all the shooting, he has never believed that the first
bullet could have hit both the President and himself.
John Connally: The only
way that I could ever reconcile my memory of what happened and what
occurred, with respect to the one bullet theory, is that it had to
be the second bullet that might have hit us both.
Eddie
Barker: Do you believe,
Governor Connally, that the first bullet could have missed, the second
one hit both of you, and the third one hit President Kennedy?
John Connally: That's
possible. That's possible. Now, the best witness I know doesn't believe
that.
Eddie
Barker: Who is the
best witness you know?
John Connally: Nellie (Connally)
was there, and she saw it. She believes the first bullet hit him,
because she saw him after he was hit. She thinks the second bullet
hit me, and the third bullet hit him.
Nellie Connally: The first
sound, the first shot, I heard, and turned and looked right into the
President's face. He was clutching his throat, and just slumped down.
He Just had a - a look of nothingness on his face. He didn't say anything.
But that was the first shot.
The second shot, that hit
John - well, of course, I could see him covered with - with blood,
and his - his reaction to a second shot. The third shot, even though
I didn't see the President, I felt the matter all over me, and I could
see it all over the car.
So I'll just have to say
that I think there were three shots, and that I had a reaction to
three shots. And - that's just what I
believe.
John Connally: Beyond any
question, and I'll never change my opinion, the first bullet did not
hit me. The second bullet did hit me. The third bullet did not hit
me.
Now, so far as I'm concerned,
all I can say with any finality is that if there is - if the single-bullet
theory is correct, then it had to be the second bullet that hit President
Kennedy and me.
What does
Nellie Connally have to say about the three bullets that were fired
at the presidential limousine?
(F6)
The
Houston Chronicle (15th November, 1998)
Nellie Connally, the last surviving passenger of the car in which
President Kennedy was assassinated, is reasserting her belief that
the Warren Commission was wrong about one bullet striking both JFK
and her husband, former Governor John Connally.
"I
will fight anybody that argues with me about those three shots,"
she told Newsweek magazine in its Nov. 23 issue. "I do
know what happened in that car. Fight me if you want to."
The Warren Commission concluded
in 1964 that one bullet passed through Kennedy's body and wounded
Connally, and that a second bullet struck Kennedy's head, killing
him. It concluded that Lee Harvey Oswald was the lone gunman.
The Connallys maintained
that two bullets struck the president in Dealey Plaza 35 years ago
and a third hit the governor. John Connally died in 1993 at age 75.
The Warren Commission concluded
there also was a bullet that missed the car entirely. Some conspiracy
theorists argue that if three bullets struck the men, as the Connallys
insisted, and a fourth missed, then there must have been a second
gunman because no one person could have fired four rounds from Oswald's
bolt-action rifle so quickly.
Why does
Nellie Connally's evidence provide problems for those who believe
the lone gunman theory?
(F7)
Autopsy
of Body of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy was produced by two Secret
Service agents, Francis X. O’Neill and James W. Sibert on 26
November 1963.
Upon completion
of X-Rays and photographs, the first incision was made at 8:15 p.m.
X-Rays of the brain area which were developed and returned to the
autopsy room disclosed a path of a missile which appeared to enter
the back of the skull and the path of disintegrated fragments could
be observed along the right side of the skull. The largest section
of this missile as portrayed by X-Ray appeared to be behind the right
frontal sinus. The next largest fragment appeared to be at the rear
of the skull at the juncture of the skull bone.
The Chief Pathologist
advised approximately 40 particles of disintegrated bullet and smudges
indicated that the projectile had fragmentized while passing through
the skull region.
During the autopsy
inspection of the area of the brain, two fragments of metal were removed
by Dr. Humes, namely, one fragment measuring 7 x 2 millimeters, which
was removed from the right side of the brain. An additional fragment
of metal measuring 1 x 3 millimeters was also removed from this area,
both of which were placed in a glass jar containing a black metal
top which were thereafter marked for identification and following
the signing of a proper receipt were transported by Bureau agents
to the FBI Laboratory.
During the latter
stages of this autopsy, Dr. Humes located an opening which appeared
to be a bullet hole which was below the shoulders and two inches to
the right of the middle line of the spinal column.
This opening was
probed by Dr. Humes with the finger, at which time it was determined
that the trajectory of the missile entering at this point had entered
at a downward position of 45 to 60 degrees. Further probing determined
that the distance traveled by this missile was a short distance inasmuch
as the end of the opening could be felt with the finger.
Inasmuch as no
complete bullet of any size could be located in the brain area and
likewise no bullet could be located in the back or any other area
of the body as determined by total body X-Rays and inspection revealing
there was no point of exit, the individuals performing the autopsy
were at a loss to explain why they could find no bullets.
A call was made
by Bureau agents to the Firearms Section of the FBI Laboratory, at
which time SA Charles L. Killion advised that the Laboratory had received
through Secret Service Agent Richard Johnson a bullet which had reportedly
been found on a stretcher in the emergency room of Parkland Hospital,
Dallas, Texas. This stretcher had also contained a stethoscope and
pair of rubber gloves. Agent Johnson had advised the Laboratory that
it had not been ascertained whether or not this was the stretcher
which had been used to transport the body of President Kennedy. Agent
Killion further described this bullet as pertaining to a 6.5 millimeter
rifle which would be approximately a 25 caliber rifle and that this
bullet consisted of a copper alloy full jacket.
Immediately following
receipt of this information, this was made available to Dr. Humes
who advised that in his opinion this accounted for no bullet being
located which had entered the back region and that since external
cardiac massage had been performed at Parkland Hospital, it was entirely
possible that through such movement the bullet had worked its way
back out of the point of entry and had fallen on the stretcher.
Also during the
latter stages of the autopsy, a piece of the skull measuring 10 x
6.5 centimeters was brought to Dr. Humes who was instructed that this
had been removed from the President’s skull. Immediately this
section of skull was X-Rayed, at which time it was determined by Dr.
Humes that one corner of this section revealed minute metal particles
and inspection of this same area disclosed a chipping of the top portion
of this piece, both of which indicated that this had been the point
of exit of the bullet entering the skull region.
On the basis of
the latter two developments, Dr. Humes stated that the pattern was
clear that the one bullet had entered the President’s back and
had worked its way out of the body during external cardiac massage
and that a second high velocity bullet had entered the rear of the
skull and had fragmentized prior to exit through the top of the skull.
He further pointed out that X-Rays had disclosed numerous fractures
in the cranial area which he attributed to the force generated by
the impact of the bullet in its passage through the brain area. He
attributed the death of the President to a gunshot wound in the head.
Why
does this report suggest that President Kennedy was hit by bullets
from two different weapons?
(F8)
Warren
Commission Report
(1964)
Colonel Finck
testified: "President Kennedy was, in my opinion, shot from the
rear. The bullet entered in the back of the head and went out on the
right side of his skull. He was shot from above and behind."
Commander James J. Humes, senior pathologist and director of laboratories
at the Bethesda Naval Hospital, who acted as chief autopsy surgeon,
concurred in Colonel Finck's analysis. He compared the beveling or
coning effect to that caused by a shot which strikes a pane of glass,
causing a round or oval defect on the side of the glass where the
missile strikes and a belled-out or coned-out surface on the opposite
side of the glass. Referring to the bullet hole on the back of President
Kennedy's head. Commander Humes testified: "The wound on the
inner table, however, was larger and had what in the field of wound
ballistics is described as a shelving or coning effect."After
studying the other hole in the President's skull, Commander Humes
stated: "we concluded that the large defect to the upper right
side of the skull, in fact, would represent a wound of exit."
Those characteristics led Commander Humes and Commander J. Thomton
Boswell, chief of pathology at Bethesda Naval Hospital, who assisted
in the autopsy, to conclude that the bullet penetrated the rear of
the President's head and exited through a large wound on the right
side of his head.
According
to the testimony of Commander Joseph Humes,
Lieutenant Colonel Pierre Finck, and Commander James Boswell, was
President Kennedy shot from in front or behind?
(F9)
Malcolm
Perry, interviewed
by Arlen Specter for
the Warren
Commission
(1964)
Arlen Specter:
Will you continue,
then, Dr. Perry, as to what you observed of his condition?
Malcolm Perry:
Yes, there was blood noted on the carriage and a large avulsive wound
on the right posterior cranium.
I cannot state the size, I did not examine it at all. I just noted
the presence of lacerated brain tissue. In the lower part of the neck
below the Adams apple was a small, roughly circular wound of perhaps
5 mm. in diameter from which blood was exuding slowly. I did not see
any other wounds. I examined the chest briefly, and from the anterior
portion did not see any thing. I pushed up the brace on the left side
very briefly to feel for his femoral pulse, but did not obtain any.
I did no further examination because it was obvious that if any treatment
were to be carried out with any success a secure effective airway
must be obtained immediately. I asked Dr. Carrico if the wound on
the neck was actually a wound or had he begun a tracheotomy and he
replied in the negative, that it was a wound, and at that point...
I asked someone to secure a tracheotomy tray but there was one already
there. Apparently Dr. Carrico had already asked them to set up the
tray...
Arlen Specter:
Why did you elect to make the tracheotomy incision through the wound
in the neck, Dr. Perry?
Malcolm Perry:
The area of the wound, as pointed out to you in the lower third of
the neck anteriorly is customarily the spot one would electively perform
the tracheotomy. This is one of the safest and easiest spots to reach
the trachea. In addition the presence of the wound indicated to me
there was possibly an underlaying wound to the neck muscles in the
neck, the carotid artery or the jugular vein. If you are going to
control these it is necessary that the incision be as low, that is
toward the heart or lungs as the wound if you are going to obtain
adequate control. Therefore, for expediency's sake I went directly
to that level to obtain control of the airway.
Why
did the tracheotomy operation performed by Dr. Perry on President
Kennedy create confusion for those responsible for the autopsy at
Bethesda Naval Hospital?
(F10)
Robert
Livingston, letter to David
Lifton (2nd May, 1992)
Inasmuch as I was Scientific
Director of two of the institutes at the NIH - and both institutes
were pertinent to the matter of the President's assassination and
brain injury - the Navy Hospital operator and the Officer on Duty
put me through to speak directly with Dr Humes who was waiting to
perform the autopsy. After introductions, we began a pleasant conversation.
He told me that he had not heard much about the reporting from Dallas
and from the Parkland Hospital. I told him that the reason for my
making such an importuning call was to stress that the Parkland Hospital
physicians' examination of President Kennedy revealed what they reported
to be a small wound in the neck, closely adjacent to and to the right
of the trachea. I explained that I had knowledge from the literature
on high-velocity wound ballistics research, in addition to considerable
personal combat experience examining and repairing bullet and shrapnel
wounds. I was confident that a small wound of that sort had to be
a wound of entrance and that if it were a wound of exit, it would
almost certainly be widely blown out, with cruciate or otherwise wide,
tearing outward ruptures of the underlying tissues and skin.
I stressed to Dr. Humes
how important it was that the autopsy pathologists carefully examine
the President's neck to characterize that particular wound and to
distinguish it from the neighbouring tracheotomy wound.
I went on to presume,
further, that the neck wound would probably not have anything to do
with the main cause of death-massive, disruptive, brain injury - because
of the angle of bullet trajectory and the generally upright position
of the President's body, sitting up in the limousine. Yet, I said,
carefully, if that wound were confirmed as a wound of entry, it would
prove beyond peradventure of doubt that that shot had been fired from
in front-hence that if there were shots from behind, there had to
have been more than one gunman. Just at that moment, there was an
interruption in our conversation. Dr. Humes returned after a pause
of a few seconds to say that "the FBI will not let me talk any
further." I wished him good luck, and the conversation was ended.
My wife can be good witness to that conversation because we shared
our mutual distress over the terrible events, and she shared with
me my considerations weighing the decision to call over to the Bethesda
Navy Hospital. The call originated in the kitchen of our home on Burning
Tree Road in Bethesda with her being present throughout. After the
telephone call, I exclaimed to her my dismay over the abrupt termination
of my conversation with Dr. Humes, through the intervention of the
FBI. I wondered aloud why they would want to interfere with a discussion
between physicians relative to the problem of how best to investigate
and interpret the autopsy. Now, with knowledge of the apparently prompt
and massive control of information that was imposed on assignment
of responsibility for the assassination of President Kennedy, I can
appreciate that the interruption may have been far more pointed than
I had presumed at that time.
I conclude, therefore,
on the basis of personal experience, that Dr. Humes did have his attention
drawn to the specifics and significance of President Kennedy's neck
wound prior to his beginning the autopsy. His testimony that he only
learned about the neck wound on the day after completion of the autopsy,
after he had communicated with Doctor Perry in Dallas by telephone,
means that he either forgot what I told him (although he appeared
to be interested and attentive at the time) or that the autopsy was
already under explicit non-medical control.
What does
Robert Livingston mean when he say that the autopsy carried out by
Dr. Humes might have been under "non-medical control"?
(F11)
Joseph
Humes, interviewed
by Gary Cornwell for the House
Select Committee on Assassinations on 9th
July, 1978.
Gary Cornwell:
You may have heard part of the testimony which reflected that the
panel reviewed your report of the autopsy and, of course, as you know,
the panel also spoke with you on one prior occasion. With respect
to the ultimate findings that this committee will, of course, need
to wrestle with, there is apparently, from the testimony today. One
possible major area of disagreement, respect to the location of a
bullet wound in the back of the President's head or possibly, depending
upon the total body of the evidence, whether there was one or more
than one bullet holes in the back of the Presidents head. That is
principally what we wish to discuss with you at this time. Let me
ask you first, your autopsy report reflected that there was one and
only one bullet wound to the back of the President's head, that it
did enter in the rear, exited the front. Is that report accurate on
those three points, to the best of your knowledge?
James Humes:
Absolutely.
Why
did Gary Cornwall ask Joseph Humes about the wound in the head of
President Kennedy?
(F12)
Charles
Crenshaw, Let's Set the
Record Straight, included in Assassination Science (1998)
Just after
12:40 p.m. on Friday, 22 November, I entered Trauma Room at Parkland
Hospital with Dr. Bob McClelland. Several other Parkland doctors were
already there. President Kennedy lay, mortally wounded, on a stretcher.
For the next several minutes, I helped administrate emergency treatment
to the President and I observed both his throat wound and the wound
at the right rear of his head.
I helped to remove President
Kennedy's trousers and Dr. Ken Salyer and I performed a cutdown and
inserted an IV catheter which fed Ringer's solution into Kennedy's
right leg. At the same time, other Parkland doctors were performing
a tracheotomy, inserting chest tubes, and doing a similar cutdown
on the left leg.
Two wounds were visible.
There was a small, round opening in the front of the midline of the
throat. This became the site of Dr. Malcolm Perry's tracheotomy incision.
In the occipito-parietal region at the right rear of the head, there
was an avulsive wound nearly as large as a fist. Bone, scalp, and
hair were missing in the region, and brain tissue, including much
of the cerebellum, was hanging from the opening. I considered the
throat wound to be an entrance wound and the large head wound to be
an exit wound. Along with many of my Parkland colleagues, I believed
at the time that President Kennedy had been hit twice from the front.
How does
Dr. Charles Crenshaw's evidence contradict that given by Commander
Joseph Humes, Lieutenant Colonel Pierre Finck,
and Commander James Boswell to the Warren Commission (F7)?
(F13)
David
Mantik,
The JFK Assassination: Cause for Doubt, included
in Assassination Science (1998)
One of the most amazing
and serious oversights was the pathologists' failure to coronally
section the brain. The brain was examined nearly two weeks later,
thus giving Humes ample time to review standard protocols for this.
With this much time to prepare, ignorance can hardly be the explanation.
Is it conceivable that Humes would have undertaken such a momentous
task without reviewing in detail standard protocols, especially since,
by his own admission, he was not experienced in gunshot autopsies?
On one occasion Humes stated
that the shot to the head came from above and on another he claimed
that the anatomic data could not answer this question. The critics
naturally wonder how the evidence could possibly have changed during
this interval, or if Humes' memory were defective, how it could fail
him on such a major question....
Dr. Michael Baden, who
chaired the HSCA Forensic Pathology Panel, described the autopsy as
"woefully inadequate" and noted that neither Humes nor Finck
had ever done an autopsy involving a gunshot before! Although Finck
was the designated expert, he had only sat in an office and reviewed
records of US military personnel who had died of gunshot wounds. In
view of the judgment required to reconstruct the reported two skull
wounds, the pathologists' lack of actual experience with gunshot wounds
seems germane.
Why does
Dr. David Mantik criticise the autopsy carried out by Commander Joseph
Humes, Lieutenant Colonel Pierre Finck, and Commander James
Boswell? What was Dr. Michael Baden's view of this autopsy?
(F14)
Dan
Rather interviewed Charles Wyckoff for the
documentary The Warren Report:
Part 2, CBS Television (26th June, 1967)
Dan Rather: From a physicist's point of view, from a photographic
analysis point of view, what can you tell about the direction of the
bullet?
Charles
Wyckoff: Well, the
- in frame 313, the - there was an apparent explosion at this point,
which would be on the front side of-of-the head. Now, characteristically,
this would indicate to me that the bullet came from behind, and this
is what's called spalling. It's a minor explosion where pieces of
material have - have left and go generally in the direction of the
bullet.
Dan
Rather: But now,
the explosion, this minor explosion, occurs forward of the President.
Now, wouldn't that indicate the bullet coming from the front?
Charles
Wyckoff: No, quite
contrary. It does indicate that the bullet was coming from behind.
Dan
Rather: Well, you're
aware that some critics say that by the very fact that in the picture
you can clearly see the explosion of the bullet on the front side
of the President, that that certainly indicates the bullet came from
the front.
Charles
Wyckoff: Well, I
don't believe any physicist has ever said that. This picture might
explain the principle that we've been talking about just a little
bit more clearly. It's a picture taken in a millionth of a second,
of a thirty calibre bullet being shot through an electric light-bulb
The bullet was traveling from this direction, entered the light-bulb
here, passed through and caused a rather violent explosion to occur
on the exiting side, and it's very similar to the situation in the
Zapruder Kennedy assassination films.
Why does
Charles Wyckoff believe that the bullet that hit President Kennedy's
head "came from behind".
(F15)
Walter
Cronkite,
The Warren Report:
Part 2, CBS Television (26th June, 1967)
It is claimed that
the bullet was planted on the governor's stretcher as part of a plot
to link Oswald to the assassination. And that claim can never be disproved.
The bullet is almost intact, only slightly flattened, with a little
cone of lead missing from the rear end. Could such a bullet have penetrated
successively, a human neck, a human torso, a wrist, and a thigh, and
emerged in this condition? The Commission used animal carcasses and
blocks of gelatin to test the bullet's penetrating power, firing repeated
shots from Oswald's rifle. Now, this is standard technique. But, because
of the difficulty of lining up such a shot, the Commission experts
fired their bullets separately through the various simulators. Each
time they measured how much speed the bullet had lost from its initial
two thousand feet per second, and in the end, concluded that the bullet
would have retained enough velocity to penetrate the Governor's thigh.
How did
the Warren Commission attempt to prove that the bullet found on Governor
Connaly's stretcher had "penetrated successively, a human neck,
a human torso, a wrist, and a thigh"?
(F16)
Walter
Cronkite,
The Warren Report:
Part 2, CBS Television (26th June, 1967)
The Warren Report's
contention that there was only one assassin rests on the conviction
that all the wounds suffered by both men were inflicted by no more
than three shots, fired from behind and above them. We have heard
Captain Humes, as well as other doctors and experts. We have looked
hard at the single-bullet theory. The case is a strong one.
There is not a single item
of hard evidence for a second assassin. No wound that can be attributed
to him. No one who saw him, although he would have been in full view
of a crowded plaza. No bullets. No cartridge cases. Nothing tangible.
Why does
Walter Cronkite believe that only one gunman fired at President Kennedy?
(F17)
William
Turner, The Warren Report:
Part 3, CBS Television (27th June, 1967)
Now, what happened
there was that the Kennedy motorcade coming down there, the Kennedy
limousine - there were shots from the rear, from either the Dallas
School Book Depository building, or the Dell Mart, or the courthouse;
and there were shots from the grassy knoll. This is triangulation.
There is no escape from it, if it's properly executed.
I think that the massive
head wound, where the President's head was literally blown apart,
came from a quartering angle on the grassy knoll. The bullet was a
low velocity dumdum mercury fulminate hollow-nose, which were outlawed
by The Hague Convention, but which are used by paramilitary groups.
And that the whole reaction is very consistent to this kind of weapon.
That he was struck and his head - doesn't go directly back this way
but it goes back and over this way, which would be consistent with
the shot from that direction, and Newton's Law of Motion.
Now, I feel also that
the escape was very simple. Number one using a revolver or a pistol,
the shells do not eject, they don't even have to bother to pick up
their discharged shells. Number two, they can slip - put the gun under
their coat, and when everybody comes surging up there they can just
say, "He went that-a-away". Very simple. In fact, it's so
simple that it probably happened that way.
Does William
Turner agree with Walter Cronkite (F12) about the assassination?
(F18)
Mark Lane,
The Warren Report:
Part 4, CBS Television (28th June, 1967)
There was one conclusion,
one basic conclusion that the Commission reached, I think, which can
be supported by the
facts, and that was the Commission's conclusion that Ruby killed Oswald.
But, of course, that took place on television. It would have been
very difficult to deny that. But, outside of that there's not an important
conclusion which can be supported by the facts and - and this is the
problem.
And what the Commission
was thinking and what they were doing is still hidden from us, of
course. The minutes of the Commission meetings are locked up in the
National Archives, and no one can see them. A vast amount of the evidence,
FBI reports, CIA reports, which may be directly related to the information
we should have, are also locked up in the Archives. No one can see
that.
The photographs and X-rays
of the President's body, taken at the autopsy in Bethesda, Maryland,
taken just before the autopsy was begun, taken by Naval technicians,
which in and of themselves might resolve the whole question as to
whether or not there was a conspiracy, cannot be seen by anyone today,
and in fact, not one member of the Warren Commission ever saw the
most important documents in the case, the photographs and the X-rays.
And not one lawyer for the Commission ever saw - was curious enough
to examine the most important evidence.
Why does
Mark Lane argue that it was difficult in 1967 to discover if more
than one gunman was involved in the assassination of President Kennedy?
(F19)
Walter
Cronkite,
The Warren Report:
Part 4, CBS Television (28th June, 1967)
Almost from the day
the Warren Commission published its report, its decision to omit those
vital X-rays and photographs has been under attack. Only that physical
evidence, say the critics, can finally resolve the debate over how
many bullets struck the President, where they came from, and where
they went - the central questions in the argument over how many assassins
opened fire in Dealey Plaza.
More than one critic has
charged that the autopsy record in the Warren Report is not the original
autopsy, but has been changed to conform with the Commission's theories...
It seems to CBS News that
one of the most serious errors made by the Warren Commission was its
decision not to
look at those photographs and X-rays, an error now compounded. For
the Kennedy family, which had possession of the autopsy pictures,
agreed last year to donate them to the National Archives, but only
with the stipulation that the pictures be locked away for five years
- with only certain authorized government personnel allowed to see
them.
According
to Walter Cronkite, what was one of the most important errors made
by the Warren Commission?
(F20)
G.
Robert Blakey was
interviewed by ABC
News in 2003.
ABC News: Let me ask you:
40 years after the fact and 25 years after your investigation, who
killed John F. Kennedy?
Blakey: Lee Harvey Oswald
killed John Kennedy. Two shots from behind. The evidence is simply
overwhelming. You have to be lacking in judgment and experience in
dealing with the evidence to think that Lee Harvey Oswald did not
kill President Kennedy. That's really not the problem. The problem
is: Was there something beyond Lee Harvey Oswald? And now what you
do is you look at the evidence.
ABC News: How many shots
were fired at Dealey Plaza?
Blakey: What we did is
determine that there were in fact four shots. Our scientists looked
at a tape we found, and they did a scientific analysis of it, and
it indicated four shots in the plaza, three from the depository and
one from the grassy knoll. That meant there were two shooters in the
plaza, two shooters in the plaza equal a conspiracy.
The first shot from the
depository by Lee Harvey Oswald missed. The second shot about 1.6
seconds later, hit the president in the back of the neck. (The bullet
exited Kennedy and) hit John Connally. It hit his wrist, hit his leg.
Now six seconds from the second shot, we think a shot came from the
grassy knoll. It missed the president. The shot from the grassy knoll
missed. The X-rays, the autopsy, all of that indicates the president
was not hit by a shot from any other direction. Seven-tenths of a
second after that, the third shot, fourth in the row, third shot from
the depository, hits the president right in the back of the head.
The shot from the grassy
knoll is not only supported by the acoustics, which is a tape that
we found of a police motorcycle broadcast back to the district station.
It is corroborated by eyewitness testimony in the plaza. There were
20 people, at least, who heard a shot from the grassy knoll.
What evidence
does G. Robert Blakey provide to support his theory that there were
at least two gunman firing at President Kennedy?
(F21)
James H.
Fetzer, Arlen
Specter (2000)
During an interview about
his new book, Passion for Truth, on 4 March 2001 with Paul
Alexander and John Batchelor on WABC, which lasted seven minutes,
Arlen Specter asserted seven claims about the assassination of JFK
and the "magic" bullet theory that are not simply false
but actually provably false. His assertions and the grounds on which
we know they are false are as follows: (1) that JFK was standing when
he was hit: provably false. We have more than 200 Dealey Plaza witnesses
and 500 photographic records - counting the Zapruder film as one -
that prove he was sitting, not standing, when he was killed; (2) that
a bullet entered at the back of JFK's neck: provably false in six
different ways: (a) Boswell's diagram; (b) Jack's shirt; (c) Jack's
jacket; (d) Berkley's death certificate; (e) Sibert and O'Neill's
report on the autopsy; plus (f) ARRB release showing that Gerald Ford
had the final report changed to make it appear as if the bullet had
entered the base of his neck when it had not; (3) that the bullet
hit nothing solid: provably false. David Mantik, M.D., Ph.D., has
drawn a line through a CAT scan that demonstrates that a bullet entering
where this is alleged to have entered and exiting where this is alleged
to have exited would have had to impact with cervical vertebra, which
means that the single bullet theory is not just false but actually
anatomically impossible; (4) that he has "looked" at the
X-rays and they support the conclusions of the Warren Commission:
provably false. Specter is not an expert on the interpretation of
X-rays, so even if he has taken a look (which I doubt), it would mean
nothing. Someone who is an expert has studied them repeatedly and
has discovered that they have been fabricated in at least two different
ways: (a) the right lateral cranial X-ray has been fabricated by imposing
a patch to conceal a massive blow-out to the back of the head; and,
(b) the anterior-posterior X-ray has been fabricated by adding a 6.5
mm metal-like object to implicate a 6.5 mm weapon; (5) he claims there
is no evidence of conspiracy: provably false. That the magic bullet
theory is anatomically impossible and that the X-rays have been altered
implicates the government in a conspiracy to conceal the truth about
the assassination, where the most reasonable explanation for government
complicity in the cover-up is government complicity in the crime.
(6) he says that we now know that Humes burned his notes: but what
is new is not that he burned his notes (which were stained with blood:
that is rather old news) but that he also burned the first-draft of
his autopsy report (under orders from his superior: that is the new
news); and, (7) he asserts that you can't prove a negative: but we
have just done so six times: we have proven that Arlen Specter has
made no less than six false claims - seven, including this one - during
this brief interview.
The X-rays
of Kennedy's body, taken at the autopsy in Bethesda, Maryland, were
eventually released. What does James H. Fetzer say about these X-rays?
(F22)
Gaeton Fonzi, The Last Investigation
(1993)
One demolishes the single-bullet
theory: the locations of the bullet holes in the back of Kennedy's
jacket and shirt - hard, tangible, measurable evidence - obliterate
the possibility of a bullet emerging from Kennedy's throat and striking
Governor Connally.... Beyond all the other evidence indicating conspiracy,
all the acoustic tests, the autopsy evidence, the bullet trajectory
theories and what have you, even beyond all the other evidence of
Oswald's associations, the Odio incident absolutely cries conspiracy.
Why does
Gaeton Fonzi disagree with the single-bullet theory?
(F23)
Jean
Hill
interviewed by Arlen
Specter from the Warren
Commission (24th March, 1964)
Arlen Specter: Did you have any conscious impression of where the
second shot came from?
Jean
Hill: No.
Arlen
Specter: Any conscious impression of where this third shot came from?
Jean
Hill: Not any different from any of them. I thought it was just people
shooting from the knoll - I did think there was more than one person
shooting.
Arlen
Specter: You did think there was more than one person shooting?
Jean
Hill: Yes, sir.
Arlen
Specter: What made you think that?
Jean
Hill: The way the gun report sounded and the difference in the way
they were fired - the timing.
Arlen
Specter: What was your impression as to the source of the second group
of shots which you have described as the fourth, perhaps the fifth,
and perhaps the sixth shot?
Jean
Hill: Well, nothing, except that I thought that they were fired by
someone else.
Arlen
Specter: And did you have any idea where they were coming from?
Jean
Hill: No; as I said, I thought they were coming from the general direction
of that knoll.
Jean
Hill was standing close to the presidential limousine when the bullets
were fired in the Dealey Plaza. Why is this considered important when
trying to assess the position of the gunmen.
(F24)
Eddie Barker interviewed Abraham
Zapruder
for the documentary The Warren Report:
Part 2, CBS Television (26th June, 1967)
Eddie Barker: Abraham Zapruder, whose film of the assassination was
studied at length on last night's program, was standing up on this
little wall right at the edge of the grassy knoll. Now, shots from
behind that picket fence over there would have almost had
to whistle by his ear. Mr. Zapruder, when we interviewed him here,
tended to agree that the knoll was not involved.
Abraham
Zapruder: I'm not a ballistics expert, but I believe that
if there were shots that come from my right ear, I would hear a different
sound. I heard shots coming from - I wouldn't know which direction
to say - but they was driven from the Texas Book Depository and they
all sounded alike. There was no difference in sound at all.
Does Abraham
Zapruder agree with Jean Hill about the bullets fired in the Dealey
Plaza?
(F25)
Cyril
H. Wecht
was interviewed by Donald A. Purdy for the
Select Committee on Assassinations
about the single-bullet theory (8th September,
1978)
Donald Purdy:
Dr. Wecht, is it your opinion that no bullet could have caused all
of the wounds to President Kennedy and Governor Connally or the
Commission exhibit 399 could not have caused all of the wounds to
both men?
Cyril Wecht:
Based upon the findings in this case, it is my opinion that no bullet
could have caused all these wounds, not only 399 but no other bullet
that we know about or any fragment of any bullet that we know about
in this case...
Donald Purdy:
Dr. Wecht, what is the basis for your opinion that Commission exhibit
399 could not have caused all of the wounds to President Kennedy
and Governor Connally?
Cyril Wecht:
It is a composite based upon several things: The timing of the Zapruder
film, which we know runs at 18.3 frames or individual units of the
film strip per second; the evaluation of the wounds in the President
and Governor Connally; the timing of the test-firing in the hands
of the most skilled marksman the Government could find in 1964 of
this Mannlicher-Carcano weapon, the bolt action nonautomatic World
War II Italian carbine, a grossly inferior weapon; the very vivid
testimony of Governor John Connally about which he has been completely
consistent for the past 14 years concerning the fact that he was
struck by a different bullet; the vertical and horizontal trajectories
that must be attributed to Commission exhibit 399 if the single-bullet
theory is to be substantiated. These are the various factors that
relate to the single-bullet theory.
Why
does Doctor Cyril Wecht disagree with the single-bullet theory?
(F26)
Robert
Livingston,
letter to Maynard
Parker, editor of Newsweek (10th September, 1993)
A further
issue concerns reports of the appearance of cerebellar tissue in
the occipital wound. This was first reported "live" as
observations by an orderly, and by a nurse, both of whom were in
the surgery where attempts to resuscitate the president were conducted
prior to his death. I didn't give any credibility to those stories
and dismissed them from my focus at the time, attributing what I
thought must be mistaken identification of cerebellum to a likely
lack of familiarity with neuroanatomy by two non-medically trained
individuals. It would be easy to assume cerebellum in looking at
macerated cerebral tissue protruding from a bloody wound. But since
then, around six reputable physicians who saw the president at that
time have testified that cerebellum was extruding from the wound
at the back of his head. That is an important clue, indicating that
something must have burst into the posterior fossa with sufficient
force to uproot the cerebellum and blow a substantial hole through
the heavy, covering, well-anchored, tentorium, which separates cerebellum
from the main chamber of the skull.
Dr.
Robert Livingston does not believe that President John Kennedy was
killed by a bullet from the Mannlicher-Carcano
rifle? Why?
(F27)
David
Mantik, statement (10th November,
1993)
Just before
Halloween this year, I visited the National Archives on four separate
days to examine the autopsy X-rays and photographs. While there
I used a technique called optical densitometry - to study the X-rays.
This technique has been available for many years but has never been
applied to the JFK autopsy X-rays. It measures the transmission
of ordinary light through selected points of the X-ray film. If
I had measured thousands of points I could have constructed a three
dimensional topographic map of the X-rays. The higher points on
this map would represent the blackest areas of the X-ray film and
would correspond to areas in the body where the most X-rays had
passed through to strike the film. In a way, therefore, the information
contained in the X-ray film is converted from two dimensions into
three dimensions and is that much richer in detail. The range of
peaks and valleys on such a topographic map would be expected to
fall within a well defined range for a normal human skull. Any values
which lie outside of this range - and especially those which lie
unnaturally far outside - would not be consistent with ordinary
skulls and would raise questions of authenticity...
I discovered...
new evidence that the autopsy X-rays of President John F. Kennedy
have been altered, that there were two shots which struck the head,
and that the magic bullet is anatomically impossible.
What
did Dr. David Mantik find out after using optical densitometry to
study the X-rays of President Kennedy's brain?
(F28)
Michael
Kurtz, Crime of the Century: The Kennedy Assassination From
a Historians Perspective (1982)
An omission
in Lifton's theory is his belief that the conspirators inflicted
wounds on the body over six hours after the assassination. Although
he claims to have read widely in textbooks on forensic pathology,
Lifton apparently did not notice one of the most elementary principles
of autopsy procedure: damage inflicted on a body after death is
easily distinguishable from that inflicted on a living body. If
the conspirators had reconstructed Kennedy's skull and produced
two entrance wounds on the body, the Bethesda pathologists would
have recognized the postmortem changes. By the time of the autopsy,
the body was in the beginning stages of rigor mortis and exhibited
signs of livor mortis and algor mortis (three of the stages a corpse
undergoes after death). Any damage inflicted on that body would
have displayed definite pathological signs of alteration, and the
entrance wounds in the back and the head would not have shown microscopic
indications of "coagulation necrosis," since the blood
had long since ceased circulating.
Why
does Michael Kurtz disagree with David Lifton theory "that
the conspirators inflicted wounds on the body over six hours after
the assassination"?
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