David W. Mantik received
his doctorate in physics from the University of Wisconsin and was
a member on the physics faculty (as assistant professor) at the university
before leaving for medical school. He completed his internship and
residency in radiation oncology at LAC/USC Medical Center in Los
Angeles.
He has also completed fellowships
in physics at the University of Illinois and in biophysics at Stanford
University, and a junior faculty clinical fellowship with the American
Cancer Society.
Mantik has carried out
extensive research into the assassination of John
F. Kennedy.
This includes detailed studies of Kennedy autopsy X-rays and the Zapruder
Film.
In 1993 Mantik disclosed that after examining the autopsy X-rays at
the National Archives they had been altered and "that there were
2 shots which struck the head, and that the magic bullet is anatomically
impossible".
Mantik, along with Robert
Livingston, Charles
Crenshaw,
Ronald
F. White and
Jack White, contributed to Assassination
Science (edited by James
H. Fetzer).
Mantik also contributed Paradoxes of the
The Medical Evidence Decoded, The
Zapruder Film Controversy and The
Silence of the Historians to Murder
in Dealey Plaza (2000) and The
Dealey Plaza Home Movies to The
Great Zapruder Film Hoax (2003).
Open
Debate on the Kennedy Assassination
(1)
David
W. 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 2 shots which struck the head, and that the magic
bullet is anatomically impossible.
(2)
David
W. 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.
(3)
David
W. Mantik, How the Film of the Century was Edited, included
in Assassination
Science (1998)
For photographic information
to be accepted as evidence in court, the images must be vouched for;
and their whereabouts ascertained at all times. The legal principle
is that eyewitness testimony has priority over photographs. The principle
was turned upside down by the battalions of lawyers who worked for
the House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) and for the WC.
For them, against all legal precedent, the assumption was always the
reverse: if the witnesses disagreed with the official view, it was
assumed that they were in error or even lying. On the other hand,
the photographs (and the X-rays, too) were assumed to be immutable
monuments to truth. In a real trial, no competent judge would have
permitted this illegal approach. In view of the astonishing absence
of elementary record keeping for possession of the film, it is likely
that no data obtained from the film could have been used in a trial.
The paradoxes of the first two reenactments raise tangible concerns
about the validity of the Zapruder film as evidence (timing issues,
specifically). An attorney for either side could have emphasized that
point in addition to the lack of custody if he (or she) wanted to
keep the film out of court.
(4)
David
W. Mantik, How the Film of the Century was Edited, included
in Assassination
Science (1998)
A strong case can be made
for extensive editing of the Zapruder film. In fact, the conclusion
seems inescapable - the film was deliberately altered. No other explanation
is in the same league, in terms of explanatory power, for the myriad
of anomalous characteristics that are seen everywhere in this case.
Many frames were excised, some individual frames were extensively
altered, others were changed only enough to fill in for missing frames,
and others were left alone. Frames that were excised were simply too
embarrassing for the official story or contained troublesome edge
prints. What is perhaps most remarkable, though, is that, even in
the past several years, to say nothing of the past several months,
yet more evidence has accumulated - all of it pointing toward alteration.
One can only wonder what still remains to be discovered.
What can be made of the
absurd paradoxes of (supposed) camera tracking errors that are totally
inconsistent with what actually appears in the relevant frame? When
the frame contents shift by enormous amounts, corresponding blurs
must be seen. There is no cinematic magic that can avoid such realities.
And what can be said about intersprocket magnifications
that are grossly different in two frames, particularly when tracking
nonsense surfaces in the same frames? And now, thanks to Noel Twyman,
we have the image of The Soaring Bird and of The Black Hole. These
could have provided precisely the kind of reference points for pin
registration that
would be essential for frame to frame editing.
(5)
David
W. Mantik, The Silence of the Historians, included
in Murder
in Dealey Plaza
(2000)
Between 1994 and 1998,
the Assassination Records Review Board (ARRB) processed for release
approximately 60,000 JFK assassination documents. Its staff also conducted
new depositions and interviews with many medical witnesses, some completely
new to the case. This wide panorama of fresh sources amassed a compelling
case for a post-assassination cover-up in the medical evidence, an
area heretofore almost totally ignored by historians. Inasmuch as
the assassination is a major event of the twentieth century, and may
well represent a turning point in American history, it is incumbent
upon historians to understand and explain this event - as well as
those that surround it. To date, however, a deafening silence has
reigned on these matters, as historians have preferred to tolerate
the harvest of The Warren Report rather than to cultivate their own
fields.
Possibly inquisitive historians,
naturally enough, have no craving to be tainted as balmy by the media
paintbrushes, as well might befall them were they to admit publicly
to such curiosity. The plain fact, though, is that this controversial
issue frightens historians: most genuinely fear for their own professional
prestige, and many fear subconsciously at what would gaze back at
them from the subterranean depths of this case were they to peer too
intently into the well of history. Given the unique nature of these
events, and their profound impact on America, this fear is understandable.
Ultimately, however, these issues must be faced honestly and responsibly.
It is no longer sufficient merely to quote a lawyer turned journalist
on these serious questions, nor can the matter be left to the most
amateur of professions - the media.
Given the manipulation
of the autopsy materials (which were controlled by the Secret Service),
the post-assassination cover-up necessarily required the assistance
of key government personnel, probably at a high level, possibly even
the highest. The growing body of evidence for this conclusion is now
simply too great to ignore. Heretofore, the historians' tacitly donned
mantle of innocence radiated an aura of genteel credibility, but that
mantle has become threadbare. If historians continue to deny the deceitful
reality underlying the post-assassination cover-up, they, too, risk
becoming accessories after the fact. The bar of history is even now
calling them to the stand. The time for a response has come.
| If
you have ever been tempted to believe that President Kennedy
was killed by a lone, demented gunman named Lee Harvey Oswald,
then Assassination Science is the one book which will convince
you, beyond any reasonable doubt, that there was indeed a
conspiracy and a cover-up. Completely lacking the wild speculations
that have marred some books on the shooting of Kennedy, Assassination
Science sticks to the hard facts, interpreted by medical and
scientific expertise. (James
H. Fetzer, Catfeet, ISBN 0 8126 9366 3, £9.00) |
James
H. Fetzer, Assassination Science, Catfeet (1998)
Available
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