Reclaiming History

by Vincent Bugliosi

  *For years, one of the very biggest allegations among conspiracy theorists is that every one or virtually all of the Parkland doctors said the exit wound was to the rear or right rear of the president’s head, which would be in direct contradiction of the autopsy findings. An example: “All the doctors and nurses at Parkland Hospital who saw the body described a large exit wound in the back of the President’s head” (Groden and Livingstone, High Treason, p.26). But this is simply not true. A significant minority of Parkland doctors saw the exit wound essentially, or close to, where the autopsy and X-rays clearly showed it to be. Dr. Charles Baxter testified that the head exit wound was in the “temporal and parietal” area (6 H 44), as all the later scientific and medical evidence proved. Dr. Robert Grossman, the neurosurgeon who accompanied Dr. William Kemp Clark, the chief neurosurgeon at Parkland Hospital, into Trauma Room One, said that the large defect he saw was “in the parietal area above the right ear” (Ben Bradlee, “Dispute on JFK Assassination Evidence Persists,” Boston Globe, June 21, 1981, p.A23), although Grossman’s credibility on this matter may be questioned (see endnote). Dr. Adolph Giesecke Jr. testified the exit wound extended “from the brow line [ridge above eye] to the occiput on the left [sic] hand side of the head” (6 H 74). Dr. Marion T. Jenkins, the Parkland anesthesiologist, said he saw “a great laceration on the right side of the head (temporal and occipital)” (CE 392, 17 H 15). Dr. Kenneth Salyer told the Warren Commission that the exit wound was in the “right temporal region” (6 H 81). And Dr. Donald Seldin, chairman of the Department of Medicine at Parkland, said that “the entire frontal, parietal and temporal bones were shattered…I believe that the official story is accurate in all details” (Letter from Dr. Donald Seldin to Vince Palamara dated August 27, 1998).

  *It clearly appears that Dr. McClelland is telling the truth on his accusation. In author Gerald Posner’s book, Case Closed, he writes that Dr. Jenkins told him what happened. “When Bob McClelland came into the room, he asked me, ‘Where are his wounds?’ And at that time I was operating a breathing bag with my right hand, and was trying to take the President’s temporal pulse, and I had my finger on his left temple. Bob thought I pointed to the left temple as the wound” (Posner, Cased Closed, p.313 footnote). It’s rather amazing that Jenkins would say this when close to thirty years earlier, when he testified on the record before the Warren Commission, he said, “I don’t know whether this is right or not, but I thought there was a wound on the left temporal area” (6 H 48).

  *I sought the advice of Dr. Baden on many of the medical issues in this case because of his background and qualifications. A board-certified forensic pathologist who is presently the codirector of the New York State Police Medicolegal Investigative Unit, he has an impressive curriculum vitae. Among many other things, he has been the chief medical examiner for New York City; been the president of the Society of Medical Jurisprudence; held professional appointments at several institutions of higher learning, including New York Law School and the Albert Einstein Medical School; and served as an expert in forensic pathology on numerous prominent cases, among them the examination of the remains of Czar Nicholas of Russia and his family, the reexamination of the Lindbergh kidnapping and murder, autopsies of the victims of TWA Flight 800, and the O. J. Simpson and Claus von Bulow murder trials. He has written a number of articles in medicolegal professional publications and coauthored the book Unnatural Death: Confessions of a Medical Examiner. Most importantly, of course, I sought him out because he was the chairman of the nine-member forensic pathology panel of the HSCA’s investigation into the deaths of President Kennedy and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., a chairmanship that shows the very high esteem he has in his profession.

  *Baden said that Kennedy’s head wasn’t even shaved of its hair at the time of the autopsy, and hence, any observations by onlookers of the autopsy (as opposed, he said, to the autopsy surgeons themselves, who were working directly with the president’s head) would also likely have been skewed.

  †In an assertion by the HSCA forensic pathology panel that is so incorrect it can only be categorized as strange, someone (no one, thus far, has admitted authorship) wrote, “In disagreement with the observations of the Parkland doctors are the 26 people present at the autopsy. All of those interviewed who attended the autopsy corroborated the general location of the wounds as depicted in the [autopsy] photographs; none had differing accounts” (7 HSCA 37). However, though they clearly were wrong, several autopsy witnesses thought the exit wound was to the right rear or rear of the president’s head.

  *Sibert’s 1977 drawings for the HSCA place the head wound square in the back of the head. Shown the drawings in his appearance before the ARRB in 1997, Sibert, who didn’t recall making them, said, “I would have moved [the wound on the back of the head] over a little bit to the right on the back of his head here, rather than dead center” (ARRB Transcript of Proceedings, Deposition of James W. Sibert, September 11, 1997, p.70). O’Neill’s 1997 drawing for the AARB shows the exit wound encompassing the right-rear quadrant of the head (ARRB MD 86, Interview Report of Francis X. O’Neill, January 10, 1978, pp.10–11). In an October 24, 1978, affidavit to the HSCA, Sibert said there was “a large head wound in the upper back of the head.” But in a November 8, 1978, affidavit to the HSCA, he said “the massive head wound pointed towards the right side of the head.” It is instructive to note that there was an increased likelihood for Agents Sibert and O’Neill to make an error in the placement of the wound because as Sibert testified before the ARRB—and he told me in a telephone interview—he and O’Neill were standing next to each other at the head of the autopsy table, looking at the top of the president’s head (as he lay on the autopsy table) rather than the side of his head. (Telephone interview of James Sibert by author on July 21, 2000; ARRB Transcript of Proceedings, Deposition of James W. Sibert, September 11, 1997, p.123) Dr. Boswell said in 1994 that the “FBI people…were never out of the morgue. They stayed there the entire time and…stayed on the telephone [in a May 7, 1992, JAMA interview, Boswell said the agents were “talking on their radios to people outside the room”] all the time…They were causing an awful lot of distraction” (Transcript of taped telephone interview of Dr. J. Thornton Boswell by Dr. Gary Aguilar on March 8, 1994, p.7). And while causing a distraction they were obviously distracted themselves—hardly reliable, percipient witnesses to the precise location of the president’s wounds.

  *Abraham Zapruder himself, who was looking through the zoom lens of his camera at the moment the president was struck in the head, testified that he saw the right side of Kennedy’s head open up and brain matter spray out (7 H 571–572). In his office, within an hour of the shooting, Zapruder was interviewed by Dallas Times Herald writer Darwin Payne. Payne’s shorthand notes reflect Zapruder telling him that blood was coming out the “side” of Kennedy’s head, that it “looked like blobs out of his temple…forehead” (Trask, National Nightmare, p.97). And at about 2:10 on the afternoon of the assassination, during a live interview with Dallas’s WFAA-TV program director, Jay Watson, Zapruder put his hand to the right front side of his head to demonstrate where he saw the president’s head “practically open up” (Trask, Pictures of the Pain, pp.77–78).

  *The fifteen were the three pathologists who conducted the autopsy of the president on the night of the assassination (CE 387, 16 H 983), the nine doctors in 1978 on the forensic pathology panel of the HSCA, and the three pathologists in 1968 on the Clark Panel (ARRB MD 59, Clark Panel Report, 1968, p.15). The 1975 Rockefeller Commission did not address itself to the back and throat wounds, only focusing in on the allegation by conspiracy theorists that Kennedy was struck in the head by a shot fired from the grassy knoll.

  †Of course, when a bullet entering the body passes through soft tissue before it exits, the exit wound is going to be as small or almost as small (and as circular or almost as circular) as the entrance wound. Striking bone damages the bullet, normally causing it to leave a ragged, irregular, and larger exit hole. T
he bullet that entered the president’s body in the upper right part of his back only passed through soft tissue before exiting from his throat (CE 387, 16 H 983).

  ‡The Warren Commission, in a transparent effort to reconcile Perry’s remarks with its ultimate conclusion, selectively cited the November 23 New York Herald Tribune’s account of the press conference, which quoted Perry as only saying it was “possible” the wound in the throat was an entrance wound (WR, pp.90–91). But Tom Wicker of the New York Times, who attended the conference, got the distinct impression from Perry that the wound “had the appearance of a bullet’s entry” (New York Times, November 23, 1963, p.2; Gary L. Aguilar and Kathy Cunningham, “How Five Investigations into JFK’s Medical/Autopsy Evidence Got It Wrong,” May 2003, p.2, available at http://www.history-matters.com/essays/jfkmed/How5Investigations/).

  *There is also testimony that may corroborate the presence of Crenshaw’s “mysterious stranger,” but once again the facts are less sensational. Homicide detective L. C. Graves, one of the two Dallas detectives who were escorting Oswald at the time he was shot by Ruby, testified that he rode in the ambulance to Parkland Hospital, changed into “one of those scrub uniforms and crepe-soled shoes,” and stationed himself outside the second-floor operating-room door, where he was joined later by an FBI agent. Crenshaw may have been referring to Graves, who said he remained at the door until Oswald was declared dead, then made arrangements for an autopsy and security in the morgue. (13 H 9–10, WCT L. C. Graves)

  †The first entry in the White House Detail for November 24, 1963, records an 8:30 a.m. breakfast in bed by the president and his wife at their home, “The Elms,” and the entries end with a telephone call by the president from his home to a “Judge Moursand” at 11:15 p.m.

  The relevant times for any alleged call by LBJ to the operating room at Parkland are from 11:32 a.m. (12:32 p.m. EST), when Oswald was brought into the emergency room at Parkland, to 11:42 a.m. (12:42 p.m. EST), when he was brought into the operating room, to 1:07 p.m. (2:07 p.m. EST), when Oswald was pronounced dead. (Times of Oswald at Parkland: “Three Patients at Parkland,” p.71) The White House Detail entries between 12:26 p.m. and 2:19 p.m. EST, which would encompass the 12:32 p.m. to 2:07 p.m. time frame, are these: “12:26 p.m. After having coffee with members of the [St. Mark’s Church] congregation, the President, accompanied by Mrs. Johnson, departed church; 12:35 p.m. Arrived at North Portico of the White House; 12:45 President Johnson called Secy. [of State Dean] Rusk, probably to have him join Pres. after ceremonies at the Capitol since Secy. Rusk did join Pres. at EOB [Executive Office Building] at 2:40 p.m.; 1:08 p.m. The President, accompanied by Mrs. Kennedy, Mrs. Johnson, The Attorney General, Caroline & John Jr. Kennedy and Colonel Jackson departed the White House in the Funeral Procession; 1:46 p.m. Arrived at Steps of the Capitol; 2:19 p.m. The President, accompanied by Colonel Jackson, departed the Capitol.” (White House Detail, November 24, 1963)

  *The downward angle of a bullet striking President Kennedy between Zapruder frames 190 and 225, the period during which most agree he was hit, was found to range between 16 and 21 degrees, with the angle decreasing as the limousine moved farther away from the muzzle (6 HSCA 34; WR, pp.105–107; 5 H 162, WCT Lyndal L. Shaneyfelt; HSCA Report, p.82).

  *There is no question that the Warren Commission staff was aware of how Dr. Humes described the location of the wound in his autopsy report. For example, Commission counsel asked Dr. Malcolm Perry, “And have you noted in the autopsy report the reference to the presence of a wound on the upper right posterior thorax just above the upper border of the scapula?” (6 H 14, WCT Dr. Malcolm O. Perry; see also 2 H 351, WCT Dr. James J. Humes)

  *The fact that Humes, when he gave this categorical answer, had no way of knowing if the photographs and X-rays, when they emerged at some point in the future, would confirm or refute his testimony, is fairly strong circumstantial evidence that he was very confident in the correctness of his conclusions, indicating not only that the conclusion he reached was very obvious to him, but also that he was no insecure amateur doing a professional’s work, as Warren Commission critics want everyone to believe.

  †In an informative behind-the-scenes look in 1992 at the operation of the Warren Commission, in which the twelve surviving assistant counsels on the Warren Commission staff as well as the lone surviving Commission member, Gerald Ford, were interviewed, U.S. News & World Report disclosed that Robert Kennedy gave his family’s approval for Chief Justice Warren and Commission counsel Lee Rankin to look at the photos, but only Warren elected to see them (Gest, Shapiro, Bowermaster, and Geier, “JFK: The Untold Story of the Warren Commission,” p.40). See also endnote for fact that Warren Commission assistant counsel Arlen Specter was privately shown one autopsy photo by a Secret Service official while on a trip to Dallas.

  *Chief Justice Warren’s fears were not unfounded. In 1991, Robert J. Groden, a leading conspiracy theorist and consultant to the HSCA’s photographic panel, sold pirated copies of the gruesome color photographs taken at the autopsy, along with an accompanying story, for $50,000 to the tabloid Globe, which published them on the front cover (and across five internal pages) under banner headlines like “Shocking Autopsy Photos Blow Lid Off J.F.K. Cover-Up!” “Jackie Crawled Out of Limo to Grab Her Dying Hubby’s Brains—and She Had Them in Her Hand!” and “JFK Autopsy Photos Were Faked & Here’s How & Why Feds Did It” (Ken Harrell, “Shocking Autopsy Photos Blow Lid Off J.F.K. Cover-Up!” Globe, December 31, 1991; Reporters Daily Transcript, Superior Court of the State of California for the County of Los Angeles, Sharon Rufo, et al., Plaintiffs, vs. Orenthal James Simpson, et al., Defendants, Case No. SC031947, December 20, 1996, vol.36, pp.60–63).

  †This suggests that the Kennedy family did not care, but they did and they let their reservations be known to the Commission. Warren goes on in his book to indicate this (Warren, Memoirs, p.372).

  *In his final summation, Spence argued, “I’ll tell you this much, if one of us was charged with murder, and the most important piece of evidence in the whole trial was gone, and it was evidence that we needed to prove our innocence, we needed it to prove our innocence, and it was gone…what would we say? We would say, ‘What has happened to this country?’ We would say, ‘What kind of procedure is this?’ We would say, ‘What kind of judicial system is this?’ We would say, ‘What’s going on with the FBI?’…I can hear Lee Oswald saying, ‘I’m a patsy’” (Transcript of On Trial, July 25, 1986, p.1015).

  *Mrs. Lincoln mentioned in a 1978 interview that although “she had no intention of looking inside the various containers [within the trunk] because she was very upset about the assassination of the president and was upset at the prospect of having to handle the autopsy materials,” she was very careful with them “and noted that they fit neatly into the trunk,” indicating that at some point she did look inside the footlocker (HSCA Record 180-10077-10138, Interview of Mrs. Evelyn Lincoln, July 5, 1978, pp.5–6; also ARRB MD 128).

  *In a similar vein, and fortifying the natural inference that RFK (or, for that matter, any member of the Kennedy family) would have had every motive to have expropriated his brother’s brain, on April 5, 1988, RFK’s brother-in-law, Stephen Smith, telephoned Los Angeles County deputy district attorney Steven Sowders, and asked him, on behalf of RFK’s widow, Ethel, to return RFK’s bloodstained suit jacket and shirt to her from his assassination in Los Angeles in June of 1968, and if that couldn’t be done, to make sure that these items were kept at the DA’s office and never given to any third party. Sowders said RFK’s clothing was not returned to the Kennedy family, and is still in the office’s “evidence locker,” not available for public scrutiny. (Telephone interviews of Steven Sowders by author on July 20, 1999, and June 25, 2002; see also Washington Post, April 20, 1988, p.C3) Greg Stone, a dedicated student of the RFK assassination who got to know the Kennedy family, told me years ago that the family didn’t want RFK’s clothing on display anywhere for the public.

  *The Kennedy’s infant s
on Patrick, who died in August of 1963 after only thirty-nine hours of life, and their unnamed stillborn infant daughter who died in 1956, were both reburied beside their father’s grave.

  *Most brain sectioning for examination purposes is coronal—from ear to ear, that is, side to side—but some are sagittal, that is, the slices are from front to back.

  †Also, Horne knew that if the first supplementary examination of the brain was not on November 25, the argument could be made that the second exam, which Horne said took place on November 29, was really the first and only exam.

  *Since Burkley told Humes that the president’s family wanted the brain to be buried with the body, and the president’s funeral was on November 25, this certainly sounds as if the conversation between Burkley and Humes (which took place around the time Humes turned the president’s brain over to Burkley) occurred before November 25. But since we know (see later text) that the examination of the president’s brain took place after November 25 (i.e., after the funeral), two possibilities come to mind to explain this apparent contradiction. One is that the wishes of the Kennedy family could have been expressed after the funeral, and it would not have been a pointless desire, since the brain could be put in the coffin even after the original burial. For instance, we know that on the evening of March 14, 1967, the president’s body was reburied. Indeed, when ARRB counsel asked Humes in 1996 whether he had asked Burkley how the Kennedy family “would be able to inter the brain if the president had already been buried?” he responded, “I didn’t worry about it one way or the other. I would presume that they could devise a method of doing that without too much difficulty, however” (ARRB Transcript of Proceedings, Deposition of Dr. James Joseph Humes, February 13, 1996, pp.148–149). What is also possible, and more likely, is that the Kennedy family expressed its wish about the brain being buried with the body before the funeral, and Humes, looking back almost thirty years later in his JAMA interview, confused when Burkley told him about the Kennedy family’s wish, thinking it was when he transferred the brain to Burkley after December 6, when it may have been at some time before the funeral on November 25.