Clint Hill's new book- something is not right (twice): Lifton premonition and Humes did not need Perry after all?

[Vince Palamara]

Beyond the issues of this book being a mere cash grab (mission accomplished, as the book is a best-seller), as there is zero new (no mention of the drinking incident and his participation in it), no hyped "clearing up of the conspiracy misconceptions along the way" (nothing is really addressed, one way or the other; must have had a change of heart as to even feel the need to take on the pro-conspiracy people) and the much ballyhooed hype about new photos did not ring true at all (I have seen most of these before), there are two items in the book that do NOT ring true and read as later-day reactions to the "conspiracy crowd" as he would call it. These items, IF they were truly accurate back on 11/22/63, are quite telling, to put it mildly. In other words, IF these two items ARE true, then I am wrong---there ARE two new items of interest in Hill's book after all:

1) Page 124- David Lifton premonition?!?!? And Johnson out front, Johnsen to the rear, huh?

Hill writes: "It strikes me that perhaps we should keep an agent with President Kennedy's body---out of respect for both President and Mrs. Kennedy, and in light of the questions that were raised at Parkland Hospital about taking the body back to Washington for the autopsy. This way, if there is ever any doubt about whether Dr. Burkley stayed with the body until the autopsy, or suspicions about tampering, there will be a Secret Service agent who also remained with the casket and can vouch for the integrity of the body. Agent Dick Johnsen is selected for the post because he is an agent who was with President Kennedy from the beginning and is familiar to Mrs. Kennedy, O'Donnell, and Powers [emphasis added]"

Beyond the absurdity of picking an AGENT as somehow relieving any person's suspicion that something could possibly be amiss ("oh, an agent was there? ok, no suspicion there"), the agent chosen was none other than the official keeper of CE399 aka the magic bullet. What's more, Lifton's best-selling book did not appear until the early 1980's and the issue of body tampering/ alteration was not on anyone's minds until the early-mid 1970's at the earliest...WHY would Hill write these comments? And, from the excerpt above as written, are we to somehow infer that it was HILL (not Kellerman, for example) who made the decision to have an agent stay with the body and decide that the specific person should be the magic bullet holder? Hmmm...

2) Pages 138-139- the autopsy doctors were sure the throat wound was an exit---who needs Doc Perry?-- and Hill is sure the first shot was this shot? Really??

Hill writes: "The doctor points to a wound in the throat and explains that this is where the emergency tracheotomy was done at Parkland Hospital, which covered up the area where a bullet had exited. He rolls the president slightly onto his left side and points to a small wound just below the neckline, slightly to the right of the spinal column in the upper back. This, he says, is where the bullet entered, and then came out the front of the neck. The bullet that caused these wounds hit nothing but soft tissue. Those wounds, I knew without a doubt, came from the first shot. It corroborates what I saw---the president suddenly grabbing his throat immediately after the first explosive noise. The doctor points to a wound on the right rear of the head. This, he says, was the fatal wound. He lifts up a piece of the scalp, with skin and hair still attached, which reveals a hole in the skull, and an area in which a good portion of the brain matter is gone{emphasis added]"

To his "credit", as he also recently demonstrated on television, Hill repeats what he has said since 11/22/63 (and in his other two Lisa McCubbin co-authored books) that the right rear of JFK's head was missing (page 107), but what gives with the above?

Vince

Edited December 8, 2013 by Vince Palamara

[Chris Newton]

Vince,

Thanks for that info. I totally agree with you about the tampering comment. That's major, so they were worried that "someone" on AF1 would tamper with the evidence? Why not tell us who you suspected, that was on the plane, that might do that, Clint? That's a major revelation and what to make of the "if there is any doubt about whether Dr. Burkley stayed with the body". Reminds me of the excuses a kid with his hand in the cookie jar might say.

[Pat Speer]

Clint (or McCubbin) wrote the same thing about the throat wound in Mrs. Kennedy and Me.

It doesn't mean anything, in my opinion. Through his contact with Blaine, and McCubbin, Hill has been transformed into a single-assassin theorist poster child. While he still says the head wound was on the back of the head or right rear, he now almost always specifies that it was above the right ear. I think he's probably right about this. But also suspect he says this in part because others have told him to. He has also stopped mentioning that he thought the second shot hit Connally, and that the single-bullet theory is nonsense. This is an obvious consolation to the lone-nutters in the media. And then he's added in this bit about the throat wound being an exit. This is another consolation to the lone-nutters, who are so enamored with the myths of Posner and Bugliosi they don't even know the official story, and are willing to swallow anything which will help them pretend we know the throat wound was an exit. The key is the line "The bullet that caused these wounds hit nothing but soft tissue." This is LUDICROUS! They did not dissect the wound at autopsy, and would not have made such a statement with the body in front of them. It's almost as bad as referencing Kellerman's claim Kennedy yelled My God I'm hit, and changing it to MY GOD I"VE BEEN SHOT BY LEE HARVEY OSWALD!

As far as Johnsen staying with the body... The Dallas officials were concerned about the chain of custody of the body. Implicit in that is that they wanted to be sure the body was received at Bethesda in the same condition it left Parkland. Dr. Burkley volunteered that he would stay with the body the whole time. If Hill realized that Burkley might be called away at some point, and that it would be a good idea to have an SS agent also stay with the body, that reflects only that he was doing his job, not that he personally was concerned someone would tamper with the body. All in all, however, I think this is something that's been added into his story to shoot down those darned conspiracy theorists.

Edited December 8, 2013 by Pat Speer

[John Crites]

Mr. SPECTER. You say that it appeared that she was reaching as if something was coming over to the rear portion of the car, back in the area where you were coming to?
Mr. HILL. Yes, sir.
Mr. SPECTER. Was there anything back there that you observed, that she might have been reaching for?
Mr. HILL. I thought I saw something come off the back, too, but I cannot say that there was. I do know that the next day we found the portion of the President's head.

“The right rear portion of his head was missing. It was lying in the rear seat of the car. His brain was exposed. There was blood and bits of brain all over the entire rear portion of the car. Mrs. Kennedy was completely covered with blood. There was so much blood you could not tell if there had been any other wound or not, except for the one large gaping wound in the right rear portion of the head...”

(And),

“I was requested to come to the morgue [at Bethesda] to view the President's body...I saw an opening in the back, about 6 inches below the neckline to the right-hand side of the spinal column”.

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Thats his sworn testimony, simple as that. While making his Oswald did it tour, did Mr. Hill mention to anyone that he indicated
under oath the obvious evidence of more than one shooter? Did any interviewer for the MSM ask him about his statement to the WC? . It's pretty strait forward what he witnessed

[Pat Speer]

Mr. SPECTER. You say that it appeared that she was reaching as if something was coming over to the rear portion of the car, back in the area where you were coming to?

Mr. HILL. Yes, sir.

Mr. SPECTER. Was there anything back there that you observed, that she might have been reaching for?

Mr. HILL. I thought I saw something come off the back, too, but I cannot say that there was. I do know that the next day we found the portion of the President's head.

“The right rear portion of his head was missing. It was lying in the rear seat of the car. His brain was exposed. There was blood and bits of brain all over the entire rear portion of the car. Mrs. Kennedy was completely covered with blood. There was so much blood you could not tell if there had been any other wound or not, except for the one large gaping wound in the right rear portion of the head...”

(And),

“I was requested to come to the morgue [at Bethesda] to view the President's body...I saw an opening in the back, about 6 inches below the neckline to the right-hand side of the spinal column”.

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Thats his sworn testimony, simple as that. While making his Oswald did it tour, did Mr. Hill mention to anyone that he indicated

under oath the obvious evidence of more than one shooter? Did any interviewer for the MSM ask him about his statement to the WC? . It's pretty strait forward what he witnessed

It's not as simple as that. If you go through the statements of the "back of the head" witnesses, you'll find that the vast majority of them (including McClelland) said they initially accepted the findings of the Warren Commission ( that all the shots came from behind). When you look at the Rydberg drawings and compare them to the photos of the doctors (and even Hill) pointing out where they recalled the large head wound, you'll see that they are are only an inch or two apart, and that the "back of the head" wound location proposed by most conspiracy theorists (below and behind the right ear) is much further away.

[Ray Mitcham]

Capt James Young White House MD.

Then word was obtained that the President was at Parkland Memorial Hospital. Within five minutes Doctor Burkley and his group were at the hospital. When Doctor Burkley arrived, the President was already in the emergency room. He had a cut-down in place and a tracheotomy was being performed. Meanwhile, external cardiac massage was being applied. Solu-cortef18 was given IV and an external cardiac pacemaker was obtained. Doctor Burkley immediately evaluated the situation as hopeless as soon as he saw the gaping, bloody macerated huge wound and defect in the right posterior occipital area.

This was the President's Personal physician. Was he wrong, Pat?

[Jim Phelps]

I see things are becoming closer to the truth on the brain damage and the back and neck entrance and exit wounds.

I agree the back wound was an entrance and the throat is the exit, and the bullet transversed mostly soft tissues. I believe this exit bullet then plinked the Limo windshield and it was not deformed much. This one never touched Connally, and Connally's bullet was separate from any of JFK's bullets!

I agree one head shot came from behind JFK and hit him just below the cow lick area, and transversed to pop off the temple bone area and cause the blood jet. There was another frontal head shot that followed that one from GN !!

Dr. Akin cleared up what was associated with what some thought was a lower skull profusion area.

Frame 337 of the Zapruder Film, as shown in the Bob Harris Video is a look at the follow on skull damage from the GN shot, and this associated with a large skull fragment blown loose under the cow lick area that remained attached to the scalp, and this is what they lifted to see the massive brain damage in the rear of the skull !

[Larry Hancock]

Ray, I've posted a lengthy interview with Captain Young in a different thread...he makes a number of medical and evidence assertions that strike me worth note but so far I've not gotten any assessment. Hopefully David Lifton, Pat and others will jump in with observations and assessments. Captain Young writes as if he was a primary observer and I'm also curious about that and other records of his testimony on Parkland and Bethesda.

[Pat Speer]

Capt James Young White House MD.

Then word was obtained that the President was at Parkland Memorial Hospital. Within five minutes Doctor Burkley and his group were at the hospital. When Doctor Burkley arrived, the President was already in the emergency room. He had a cut-down in place and a tracheotomy was being performed. Meanwhile, external cardiac massage was being applied. Solu-cortef18 was given IV and an external cardiac pacemaker was obtained. Doctor Burkley immediately evaluated the situation as hopeless as soon as he saw the gaping, bloody macerated huge wound and defect in the right posterior occipital area.

This was the President's Personal physician. Was he wrong, Pat?

Burkley is not a back of the head witness. Kilduff reported on what Burkley had told him within minutes of Burkley's viewing Kennedy, and Kilduff pointed to a wound by the temple, where it can be seen in the photos and Z-film. Young's account was written the day after the shooting, when Clark's recollection of the wound as posterior and occipital was in the papers. Young is reporting on Burkley's actions, but paraphrasing Clark as to the wound's location.

[Larry Hancock]

That's sort of what I was guessing Pat, in other words Clarke is really just repeating and paraphrasing - but the article certainly does not present it that way to my reading.

I will be interested in your comments about other aspects of the article - which to me seems to have lots of problems.

[Robert Prudhomme]

Burkley was not a witness at all. For some strange reason, the WC did not call him to testify.

Do you think James Young was lying, misquoting, exaggerating or misremembering when he made the statement:

"Dr. Burkley immediately evaluated the situation as hopeless as soon as he saw the gaping, bloody macerated huge wound and defect in the right posterior occipital area."

How can you be certain this was not described by Dr. Burkley to James Young?

[Larry Hancock]

Actually Burkley did prepare a report on his activities and observations and he did it quite early, Nov. 27 1963 to be exact. It makes an interesting comparison to Captain Young's comments.

You can read it all at:

http://www.maryferrell.org/mffweb/archive/viewer/showDoc.do?docId=629&relPageId=1

[David Josephs]

I agree the back wound was an entrance and the throat is the exit, and the bullet transversed mostly soft tissues. I believe this exit bullet then plinked the Limo windshield and it was not deformed much. This one never touched Connally, and Connally's bullet was separate from any of JFK's bullets!

Agree with who Jim, Bugliosi?

HERE is where it entered, the throat wound is 11 degrees HIGHER than the back wound.

The alleged origin of said shot is 17 degrees above horozontal plus another 3 degress for the road's slope...

Unless JFK is tying his shoes at the moment of this shot.. it is NOT POSSIBLE for a downward sloping shot to change direction given your explanation:

"transversed mostly soft tissues" Nothing deflected this to change it's downward course... while the course thru JC is at an even HIGHER angle and is NOT traveling right-to-left (back to front) at the same angle as would connect JFK's wounds.

Nothing in the SBT lines up Jim... the throat wound was ABOVE the shirt (meaning an even higher angle upward)

and the last straw in your presentation is the Chain of Custody of CE399... maybe tell us who admits to taking THAT BULLET from Dallas to DC? As I see it, Rowley gets one bullet and provides another.

According to the SS, Agent JOHNSON gives Frazier the bullet... not Rowley. (Rowley tells us the bullet he gets from Johnson is NOT CE399, Johnson says CE399 not fthe one he got from Wrights and so on....) whereas Todd confirms the bullet he gets FROM Rowley is CE399... and the ONLY initials are those that follow ROWLEY...

How do you conclude a 5mm hole is a 6.5mm bullet's EXIT?

[Robert Prudhomme]

Quoting from Dr. Burkley's report of 27/11/63:

"His hair was combed in the usual fashion and his appearance in the casket gave no evidence of the injury he had received."

Pretty neat trick, considering we are supposed to believe the top and right side of JFK's head had been blown off. Stranger still, the mortician Tom Robinson only talked about closing up a large gaping wound at the back of JFK's head and no other large wounds.

Unfortunately, Dr. Burkley does not state the location of JFK's wounds in this report.

[Pat Speer]

Quoting from Dr. Burkley's report of 27/11/63:

"His hair was combed in the usual fashion and his appearance in the casket gave no evidence of the injury he had received."

Pretty neat trick, considering we are supposed to believe the top and right side of JFK's head had been blown off. Stranger still, the mortician Tom Robinson only talked about closing up a large gaping wound at the back of JFK's head and no other large wounds.

Unfortunately, Dr. Burkley does not state the location of JFK's wounds in this report.

It's not a trick. The morticians were told to make the president presentable for funeral. They were therefore tasked with stretching the scalp over the defect, and re-arranging the skull bones, etc, Whatever it took. According to the morticians, they left a hole at the back of the head, which could be hidden in a pillow. It is a mistake to assume this was the wound's original location, however.