James W. Sibert and Francis X. O'Neill Options

[John Simkin]

When John F. Kennedy was assassinated on 22nd November, 1963, Francis X. O'Neill was sent to Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland "to assume jurisdiction over any violations that might fall within our purview." James W. Sibert was also sent to the air base "so there would be two of us to be a witness to whatever might happen." J. Edgar Hoover then sent a message via Ed Tulley at FBI headquarters, to make sure that these two agents remained with Kennedy's body.

Sibert and O'Neill then accompanied the coffin to Bethesda Naval Hospital. The agents also attended the autopsy carried out by Dr. Joseph Humes. Sibert and O'Neill wrote up a FD 302 report on what they witnessed.

Arlen Specter, the assistant counsel to the Warren Report, interviewed both Sibert and O'Neill on 12th March, 1964. However, as a result of what they told Specter, they were not called to testify before the Warren Commission. Specter was the man closely associated with the lone gunman theory. Their FD 302 report also became a classified document.

When Joseph Humes was interviewed by the Warren Commission he 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. The report eventually stated: "A bullet had entered the base of the back of Kennedy's neck slightly to the right of the spine. It traveled downward and exited from the front of the neck, crossing a nick in the left lower portion of the knot in the President's necktie."

When the FD 302 report was eventually declassified it became clear why Sibert and O'Neill were not asked to appear before the Warren Commission. It included the following passage: "During the later stages of this autopsy, Dr. Humes located an opening which appeared to be a bullet hole which was below his shoulders and two inches to the right of the middle line of the spinal column."

This evidence is supported by the bullet holes in Kennedy's clothing and completely undermined the lone gunman theory. As Jim Marrs points out in Crossfire: "If the President's wound was between the shoulder blades, this was lower than the position of the neck wound making for an upward trajectory - totally inconsistent with the idea of shots from sixty feet above and behind the President."

On 12th September, 1997, Frank O'Neill provided a deposition to the Assassination Records Review Board (ARRB). He was also interviewed by William Matson Law for his book, In the Eye of History: Disclosures in the JFK Assassination Medical Evidence (2005). O'Neill rejected the account given by Arlen Specter about the single-bullet theory: "You go back to the veracity of the individuals who were eye-witnesses - Governor Connally denied the single-bullet theory one hundred percent. He's an eyewitness. He's right there. This is the man who was there. He was the one who was hit. He should know what happened."

Sibert also rejected the account given by Arlen Specter about the single-bullet theory: "What a liar. I feel he got his orders from above - how far above I don't know."

The evidence of O'Neill and Sibert confirms that the Warren Commission report was a cover-up. For nearly 40 years O'Neill and Sibert kept quiet about what they knew. William Matson Law's book shows that this period of silence has come to an end.