The JFK Rear Head Wound: The Witnesses

[Richard J. Smith]

THE JFK REAR HEAD WOUND: THE WITNESSES

John F. Kennedy, the 35th President of the United States, was assassinated in Dallas Texas on November 22, 1963. This is one of the few facts surrounding the case that is mutually agreed upon. Nearly every other piece of information involving the assassination has been discussed, debated, and speculated on by conspiracy theorists and lone gunman theorists alike. One of the most debated is the presence of a gunman positioned toward the front of the presidential limousine, either on the infamous Grassy Knoll to the right front of the limo, or the South Knoll to the left front of the motorcade as it traveled down Elm Street toward the triple underpass. There is photographic evidence of this second gunman, albeit limited, including smoke on the Grassy Knoll, film evidence of the President’s reaction to the head shot as shown in the Zapruder film, and eyewitness statements of a gunshot from the right front.

Although the photographic and eyewitness evidence in Dealey Plaza has been debated for years, there is an abundance of evidence largely ignored or forgotten by the general public and amateur researchers. This involves medical and photographic evidence, as well as eyewitness testimony and statements pertaining to a large wound in the rear of the President’s head. In this seminar, we will concentrate on the aftermath of this frontal shot, and evidence of its cover-up. Use of the term “cover-up” is not used lightly in view of the fact that many pieces of medical evidence were not released until 1992, 29 years after the tragic event in Dallas, by the Assassination Records Review Board(ARRB). The evidence includes documentation made by eyewitnesses to this rear head wound, who testified to the House Select Committee on Assassinations(HSCA) in the late 1970’s. It was nearly 20 years before this information supplied to the HSCA was released, and much of it is spectacular in nature. It was well noted by hard core researchers, but was unknown to the public, and ignored by the media.

The result of the frontal head shot was documented by many eyewitnesses, particularly those at Parkland Hospital in Dallas, where the President was treated and died, and the Bethesda Naval Hospital outside Washington DC, where the autopsy of the President was performed. The statements of the back of the head witnesses and their associated documents leaves no doubt there was, in fact, a large wound of exit in the rear of the President’s head that is not shown in photographs taken during the autopsy at Bethesda. This discrepancy between the autopsy photos and the many eyewitnesses clearly indicates a cover-up of the greatest magnitude took place, and continues to this day. The autopsy photos of the rear of President Kennedy’s head cannot be representative of what was actually seen as depicted by witnesses at Parkland and Bethesda, so one can only conclude the autopsy photos have been altered to conform to the lone assassin theory. Note that the statements, testimony, and photographs herein are graphic in nature, describing and depicting a severe gunshot wound to the head.

DEALEY PLAZA

Due to the speed with which the assassination occurred in Dealey Plaza, eyewitnesses to the rear head wound are few. However, Secret Service Agent Clint Hill, whose assignment was that of affording protection to Mrs. Kennedy, saw close up and first hand the President’s wound after arrival at Parkland Hospital. SSA Hill, the agent shown in the Zapruder film rushing from the Secret Service car to the presidential limo in the midst of the shooting, covered the President and First Lady after jumping into the rear seat, and remained there through the approximate four minute drive to Parkland. Hill testified at the Warren Commission hearings, and was questioned by Commission Counsel Arlen Specter:

Mr. SPECTER. What did you observe as to President Kennedy's condition on arrival at the hospital?

Mr. HILL. 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.

The Zapruder and Nix Films

Upon close examination, the film taken by Abraham Zapruder does in fact show evidence of a frontal gunshot to the head. In particular, a blowup of Zapruder frame 337 depicts an avulsion at the rear of President Kennedy’s head. Since the film was taken from the side and not the rear, an obvious hole cannot be seen. However, one can obviously see the outward expansion of the skull to the rear, indicative of a projectile traveling from front to rear. Note the look of horror on Mrs. Kennedy at she looks directly at the rear of the President’s head.

The same avulsion can be seen from the opposite side of Elm Street in the Orville Nix film:

Phillip Willis: “It took the back of his head off”

Marilyn Willis: “A red halo…Matter was coming out the back of his head”

Parkland Hospital

The accounts of the witnesses to the rear head wound at Parkland Hospital are impossible to ignore. A minimum of fifteen doctors and nurses saw and described the rear head wound as a large gaping wound of exit.

Nurse Diana Bowron

Parkland Hospital Nurse Diana Bowron rushed to the presidential limo to help get the President out of the car and onto a gurney. She was one of the first of the medical personnel to reach the President. Bowron appeared before the Warren Commission and was questioned by Arlen Specter:

Mr. SPECTER - And what, in a general way, did you observe with respect to President Kennedy's condition?

Miss BOWRON - He was very pale, he was lying across Mrs. Kennedy's knee and there seemed to be blood everywhere. When I went around to the other side of the car I saw the condition of his head.

Mr. SPECTER - You saw the condition of his what?

Miss BOWRON - The back of his head.

Mr. SPECTER - And what was that condition?

Miss BOWRON - Well, it was very bad---you know.

Mr. SPECTER - How many holes did you see?

Miss BOWRON - I just saw one large hole.

Mr. SPECTER - Did you see a small bullet hole beneath that one large hole?

Miss BOWRON - No, sir.

Nurse Bowron was also questioned during the HSCA hearings:

BOWRON. There was a gaping wound in the back of his head.

Q. So, in this massive hole, was there a flap of scalp there, or was scalp actually gone?

BOWRON. It was gone. Gone. There was nothing there. Just a big gaping hole.

Q. We're talking about scalp first, and then bone, right?

BOWRON. Yeah. There might have been little clumps of scalp, but most of the bone over the hole, there was no bone there.

Bowron was among the nurses who, after JFK’s death, washed the body and prepared it for the casket. It was at that time she got her best view of the body. In a letter to researcher Harrison Livingstone January 24, 1993, Bowron described what happened:

“When the president expired everyone left the room apart from Miss

Hinchcliffe, a male orderly and myself. We tidied the room and changed

the linen on the gurney and washed the body as best we could. Miss

Hinchcliffe and the orderly left the room, but I was told to remain with the body until the casket arrived. I was told that I had to stay because I had been one of the people who had taken the body from the car. I remained in the room while the widow paid her respects. After she had left I was asked, by a man I assumed was Secret Service, to collect all pieces of skull and brain I could find and place them in a plastic bag which he gave me. This I did and returned the bag to him

(there were only a few fragments of bone that had stuck to the dressings and towels that we had used to pack the hole in the back of the head). I remained in the room until the people from the funeral home arrived. After we had placed the body in the casket and it had been closed I was allowed to leave. During the time I was with the body only the widow and the priest came into the room, any dealings I had with the Secret Service were done in the doorway; no one else entered the room and no photographs were taken.

Apart from 2-3 mins, when I left the trauma room to collect blood from

the Blood Bank, I was with the body from the car until it was placed in

the casket. Being new to the establishment, I was assigned to Minor Medicine and Surgery, which was across the hall from the Triage desk and the major sections of the Emergency room. It being very quiet, there were only two or three patients waiting for the results of tests, I was talking with the Triage nurse when the call went up for gurneys. I grabbed a gurney in the hall and together with an orderly ran to the entrance. I saw that the person in the back of the car was injured so I climbed in to render what assistance I could until such time as we could move him to a trolley, then to the trauma room (others were assisting the Governor in the front seat). I saw that there was a massive amount of blood on the back seat and in order to find the cause I lifted his head and my fingers went into a large wound in the back of his head; I turned his head and seeing the size of the wound realized that I could not stop the bleeding. I turned his head back and saw an entry wound in the front of the throat, I could feel no pulse at the jugular and having seen the extent of the injury to the back of the head I assumed that he was dead. (not my job, only a Doctor can certify death) When we got the President to the Trauma room, word had reached the Trauma team and they were ready with IVs etc. I worked with the team, assisting where needed for about 10 mins (time is difficult to judge in those circumstances), when I was told to go to the Blood Bank. I was away 2-3 mins and on my return I continued to assist where needed until the President was declared dead.

Miss Margaret Hinchcliffe and an African-American orderly and I prepared the body for the coffin.

I observed no strange activity of any kind and saw no bullets.

As explained above, I thought after examination in the car that he was

dead. There was no damage to the front of his face, only the gaping

wound in the back of his head and the entry wound in his throat.

When we prepared the body for the coffin we washed the face and closed

the eyes; there was no damage to the face, there was no flap of scalp on the right, neither was there a laceration pointing toward the right

eyebrow from the scalp.

When we were preparing the body for the coffin we rolled it over in

order to remove the bloodstained sheet from underneath and to wipe away

the blood from the back of the body. I saw another entry wound in the

upper back (the other entry wound being in the front of the throat).

I first saw the large wound in the back of the head in the car; when we

were preparing the body for the coffin I had the opportunity to examine

it more closely. It was about 5ins in diameter, there was no flap of

skin covering it, just a fraction of skin along part of the edges of

bone, there was however some hair hanging down from the top of the head

which was caked with blood, and most of the brain was missing. The wound was so large I could almost put my whole fist inside. When we prepared the body I washed as much blood as I could from the

hair; while doing this I did not see any other wound either in the

temples or in other parts of the head.

When the body was placed in the coffin the wound at the back of the head was packed with gauze squares and wrapped in small white sheet, there was no terrycloth or other type of towel used.”

Nurse Pat Hutton

“Several people helped put the President on the cart, and we then proceeded to the Major Surgery section of the Emergency Room to Trauma Room #1. Mr. Kennedy was bleeding profusely from a wound on the back of his head, and was lying there unresponsive.

As soon as we reached the room, a doctor placed an endotracheal tube, and prepared for a tracheostomy. Within a few minutes, there were numerous doctors in the room starting I.V.'s, placing chest tubes and anesthesia with O2. A doctor asked me to place a pressure dressing on the head wound. This was of no use, however, because of the massive opening on the back of the head.”

Dr Malcolm Perry

Mr. SPECTER - Will you continue, then, Dr. Perry, as to what you observed of his condition?

Dr. 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.

Dr Robert McClelland

Mr. SPECTER - Before proceeding to describe what you did in connection with the tracheostomy, will you more fully describe your observation with respect to the head wound?

Dr. McCLELLAND - As I took the position at the head of the table that I have already described, to help out with the tracheotomy, I was in such a position that I could very closely examine the head wound, and I noted that the right posterior portion of the skull had been extremely blasted. It had been shattered, apparently, by the force of the shot so that the parietal bone was protruded up through the scalp and seemed to be fractured almost along its right posterior half, as well as some of the occipital bone being fractured in its lateral haft, and this sprung open the bones that I mentioned in such a way that you could actually look down into the skull cavity itself and see that probably a third or so, at least, of the brain tissue, posterior cerebral tissue and some of the cerebellar tissue had been blasted out. There was a large amount of bleeding which was occurring mainly from the large venous channels in the skull which had been blasted open.

Mr. SPECTER - What were your initial impressions?

Dr. McCLELLAND - The initial impression that we had was that perhaps the wound in the neck, the anterior part of the neck, was an entrance wound and that it had perhaps taken a trajectory off the anterior vertebral body and again into the skull itself, exiting out the back, to produce the massive injury in the head. However, this required some straining of the imagination to imagine that this would happen, and it was much easier to explain the apparent trajectory by means of two bullets, which we later found out apparently had been fired, than by just one then, on which basis we were originally taking to explain it.

Mr. SPECTER - Did you observe the condition of the back of the President's head?

Dr. McCLELLAND - Well, partially; not, of course, as I say, we did not lift his head up since it was so greatly damaged. We attempted to avoid moving him any more than it was absolutely necessary, but I could see, of course, all the extent of the wound.

Mr. SPECTER - You saw a large opening which you have already described?

Dr. McCLELLAND - I saw the large opening which I have described.

Mr. SPECTER - Did you observe any other wound on the back of the head?

Dr. McCLELLAND - No.

Mr. SPECTER - Did you observe a small gunshot wound below the large opening on the back of the head?

Dr. McCLELLAND - No.

Dr Marion Jenkins

Mr. SPECTER - Now, will you now describe the wound which you observed in the head?

Dr. JENKINS - Almost by the time I was--had the time to pay more attention to the wound in the head, all of these other activities were under way. I was busy connecting up an apparatus to respire for the patient, exerting manual pressure on the breathing bag or anesthesia apparatus, trying to feel for a pulse in the neck, and then reaching up and feeling for one in the temporal area, seeing about connecting the cardioscope or directing its being connected, and then turned attention to the wound in the head.

Now, Dr. Clark had begun closed chest cardiac massage at this time and I was aware of the magnitude of the wound, because with each compression of the chest, there was a great rush of blood from the skull wound. Part of the brain was herniated; I really think part of the cerebellum, as I recognized it, was herniated from the wound; there was part of the brain tissue, broken fragments of the brain tissue on the drapes of the cart on which the President lay.

Dr Ronald Jones

Mr. SPECTER - Will you describe as precisely as you can the nature of the head wound?

Dr. JONES - There was large defect in the back side of the head as the President lay on the cart with what appeared to be some brain hanging out of this wound with multiple pieces of skull noted next with the brain and with a tremendous amount of clot and blood.

Dr Paul Peters

Mr. SPECTER - What did you observe as to the nature of the President's wound?

Dr. PETERS - Well, as I mentioned, the neck wound had already been interfered with by the tracheotomy at the time I got there, but I noticed the head wound, and as I remember--I noticed that there was a large defect in the occiput.

Mr. SPECTER - What did you notice in the occiput?

Dr. PETERS - It seemed to me that in the right occipitalparietal area that there was a large defect. There appeared to be bone loss and brain loss in the area.

Mr. SPECTER - Did you notice any holes below the occiput, say, in this area below here?

Dr. PETERS - No, I did not and at the time and the moments immediately following the injury, we speculated as to whether he had been shot once or twice because we saw the wound of entry in the throat and noted the large occipital wound, and it is a known fact that high velocity missiles often have a small wound of entrance and a large wound of exit, and I'm just giving you my honest impressions at the time.

Dr Kemp Clark

Mr. SPECTER - What did you observe the President's condition to be on your arrival there?

Dr. CLARK - The President was lying on his back on the emergency cart. Dr. Perry was performing a tracheotomy. There were chest tubes being inserted. Dr. Jenkins was assisting the President's respirations through a tube in his trachea. Dr. Jones and Dr. Carrico were administering fluids and blood intravenously. The President was making a few spasmodic respiratory efforts. I assisted. in withdrawing the endotracheal tube from the throat as Dr. Perry was then ready to insert the tracheotomy tube . I then examined the President briefly.

My findings showed his pupils were widely dilated, did not react to light, and his eyes were deviated outward with a slight skew deviation.

I then examined the wound in the back of the President's head. This was a large, gaping wound in the right posterior part, with cerebral and cerebellar tissue being damaged and exposed.

Clark on the 2:30 press conference:

Mr. SPECTER - What, if anything, did you say then in the course of that press conference?

Dr. CLARK - I described the President's wound in his head in very much the same way as I have described it here. I was asked if this wound was an entrance wound, an exit wound, or what, and I said it could be an exit wound, but I felt it was a tangential wound.

Mr. SPECTER - Which wound did you refer to at this time?

Dr. CLARK - The wound in the head.

Mr. SPECTER - Did you describe at that time what you meant by "tangential"?

Dr. CLARK - Yes, sir; I did.

Mr. SPECTER - What definition of "tangential" did you make at that time?

Dr. CLARK - As I remember, I defined the word "tangential" as being---striking an object obliquely, not squarely or head on.

Mr. SPECTER - Will you describe at this time in somewhat greater detail the consequences of a tangential wound as contrasted with another type of a striking?

Dr. CLARK - Let me begin by saying that the damage suffered by an organ when struck by a bullet or other missile---

Mr. SPECTER - May the record show that I interrupted the deposition for about 2 minutes to ascertain what our afternoon schedule would be here because the regular administration office ordinarily closes at 12 o'clock, which was just about 15 minutes ago, and then we resumed the deposition of Dr. Clark as he was discussing the concept of tangential and other types of striking. Go ahead, Doctor.

Dr. CLARK - The effects of any missile striking an organ or a function of the energy which is shed by the missile in passing through this organ when a bullet strikes the head, if it is able to pass through rapidly without shedding any energy into the brain, little damage results, other than that part of the brain which is directly penetrated by the missile. However, if it strikes the skull at an angle, it must then penetrate much more bone than normal, therefore, is likely to shed more energy, striking the brain a more powerful blow.

Secondly, in striking the bone in this manner, it may cause pieces of the bone to be blown into the brain and thus act as secondary missiles. Finally, the bullet itself may be deformed and deflected so that it would go through or penetrate parts of the brain, not in the usual direct line it was proceeding.

Mr. SPECTER - Now, referring back to the press conference, did you define a tangential wound at that time?

Dr. CLARK - Yes.

Mr. SPECTER - And what else did you state at the press conference at 2:30 on November 22?

Dr. CLARK - I stated that the President had lost considerable blood, that one of the contributing causes of death was this massive blood loss, that I was unable to state how many wounds the President had sustained or from what angle they could have come. I finally remember stating that the President's wound was obviously a massive one and was insurvivable.

Nurse Audrey Bell

Interview by Jeremy Gunn and Douglas Horne of the ARRB 3/20/97(MD184):

In the ER, Bell asked Dr Malcolm Perry where the wound was. "Dr Perry turned the President's head slightly to the President's anatomical left so that she could see a right posterior head wound, which she described as occipital..."

Nurse Doris Nelson

She was an ER Supervisor in 1963, later became the nursing supervisor of Parkland Hospital. She assisted in treating the President and helped in the preparation of the body for the casket. In the revised addition of High Treason, Harrison Livingstone writes “Nurse Nelson drew a picture of the head wound, mostly in the parietal area, but well towards the rear of the head(parietal/occipital). Her drawing conflicts strongly with the official autopsy photograph. When she saw the picture, she said immediately “It’s not true. There wasn’t even hair back there. It was blown away. All that area was blown out"

Nurse Margaret Hinchcliffe

Margaret Hinchcliffe was a nurse who helped wheel JFK from the limousine into the ER, and later helped prepare the body for the casket. She told reporters in 1981 that the President had a gaping wound in the back of his head and an entrance wound in his throat. According to Jim Bishop, after the President’s death, Hinchcliffe was ordered to clean the body along with Diana Bowron:

“ The body was sponged carefully, the legs and arms still pliant. The cart drapes on the right hand side were heavy with brain matter. This was cleaned up and the edges of the massive wound in the head were wiped. The brown hair was slicked back. The body was lifted off the carriage and white sheets were placed underneath. Enough loose material was allowed to hang off the left side so that when the President was placed in the box, the head and neck wounds would not soil the white satin interior.”

Dr. Charles Crenshaw: “ The wound was the size of a baseball”

Dr. Kenneth Salyer: “This wound extended into the parietal area”

Dr. Charles Carrico: “There was a large, quite large, defect about here”

Aubrey Rike: employee of Oneal Funeral Home, who delivered the casket to Parkland said: “You could feel the sharp edges of the bone at the edge of the hole in the back of the head”

Bethesda Naval Hospital

Dennis David

In November 1963, Dennis was an E6 Petty Officer, and an editor of training manuals for hospital corpsmen at the Bethesda Naval Hospital. On the night of November 22, 1963, he was Chief of the Day for the Medical School. While he did not attend the autopsy of the President, he was present in the office of Lt Comdr William Bruce Pitzer days later as Pitzer viewed films and photos taken at the autopsy:

“I saw b&w and color photos, and a few feet of the 16mm film that I looked at with Bill. Like Jim Siebert, I saw a wound approximately 3 x 5 inches involving the parietal and occipital areas of the president's head.” November 2004, JFK Lancer forum.

Paul O’Connor: “There was an open area all the way across into the rear of the brain”

Floyd Riebe: “ …a big gaping hole in the back of the head”

Frank O’Neill: one of two FBI agents who attended the autopsy, along with James Sibert. “…a massive wound in the right rear”

Jerrol Custer: “ From the top of the head, almost to the base of the skull, you could see where that part was gone”

Saundra Spencer

Spencer was a Petty Officer and Photographer’s Mate at the Naval Photographic Center. She developed JFK autopsy photos. Spencer is perhaps the most important witness regarding the autopsy photos. Her deposition was taken June 1997 by the ARRB:

Q: Did you see any photographs that focused principally on the head of President Kennedy?

A: Right. They had one showing the back of the head with the wound at the back of the head.

Q: Could you describe what you mean by the "wound at the back of the head"?

A: It appeared to be a hole, inch, two inches in diameter at the back of the skull here.

Q: You pointed to the back of your head. When you point back there, let's suppose that you were lying down on a pillow, where would the hole in the back of the head be in relationship to the part of the head that would be on the pillow if the body is lying flat?

A: The top part of the head.

Q: When you say the "top of the head," now, is that the part that would be covered by a hat that would be covering the top of the head?

A: Just about where the rim would hit.

Q: Are you acquainted with the term "external occipital protuberance"?

A: No, I am not.

Q: What I would like to do is to give you a document or a drawing, and ask you, if you would, on this document, make a mark of approximately where the wound was that you noticed.

MR. GUNN: We will mark this Exhibit No.148.[Exhibit No. MD 148 was marked

for identification.]

THE WITNESS: Probably about in there.

Q: And you have put some hash marks in there and then drawn a circle around that, and the part that you have drawn, the circle that you have drawn on the diagram is labeled as being as part of the occipital bone, is that correct?

A: Yes.

Q: Did you see any biological tissue, such as brain matter, extruding from the hole that you saw in the back of the head?

A: No.

Q: Was the scalp disturbed or can you describe that more than just the hole?

A: It was just a ragged hole.

Q: And it was visible through the scalp, is that correct?

A: Yes.

Thomas Robinson

Mr Robinson was a mortician employed by the Gawler Funeral home, and was part of the team that performed the embalming and cosmetic work on the President in the early morning of November 23, 1963 at Bethesda Naval Hospital. He described a three inch circular ragged wound in the rear of the President’s head. The morticians closed this hole with a piece of heavy duty rubber. His HSCA interview in 1977 by HSCA staffer Andy Purdy was never released until 1992 by the ARRB(marked MD63). Excerpts from that interview:

Purdy: Could you tell me how large the opening had been…?

Robinson: …I would say about the size of a small orange

Purdy: Could you give us an estimate of inches and the nature of the shape?

Robinson: Three(inches)

Purdy: And the shape?

Robinson: Circular

Purdy: Was it fairly smooth or ragged?

Robinson: Ragged

Purdy: Approximately where was this wound located?

Robinson: Directly behind the back of his head

Purdy: Approximately between the ears or higher up?

Robinson: I would say pretty much between them.

Purdy: Were you the one responsible for closing those wounds in the head?

Robinson: We all worked on it…They brought a piece of heavy duty rubber, again to fill this area in the back of the head…

Purdy: You had to close the wound in the back of the head using the rubber?

Robinson: It had to be all dried out, packed, and the rubber placed in the hair and the skin pulled back over…and stitched into that piece of rubber.

James Sibert

Sibert was an FBI agent from the Baltimore office assigned to stay with the Prseident’s body from Andrews AFB through the autopsy. His 1997 ARRB deposition is critical:

Q: Could you give the best description of the wounds to the head?

A: Well, there was a massive wound…right back in this part of the head

Q: You’re touching the cowlick area of the head?

A: Yes

Q: And the size would be?

A: It was difficult to see, because the hair was so matted…it was so bloodsoaked…it was difficult to see any distinct outline of where these bones had been literally blown out of the skull

Q: At the time you observed those wounds, the photographs had already been taken?

A: Yes

Q: Were you able to tell whether any part of the scalp was actually missing?

A: Well, there was a big cavity there. I mean that you could look in to. The skull wasn’t intact, the bones weren’t in place

Q: So both scalp and bone were missing at the back part of the head?

A: Well, there was tissue of course, but there definitely was a large cavity. It was just that apparent that there was so much skull missing

Sketches released by the ARRB in 1992 that were kept secret since the HSCA hearings in 1978, showing the approximate location of wound in rear of head. Top: Bell, Robinson. Bottom: Sibert, Spencer. Note in 1997 James Sibert increased the size of the hole he originally sketched in 1978.

The official autopsy photos of the back of the head show no wound as described by nearly thirty witnesses. Where is the gaping hole, three or more inches in diameter, ragged edged, “the size of a baseball” or “of a small orange”? Saundra Spencer developed autopsy photos of the rear of the head showing a ragged hole. James Sibert, an FBI agent who was an arm’s length away, saw a large bloody cavity AFTER the photos had been taken. The obvious conclusion one can reach is that these photos have been altered as part of a cover-up, to further enhance the single assassin theory, and to discredit any possibility of a frontal gunshot that resulted in a massive wound of exit in the rear of the President’s head. This is proof positive of a conspiracy to assassinate the President in Dealey Plaza, and of the US Government’s role in the continuance of a cover-up. The testimony of these witnesses has been ignored or dismissed by the Warren Commission and the HSCA, by media outlets large and small, and is generally unknown by the citizens in the United States and around the world.

References

The Killing of a President, Robert Groden, author(photos and quotes)

Best Evidence, David Lifton, author (Dennis David bio)

High Treason, revised addition, Harrison Livingstone, author(Diana Bowron information)

Warren Commission

http://www.history-matters.com/archive/jfk/wc/contents.htm

http://jfkassassination.net/russ/wit.htm

House Select Committee on Assassinations

http://jfkassassination.net/russ/wit.htm

http://www.history-matters.com/archive/jfk...ls/contents.htm

Assassination Records Review Board

http://www.history-matters.com/archive/jfk...et/contents.htm

Audrey Bell statement: http://www.history-matters.com/archive/jfk...md184_0001a.htm

JFK Lancer

http://jfklancer.com/

The Zapruder Film

Orville Nix film capture courtesy Bill Miller

Edited November 23, 2004 by Richard J. Smith

[James Richards]

Superb piece, Richard.

It just staggers me that a plethora of medical personnel indicate ravening ruin to the back of the head and are photographed doing so, yet the official story still gets air-play.

Thanks for the excellent read.

James

[Richard J. Smith]

"Superb piece, Richard.

It just staggers me that a plethora of medical personnel indicate ravening ruin to the back of the head and are photographed doing so, yet the official story still gets air-play.

Thanks for the excellent read."

Thanks James. The most critical of the comments IMO are that of Spencer and Sibert. Spencer developed the autopsy photos, and she vividly recalls the back of the head photos showed a large hole. Sibert indicated he saw the rear head wound "from an arm's length" away, after the photos had been taken. Sibert's ARRB deposition is fascinating to say the least. The "Min U Script" is fairly hard to read, but well worth the eye strain.

http://history-matters.com/archive/jfk/arr.../Sibert_01a.htm

Richard

[Nic Martin]

This is just, astonishing, that any lone-nutter can possibly think every single one of these people is lying. What would they have to gain by lying? Are they just incorrect? Personally, I think it's suspicious that this group of every-day people can agree, and everyone in a position of power ( or in a position to lose power, depending on how you look at it ) say otherwise.

[Richard J. Smith]

"This is just, astonishing, that any lone-nutter can possibly think every single one of these people is lying. What would they have to gain by lying? Are they just incorrect? Personally, I think it's suspicious that this group of every-day people can agree, and everyone in a position of power ( or in a position to lose power, depending on how you look at it ) say otherwise."

Hi Nic,

If you've read the comments(and I'm sure you have) by the resident lone nut at Lancer, it makes your statement above that much more profound. When confronted with absolutes, the LNs fall back on "they were mistaken". A few weeks ago when we were debating the SBT and the back wound, I posted the original autopsy face sheet, and Dr Boswell's 1977 HSCA modification to it. Boswell moved the back wound to the collar on the back of the neck. When I questioned our LN, he indicated Boswell made a mistake- again.

This is the kind of stuff that just drives me nuts. In a court of law, a photograph may speak a thousands words, but it also must be corroborated by witnesses. Over 30 witnesses have indicated either directly or indirectly that the official autopsy photos showing the back of the head just aren't right. Even the person who developed the photos said there was a large hole in the back of the head in the photos she developed. So where did the hole go? More importantly, why can't we get anyone to listen?

James Sibert to Francis O'Neill, as they stood less than an arm's length looking directly at the hole in the back of the President's head at the autopsy:

"Frank, you realize the serious, confidential, secret, and all types of information that's gone through that brain? And now look".

He deserves better.

RJS

[Ron Ecker]

Richard,

At Parkland there was one non-medical witness, Chief Curry, to the rear head wound. On page 32 of his book Retired Dallas Police Chief Jesse Curry Reveals His Personal JFK Assassination File (of which I just acquired a copy), he describes how Jackie was holding JFK's head in her lap and bending over him in the limo. "Agent Hill finally convinced her to let go of the President. Apparently she didn't want anyone to see that the back of the President's head was partially blown off."

Ron

[Robin Unger]

Great job Richard.