David Lifton

Milicent Cranor is not a doctor, and holds no medical degree.  She worked at Rockefeller Foundation in New York, and reviewed much published literature.  She is also a serious wanna be physicist, and a good writer.   She was originally quite taken with my work, but at some point her views changed, in connection with her adulation of Dr. Gary Aguilar.  There's a whole backstory here -- reminiscent of Billy Wilders "Lost Weekend" -- but I'd rather not go into it, because it belongs in the National Enquirer.   As to the tracheotomy performed by Dr. Perry:  When I interviewed Dr. Perry (in October 1966), he told me that the length of the tracheotomy incision that he made was "2 - 3 cm". (And within a day, that was exactly the same incision length provided by Dr. Carrico). Realizing the historical significance of these conversations, i immediately purchased a tape recorder, and decided to record these recollections.  All of this was in Oct 1966, and in the months following.  I don't remember what year it was that Milicant Cranor first got around to reading Best Evidence (first published in Jan 1981);  but it was some years later that she got involved in the JFK case.  With regard to the alteration of the JFK trach incision --set forth in detail in Chapter 11 of B.E. -- I don't remember exactly when Cranor first got involved, but at some point, she made it her business to try to undercut my line of analysis by arguing that trach incisions could be much larger.  Much of what she wrote, after that point, became --IMHO -- an expression of her own personal nastiness, and not a reflection of a sound critique of my work.  FWIW: In the aftermath of the publication of B.E. (and its selection as a Book of the Month Club selection, where it was carefully reviewed by medical experts), I received hundreds of letters, which I carefully numbered, replying to each one. At least one, as I recall, was from a medical school professor, who complemented me on the accuracy of my medical analysis.  Needless to say, I stand by Best Evidence, and hope to achieve similar success --and shed important new light on JFK's assassination, via the truth about Oswald--with the publication of Final Charade.  Happy thanksgiving to all!  Best, DSL