James Rinnovatore

Chain of Custody of the President’s Body On November 26, 1963, Sergeant R. E. Boyajian (a Marine who was in charge of the morgue security detail) issued a memo (ARRB, MD 236) to his CO stating he and his men took a casket (presumably with the President’s body) into the morgue entrance at 6:35PM. At this time, Mrs. Kennedy who was in an ambulance containing the bronze casket, which she thought contained her husband’s body, had not yet arrived at Bethesda. There were eyewitnesses inside the morgue at that time who witnessed the arrival of a shipping casket with JFK’s body at 6:35PM. Medical technician Paul O’Connor told Jim Kelly and Andy Purdy, staff members of the HSCA in August 1977, that he saw “a pink shipping casket” brought into the morgue and that the President’s body was in a body bag with only his head wrapped. O’Connor said this event occurred at 8:00PM (ARRB, MD 64). O’Connor’s recollection of when this occurred is obviously incorrect because the bronze casket containing the President’s body (with no body bag) was brought into the morgue at 8:00PM. O’Connor spoke to David S. Lifton by phone in 1979 and recalled seeing a “slate-type gray” casket, which he also described as a “shipping casket” brought into the morgue. O’Connor told Lifton the President’s body was in a “body bag” with only a sheet wrapped around his head. He also told Lifton this event took place at 8:00PM (Best Evidence, Chapter 26). Dennis David was another witness to an early arrival of a casket, not the bronze casket, into the morgue. During a phone interview with David S. Lifton in 1979, David recalled witnessing a casket taken off “a black Cadillac ambulance” fifteen to thirty minutes before seeing Mrs. Kennedy arrive in a gray Navy ambulance (containing the empty bronze casket) at the Bethesda Hospital entrance (Best Evidence, Chapter 25). The ambulance in which Mrs. Kennedy rode arrived at the Bethesda Hospital entrance at 6:55PM, according to SSA Clint Hill (18WCH744) and SSA Paul Landis (18WCH759). Thus, Dennis David witnessed a casket arriving at the morgue entrance sometime between 6:25 to 6:40PM, which is consistent with the time (6:35PM) Sergeant Boyajian stated he took a casket into the morgue. On the day of the assassination, Dennis David was Chief of the Day, Naval Medical School, Bethesda. Dennis David gave a similar account during an interview with the ARRB in 1997 (ARRB, MD 177). He recalled seeing a “gray shipping casket” taken out of a “black hearse” at about 6:45 at the morgue loading dock. He and the navy personnel under his command brought this casket into the anteroom (just outside the morgue). On May 7, 1997, Floyd Riebe (Assistant Photographer) in a deposition to the ARRB (no MD number) said he observed a gun metal gray casket brought in which contained the President’s body in a “rubberized-type body bag.” He believed only the President’s head was wrapped with sheets. Riebe said he observed Paul O’Connor help remove the President’s body from the body bag. Note: O’Connor and Riebe indicated only the President’s head was wrapped with a sheet or sheets. At Parkland Hospital, only the President’s body had been wrapped with sheets. According to the FBI report, the President’s body and head were wrapped with sheets when he arrived later at 8:00PM. Thus, although the President’s body was wrapped with sheets at Parkland Hospital and left in a bronze casket (Nurse Henchliffe), it arrived at the Bethesda morgue in a shipping casket (at about 6:35PM). At this time, the body was nude inside a body bag with only his head wrapped with a sheet (Riebe and O’Connor). The President’s body was brought into the morgue a second time, 8:00PM, but this time inside the bronze casket into which he was originally placed at Parkland Hospital. The President was now wrapped with sheets around his body and head (Sibert and O’Neill), a third appearance unlike the previous two. Doesn’t this evidence in itself strongly suggest the President’s body was tampered with? On April 21, 1978, Edward F. Reed, Jr. (X-ray technician) spoke to Mark Flanagan (HSCA) by phone (ARRB, MD 194). Reed said he was inside the morgue at 6:30PM and helped carry a casket into the morgue. He said the President’s body was in a clear plastic bag. Reed provided testimony to the ARRB on October 21, 1997 (no MD number), in which he said he and Jerrol Custer plus a few others helped carry the President’s casket into the morgue. The casket was either stainless steel or aluminum (gray) and the President’s body was in a plastic bag. In a deposition Dr. Humes gave to the ARRB (no MD number) on February 13, 1996, Dr. Humes said he first saw the President’s body “between 6:45 to 7:00PM.” Apparently, Dr. Humes either “slipped up” divulging that very significant piece of information or he felt it no longer mattered if he “slipped” in a piece of truth at this late date, especially to the ARRB. Dr. Humes’ recollection to the ARRB shows he was there at the early arrival and thus a witness to two arrivals of JFK’s body, because he was also inside the morgue when the bronze casket arrived at 8:00PM. In a memo (10 December 1963) entitled, “The Joint Casket Bearer Team,” First Lt. Samuel R. Bird indicates the bronze casket (containing the President’s body) was brought to the Bethesda morgue at 8:00PM (ARRB, MD 163). This is the time the “official” autopsy began, witnessed by many people inside the morgue. Thus, the Boyajian memo and the Joint Casket Team report prove there were two entries of the President’s body into the Bethesda morgue during the night of the autopsy. What explanation can be given for this? Why was it needed? If the President’s body left Parkland Hospital in a bronze casket but had to be altered, wouldn’t that explain why it had to be removed from the casket? And there is one more point which should not go unnoticed. The bronze casket had to be brought into the morgue twice! The first time to place the body inside it. It was then taken out sometime between 7:17PM (when Sibert and O’Neill brought it to the anteroom) and 8:00PM when it was brought back in by the Joint Bearer Casket Team. These are just a few questions that need to be addressed by the researchers who believe Oswald assassinated JFK. Dr. Humes’ statement about prior surgery on the President’s head was never brought up by Arlen Specter during the Warren Commission Hearings. FBI Agents Sibert and O’Neill were not called to testify before the Commission, even though Arlen Specter had interviewed both agents and read Report 89-30-31. The W.C. failed to include it in the official exhibits, a decision that Specter, being in charge of that area, would have made. This report was not discussed in the Warren Commission Report or included as an official document. Much has been written about the failure of the Warren Commission, the HSCA, the Clark Panel and every other official government body who was involved in an investigation of JFK’s assassination. It is ironic that one body, the Assassination Records Review Board, which was not charged to investigate the assassination of the President, accomplished more in less than three years than the rest of the above-mentioned investigations, much to the credit of Doug Horne. As a result of his work, we now know there were two brain examinations, the first one on the brain of the President and a second one on the brain of someone else. Mr. Horne also established a strong basis for believing at least two, perhaps three autopsy reports were written. His work, easily accessible from a number of websites, support the fact that the President’s body was altered which was the beginning of a number of deceptions that had to follow in order for Oswald to be the lone assassin. It is beyond the time when thoughtful and sincere researchers cease using the Zapruder film as the gold standard for determining what happened on Dealey Plaza on November 22, 1963. The President’s body at Parkland Hospital, the best evidence, was altered. The machinations which followed, including changes in the number of X-rays and photographs in the official inventory, affirmed to have been taken, but are no longer part of the inventory, the early arrival of a shipping casket with the President’s body in a body bag, and a second arrival of his body in a bronze casket are just a few areas which need to be explained by those who believe Oswald killed the President.

Introduction After over forty years, some JFK assassination researchers are still holding on to the belief that Lee Harvey Oswald (LHO) was the lone assassin who killed JFK. What is the evidence for such a conclusion? From what I have read, the LHO-did-it theorists continue to focus on proving LHO fired three shots at JFK from the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository (TSBD) based on computer models and/or selective frames of the Zapruder film. The Evidence Against Oswald The Warren Commission Report (WCR) concluded Oswald was the lone assassin based on the following (pp 19-20): a. The rifle found on the sixth floor, TSBD, was owned by Oswald. b. Oswald carried the rifle into the TSBD during the morning of the assassination. c. Oswald was present at the window when the shots were fired. d. The rifle was found (partially hidden) close to the window from which the shots were fired. (Note: The “sniper’s nest” was at the SE corner of the sixth floor. The rifle was found among boxes directly adjacent to an elevator at the NW corner.) e. Oswald had the capability to fire three shots from this rifle within the elapsed time of the shooting. f. “Oswald lied to the police after his arrest...” g. Oswald had previously attempted to kill Major General Walker “thereby demonstrating his disposition to take human life.” No one denies that the rifle found on the sixth floor of the TSBD was owned by Oswald. However, there is no testimony proving Oswald carried a rifle into the TSBD on that morning. Howard L. Brennan was the only “eyewitness” who claimed he saw Oswald fire shots from the sixth floor of the TSBD (WCR, p 143). However, Brennan was unable to make a positive identification of Oswald in a police lineup on the night of the assassination. Moreover, in two subsequent interviews with the FBI, Brennan gave conflicting accounts in regard to how certain he was with respect to Oswald being the shooter (WCR, p 145). Because of this, the Warren Commission said, “...(it) does not base its conclusion concerning the identity of the assassin on Brennan’s subsequent certain identification of Lee Harvey Oswald as the man he saw fire the rifle.” Nevertheless, the Warren Commission had little difficulty in concluding Oswald was the assassin and listed seven pieces of “evidence” in their report. Not listed were other “facts” such as the three cartridge cases found at “the sniper’s nest” and two bullet fragments found in the Presidential limousine, all of which was purported to match ballistically with Oswald’s rifle. It is noteworthy that in the items selected by the Warren Commission from which they based its conclusion that Oswald was the lone assassin, not one of them reflects medical evidence. This esteemed body completely ignored the early observations by the Parkland doctors of the President’s wounds. The Warren Commission The shortcomings of the work and conclusions of the Warren Commission have been well documented by other investigators. A few points bear repeating. It was highly selective in choosing what evidence was credible (anything which fit the lone-assassin Oswald thesis). Strangely enough, the Warren Commission relied on artists’ drawings based on descriptions given by Drs. Humes and Boswell to determine entry and exit wounds, rather than the reports and testimony the Parkland doctors provided to the Commission. On the basis of these drawings, the Commission concluded the shots fired at the President originated from the sixth floor, TSBD. The Warren Commission, which was given the responsibility to investigate the assassination of JFK, produced a report with most of its pages devoted to Lee Harvey Oswald. The Warren Commission failed miserably as an investigative body because it decided early on to be a political body. Onset of the Controversy (Parkland vs. Bethesda) Seven of the fifteen Parkland doctors who treated the President in Trauma Room 1 at Parkland Hospital wrote Summary Reports within hours after JFK was declared dead. These reports are in the Warren Commission Report. From a legal standpoint, these accounts represent the best observations of the President’s wounds as they were inflicted on Dealey Plaza. The observations were made on an unaltered body and were extemporaneous unencumbered by other events which might have influenced what they wrote, as was the case in the autopsy report. (The first two paragraphs of the autopsy report read more like a murder mystery novel than a forensic pathology document. What purpose did Dr. Humes have to include a “Washington Post” article about Bob Jackson who claimed he saw a rifle disappearing from an upper floor of the TSBD after hearing shots fired?) The Summary Reports collectively indicated the President had sustained two wounds – a small penetrating wound in the anterior throat (entrance wound), and a large head wound located in the right posterior cranium (exit wound). Associated with the latter wound, a few doctors wrote about an avulsed calvarium and shredded cerebellum brain tissue, consistent with an exit wound. Subsequent testimony by all the Parkland Hospital doctors to the Warren Commission in March 1964 generally confirmed (with the exception of Dr. Perry) what was written in the Summary Reports. (Dr. Perry was badgered in his second testimony to the Warren Commission (3WCH 373-377) about the throat wound, saying he was not sure if it was an entrance or an exit wound.) In Dr. Perry’s initial testimony, the throat wound was described as “roughly 5 mm. in size or so” as well as “roughly spherical to oval in shape...rather clean cut.” Dr. Perry described the head wound as “a large wound of the right posterior parietal area in the head exposing lacerated brain.” (6WCH9). Dr. Perry also said in this testimony that he had asked Dr. Carrico “if this was a wound in his neck (JFK’s neck) or had he begun the tracheotomy, and he said it was a wound and I...initiated the procedure (making an incision across the wound).” Dr. Carrico confirmed Dr. Perry’s descriptions of the two wounds. He described the throat wound as “probably a 4-7 mm. wound...rather round...no jagged edges or stellate lacerations.” (6WCH3). The head wound was described as “...a large gaping wound in the right occipito-parietal area...about 5 to 7 cm. in size, more or less circular, with avulsions of the calvarium and scalp tissue.” (6WCH6). This is what the best evidence was – the President’s body at 1:00PM CST in Dallas. Based on the Parkland doctors’ description of these wounds, the Warren Commission would not have been able to convict Oswald as the lone assassin who killed JFK because the two wounds found at Parkland Hospital were caused by frontal shots. And this is the reason the wounds had to be altered (reversed) and other evidence such as bullet fragments originating from some other rifle (other than Oswald’s) had to be removed from the President’s body. The first investigator to propose body alterations was David S. Lifton (see “Best Evidence,” Macmillan Publishing Co., 1980, or Carroll and Graf Publishers, 1988). As we know, the wounds observed at Bethesda increased dramatically, especially the head wound, which now encompassed a significant portion of the top of the head. The autopsy report (WCR, pp 538-543) describes a large head wound “chiefly in the parietal bone but extending somewhat into the temporal and occipital regions...producing a defect which measures approximately 13 cm. in greatest diameter.” (p 540). Dr. Boswell’s Autopsy Face Sheet (17WCH36) likewise depicted extensive damage to the top section of the President’s skull, with a measurement of 17 cm. of missing bone as opposed to Dr. Humes’ 13 cm. notation. Dr. Boswell also annotated a 3 cm. long crack observed above the left eye. Clearly, these wounds were not observed at Parkland Hospital because they were not there. Large differences also were noted for the tracheotomy incision. Lifton interviewed a number of Parkland Hospital doctors, including Dr. Perry who made the incision, and asked for their estimate of the incision’s width and appearance. Dr. Perry said, “2-3 cm.” Dr. Baxter said about “an inch and a half.” Dr. Peters said the edges were “sharp.” (See B. E. Carroll and Graf, Chapter 11.) None of the Parkland doctors said it was 6.5 cm. as Dr. Humes wrote in the autopsy report (p 540) or as Dr. Boswell noted in the Autopsy Face sheet. Moreover, none of the Parkland doctors described the incision as having “widely gaping irregular edges” as Dr. Humes wrote in his report (p 540). In his Warren Commission testimony, Dr. Humes said the incision was “7 or 8 cm. in length.” (2WCH361), even longer than what he wrote in the autopsy report. Thus, the question is how can Oswald-did-it theorists explain the large disparity in the two descriptions of JFK’s wounds. The one given frequently is that the head wound observed at Bethesda was present at Parkland Hospital but the doctors did not observe the extent of damage at the top of the skull because they wee too busy trying to “save” the President’s life and/or the scalp was intact at Parkland Hospital which covered the underlying wound. This explanation is not reasonable because it does not take account of Dr. Humes’ initial description of the head wound as reported in an FBI report (described below) in which he noted that surgery had been performed on JFK’s head. No surgery on the head was done at Parkland. Moreover, this explanation does not address why the tracheotomy incision increased in width (and appearance) from Parkland to Bethesda. Surely the Parkland doctors were accurate about the size and appearance of the tracheotomy incision they described to Lifton because they were there when Dr. Perry made the incision. The only explanation for why the tracheotomy incision had ragged edges and increased in size from Parkland to Bethesda is because it was altered. And the reason it was altered was to change the appearance of the wound from entry to exit. The following documents support the body alteration thesis. The Sibert and O’Neill FBI Report, 89-30-31, November 26, 1963 The first account of the President’s wounds as described by Dr. Humes during the autopsy is contained in this report. The two FBI Agents made notes based on the comments uttered by the pathologists. The most revealing entry is located on page 3, middle paragraph, which states, “Following the removal of the wrapping, it was ascertained that the President’s clothing had been removed and it was also apparent that a tracheotomy had been performed, as well as surgery of the head area, namely in the top of the skull.” [My emphasis.] Note the use of the word “surgery.” This was a spontaneous comment made by Dr. Humes when he first observed JFK’s body. (No surgery was performed at Parkland.) And in case there is some doubt in the minds of the Oswald-did-it theorists, I suggest they read page 3 of the autopsy report, the section which describes the missile wounds, to understand exactly what Dr. Humes observed at Bethesda. In this section, Dr. Humes clearly described four symmetrical lacerations of the scalp which could not possibly have been produced by a bullet, especially one which -4- broke apart inside the President’s head. I submit that Dr. Humes was describing incisions which were man-made. And these incisions and subsequent damage to the top of the skull were made for the purpose of extracting evidence. How is it possible that the extent of damage Dr. Humes observed on JFK at first glance, for which he made the “surgery on the head area” statement, would not have been seen as easily at Parkland Hospital? The reason it was not seen at Parkland Hospital is because it was not there. Another important notation in this FBI report, same paragraph, is the following, “The President’s body was removed from the casket in which it had been transported and was placed on the autopsy table, at which time the complete body was wrapped in a sheet and the head area contained an additional wrapping that was saturated with blood.” [My emphasis.] There was no additional sheet around JFK’s head when he left Parkland Hospital. According to Nurse Henchliffe, she and Nurse Bowron prepared the President’s body for the bronze casket by cleaning him up and then wrapping his body with sheets (6WCH141). Other strong circumstantial evidence pointing to body alteration is described below.

James V. Rinnovatore was born December 1932 in Philadelphia, PA. He and his wife currently reside in Flandres, NJ. They have three children, five grandchildren, and one great-grandchild. Mr. Rinnovatore, now retired, worked previously for the U.S. Army as a Metallurgist for thirty-three years. He was principally involved in failure analysis of armaments. His interest in the subject of the JFK assassination began on the day the President was killed and has continued to the present. He has read fifteen books and thousands of pages from official documents on this subject. His other interests include reading about history and politics, sports and playing Bridge.