David Von Pein

Burkley didn't measure anything when it came to JFK's wounds, Cliff. He didn't perform the autopsy. So why would anybody accept his approximations over the autopsy report?

To those who think it was Oswald in the doorway, is Wesley Frazier lying here [@ 8:30]? ..... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzw3RlNgR1s

http://JFK-Archives.blogspot.com/2011/12/aircraft-radio-transmissions-11-22-63.html#Air-Force-One-Tapes-CNN-Video The above CNN video is totally misleading, with the commentators giving the CNN audience the impression that there was possibly something sinister, devious, or conspiratorial about the decision to take President Kennedy's body to Bethesda Naval Hospital instead of Walter Reed Hospital on the night of the President's assassination. It's true that on the Air Force One radio tapes (the 2-hour version released by NARA in January 2012), Dr. George Burkley does say that the body will be going to Walter Reed. But that was obviously not a finalized decision at the time Burkley made that statement aboard Air Force One on 11/22/63. And much more important is the fact that we know exactly WHO it was who made the final decision to have the autopsy at Bethesda -- it was Jackie Kennedy herself. And the Warren Commission testimony of Ken O'Donnell confirms that fact for history (at 7 H 454-455): KENNETH P. O'DONNELL -- "We arrived at Andrews and meanwhile the Attorney General had been notified, the decision had been made that he would go to Bethesda." ARLEN SPECTER -- "Who made that decision, by the way?" MR. O'DONNELL -- "Mrs. Kennedy." MR. SPECTER -- "That the autopsy should be performed?" MR. O'DONNELL -- "I don't think she knew anything about an autopsy. The question is where the body went. We didn't tell her there was to be an autopsy. And the choice was Walter Reed or Bethesda. He being a Navy man, she picked Bethesda." MR. SPECTER -- "She chose Bethesda, as between Bethesda and Walter Reed?" MR. O'DONNELL -- "She did." http://history-matters.com/archive/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh7/html/WC_Vol7_0231b.htm ------------------- So when Rice University historian Douglas Brinkley recently appeared on CNN and told the unaware audience that we are still "missing" any kind of an explanation for why JFK's autopsy was performed at Bethesda instead of Walter Reed, he simply didn't know what he was talking about. Because the above excerpt taken from Kenny O'Donnell's 1964 Warren Commission testimony put that question to rest 48 years ago. It would be nice if the talking heads (like Douglas Brinkley) would do at least a small amount of homework and research before appearing on live television, in front of millions of people, and saying incorrect and uninformed things that can only add to the suspicions of the American public and lead them to the inaccurate notion that something sinister and underhanded just might have been going on with respect to the selection of Bethesda as the site for JFK's autopsy. When, in reality, the truth is something quite non-sinister and innocent: the President's widow selected the location of the autopsy herself. And anyone who wants to doubt that fact is going to have to call one of JFK's best friends, Kenneth P. O'Donnell, an outright xxxx. And I doubt if there are even many hardcore conspiracy theorists who have a desire to do that. In addition, JFK's personal physician, Admiral George Burkley, whose voice we hear on the newly-released expanded version of the Air Force One tape saying that JFK's body was going to go to Walter Reed, told the HSCA in an affidavit that it was, indeed, Mrs. Jacqueline Kennedy who had made the final decision (and/or had given "permission", per Burkley's affidavit) to have JFK's body taken to Bethesda: "I had ordered the United States Naval Hospital to be prepared for performing an autopsy on the body of John F. Kennedy, President of the United States, the permission having been granted by Mrs. Kennedy while enroute. It was to be a complete autopsy with no limitations and no curtailment in time necessary for completion." -- George G. Burkley; November 28, 1978 http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/russ/testimony/burkaff.htm Burkley, by the way, also said this in that same affidavit: "I saw President Kennedy's wounds at Parkland Hospital and during the autopsy at the Bethesda Naval Hospital. There was no difference in the nature of the wounds I saw at Parkland Hospital and those I observed at the autopsy at Bethesda Naval Hospital." -- George Burkley; 11/28/78 ------------------- In addition, I want to also emphasize something else that's very relevant to the previously-linked CNN video feature Rice University's Douglas Brinkley: Brinkley and the other talking heads in that CNN clip seem to be of the opinion that prior to late January 2012, when the National Archives released a new expanded 2.5-hour version of the Air Force One radio transmissions, nobody in the world had ever heard any audio clips from the AF1 tapes that even suggested that President Kennedy's body was going to be taken to Walter Reed Hospital in Washington. But that's simply wrong. The previously-available condensed versions of the Air Force One radio tapes contain multiple references to the body being taken to Walter Reed for the post-mortem examination. JFK's military aide, General Chester V. Clifton, can be heard giving instructions to Washington regarding the location of the autopsy. Clifton can be heard on the tape saying this: "This is General Clifton. .... We do not want a helicopter for Bethesda Medical Center. We do want an ambulance and a ground return from Andrews to Walter Reed; and we want the regular post-mortem that has to be done by law under guard performed at Walter Reed." -- Chester V. Clifton; Aboard Air Force One; 11/22/63 And, to emphasize again, the above quote from General Clifton is not a "new" discovery at all (contrary to what the commentators and analysts at CNN seem to believe). The audio clip that contains General Clifton's "Walter Reed" quote has been available for years. And I've had that audio clip on my websites for quite some time prior to January 2012. You can hear Clifton make the above statement regarding "Walter Reed" at the very beginning of the video labelled "Part 2" on the webpage below: http://DVP-Potpourri.blogspot.com/2010/09/aircraft-radio-transmissions-11-22-63.html

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That's amazing. And nearly unbelievable. I'm not saying you're wrong, Bill. It just seems unbelievable to me. Can a guy in his basement in Baton Rouge listen in to the private AF1 conversations here in 2012 while SAM 28000 is airborne? Or has the Govt. decided to make the AF1 airwaves a tad more secure nowadays? (I don't mean regular ATC traffic, of course.)

Absolutely. (If such a tape exists, that is.) The more stuff I can add to my A/V sites, the better. :-) I've had a 16-minute version of the AF1 tapes on my sites for years, and I was very glad to see an expanded 2-hour version come to the forefront from NARA this week. Plus, if such an "unedited" tape could be made public, it would serve to silence a few more conspiracists....because such an unedited tape would certainly not be revealing anything covert or sinister in any way, shape, or form.

There are no photos of AF1 in the book. And there is no discussion at all about the trip from Dallas to Washington on Nov. 22. And there are no assassination-related pictures in the book at all. The book is a celebration of JFK's life rather than his death. http://jfk-archives.blogspot.com/2010/08/memories-jfk-1961-1963.html

Bill, Do you really believe that some ham radio operator in Boise, Idaho, could have listened in on the AF1 radio frequencies on 11/22/63? That, to me, sounds like a ridiculous claim....and a ridiculous possibility (even in circa 1963). I would imagine the AF1 radio frequencies were a little more secure than that. (Do I know for sure they were more secure than that? No, but I'm guessing they were.)

'Tweren't easy. You've asked me that on a previous occasion, Bill. You must really be curious about that, as it seems to occupy a permanent space in your head. I'll check that book right now and see what I can find re Clifton.

Ya gotta love the paranoid mind of a conspiracy theorist at work. On what amounts to no evidence whatsoever on which to base such a charge, the conspiracy theorist has no hesitation whatsoever in jumping to the sordid and sinister conclusion quoted above. Sounds familiar, doesn't it?

LOL. Bill, do you really think those comments by Clifton and Bundy reflect some sort of knowledge about a conspiracy to kill Kennedy? Get real. Those comments merely reflect the natural concern among JFK's top aides that some kind of "plot" MIGHT have existed in Dallas to murder the President. Nothing more, nothing less. And it's the very same concern that LBJ, RFK, and lots of other people (both in and out of the Government) were feeling and expressing in the hours and days following JFK's assassination. I suppose a bunch of CTers are ready and eager to make a hot boiling volcano out of this wet-weather spring: "Ted Clifton talked to Bundy, too, asking again whether an international plot was emerging. .... Bundy replied crisply that the Pentagon was taking its own steps."

Jimbo doesn't seem to realize that the version of the AF1 recording on my website is "complete". It's the "complete" 2+-hour version that was released by NARA. And that's all I ever said it was. IOW, it contains all there is to hear among the audio recordings that have been made available to date. Now, go ahead, Jimbo, and call me a xxxx.

[Duplicate deleted.]

My "blaring headline" is not a "mistake" at all. My logo says that the streaming audio file on my site contains the complete 2-hour and 22-minute Flight Deck recording that was released by the National Archives on 1/30/12....and it does contain that complete 2:22 recording. I didn't say that the 2:22 file is ALL THE AUDIO THAT WAS RECORDED regarding the Air Force One or SAM 86972 tapes from November 22, 1963. I just said that the "complete 2:22 Flight Deck recording" that the NARA released is on my site...and it is. Good grief, any third-grader could easily figure out that there are, indeed, a lot of gaps in the AF1 tapes. There's got to be missing parts, because the tapes begin at about 1:00 PM CST (2:00 EST) on 11/22/63, and AF1 didn't land at Andrews until 5:58 or 5:59 PM EST. That's 4 hours of audio that likely exists, when combining the various AF1 radio calls with the calls to and from SAM 86972 (the Boeing 707 that Rusk, Salinger, et al, were aboard). And since the NARA/Raab tapes only contain two hours and 22 minutes of audio....well, do the math. That means that approximately 1.5 hours of audio is missing from the new NARA tapes. And it's very likely that much more than just one-and-a-half hours is unaccounted for too. Because 86972 was still in the air for several more hours after AF1 touched down at Andrews. So the transmissions between the White House and 86972 would have still undoubtedly continued for several more hours after 5:59 PM EST. So what? It's obvious to anyone who can add 2+2 that a whole bunch of material is not there on the 2-hour version of the tapes released by the NARA this week. But, again, so what? Are you implying that some "conspiratorial" comments were being uttered by people aboard SAM 26000 or SAM 86972 on the tapes that we've never heard?

http://jfk-archives.blogspot.com/2012/01/doorway-man.html

Related McClelland Links: 80-Minute Radio Interview With Robert McClelland In 2009 The Odd Tales Of The Parkland Doctors On PBS-TV In 1988 The Back Of President Kennedy's Head (Part 17) The Back Of President Kennedy's Head (Part 18)

Thank you, Barry. Along similar lines to Barry's new HSCA PDF files, I recently completed a project in which I created a separate webpage for many of the original 1963-'64 witness affidavits associated with the JFK assassination. I downloaded the affidavits from the Dallas Municipal Archives website, and then I uploaded them to my own site, where I can control the size of the document. This is important, IMO, because the pages that appear on the Municipal Archives site are oversized and can't be read in their maximum-size format without having to scroll left to right constantly, which is something I hate doing. So I locked the size of each page into a format that does not require horizontal scrolling (based on a 19-inch [4x3] computer monitor, that is), which makes for a much better (and less annoying) experience when reading these documents: http://JFK-Archives.blogspot.com/2011/12/jfk-assassination-affidavits.html

CE573 looks just like a Carcano bullet. Anybody can tell that just by glancing at the picture below (which shows the similarities between CE573 and CE399): I've always been surprised that no firearms expert could link it to Rifle C2766, because it sure looks like it's got plenty of undamaged surface area to make a positive identification. But evidently not.

Excellent, Duncan. Plus, let's think about this "sign-holding" man from a different (common-sense) POV for a moment: Why on Earth would a person STILL be holding up a sign for the President to see even though JFK's car was long gone from Dealey Plaza? Was he wanting the motorcycle cops to read his sign? Or the people in the press busses perhaps? Or the newsmen in the three camera cars? The fact that JFK's car wasn't anywhere near the so-called "sign man" when the Cancellare picture was taken is a good indication that the man has no sign at all. Not to mention the absurdity of a person STILL wanting to hold up some kind of a sign AFTER the shooting had taken place and Dealey Plaza had been turned into a chaotic scene of confusion and turmoil and horror. What normal person would have still been holding up any kind of a sign under those post-shooting conditions? I will admit, though, that the non-blown-up Cancellare picture does seem to show the man holding a sign of some kind. But as we can easily see in Duncan's blow-up, there is no sign....and the man's jacket is easily defined (which looks like part of the "sign" in the Cancellare picture before it's blown up).

Ten-Four, Dunc.

That's not true at all, Duncan. Bill Newman based his opinion about the location of the head shot much more on what he SAW vs. what he HEARD. And he says that exact thing in this 2003 interview (fast forward to 6:15): http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/GayleN

No, he isn't. Why are you pretending he is, Pat? He heard TWO shots. And the place he said the shots came from is a place where it's fairly obvious no shots came from. And somehow that makes Newman a "conspiracy" witness? That's ridiculous.

The fact still remains that "directly behind" Newman was NOT the picket fence area. Why pretend it was?

Let me try this for the 13th time now: William Newman is on record (within 25 minutes of the assassination) saying that he thought there were TWO shots, with both of those shots coming from "directly behind" him from the direction of the "garden" behind him, which is not the picket fence area (like it or not). And in his 2003 interview, Newman goes into even more detail about his observations (Part 2, linked below, at the 6:20 mark), when Bill Newman says that his opinion about the direction from which the head shot came was derived more from the "visual impact that it had on me more so than the noise". Newman saw the right side of JFK's head explode, and he immediately interpreted that VISUAL experience (incorrectly) as a bullet that struck the President in the right-front (temple) area of his head. And Newman explicitly says that very thing in this 2003 interview: http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/GayleN