Steven Kossor

Aldous Huxley and Neil Postman have more to contribute to understanding the reasons for the growing nonchalance of younger people toward history in general and the JFKA in particular -- it's just not interesting (exciting, entertaining, amusing) enough to hold on to a modern mind's attention span. Add to that the cynicism about whether or not it is *possible* to know the truth about anything - Gingrich's concept of having a "different view" of the truth/facts -- and you have a growing portion of the population that is not just unwilling to, but is actually becoming incapable of, seeing past rhetoric and analyzing data to find facts. We're not getting better, folks.

It's starting to look like everybody who was involved in the "discovery" of a whole bullet on Connelly's gurney, and the proffering of an explanation for it that corroborated the possibility of a single shooter being the only one firing during the JFKA, is implicated in a coordinated cover-up (way above the level of the Mafia) that persisted for 60 years. The media is complicit in this, for sure, especially CBS, considering all of the research time and effort that went into the various productions that showed how "the single bullet" could have caused all of the wounds in two men within the narrow span of time in which the wounds had to have been inflicted. And then there's Paul's account of finding the thing just laying around, and thoughtfully putting it "where it wouldn't be lost as evidence." Yikes.

Landis states at 14:20 in the NBC interview that the bullet he found was "a pristeen bullet" and that it was on the top of the back of the rear seat (where the seat meets the metal of the trunk). Elsewhere, he says that the two fragments he also found were laying on the rear seat, and bloody. The bullet he claims to have placed onto JFK's gurney was a whole bullet, marked only by "striations" from the barrel of the rifle (not mushroomed, or otherwise deformed). It could have been CE 399. Landis does not describe whether it had a blunt tip or a pointed tip, only that it was a "whole bullet" and he says it several times in this NBC interview. The question I have is how this priseen bullet could have managed to locate itself at the top of the back seat, near the junction of the seat back and the metal of the trunk. Perhaps it popped out of JFK's back wound while he was bent-over (without getting caught by the shirt and jacket), and flipped itself onto the top of the back of the rear seat for Paul to notice and retrieve from that location. For me, the most important thing about Landis' account is that the bullet he claims to have placed onto JFK's gurney (in this video he says he put it "near his feet" but elsewhere it's reportedly placed "next to his head"), was a complete bullet, not a fragment, and that needs to be confirmed unequivocally (if such a thing is possible in the JFKA). (link above)

David had several 1 TB backup drives and used them to back up his data from both of the Apple computers he used between 1990 and 2021 so I'm reasonably confident that all of his files were backed-up to one or more external drives that are all part of his estate now. I believe that the estate is planning to assemble David's final work under the name he chose for it ("Final Charade") and that the final product(s) will incorporate all of the insights David developed based on information he received or collected from various sources up to 2022, including information from the 1970 era that couldn't be included in Best Evidence for one reason or another. All of the correspondence between David and I from 2012 through 2022 was included in the electronic devices inherited by his beneficiary, but I have not been involved in its processing or development since January. David's will was officially accepted by Nevada authorities a few months ago.

I have not corresponded with David's family or anyone connected to David's estate since about January but I understand that his will was successfully processed and the estate has preserved his storage facilities and all of his personal property.

Hargis wasn't going fast enough to "drive into" the gore that hit him so hard in the face that he wondered if he had been hit himself by a shot. He wasn't facing toward the DBDB when this happened. There are dozens of facts like this that are dispositive proof that the "lone assassin" story is a concoction. The perpetrators were smart, but they left bits of evidence that have been overlooked, misconstrued and/or misunderstood for 60 years. Sometimes it seems, intentionally.

Pause the video at 1:47. Does that look like Bill Greer driving?

One of the things I noticed about the Zfilm is that the panning seems to have been horizontal, rather than tracking the limo down the incline of Elm Street. Chris, thanks so much for your scholarship in studying the film so carefully. Best wishes always!

The top of the pedestal is about 2 1/2 feet square. If I recall correctly, my feet were planted 90 degrees to the street and I pivoted at the waist to record the transit of a car and keep it in frame from Houston to the underpass. I did shift the position of my feet at one point and noticed that the pedestal doesn't have a flat top, so it was a little unnerving to move my feet up there (without a secretary behind me to keep me steady). Interesting note about the position of the Newman family. They were near the curb and standing, so the limo would have to be far into the left lane to be filmed without catching the tops of their heads (at least). Maybe Zapruder was just trying to avoid filming the backs of their heads and panned so far up that the limo almost drops off the bottom of the frame right around the head shot. Sure.

I went to DP and stood on the pedestal myself, and videotaped cars coming down Elm Street so I know what it feels like to stand precariously up there and try to keep a moving vehicle that is also going down an incline in the center of the frame. With nobody standing in front of the pedestal, it would seem much easier (and afford a better field of view as well) to stand a little bit in front of the pedestal and film from there, safely at ground level but still above the action being filmed. When you add the fact that Zapruder wanted/needed Sitzman to help "steady him" on the pedestal, it makes even less sense that he would mount and maintain that precarious filming position as a personal choice. When you watch Abe demonstrating the enormous blow-out of the side of JFK's head in his filmed TV interview a few hours later (that nobody at Parkland mentioned seeing), you'll realize that his demonstration matched the appearance of JFK's head at Bethesda, not Parkland. Not sure how to account for Mr. Zapruder's expressing such a clear image from the future - as if it came straight through his camera. It did look that way on the film that was eventually developed, so Mr. Zapruder's account was certified correct, after all, right? Food for thought.

I think the perspective that Chris Bernard is advocating (nuanced, sticking to logical critical thinking and eschewing emotional thinking) is the one most likely to illuminate the events of the day. Unfortunately, it is a perspective that is anathema to the mainstream that clamors for a simple two-dimensional explanation that they think holds the potential for predicting the future. At least that perspective energizes the base motivations of people and turns out the crowds; rallies are not attended by people who can see how they're being manipulated by others. I am so thankful to have access to the incredible depth of thinking that exists on the Education Forum and hope to enjoy that resource for many years to come. If you haven't sent the Forum a donation to support its work, please consider that. Best wishes always!

I sent a few dozen .mp3 recordings I made from cassettes loaned to me by Doug Horne of ARRB interviews (some contain really interesting statements) a few years ago to the MFF and received a complimentary membership in return, but they never posted the recordings anywhere that I could find. JFK Lancer had them on their site, but I think they closed and haven't heard from Deborah Conway about them in more than a year. The recordings improve the fidelity and clarity of Doug's audio cassettes significantly and I'd like to make them available to the research community if anyone's interested. Some people found them helpful over the years and thanked me for them. I'm surprised MFF doesn't feature them somewhere in their "audio" section.

I have only used Tree Size to do searches of .pdf document files, so I can't give any advice about using Google Drive or other resources that may do the same thing. I used Tree Size to help David Lifton recover documents from his ailing Mac Book Pro computer a couple of years ago and was amazed at how efficient it was. With that program, you can identify every document in a folder (or anywhere on a computer) that contains a target word or phrase, and click on the link it produces to open that exact page in Acrobat. I think Tree Size is one of the most useful utilities I've ever found. There is a free version but the cost of the full program is modest, I think: https://www.jam-software.com/treesize_free

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1xYm0T9wgtdNLYquaaeYoUfAuFyieyWG_?usp=share_link This link contains the complete data download from NARA on 12/15/2022 that has been scanned with Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software so that the file contents can be searched efficiently. A program like TreeSize can scan the entire collection of 148,000+ pages in a few minutes. A search using the word "ambulance" revealed the Fruge account of Rose Cheramie's claims and documentation of the FBI's involvement in casting aspersions on Ralph Abernathy in advance of his planned appearance at a rally for political candidates, for example. Best wishes to the research community for a happy Holiday season, new year and beyond!

As a psychologist myself for the past 40 years, I can say without hesitation that, in the field of psychology, for every expert there is an equal and opposite expert. That makes it appear that there is no science underlying the profession and that it's more of a religious activity. For some psychologists, it certainly IS a religious activity, but there are scientists among the flock too. If you want to practice psychology as a religion, you can. If you want to practice as a scientist, you can. That's why psychology today looks more like medicine did in the middle ages (some would say it's still more art than science). I recommend following the science, not the personalities. The truth will out only if we continue seeking after it, and applying the principles of "the scientific method" is a good place to start. Like the famous psychologist Frank Zappa said, a mind is like a parachute; it only works if it's open.

I am hopeful too that a more thorough obituary will develop for David with contributions from all of the people who were influenced so significantly by his work. The NY Times obituary has a growing list of brief memorial contributions now.

David's sister, Judy, asked me to post this statement to the members of the Education Forum who marked David's passing with their appreciation for his work: “ I have been reading the tributes to my brother David Lifton. It makes me happy to know David had such warm and supportive friends.”

I haven't had any correspondence with Doug Horne in several years but he would certainly be able to write something to commemorate the role that David played in his understanding of the JFKA. Jim, it would be wonderful if you wrote something on K and K to acknowledge David's contributions to the search for truth in the JFKA. David had many positive things to say about your scope of knowledge about JFK and the politics & economics of his time.

David Lifton led a "storied" life and shared lots of anecdotes with me about being in Cuba, Berlin, Dallas and Bethesda (he talked about going up inside the Bowers railway tower in Dallas and sitting on the JFK autopsy table in Bethesda, for example). His Wikipedia entry has finally accepted the accuracy of his death notice following the NY Times obituary publication. There are many people on the Education Forum who knew David for a longer period of time, studied his historical work products more expertly than I did, and who would be better qualified to write a press release about his passing than I am. He was my friend, certainly, and a mentor too, and I will miss him for his insights, thoughtfulness and insistence on exploring the JFKA with a scholarly appreciation for the value of corroboration whenever possible (which contributed significantly to the delay in his publication of Final Charade). We shared reverence for the bedrock principles of physics and, especially in the last five years of his life, the value of "critical incident debriefing" techniques (especially examining thin "time slices" of evidence in chronological order to identify missing sections and events that must have happened in them in order for subsequent sections to be coherent) for the understanding of events from a forensic perspective. I look forward to collecting pieces of information that David shared with others in the interest of compiling the best possible version of Final Charade as a memorial to him. Anyone interested in contributing material toward this effort is invited to submit content to me through private messaging here via my profile. All contributions will be appropriately annotated, of course.

David's sister has acknowledged the place that the Education Forum held in David's heart and approved the making of donations to the Education Forum in David's memory. There may be other worthy recipients of donations in David's memory, but I have donated to the Education Forum myself and encourage other members to support the continuation of its work indefinitely.

There are many people on the Education Forum who knew David for a longer period of time, studied his historical work products more expertly than I did, and who would be better qualified to write a press release about his passing than I am. He was my friend, certainly, and a mentor too, and I will miss him for his insights, thoughtfulness and insistence on exploring the JFKA with a scholarly appreciation for the value of corroboration whenever possible (which contributed significantly to the delay in his publication of Final Charade). We shared reverence for the bedrock principles of physics and, especially in the last five years of his life, the value of "critical incident debriefing" techniques (especially examining thin "time slices" of evidence in chronological order to identify missing sections and events that must have happened in them in order for subsequent sections to be coherent) for the understanding of events from a forensic perspective. I look forward to collecting pieces of information that David shared with others in the interest of compiling the best possible version of Final Charade as a memorial to him. Anyone interested in contributing material toward this effort is invited to submit content to me through private messaging here via my profile. All contributions will be appropriately annotated, of course.

David Lifton's obituary was written by his sister, Judy, and was published in the NY Times today: https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/nytimes/name/david-lifton-obituary?id=38395843

I just learned that, as David von Pein said, until a reference to a formal authority (police record, formal death notice, etc) can be attached to anything regarding a person's death, the authorities at Wikipedia will remove any posting referring to the person's death. So there you have it, nothing nefarious going on. I'll wait till that announcement is available and then update the Wikipedia page. You live long enough, you learn everything, right?

Someone tampered with the Wikipedia entry about David that I edited with the consent of his next-of-kin a few days after his death, so I restored the edited content just now. David and I conferred very often, nightly for many years, between 2012 and 2022 about his research, evolving perceptions and analyses of data that newly came to his attention, and he modified several of the statements made in the 2013 interview that was published here recently. David agreed when I suggested that he was functioning "like a colloquium of one" throughout much of his research career. As many others have documented, he was quite reluctant to share the full details about his ideas with others, released dribs and drabs of his observations and insights at irregular intervals, and didn't share "everything with everybody," but this is not unusual in the life of a writer and researcher, especially one with the depth and breadth of experience that David Lifton had. I will assist his estate to the extent I can to collect David's thoughts and writings that reflect the state of his understanding of the JFKA as of November of 2022 but I can't offer any more than that. I will not release dribs and drabs of his material and invite scavenging, and hope that the Education Forum takes a breath and waits for his estate to release a definitive collection of his work. Although there is some historical value in documenting the evolution of David's thinking over time, it's not worthwhile to critique stale pieces of analysis that he left scattered about in the time after Best Evidence was published more than forty years ago. David deserves to be credited for all of the facts he documented so scrupulously in Best Evidence; as many reviewers have said, he unequivocally documented the facts about "what happened." He admittedly made some mis-steps over the years in his analysis of those facts because so many pieces were concealed. To his credit, he continued to the end of his life to seek after missing pieces, conscientiously avoiding the "confirmation bias" that has stymied so many researchers. David tried to the best of his ability to integrate new pieces of information into a coherent account of "what was supposed to have happened" and I believe that history will conclude that he helped significantly to create a sensible explanation for the diabolical mechanics of the JFKA. I won't edit David's Wikipedia entry again unless his estate asks me to do so. I will remember David fondly and wish Happy Holidays and a healthy, safe New Year and beyond to everyone who encountered him or his ideas over the years.

We should wait until David's estate is settled, when its contents can be examined and appropriate action taken to preserve historical records and other things, including any manuscript portions that exist. David's last correspondence with me in November was related to the corruption of his address book files, not his other files. With his next-of-kin out of the country until 12/20, it will probably be at least until that date before the contents of his estate can become accessible, but in any case I'll try to promptly update the Education Forum about the details. Best wishes!