Andrej Stancak

1500 g. This was the weight of President Kennedy’s brain during the pathological examination made at the Bethesda Naval Hospital on December 6, 1963 [1]. The brain weight figure allows to infer on the weight of President’s brain at the time of autopsy. Unfortunately, the Bethesda pathologists did not weigh President’s brain during the autopsy in spite of this procedure being a routine part of every autopsy [2].

A three week formalin fixation has been shown to increase the brain weight by 50 g on average [3]. More recent data suggest variable percent increases in brain weights due to the formalin fixation with an average weight increase of 8.8% over the period of few weeks [4]. If we apply the swelling factor of 8.8%, the estimated weight of President Kennedy’s brain at the time of autopsy was 1373 g.

This figure appears to be too large relative to the amount of damage to the President Kennedy’s brain. The damage to the right hemisphere and the associated loss of brain tissue has been estimated by Mr. David Lifton to be as much as 70% in the right hemisphere [5]. If a normal brain would suffer such loss of tissue, it could not weigh 1373 g. To provide some approximation of the weight of intact and injured Kennedy’s brain, normative data obtained in large cohorts of people can be used. The study by Debakan et al. (1978) [6] analysed the post-mortem brain weights in 2773 males and 1963 females in 23 age categories. The mean weight of a male brain in the age range of 40-50 years was 1430 g (standard deviation 20 g). As President Kennedy was tall (72.5 inches, 184 cm), and since brain weight correlates with body height and weight [6], it is reasonable to estimate that the weight of Kennedy’s brain would be in the upper range of the normal distribution of brain weights in his age category. The upper weight value corresponding to the top 5% brain weights for males aged 40-50 years, estimated using the Z-scores method, would be 1496.2 g (rounded to 1496 g). If Kennedy’s brain sustained a loss of 70% of brain tissue in one hemisphere [5], his brain at the time of autopsy weighed only 972 g. However, even if we accept a smaller than 70% loss of brain tissue of 50% in one hemisphere, the brain weight at the time of autopsy would be only 1122 g. After correcting these brain weight estimates for swelling due to immersing the brain into a formalin solution, Kennedy’s brain during the pathological examination on December 6 was expected to weigh 1058 g or 1221 g for a 70% and 50% loss of tissue in one hemisphere, respectively.

These calculations suggest that the brain examined on December 6, 1963 was different from the brain removed from President Kennedy’s skull during the autopsy on November 22, 1963. Further, this finding sheds a new light on the omission to weigh the brain during the autopsy [2]. The following two explanations need to be considered:

1. The pathologists were stressed out and confused during the autopsy itself and forgot to measure the brain weight. This would be an unlikely but honest error.

2. The pathologists intentionally skipped weighing the brain during the autopsy either to conceal the real loss of brain tissue, and/or to be able to use a different brain in further examinations. The correct brain weight data at the time of autopsy might have prevented the use of a different brain as the other brain would have been weighed during the follow-up pathological examination of the fixated brain, and the discrepancy in the autopsy and post-autopsy weights would be evident. If this explanation is correct, it is also conceivable that the generals and some unknown civilians present in the autopsy room [5] couched or ordered Dr. Humes and Dr. Boswell not to weigh the brain.

As my calculations suggest that other than President Kennedy's brain was examined on December 6, I am inclined to accept the latter explanation.

The calculations and the conclusion accord a previous note by Mr. Doug Horne (2006, post 3 in this thread) that the weight of 1500 g would be too large

for a brain showing an extensive tissue loss [7].

[1] Appendix IX. Commission Exhibit 391. Supplementary report of autopsy number A63-272. https://www.archives.gov/research/jfk/warren-commission-report/appendix-09.pdf

[2] During his deposition for the ARRB, the interviewers asked Dr. Humes about the lack of the weight figure in the autopsy form. Dr. Humes had a difficult time to explain (ARRB deposition 1996, pp. 74-75):

1. I'd like to draw your attention to a few items on the first page of this document. Right next to the marking for brain, there's no entry of a weight there. Do you see that on the document?
   A. Yes, I see that it's blank, yeah.
   Q. Why is there no weight for the brain there?
   A. I don't know. I don't really--can't really recall why.
   Q. Was the fresh brain weighed?
   A. I don't recall. I don't recall. It's as simple as that.
   Q. Would it be standard practice for a gunshot wound in the head to have the brain weighed?
   A. Yeah, we weigh it with gunshot wound or no. Normally we weigh the brain when we remove it. I can't recall why--I don't know, one, whether it was weighed or not, or, two, why it doesn't show here. I have no explanation for that

[3] Frýdl V, Koch R, Závodská H. The effect of formalin fixation on several properties of the brain. Zentralbl. Allg. Pathol. 135:649-55 (1989)

[4] Itabashi, H.H., Andrews, J.M., Tomiyasu, U., Erlich, S.S., Sathyavagiswaran, L. Forensic Pathology: A Practical Review of the Fundamentals. Academic Press & Elsevier, 2007, p. 22.

[5] Lifton, D. Best Evidence. Disguise and Deception in the Assassination of John F. Kennedy. Carroll & Graf Publishers, Inc., New York, Fourth Edition, 1989, pp. 470-472.

[6] Debakan, A.S., Sadowsky, D. Changes of brain weights during the span of human life: relation of brain weights to body heights and body heights. Ann. Neurol., 4: 345-356, 1978.

[7] Spartacus Educational Forum, thread: Cover-up of medical evidence. Post by Doug Horne, dated May 16, 2006, No. 3. http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=6849&hl=

Dear Paul,

would you be so kind to elaborate on this part of your message, if possible:

"... Dallas Police officers and Sheriff Deputies were members of the Dallas Minutemen. Here is the GROUND CREW in Dallas."

I know from Ed Butler's statements that about half of DPD were members of KKK. However, I found not evidence of associations of DPD officers with Minutemen. Would you also know some names of DPD officers who were Minuteman and/or KKK?

Thanks

Andrej

It's a great question, Andrej, and I'm still looking for those membership lists myself.

My main source for my opinion on the affiliations of DPD officers comes from the 1971 book by William W. Turner, namely, Power on the Right. Turner is a former FBI agent, and he offers his experienced account of the right-wing in the USA during 1950's and 1960's, and offers a special focus on the Dallas and the JFK assassination.

Turner says, in effect, that it wasn't possible to be accepted as an officer in the DPD unless the candidate was a member of at least one right-wing organization -- the KKK, the White Citizens Council, the JBS or the Minutemen -- and if the candidate was a member of more than one, he had a much better chance of employment.

In 1963, says Turner, there wasn't a single Black American in the DPD. Dallas was a Southern hold-out, and proud of it.

But no, the Minutemen rarely printed their membership lists. When some Minutemen turned to bank robbery, and the FBI went after them, they were glad they had made the choice to be a secret organization.

Also, except for the Grand Wizards and other high officials in the KKK, the KKK membership lists were never made public.

The only way to know whether a given DPD officer was a member of the KKK, JBS, WCC or Minutemen would be from his children and relatives, who are still alive today and would be willing to talk. A researcher who actually lives in Dallas has the best chance of getting this historical data.

Regards,

--Paul Trejo

Thanks, Paul, I appreciate yout informed response. I will try to get Turner's book.

Kind regards

Andrej

Thanks Paul,

To be specific...

I believe that the Walker shooting was orchestrated by the CIA at the behest of the Whitehouse on grounds of national security. This operation also involved organized crime as did the attempts against Castro. Oswald and Ruby, although I do not believe they knew each other personally, were co-conspirators in the attempt on Walker. Under these circumstances Oswald lent himself to blackmail by the mob, and was forced to participate in the president's assassination, (although I do not believe he fired the fatal shot). Ruby, for the same reason, was then blackmailed into silencing Oswald. Robert Kennedy, who had helped initiate the action against Walker was silenced. The CIA then withheld, and is still withholding, evidence that could prove such an operation existed. I may be wrong, but to my knowledge no one, (other than Walker himself), has ever seriously considered such a correlation between these two events.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=we2eucWXqjg]

Regards,

Craig C.

Craig, I used to think the CIA-did-it for years. For most of the 90's, actually. That's where the JFK literature led the reader.

I no longer believe that -- and my rationale is that he CIA-did-it theories never attained closure. After 40 years!

So I started looking at the alternative sources -- like Harry Dean, for example, who was the first to name General Walker as a suspect. Because the Walker papers were granted to the University of Texas, I was able to go through all 90 boxes in 2011-2012.

That's when I decided that General Walker has been overlooked for nearly a half-century.

Then there is the most recent JFK literature -- and Larry Hancock stands out -- but most important, IMHO, is the free eBook by Bill Simpich, namely, State Secret: Wire Tapping in Mexico City (2014).

What Bill SImpich did, very carefully, using FOIA released CIA documents, is demonstrate a Mole Hunt in the CIA that altered LHO's 201 File. The CIA didn't know who Impersonated LHO using the Cuban Consulate telephone calling the USSR Embassy telephone -- but they knew very well that it was an Inside Job. It was a MOLE. This was a major revelation.

This means, in my reading, that the few CIA Agents who supported the JFK murder were ROGUES, and not the CIA High-Command.

I realize that this wasn't BIll Simpich's own conclusion from the data, but I appreciate that he asked for alternative interpretations of the same data. My interpretation is simple and clear, IMHO. The CIA High-Command did not murder JFK -- they were surprised by the action.

Of course the Mafia was involved at some level -- but only at the level of money and investment. Carlos Marcello would give millions to kill RFK or JFK, but he himself could supply no hit men -- that was beyond his capability. So, he gave money to Civilians who promised to do this deed. No doubt.

But the MAIN connection of the CIA and Mafia that I see is quite different -- their MAIN thrust was to try to kill Fidel Castro. That was their OBSESSION.

It just so happened that some of the people obsessed with killing Fidel Castro were able to get close enough to JFK. But these weren't Cubans or Mafiosos -- on the contrary. They were Dallas natives -- and they didn't do it for money -- they did it for HONOR in their world.

This is why I put General Walker front and center. He led the Dallas Minutemen. Dallas Police officers and Sheriff Deputies were members of the Dallas Minutemen. Here is the GROUND CREW in Dallas.

Jim Garrison showed us the Ground Crew in New Orleans. Maybe they were in the crowd that day -- but the GROUND CREW in Dallas were Dallas natives -- I'm convinced.

We know that Howard Hunt, as a CIA Rogue, was involved -- he confessed -- but he admitted it was as a "bench warmer." He was a bag man. Not important. We are fairly sure that CIA Rogue David Morales was involved -- he sort of confessed; but his role would have been Advisor, because of his enormous experience in such matters.

No -- the actual shooters were Dallas natives, I would bet on it.

Oswald shot at Walker in April -- and Walker found out. That's what marked Oswald as the Patsy in November. In fact, for the rest of the Spring, Summer and Fall of 1963, the pals of Walker set-up Oswald in New Orleans.

I don't believe that Oswald fired any shots at all at JFK. But Oswald was naïve enough to deliver his rifle to his "friends" on that day, and they used it (along with all of that New Orleans material) to frame Oswald.

The CIA is withholding next to NOTHING about the JFK murder -- I'm convinced. The Lopez Report was the bulk of it. Instead, it's the FBI that is holding back the main secrets of the JFK murder. The FBI was the investigative body for the WC.

Finally, as for that video with Jack Ruby, who says, "people who did this will never let the truth come out, and are in very high places," everybody just projects whatever Group they want into that slot. Myself, I say that the Dallas Police Department comprised those "people in high places" for Jack Ruby.

This is why, IMHO, Jack Ruby told Earl Warren that he could talk freely *only* if he was no longer surrounded by the Dallas Police Department.

Regards,

--Paul Trejo

Dear Paul,

would you be so kind to elaborate on this part of your message, if possible:

"... Dallas Police officers and Sheriff Deputies were members of the Dallas Minutemen. Here is the GROUND CREW in Dallas."

I know from Ed Butler's statements that about half of DPD were members of KKK. However, I found not evidence of associations of DPD officers with Minutemen. Would you also know some names of DPD officers who were Minuteman and/or KKK?

Thanks

Andrej