Micah Mileto

If Lifton never married, then is anybody asking local news to acknowledge his death?

It was only a few days ago that I emailed Lifton about finding a newspaper article by Herbert Black, which is apparently the earliest known public acknowledgement of a wound in Kennedy's back, older than Bill Burrus's article. Lifton had posted earlier saying that Bill Burrus's article was the first.

In 2020, Lifton put up a gofundme for getting Final Charade published. Sounds like it's complete - or at least maybe it would be better to call that the "2020 version" because DSL always added stuff to Best Evidence right before he published it.

I asked him if he needed any help finding people who were willing to digitize his 40 filing cabinets, and he said no.

He was "troubled"? He never offered any theories recently that weren't as outlandish as stuff he'd been saying in the 60's. The "assassins being gassed in the train car like the holocaust gas chambers" thing was relatively light compared to his older idea of a "Sniper bunker hidden on grassy knoll".

edited

Yes, but there were early newspaper reports of a wound in the left temple, and those did not necessarily have to come from McClelland/Perry. The earliest known public reference to a wound in Kennedy’s back may have been the 11/27/1963 article in the Boston Globe, President's Neck, Head Hit by Bullets by Herbert Black. The article described it’s source of information as “an unofficial but authoritative source”… “This information did not come from doctors at the hospital here, who have said they were too busy trying to save the President to study the trajectory of the bullets. It is, however, from a source in position to know the facts, which were ascertained at the Naval Hospital in Bethesda, where Mr. Kennedy was taken”. It read “...the sniper, firing from above and behind the President, first hit the President on the right side of the back part of his neck. This bullet passed through the windpipe and came out at the throat, just below his Adam's apple, making the large wound which doctors at Parkland Memorial Hospital noted. This wound might not have been fatal, considering the quick medical attention which the President received”. The throat wound is oddly referred to as “large” instead of small. The wounding of the head was described with a reference to a wound in the left temple - “When he was struck, he apparently turned his head toward Mrs. Kennedy (to the left) and began to slump. A second bullet then tore into his left temple and emerged from the right top of his head, the mortal wound”... “This information was doubted at first because it reported that the President was hit on the left temple. It did not seem reasonable that a sniper above and to the right behind the car could hit him on the left side, but information from a film taken of the events tends to corroborate this” (Link). The 11/27/1963 article in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Movies Reconstruct Tragedy by Arthur J. Snider, attempted to summarize the available information on the shooting. It described the published frames from the Zapruder film, and the body movements of Kennedy and Connolly shown. Despite this, Kennedy’s throat wound was still given a description that sounds like a bullet entry - “The 6.5 mm bullet-about .25 caliber - pierced the President's neck just below the Adam's apple. It took a downward course. "If you're wearing a bow tie, the position is just about where the knot is," said a Dallas neurosurgeon who saw the wound”. In describing the wounding of the head, it says “A second blast from the high-powered rifle ripped into the right rear of his head at about a 4 o'clock position”. There is also another strange reference to the “left temple” information - “Identification of two points of entry, the throat and the skull, was made by Dr. Kemp Clark, neurosurgeon, and Dr. Tom Shires, chief of surgery at Parkland Hospital”… “One bullet was said to have emerged from the left temple”. Dr. Shires was not reportedly there to see Kennedy’s body. The article points out that frames from the Zapruder film show Kennedy’s reactions before the head shot, adding that “They serve to deny a rumor that the President may have sustained the throat wound from a shot fired at ground level”. The possibility was also raised of bullets lodged in Kennedy’s body, and that “they would have been removed at an autopsy in the Bethesda Naval Hospital…”. Connally’s wounds were still described as coming from the rear - “...Gov. John Connally had turned to see what happened. A third shot rang out. It struck the governor in the back. The bullet was deflected to his right wrist and lodged in his left thigh…” (Link [link 2] [link 3] [link 4] [link 5]). David Lifton made various comments on educationforum.ipbhost.com between 2012-2022, about a time in March 1978 when he made contact with journalist Bill Burrus, author of the 12/12/1963 article from the Dallas Times Herald KENNEDY SHOT ENTERED BACK, one of the first stories that leaked the existence of the back wound. Lifton said that he spoke to Burrus over the phone and also once in person at a bar in Manhattan, New York. According to Lifton, the meeting at the bar was multiple hours, and it was recorded on tape. As Burrus reportedly explained, an authoritative source called him on the phone and spoke with him multiple times on the night of 12/11/1963, identified themselves, and informed him about the back wound, and the autopsy’s official conclusion of a bullet entering the back and exiting the throat. Lifton said that Burrus refused to directly give him name the source, but revealed to him that the Herald article’s dateline “Bethesda, Maryland” was a false cover to hide the true source of the information (Educationforum.ipbhost.com, comment 258041; Educationforum.ipbhost.com, comment 282455; Educationforum.ipbhost.com, topic 22325; Educationforum.ipbhost.com, comment 310219; Educationforum.ipbhost.com, comment 343430). Lifton’s 1980 book Best Evidence did include a reference to a March 1978 interview with Burrus, as well as a note which read “In 1978 I learned that Burrus’ information indeed came from the navy autopsy report, but was not given to him by a Bethesda pathologist” (Best Evidence by David Lifton, 1980, Part II: A New Hypothesis, Chapter 7: Breakthrough, Distinguishing the FBI and Navy Versions). Lifton also wrote on the Education Forum that Burrus may have tried dropping hints about the caller’s identity. In 2012, Lifton said of the alleged caller’s identity, responding to another comment claiming that Burrus’s source must have been Dr. Robert McClelland, “Pat, Where do you get the idea that Dr. McClelland was Burrus' source? I interviewed Burrus at length--in person, in New York City--in 1977 or 1978. It was all tape recorded and I spent an hour or more with him, and then spent hours transcribing it Let me assure you that Dr. McClelland was NOT Burrus' source. (Where are you getting that idea from??) Furthermore, the person who was Burrus' source --and I am doing this from memory, today, in 2012--was providing Burrus with authoritative information about the Bethesda autopsy conclusion. The source was either Dr. Clark or, more likely, Dr. Tom Shires. One or the other, and I have a sheaf full of notes about this, and about the identity of a third party who (I learned, from Burrus) knew who the source was, and who I was attempting to contact. (But there were 100 other things going on at the time, and I never did.)” (Educationforum.ipbhost.com, comment 258041), and in 2022 Lifton commented “...As I later determined, the caller was Dr, Kemp Clark, the head of neurosurgery at Parkland, and the Dallas physician who pronounced Kennedy dead. Burrus's story is important because it permitted me to identify the Dallas doctor who was involved in behind the scene machinations to plant a story about the Bethesda autopsy results-- attempting to plant a story strongly stated Kennedy was shot from behind, and implying the source was some Navy official in Washington, when the source was himself”... “Burrus was the science writer for the Dallas Times-Herald, and when the caller identified himself, Burrus was speechless. Dr. Clark was calling to tell him "the truth" about the Dallas autopsy results-- and specifically, the trajectory of the shots that struck JFK. There could be no hotter news story at the time, but there was an important condition -- Burrus must not ever reveal the source. Burrus was being provided information that some "higher authority" clearly wanted published as a news story as soon as possible. Each detail was important; the language had to be precise; with Burrus calling back his source more than once on that evening to verify this or that point; and to make sure that he "got it right."...” (Educationforum.ipbhost.com, comment 310219).

Shires and/or Price were probably responsible for the early "left temple" newspaper reports. Shires/Price had access to the Parkland reports, but did not actually see the body.

Kenneth Salyer, Richard Dulaney, and Lawrence Klein died in 2020, Drs. Seldin and McClelland died in 2018. Dr. Robert Schorlemer is still alive too. So, it's Dr. Ronald Jones, Dr. Donald Teel Curtis, Dr. Lito Porto, Dr. Joe D. Goldstrich, Dr. Peter Loeb, and Nurse Phyllis Hall, Dr. Robert Schorlemer, and maybe Salomon Ben-Israel (formerly Dr. Gene Akin). Has anybody tried to contact Dr. Donald Teel Curtis?

I know of still (probably) living witnesses to Kennedy's wounds - Dr. Ronald Jones, Dr. Donald Teel Curtis, Dr. Lito Porto, Dr. Joe D. Goldstrich, Dr. Peter Loeb, and Nurse Phyllis Hall. Maybe Salomon Ben-Israel (formerly Dr. Gene Akin). Hard to find information on the other Nurses. So many started passing away, ironically, after Palamara released his "complete" assassination compendium on who was living or dead.

What does Meyers say about the torn $1 bill?

Thanks

https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/malcolm-perry-signed-jfk-fdc-kennedy-1874928248

https://www.flickr.com/photos/spcouta/10999406294 also https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/malcolm-perry-signed-jfk-fdc-kennedy-1874928248

Bill Miller passed away a while ago, just noticed now

Where did you identify such a microphone? Gary Mack said there were never-before-digitized photos of the conference where there weren't any microphones visible.

REST IN PEACE!

His Church Committee testimony is missing, but what isn't missing is the report on his first interview for the Church Committee, and the transcript of his interview by the HSCA. No mention of a gun coming out. I feel like he's a clown, but if he's a clown, he must have had some huge cojones to tell such lies to government people.

So, there's no record of Gochenaur ever saying the part about Moore pulling out the gun until 2020? He didn't say that at the 2018 CAPA conference.

It's harder to find this guy than an upload of The Man Who Killed Kennedy with the audio in sync!

Hot stuff to come.

It didn't go into the dummy wrist, but it did go through two ribs instead of just one.

Nice one.

Although Parkland Drs. Malcolm Perry and Robert McClelland told the Warren Commission about cutting through the strap muscles on the front of Kennedy’s neck (WC Vol. 6, p. 30, McClelland's 3/21/1964 testimony [text]; WC Vol. 6, p. 7, Perry’s 3/25/1964 testimony [text]; WC Vol. 3, p. 366, Perry's 3/30/1964 testimony [text]), the Bethesda pathologists failed to make any known statements that describe finding a surgical defect on the strap muscles, such as scalpel cuts. The pathologists did, however, describe bruising on the strap muscles. They officially concluded that the bruising was caused by the nearby exiting bullet (WC Vol. 17, p. 30, CE 397, handwritten autopsy protocol; WC D 77, typed autopsy protocol [text]; WC Vol. 2, p. 347, Dr. Humes' WC testimony, 3/16/1964 [text]), although they were not totally clear on when they began to realize the defect in the throat was a former bullet hole. According to a report by Arlen Specter on a 3/11/1964 meeting with Humes, Boswell, and witness Admiral Calvin Galloway, “...Dr. Humes and Dr. Boswell further said that it was their current opinions that the bullet passed in between two major muscle strands in the President's back and continued on a downward flight and exited through his throat. They noted, at the time of the autopsy, some bruising of the internal parts of the President's body in the area but tended to attribute that to the tracheotomy at that time…” (Specter, 3/12/1964, Interview of Autopsy Surgeons [page 1] [page 2]). But, in Humes’ testimony to the Warren Commission, he said “...We examined in the region of this incised surgical wound which was the tracheotomy wound and we saw that there was some bruising of the muscles of the neck in the depths of this wound as well as laceration or defect in the trachea. At this point, of course, I am unable to say how much of the defect in the trachea was made by the knife of the surgeon, and how much of the defect was made by the missile wound. That would have to be ascertained from the surgeon who actually did the tracheotomy. There was, however, some ecchymosis or contusion, of the muscles of the right anterior neck inferiorly, without, however, any disruption of the muscles or any significant tearing of the muscles. The muscles in this area of the body run roughly, as you see as he depicted them here. We have removed some of them for a point I will make in a moment, but it is our opinion that the missile traversed the neck and slid between these muscles and other vital structures with a course in the neck such as the carotid artery, the jugular vein and other structures because there was no massive hemmorhage or other massive injury in this portion of the neck...”, “...When examining the wounds in the base of the President's neck anteriorly, the region of the tracheotomy performed at Parkland Hospital, we noted and we noted in our record, some contusion and bruising of the muscles of the neck of the President. We noted that at the time of the postmortem examination. Now, we also made note of the types of wounds which I mentioned to you before in this testimony on the chest which were going to be used by the doctors there to place chest tubes. They also made other wounds. one on the left arm, and a wound on the ankle of the President with the idea of administering intravenous. blood and other fluids in hope of replacing the blood which the President had lost from his extensive wounds. Those wounds showed no evidence of bruising or contusion or physical violence, which made us reach the conclusion that they were performed during the agonal moments of the late president, and when the circulation was, in essence, very seriously embarrassed, if not nonfunctional. So that these wounds, the wound of the chest and the wound of the arm and of the ankle were performed about the same time as the tracheotomy wound because only a very few moments of time elapsed when all this was going on. So, therefore, we reached the conclusion that the damage to these muscles on the anterior neck just below this wound were received at approximately the same time that the wound here on the top of the pleural cavity was, while the President still lived and while his heart and lungs were operating in such a fashion to permit him to have a bruise in the vicinity, because that he did have in these strap muscles in the neck, but he didn't have in the areas of the other incisions that were made at Parkland Hospital. So we feel that, had this missile not made its path in that fashion, the wound made by Doctor Perry in the neck would not have been able to produce, wouldn't have been able to produce, these contusions of the musculature of the neck” (WC Vol. 2, p. 347, 3/16/1964 testimony [text]). Again, why would Humes say there was “...some ecchymosis or contusion, of the muscles of the right anterior neck inferiorly, without, however, any disruption of the muscles or any significant tearing of the muscles…”, if Perry and McClelland said the strap muscles were cut through?

David Lifton's tapes! They are in the archive!