Pete Mellor

48 Things You Never Knew About the Kennedys (msn.com)

When the W.C.'s Lee Rankin requested copies of CIA cables relating to Mexico City, Angleton's deputy Ray Rocca told Helms that Jim would prefer to wait out the Commission!

More from Jenkins & William Law's Lancer presentation covering the back and throat wounds. During the time that we were dissecting and weighing the organs, Dr.Humes was probing the back wound. On this same sheet that was approximately where the wound was placed and that’s where I remember it being, in the back. But the significance of this is I watched the operation of Dr. Humes probing that wound with his finger. He probed it to the depth of that wound with his finger. I could see the impression on the pleural, on the back of the pleural cavity, the chest cavity, but it never entered the chest cavity. He and Dr. Finck took a sound. A sound is for, many of you probably know what a sound is, but I suggest they probably used a sound, because a sound is rounded. (?) Because one of the things that they expressed was the fact that we don’t want to create an entry into the pleural cavity if there’s none there. Now, moving on to the lungs, this is related to the lungs. On the right top of the middle lobe, almost….it’s a junction. The lung has three lobes. There was a blue, a blueish type of indentation probably about the size of your thumb. Speculation was that that was caused by the bullet that entered at the point in the back. I know that this is one of the major controversial points related to the neck wound. At the point that the back wound is, it is probably, just roughly guessin’, ten, maybe a little more, a little less, centimetres below the wound in the throat. At no time in the autopsy did we do any examination of the throat trach. We were told that’s what it was, that it was a trach. Now, there were questions about it because of how large it was. It was I think on the face sheet it says it was 6.5cm., that’s a little over 2 inches. The other thing was that this trach was done, it was horizontal in relation to the neck. Most trachs were much smaller and in those days they were done in the vertical. The description of the wound here as you see it was vastly different from what we got from Parkland, as was a lot of other information we got later. W.L.:- Have you ever seen a trach like that, that big? J.J.:- No. I’ve never seen a trach that way and I’ve never seen one that large, because the old metal tracheotomy tubes were, my guess would be probably 5mm., 3 to 8mm., something like that. We never really questioned it. The only thing we did was when the flap was up, and the flap was up over the face Dr. Boswell kinda lifted the flap and looked up and he stuck his fingers in there. No comment. No nothin’ at that point in time, but that wound was never probed. It was never examined for entry or exit. Which brings another controversial point. We did multiple X-rays, before we actually proceeded with the autopsy itself. W.L.:- Jim, when you say multiple, take a guess and tell us how many X-rays would you estimate you took? J.J.:- I think Custer (referring to Jerrol Custer) and I took, we took the original AP (anteroposterior) and laterals. We took multiple, I would say probably for every one we took, we did five repeats at the request, my impression was, at the request of the gallery. Nothing seemed to be pleasing the people in the gallery. Actually, nothing being done in the autopsy seemed to be pleasing to the people in the gallery. We were directed again, at one time we were directed away from the wound in the neck because the reason we were given was that it would have been too….if we had actually examined it, we would have had to open it into the trach and that would have been too hard for the mortician to conceal it. W.L.:- To find the path of the bullet would you need to do that? J.J.:- Yes! Yes you would have to actually do the incisions involved and follow the path in there. At least you would have probed it to see where it went. The other thing with the X-rays, we were finding no bullet fragments. We found no bullet fragments that were in the body itself. Now, the bullet fragments that people relate to were bullet fragments that were brought in after the autopsy was underway and given to us in a small tie top bag. It’s similar to a zip lock except it has a tie that runs across the top and is folded over and that type of thing, that was placed on the autopsy table by the right ear.

I reckon that's correct Gerry. Jenkins made no mention of photographs being taken prior to the brain being infused with formalin immediately after removal from the body. So, we also don't know if the photographs of the brain are of JFK's brain.

Gerry, Jenkins' talk at Lancer 2013:- Since I had been assisting with Dr. Boswell, I was the only corpsman at that point in time that was working with Dr. Boswell. I followed Dr. Boswell to the bucket of formalin where we infused the brain. My first impression was, the damage to the brain does not correlate with the extensive damage to the skull. What I mean with that was the right interior portion of the brain was damaged and there was some tissue missing. The brain due to the trauma apparently was in that area was kinda gelatinous and that pretty much stands to reason, because when you traumatise the brain, it’s not like traumatising a muscle, or something like that, where you get bruising and so forth. The brain actually has a large amount of fluid in so it kinda becomes mushy and gelatinous, that was what I saw. The other thing, I didn’t think that the brain was large enough. I had an impression that it was smaller than what it should be coming out of the cavity that it came out of. Now these were just impressions on my part. That was a first sight, first impression type thing. Dr. Boswell carried the brain to our bucket where we infused the brain. How we did it is important, because our normal method was we had a stainless steel bucket, we filled the bucket approximately half full of formalin. We had created a gauze sling that went over the top of the bucket. We laid the brain upside down in that sling. We had a two needle apparatus that came from a supply of formalin that was up on the top of the cabinets. What we did with it was, we took those needles, we infused the brains through the two internal carotids at the base of the brain. Those carotids were retracted and it was extremely difficult, and as a matter of fact we had one of the residents come in, which was the chief resident, because Dr. Boswell and Dr. Humes did not do this menial type thing of placing these suture needles in and so forth. So what we did was, we infused the brain and it was extremely difficult because of the condition of the carotids. Well, in my experience when vessels are severed for a period of time they retract, especially arteries, because of the way they’re constructed, and over a period of time it’s almost like they begin to close off themselves. The other thing I noticed was the brain stem, where the brain stem was cut to remove it from the cranium, the brain stem looked like it had been cut from two different sides, from each side met in the middle. I can relate that because if you’ve ever tried to cut something from the right side and go back and cut it from the left side, it never, almost invariably never is the same level, and this is what the brain stem looked like. You know, I’ve been asked many times about this, ‘did I think that the brain had been removed prior to the autopsy?’ Taking into consideration the abnormal things that I just described….I feel like it was.

🦆 If it looks & quacks like a 🦆

Good man, Ron! I really should use the search facility prior to asking questions/requesting info. Myra's thread covers this issue fully. I did think after posting that the eyes would logically be opened at Bethesda to look for bullet damage, but I also could not recall any testimony from morgue witnesses speaking of this procedure. Anyway, I don't wish to hijack this thread from the other disturbing issue raised of the gaping throat wound.

Thanks Micah. Yes, as I thought. Apparently by Father Huber, Dr. Crenshaw (I treat his testimonies with a pinch of salt) or the TR1 nurses i.e. Diana Bowron.

Away from trach incision etc., what I have wondered about the 'stare of death' photograph is just that...the open eyes stare. Not certain where I read this some time ago, but didn't some member of the Parkland hospital nursing staff, or perhaps Aubrey Rike, close JFK's eyes before he was placed in the casket at Parkland?

Marjan, I can't say that I am too interested in number of shots, direction, times, locations and possible shooters. IMO it's too ambiguous & speculatory. Dallas Police Chief Jesse Curry: "We Never Could Place Oswald in That Sixth Floor Window"..."The evidence just wasn't there" 4, 5 or 6 would be BANG-BANG-BANG.? Wouldn't you expect that to cause some ringing in the ears of Powers & O'Donnell sat directly in front?

Not included, but if memory serves, was supposed to have had its movie premier in New York on 22nd November '63, but cancelled due to Dallas & re-scheduled into '64, my all time fav b/w Dr. Strangelove.

Even though I read the whole of Paul's post at the head of this thread, it was a most interesting reference. It is a shame to lose it.

Certainly. The full truth of one of the most momentous historical events of the 20th century was denied us without the often used professional press recording from the back of a flat bed truck in front of the presidential limousine. Instead we are only left with Altgens' professional stills on Elm St. Moving images from members of the press, i.e. Darnell etc were filmed after the gunfire. Consequently, we are left with amateur home movie recordings or poor quality stills. Zapruder's movie was hidden away for years with its authenticity still argued over. Whatever anyone thinks of Beverley Oliver, (I know Ian Griggs believed her story of her film & its capture by FBI) or whoever Babushka was, she was filming a movie sequence of the motorcade on Elm that nobody has ever seen. Time is of the essence. Whatever amateur film is out there, it is of inferior quality, but are the only recordings that history has. Professional restoration, whatever detail is exposed, is vital.

Once ONI always ONI.

Agree Paul, thanks for posting. This means that not only was Friedrich Schwend's OSS counterpart James Jesus Angleton, but SS-Sturmbannführer Schwend must have had intimate knowledge of James Hugh Angleton, the owner of the National Cash Register and chief of the US Chamber of Commerce in Italy, because Schwend's responsibilities were, as the US Army intelligence router message indicates, "...directed RSHA financial operations there. Charles Siragusa was WWII veteran of OSS X-2 operations in Italy, the main focal-point officer between the Mafia-CIA for assassination plots against Castro and a QJWIN spotter! It's like old friends, sat on a park bench like bookends. Of course, James Angleton was head of X2 in Italy by the end of WWII.

Another great source of info. Thanks Larry.

Absolutely agree. Great find.

Joe, that's ironic. I recently gave a PP presentation in the local town hall where the techie connected my laptop to the VPN. After that I had problems connecting to some sites in the U.K.! My security s/w wouldn't let me get rid of this VPN setting. Well, at least I got to watch the slideshow you indicated on You Tube. Cheers.

Shucks! I just get the msg, We're sorry, but this video is not available.

Sure Joe, me too. I'm aware of all your quotes & I agree, that if I knew about some JFKA detail I'd keep my head down too. Recall the late James Tague. Victim being winged by a ricochet shot in the Plaza and months later the feebees have him under surveillance. Scary.

That's magic Steve. Should keep me busy forever!

Michael, I was answering a quote from Ben's original post in his thread, I quote once again here:- "No civilized country in the world is without a strict system for entering, much less residing, within its borders without first applying for and receiving proper permission and paperwork." My reply to that quote here:-Well then, the U.K. is completely un-civilised. My reply is based on Home Office figures that state here in the U.K. in 2022, 45,755 migrants crossed the English Channel in small boats, all without applying for and receiving proper permission and paperwork. Yes, we may have a strict system of entry, but it is being bypassed by illegal migrants.

Steve, I've attempted to log onto this Forum but keep getting error msgs. Any chance you could cut & paste this info, it sounds interesting. Also anything else you may have come across on the Anderson/McFadin story.

No civilized country in the world is without a strict system for entering, much less residing, within its borders without first applying for and receiving proper permission and paperwork. Well then, the U.K. is completely un-civilised.

Bump!