Michael Griffith

Then you're ignoring what the Zapruder film clearly shows and what Connally and his wife repeatedly said. As the HSCA PEP noted, the Zapruder film indicates that the first shot to hit JFK was fired at or just before Z190, since JFK clearly begins to react to a bullet strike in Z200 when his waving motion freezes and he starts to turn his head to the left and Jackie starts to turn her head to the right to look at him. (Obviously, she turned to look at him because she could tell something was wrong.) How could a shot fired at Z186-190 have caused Connally's right shoulder to suddenly collapse and caused his cheeks to suddenly puff starting at Z238? The dramatic slamming down of Connally's right shoulder from Z238-243 confirms his description of the powerful impact of the bullet that hit him. Nellie Connally heard a shot, turned to look at JFK, saw him grabbing at his throat, and saw a blank expression on his face--and all this before she heard the shot that hit Governor Connally. And remember that Connally, the guy who actually experienced the wounding, the guy who actually felt the bullet's impact and felt the resulting pain, after carefully studying high-quality enlargements of the Zapruder film, said he was certain he was not hit before Z234. As for the lie that Connally's back wound was made by a yawing bullet, Milicent Cranor, among others, debunked this myth years ago: Trajectory of a Lie: Big Lie About a Small Wound in Connally's Back (history-matters.com) I've never been able to get WC apologists to give me a credible explanation for how a yawing bullet leaving JFK's throat could have created the small (3-5 mm), neat, and punched-in throat wound seen by the Dallas doctors and nurses. Even if we buy the unscientific argument that JFK's collar magically shored up his neck tissue before the bullet reached the throat, a yawing bullet still would have created a much larger and more irregular wound than the 3-5 mm neatly circular wound in JFK's throat.

Bullseye. I agree 100%. JFK made it clear to Khruschev that he was willing to go to war over Berlin. He sought peace through strength, not peace through kowtowing, weakness, and pleading. Before Putin invaded Ukraine, Biden made the mistake of trying to talk him out of it without any threat to resist with force. He also made the mind-boggling mistake of then trying to get the Chinese to talk Putin out of invading, but the Chinese took the classified info that Biden shared with them and shared it with Putin. So Biden did seek peace in Ukraine, but he sought it through weakness and pleading. During the first week of the invasion, Biden's response was downright cowardly, because he thought that Ukraine would fall a few days after the Russians invaded. But, to his credit, once Biden realized that Ukraine had a fighting chance, he sent large amounts of military equipment and supplies. He should have sent more, and should have given them more heavy weapons, but he sent them enough to stalemate the Russians. In the last few months, also to his credit, he has given Ukraine anti-air missile systems and heavy artillery. Now, to his great credit, he has finally agreed to give fighter jets to Ukraine. Biden has never stopped seeking peace in Ukraine, but Putin has refused all peace overtures because he is still determined to annex Ukraine.

You don't know any of that. That's pure speculation. He certainly didn't seem despondent or irrational to anyone who dealt with him at work that day. He seemed perfectly normal. When are you folks going to deal with the new evidence that Oswald was not even on the sixth floor during the shooting?

Humes is another prime suspect, IMO.

What a load of bologna, and what a misrepresentation of JFK. Just what I would expect from Common Dreams. Biden has been pursuing peace in Ukraine, but it is hard to achieve peace when you have a murderous dictator who is determined to brutalize and subjugate Ukraine. There would be peace in Ukraine tomorrow if Putin announced an end to the invasion and began withdrawing his troops. I dare say that JFK would have responded even more vigorously than Biden has. I freely acknowledge that Biden has done much more than Bernie Sanders or AOC or Liz Warren would have done, and I give him full credit and praise for finally authorizing the transfer of jet fighters to Ukraine, but he should have done much more, especially early on.

Why would Marina's rebuff have caused him to want to shoot JFK? That's about the silliest motive I've ever seen floated.

Your answer indicates extreme bias. Katzenbach wrote that memo just three days after the assassination, before anyone had had enough time to do anything resembling a thorough investigation. Heck, the DPD still had not claimed that Lt. Day had found Oswald's palmprint on the rifle yet. Even if Oswald was guilty, Katzenbach's memo was highly irresponsible and inappropriate. As for you comment about Arnold Rowland's account, are you seriously suggesting that it's no big deal that he saw two men with rifles on the sixth floor because he saw them shortly before the shooting occurred and not during the shooting itself?!

This is poor logic. This simply assumes Oswald wanted to kill JFK and killed him when he had the chance, but it does not explain why he supposedly wanted JFK dead. By all accounts, Oswald liked JFK. Anyone who still argues that Oswald shot JFK needs to come to grips with the new evidence that Oswald was not even on the sixth floor during the shooting.

Jeremy Gunn nailed Humes on this phony excuse. He pointed out to Humes that some of Boswell's notes had blood on them too but were not burned. From there, after further questioning, Gunn got Humes to admit that he had also burned the first draft of the autopsy report, as I mentioned in my previous reply. The disappearance of Finck's autopsy notes is also revealing. Just think: Who would have stolen those notes, at Bethesda no less, while Finck was washing up after the autopsy, and why? Finck was the only expert in the room, the only board-certified forensic pathologist at the autopsy. He had been called in from the AFIP to help with the autopsy. He was also a Lt. Colonel in the U.S. Army. Just try to imagine who would have had the nerve, not to mention the motive, to steal Finck's notes while he washing up after the autopsy.

The UFO that my wife saw in the 1990s could not have been U.S. made. There are have been many credible UFO sightings in areas far removed from military installations.

And I again repeat the point that the only three doctors, all of whom were pathologists, who actually handled the Harper Fragment said it was occipital bone, and when one of those doctors (Noteboom) was interviewed in 1992, he reaffirmed that conclusion. Looking at pictures is one thing; actually handling the object is quite another. All three of the pathologists who actually handled the fragment said it was occipital bone. When you produce a response to the evidence that Mantik presents, let me know. "Claiming to see a wound on the back of the head"??? Are you suggesting that there was no large right-rear head wound, that all those witnesses were mistaken? Since you believe the brain photos are accurate, I guess you must dismiss all the large-right-rear-head-wound witnesses as mistaken, right? And all the doctors, two of them neurosurgeons, who insisted they saw damaged and missing cerebellar tissue were all mistaken, too, right?

Very good point. No one has ever been able to come up with a plausible motive for Oswald's alleged shooting of JFK.

Oh, wow. So now you've gone from saying (1) that the missing brain matter was on the side of the right cerebrum that we can't see in the brain drawing, to saying (2) that you saw one half of the top part of the right side of the brain missing in the brain drawing, to saying (3) that "you can't tell where brain is missing" in the brain drawing! This is what happens when you can't bring yourself to face self-evident fact. Every doctor, including Baden and Artwohl and Mantik, who has seen the autopsy brain photos has said that the drawing in question is a true rendering of how the brain looked from the top view. Baden saw all the brain photos and said they showed virtually no brain missing. The supplementary brain exam report says nothing about any missing brain tissue, although it describes in detail the damage seen in the Dox drawing of the brain. The HSCA FPP saw nothing like the amount of missing brain that yesterday you claimed to see in the brain drawing. By any reasonable, rational reading of the accounts of the brain matter that was blown out and splattered onto 15 surfaces, that brain matter was obviously far more than the amount of missing brain that any doctor who has seen the brain photos has described. Even Dr. Joe Riley has said that " the fixed brain weight is inconsistent with major loss of tissue" (LINK). Dr. Mantik discusses the stark contradiction between the autopsy skull x-rays and the brain photos: But here is the real problem: according to chief pathologist James Humes, “Two thirds of the right cerebrum had been blown away.” Such a major loss of brain tissue was confirmed by many other witnesses—at Parkland and at Bethesda. Furthermore, my own optical density measurements (made directly from the extant skull X-rays at the Archives) confirmed that only about 30% of the right brain remained. . . . The huge clash between the lateral X-rays and the brain photographs persists. Although I should not expect Bugliosi to deal with optical densities, this matter can be addressed at a layman’s level, via the obvious blackness at the front of the lateral X-rays. A fist-sized area shows virtually no brain at all. Although the OD measurements confirm this, simple visual inspection clearly supports the same conclusion. Besides the empty bilateral frontal area, though, a great deal of brain tissue is obviously missing on the superior right side as well. The brain photographs, on the other hand, show a nearly intact brain on both sides. Therefore: either the X-rays are wrong or the photographs are of some other brain. (JFK Assassination Paradoxes, 2022, pp. 5, 53)

Starting at Z238, Connally's right shoulder collapses and his cheeks puff. Connally said he "felt the blow" when the bullet him, and he added that he could not imagine how the bullet that hit him was the first shot: It is not conceivable to me that I could have been hit by the first bullet, and then I felt the blow from something which was obviously a bullet, which I assumed was a bullet. . . . Beginning at Z226, Kennedy's body is visibly jolted sharply forward, and the position of his hands and elbows--particularly his elbows--changes dramatically, as they are flung upward and forward. The force and speed of these movements of his arms and elbows are quite startling when one compares Z226, where they are first discernible, to Z232 just 1/3-second later. Although the WC, and to a great extent the HSCA, ignored these movements, they are among the most dramatic and visible reactions in the entire Zapruder film. This shot probably hit him at Z224, at least 34 frames after he was first hit at/just before Z190. The Z190 shot was the throat shot, which is why he started grabbing his throat. The Z224 shot was the back shot, which is why he was knocked visibly forward.

When Nellie Connally, wife of Governor John Connally, testified before the Warren Commission (WC), she destroyed the single-bullet theory (SBT). She explained that she heard a disturbing noise, turned, and saw JFK clutching at his throat, before she even heard the shot that hit her husband. She had time to notice that JFK was grabbing his throat and time to process the expression on JFK’s face. Then, after turning and seeing these things, she heard a second shot and could see that it hit her husband. She was certain her husband was not hit by the same shot that hit JFK. Her testimony powerfully confirms how and when JFK reacts to his first bullet wound in the Zapruder film. The HSCA’s Photographic Evidence Panel (PEP) noted the clear indications that JFK begins to react to a “severe external stimulus” at Z200. His waving motion freezes; he begins to turn his head rapidly to the left; and Jackie Kennedy starts to turn her head rapidly to the right to look at JFK. The PEP also noted other evidence of this shot and correctly concluded that it was fired at or before Z190 (probably at right around Z186). The PEP finding dovetails perfectly with Nellie Connally’s testimony, and also with John Connally’s testimony. The governor was certain he was not hit before Z234, and the Zapruder film confirms this. Now let us read Mrs. Connally’s testimony. Nellie Connally to the WC: Mrs. CONNALLY. Then I don’t know how soon, it seems to me it was very soon, that I heard a noise, and not being an expert rifleman, I was not aware that it was a rifle. It was just a frightening noise, and it came from the right. I turned over my right shoulder and looked back, and saw the President as he had both hands at his neck. Mr. SPECTER. And you are indicating with your own hands, two hands crossing over gripping your own neck? Mrs. CONNALLY. Yes, and it seemed to me there was--he made no utterance, no cry. I saw no blood, no anything. It was just sort of nothing, the expression on his face, and he just sort of slumped down. Then very soon there was the second shot that hit John. As the first shot was hit, and I turned to look at the same time, I recall John saying, “Oh, no, no, no.” Then there was a second shot, and it hit John, and as he recoiled to the right, just crumpled like a wounded animal to the right, he said, “My God, they are going to kill us all.” (4 H 147) Fourteen years later, Nellie Connally gave an almost identical account to the HSCA: Mrs. CONNALLY. I heard--you know how we were seated in the car, the President and Mrs. Kennedy, John was in front of the President and I was seated in front of Mrs. Kennedy--I heard a noise that I didn't think of as a gunshot. I just heard a disturbing noise and turned to my right from where I thought the noise had come and looked in the back and saw the President clutch his neck with both hands. He said nothing. He just sort of slumped down in the seat. John had turned to his right also when we heard that first noise and shouted, "no, no, no," and in the process of turning back around so that he could look back and see the President--I don't think he could see him when he turned to his right--the second shot was fired and hit him. He was in the process of turning, so it hit him through this shoulder, came out right about here. His hand was either right in front of him or on his knee as he turned to look so that the bullet went through him, crushed his wrist and lodged in his leg. And then he just recoiled and just sort of slumped in his seat. I thought he was dead. (1 HSCA 41-42) The HSCA’s Forensic Pathology Panel (FPP) claimed that John Connally was hit by the same bullet that struck JFK at around Z190 but could not explain why he did not drop his hat if a bullet had just torn through his wrist. The Zapruder film shows Connally still holding his hat in Z230, some 40 frames, or 2.2 seconds, after JFK was hit. As Dr. Cyril Wecht noted in his dissent to the FPP’s report: Wecht exhibit 6 shows JBC firmly clutching his hat. This is . . . after he is alleged to have been shot through the chest, right wrist, and into his left thigh. Indeed, the FPP states that they were surprised that although lie lead suffered the injury to his wrist, lie did not drop his hat. The panel should not only be surprised, but incredulous. If they were not so slavishly dedicated to defending the Warren Commission report (WCR), and the previous opinions submitted by two of the panel members, Dr. James Weston and Dr. Werner Spitz, they would have interpreted this picture correctly and accepted it for what it obviously and clearly demonstrates. . . . (7 HSCA 199)

And, furthermore, earlier you said the missing brain was not visible because it was on the outside of the right cerebrum, which is not visible in the brain photo in question. Now you're saying the top half of the right side is missing. Which is it? I don't know what in the world you're looking at. I can't fathom how anyone with decent eyesight could claim to see the top half of the right cerebrum missing. I see a laceration and I see disruption on the right side, but I don't see any substantive amount of brain tissue missing. And how did Baden and the FPP fail to see this missing brain tissue? Why isn't any such missing tissue described in the supplemental brain exam report?

And let's remember that the Sibert and O'Neill 11/23/63 report on the autopsy and the FBI summary report stated that the bullet entered the back at a downward angle of at least 45 degrees. Let's also remember that we know from the declassified transcript of the WC's secret 1/27/64 executive session that chief counsel Rankin referred to an autopsy document that said a fragment exited the throat. Also, when Congressman Boggs commented during that session that he had "read" that the back-wound bullet only penetrated a "finger's length," Rankin replied, "That is what they first said." Finally, it bears repeating that, to its great credit, the ARRB got Humes to admit that he not only burned his autopsy notes but that he also burned the first draft of the autopsy report. Until then, Humes had gotten away with claiming that he had "only" burned his autopsy notes.

So here we have it: Even though Baden was willing to acknowledge that the brain in the brain photos has virtually no missing tissue, and even though the supplemental brain exam report does not even mention missing tissue, you look at the same brain and see "the upper half of the right side" missing, i.e., you see one fourth of the brain missing, and you claim that a fist-sized amount of brain is only one fourth of the brain (are you thinking of a child's fist?). When someone is so unwilling to be objective that they claim to see what is clearly not there, they are beyond persuasion. The drawings are exact renderings of the photos, and Baden and the rest of the FPP saw the photos and the drawings. And Humes and Boswell examined the brain seen in the brain photos from every angle. Baden said the photos show virtually no missing brain, and Humes said nothing about any missing brain matter in his report on the supplemental brain exam. For many years now, in response to the argument that the brain photos show far too little missing brain matter, WC apologists have repeated Baden's and Humes's descriptions of the brain. But you, realizing that a substantial amount of brain was blown from the skull, now claim to see one fourth of the brain missing in the brain photos! Allow me to repeat some inconvenient facts: -- Humes told JAMA that "two thirds of the right cerebrum had been blown away." The "right cerebrum" is essentially the right half of the brain. The brain photos show nothing close to this much missing brain. Two thirds of the right cerebrum is a lot more than one half of the upper right side of the brain. -- Four witnesses said that more than half the brain was gone, and one other witness implied this. -- Dozens of witnesses, in three different locations, independently said there was a large right-rear head wound, including the Secret Service agent who stared at the wound for several minutes on the way to Parkland Hospital, the nurse who packed the wound with gauze, and the mortician who reassembled the skull. -- Several doctors, including two neurosurgeons, said the cerebellum was damaged and was missing tissue. -- The descriptions of the brain matter that was splattered onto 15 surfaces clearly appear to describe much more missing brain tissue than one fourth of the brain. -- OD measurements confirm that more than half of the right side of the brain is missing in the autopsy skull x-rays.

I just have to say that you are totally out to lunch when it comes to the medical evidence regarding the head wounds. You're not just a little wrong, a little off--you're out in the boondocks. It's baffling. You even think that the most obviously bogus photos among the autopsy photos, i.e., the brain photos, are authentic. You're very good on many other issues, but you're awful when it comes to the head wounds. Anyway, I repeat: Anyone who claims that the Harper Fragment is not occipital bone needs to deal with the evidence that Dr. Mantik presents on the subject in his book JFK Assassination Paradoxes. He deals with Angel and Riley's placement of the fragment at great length and shows that it is impossible. Have you read the book? Have you answered the evidence he presents therein? And/or, have you read the evidence he presents on the fragment in his book JFK's Head Wounds? I also repeat the fact that the three pathologists who actually handled the Harper Fragment said it was occipital bone.

Another telling fact about Ellsberg is that when it became undeniable that North Vietnam was imposing a reign of terror on the South Vietnamese, he had nothing to say. All of his professed concern for human rights and peace went out the window when it came to North Vietnam's bloody reign of terror over the South Vietnamese. When reports began to surface that the Communists were executing large numbers of people and sending untold tens of thousands to concentration camps, every former anti-war liberal who commented on those reports dismissed them as exaggerations or fabrications. Some liberals said the reports were lies being peddled by former South Vietnamese "reactionaries" and/or by American right-wingers. When the evidence of the reign of terror became too voluminous and too powerful to deny, most liberals simply went silent. A few honorable liberals did condemn the Hanoi regime's tyrannical treatment of the South Vietnamese, and one or two even expressed regret that they had been so uncritical of North Vietnam and so harshly critical of South Vietnam. But, again, the vast majority of liberals simply went silent when the scale and severity of the Hanoi regime's reign of terror became impossible to deny. To this day, very few liberal books on the war mention the war's terrible aftermath.

And just never mind that the autopsy brain photos show virtually no brain tissue missing, much less one fourth of the brain gone, right? And never mind that so many witnesses independently described a large amount of missing brain, right? And never mind that OD measurements confirm that over half of the right side of the brain is missing in the autopsy skull x-rays, right? Never mind all these inconvenient facts. Just engage in more vacuous speculation about how JFK's brain could have weighed 1500 grams. Humes and Boswell examined the brain shown in the autopsy brain photos when they did the supplemental brain exam. They saw it from all angles. If one fourth of that brain was missing, they could not have failed to notice it. Yet, Humes's report on the supplemental exam does not even hint that one fourth of the brain was gone. In fact, his report does not even mention any missing brain tissue. Why? Answer: Because that brain had so little tissue missing that it was not worth mentioning. That brain was virtually intact. It was lacerated and disrupted on one side, but it had practically no tissue missing, as we see in the photos of it. Your problem is that you are trying to fit a large square peg into a small round role, because you cannot bring yourself to admit that the autopsy brain photos are fraudulent. You are faced with the fact that so much brain matter was blown from the skull that it splattered onto 15 surfaces, with the fact that the mortician who reassembled the skull said the amount of missing brain was the size of a male fist (which would have been at least one third of the brain), with the fact that a number of other witnesses independently described a large amount of missing brain, and with the fact that a highly qualified radiation oncologist has confirmed via OD measurements that over half of the right side of the brain is missing in the skull x-rays. And, you are stuck with alleged autopsy photos that show a brain with virtually no missing tissue. Getting back to the mortician's description of the amount of missing brain, your average male brain is about 5.5 x 6.5 x 3.6 inches in size. Your average male fist would easily be one third of that size. The average male hand in the open position is 7.6 inches long, 3.5 inches wide, and 0.5 inches tall at the fingertips and 1.5 inches tall just behind the thumb. Making a fist does not change the width, reduces the length by half, and at least doubles the height. So the mortician was describing a brain that was missing at least one third of its substance.

Barnum either got his times mixed up or was fabricating. Sibert and O'Neill wrote at 2:00 AM, 11/23, that the doctors had determined that the back wound had no exit point. Numerous other eyewitness accounts confirm this.

Of course, once LBJ became president, the Bobby Baker scandal quickly faded away, even though RFK was attorney general.

Actually, my sister is married to a very solid guy who is an ardent Trump lover and who totally believes JFK was killed by a conspiracy. I suspect that if you and I sat down and talked politics for a while, you would find that we are not as far apart politically as you seem to think we are. "On the other hand, maybe I over-stated." That happens to all of us from time to time. And, I appreciate your positive comments about my JFKA research.

This is indeed a gem. I am certain that key officials in the Secret Service took part in the plot. The Secret Service clearly stripped JFK of standard security and the falsely blamed the lax security on JFK and/or Jackie. Greer was unbelievably and inexcusably slow in reacting to the shots. Secret Service agents also stole JFK's body before a genuine autopsy could be done. They were also involved in facilitating the alteration of the Zapruder film and of some of the autopsy materials.