Dr. George Bakeman, USN

[William Kelly]

http://www.washburn.edu/faculty/pfecteau//zap.htm#bakeman

Dr. George Bakeman

F.B.I. Special Agents Francis X. O'Neill, Jr., and James W. Sibert attended the autopsy of President Kennedy and filed a report. In it, they list the names of all others present, the bulk of whom waited in adjoining room during the procedure. Following the list of employees from Gawler's Funeral Home who would eventually prepare the body for burial, the report notes,

Brigidier (sic) General GODFREY McHUGH, Air Force Military Aide to the President, was also present, as was Dr. GEORGE BAKEMAN, U. S. Navy.

General McHugh was in the middle of a distinguished career that would leave him with a list of decorations a mile long. Dr. Bakeman, not so much. In fact, George's career was so undistinguished that no record of him exists.

In the 1978, the House Select Committee on Assassinations attempted to contact all of those who witnessed the autopsy. With regard to Dr. Bakeman, Volume 7 of the proceedings notes, "The committee could not locate this person."

Could this mystery come of a simple mistake by O'Neill and Sibert? Could Dr. Bakeman be a spook?

Regardless, the "disappearing doctor" has become my favorite mysterious assassination figure, replacing the "umbrella man" who identified himself as Louis Steven Witt in 1978, explaining that he hadn't realized anyone was looking for him all those years.

Are you out there, George?

For updates and more fascinating people visit the Yahoo Group Zapruder's Stepchildren.

While the HSCA couldn't find this person, there really was a Dr. George Bakeman.

http://74.125.47.132/search?q=cache:4orB6E...;cd=9&gl=us

Baruj Benacerraf

The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1980

I was born in Caracas, Venezuela, on October 29, 1920 of Spanish-Jewish ancestry. My father, a self-made business man, was a textile merchant and importer. He was born in Spanish Morocco, whereas my mother was born and raised in French Algeria and brought up in the French culture. When I was five years old, my family moved to Paris where we resided until 1939. My primary and secondary education was in French which had a lasting influence on my life. The second World War caused our return to Venezuela, where my father continued to have a thriving business. It was decided that I should pursue my education in the United States, and we moved to New York in 1940.

I registered at Columbia University in the School of General Studies, and graduated with a Bachelor of Science Degree in 1942, having also completed the pre-medical requisites for admission to Medical School. By that time, I had elected to study biology and medicine, instead of going into the family business, as my father would have wanted. I did not realize, however, that admission to Medical School was a formidable undertaking for someone with my ethnic and foreign background in the United States of 1942.

In spite of an excellent academic record at Columbia, I was refused admission by the numerous medical schools I applied to and would have found it impossible to study medicine except for the kindness and support of George W. Bakeman, father of a close friend, who was then Assistant to the President of the Medical College of Virginia in Richmond. Learning of my difficulties, Mr. Bakeman arranged for me to be interviewed and considered for one of the two remaining places in the Freshman class. I was accepted and began my medical studies in July 1942.

While in medical school, I was drafted into the U.S. Army with the other medical students, as part of the wartime training program, and naturalized American citizen in 1943. I greatly enjoyed my medical studies, which at the Medical College of Virginia were very clinically oriented. I received what I considered to be an excellent medical education in the relatively short time of three war years. This busy time was rendered very happy by my marriage in 1943 to Annette Dreyfus, a French student, also a refugee from Paris, whom I had met at Columbia University. I trained as an intern at Queens General Hospital in New York City in 1945 and was commissioned First Lieutenant in the U.S. Army Medical Corps in 1946.

After the usual six weeks of basic training at Fort Sam Houston, Texas, I was shipped to Germany with several thousand other physicians. I was happy to be assigned to France, first in Paris, then in Nancy, where my wife had joined me. I stayed there nearly two years, as the head of a medical unit where I enjoyed practising what today would be called community medicine. I was discharged in 1947 and, motivated by intellectual curiosity, decided upon a career in medical research at a time when such a choice was not fashionable....

Then there's this Rocky Doc:

http://profiles.nlm.nih.gov/BB/B/B/G/J/_/bbbbgj.pdf

"...Mr. George W. Bakeman of the Paris office..."

I don't think Mr. George W. Bakeman was a doctor at all. Even though he had advanced degrees and was the dean of medical school, he may been a professor or administrator and not actually a medical doctor, and thus was called Mr. rather than Dr. Which means the FBI agents at the autopsy at Bethesda assumed he was a doctor and in the Navy when they wrote up their report.

But What Was he doing there?

Also, is this the same George Bakeman who was associated with Arthur Bullard and mentioned in the NARA article and Russian propaganda films?

Is he still alive or can someone come up with an obit?

BK

Edited January 30, 2009 by William Kelly

[Mark Knight]

Bill, I found something--not much, but something--on George W. Bakeman, under the section on France, here:

link

Why does the name Rockefeller popping up here not surprise me?

Then I found this link...G. W. Bakeman at the Paris Rockefeller office, 1934:

second link

So it seems there's some sort of long-term connection between George W. Bakeman and thr Rockefellers. Apparently, a connection with the National Institutes of Health...so there's SOMEthing medical in his background.

photo

Bakeman is on the left.

And the Medical College of Virginia, now a part of Virginia Commonwealth University:

MCV

Other than the items above, Austin Powers pales against Bakeman as an "international man of mystery."

Edited January 30, 2009 by Mark Knight

[William Kelly]

Bill, I found something--not much, but something--on George W. Bakeman, under the section on France, here:

link

Why does the name Rockefeller popping up here not surprise me?

Then I found this link...G. W. Bakeman at the Paris Rockefeller office, 1934:

second link

So it seems there's some sort of long-term connection between George W. Bakeman and thr Rockefellers. Apparently, a connection with the National Institutes of Health...so there's SOMEthing medical in his background.

photo

Bakeman is on the left.

And the Medical College of Virginia, now a part of Virginia Commonwealth University:

MCV

Other than the items above, Austin Powers pales against Bakeman as an "international man of mystery."

Thanks Mark,

Nothing about being a doctor or in the Navy.

Where's the NIH connection again?

I think we're on to the right guy, who must be dead by now.

If that's him in the picture with Alan Gregg in the 30s, he must be dead now.

Maybe the alumni at the college would have something on him?

What was he doing at Bethesda during the autopsy?

BK

[Antti Hynonen]

NIH is next door to the Bethesda, National Naval Medical Center, where Kennedy was autopsied.

[William Kelly]

NIH is next door to the Bethesda, National Naval Medical Center, where Kennedy was autopsied.

Hi Antti,

I know that, and the fact that it is where Dr. Jose Rivera (Col. USAR) also worked.

I just didn't see a NIH connection with Bakeman, from what I've read so far, and thought I might have missed something Mark had picked up among the Rockafeller connections.

BK

[Mark Knight]

Bill, I was assuming a connection with NIH based upon the fact that the second photo is from a NIH website.

Haven't found anything concrete yet, but I'm looking.

While perusing Google, I ran across a Bakeman mention in the collected papers of Salomom Chaim Bochner at Rice University. Under the index to "Correspondence," there's a folder marked "Bakeman, G. W. [Rockefeller Foundation]". So I'd suggest that the Rockefeller Foundation connection might be a bit more fruitful...especially since I can't find anything pertaining to Bakeman when serching Medical School of Virginia or its current university connection, Virginia Commonwealth Unversity.

Not sure it's the same man, but I found, on a 1914 list of alumni of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a George W(ilbur) Bakeman, MIT class of 1913, batchelor's degree in Sanitary Engineering. Not sure how that degree would qualify one to observe the autopsy of the President of the United States, but hey...

Edited January 30, 2009 by Mark Knight

[William Kelly]

Bill, I was assuming a connection with NIH based upon the fact that the second photo is from a NIH website.

Haven't found anything concrete yet, but I'm looking.

While perusing Google, I ran across a Bakeman mention in the collected papers of Salomom Chaim Bochner at Rice University. Under the index to "Correspondence," there's a folder marked "Bakeman, G. W. [Rockefeller Foundation]". So I'd suggest that the Rockefeller Foundation connection might be a bit more fruitful...especially since I can't find anything pertaining to Bakeman when serching Medical School of Virginia or its current university connection, Virginia Commonwealth Unversity.

Hey Mark,

There is a mention of him being in Europe in the MSV newspaper.

And the Nobel prize guy who credits Bakeman with getting him into medical school also mentions a son or a daughter.

And its hard to believe there's no obit for him.

There should be one in a Richmond, Va. paper, since that's where he seems to have spent most of his time.

Thank's for plugging away on this.

BK

[Mark Knight]

I'm starting to see a picture of Bakeman emerge, at least in his early days. After graduation from MIT with a degree in Sanitary Engineering, by 1916 G. W. Bakeman had acquired some prominence in the American Sanitary Commission:

NY Times, January 24, 1916

But Bakeman's presence at the autopsy still isn't making much sense to me. So far, the ONLY credentials I find for him is as a Sanitary Engineer, and nothing that makes him an M.D. But if he was a member of MIT's Class of 1913, and he spent 4 years there after high school, that would put Bakeman's year of birth c. 1890-91...which would have made him 72-73 years of age at the time of the JFK autopsy. That fact might help sort out who he was.

Edited January 30, 2009 by Mark Knight

[John Hunt]

the HSCA claimed to have looked for Bakeman, however not one hit comes up in the NARA database, even with intentional misspellings. On the MLK side, the HSCA claimed it looked for but could not find Eric St. V. Gault. Phil Melanson found him in less than one day.

John Hunt

[John Dolva]

There (apart from the correspondence issue mentioned by Mark as a source to explore) is a degre of connection to assorted 'spook' types, whether official or corporate (or both, of which Bakeman may be one), based around the 'science' of eugenics. This is of interest from a fascist and covert sterilisation (or 'cleansing') of 'undesirables' angle, as happened in many instances during the segregation - desegregation issues at the top of the agenda for some purported perps at the time of and leading up to the assassination. This grouping may have had an interest in the autopsy outcomes?

[Greg Parker]

I'm starting to see a picture of Bakeman emerge, at least in his early days. After graduation from MIT with a degree in Sanitary Engineering, by 1916 G. W. Bakeman had acquired some prominence in the American Sanitary Commission:

Mark,

the American Sanitary Commission was the forerunner of the US Red Cross.

NY Times, January 24, 1916

But Bakeman's presence at the autopsy still isn't making much sense to me. So far, the ONLY credentials I find for him is as a Sanitary Engineer, and nothing that makes him an M.D. But if he was a member of MIT's Class of 1913, and he spent 4 years there after high school, that would put Bakeman's year of birth c. 1890-91...which would have made him 72-73 years of age at the time of the JFK autopsy. That fact might help sort out who he was.

[Mark Knight]

Thanks for that, Greg. Based upon that, another search turned up this:

The MEDICOVAN, June 1956

Note that on Page 2, George W. Bakeman is identified as "Secretary, Board of Visitors and Associate Dean, School of Medicine"...and then there's the little blurb at the bottom center of Page 6:

"The Bakemans Report Fine Time

Mr and Mrs. George Bakeman, now traveing in Europe, let us know now and then by postals that they are having a marvelous trip. They are expected back around July 5. While abroad Mr. Bakeman is visiting many European medical schools."

So despite several opportunities to identify Bakeman as "Dr.," he is instead identified as "Mr." Which pretty much convinces me that Bakeman simply wasn't a doctor. But it still doesn't give me any reason for him to observe JFK's autopsy...unless he was a spook. What might a spook have been observing in Europe in June of 1956, especially near medical schools ?

Edited January 31, 2009 by Mark Knight

[William Kelly]

Thanks for that, Greg. Based upon that, another search turned up this:

The MEDICOVAN, June 1956

Note that on Page 2, George W. Bakeman is identified as "Secretary, Board of Visitors and Associate Dean, School of Medicine"...and then there's the little blurb at the bottom center of Page 6:

"The Bakemans Report Fine Time

Mr and Mrs. George Bakeman, now traveing in Europe, let us know now and then by postals that they are having a marvelous trip. They are expected back around July 5. While abroad Mr. Bakeman is visiting many European medical schools."

So despite several opportunities to identify Bakeman as "Dr.," he is instead identified as "Mr." Which pretty much convinces me that Bakeman simply wasn't a doctor. But it still doesn't give me any reason for him to observe JFK's autopsy...unless he was a spook. What might a spook have been observing in Europe in June of 1956, especially near medical schools ?

Hey Mark,

That's my deduction too. Doctor No.

Maybe not even US Navy.

If he is that old, he must be dead, and if that influential, must have an obit somewhere.

His connection to Alan Greggs and the Rocky Foundation is interesting. Greggs served on the Army Medical Lab - Medical Task Force of the Hover Commission, which revised the way the federal government operated. (Joe Kennedy and anybody who was anybody were also on the Commisson).

The guy Bakeman got into medical school - was a foreigner, Nobel prize, and was also drafted into Army Medical corp, and may have served with Dr. Jose Rivera, the Colonel in Army Reserves who was also possibly present at the autopsy.

There's also the possibility that the two FBI guys (Slibert & ONeil) who document Dr. George W. Bakeman USN at the autopsy, was misidentified by someone - as they certainly didn't physically recognize everyone on the list and had to take someone else's word for who they were.

It seems that we have the right Bateman, and that they got the degree and the Navy wrong, for some reason.

We'll know a lot more when we get an obit for him, probably from a Richmond, Va. or Washington DC newspaper.

BK

[Mark Knight]

Bill, even trivial mentions of George Wilbur Bakeman online are elusive; I've yet to discover an online obituary through any source. Still working on that angle.

In The Ghost In The Little House, a book by William Holtz about Rose Wilder Lane, Bakeman is mentioned, although is name is spelled B-A-K-E-M-E-N. In 1921, Rose Wilder Lane, daughter of Laura Ingalls Wilder of the Little House series of books--and possibly the ghost writer of the series--was a publicist or the American Red Cross and was based in Paris. In Holtz's book, Lane wrote:

"The pink and chubby Kewpie with cocky smile and the bow of tulle about its middle has become a figure of tragedy in Vienna, according to George W. Bakemen of the Red Cross, who is in charge of that organization's relief work in Austria. The Kewpie, Mr. Bakemen says, has come to mean two things to Viennese women: American charity and their own broken pride..."

Not much, I'll agree, but still another piece to the puzzle that is George Wilbur Bakeman, observer at the JFK autopsy. This report, if factual, would establish Bakeman as being in charge of the American Red Cross relief efforts in Austria in 1921. A partial timeline is better than nothing, eh?

Edited February 1, 2009 by Mark Knight

[William Kelly]

Bill, even trivial mentions of George Wilbur Bakeman online are elusive; I've yet to discover an online obituary through any source. Still working on that angle.

In The Ghost In The Little House, a book by William Holtz about Rose Wilder Lane, Bakeman is mentioned, although is name is spelled B-A-K-E-M-E-N. In 1921, Rose Wilder Lane, daughter of Laura Ingalls Wilder of the Little House series of books--and possibly the ghost writer of the series--was a publicist or the American Red Cross and was based in Paris. In Holtz's book, Lane wrote:

"The pink and chubby Kewpie with cocky smile and the bow of tulle about its middle has become a figure of tragedy in Vienna, according to George W. Bakemen of the Red Cross, who is in charge of that organization's relief work in Austria. The Kewpie, Mr. Bakemen says, has come to mean two things to Viennese women: American charity and their own broken pride..."

Not much, I'll agree, but still another piece to the puzzle that is George Wilbur Bakeman, observer at the JFK autopsy. This report, if factual, would establish Bakeman as being in charge of the American Red Cross relief efforts in Austria in 1921. A partial timeline is better than nothing, eh?

Mark, There's Arthur Griggs again.

http://books.google.com/books?id=inodj1jyR...esult#PPA111,M1

xxx

And then there's :

http://books.google.com/books?id=M88EAAAAY...4&ct=result

"...News has lately been received from Mr. George W. BHakeman of Course XI, who is still doing Red Cross work at Petrograd. He was recently offered the position of vice-counsul...." - The Boston Medical and Surgical Journal. 1917