Post-Mortem page 574

[John Hunt]

Does anyone have an image of the Boswell letter at Post-Mortem page 574??

Thanks.

John Hunt

[Ed LeDoux]

John,

FWIW Don Jeffries did a Amazon review of the book. Maybe he will be kind enough to scan the page for us.

I messaged him about it, as I too want to see it, never having the opportunity before.

Ed

[Ed LeDoux]

Dr. Boswell’s 1/26/68 letter to Ramsey Clark:

http://www.jfklancerforum.com/dc/dcboard.php?az=view_attachment&file_id=16580

(Thanks to Dave Curbow)

"As you are aware, the autopsy findings in the case of the late President John F. Kennedy, including x-rays and photographs, have been the subject of continuing controversy and speculation. Dr. Humes and I, as the Pathologists concerned, have felt for some time that an impartial board of experts including pathologists and radiologists should examine the available material.

If such a board were to be nominated in an attempt to resolve many of the allegations concerning the autopsy report, it might wish to question the autopsy participants before more time elapses and memory fades; therefore, it would be my hope that such a board would be convened at an early date. Dr. Humes and I would make ourselves available at the request of such a board.

I hope that this letter will not be considered presumptuous, but this matter is of great concern to us, and I believe to the country as well.

Your attention to this matter will be greatly appreciated."

Harold Weisberg. Post Mortem. Frederick, Maryland: 1975, p. 139. (First printing Was in 1969. See p. 574 for a copy of Boswell's letter.)

11 J. ARRB Testimony Thornton Boswell, College Park, Maryland, 2/26/96, p. 213.

Noted Warren skeptic Harold Weisberg saw the signs of Boswell’s having been nudged more than thirty years ago. Commenting on Boswell’s letter, which he reproduced in his 1969 book Post Mortem, Weisberg wrote, “I am suggesting that Boswell’s letter was both inspired and prepared by the federal government.” “Strangely for a man with an office and a profession,” Weisberg reasoned, “[the letter] is typed and signed but on no letterhead, with no return address and, even more intriguing, on government-size paper, which is a half-inch smaller than standard.”[165] [it appears that after this episode Boswell became a Justice Department favorite. In JAMA, Boswell admitted that, “the US Justice Department … summoned me to New Orleans to refute Finck’s testimony, if necessary. It turned out it wasn’t necessary.”[166] Boswell’s New Orleans adventure is further explored below.] The man at Justice who was pulling Boswell’s strings was apparently no less than the Attorney General.

http://www.history-matters.com/essays/jfkmed/How5Investigations/How5InvestigationsGotItWrong_2.htm

Justice's calling Boswell, of all people, as a backstop would be

baffling were it not for the fact that Boswell had already

demonstrated his helpfulness to Carl Eardley the year before. On

January 26, 1968, Boswell had written the Justice Department to

request an independent reexamination of JFK's autopsy evidence.8

Prior to that moment, the only physicians who had ever reviewed JFK's

autopsy photographs and X-rays were the same military men who had done

the original autopsy. By 1968 reasonable doubts about the performance

of JFK's autopsy had been raised by authors Josiah Thompson, Edward J.

Epstein, Mark Lane and others. Boswell's letter set the wheels in

motion toward the only reasonable response: an independent review by

men outside the military. In answer, Ramsey Clark, the Attorney

General, convened a civilian panel, the so-called "Clark Panel." But

new information reveals that Boswell's effectual letter has a hidden

history: it wasn't his idea to write it.

Though his signature is affixed to the request, behind Boswell one can

(again) make out the Justice Department's shadow. Under oath to the

JFK Review Board, Boswell admitted, "I was asked by ... one of the

attorneys for the Justice Department that I write them a letter and

request a civilian group be appointed by the Justice Department, I

believe, or the President or somebody. And I did write a letter to

him, Carl Eardley."9

Noted Warren skeptic Harold Weisberg saw the signs of Boswell's having

been nudged way back in 1969. "I am suggesting that Boswell's letter

was both inspired and prepared by the federal government," Weisberg

wrote. "Strangely for a man with an office and a profession," Weisberg

reasoned, "[the letter] is typed and signed but on no letterhead, with

no return address and, even more intriguing, on government-size paper,

which is a half-inch smaller than standard."10 Boswell's help with the

Clark Panel and the Shaw trial suggests that Boswell had become a

Justice Department favorite. And there is new evidence to bolster that

impression.

When Martin Luther King was shot on April 4, 1968, Boswell testified

that he got yet another call from Carl Eardley. "J," Eardley pled, "we

got a problem down in Memphis ... Would you go down there and

supervise the autopsy?"11 Apparently the Justice Department was

looking for qualifications besides proper training and experience when

it asked the expert in natural death to lend a hand unraveling the

very unnatural death of the famed civil rights leader.

Gary Aguilar

Citations:

1 John Lattimer, MD has suggested that Drs. Humes and Boswell

requested, and were discouraged from, seeking local, non-military

experts. Lattimer does not identify who discouraged them. In Kennedy

and Lincoln, Lattimer writes, "Commanders Humes and Boswell inquired

as to whether or not any of their consultants from the medical

examiner's office in Washington or Baltimore should be summoned, but

this action was discouraged." In: John Lattimer. Kennedy and Lincoln.

New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1980, p. 155.

2 Memo by Pierre Finck to Director, Air Force Institute of Pathology,

dated 3/11/69, regarding subject, "Shaw Trial, New Orleans."

3 Memo by Pierre Finck to Director, Air Force Institute of Pathology,

dated 3/11/69, regarding subject, "Shaw Trial, New Orleans."

4 ARRB testimony J. Thornton Boswell, College Park Maryland, 2/26/96,

p. 211.

5 ARRB testimony J. Thornton Boswell, College Park Maryland, 2/26/96,

p. 209.

6 Dennis Breo. "JFK's death - the plain truth from the MDs who did the

autopsy". JAMA, May 27, 1992, v. 267:2802.

7 ARRB testimony J. Thornton Boswell, College Park Maryland, 2/26/96,

p, 210.

8 Dr. Boswell's 1/26/68 letter to Ramsey Clark is reproduced in Harold

Weisberg's book, Post Mortem, p. 574.

9 Deposition of J. Thornton Boswell by ARRB, 2/26/96, p. 10. (Note,

Boswell also told this same story in the May 27, 1992 issue of JAMA.

Op. cit.)

10 Harold Weisberg. Post Mortem. Frederick, Maryland: 1975, p. 139.

(First printing was in 1969. See p. 574 for a copy of Boswell's

letter.)

11 ARRB testimony J. Thornton Boswell, College Park Maryland, 2/26/96,

p. 213.

Edited July 28, 2011 by Ed LeDoux

[Don Jeffries]

Thanks, Dave. You saved me from having to dig it out of the mess that used to be my library....

[Hugo Langendoen]

I don't know if you are still interested in a scan from the book (the text is already up here), but just in case you wanted the scan anyway: I just made one :-)

post mortem page 574.pdf

[Ed LeDoux]

That is actually a better scan than the one I linked to.

Thanks Hugo! (Sorry Dave)

[Hugo Langendoen]

You're welcome! I did not even see that you already had a link included in your reaction.

I guess that's because I am new here...

[Ed LeDoux]

New eyes are always welcomed. Good to have yours here Hugo.

[Hugo Langendoen]

New eyes are always welcomed. Good to have yours here Hugo.

Thank you! I will do my best to make good contributions here!

So far I am impressed by all the information which is available on this forum. I think it will cost my quite some time to read all the older posts.

[John Hunt]

I don't know if you are still interested in a scan from the book (the text is already up here), but just in case you wanted the scan anyway: I just made one :-)

Thanks to everyone. Great help.

John Hunt