Video: Pat Speer on JFK's fatal head shot and the autopsy

[Ray Mitcham]

Thanks for posting that page, Pat. It appears to destroy your argumernt.

You quote Dr Baxtwer as saying in his Warren Commisssion testimony that the wound was “temporal and parietal” yet his first statements say “On first observation of the remaining wounds the rt temporal and occipital bones were missing and the brain was lying on the table, with .extensive lacerations and contusions.

You quote Dr Don Curtis as saying” the wound was on the “posterior lateral surface of the skull.

Quite correct; posterior means “rear” and lateral means “away from the midline”. So the wound was at the back of the head to the right of the midline.

Dr Midgett’s comment “is reported to have told Posner the wound was "more parietal than occipital" Is reported to have told Posner!!!! Posner? ROTFLMAO

You quote Dr Seldin “While Seldin, understandably considering the time involved, was somewhat confused, telling Palamara the bullet struck Kennedy in the forehead (perhaps he meant upon exit)”

Who said he was “somewhat confused”? “Perhaps he meant upon exit” Perhaps?!!!!

Dr Zelditz “"There was an area, I'd say, 8 by 12 centimeters in the back of the head on the right hand side on the occipito-parietal area, that was gone. And it was filled with blood, tissue, hair, bone fragments, and brain fragments, and that's all you could see." His quote confirms where the wound was.

If you would like, Pat, I will supply the various statements of the surgeons who said that the wound was in the occital/parital area.

[Robert Prudhomme]

And, of course, Ray, none of the wounds described by these doctors, and correctly interpreted by you, are visible in the official back of head autopsy photo.

Poor Pat, I guess he was hoping his long post would confuse us. You are absolutely correct in your definition of "posterior lateral". Many people are unaware that, in such a double definition, the first word defines where the wound is (posterior = rear) while the second word defines more specifically on that surface where the wound is. For example, if he had stated "lateral posterior", it wound have meant the wound was on the side of the head (lateral) but toward the rear of that lateral surface.

[Pat Speer]

Thanks for posting that page, Pat. It appears to destroy your argumernt.

You quote Dr Baxtwer as saying in his Warren Commisssion testimony that the wound was “temporal and parietal” yet his first statements say “On first observation of the remaining wounds the rt temporal and occipital bones were missing and the brain was lying on the table, with .extensive lacerations and contusions.

You quote Dr Don Curtis as saying” the wound was on the “posterior lateral surface of the skull.

Quite correct; posterior means “rear” and lateral means “away from the midline”. So the wound was at the back of the head to the right of the midline.

Dr Midgett’s comment “is reported to have told Posner the wound was "more parietal than occipital" Is reported to have told Posner!!!! Posner? ROTFLMAO

You quote Dr Seldin “While Seldin, understandably considering the time involved, was somewhat confused, telling Palamara the bullet struck Kennedy in the forehead (perhaps he meant upon exit)”

Who said he was “somewhat confused”? “Perhaps he meant upon exit” Perhaps?!!!!

Dr Zelditz “"There was an area, I'd say, 8 by 12 centimeters in the back of the head on the right hand side on the occipito-parietal area, that was gone. And it was filled with blood, tissue, hair, bone fragments, and brain fragments, and that's all you could see." His quote confirms where the wound was.

If you would like, Pat, I will supply the various statements of the surgeons who said that the wound was in the occital/parital area.

You're cherry-picking, Ray. Seldin specified that he agreed with the official solution to the assassination. This rules out what you apparently would like us to believe he was saying--that he saw an entrance wound on the forehead that went unobserved by all his colleagues.

You're also wrong about Zelditz. Zelditz, as James Curtis Jenkins, specified that there was a wound on the back of the head in that the bone was shattered, but that this wound was covered by scalp and bloody hair.

As far as the others...context is everything. I readily agree that the majority of witnesses made statements indicating the wound was toward the back of the head. My argument is, and has been, that it is incredibly dishonest to take from this that they were describing the wound depicted in the so-called McClelland drawing, which is BELOW the top of the ear, or that they were describing an occipital wound from which the Harper fragment was displaced. The size and shape of the Harper fragment necessitates that the wound be in the MIDDLE of the back of the head, not on the right.

So, to be clear, the Parkland witnesses, on average, described a wound at the TOP of the right side of the back of the head. NOT on the occipital bone, as claimed by many CTs. NOT in the location of the wound in the McClelland drawing, as claimed by many others.

But how many are willing to admit this? This is 2 plus 2 equals 4 kinda stuff. And yet the vast majority of CTs embarrass themselves by continuing to pretend the Parkland witnesses described an almost exclusively occipital wound, when they did not, or a wound below the level of the ear, when they did not.

The inability of so many CTs to accept this, and their continuing to pretend the witnesses in Groden's photos are pointing out a wound behind and below the right ear, proves to me, and many others, I might add, that there is a cognitive disconnect in the CT community when it comes to the head wounds, much as there is a cognitive disconnect among LNs when it comes to the back wound, which they continue to pretend was at the base of the neck.

Edited December 15, 2014 by Pat Speer

[Pat Speer]

Pretty sad, Pat. The only doctor on that entire list that played a significant part was Dr. Baxter, and he claimed to see cerebellum. How could he have seen cerebellum if the large head wound was ahead of the ear, and high up? The tiny cerebellum is behind the brainstem in the rear part of the skull, and as low in the skull as any part of the brain can get.

Baxter testified that "the right side of his head had been blown off." He also said "This wound was in temporal parietal plate of bone laid outward to the side and there was a large area, oh, I would say 6 by 8 or 10 cm. of lacerated brain oozing from this wound, part of which was on the table and made a rather massive blood. loss mixed with it and around it." That's not the wound most CTs would like to believe he saw.

Many of the doctors assumed the bullet entered the neck and exited the rear top of the head, passing through the cerebellum. They saw macerated brain and assumed this was in fact cerebellum. Most of them later accepted they were mistaken. This is what doctors do. They acknowledge their mistakes when a specialist comes along and corrects them.

There are few things as obnoxious, IMO, as CTs who readily accept that all these doctors were truth-tellers who turned chicken when confronted by...Gerald Posner or--egads--Jeremy Gunn and the ARRB.

[Robert Prudhomme]

Have you ever been at an autopsy, Pat?

[Robert Prudhomme]

In Dr. Baxter's testimony to the ARRB, he testified the following:

"None of us at that time, I don't think, were in any position to view the head injury. And, in fact, I never saw anything above the scalp line, forehead line that I could comment on."

Some witness you chose, Pat.

[Pat Speer]

And, of course, Ray, none of the wounds described by these doctors, and correctly interpreted by you, are visible in the official back of head autopsy photo.

Poor Pat, I guess he was hoping his long post would confuse us. You are absolutely correct in your definition of "posterior lateral". Many people are unaware that, in such a double definition, the first word defines where the wound is (posterior = rear) while the second word defines more specifically on that surface where the wound is. For example, if he had stated "lateral posterior", it wound have meant the wound was on the side of the head (lateral) but toward the rear of that lateral surface.

So you're saying that when someone says something is on the "right rear" they are saying it was on the side, and not the back?

[Pat Speer]

In Dr. Baxter's testimony to the ARRB, he testified the following:

"None of us at that time, I don't think, were in any position to view the head injury. And, in fact, I never saw anything above the scalp line, forehead line that I could comment on."

Some witness you chose, Pat.

The two doctors who were in charge of Kennedy's treatment--Carrico at first, and then Perry--said much the same thing.

P.S. Baxter is not MY witness. People under Groden's sway are fond of saying that ALL the Parkland witnesses agreed on the wound location. This is absolute hogwash.

Edited December 15, 2014 by Pat Speer

[Robert Prudhomme]

Pat Speer

"So you're saying that when something is on the "right rear" they are saying it was on the side and not the back?"

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Possibly, Pat. Two things for certain, though. The wound would be behind the right ear, and it would be visible on the back-of-head autopsy photo.

A lie repeated over and over is still a lie, Pat. When are you going to learn this?

[Robert Prudhomme]

However, when a wound of the skull is described as "right rear" and involving chiefly the occipital bone, it becomes plain that the witness is referring to the back of the head, as that is where the occipital bone resides.

[Ray Mitcham]

Thanks for posting that page, Pat. It appears to destroy your argumernt.

You quote Dr Baxtwer as saying in his Warren Commisssion testimony that the wound was “temporal and parietal” yet his first statements say “On first observation of the remaining wounds the rt temporal and occipital bones were missing and the brain was lying on the table, with .extensive lacerations and contusions.

You quote Dr Don Curtis as saying” the wound was on the “posterior lateral surface of the skull.

Quite correct; posterior means “rear” and lateral means “away from the midline”. So the wound was at the back of the head to the right of the midline.

Dr Midgett’s comment “is reported to have told Posner the wound was "more parietal than occipital" Is reported to have told Posner!!!! Posner? ROTFLMAO

You quote Dr Seldin “While Seldin, understandably considering the time involved, was somewhat confused, telling Palamara the bullet struck Kennedy in the forehead (perhaps he meant upon exit)”

Who said he was “somewhat confused”? “Perhaps he meant upon exit” Perhaps?!!!!

Dr Zelditz “"There was an area, I'd say, 8 by 12 centimeters in the back of the head on the right hand side on the occipito-parietal area, that was gone. And it was filled with blood, tissue, hair, bone fragments, and brain fragments, and that's all you could see." His quote confirms where the wound was.

If you would like, Pat, I will supply the various statements of the surgeons who said that the wound was in the occital/parital area.

You're cherry-picking, Ray. Seldin specified that he agreed with the official solution to the assassination. This rules out what you apparently would like us to believe he was saying--that he saw an entrance wound on the forehead that went unobserved by all his colleagues.

You're also wrong about Zelditz. Zelditz, as James Curtis Jenkins, specified that there was a wound on the back of the head in that the bone was shattered, but that this wound was covered by scalp and bloody hair.

As far as the others...context is everything. I readily agree that the majority of witnesses made statements indicating the wound was toward the back of the head. My argument is, and has been, that it is incredibly dishonest to take from this that they were describing the wound depicted in the so-called McClelland drawing, which is BELOW the top of the ear, or that they were describing an occipital wound from which the Harper fragment was displaced. The size and shape of the Harper fragment necessitates that the wound be in the MIDDLE of the back of the head, not on the right.

So, to be clear, the Parkland witnesses, on average, described a wound at the TOP of the right side of the back of the head. NOT on the occipital bone, as claimed by many CTs. NOT in the location of the wound in the McClelland drawing, as claimed by many others.

But how many are willing to admit this? This is 2 plus 2 equals 4 kinda stuff. And yet the vast majority of CTs embarrass themselves by continuing to pretend the Parkland witnesses described an almost exclusively occipital wound, when they did not, or a wound below the level of the ear, when they did not.

The inability of so many CTs to accept this, and to continue to pretend the witnesses in Groden's photos are pointing out a wound behind and below of the ear, proves to me, and many others, I might add, that there is a cognitive disconnect in the CT community when it comes to the head wounds, much as there is a cognitive disconnect among LNs when it comes to the back wound, which they continue to pretend was at the base of the neck.

Here you are, Pat.

The President arrived at the Emergency Room at 12:43 P. M., the 22nd of November, 1963. He was in the back seat of his limousine. Governor Connally of Texas was also in this car. The first physician to see the President was Dr. James Carrico, a Resident in General Surgery.

Dr. Carrico noted the President to have slow, agenal respiratory efforts. He could hear a heartbeat but found no pulse or blood pressure to be present. Two external wounds, one in the lower third of the anterior neck, the other in the occipital region of the skull, were noted. Through the head wound, blood and brain were extruding. Dr. Carrico inserted a cuffed endotracheal tube. While doing so, he noted a ragged wound of the trachea immediately below the larynx.

At this time, Dr. Malcolm Perry, Attending Surgeon, Dr. Charles Baxter, Attending Surgeon, and Dr. Ronald Jones, another Resident in General Surgery, arrived. Immediately thereafter, Dr. M. T. Jenkins, Director of the Department of Anesthesia, and Doctors Giesecke and Hunt, two other Staff Anesthesiologists, arrived. The endotracheal tube had been connected to a Bennett respirator to assist the President's breathing. An Anesthesia machine was substituted for this by Dr. Jenkins. Only 100% oxygen was administered.

A cutdown was performed in the right ankle, and a polyethylene catheter inserted in the vein. An infusion of lactated Ringer's solution was begun. Blood was drawn for type and crossmatch, but unmatched type "O" RH negative blood was immediately obtained and begun. Hydrocortisone 300 mgms was added to the intravenous fluids.

Dr. Robert McClelland, Attending Surgeon, arrived to help in the President's care. Doctors Perry, Baxter, and McClelland began a tracheostomy, as considerable quantities of blood were present from the President's oral pharynx. At this time, Dr. Paul Peters, Attending Urological Surgeon, and Dr. Kemp Clark, Director of Neurological Surgery arrived. Because of the lacerated trachea, anterior chest tubes were place in both pleural spaces. These were connected to sealed underwater drainage.

Neurological examination revealed the President's pupils to be widely dialted and fixed to light. His eyes were divergent, being deviated outward; a skew deviation from the horizontal was present. Not deep tendon reflexes or spontaneous movements were found.

There was a large wound in the right occipito-parietal region, from which profuse bleeding was occurring. 1500 cc. of blood were estimated on the drapes and floor of the Emergency Operating Room. There was considerable loss of scalp and bone tissue. Both cerebral and cerebellar tissue were extruding from the wound.

Further examination was not possible as cardiac arrest occurred at this point. Closed chest cardiac massage was begun by Dr. Clark. A pulse palpable in both the carotid and femoral arteries was obtained. Dr. Perry relieved on the cardiac massage while a cardiotachioscope was connected. Dr. Fouad Bashour, Attending Physician, arrived as this was being connected. There was electrical silence of the President's heart.

President Kennedy was pronounced dead at 1300 hours by Dr. Clark

Kemp Clark, M. D.

Director

Service of Neurological Surgery

KC:aa cc to Dean's Office, Southwestern Medical School

cc to Medical Records, Parkland Memorial Hospital

PARKLAND MEMORIAL HOSPITAL

ADMISSION NOTE

J. F. KENNEDY

DATE AND HOUR 11/22/63 1620 DOCTOR: Carrico

When patient entered Emergency room on ambulance carriage had slow agonal respiratory efforts and scant cardiac beats by auscultation. Two external wounds were noted. One small penetrating wound of ant. neck in lower 1/3. The other wound had avulsed the calvarium and shredded brain tissue present with profuse oozing. No pulse or blood pressure were present. Pupils were dilated and fixed. A cuffed endotracheal tube was inserted and through the laryngoscope a ragged wound of the trachea was seen immediately below the larynx. The tube was passed past the laceration and the cuff inflated. Respiration using the resp assistor on auto-matic were instituted. Concurrently an IV infusion of lactated Ringer solution was begun via catheter placed in right leg and blood was drawn for type and crossmatch. Type O Rh negative blood was obtained as well as hydrocortisone.

In view of tracheal injury and decreased BS an tracheostomy was performed by Dr. Perry and Bilat. chest tubes inserted. A 2^nd bld infusion was begun in left arm. In addition Dr. Jenkins began resp with anethesia machine, cardiac monitor, and stimulator attached. Solu cortef IV given (300mg), attempt to control slow oozing from cerebral and cerebellar tissue via packs instituted. Despite these measures as well as external cardiac massage, BP never returned and EKG evidence of cardiac activity was never obtained.

Charles J. Carrico M.D

PARKLAND MEMORIAL HOSPITAL

ADMISSION NOTE

J. F. KENNEDY

DATE AND HOUR 22 Nov 1963 DOCTOR: PERRY

Staff Note

At the time of initial examination, the pt. was noted as non-responsive. The eyes were deviated and the pupils were dilated. A considerable quantity of blood was noted on the patient, the carriage and the floor. A small wound was noted in the midline of the neck, in the lower third anteriorly. It was exuding blood slowly. A large wound of the right posterior cranium was noted, exposing severely lacerated brain. Brain tissue was noted in the blood at the head of the carriage.

Pulse or heartbeat were not detectable but slow spasmodic respiration was noted. An endotracheal tube was in place and respiration was being assisted. An intravenous infusion was being placed in the leg.

At this point I noted that respiration was ineffective and while additional venisections were done to administer fluids and blood, a tracheostomy was effected. A right lateral injury to the trachea was noted. The tracheostomy tube was put in place and the cuff inflated and respiration assisted. Closed chest cardiac massage was instituted after placement of sealed drainage chest tubes, but without benefit. Electrocardiographic evaluation revealed that no detectable electrical activity existed in the heart. Resuscitation attempts were abandoned after the team of physicians determined that the patient had expired.

Malcolm O. Perry, M.D.

1630 hr 22 Nov 1963

PARKLAND MEMORIAL HOSPITAL

ADMISSION NOTE

DATE AND HOUR NOV 22, 1963 DOCTOR: BAXTER

Note of Attendance to President Kennedy.

I was contacted at approx 12:40 that the President was on the way to the emergency room having been shot. On arrival there, I found an endotracheal tube in place with assisted respirations, a left chest tube being inserted and cut downs going in one leg and in the left arm. The President had a wound in the mid-line of the neck. On first observation of the remaining wounds the rt temporal and occipital bones were missing and the brain was lying on the table, with .extensive lacerations and contusions. The pupils were fixed and deviated lateral and dilated. No pulse was detectable and respirations were (as noted) being supplied. A tracheotomy was performed by Dr. Perry and I and a chest tube inserted into the right chest (2^nd intercostal space anteriorally). Meanwhile, 2 pts of O neg blood were administered by pump without response. When all of these measures were complete, no heart beat could be detected. Close chest message was performed until a cardioscope could be attached which revealed no cardiac activity was obtained. Due to the excessive and irreparable brain damage which was lethal, no further attempt to resuscitate the heart was made.

Charles R. Baxter M.D.

Associate Prof of Surgery

Southwestern Medical School

PARKLAND MEMORIAL HOSPITAL

ADMISSION NOTE

JOHN F. KENNEDY

DATE AND HOUR 22 Nov 1963 DOCTOR:

12:20pm to 13:00 hrs

Called by EOR while standing in (illegible) Laboratory at SWMS. Told that the President had been shot. I arrived at the EOR at 1220 - 1225 and .The President was bleeding profusely from the back of the head. There was a large (3 x 3cm) amount of cerebral tissue present on the cart. There was a smaller amount of cerebellar tissue present also.

A tracheostomy was being performed by Drs. Perry, Baxter and McClelland. Exam of the President showed that an endotracheal tube was in place and respiratory assistance was being given by Dr. Akins and Jenkins. The pupils were dilated, fixed to light and his eyes were deviated outward and the right one downward as as well .

The trach was completed and I adjusted the endotracheal tube a little bit. Blood was present in the oral pharynx. Suction was used to remove this. Levine Catheter was passed into the stomach at this time.

He was (illegible) that I (illegible) no carotid pulse. I immediately began closed chest massage. A pulse was obtained at the carotid and femoral pulse levels.

Dr. Perry then took over the cardiac massage so I could evaluate the head wound.

There was a large wound beginning in the right occiput extending into the parietal region. Much of the skull appeared gone at brief examination . The previously described lacerated brain was present.

By this time an EKG was hooked up. There was no electrical activity of the heart and no respiratory effort - He was pronounced dead at 1300 hrs by me.

W. Kemp Clark

22 Nov 1963

1615 hrs -

PARKLAND MEMORIAL HOSPITAL

ADMISSION NOTE

DATE AND HOUR Nov. 22, 1963 4:45 P.M. DOCTOR: Robert N. McClelland

Statement Regarding Assassination of President Kennedy

At approximately 12:45 PM on the above date I was called from the second floor of Parkland Hospital and went immediately to the Emergency Operating Room. When I arrived President Kennedy was being attended by Drs Malcolm Perry, Charles Baxter, James Carrico, and Ronald Jones. The President was at the time comatose from a massive gunshot wound of the head with a fragment wound of the trachea. An endotracheal tube and assisted respiration was started immediately by Dr. Carrico on Duty in the EOR when the President arrived. Drs. Perry, Baxter, and I then performed a tracheotomy for respiratory distress and tracheal injury and Dr. Jones and Paul Peters inserted bilateral anterior chest tubes for pneumothoracis secondary to the tracheomediastinal injury. Simultaneously Dr. Jones had started 3 cut-downs giving blood and fluids immediately, In spite of this, at 12:55 he was pronounced dead by Dr. Kemp Clark the neurosurgeon and professor of neurosurgery who arrived immediately after I did. The cause of death was due to massive head and brain injury from a gunshot wound of the left temple. He was pronounced dead after external cardiac message failed and ECG activity was gone. Robert N. McClelland M.D.

Asst. Prof. of Surgery

Southwestern Med.

School of Univ of Tex.

Dallas, Texas

THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS

SOUTHWESTERN MEDICAL SCHOOL

DALLAS

November 22, 1963

1630

To: Mr. C.J. Price, Administrator Parkland Memorial Hospital

From: M.T. Jenkins, M.D., Professor and Chairman Department of Anesthesiology

Subject: Statement concerning resuscitative efforts for President John F. Kennedy

Upon receiving a stat alarm that this distinguished patient was being brought to the emergency room at Parkland Memorial Hospital, I dispatched Doctors A . H. Giesecke and Jackie H. Hunt with an anesthesia machine and resuscitative equipment to the major surgical emergency room area, and I ran down the stairs . On my arrival in the emergency operating room at approximately 1230 I found that Doctors Carrico and/or Delaney had begun resuscitative efforts by introducing an orotracheal tube, connecting it for controlled ventilation to a Bennett intermittent positive pressure breathing apparatus . Doctors Charles Baxter, Malcolm Perry, and Robert McClelland arrived at the same time and began a tracheostomy and started the insertion of a right chest tube, since there was also obvious tracheal and chest damage . Doctors Paul Peters and Kemp Clark arrived simultaneously and immediately thereafter assisted respectively with the insertion of the right chest tube and with manual closed chest cardiac compression to assure circulation.

For better control of artificial ventilation, I exchanged the intermittent positive pressure breathing apparatus for an anesthesia machine and continued artificial ventilation . Doctors Gene Akin and A . H. Giesecke assisted with the respiratory problems incident to changing from the orotracheal tube to a tracheostomy tube, and Doctors Hunt and Giesecke connected a cardioscope to determine cardiac activity.

During the progress of these activities, the emergency room cart was elevated at the feet in order to provide a Trendelenburg position, a venous cutdown was performed on the right saphenous vein, and additional fluids were begun in a vein in the left forearm while blood was ordered from the blood bank . All of these activities were completed by approximately 1245, at which time external cardiac massage was still being carried out effectively by Doctor Clark as judged by a palpable peripheral pulse. Despite these measures there was no electrocardiographic evidence of cardiac activity .

These described resuscitative activities were indicated as of first importance, and after they were carried out attention was turned to all other evidences of injury . There was a great laceration on the right side of the head (temporal and occipital), causing a great defect in the skull plate so that there was herniation and laceration of great areas of the brain, even to the extent that the cerebellum had protruded from the wound. There were also fragmented sections of brain on the drapes of the emergency room cart . With the institution of adequate cardiac compression, there was a great flow of blood from the cranial cavity, indicating that there was much vascular damage as well as brain tissue damage .

It is my personal feeling that all methods of resuscitation were instituted expeditiously and efficiently . However, this cranial and intracranial damage was of such magnitude as to cause the irreversible damage . President Kennedy was pronounced dead at 1300 . Sincerely,

/s/ M. T. Jenkins

Dr. Charles Crenshaw, surgeon at Parkland Hospital: The headwound was difficult to see when he was laying on the back of his head. However, afterwards when they moved his face towards the left, one could see the large, right rear parietal, occipital, blasted out hole, the size of my fist, which is 2 and a half inches in diameter. The brain, cerebreal portion had been flurred out and also there was the cerebrellum hanging out from that wound. It was clearly an exit wound from the right rear, behind the ear. A right occipital area hole, the size of my fist.

" MORTICIAN TOM ROBINSON: was the assistant to Joe Hagen, president of Gawler's Funeral Home, which prepared John Kennedy's body for his coffin. Robinson assisted with the preparations for an open casket funeral so preparation of the skull was especially meticulous. Robertson described the skull wound in a 1/12/77 HSCA interview released in 1993 conducted by Andy Purdy and Jim Conzelman: Purdy asked Robinson: "Approximately where was this wound (the skull wound) located?" Robinson: "Directly behind the back of his head." Purdy: "Approximately between the ears or higher up?" Robinson, "No, I would say pretty much between them."

Edited December 15, 2014 by Ray Mitcham

[Pat Speer]

Pat Speer

"So you're saying that when something is on the "right rear" they are saying it was on the side and not the back?"

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Possibly, Pat. Two things for certain, though. The wound would be behind the right ear, and it would be visible on the back-of-head autopsy photo.

A lie repeated over and over is still a lie, Pat. When are you going to learn this?

And when are you going to learn how to handle material that forces you out of your comfort zone?

A number of the witnesses claiming the wound was on the right rear or posterior lateral or lateral posterior, whatever, have been asked to show us where they recalled the wound. Almost all of them have placed their hand ABOVE the level of the ear on the back of their head, and many of them have placed their hands directly ABOVE the ear at the top of the head.

Does this not indicate that some people use words in ways YOU wouldn't expect?

Does it not follow from this that one shouldn't cite these witnesses while claiming the wound was almost entirely or entirely below the level of the ear?

Does it not follow from this that one shouldn't cite these witnesses while claiming the Harper fragment was occipital bone?

I have not misrepresented what the Parkland witnesses said. I accept their statements as part of a much larger body of evidence, including the statements of the Dealey Plaza witnesses. There are, however, a number of researchers and authors who continue to use the Parkland witnesses as proof for a wound in a location three or more inches away from where the witnesses on average placed the wound. This is no more honest than using them as proof the wound was where it is in the autopsy photos (something I do not do).

And yet, I'm the bad guy for pointing out that the "emperor", so to speak, has no clothes... Go figure...

[Pat Speer]

However, when a wound of the skull is described as "right rear" and involving chiefly the occipital bone, it becomes plain that the witness is referring to the back of the head, as that is where the occipital bone resides.

Who said the wound involved "chiefly occipital bone"? I think Crenshaw was the only one. He 1) barely saw the wound; 2) never spoke on the subject until roughly 25 years after the shooting, and 3) had studied the "McClelland" drawing showing what the other doctors supposedly remembered before speaking out on the subject.

[Pat Speer]

I go through all those statements, and many more, Ray, in chapters 18c and 18d.

Robinson, btw, was describing the wound he saw at the end of the skull reconstruction. As acknowledged by Horne, they reconstructed Kennedy's head to hide the hole in a pillow.

[Robert Prudhomme]

Dr. Kemp Clark - "...a large wound in the right occipito-parietal region......Both cerebral and cerebellar tissue were extruding from the wound......There was a large wound beginning in the right occiput extending into the parietal region......There was a smaller amount of cerebellar tissue present also."

Dr. Charles Carrico - "....attempts to control slow oozing from cerebral and cerebellar tissue via packs instituted."

Dr. Malcolm Perry - "A large wound of the right posterior cranium was noted...."

Dr. Charles Baxter - ".....the rt temporal and occipital bones were missing...."

Dr. Marion Jenkins - "There was a great laceration on the right side of the head (temporal and occipital).....even to the extent that the cerebellum had protruded from the wound."

There is more, oh so much more, just like this, and not all from the first day, and it all says the same thing; a large gaping wound involving the right occipital region of JFK's skull, with cerebellum protruding.

Why can none of this be seen in the WC's back of head photo, Pat?

A lie repeated over and over is still a lie, Pat. When are you going to learn this?

Edited December 16, 2014 by Robert Prudhomme