11/22/1991: Jerrol Custer, Tom Wilson and Harry Livingstone

[Andrej Stancak]

Pat:

Tom Wilson was secretive, and he was a bit mistrustful as far as official investigations and agencies are concerned. Tom trusted his work very much, not leaving any grain of doubts, and this is always a bit risky. However, his work cannot be ignored and it is a challenge for the 21st-century scientists to understand the theoretical basis of his methods, replicate his methods and results, and more importantly, to try to extract novel information from photographs which Tom Wilson did not analyse, such as Darnell. I agree with Ray that one would need to be in Tom Wilson's shoes to understand all his attitudes.

[David Andrews]

20 hours ago, Andrej Stancak said:

Pat:

Tom Wilson was secretive, and he was a bit mistrustful as far as official investigations and agencies are concerned. Tom trusted his work very much, not leaving any grain of doubts, and this is always a bit risky. However, his work cannot be ignored and it is a challenge for the 21st-century scientists to understand the theoretical basis of his methods, replicate his methods and results, and more importantly, to try to extract novel information from photographs which Tom Wilson did not analyse, such as Darnell. I agree with Ray that one would need to be in Tom Wilson's shoes to understand all his attitudes.

Some trouble also inherent in Wilson's work - the ballroom presentation, at least - is that it ties one in to the "Dallas School" of research embodied (once!) in Jack White, Jim Marrs and Gary Mack.  Unless Wilson broke away later, one has to consider one's allegiance to the Badgeman and Gordon Arnold verities.  Jack White was very kind and informative in private messages to me when I first joined the Forum, but I'm not sure that I completely agree with him now.

On the other hand, I wouldn't discount Wilson's work on the JFK body itself.  I would like to see more of Wilson on the back photo at the autopsy, which is difficult to appreciate from the Jerrol Custer film, but which made me look at the JFK back and wonder about some contusions lower down, in the thoracic area.  I also wonder about Wilson's claim of an exit wound for the throat shot existing in the right rear of the neck, later obscured by the body posture in the back photo, or perhaps absent through photo alteration.

 

Edited June 5, 2019 by David Andrews

[Ron Bulman]

I know little to nothing about Tom Wilson.  The little I've read of Jerrol Custer is from David Lifton's Best Evidence and William Law's In The Eye of History.  Law ends his chapter/interview on him with "all these people take advantage of me.  They write books, making millions...".   "His bitterness at authors such as David Lifton and Harrison Livingstone was palpable."  Note: lost job - downsized, IRS trouble, working as a security guard.  "The kindest possible light that I can shed on the dubious parts of Jerrol Custer's account is that he hoped to use the interview to promote the book he was working on.  And he may have wanted to make his story more interesting by claiming that William Pitzer was in the morgue during the autopsy." 

[Stephanie Goldberg]

I'm also in the camp of not knowing a lot about this trio.  I did read a mention of Jerrol Custer in a book which I just finished reading which deals with the death of William Pitzer.  (Without Smoking Gun by Kent Heiner) The author doesn't seem to give credence to Mr. Custer's statements, although there is an excerpt from a statement which he had made.

(It took me a few moments of watching the video to determine who was who in the picture.  I always feel like I'm playing catch up on assassination research history, but maybe that's because that's what I'm doing.)