HSCA's Andy Purdy: Bethesda pathologist Dr. Humes was threatened by the wife of Parkland's Dr. Perry?

[Micah Mileto]

The House Select Committee on Assassinations interviewed Dr. Malcolm Perry on 1/11/1978, but there was also apparently an interview before that on 7/14/1977. According to what little was written about this rarely-mentioned earlier interview, there was a discussion between Perry and Committee staffer Dr. Andrew Purdy over some kind of alleged "threat" made by Perry's wife to Dr. James Humes of Bethesda Hospital. The only reference to this that seems to be available on the internet is from an unfinished 1998 essay by researcher Kathleen Cunningham, posted to the old broken website of researcher Kenneth Rahn: http://www.kenrahn.com/Marsh/Jfk-conspiracy/park2.html

 

[...] On July 14, 1977, the HSCA's Andy Purdy telephoned Dr. Perry. Oddly, he would wait for more than a month to type out a memorandum on their conversation. This is most peculiar because of the bizarre story Purdy would relate in the memo's final paragraph. Purdy wrote that Dr. Perry told him that "some years" after the assassination, he went to Detroit. Its not clear from Mr. Purdy's wording if what happened next occurred in Detroit, or upon Perry's return, yet apparently Humes contacted Perry by phone "regarding a threat against Humes allegedly made by Dr. Perry's wife." Mr. Purdy fails to tell us what type of threat this was, or why Dr. Humes believed it was made by Mrs. Perry. Purdy only tells us that this "allegation was untrue, but apparently someone had made the threat." Then Purdy delivers the punchline. The investigation of this threat was conducted by the Secret Service, who ". . . maintained a very cooperative attitude toward the doctors for a number of years after the assassination, including looking into such threats." <38> Such threats? Were there others? The United States Secret Service has no jurisdiction over such matters. This was a case for the local police. Who called them in? Based only on the little currently known, it would seem logical to presume that Dr. Humes did, although this must be considered sheer speculation. However, there exists yet another possibility altogether. It is intriguing that it was Mrs. Perry and not her husband that was alleged to have made the undefined threat against Humes. Thus the authors have asked the ARRB to obtain a copy of the Secret Service file on this episode. Even presuming it contains little more information than is in Mr. Purdy's memo, the date this happened could indicate the entire affair was a veiled threat aimed at Mrs. Perry because her husband was not responding to continued "directions."

 

The website doesn't appear to be a part 1 or 3, only a part 2 (Link), and the numbered citations don't correspond to any list of source notes.

 

It does not say any such thing in the report and partial transcript of Purdy's 1/11/1978 interview with Perry (HSCA Vol. 7, p. 292 [text])

 

What is this July 14, 1977 interview Cunningham was referring to? I can't find any other reference to this, anywhere.

Edited September 29, 2022 by Micah Mileto

[Micah Mileto]

Did Kathleen Cunningham pass away a month ago? Is this her? https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/legacy/obituary.aspx?n=kathleen-cunningham&pid=202702512&fhid=6350

[Michael Griffith]

Good for Mrs. Perry. Humes was a disgrace to his uniform, to his country, and to basic decency.

[Pete Mellor]

56 minutes ago, Micah Mileto said:

Did Kathleen Cunningham pass away a month ago? Is this her? https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/legacy/obituary.aspx?n=kathleen-cunningham&pid=202702512&fhid=6350

This Kathleen Cunningham lived & died in Philadelphia & her obit states that she suffered from cerebral palsy, not that this condition should prevent her doing research.

There is a post on the Forum from earlier this year that states Kathy Cunningham had stepped back from JFK medical research and given her research papers to a university in Florida.  Would that indicate that K.C. was not from Philly?

[Vince Palamara]

2 hours ago, Pete Mellor said:

This Kathleen Cunningham lived & died in Philadelphia & her obit states that she suffered from cerebral palsy, not that this condition should prevent her doing research.

There is a post on the Forum from earlier this year that states Kathy Cunningham had stepped back from JFK medical research and given her research papers to a university in Florida.  Would that indicate that K.C. was not from Philly?

That obituary is definitely not the researcher Kathleen Cunningham. The researcher we know retired from research around 1999-2002 and donated all her materials to a Florida university. She was very passionate, knowledgeable and enthusiastic about her medical research, but I believe the ARRB (despite its many virtues) coming and going and nothing changing in the public's eye made her give up. Other notable people who quit at that time are the 3 Paine experts: Stephen Jones, Barbara LaMonica, and Carol Hewett. Like author Henry Hurt of Reasonable Doubt, some people have a "shelf life" when it comes to the case. I myself almost gave up in 2007 and 2012 (getting a book contract put the wind back in my sails). Lately, I find myself both very prolific on You Tube (remember- it is just me, it is easy and it is all free) and burned out on the case myself. I would never quit, per se, but I am leaning toward semi-retirement. I am reluctantly doing a Zoom conference presentation this fall that will probably be my last. I feel like I have taken it as far as I can go and I have said/done it all.

Again- I would never quit in the formal sense of the word- all my many online materials (videos/blogs) will be out there and I DO have five books. I just feel spent.

[Micah Mileto]

1 hour ago, Vince Palamara said:

That obituary is definitely not the researcher Kathleen Cunningham. The researcher we know retired from research around 1999-2002 and donated all her materials to a Florida university. She was very passionate, knowledgeable and enthusiastic about her medical research, but I believe the ARRB (despite its many virtues) coming and going and nothing changing in the public's eye made her give up. Other notable people who quit at that time are the 3 Paine experts: Stephen Jones, Barbara LaMonica, and Carol Hewett. Like author Henry Hurt of Reasonable Doubt, some people have a "shelf life" when it comes to the case. I myself almost gave up in 2007 and 2012 (getting a book contract put the wind back in my sails). Lately, I find myself both very prolific on You Tube (remember- it is just me, it is easy and it is all free) and burned out on the case myself. I would never quit, per se, but I am leaning toward semi-retirement. I am reluctantly doing a Zoom conference presentation this fall that will probably be my last. I feel like I have taken it as far as I can go and I have said/done it all.

Again- I would never quit in the formal sense of the word- all my many online materials (videos/blogs) will be out there and I DO have five books. I just feel spent.

Do you have any idea of how one would go about finding the report on this July 14, 1977 interview of Perry by Purdy, referenced by Cunningham? Because it definitely appears that this reference is not fake news. We only have the report and partial transcript of Perry's 1/11/1978 interview by Purdy.

Edited September 29, 2022 by Micah Mileto

[Denis Morissette]

I requested the Arch Kimbrough photos last week. I suspect Kathleen donated copies of the photos I made available to the online community researchers in early 2000´s.

University South Florida.

• Amanda Boczar, Ph.D.
• Operations Manager
• USF Libraries - Tampa Special Collections
• spcinfo@usf.edu
• (813) 974-2731

 

 

 

[Paul Cummings]

12 hours ago, Vince Palamara said:

That obituary is definitely not the researcher Kathleen Cunningham. The researcher we know retired from research around 1999-2002 and donated all her materials to a Florida university. She was very passionate, knowledgeable and enthusiastic about her medical research, but I believe the ARRB (despite its many virtues) coming and going and nothing changing in the public's eye made her give up. Other notable people who quit at that time are the 3 Paine experts: Stephen Jones, Barbara LaMonica, and Carol Hewett. Like author Henry Hurt of Reasonable Doubt, some people have a "shelf life" when it comes to the case. I myself almost gave up in 2007 and 2012 (getting a book contract put the wind back in my sails). Lately, I find myself both very prolific on You Tube (remember- it is just me, it is easy and it is all free) and burned out on the case myself. I would never quit, per se, but I am leaning toward semi-retirement. I am reluctantly doing a Zoom conference presentation this fall that will probably be my last. I feel like I have taken it as far as I can go and I have said/done it all.

Again- I would never quit in the formal sense of the word- all my many online materials (videos/blogs) will be out there and I DO have five books. I just feel spent.

I also have been in and out of the JFK Assassination over the years. This year insteading of reading I'm doing research in an area that interests me. Not going to solve the case but hopefully put a few pieces in the puzzle.

[Joseph Backes]

A few thoughts.

Kathy Cunningham lives, or lived, in Ocala, Florida. I met her briefly a few times in the 1990's just before and during the early days of the ARRB. 

I think you made a slight error in your writing. I don't think Andy Purdy was a doctor. He was at an early 1990's COPA conference in Washington, D.C. I thought he was a HUGE jerk.    

If you have a RIF # for this it would be easy to find, if MFF had it. If you know of some text from the doc then do an advance search on MFF.  

 

[James DiEugenio]

Andy Purdy was and is an attorney. He was responsible for showing the Z film to Downing.

According to Ed Lopez, he flipped sides when Blakey took over and Baden began running the medical sideshow.