The Autopsy Doctors' Rear Head Entry Site vs. the Autopsy Photos of the Brain

[Michael Griffith]

4 hours ago, Gerry Down said:

 

I believe 99% of the witnesses, but we need to make sure that the witnesses are interpreting correctly what they see.

Right, so all those witnesses, in three different locations, who saw a large right-rear head wound couldn't tell the difference between a wound above the right ear and a wound 2-3 inches behind the right ear, not even the nurse who packed the wound with gauze, and not even the mortician who reassembled the skull after the autopsy. And neurosurgeons and several other doctors couldn't distinguish between cerebellar tissue and surrounding tissue, even though cerebellar tissue is located only at the back of the brain and has a different color than other brain tissue. So much mind-boggling "misinterpretation."

I have no doubt the Parkland doctors thought the throat wound was an entrance wound but I think they misinterpreted what was actually an exit wound.

Since when are entrance wounds 3-5 mm in diameter, neat, and punched-in? Why was the damage behind the throat wound larger than the wound itself, which is normally a sure indication that a projectile entered the wound? The idea that the collar would have shored up the neck and enabled the creation of a small, neat wound, (1) ignores the fact that the wound was also punched inward, and (2) displays an ignorance of bullets and wound ballistics. Even a low-velocity bullet would have been long gone before the neck could have been shored up by the collar. 

This is not to mention that the shirt slits were not made by a bullet, and that the tie knot had no hole through it and no nick on either edge.

I don't know why Baden is saying only 2 ounces was missing.

Because that's exactly what the autopsy brain photos show, as Baden himself noted. As both sides have long agreed--well, until your reply, anyway--the brain photos show a virtually intact brain, a brain with virtually no tissue missing. 

As Baden also noted, the autopsy report says nothing about any amount of missing brain. It says the right cerebral sector was "markedly disrupted," but it says nothing, not one word, about any missing brain tissue, cerebral or otherwise. 

And, just to be clear, Baden said that only "an ounce or two" of brain matter was missing, so he said that no more than two ounces were missing. 

A good quarter of the brain was missing.

Uh, well, if one-fourth of the brain was missing, then obviously the autopsy brain photos are fraudulent, since they show virtually no missing brain tissue.

But, as Rod Serling famously said, "Next stop, the Twilight Zone!" So let me just guess: You are going to say that when you look at the brain photos, you see one fourth of the brain missing! Yes? 

I mean, if you can see a bunch in the Croft photo that would account for the rear clothing holes being 5-plus inches below the collar (never mind that JFK's coat is nearly flat in Betzner 3 and Willis 5), and if you can imagine how the tailor-made shirt could have magically bunched in virtually perfect correspondence with the coat, and if you can look at JFK's front shirt slits and see an exit hole for a non-yawing bullet (never mind that no copper traces were found around the slits, whereas such traces were found around the rear holes)--if you can see these things, then I won't be surprised if you announce that you see 25% of the brain missing in the brain photos.

[Gerry Down]

I've never heard of someone being able to calculate the missing weight of a brain from just a photo alone. 

And bear in mind Baden was trying to do this from just the overhead view of the brain where the damage was. No sideview.

Edited June 5, 2023 by Gerry Down

[Gerry Down]

2 hours ago, Pete Mellor said:

Gerry, Jenkins' talk at Lancer 2013:-

Since I had been assisting with Dr. Boswell, I was the only corpsman at that point in time that was working with Dr. Boswell.  I followed Dr. Boswell to the bucket of formalin where we infused the brain.   My first impression was, the damage to the brain does not correlate with the extensive damage to the skull.  What I mean with that was the right interior portion of the brain was damaged and there was some tissue missing.  The brain due to the trauma apparently was in that area was kinda gelatinous and that pretty much stands to reason, because when you traumatise the brain, it’s not like traumatising a muscle, or something like that, where you get bruising and so forth.  The brain actually has a large amount of fluid in so it kinda becomes mushy and gelatinous, that was what I saw.  The other thing, I didn’t think that the brain was large enough.  I had an impression that it was smaller than what it should be coming out of the cavity that it came out of.  Now these were just impressions on my part.  That was a first sight, first impression type thing.  Dr. Boswell carried the brain to our bucket where we infused the brain.  How we did it is important, because our normal method was we had a stainless steel bucket, we filled the bucket approximately half full of formalin.  We had created a gauze sling that went over the top of the bucket.  We laid the brain upside down in that sling.  We had a two needle apparatus that came from a supply of formalin that was up on the top of the cabinets.  What we did with it was, we took those needles, we infused the brains through the two internal carotids at the base of the brain.   Those carotids were retracted and it was extremely difficult, and as a matter of fact we had one of the residents come in, which was the chief resident, because Dr. Boswell and Dr. Humes did not do this menial type thing of placing these suture needles in and so forth.  So what we did was, we infused the brain and it was extremely difficult because of the condition of the carotids.  Well, in my experience when vessels are severed for a period of time they retract, especially arteries, because of the way they’re constructed, and over a period of time it’s almost like they begin to close off themselves.  The other thing I noticed was the brain stem, where the brain stem was cut to remove it from the cranium, the brain stem looked like it had been cut from two different sides, from each side met in the middle.  I can relate that because if you’ve ever tried to cut something from the right side and go back and cut it from the left side, it never, almost invariably never is the same level, and this is what the brain stem looked like.  You know, I’ve been asked many times about this, ‘did I think that the brain had been removed prior to the autopsy?’  Taking into consideration the abnormal things that I just described….I feel like it was. 

We don't know if the brain photos were taken on the night of the autopsy or several days later after the brain had been sitting in formalin.

[Pete Mellor]

9 hours ago, Gerry Down said:

We don't know if the brain photos were taken on the night of the autopsy or several days later after the brain had been sitting in formalin.

I reckon that's correct Gerry.  Jenkins made no mention of photographs being taken prior to the brain being infused with formalin immediately after removal from the body.

So, we also don't know if the photographs of the brain are of JFK's brain.

[Pete Mellor]

More from Jenkins & William Law's Lancer presentation covering the back and throat wounds.

During the time that we were dissecting and weighing the organs, Dr.Humes was probing the back wound.  On this same sheet that was approximately where the wound was placed and that’s where I remember it being, in the back.  But the significance of this is I watched the operation of Dr. Humes probing that wound with his finger.  He probed it to the depth of that wound with his finger.  I could see the impression on the pleural, on the back of the pleural cavity, the chest cavity, but it never entered the chest cavity.  He and Dr. Finck took a sound.  A sound is for, many of you probably know what a sound is, but I suggest they probably used a sound, because a sound is rounded. (?) Because one of the things that they expressed was the fact that we don’t want to create an entry into the pleural cavity if there’s none there.  Now, moving on to the lungs, this is related to the lungs.  On the right top of the middle lobe, almost….it’s a junction.  The lung has three lobes.  There was a blue, a blueish type of indentation probably about the size of your thumb.  Speculation was that that was caused by the bullet that entered at the point in the back.  I know that this is one of the major controversial points related to the neck wound.  At the point that the back wound is, it is probably, just roughly guessin’, ten, maybe a little more, a little less, centimetres below the wound in the throat.  At no time in the autopsy did we do any examination of the throat trach.  We were told that’s what it was, that it was a trach.  Now, there were questions about it because of how large it was.  It was I think on the face sheet it says it was 6.5cm., that’s a little over 2 inches.  The other thing was that this trach was done, it was horizontal in relation to the neck.  Most trachs were much smaller and in those days they were done in the vertical.  The description of the wound here as you see it was vastly different from what we got from Parkland, as was a lot of other information we got later. 

W.L.:- Have you ever seen a trach like that, that big? 

J.J.:- No.  I’ve never seen a trach that way and I’ve never seen one that large, because the old metal tracheotomy tubes were, my guess would be probably 5mm., 3 to 8mm., something like that.  We never really questioned it.  The only thing we did was when the flap was up, and the flap was up over the face Dr. Boswell kinda lifted the flap and looked up and he stuck his fingers in there.  No comment.  No nothin’ at that point in time, but that wound was never probed.  It was never examined for entry or exit.  Which brings another controversial point.  We did multiple X-rays, before we actually proceeded with the autopsy itself. 

W.L.:- Jim, when you say multiple, take a guess and tell us how many X-rays would you estimate you took? 

J.J.:- I think Custer (referring to Jerrol Custer) and I took, we took the original AP (anteroposterior) and laterals. We took multiple, I would say probably for every one we took, we did five repeats at the request, my impression was, at the request of the gallery.  Nothing seemed to be pleasing the people in the gallery.  Actually, nothing being done in the autopsy seemed to be pleasing to the people in the gallery.  We were directed again, at one time we were directed away from the wound in the neck because the reason we were given was that it would have been too….if we had actually examined it, we would have had to open it into the trach and that would have been too hard for the mortician to conceal it. 

W.L.:- To find the path of the bullet would you need to do that? 

J.J.:- Yes!  Yes you would have to actually do the incisions involved and follow the path in there.  At least you would have probed it to see where it went.  The other thing with the X-rays, we were finding no bullet fragments.  We found no bullet fragments that were in the body itself.  Now, the bullet fragments that people relate to were bullet fragments that were brought in after the autopsy was underway and given to us in a small tie top bag.  It’s similar to a zip lock except it has a tie that runs across the top and is folded over and that type of thing, that was placed on the autopsy table by the right ear. 

[Gerry Down]

4 hours ago, Pete Mellor said:

More from Jenkins & William Law's Lancer presentation covering the back and throat wounds.

During the time that we were dissecting and weighing the organs, Dr.Humes was probing the back wound.  On this same sheet that was approximately where the wound was placed and that’s where I remember it being, in the back.  But the significance of this is I watched the operation of Dr. Humes probing that wound with his finger.  He probed it to the depth of that wound with his finger.  I could see the impression on the pleural, on the back of the pleural cavity, the chest cavity, but it never entered the chest cavity.  He and Dr. Finck took a sound.  A sound is for, many of you probably know what a sound is, but I suggest they probably used a sound, because a sound is rounded. (?) Because one of the things that they expressed was the fact that we don’t want to create an entry into the pleural cavity if there’s none there.  Now, moving on to the lungs, this is related to the lungs.  On the right top of the middle lobe, almost….it’s a junction.  The lung has three lobes.  There was a blue, a blueish type of indentation probably about the size of your thumb.  Speculation was that that was caused by the bullet that entered at the point in the back.  I know that this is one of the major controversial points related to the neck wound.  At the point that the back wound is, it is probably, just roughly guessin’, ten, maybe a little more, a little less, centimetres below the wound in the throat.  At no time in the autopsy did we do any examination of the throat trach.  We were told that’s what it was, that it was a trach.  Now, there were questions about it because of how large it was.  It was I think on the face sheet it says it was 6.5cm., that’s a little over 2 inches.  The other thing was that this trach was done, it was horizontal in relation to the neck.  Most trachs were much smaller and in those days they were done in the vertical.  The description of the wound here as you see it was vastly different from what we got from Parkland, as was a lot of other information we got later. 

W.L.:- Have you ever seen a trach like that, that big? 

J.J.:- No.  I’ve never seen a trach that way and I’ve never seen one that large, because the old metal tracheotomy tubes were, my guess would be probably 5mm., 3 to 8mm., something like that.  We never really questioned it.  The only thing we did was when the flap was up, and the flap was up over the face Dr. Boswell kinda lifted the flap and looked up and he stuck his fingers in there.  No comment.  No nothin’ at that point in time, but that wound was never probed.  It was never examined for entry or exit.  Which brings another controversial point.  We did multiple X-rays, before we actually proceeded with the autopsy itself. 

W.L.:- Jim, when you say multiple, take a guess and tell us how many X-rays would you estimate you took? 

J.J.:- I think Custer (referring to Jerrol Custer) and I took, we took the original AP (anteroposterior) and laterals. We took multiple, I would say probably for every one we took, we did five repeats at the request, my impression was, at the request of the gallery.  Nothing seemed to be pleasing the people in the gallery.  Actually, nothing being done in the autopsy seemed to be pleasing to the people in the gallery.  We were directed again, at one time we were directed away from the wound in the neck because the reason we were given was that it would have been too….if we had actually examined it, we would have had to open it into the trach and that would have been too hard for the mortician to conceal it. 

W.L.:- To find the path of the bullet would you need to do that? 

J.J.:- Yes!  Yes you would have to actually do the incisions involved and follow the path in there.  At least you would have probed it to see where it went.  The other thing with the X-rays, we were finding no bullet fragments.  We found no bullet fragments that were in the body itself.  Now, the bullet fragments that people relate to were bullet fragments that were brought in after the autopsy was underway and given to us in a small tie top bag.  It’s similar to a zip lock except it has a tie that runs across the top and is folded over and that type of thing, that was placed on the autopsy table by the right ear. 

Interesting. So there was some reluctance to disect the throat wound in case it would create too much work for the morticians afterwards.

[Michael Griffith]

15 hours ago, Gerry Down said:

 

I've never heard of someone being able to calculate the missing weight of a brain from just a photo alone. 

So you can't even admit that the brain photos do not even remotely show one fourth of the brain missing? Wow. Again, you are determined to see the emperor's new clothes, no matter what.

You don't have to be a neurologist to see that the brain in those photos is virtually intact, that it has virtually no tissue missing, just as Baden observed.

And bear in mind Baden was trying to do this from just the overhead view of the brain where the damage was. No sideview.

So you want us to believe that on the right exterior of the cerebrum, i.e., the one part that we can't see in the top-view photo, there is a huge amount of missing brain, one fourth of the brain gone! I mean, this is just silly. If that much brain were missing on the right side of the cerebrum, the cerebrum would be much smaller than it is in the brain photos.

Moreover, Baden said he viewed all the brain photos, not just the top-view one. Plus, Humes's report on the supplemental brain exam includes a description of the basilar view of the brain (underneath view of the brain), and it likewise says nothing about any missing brain tissue.

By the way, the HSCA FPP acknowledged that the brain photos show the cerebellum "virtually intact." So all those doctors, including two neurosurgeons, who reported seeing damaged and missing cerebellar tissue must have blundered horrendously, even though the cerebellar tissue is found only in the back of the brain and has a different color than any other part of the brain. 

And if one fourth of the brain was gone, how do you get a brain that weighs 1500 grams, especially when the average male brain weighs 150 grams less than that? Formalin might add 100 grams of weight, but sometimes it reduces the weight. And Baden's edema-fluid theory is a joke. As we would expect, a large amount of brain fluid was blown from JFK's head, along with blood and brain matter. 

Allow me to repeat the fact that Dr. Mantik has verified via OD measurements that over half of the right side of the brain is missing in the skull x-rays, and that some brain tissue is also missing on the left side. 

Edited June 6, 2023 by Michael Griffith

[Gerry Down]

1 hour ago, Michael Griffith said:

I've never heard of someone being able to calculate the missing weight of a brain from just a photo alone. 

So you can't even admit that the brain photos do not even remotely show one fourth of the brain missing? Wow. Again, you are determined to see the emperor's new clothes, no matter what.

You don't have to be a neurologist to see that the brain in those photos is virtually intact, that it has virtually no tissue missing, just as Baden observed.

And bear in mind Baden was trying to do this from just the overhead view of the brain where the damage was. No sideview.

So you want us to believe that on the right exterior of the cerebrum, i.e., the one part that we can't see in the top-view photo, there is a huge amount of missing brain, one fourth of the brain gone! I mean, this is just silly. If that much brain were missing on the right side of the cerebrum, the cerebrum would be much smaller than it is in the brain photos.

Moreover, Baden said he viewed all the brain photos, not just the top-view one. Plus, Humes's report on the supplemental brain exam includes a description of the basilar view of the brain (underneath view of the brain), and it likewise says nothing about any missing brain tissue.

By the way, the HSCA FPP acknowledged that the brain photos show the cerebellum "virtually intact." So all those doctors, including two neurosurgeons, who reported seeing damaged and missing cerebellar tissue must have blundered horrendously, even though the cerebellar tissue is found only in the back of the brain and has a different color than any other part of the brain. 

And if one fourth of the brain was gone, how do you get a brain that weighs 1500 grams, especially when the average male brain weighs 150 grams less than that? Formalin might add 100 grams of weight, but sometimes it reduces the weight. And Baden's edema-fluid theory is a joke. As we would expect, a large amount of brain fluid was blown from JFK's head, along with blood and brain matter. 

Allow me to repeat the fact that Dr. Mantik has verified via OD measurements that over half of the right side of the brain is missing in the skull x-rays, and that some brain tissue is also missing on the left side. 

That's the average weight. The upper limit is 1650g for a man. Jfk had a big head. So if his brain was 1600g and a quarter or a fifth was gone, that would bring it down to about 1200g. Then add 15% for swelling. That would bring you up to 1380g. Then add on the 100g for formalin. That would bring you up to 1480g. Pat Speer has done more extensive calculations than this on his website, I suggest you check his calculations as they are likely to be more accurate than mine.

[Gerry Down]

One thing JFK can't be accused of is having a small head 😆

[Michael Griffith]

On 6/6/2023 at 12:20 PM, Gerry Down said:

That's the average weight. The upper limit is 1650g for a man. Jfk had a big head. So if his brain was 1600g and a quarter or a fifth was gone, that would bring it down to about 1200g. Then add 15% for swelling. That would bring you up to 1380g. Then add on the 100g for formalin. That would bring you up to 1480g. Pat Speer has done more extensive calculations than this on his website, I suggest you check his calculations as they are likely to be more accurate than mine.

And just never mind that the autopsy brain photos show virtually no brain tissue missing, much less one fourth of the brain gone, right? And never mind that so many witnesses independently described a large amount of missing brain, right? And never mind that OD measurements confirm that over half of the right side of the brain is missing in the autopsy skull x-rays, right? Never mind all these inconvenient facts. Just engage in more vacuous speculation about how JFK's brain could have weighed 1500 grams. 

Humes and Boswell examined the brain shown in the autopsy brain photos when they did the supplemental brain exam. They saw it from all angles. If one fourth of that brain was missing, they could not have failed to notice it. Yet, Humes's report on the supplemental exam does not even hint that one fourth of the brain was gone. In fact, his report does not even mention any missing brain tissue. Why?

Answer: Because that brain had so little tissue missing that it was not worth mentioning. That brain was virtually intact. It was lacerated and disrupted on one side, but it had practically no tissue missing, as we see in the photos of it.

Your problem is that you are trying to fit a large square peg into a small round role, because you cannot bring yourself to admit that the autopsy brain photos are fraudulent. You are faced with the fact that so much brain matter was blown from the skull that it splattered onto 15 surfaces, with the fact that the mortician who reassembled the skull said the amount of missing brain was the size of a male fist (which would have been at least one third of the brain), with the fact that a number of other witnesses independently described a large amount of missing brain, and with the fact that a highly qualified radiation oncologist has confirmed via OD measurements that over half of the right side of the brain is missing in the skull x-rays. And, you are stuck with alleged autopsy photos that show a brain with virtually no missing tissue. 

Getting back to the mortician's description of the amount of missing brain, your average male brain is about 5.5 x 6.5 x 3.6 inches in size. Your average male fist would easily be one third of that size. The average male hand in the open position is 7.6 inches long, 3.5 inches wide, and 0.5 inches tall at the fingertips and 1.5 inches tall just behind the thumb. Making a fist does not change the width, reduces the length by half, and at least doubles the height. So the mortician was describing a brain that was missing at least one third of its substance.

 

Edited June 7, 2023 by Michael Griffith

[Gerry Down]

2 hours ago, Michael Griffith said:

And just never mind that the autopsy brain photos show virtually no brain tissue missing, much less one fourth of the brain gone, right? And never mind that so many witnesses independently described a large amount of missing brain, right? And never mind that OD measurements confirm that over half of the right side of the brain is missing in the autopsy skull x-rays, right? Never mind all these inconvenient facts. Just engage in more vacuous speculation about how JFK's brain could have weighed 1500 grams. 

Humes and Boswell examined the brain shown in the autopsy brain photos when they did the supplemental brain exam. They saw it from all angles. If one fourth of that brain was missing, they could not have failed to notice it. Yet, Humes's report on the supplemental exam does not even hint that one fourth of the brain was gone. In fact, his report does not even any mention missing brain tissue. Why?

Answer: Because that brain had so little tissue missing that it was not worth mentioning. That brain was virtually intact. It was lacerated and disrupted on one side, but it had practically no tissue missing, as we see in the photos of it.

Your problem is that you are trying to fit a large square peg into a small round role, because you cannot bring yourself to admit that the autopsy brain photos are fraudulent. You are faced with the fact that so much brain matter was blown from the skull that it splattered onto 15 surfaces, with the fact that the mortician who reassembled the skull said the amount of missing brain was the size of a male fist (which would have been at least one third of the brain), with the fact that a number of other witnesses independently described a large amount of missing brain, and with the fact that a highly qualified radiation oncologist has confirmed via OD measurements that over half of the right side of the brain is missing in the skull x-rays. And, you are stuck with alleged autopsy photos that show a brain with virtually no missing tissue. 

Getting back to the mortician's description of the amount of missing brain, your average male brain is about 5.5 x 6.5 x 3.6 inches in size. Your average male fist would easily be one third of that size. The average male hand in the open position is 7.6 inches long, 3.5 inches wide, and 0.5 inches tall at the fingertips and 1.5 inches tall just behind the thumb. Making a fist does not change the width, reduces the length by half, and at least doubles the height. So the mortician was describing a brain that was missing at least one third of its substance.

 

You keep saying that the photos show virtually no brain missing. First we don't have photos but only drawings, and secondly the drawing we have showing the top of the brain looks to me at least as though the the upper half of the right side is missing. That's the way i'd describe it. If I saw a brain like that i'd say a good fist size of brain matter was gone. Thirdly in the drawing the cerebellum looks like it is being pushed out the back of the brain. Normally photos looking down on a brain show next to no cerebellum but in the drawing we can see lots of the cerebellum. This might be an indication that the brain underwent severe swelling which pushed the cerebellum out of it's normal position. And such severe swelling would account towards why the brain weighed 1500g.

[Sandy Larsen]

All of this talk is academic. We know from nearly twenty Parkland doctors and nurses that there was a large blowout wound on the back of the head. Yet neither the back-of-head autopsy photo nor the brain is consistent with that and numerous other corroborating evidence. Which proves that the BOH photo and brain were both faked.

And for some reason Gerry Down can't accept this. He's living in his own little reality.

 

[Michael Griffith]

1 hour ago, Gerry Down said:

You keep saying that the photos show virtually no brain missing. First we don't have photos but only drawings, and secondly the drawing we have showing the top of the brain looks to me at least as though the the upper half of the right side is missing. That's the way i'd describe it. If I saw a brain like that i'd say a good fist size of brain matter was gone. Thirdly in the drawing the cerebellum looks like it is being pushed out the back of the brain. Normally photos looking down on a brain show next to no cerebellum but in the drawing we can see lots of the cerebellum. This might be an indication that the brain underwent severe swelling which pushed the cerebellum out of it's normal position. And such severe swelling would account towards why the brain weighed 1500g.

So here we have it: Even though Baden was willing to acknowledge that the brain in the brain photos has virtually no missing tissue, and even though the supplemental brain exam report does not even mention missing tissue, you look at the same brain and see "the upper half of the right side" missing, i.e., you see one fourth of the brain missing, and you claim that a fist-sized amount of brain is only one fourth of the brain (are you thinking of a child's fist?). When someone is so unwilling to be objective that they claim to see what is clearly not there, they are beyond persuasion. 

The drawings are exact renderings of the photos, and Baden and the rest of the FPP saw the photos and the drawings. And Humes and Boswell examined the brain seen in the brain photos from every angle. Baden said the photos show virtually no missing brain, and Humes said nothing about any missing brain matter in his report on the supplemental brain exam. 

For many years now, in response to the argument that the brain photos show far too little missing brain matter, WC apologists have repeated Baden's and Humes's descriptions of the brain. But you, realizing that a substantial amount of brain was blown from the skull, now claim to see one fourth of the brain missing in the brain photos!

Allow me to repeat some inconvenient facts:

-- Humes told JAMA that "two thirds of the right cerebrum had been blown away." The "right cerebrum" is essentially the right half of the brain. The brain photos show nothing close to this much missing brain. Two thirds of the right cerebrum is a lot more than one half of the upper right side of the brain. 

-- Four witnesses said that more than half the brain was gone, and one other witness implied this.

-- Dozens of witnesses, in three different locations, independently said there was a large right-rear head wound, including the Secret Service agent who stared at the wound for several minutes on the way to Parkland Hospital, the nurse who packed the wound with gauze, and the mortician who reassembled the skull. 

-- Several doctors, including two neurosurgeons, said the cerebellum was damaged and was missing tissue. 

-- The descriptions of the brain matter that was splattered onto 15 surfaces clearly appear to describe much more missing brain tissue than one fourth of the brain.

-- OD measurements confirm that more than half of the right side of the brain is missing in the autopsy skull x-rays. 

[Gerry Down]

8 minutes ago, Michael Griffith said:

So here we have it: Even though Baden was willing to acknowledge that the brain in the brain photos has virtually no missing tissue, and even though the supplemental brain exam report does not even mention missing tissue, you look at the same brain and see "the upper half of the right side" missing, i.e., you see one fourth of the brain missing, and you claim that a fist-sized amount of brain is only one fourth of the brain (are you thinking of a child's fist?). When someone is so unwilling to be objective that they claim to see what is clearly not there, they are beyond persuasion. 

The drawings are exact renderings of the photos, and Baden and the rest of the FPP saw the photos and the drawings. And Humes and Boswell examined the brain seen in the brain photos from every angle. Baden said the photos show virtually no missing brain, and Humes said nothing about any missing brain matter in his report on the supplemental brain exam. 

For many years now, in response to the argument that the brain photos show far too little missing brain matter, WC apologists have repeated Baden's and Humes's descriptions of the brain. But you, realizing that a substantial amount of brain was blown from the skull, now claim to see one fourth of the brain missing in the brain photos!

Allow me to repeat some inconvenient facts:

-- Humes told JAMA that "two thirds of the right cerebrum had been blown away." The "right cerebrum" is essentially the right half of the brain. The brain photos show nothing close to this much missing brain. Two thirds of the right cerebrum is a lot more than one half of the upper right side of the brain. 

-- Four witnesses said that more than half the brain was gone, and one other witness implied this.

-- Dozens of witnesses, in three different locations, independently said there was a large right-rear head wound, including the Secret Service agent who stared at the wound for several minutes on the way to Parkland Hospital, the nurse who packed the wound with gauze, and the mortician who reassembled the skull. 

-- Several doctors, including two neurosurgeons, said the cerebellum was damaged and was missing tissue. 

-- The descriptions of the brain matter that was splattered onto 15 surfaces clearly appear to describe much more missing brain tissue than one fourth of the brain.

-- OD measurements confirm that more than half of the right side of the brain is missing in the autopsy skull x-rays. 

If Baden was shown a side view of the brain, in profile, he'd change his tune.

[Gerry Down]

It's quite possible that the path of the bullet, which went through the center portion of the brain and not the top portion, resulted in a situation where most of the fist size worth of brain matter was blown out from the center portion of the brain rather than the top. When this happened the top portion of the brain would collapse down into the brain. The result of this is that an overhead photo view of the brain would not capture most of the damage and might give the mistaken impression of relatively little removed brain matter. However, a side profile view would show the top of the brain collapsed down into the brain giving the game away that a significant amount of brain matter had been blown out from the center portion of the brain from the shot.