New Medical Evidence in the JFK Assassination
A review of documents released under the JFK Records Act

In 1998, the Assassination Records Review Board (ARRB) released over 2500 pages of documentary evidence related to the autopsy of John F. Kennedy and related matters. This includes:

• A Master Set of Exhibits, containing in one place medical testimony to the Warren Commission and HSCA, official autopsy-related documents, documentary reviews of the autopsy photographs and radiograms, notes of interviews conducted by HSCA and ARRB staffers, reprints of some articles about the autopsy, and more.
• Sworn depositions conducted with eleven persons, ten of whom were involved with JFK's autopsy or related photographic processing. The three autopsy doctors were deposed, as well as the two FBI agents present, other autopsy personnel, and a woman who developed autopsy photos and who had never been interviewed by any preceding body. The eleventh deponent was Robert Groden, who participated in the HSCA's analysis of photographs.
• A "group" oral deposition of five doctors who treated JFK at Parkland Hospital in Dallas.
• Lengthy memos by ARRB staffer Doug Horne, describing issues and anomalies related to the medical evidence.

The medical findings have long been in controversy, and with good reason. The initial reports from the doctors in Dallas did not seem to square with the autopsy findings. The Clark Panel and HSCA decided that the head entry wound was 10 centimeters from where the autopsy doctors placed it, yet they concurred with the autopsy conclusions. Author David Lifton interviewed Navy personnel who told stories which suggested that JFK's body was secretly diverted and flown to Bethesda Naval Hospital by helicopter, and possibly then subjected to a quick procedure to alter wounds and/or remove bullet fragments.

The recent releases have shed new light on these issues, and even raised new ones. Doug Horne, a senior staff member of the ARRB, wrote a memo describing the real possibility that two separate brain exams, of two different brains both purported to be Kennedy’s, were conducted a week apart in the aftermath of the assassination. This story was reported in the Washington Post.

This talk is divided into four parts:

• A recap of the medical evidence findings and controversies as they existed before the 1998 ARRB releases.
• An overview of the contents of 1998 releases.
• Discussion of specific issues of importance on which new light has been shed or new controversies created.
• Summation and speculation.

Rex Bradford is actively engaged in reading and research on the JFK assassination and Cold War history in general. He is currently producing a CD-ROM archive of documents relating to the medical evidence in the JFK assassination. He has no medical training but understands the issues involved at a reasonable degree of depth.

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