AN OPEN LETTER ON NEW DISCLOSURES CONCERNING THE ASSASSINATION OF PRESIDENT KENNEDY, by Michael T. Griffith, 3/4/98.
Friends and Fellow Researchers,
I believe that recently developed evidence warrants officially reopening the case, and I am by no means alone in this sentiment. For one thing, newly disclosed files from the House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) released by order of the Assassination Records Review Board have revealed serious conflicts in the alleged autopsy materials. The new disclosures add greatly to our knowledge of the medical evidence and corroborate much of what researchers had already learned from private interviews with autopsy witnesses and with Dallas doctors and nurses who saw the President's body at Parkland Hospital. But the new disclosures don't just concern the medical evidence; they also involve other important issues as well, such as the authenticity of the Zapruder film and the number and timing of the shots.
A great deal of the abovementioned evidence is presented in the new book ASSASSINATION SCIENCE: EXPERTS SPEAK OUT ON THE DEATH OF JFK (Chicago: Catfeet Press, 1998), edited by Professor James Fetzer and in Harrison Livingstone's recent book KILLING KENNEDY AND THE HOAX OF THE CENTURY (New York: Carroll & Graf Publishers, 1995).
Assisting Livingstone in his efforts was a team of expert advisors that included Dr. David Mantik, a physicist and radiologist who is currently the Director of Radiation Oncology at Eisenhower Memorial Hospital in Rancho Mirage, California; Mr. Daryll Weatherly, a mathematician with a background in physics at the State University of New York; and Dr. Gary Aguilar, Chairman, Department of Surgery, Saint Francis Memorial Hospital, San Francisco, California. This newly developed evidence and the new information from the released files include the following:
* The famous Zapruder film of the assassination was significantly altered soon after the assassination in an attempt to conceal, among other things, the fact that multiple gunmen fired at President Kennedy. Numerous frames were removed, while other frames were combined into composite frames, and certain images in the film were doctored. There were actually two head shots, which were combined into a single event, and the original backward motion of the President's upper body was not as rapid as it now appears in the film.
* The autopsy photos and x-rays of President Kennedy appear to have been altered and no longer show all the wounds that he suffered.
* The autopsy x-rays have not been properly interpreted by the government-hired consultants who have examined them. The skull x-rays show evidence that a second bullet struck the President's head. One of the x-rays, the anterior-posterior radiograph, shows an area of missing bone in the back of the head. No official review of this x-ray has yet dealt with this fact.
* The pathologists who performed the autopsy on the President virtually screamed to HSCA investigators that the autopsy photographs in evidence did not show the wounds they had seen and handled at the autopsy. At one point, Dr. Finck even questioned HOW THE PHOTOS OF THE BACK OF THE HEAD HAD BEEN ESTABLISHED AS HAVING BEEN MADE AT KENNEDY'S AUTOPSY!
* Important photos and x-rays taken during the autopsy are inexplicably missing. It is suspected that the photos of the inside of the chest are missing because they would show that the back wound never penetrated the chest cavity.
* The autopsy pathologists strongly rejected the "revised" location for the rear head entry wound, and they frankly questioned the relevancy of the photos and x-rays with regard to the wound's placement. Dr. Finck even told HSCA investigators that he didn't believe the x-rays proved a higher entry point. Dr. Ebersole, the radiologist at the autopsy, said the same thing in one of his interviews. (Dr. Mantik, after studying the original x-rays at the National Archives, agrees that the high entry wound is not demonstrated in the radiographs.) All three of the autopsists said the photos of the back of the head did NOT show a higher entry point, and that the spot which the medical panel identified as the revised entry point was not a bullet wound! The pathologists stressed over and over again in their interviews that they handled the skull at length, that they took careful measurements, that their hands-on examination was superior to interpretations based on photos and radiographs, and that they were absolutely certain that the rear entry wound was where they had placed in the autopsy report. (Dr. Humes' later so-called "retraction" was weak, hesitant, and equivocal, e.g., "well, I have a little trouble with that," and in his previous interviews Humes was emphatic that the entry wound was near the external occipital protuberance, where they had placed it in the autopsy report. The new lone-gunman version of the rear entry wound assumes that the autopsists, along with Dr. Ebersole, "mislocated" the wound by a staggering FOUR INCHES.) Why is this such an important issue? Because, for one thing, the rear entry wound identified by the autopsy doctors could not have been made by a bullet fired from the alleged lone-gunman's position during the shooting (unless Kennedy had been leaning forward by 59 degrees, which he obviously wasn't).
* The autopsists changed their story about President Kennedy's back wound and subsequently misreported its location (it is believed by many that they were pressured or forced to do so). Although Dr. Boswell, for example, placed the wound markedly below the neck on his face sheet diagram (which was marked "verified"), the autopsy report (which was revised after Oswald's death) located the wound at the base of the neck and said it was ABOVE the wound in the throat. However, recently released HSCA files provide further evidence that the wound was actually much farther down on the back. Among other things, Livingstone reproduces wound diagrams drawn by three witnesses at the autopsy, all of which place the back wound well below the neck. This is an important point because, among other things, it constitutes additional evidence that the Warren Commission's single-bullet theory is invalid and impossible. Without the single-bullet theory, there can be no lone-gunman scenario.
* The famous, long-disputed 6.5 mm bullet fragment located by the Clark Panel and by the HSCA as being on the outer table of the skull in the back of the head in the AP x-ray is not metallic and cannot be a missile fragment. Dr. Mantik was able to duplicate the process by which the 6.5 mm object was added to the x-ray.
* The single-bullet theory is an abject impossibility. Dr. Mantik found by examining the photos and x-rays that no bullet could have exited the throat without doing extensive, massive damage to the bony structures of the neck or without causing significant trauma to the lungs. Furthermore, only a bullet exiting the President's throat at a markedly leftward angle could have caused the nick that was allegedly made on the left edge of the knot of the President's tie. I say "allegedly" because a high-quality photo of the tie shows the nick to be visibly inward from the knot's left edge, and the HSCA confirmed that the nick does not even come close to going all the way through the tie. But, assuming a bullet exited the throat and caused the nick in the tie, that missile could not possibly have struck Governor John Connally near the right armpit as required by the single-bullet theory. It appears virtually certain that the throat wound was actually an ENTRY wound, not an exit wound.)
* Over and over again Dr. Boswell told HSCA investigators that BONE WAS MISSING FROM THE BACK OF THE HEAD. He added that they only had part of the rear entry wound until late in the night when pieces of skull arrived from Dallas and one of them was found to have the other part of the rear entry wound--IN THE BACK OF THE HEAD. What does this say about the autopsy photo showing the back of the head INTACT? This photo was supposedly taken well before the late arrival of the skull fragments from Dallas!
* The famous Harper fragment, which was blown from President Kennedy's skull during the shooting, was identified by at least two doctors soon after the assassination as occipital bone, i.e., as coming from the back of the head. Dr. Jack Harper, whose nephew found the fragment, told HSCA investigators that "the consensus of the doctors who viewed the skull fragment was that it was part of the occipital region." One of those doctors was the chief pathologist at Methodist Hospital, Dr. A. B. Cairns. Dr. Cairns firmly identified the fragment as occipital bone.
* Dr. George Burkley, JFK's personal physician, communicated through his attorney to the HSCA's chief counsel that he had information that proved there must have been more than one gunman, and he expressed a willingness to share this information with the committee. Dr. Burkley saw the President's body at Parkland Hospital in Dallas and during the autopsy. The letter that Burkley's attorney wrote on the doctor's behalf was released and copies have been circulated among the research community. There is no record that the Select Committee ever followed up on Dr. Burkley's offer.
* A leading expert in photo retouching, Veronica Cass, examined the autopsy photos and concluded they had been doctored. Steve Mills, a professional photographer and photo lab tech, has reached the same conclusion.
* Witness after witness at the autopsy told HSCA investigators that the large defect on the President's head was in the rear part of the skull (which would strongly indicate a shot from the front). These witnesses included mortician Tom Robinson (who handled the skull at length), General Philip Wehle, James Curtis Jenkins, Jan Gail Rudnicki, Dr. Robert Karnei, and Dr. Ebersole. In fact, Dr. Ebersole, come to find out from the released files, told HSCA interviewers that "a large fragment OF THE OCCIPITAL BONE was received from Dallas" at around 12:30 that night! Occipital bone is located at the back of the head. It is not hard to understand why these files were suppressed for so long.
* There is a serious conflict between the autopsy photos and the x-rays. The x-rays show a large amount of bone missing from the right frontal area (though not from the forehead). Yet, in the autopsy pictures show very little damage to this area. The anterior-posterior x-ray does in fact show bone missing from the back of the head, but this region is in virtually perfect condition in the autopsy photos. While the AP x-ray shows some bone missing in the back of the head, the lateral x-rays shows no such damage (though there is an unnaturally bright white patch over the right rear part of the skull on the lateral x-rays).
* FBI and Secret Service experts who conducted the first two government reenactments reached conclusions about the shots' trajectories and timing that were markedly at odds with the Warren Commission's claims. These findings were ignored and suppressed.
* There was co-discoverer of CE 399, the alleged "magic bullet" that the WC claimed penetrated both Kennedy and Connally. This person described the bullet that he and Darrell Tomlinson found as having a POINTED tip, not a round one. This is important because CE 399 has a round tip. (This suggests that CE 399 is not the bullet that was originally discovered at Parkland Hospital.)
* Three federal agents who attended the autopsy drew wound diagrams for the HSCA that showed the rear head entry wound at or very close to the location identified by the autopsy pathologists. Those diagrams have now been released and constitute further evidence that the rear head entrance wound was where the autopsists placed it. As mentioned, there is no way a missile fired from the so-called "Oswald sniper's window" could have caused that wound.
* An FBI evidence envelope was discovered that once contained an additional bullet shell that was discovered in Dealey Plaza on the day of the shooting. Information written on the envelope states that the shell it contained was found in Dealey Plaza on the day of the assassination.
* Apparently only two shots were fired from the sixth-floor window of the Book Depository Building. An original FBI evidence sheet and a Dallas police property clerk's invoice both record the receipt of two shells and one live missile from the the sniper's nest. Recently, an FBI evidence envelope was discovered that contained the two shells and the live round. The envelope also contained photos, and these photos show two shells and a live bullet. Also, an 11/22/63 DPD Crime Scene Section document has surfaced that likewise says only two shells were found in the sixth-floor sniper's nest. This evidence strongly suggests that either the police initially were only going to admit to finding two shells or, somewhat less likely, that only two shells were found to begin with. The third shell, which only surfaced several days later, has a dent in it and could not have been used to fire a bullet during the assassination. (It's interesting to note that originally Bonnie Ray Williams, who was standing next to the southeast fifth-floor window, directly beneath the sixth-floor sniper's nest with only thin floor boarding separating him from the sniper's nest, said he only heard TWO shots. Howard Brennan, who was standing on the street below in a location that was almost directly beneath the sixth-floor window, likewise only heard two shots from that window. So if only two shots were fired from the sixth-floor window, someone else must have fired the other shot or shots.)
* Numerous witnesses said the limousine stopped or slowed down drastically, and there are scientific indications in the Zapruder film that it stopped, yet in the film the limousine does not appear to stop or drastically slow down during the shooting. In other words, although there are technical indications deduced from analysis of background images in the film that the limousine did in fact stop, the limousine is not seen to stop or markedly, noticeably slow in the film during the shooting.
The clear indications of significant tampering that have been discovered in the Zapruder film would seem to suggest the complicity of at least some of the federal agents who handled the film soon after the assassination. The alteration of the film required a high degree of technical expertise and immediate access to the necessary photographic equipment.
The tampering that has been identified in the autopsy photos and x-rays required technical expertise and access to the original autopsy materials, as well as the ability to place the doctored items with the appropriate federal agents. The x-ray technician at the autopsy, Jerrol Custer, has publicly come forward with a disturbing account of how, on the day after the assassination, he was made to tape bullet fragments to skull bones and to x-ray them. Custer was told this was being done for a "bust" of President Kennedy, but no such bust has ever surfaced.
Other researchers agree that the evidence developed by Livingstone and his team warrants officially reopening the case. In the near future, I will post a suggested outline of a letter that you can use to write your Senators and Representatives and other government officials to urge them to support a new investigation.
Again, I can't say enough about the importance of the new book ASSASSINATION SCIENCE and of Livingstone's 1995 book KILLING KENNEDY AND THE HOAX OF THE CENTURY. They contain some genuine breakthroughs. The chapter in KILLING KENNEDY on the released HSCA files is worth the price of the book all by itself. Both books are must reading. If you'd like to order them via e-mail with your major credit card, contact JFK Lancer Prodcutions and Publications at jfklancr@flash.net. Or, you can call them via their toll-free number 1-888-259-6317. (I receive no payment of any kind for copies of Livingstone's book ordered from JFK Lancer, or from any other distributor.)
What follows is a list of SOME of the things that could and should be done in a new investigation of the assassination:
* All of the living autopsy witnesses should be carefully and thoroughly deposed. This was not done by the Warren Commission. Nor was it done by the HSCA, though the Select Committee did do a better job in this regard than did the Warren Commission.
* The autopsy doctors could finally be questioned with the kind of thoroughness with which they should have been deposed a long time ago. Additionally, they should be asked to take a polygraph examination concerning several of their doubtful, controversial claims.
* ALL available ante-mortem radiographs of President Kennedy should be released for comparison with the autopsy x-rays. Dr. Mantik compared a print made from a ante-mortem x-ray of the President's head with one of the autopsy x-rays at the National Archives and found a discrepancy that suggested that the autopsy radiograph had been altered. Dr. Mantik wanted to study the original in vivo x-rays and to compare them with the extant autopsy x-rays at the National Archives. However, the JFK Library in Boston would not allow him to do so.
* The body of the late Governor John Connally should be exhumed and any metal fragments found therein should be carefully analyzed to determine their composition. Some fragments from the bullet or bullets that struck the Governor reportedly remained in his body.
* President Kennedy's body should be exhumed and examined by a team of independent, highly qualified forensic experts, including Dr. Cyril Wecht.
* Mrs. Ruth Paine should be thoroughly deposed and asked to take a polygraph test about her role in events related to the assassination.
* There is an unconfirmed story that when the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory studied what was supposed to be the original Zapruder film for the HSCA, it found that the Kodak symbols were missing from the film. This finding was supposedly stated in a report to the HSCA. All unreleased HSCA files should be searched to see if this report is among them.
* Retired FBI agent James Hosty should be thoroughly deposed and asked to take a polygraph examination about his involvement with Oswald, among other things.
* Surviving retired members of the Dallas Police Department who were involved in the department's investigation of the case should be thoroughly deposed and asked to take a polygraph examination concerning their handling of the evidence and their activities before, during, and after the shooting. As far as I'm aware, Lt. J. C. Day and Patrolman Marrion Baker, both of whom played critical roles in the investigation, are still alive. They could be deposed and asked to take a polygraph test.
* Certain FBI technicians and agents should be carefully deposed about their handling of assassination evidence. For example, incredibly, the FBI destroyed the curb fragment that was removed from the south Main Street curb and which was apparently struck by a stray shot or large fragment during the assassination.
* Dan Marvin, a retired Army Lt. Col. and a former member of the Army Green Berets, has publicly stated, on film, that he was offered money to kill Navy Lt. Cmdr. Bruce Pitzer, who was later found shot dead in his office at Bethesda Naval Hospital (in 1966), where the autopsy was performed. Marvin should be deposed and asked to submit to a polygraph examination. Lt. Cmdr. Pitzer was in attendance at President Kennedy's autopsy and took footage of the body. Mrs. Pitzer has said that her husband "had parts of the autopsy that they wanted destroyed." Dennis David, a former Navy officer, knew Pitzer well and saw slides from the footage that Pitzer took. According to Mr. David, Pitzer's footage showed evidence that Kennedy was shot from the front. Pitzer's death was ruled a suicide, but Pitzer's widow scoffs at that finding, as does Mr. David. Many researchers believe Pitzer was murdered to suppress the film he made at the autopsy. Harrison Livingstone was finally able to obtain a copy of the report Pitzer's autopsy. The report says nothing about gunpowder burns, but if Pitzer had shot himself there would have been a pattern of burns on his head and even on his clothes. Not only should Dan Marvin be deposed, but Lt. Cmdr. Pitzer's death should be reinvestigated.
* A detailed, comprehensive study should be done of all existing films relating to the assassination, including the Bronson, Nix, and Hughes films, not to mention the Zapruder film.
* Convicted Texas hitman Charles Harrelson should be deposed and asked to take a polygraph examination. Harrelson has been identified as the tall man in the famous photos of three so-called "tramps" who were arrested in the railyard behind Dealey Plaza shortly after the assassination. Harrelson was convicted of murdering federal judge John Wood in the early 1980s and is currently serving his sentence in a Texas prison. Harrelson was high on cocaine when he was arrested for murdering Judge Wood. One of the arresting officers reported that not only did Harrelson confess to killing the judge, but that he also admitted to participating in the assassination of President Kennedy. Harrelson later retracted his statement about taking part in the assassination, claiming that he fabricated it under the influence of the cocaine. When arrested, Harrelson was found to be carrying the business card of R. D. Matthews, who, according to the HSCA, was acquainted with Jack Ruby and with other Dallas crime figures. Indicted along with Harrelson in the plot to kill Judge Wood was the brother of New Orleans crime boss Carlos Marcello, who was one of the Mafia figures named by the HSCA as possibly having been involved in the assassination of President Kennedy. Researcher J. Gary Shaw asked an anthropologist to compare photos of the tall tramp with pictures of Harrelson, and the anthropologist concluded it was likely they were the same person. Similarly, police officers trained in photo identification have advised Harrison Livingstone that Harrelson definitely appears to be the tall tramp. Why hasn't the FBI or the state of Texas followed up on any of this evidence?
Mike Griffith