THE WOUNDS AT BETHESDA:
Now the description of the wounds dramatically changes at Bethesda.
Horne showed a page from the autopsy protocol, and read from
it, (MD3 p.3)
"There is a large irregular defect of the scalp and skull
on the right involving chiefly the parietal bone but extending
somewhat into the temporal and occipital regions, in this region
there is an actual absence of scalp and bone producing a defect
which measures approximately 13 centimeters in greatest diameter."
Horne commented, "Now there has been a big change taken
place here. In Dallas the wound is in the back of the head, pretty
well localized to the occipital or occipitalparietal region.
Now it's chiefly in the right side of the head extending into
the temporal region and the occipital region. And Dr. Humes says
it's 13 centimeters in greatest diameter."
Horne showed the infamous autopsy diagram drawn by Dr. Boswell
with the notation "10 by 17' [centimeters] and the word
"missing."(MD 1 p.2) This is a superior view of the
skull, looking down.
Horne then played an audiotape in which you hear Dr. Humes and
Boswell, separately, state that this area is totally missing
bone. While the tape was being readied Horne read additional
comments from the autopsy protocol:
"Upon reflecting the scalp multiple complete fracture
lines are seen to radiate from both the large defect at the vertex
and the smaller wound at the occiput. These vary greatly in length
and direction, the longest measuring approximately 19 centimeters.
These result in the production of numerous fragments which vary
in size from a few millimeters to 10 centimeters in greatest
diameter."
"The complexity of these fractures and the fragments
thus produced tax a satisfactory verbal description and are better
appreciated in photographs and roentgenograms which are prepared.'"
Continuing the evidence for changes in the wounds, Horne showed
the two diagrams prepared by Jerol Custer, a lateral and rear
view of the head (MD 206 and 207). The cross hatch lines in the
lateral diagram are areas where he said it was completely devoid
of bone. The rear view shows a much larger wound than that described
at Parkland.
Horne then went to an audiotape of David Lifton interviewing
John Stringer in 1972. Horne read the important segment first.
Lifton: "Yeah, okay, well when you lifted him out was the
main damage to the skull on the top or in the back?"
Stringer: "In the back."
Lifton: "In the back?"
Stringer: "In the back."
Lifton: "High in the back or lower in the back?
Stringer: "Oh, the occipital part, in the back there...
[and then it's garbled ] ...up above the neck."
Lifton: "Yeah, in other words the main part of his head
that was blasted away was in the occipital part of the skull?"
Stringer: "Yes, in the back part."
Lifton: "The back portion, okay. In other words there was
no 5 inch hole in the top of his head?"
Stringer: "Oh, it was, some of it was blown off yeah, I
mean towards out the top in the back yeah."
Lifton: "Top in the back, I see. But the top in the front
was pretty, oh, I don't know, intact?"
Stringer: "Yeah, sure."
Because of the lack of time Horne wasn't able to read passages
from the Humes and Boswell ARRB depositions about the 10 by 17
centimeters and how it represents missing bone and a lot of missing
scalp. But these statements are recorded in the depositions and
both men are unequivocal about what they wrote.
Horne then pointed out it is not just Humes and Boswell who
report this huge area of missing bone and scalp. Dr. Pierre Finck
reports to Brigadier General J. Blumberg February 1st, 1965 (MD
28), calling it a right, frontal parietal-occipital wound.
Horne exclaimed: "That's the whole right side of the
head! That's not what was described in Dallas."
Horne then referred to Paul O'Connor's interview to the HSCA's
Andrew Purdy:
"O'Connor described a defect as being in the region from
the occipital around
the temporal and parietal regions,, a massive hole, no little
hole.
Horne then read from another HSCA staff interview report, this
time with James Curtis Jenkins:
"He said he saw a head wound in the middle temporal region
back to the occipital. (MD 65 p.4)
Horne displayed 3 color coded skulls:
One depicting the wounds as described in Dallas, a wound in
the occiput 5 by 7 centimeters as described by Dr. Carrico to
the Warren Commission. Dr. Carrico was the only one to give a
dimension in 1964.
A second skull showed the wounds as described at Bethesda.
At Bethesda the wound is larger. Skull #2 was painted to show
what Horne previously thought the missing bone looked like at
Bethesda.
Then Doug showed skull #3. Dr. Boswell drew on a plastic skull
for the ARRB an even larger hole, which does include the original
wound as described by Parkland physicians. Nearly the entire
top of the skull and most of the entire right side is devoid
of bone and scalp. One skull showed the wounds as described in
Dallas, the next as Doug thought the wounds were described at
Bethesda, and the 3rd as Dr. Boswell drew it on the plastic skull,
which to Doug's shock was largest of all, and far larger than
anyone had previously described or drew.
Horne next had some fun at Humes and Boswell's expense showing
the photographs which accompanied the JAMA articles as saying
their hands were describing the size of the head wound at Bethesda.
Horne then showed a statement from Dr. Fink wherein the phrase
"portion of the crater" appears, saying, in other words,
there was no through and through perforation of the bone. Humes
said there was in his ARRB deposition. But Finck said in 1965
there was no portion of a crater. Dr. Boswell told Purdy in 1977
that only when they reinserted a fragment of bone "that
came from Dallas" could you reconstruct the entrance wound,
and then the massive wound in the head was immediately above
that. So, what this means is when the body is received at Bethesda
there is nothing but a giant hole, and only after a small fragment
was inserted could someone reconsctruct what they thought was
an entrance.
Horne, "So what's going on here? Is there any evidence
at all that the chain of custody [of JFK's body] was interrupted?
Well, there sure is. There is a lot of evidence."
Continued in part 2b: THE
TWO CASKETS
Part One
Part Two a
Part Two b
Part Three
Part Four
Part Five
joebackes@aol.com
*All referenced documents from Doug
Horne and on releases in 1998 by the ARRB are available from
JFK Lancer Resource Mail Order. http://www.flash.net/~jfklancr/Documents.html
except Horne's personal file on the Dallas Doctors fiasco.
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