HOW FIVE INVESTIGATIONS INTO JFK’S MEDICAL/AUTOPSY EVIDENCE GOT IT WRONG

Figure 1. Rydberg Diagram – Warren Commission Exhibit #388.

Prepared under the direction of JFK’s pathologists, this diagram depicts that the greatest bone loss was on the side and rear of JFK’s skull. Note, however, that one of JFK’s pathologists prepared a diagram on the night of the autopsy depicting greater rearward damage than this image shows (See Figure 11), and in 1996 he diagrammed a huge wound with rearward damage for the Assassinations Records Review Board. (See Figure 12). Note also that although the Commission knew from this image and from the autopsy report that there had been no damage to JFK’s face, it never questioned the shooting tests done on human skulls which, though radically different, were nevertheless described as “very similar to the wounds of the President.” (See Figure 3)

Figure 2. JFK’s skull wound as described by Parkland surgeon, Robert McClelland, MD.

This drawing was first published in the book, “Six Seconds in Dallas” by Josiah Thompson. The image, reprinted from “High Treason” by authors Robert Groden and Harrison Livingstone, includes a letter from Parkland professor Paul Peters, MD corroborating the location Dr. McClelland gave for JFK’s gaping skull wound. Also reproduced in ARRB Medical Document #264.

Figure 3. Warren Commission’s “experimental duplication” of JFK’s fatal wound (Commission Exhibit # 861 and 862).

This skull was shot during experiments performed by Edgewood Arsenal to duplicate JFK’s injuries. The bullet was fired from above and behind, striking the skull in the location specified in the autopsy report. Although it was claimed that the damage was “very similar to the wounds of the President,” JFK had no damage to his forehead, to his eye socket, nor to his cheek, which the Commission should have known from the autopsy report and diagrams it reviewed. (See Figure 4 and Figure 5) But had Oswald fired a shot the way the Warren Commission believed he had, this would likely have been the result.

Figure 4. JFK in the morgue.

This bootleg copy of an actual autopsy photograph from Kennedy’s autopsy was first published in 1980. It shows no damage to the forehead, other than what appears in the original image to be a small scalp tear near the forehead. There was a small wound, described originally by all who saw it as an entrance wound, in the President’s throat when he arrived at Parkland Hospital. A small incision (tracheotomy) was made to enlarge this wound to insert a breathing tube. Several Parkland witnesses reported that the tracheotomy appears to be much larger than it was when JFK left Dallas.

Figure 5. Cropped portion of Zapruder film frame 312.

This is frame #312 of the Zapruder film. It shows the precise position of Kennedy's head at the moment a bullet blasted his skull—for in the next frame, #313, 1/18th second later, his head is seen exploding.

In reconstructing the assassination diagramatically, Kennedy's pathologists prepared the so-called Rydberg diagram (see Figure 1). In that image, JFK's head is tilted chin-downward to depict the position of his head at the moment the fatal bullet struck. That same moment is seen in this Zapruder film frame.

Figure 1 shows a bullet in a downward trajectory entering near the bottom of JFK's skull and exiting from the top on the right side. This path conforms with the findings from the autopsy. Thus, this diagram provides a plausible ballistics explanation for a shot from Oswald's position: though the bullet arrived from above and behind and entered JFK's skull low, the trajectory shown in Rydberg's diagram works because Kennedy's chin was tilted down so far.

However, as can be easily seen by comparing Figure 1 with Figure 5, the Rydberg diagram exaggerates how low JFK's chin really was at the moment he was hit. Had JFK's chin been in the same position as seen here, any bullet arriving from Oswald's supposed position that entered low in JFK's skull would have had blown out through his face. In fact, this is precisely what experiments performed for the Warren Commission proved (see Figure 3), despite the Commission's complete insensitivity to the clear ramifications of the results of its own tests.

Figure 6. “Experimental duplication” of JFK’s skull wound by John Lattimer, MD.

To correct for the assumed error in the original autopsy report, Lattimer raised the inshoot in his shooting experiments. His bullets struck skulls 10-cm higher than in the Warren Commission’s experiments. (See Figure 3) Though they were strikingly dissimilar to the injuries Kennedy is known to have sustained (see Figure 1 and Figure 4), Lattimer called his results “strikingly similar” to JFK’s.

Figure 7A. Replica of an authentic JFK autopsy photograph by HSCA artist Ida Dox.

This replica of an authentic JFK autopsy photograph by artist Ida Dox was originally published by the House Select Committee in 1978 (vol. 7, p. 104). It is accurate, except for one detail. The small spot visible just to the right of the top of the ruler is exaggerated in this diagram. It is significantly smaller in the original photograph, as one can see by comparing this image with Figure 7B, a bootleg copy of an actual autopsy photograph. Some authorities have argued that the spot was an entrance wound for a higher shot than was determined during the autopsy, a claim that was emphatically rejected by JFK’s pathologists.

Figure 7B. "Bootleg" copy of actual autopsy photograph showing the rear of JFK’s skull entirely undamaged.

Several witnesses claim that this image does not show the large wound JFK had in the right rear of this head. FBI agents who witnessed the autopsy said they believed this image had been “doctored.” Autopsy surgeon J. Thornton Boswell reported that this image was taken with a flap of scalp being held over a large area of missing bone in the rear of JFK’s skull. Dr. Crenshaw claimed in the early 1990s that this rear area was the site of an exit wound, a claim made in 1964 by Parkland doctors Jenkins, Aiken, Jones and McClelland. (NOTE: This image has been rotated clockwise 90 degrees; Kennedy was actually lying on his side).

Figure 8A AND 8B. Diagrams of JFK’s skull injuries prepared by two witnesses present during JFK’s autopsy.

The image on the left was prepared by FBI agent, Francis O’Neill. The image on the right was prepared by James C. Jenkins, a Ph.D. candidate in pathology in 1963. Jenkins told the HSCA that Kennedy’s skull damage was in the “middle temporal region back to the occipital.” Both these images were suppressed by the HSCA. In 8B, the image on the left is Kennedy viewed from behind.

Figure 9. Drawing of the superior surface of JFK’s brain.

Prepared by the HSCA, this is an accurately rendered drawing of a photograph of JFK’s brain as captured from above. Because the brain that was photographed weighed 1500 grams, the upper limit of normal for an undamaged, adult brain, doubts have arisen about whether this was actually JFK’s brain. The autopsy photographs, and this diagram, support the high weight, for they show disruption of the right cerebral lobe, but no significant loss of brain substance. Witnesses from Dealey Plaza, from Parkland Hospital and from the morgue have all said a significant portion of JFK’s brain was blown away. JFK’s lateral autopsy X-rays show a loss of tissue from the frontal lobe of the cerebrum, which fits with the witnesses, but conflicts with the autopsy photographs and the measured brain weight.

The ARRB’s Douglas Horne found compelling evidence that two different “JFK” brains were examined, this, presumably, being the second brain, the one that was not Kennedy’s. Note the distinctive, and undamaged, appearance of the small brain lobe at the bottom of the image – the cerebellum, an organ six Dallas doctors reported was damaged, including two neurosurgeons.

Figure 10. Diagram of skull wound by NPC photographic technician Saundra Spencer.

Spencer testified that she developed some of JFK’s autopsy photographs shortly after the assassination, and that one of them showed a wound in this location. No such image can be found in the current inventory. (Parkland neurosurgeon Robert Grossman, MD, drew a sketch for the ARRB that closely matches Spencer’s diagram.)

Figure 11. Dr. Boswell’s face sheet diagram showing the damage to the top of JFK’s skull.

Prepared during the autopsy by J. Thornton Boswell, MD, this diagram documents that there was a gaping skull defect measuring 10-cm by 17-cm. Some authorities believe there was no loss of bone in the rear of JFK’s skull. But a 17-cm defect is so large in a human skull that a sizable portion of JFK’s rearward skull must have been absent for a defect that large to fit.

Figure 12A AND 12B. Dr. Boswell’s depiction of JFK’s skull damage to ARRB.

These diagrams are two-dimensional drawings prepared by the ARRB to depict JFK’s skull damage. They are based on markings made on a three-dimensional human skull model by one of JFK’s pathologists, J. Thornton Boswell, MD. Note how closely these diagrams match the face sheet diagram prepared on the night of the autopsy (Figure11). Note also that most of the parietal bone is missing on the right. So also is a large portion of the occipital bone. On the assumption that there was no occipital bone missing, the Clark Panel and the HSCA forensics panel concluded the autopsy findings were consistent with Oswald’s guilt.

TABLE 1.

Location of JFK’s skull wound according to the earliest statements of witnesses at Parkland Hospital.

*Giesecke claimed JFK’s skull damage – occipital to frontal, he said – was on the left side, the only witness to mistake the side of JFK’s skull injuries.

TABLE 2.

Location of JFK’s skull wound according to earliest statements of witnesses present at JFK’s autopsy.