28-12-2016, 10:35 AM
(This post was last modified: 28-12-2016, 09:00 PM by Jim DiEugenio.)
This is the kind of crap Bugliosi tried to sell.
First, as I consulted with Palamara for my review of this film, the idea--as the film depicts-- that Jackie tried to walk into the Bethesda morgue is not accurate.
Secondly, its true that Jackie was in a state of shock and was unresponsive about the autopsy that Kennedy should have. But its also clear that Bobby Kennedy took this procedure over and he signed off on a full autopsy. Gary Aguilar often quotes this document which carries Bobby's signature. (See Trauma Room One, p. 182)
Pat Speer, myself and Von Pein had a debate about this and how Bugliosi the Distorter tried to twist this point around. RFK authorized a full autopsy, which President Kennedy did not get. To give two examples: there was no dissection of the back wound, and there was no sectioning of the brain. Since Kennedy was killed by a bullet wound to the head, and seriously wounded by a bullet in the back, this is unfathomable. Because without those two procedures how does one know the path of the bullet, or bullets, through the head, or if the back wound was a through and through wound?
What is worse is this: Arlen Specter never asked any of the autopsy doctors why these procedures were not performed! It is simply not credible that Specter was not aware just what a lapse in autopsy procedure the failure to dissect the tracks of these wounds were. And this is a point where I disagree with Lifton's ideas. He tries to say that somehow the WC was deceived and dumbfounded by the results of the autopsy. IMO, this does not hold water anymore. With the declassifications of the ARRB, and the interviews done by authors like William Law in his fine book, it is obvious today that Specter understood he simply could not ask those questions--or question Burkley, or interview Sibert or O'Neill. My God, he did not even interview Stringer! When Finck was questioned about this procedural failure at the trial of Clay Shaw by Jim Garrison, we then understood why Specter did what he did. Because Finck revealed that Humes was limited by the military brass not to proceed as he should have. (ibid, p. 183) Specter made sure that subject was not touched in the WC cover up.
Arlen had a job to do. And he understood that. He left the worst autopsy in history unquestioned. And he then spent the rest of his life lying his head off about it.
First, as I consulted with Palamara for my review of this film, the idea--as the film depicts-- that Jackie tried to walk into the Bethesda morgue is not accurate.
Secondly, its true that Jackie was in a state of shock and was unresponsive about the autopsy that Kennedy should have. But its also clear that Bobby Kennedy took this procedure over and he signed off on a full autopsy. Gary Aguilar often quotes this document which carries Bobby's signature. (See Trauma Room One, p. 182)
Pat Speer, myself and Von Pein had a debate about this and how Bugliosi the Distorter tried to twist this point around. RFK authorized a full autopsy, which President Kennedy did not get. To give two examples: there was no dissection of the back wound, and there was no sectioning of the brain. Since Kennedy was killed by a bullet wound to the head, and seriously wounded by a bullet in the back, this is unfathomable. Because without those two procedures how does one know the path of the bullet, or bullets, through the head, or if the back wound was a through and through wound?
What is worse is this: Arlen Specter never asked any of the autopsy doctors why these procedures were not performed! It is simply not credible that Specter was not aware just what a lapse in autopsy procedure the failure to dissect the tracks of these wounds were. And this is a point where I disagree with Lifton's ideas. He tries to say that somehow the WC was deceived and dumbfounded by the results of the autopsy. IMO, this does not hold water anymore. With the declassifications of the ARRB, and the interviews done by authors like William Law in his fine book, it is obvious today that Specter understood he simply could not ask those questions--or question Burkley, or interview Sibert or O'Neill. My God, he did not even interview Stringer! When Finck was questioned about this procedural failure at the trial of Clay Shaw by Jim Garrison, we then understood why Specter did what he did. Because Finck revealed that Humes was limited by the military brass not to proceed as he should have. (ibid, p. 183) Specter made sure that subject was not touched in the WC cover up.
Arlen had a job to do. And he understood that. He left the worst autopsy in history unquestioned. And he then spent the rest of his life lying his head off about it.