04-02-2013, 04:18 PM
Jim DiEugenio Wrote:This is incredible.
The guy will not answer a simple question.
But I have some questions for Alan:
From your replies to AD, which I very much appreciate, I get the feeling that 1.)Pitzer did not have access to film equipment, and 2.) Was not head of the AV department, and 3.) did not "film" autopsies.
Could you answer those questions since, as I said, a lot of confusion and obfuscation has been built around Pitzer.
Also, just what was his title at the time and did he have a formal function at Bethesda?
Also, how old was his son at the time of the assassination? And is the story about him being called into Bethesda single sourced to the son? That is did the wife ever back this up and did anyone see him at Bethesda that night, or is there a record of him being there that night?
Jim-
Addressing your questions:
>From your replies to AD, which I very much appreciate, I get the feeling that 1.)Pitzer did not have access to film equipment,<
Pitzer's office was adjacent to a television studio in Building 144. It is highly likely that he had access to film equipment.
>2.) ...was not head of the AV department,<
A November 2, 1966, article in the Washington Post on Pitzer's death states that he was assistant head of the Graphic Art Department and chief of the Educational Television Division at the Naval Medical Hospital. The position that he intended to accept, on retirement, at the local community college was in educational television.
>3.) did not "film" autopsies.<
I traced two men who worked in television with Pitzer. Neither Mr. "A" nor Mr. "B" had any knowledge of a role played by William Pitzer in the autopsy on President Kennedy's body. And neither had any knowledge of a CCTV system permanently installed in the autopsy room at the BNH in 1963. Most of the CCTV feeds at the National Naval Medical Center went out from the television studio in Building 144 (where LCDR Pitzer's body was found); but feeds were generated at other locations within the hospital. Mr. A had no recollection of feeds from the autopsy room. Mr. B recalled CCTV generation from the autopsy room on a regular basis, not of autopsies however; the autopsy room was used for routine teaching purposes. This is consistent with CDR Humes' statement to the ARRB:
[The autopsy room] would accommodate maybe 20 or 30 people, because we used to have conferences in there. Routinely, at the end of each week, we would retain the organs from the autopsies of that week. In fact, not only did we review them there, there was a closed-circuit television. They went to Andrews Air Force Base, NIH, and it was a closed-circuit instruction program. Mr. B told me that for CCTV feeds from the autopsy room to elsewhere in the hospital and beyond, "we wheeled in a television camera."
>Also, just what was his title at the time and did he have a formal function at Bethesda?<
See above for his title. In 1963 he held the rank of lieutenant. He was promoted to lieutenant commander in late 1965 or early 1966 (I'd need to search my files to be sure). However, I know for certain that he held the rank of lieutenant in August of 1965 when Dan Marvin claimed he was solicited by the CIA to terminate Pitzer. One of the few aspects of Marvin's story that remained constant through the years was that the CIA operative invited him to kill "lieutenant commander" Pitzer. Odd, since Pitzer was a lieutenant at the time.
>Also, how old was his son at the time of the assassination?<
13.
>And is the story about him being called into Bethesda single sourced to the son?<
Only the son made the claim. I spent many hours on the phone with this man. His major objective was to exploit his father's death for financial gain.
>That is did the wife ever back this up and did anyone see him at Bethesda that night, or is there a record of him being there that night?<
As far as I am aware, the answers are "no" and "no." I made attempts to contact Pitzer's older son and Pitzer's brother with the objective of asking questions like this, without success; they failed to communcate. One attempt to communicate with Mrs. Pitzer was unsuccessful; I did not want to disturb an old lady further.
For the sake of full disclosure, Jerrol Custer claimed to have seen Pitzer in the autopsy room. He told Walt Brown that Pitzer was there with a still camera,
http://www.manuscriptservice.com/DPQ/custer~1.htm
and told William Law that Pitzer was there with a movie camera (In the Eye of History, page 116). But see the footnote on that page and his comment on page 117; he told Law that Pitzer could not have shot himself because his right hand was congenitally deformed, which was rubbish. Mr. Custer comes off as less than truthful here.
Allan