The Head Wounds Revisited

[Albert Rossi]

Gordon, all good questions. Really do need to review the sources here.

I can answer one of them about the X-rays, however: Horne's timeline (vol. 2, pp 620-627) claims:

1. The skull X-rays "must have been taken approximately 30-45 minutes after the body's arrival (and no later) in order to allow time for their development and viewing, and to permit time for Dr. Humes to call Pierre Finck on the phone and ask him to participate in the autopsy telling him, in the process, that he had a 'good set of skull films'."
2. "About 6:55" Custer, "possibly carrying the x-ray cassettes for 5 skull x-rays or possibly after being dismissed from the morgue for about 15 minutes prior to the exposure of the skull films" sees Jackie K.
...

Now Horne has to do some selection from the record to get this to work out. Ed Reed said they were absent for 15-20 minutes. Custer said for 1-2 hours. Custer said the x-rays were taken after the Y-incision. But in order to reconcile Hume's statement to Finck with this, Horne pushes the head X-rays to an earlier time before the Y-incision. That's not the only trouble he has with the "evolution of Custer's testimony" over time (see the chart on p. 539).

I presume that Horne must just chalk up the inconsistencies to the "less reliable" part of this testimony.

I also believe that Dennis David's team put the casket in the anteroom.