The Head Wounds Revisited

[Gordon Gray]

How did the shipping casket get carried into the morgue proper? I doubt Humes and Boswell did it by themselves. Jenkins and OConnor didn't, they weren't there yet? David's team weren't there either.

All of this discussion has convinced me to start rereading all the testimony which I have read at one time or another over the course of a number of years and which is hard for me to keep straight in memory alone.

So, here's a preliminary answer from one witness, Ed Reed. I am sure many of you already know this testimony, but I thought it useful to report an uninterrupted swatch of it here so that the full sequence of answers is evident.

From his ARRB deposition (Oct 21, 1997: 20-26):

A: We were called to the - I was paged over the head. "X-ray technologists report to the morgue." At that time, myself and, I guess, Jerry Custer went down to the morgue on - in the ground floor. That was the platform where the ambulances arrived and unloaded patients onto the - you know, to the platform.
Q: Did you go out to the platform?
A: No, just to the hallway.
Q: So, you - Did you see a Navy ambulance or a hearse, or any vehicle?
A: Out the - I could see out the window. There was two or three ambulances there. Other than that, I could not - I didn't see anything else.
Q: Could you describe the ambulances you saw?
A: They were normal, orange and white ambulances. Military ambulances.
Q: Did you see any ambulance unloading a casket?
A: No, I did not.
Q: Did you ever see the casket with President Kennedy's body in it?
A: Yes, I did.
Q: When did you first see that?
A: When I returned from the chow hall-the dining room to the ground-floor morgue, the main hallway leading into the morgue.
Q: And did you see the casket in the hallway-
A: Yes, I did.
Q: - or in the morgue? Who was bringing - Was it -
A: It was on the - it was on the ground.
Q: It was sitting -
A: It was just sitting -
Q: - lying on the ground?
A: Right. And there was, say, five or six Marine corpsmen at attention, lined up across the hallway.
Q: And what did you observe next?
A: And next, we were instructed to - Someone opened the casket. I forget who exactly. It was an enlisted man.
Q: Is this in the hallway?
A: Yes. Let me - No, I'm sorry. we did not open it in the hallway. We carried it into the morgue.
Q: Did you, yourself, help carry it?
A; Yes, I did.
Q: Did anyone else assist you carrying it in?
A: Jerry Custer, the medical - I don't know their names. But the lab technologists, and the medical photographer - enlisted man. And I forget anyone else.
Q: Did the Marines help?
A: No.
Q: After you - You took the casket into the morgue; is that correct?
A: That's correct.
Q: What did you do when it arrived in the morgue?
A: Someone opened it up. We all stood back. Someone opened it up, and we were allowed to look into the casket. From our vantage point, we were able to see into the casket.
Q: Was it - was the casket on the floor?
A: Yes it was.
Q: Do you recall now who opened the casket?
A: No, I don't.
Q: After the casket was opened, what did you see?
A: I was able to look in and I saw President Kennedy without - completely nude in a plastic bag.
Q: What kind of plastic bag was it?
A: It was a heavy-gauge plastic bag. Plastic - almost like lawn - that people use to put leaves and stuff like that in. But it was see - it was a see-through.
Q: Are you familiar with the term "body bag"?
A: Yes, I am.
Q: What is a body bag in your understanding?
A: Body - body bag is a large bag, with a zipper normally, that remains are placed in. If it's an adult bag or - I assume they have infancy bags. But it's a large bag that you cannot see through.
Q: Was the bag that President Kennedy in a body bag?
A: No, it was not.
Q: Were there any wrappings at all on the body, either on the - sheets on the head, or towels, or -
A: No.
Q: What was the next thing that you saw happen?
A: We were asked to lift the body - unwrap the body, the plastic. And then we lifted the body. All of us lifted together. And there was two tables in the autopsy room, and we put it - the one furthest from the casket.
Q: Who was it who lifted the body out?
A: The same group of people that brought the body into the room.
Q: That brought the casket in?
A: Right.
Q: Who removed the plastic lining?
A: It was most of the lab technologists, the lab and medical photographer. I might have assisted, also. I can't remember that.
Q: Could you describe -
A: Completely.
Q: Oh, I'm sorry.
A: I could not - I can't remember that completely, to be truthful.
Q: Okay. Could you describe the casket that you saw in the hallway?
A: It was a typical military, aluminum casket. Stainless steel aluminum, whatever. I guess, then it was stainless steel.
Q: Did - What kind of handles did the casket have?
A: Just the normal stainless steel handles.
Q: Would you describe it as a ceremonial casket?
A: No.

He goes on then to talk about the wounds. Reed also spoke with Mark Flanagan of the HSCA in 1978, saying he arrived at 6:30 pm.

I've highlighted the points relevant to the ongoing discussion.

As far as the witnesses I listed originally (O'Connor, Custer, maybe Jenkins) as connecting military shipping casket and JFK's body, I think I probably should have said Reed too, at least ostensibly from this deposition. However, I won't belabor the obvious or beat a dead horse here by pointing out that Reed's testimony differs in certain details from that of other Bethesda witnesses.

I do find it kind of bizarre - but I guess these inconsistencies of context happen during sustained question and answer like this - that Gunn would phrase the question about the casket "the casket you saw in the hallway", when Reed just claimed to have brought it into the morgue.

Shame Reed can't remember the names of the lab technicians. If it were Jenkins and O'Connor Then we would have an idea of the time frame, around 7:30 or after, according to Jenkins. Also I can't recall when Reibe and Stringer, the photographers, said they first came, but this would have happened sometime after they arrived. This would mean the shipping casket wasn't moved into the morgue from the cooling room until about an hour after it was delivered. His description of the body is curious. The more I think about it the more I am inclined to believe that the presidents body was indeed in the shipping casket that arrived at 6:35. But that may have been part of a benign security measure as described by Rebentisch. There need not have been a pre autopsy where the body was altered. The key IMO is just when Reed saw the coffin in the hall and helped take it into the morgue. When testifying before the ARRB, Humes was asked: when did you first see the body? His answer: 6: 45 pm.

Here's the exact quote, from the ARRB transcript:

Q: Dr. Humes, when did you first see the body of President Kennedy?:

A: I didn't look at my watch, if I even had a watch on, but I would guess it was 6:45 or 7 o'clock, something like that, (pause) approximately. The question for me is did he see the body or just the shipping coffin. He told the Warren Commission 7:35. O'Connor says he removed the body from the body bag at around 8:00. Jenkins said he arrived at the morgue about 40-30 minutes prior to the beginning of the autopsy, which would be about 7:30. He said he assisted in removing the body from the casket and placing it on the table. Riebe who was there at the time says he saw O'Connor remove the body. Reed says he saw the coffin in the hall when he arrived and assisted with carrying it in and opening it. He said lab technicians(Jenkins and O'Connor presumably) and photographers(Stringer and Riebe) were there and also assisted. He also says he arrives at 6:30, which couldn't be so because the coffin wasn't placed in the anteroom, until 6:45. Since he didn't see the coffin unloaded from the ambulance I would assume he got there later than that. It is possible the coffin wasn't moved in to the morgue from the anteroom until sometime around 7:30(perhaps just prior to the SS and FBI arrival with the Ceremonial Coffin) which would fit Humes' Warren Commission testimony of 7:35, and also Jenkin's, O'Connor's and Riebe's recollections. If this is the case then the FBI agents being sent away would allow for the body to be removed from the shipping casket without them being aware. Preliminary photos were taken, then XRays after which the body was returned to the Ceremonial Casket and brought back into the morgue by the Honor Guard at about 8:00 with the FBI agents witnessing this.