Debunking the Grassy snow job and proving film alteration

[Robert Hanson]

The HSCA and JFK's Skull Wound

By Gary L. Aguilar, MD
March 30, 1995
Parkland witnesses to JFK's skull wound virtually unanimously described a defect in the right rear of JFK's skull. For example, neurosurgery professor, Kemp Clark, MD, closely examined JFK skull and wrote on 11/22/63, "There was a large wound beginning in the right occiput extending into the parietal region....Much of the skull appeared gone at the brief examination...." (Exhibit #392: WC V17:9-10) Dr. Clark's claim of a rearward skull defect was also repeated by Parkland witnesses Drs. Marion Thomas Jenkins, Malcolm Perry, Robert McClelland, Charles Carrico, Ronald Coy Jones, Gene Aiken, Paul Peters, Charles Rufus Baxter, Robert Grossman , Richard Brooks Dulaney, Fouad Bashour, and others. Such a defect is not inconsistent with the autopsy report's description of a parietal-temporal-occipital skull defect. However, a defect in the right rear quadrant seems incongrous with a bullet entering the rear of the skull and supposedly exiting the front, as is alleged to have resulted from Oswald's fatal shot. The autopsy photographs contradict the Parkland witnesses - they show an "anterolateral" defect, that is, a defect on the right side toward the front, with no defect behind the ear. The inconsistencies have raised the question of possible photographic tampering.
Regarding this dilemma, the House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) wrote, "Critics of the Warren Commission's medical evidence findings have found [sic] on the observations recorded by the Parkland Hospital doctors. They believe it is unlikely that trained medical personnel could be so consistently in error regarding the nature of the wound, even though their recollections were not based on careful examinations of the wounds... In disagreement with the observations of the Parkland doctors are the 26 people present at the autopsy. All of those interviewed who attended the autopsy corroborated the general location of the wounds as depicted in the photographs; none had differing accounts...it appears more probable that the observations of the Parkland doctors are incorrect." (HSCA, Vol. 7:37-39) The statement is supported by reference to "Staff interviews with persons present at the autopsy."
Recently released documents reveal for the first time that the HSCA misrepresented both the Warren Commission statements of the Bethesda witnesses, as well as its own "staff interviews," on the location of JFK's skull defect. Rather than contradicting Parkland witnesses that there was a rear defect in JFK's skull, Bethesda witnesses corroborated them. Bethesda witnesses not only described a rear defect to HSCA, they also drew diagrams that overwhelmingly showed a defect at the rear, or right rear of JFK's skull. By falsely representing the data, including its own, HSCA writers inaccurately portrayed Bethesda witnesses as contesting the observations of Parkland witnesses who in fact they supported. They apparently also sought to quell the controversy regarding the autopsy images which show no defect where Parkland, and now incontestably Bethesda, witnesses saw it. Discouragingly, public access to these inconvenient interviews and diagrams--which were of no national security value whatsoever--were to have been restricted for 50 years.
In preparing its report, the HSCA failed to acknowledge the Warren Commission testimonies of credible Bethesda witnesses who described a rear defect. Secret Service agent Clinton Hill reported a wound on "the right rear portion of the skull." (WC--CE#1024, V18:744) Secret Service agent Roy Kellerman told the Warren Commission's Arlen Specter that JFK's skull defect was "To the left of the (right) ear, sir, and a little high; yes...(Indicating the rear portion of the head) was absent when I saw him." (WC-V2:80-81). After Secret Service agent William Greer manually demonstrated the defect's location to the Commission, Arlen Specter asked, "Upper right side, going toward the rear. And what was the condition of the skull at that point?" Greer replied, "The skull was completely--this part was completely gone." (Warren Comm--V2:127) Moreover, other Bethesda witnesses interviewed by authors David Lifton, Harrison Livingstone and Robert Groden, as well as others, also described a rear defect in the skull much like that given to the Warren Commission and the HSCA by its Bethesda witnesses. (Available by request. Space constraints prevent a complete listing.)
The HSCA's interviews demonstrated a remarkable consistency between the Bethesda witnesses' claims to the Warren Commission, to authors, and to the HSCA - as well as the recollections of Parkland witnesses. James Curtis Jenkins, in a Pathology Ph.D. program at the time of the autopsy, was a laboratory technologist who worked with the autopsy team on JFK. The HSCA's Jim Kelly and Andy Purdy reported that Jenkins "said he saw a head wound in the '...middle temporal region back to the occipital." (HSCA interview with Curtis Jenkins, Jim Kelly and Andy Purdy, 8-29-77. JFK Collection, RG 233, Document #002193, p.4.) Jenkins prepared a diagram for the HSCA that was only recently released. It confirms his verbal description of a defect in the right rear of the skull.
FBI agent James Sibert was interviewed by the HSCA's Jim Kelly and Andy Purdy who reported, "Regarding the head wound, Sibert said it was in the '...Upper back of the head.'" [sic] In an affadavit prepared for the HSCA Sibert claimed, "The head wound was in the upper back of the head", and "...a large head wound in the upper back of the head with a section of the scull [sic] bone missing..." Sibert sketched a drawing of the skull wound and traced a small wound square in the central rear portion of the skull, slightly above the level depicted for the ears but well below the level depicted for the top of the skull. (HSCA REC # 002191.)

Tom Robinson was the mortician who prepared John Kennedy's remains for his coffin. Robinson assisted with the preparations for an open casket funeral so preparation of the skull was especially meticulous. Robinson described the skull wound in a 1/12/77 HSCA interview with Andy Purdy and Jim Conzelman. Purdy asked Robinson: "Approximately where was this wound (the skull wound) located?"

Robinson: "Directly behind the back of his head."

Purdy: "Approximately between the ears or higher up?"

Robinson: "No, I would say pretty much between them." (HSCA rec # 189-10089-10178, agency file # 000661, p.3. On the day of their interview Purdy and Conzelman signed a diagram prepared and also signed by Robinson. The sketch depicts a defect directly in the central, lower rear portion of the skull. (HSCA doc # 180-10089-10179, agency file # 000662)

Jan Gail Rudnicki was Dr. Boswell's lab assistant on the night of the autopsy. Rudnicki was interviewed by HSCA's Mark Flanagan on 5/2/78. Flanagan reported Rudnicki said the "back-right quadrant of the head was missing." (HSCA rec # 180-10105-10397, agency file number # 014461, p.2.) The author is unaware of any diagram Rudnicki might have prepared.)
John Ebersole, MD, was the attending radiologist at JFK's autopsy. In HSCA testimony recently released, Ebersole claimed, "The back of the head was missing..." (HSCA interview with Ebersole, 3-11-78, p.3), and when shown the autopsy photograph with the back of the scalp intact, Ebersole commented, "You know, my recollection is more of a gaping occipital wound than this but I can certainly not state that this is the way it looked. Again we are relying on a 15 year old recollection. But had you asked me without seeing these or seeing the pictures, you know, I would have put the wound here rather than more forward." (HSCA interview with Ebersole, 3-11-78, p. 62). Yet Ebersole claimed that "I had the opportunity (to examine the back of JFK's head while positioning the head for X-rays) (HSCA Ebersole interview, 3-11-78, p. 64). Later Ebersole said, "...perhaps about 12:30 (AM) a large fragment of the occipital bone was received from Dallas and at Dr. Finck's request I X-rayed these (sic)..." If an occipital bone fragment did arrive late for the autopsy, the defect must indeed have been posterior. The occipital bone is at the base of the rear of the skull. No diagram from Dr. Ebersole has been released by the HSCA and none may have been prepared by him.
Philip C. Wehle--then Commanding officer of the military District of Washington, D. C.--described the head wound to the HSCA's Andy Purdy on 8-19-77, who reported, "(Wehle) noticed a slight bruise over the right temple of the President but did not see any significant damage to any other part of the head. He noted that the wound was in the back of the head so he would not see it because the President was lying face up; he also said he did not see any damage to the top of the head, but said the President had a lot of hair which could have hidden that...." (HSCA record # 10010042, agency file # 002086, p. 2) The author is unaware of any diagram Wehle might have prepared for the HSCA. If the photographs depicting a skull defect anterolaterally are accurate, it is hard to imagine how such a defect would have been invisible to Wehle with JFK lying face up.
Chester H. Boyers "was stationed at Bethesda naval hospital and was the chief Petty Officer in charge of the Pathology Department in November 1963." (HSCA Telephone contact--Mark Flanagan, 4/25/78, rec #? 13614). Flanagan reported, "In regard to the wounds Boyers recalls an entrance wound in the rear of the head to the right of the external occipital protuberance which exited along the top, right side of the head towards the rear and just above the right eyebrow." (HSCA Telephone contact--Mark Flanagan, 4/25/78, rec #? 13614, p. 2.)
FBI agent Francis X. O'Neill prepared a diagram for the HSCA showing a defect in the right rear quadrant of JFK's skull. The author is unaware of a report of an interview with O'Neill among the files released by the HSCA.
The only statement I found in HSCA interviews that is not frankly incompatible with the photographic images, which only imperfectly suggest an anterolateral defect (personal opinion having seen the original images at the National Acrhives by permission of the JFK family), is that attributed to Captain John Stover, then Commanding Officer of the National Naval Medical School. The HSCA's Mark Flanagan reported, "Stover observed...a wound on the top of the head..." Stover's description is so ambiguous to be of no use to either side of the debate.

Whether over forty witnesses at both Parkland and Bethesda miraculously made the identical error in describing a right-rear defect, rather than an antero-lateral defect, is problematic to say the least. Whatever the truth, the HSCA apparently misrepresented Warren Commission testimony, as well as its own witnesses' descriptions, to give false assurances the question was nonconspiratorially laid to rest. The interviews themselves will now unavoidably heighten the controversy of where JFK's skull defect truly was, and public confidence in the HSCA's work will inevitably suffer. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Author's Note: I sent Andy Purdy and Mark Flanagan, the HSCA interviewers who most likely wrote this section for the HSCA, this material, as well as copies of the very documents with their own signatures affixed to the bottoms. I called and asked them if they could explain the flat contradictions between the summaries and the material upon which the summaries were supposed to have been based. I also asked if they knew who wrote the section in question. Both could not recall who wrote the section, but both promised to write or call me back. As of June 22, 1995, it has been more than two months since I wrote. I've gotten no response whatsoever.
http://spot.acorn.net/jfkplace/09/fp.../hsca_med.html

[Robert Hanson]

They had some woman named Ida Dox draw an exit wound which was supposed to be consistent with the altered film and the angle from the sixth floor. It doesn't even work based on the angle because the window was a right to left angle but it had to be a left to right shot.LOL

No autopsy photo shows this exit hole because it wasn't there and only witnesses who changed their stories years later supported it. There is no frame in the zfilm showing this huge exit on the top right because it didn't happen but was made up during the alteration of the zfilm.
There is no exit wound on the top right as can be seen in the slow motion gif. The mist disappears into thin air because it's fake and forms in front of Kennedy's face before the shot reached his head.




The true location of the exit wound, on the right rear is supported by at least 40 witnesses, a famous frame featuring Jackie K. and at least one autopsy photo.
Frame 337

[Robert Hanson]

http://www.assassinationresearch.com/v4n2/v4n2part1.pdf
7) Dr. Gene Coleman Akin, Resident Anesthesiologist

[FONT=IJPIIF+BookmanOldStyle,Bookman Old Style][FONT=IJPIIF+BookmanOldStyle,Bookman Old Style][size=12][a.k.a. Solomon Ben Israel]: [/FONT][/SIZE][/FONT]

[FONT=IJPIIF+BookmanOldStyle,Bookman Old Style][FONT=IJPIIF+BookmanOldStyle,Bookman Old Style][size=12]

a) 6 H 65 and 67 / testimony---"The back of the right occipitalparietal portion of his head was shattered, with brain substance extruding."; "I assume the right occiptalparietal region was the exit, so to speak, that he had probably been hit on the other side of the head, or at least tangentially in the back of the head…"; "this [the neck wound] must have been an entrance wound…";
b) other WC references: WR 53, 529, 536; 6 H 70, 73, 76, 79-80; 17 H 14, 21; 20 H 5;
c) January 1964 Texas State Journal of Medicine article "Three Patients at Parkland", pages 64, 72, and 73---"Dr. Gene Akin, a resident in anesthesiol-ogy, and Dr. Giesecke connected a cardioscope to determine cardiac activ-ity."; involved in treatment of Oswald, as well;
d) "High Treason", pp. 44-45 ("The Boston Globe", 6/21/81)---"Akin reaffirmed this [his WC testimony] to the Globe team and basically did not accept the official picture. On seeing the sketch, he said, "Well in my judgment at the time, what I saw was more parietal. But on the basis of this sketch, if this is what Bob McClelland saw, then it’s more occipital." Akin further said that Dr. Kemp Clark saw the entry wound in the temple.";
e) 6/28/84 FBI Memorandum, SA Udo H. Specht to SAC, Dallas, re: inter-views with Akin (RIF#124-10158-10449)---"On 6/18/84, the writer and SA DOUG DAVIS interviewed an individual who stated he was formerly Dr. GENE COLEMAN AKIN, the senior resident anesthesiologist at Parkland Hospital, Dallas, Texas. AKIN stated that he was on duty at the hospital on 11/22/63 when President KENNEDY was brought in the emergency room. AKIN stated that he was interviewed by the FBI during the 1963-1964 period concerning any of the observations he made on 11/22/63. AKIN stated that the "historic accident" of being present in the emergency room on 11/22/63 changed his whole life in a negative way. He feels that the governments on both a federal and state level have harassed him since that time. He stated that he quit practicing medicine in 1979 or 1980 and that DEA took his nar-cotics license away. He has never recouped the money it cost him to practice medicine because of government interference with his own destiny and self initiative. He has been on welfare since 1980 and feels it is now the govern-ments obligation to take care of him. He claims that his sister had him committed to Terrell State Hospital and he was incarcerated in that institu-tion from March 9 through May 25, 1984. He stated that it took him that long to convince the doctors that he was not a "nut." AKIN is in the hospital for heart by-pass surgery on 6/20/84 and he has also been diagnosed as having renal cancer. AKIN also stated that he had his name changed to SOLOMON BEN ISRAEL and he was interviewed in Room 439, St. PAUL's

[size=12]

HOSPITAL, Dallas, Texas. AKIN ranted and raved about government injus-tice and conspiracies against him and behaved in a general aberrant man-ner. His mannerism in communicating, in the opinion of the writer, gave him or the information he was trying to relate no credibility whatsoever. The writer attempted to listen to him for over one hour. AKIN made efforts to contact the Dallas news media in order to tell his story, but apparently re-ceived very little favorable response. The writer made efforts to get AKIN to tell his story. AKIN kept ranting and raving about items from the right to the left of the political spectrum. AKIN did finally say that

[FONT=IJPIPI+BookmanOldStyle,Bookman Old Style][FONT=IJPIPI+BookmanOldStyle,Bookman Old Style][size=12]when he saw Presi-dent KENNEDY in the emergency room on 11/22/63, he thought he saw a bullet entrance wound on the President's forehead. The President was covered with blood in the head area and the back of his head was blown wide open. AKIN feels that his observation as to the possible entrance wound on the Presdient's forehead is significant and that he did not mention this item when he was interviewed in 1963-1964 because he did not want to be killed by any conspirators. AKIN stated that if this entrance wound was not documented in the Presidential autopsy, then plastic surgery was probably conducted to cover this up. [/FONT][/SIZE][/FONT]AKIN made available a cassette tape recording of items he re-corded himself during the past few days. The tape recording was reviewed by the writer and contained no information whatsoever concerning AKIN's comments about the assassination of President KENNEDY. [redaction: at least one paragraph] At 1:45 pm, 6/28/84, AKIN telephonically contacted the writer and stated that he checked himself out [of] St. Paul's hospital to [be] re-evaluated as to what to do about his medical condition. He stated that he was calling from the Dallas County Jail and that he had been ar-rested on 6/26/84. He was unspecific as to why he was arrested, but he in-dicated that it was some type of fraud charge and alcohol might have been an issue also. He wanted the writer to get him out of Jail and that it was all the FBI's fault that his troubles are continuing. AKIN became extremely ver-bally abusive and the writer terminated the call. [redaction: at least a few sentences; end]" ([FONT=IJPIPI+BookmanOldStyle,Bookman Old Style][FONT=IJPIPI+BookmanOldStyle,Bookman Old Style][size=12]emphasis added in italics[/FONT][/SIZE][/FONT])[for important information on SA Specht, see "JFK: Breaking The Silence" by Bill Sloan, pages 40-44: Specht said that he "was assigned to be a kind of custodian of the files pertaining to the Kennedy case", and was the official media spokesman for the Dallas FBI office from 1978 to 1990; in fact, as Sloan writes, he "personally wrote the memorandum that formally closed the Kennedy case from that office's point of view in 1983"!];

[FONT=IJPILI+BookmanOldStyle,Bookman Old Style][FONT=IJPILI+BookmanOldStyle,Bookman Old Style][size=12]

f) [unanswered letter from Vince Palamara 1998]

[/FONT][/SIZE][/FONT]g) "Murder In Dealey Plaza" by James Fetzer (2000), pages 56, 60, 150, 180, 197, 199, 240, 249, 252, 298

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[Robert Hanson]

http://www.assassinationresearch.com/v4n2/v4n2part1.pdf
31) Surgeon David Stewart:
a) 12/11/81 letter to Livingstone (“High Treason”, pp. 51-52 , “High Treason 2”, p. 107, and "Killing The Truth", p. 652)---“there was never any contro-versy concerning the wounds between the doctors in attendance. I was with them either seperately or in groups on many occasions over a long period of time…Concerning [the official photo of the back of the head], there is no way the wound described to me by Dr. Perry and others could be the wound shown in the picture. The massive destructive wound could not remotely be pulled together well enough to give a normal contour to the head that is pre-sent in this picture.”;
b) “New Lebanon, Tennessee, Democrat”, 3/30/67 ,
c) 4/10/67 “The Joe Dolan Show”, KNEW radio, Oakland, CA and
d) “Post Mortem”, pp. 60-61---Dolan said he was particularly concernmed with the “statement about the shot” that killed JFK “coming from the front.” Dr. Stewart said, “Yes, sir. This was the finding of all the physicians who were in attendance. There was a small wound in the left front of the President’s head and there was a quite massive wound of exit at the right backside of the head and it was felt by all of the physicians at the time to be a wound of en-try which went in the front.”;
THE JFK MEDICAL REFERENCE ASSASSINATION RESEARCH / Vol.
41 Part 1: Parkland Hospital
4 No. 2 © Copyright 2006 Vincent M. Palamara
e) "Probable Cause Australia", Issue #3: Lifton article---Dr. Perry told Stewart not long after that November weekend that "I left the [neck] wound invio-late.";
f) “Murder In Dealey Plaza” by James Fetzer (2000), pages 249, 252, 297
He seems to indicate a left forehead entrance even though the right forehead is what's in evidence. If a person looks at the front they could say the right is the left but in any case, the forehead is the only location to achieve the right rear exit in this case.

The right temple was either a mistake by saying right temple instead of right forehead or it was disinfo from Kilduff's press conference.

[Robert Hanson]

27) Dr./ Admiral George Gregory Burkley, Physician to the President [de-ceased 1/91]:
a) 22 H 93-97: 11/27/63 report of his activities surrounding the assassination of JFK [see also Manchester, p. 670]---(22 H 94 and 97)”[at Parkland]It was evident that death was imminent and that he was in a hopeless condition.”; [at Bethesda]”…his appearance in the casket gave no evidence of the injury he had received.”: perhaps because the wound was in the BACK of the head? ;
b) 11/22/63 Press Conference by Asst. WH Press sec. Mac Kilduff (please see “Best Evidence”, pp. 330-331 and photo 28 [Kilduff Press Conference, 11/22/63, Transcript 1327B-LBJ Library; USSS RIF# 154-10002-10194]: “Dr. Burkley told me, it is a simple matter, Tom, of a bullet right through the head”: he then points to his right temple! Question: “can you say where the bullet entered his head, Mac?” “It is my understanding that it entered in the temple, the right temple.”; "They [the shots] came from the right side." [see Thomas Atkins’ film clip as shown in “The Men Who Killed Kennedy”, “The Jim Garrison Tapes” video 1992, “JFK: The Case for Conspiracy” video 1993, “High Treason 2”, p. 290, Groden’s “TKOAP”, p. 59; "POTP", p. 408] This in-formation was repeated by Chet Huntley on NBC that day: ""President Ken-nedy, we are now informed, was shot in the right temple. 'It was a simple matter of a bullet right through the head,' said Dr. George Burkley, the White House medical officer." [NBC video, 11/22/63, 1:47 p.m. CST; clip re-peated in Prof. James Fetzer’s video “JFK: The Assassination, The Cover-Up, and Beyond”];
c) Air Force One, 11/22/63---in Cecil Stoughton photos and can be heard on AF1 radio transcripts re: arrangements for transport of JFK’s remains;
d) Autopsy descriptive (face) sheet, 11/22/63---back wound well down below the neck (verified by Dr. Burkley);
e) Certificate of Death, signed 11/23/63 [see "Cover-Up" by Stewart Galanor, p. 128]—“a second wound occurred in the posterior back at about the level of the third thoracic vertebra.”; “The wound was shattering in type causing a
THE JFK MEDICAL REFERENCE ASSASSINATION RESEARCH / Vol.
36 Part 1: Parkland Hospital
4 No. 2 © Copyright 2006 Vincent M. Palamara
fragmentation of the skull and evulsion of THREE particles of the skull at time of the impact, with resulting maceration of the right hemisphere of the brain (emphasis added)”;

It seems like the grassy knoll was a red herring from the start. Simple geometry proves the entrance wound had to be through the left temple or anywhere on the forehead and in this case it's over the right eye. It could be human error or disinfo. The altered film surely makes it look like the shot came from the right side especially when Greer is cropped out.

[Robert Hanson]

Kilduff, about 30 minutes after assassination.

Joe O'Donnell, a photographer who was shown pictures by another photographer that showed the small entrance over the eye and large exit on right rear.

It doesn't seem like much difference but the close-up shows an area above and slightly right of the hole over the eye. Humes said the area over the eye was a contusion and above it was dislodged scalp.

[Robert Hanson]

And there was a suggestion of like contusion in the right frontal area over the right eyebrow. The skin was little bit discolored in that area but it wasn't very remarkable. The most striking thing was this large defect. His face was for all intents and purposes, normal. It was not significantly altered in any way.

Humes is down playing the exact area where the entrance wound was really located according to the evidence. There was a small hole in front and large hole in back and Greer's angle toward the president lines up perfectly with the wound path. He makes no mention of a flap or damage to the right temple. It's lines perfectly with Greer's angle to Kennedy and excludes the right temple disinfo.

[Albert Doyle]

There's motion within the single frame. Are you sure you aren't capturing the intact head at the beginning of the frame that lasts until the end of the frame and looks like it is still intact but isn't? It's sort of a image 'drag' within the single frame itself. This could account for what looks like an intact head at the same time as a blood spray.

[Peter Lemkin]

Did Greer Shoot JFK......NO! That 'baby' has been put to bed and put to sleep over and over...but it keeps rearing its ugly head. I feel it is used only to discredit the JFK research community. IMO.

[Robert Hanson]

Did Greer Shoot JFK......NO! That 'baby' has been put to bed and put to sleep over and over...but it keeps rearing its ugly head. I feel it is used only to discredit the JFK research community. IMO.

Did Greer Shoot JFK...... BEYOND ANY DOUBT. That truth was never even challenged remotely. The silly zapruder film cartoon of Greer shooting jfk was accepted as authentic and the fake reflection was also accepted as authentic but the film is a laugable forgery committed by goons from the 60's. I have proven beyond a doubt that Greer killed Kennedy. Feel free to embarrass yourself by posing the pink elephant defense.