Alpha Omega

The following is based on: Lifton, David. (1980, 1988). Best Evidence. New York: Carrol & Graf Publishers. All numbers in parentheses refer to pages in his book.

12:30
President John F. Kennedy (JFK) is shot while riding in a motorcade on Elm Street (316, 364-367) through Dealey Plaza, in Dallas, Texas (4, 710).

12:38
JFK arrives at Parkland Memorial Hospital (710). Dr. Charles Carrico, the first physician to see the president, inserts an endotracheal tube down JFK’s throat (57n) and notices that he has a small penetrating wound of the anterior neck in the lower 1/3 of the neck (57).

Emergency room nurse Margaret Henchliffe also observes that JFK has “a little hole in the middle of his neck” (57-58). When attending surgeon Dr. Malcolm Perry arrives he too notices a small hole in JFK’s neck and asks Dr. Carrico if this is a wound or a tracheotomy (276). Dr. Carrico tells him that it is a wound.

Dr. Perry performs a tracheotomy on JFK over the wound; the tracheotomy is 2 to 3 cm long (271-274). Dr. Perry sees that the trachea is deviated slightly to the left and that there is frothing blood and air in the chest cavity. To relieve this, Dr. Perry orders chest tubes to be inserted into JFK just below his nipples (192, 279-280).

12:53
Rear Adm. George Burkley, White House physician, arrives at Parkland Hospital after having been diverted to the Trade Mart where JFK was to give a speech (375). He immediately goes to the emergency room and sees JFK with a wound in his head and a tracheotomy tube in his throat, concealing the front entrance wound (375).

Later this evening, after midnight, he will tell Coast Guardsman George Barnum that there were two bullets that hit JFK, the first one striking him in the lower neck and coming out of his throat (671). When he fills out a death certificate for JFK, he does not mention this wound. Instead, he writes, “a second wound occurred in the posterior back” (375).

1:00
JFK is pronounced dead by Dr. Kemp Clark, chief neurosurgeon at Parkland Hospital, (56, 300, 390). There was no surgery performed on him before he died (301), nor were any of his wounds sutured (541-542).

Some time between 1:00 and 2:00 hospital engineer Darrell Tomlinson finds a bullet (Warren Commission Exhibit #399) and gives it to Mr. O. P. Wright, Chief of Security at Parkland and former Deputy Police Chief of Dallas (591). Mr. Wright gives it to Secret Service Agent Richard Johnsen.

Bullet #399 is supposedly found on Gov. Connally’s stretcher. But Mr. Tomlinson originally reports it as being found on another stretcher (90-91). When Mr. Wright writes a three page report about the events of the day, he does not mention the bullet but he does mention JFK’s wristwatch, given to him by a nurse (591).

Agent Johnsen will not give the bullet to James Rowley, S.S. Chief, until 7:30 EDT this evening (360), who in turn will not give it to the FBI until 8:50 EDT (641, 652).

Later this evening, between 12:30 and 1:00 A. M., Mr. Tomlinson will receive a phone call from the FBI warning him to “keep his mouth shut about what he found” (591).

1:10 (Time appx.)
Hospital nurses and orderlies remove JFK’s clothing and wash the blood from his face and body and cover him with a sheet (192-193). No one sees or has seen any wounds of entry on JFK’s back, the back of his neck or on the rear of his head (184, 191-193, 325, 339).

1:25 (Time appx.)
Vice President Johnson (LBJ) leaves Parkland Hospital for Love Field (710).

1:30
Press Secretary Malcolm Kilduff announces JFK’s death (673). He points to his right temple when answering questions as to where the bullet struck the president (photo following 586).

About this time (between 1:30 and 1:50) there is an argument between S.S. Agent Roy Kellerman, the S.S. Agent in charge of the White House Detail, and Earl Rose, the Dallas County Medical Examiner, over where JFK’s body will receive its autopsy (389-390, 674-675). Mr. Rose is interested in maintaining the “chain of possession of the evidence” as required by law (390).

1:40
A four hundred pound Elgin Brittania bronze casket arrives at Parkland Hospital from Vernon O’Neal’s funeral home (673-674).

1:45 (Time appx.)
Ms. Kennedy puts her wedding ring on her husband’s finger (674). The casket is then lined with a plastic mattress cover and JFK is placed on top of the mattress cover to protect the satin lining of the coffin from the blood oozing out of the body (599-600n).

1:58
The body of JFK is put into the bronze casket and it is put aboard a hearse (674). Ms. Kennedy sits next to the casket (675).

2:04
The bronze casket with JFK and Ms. Kennedy leave Parkland Hospital (205, 390).

2:14
The JFK group arrives at Love Field (587, 675).

2:18
The casket is placed aboard Air Force One (AF-1) near the rear port door of the airplane (205, 676). Four of the six seats in the S.S. area are removed to make room for the casket (675). Ms. Kennedy goes to the presidential bedroom (678).

Everyone else is told to go forward of the stateroom of AF-1 (678). Between 2:18 and 2:32 the casket is unattended (677) as Brig. Gen. Godfrey McHugh, a loyal Kennedy aide (394), is in the forward section of AF-1 and will not return to stand next to his Commander-in-Chief for several minutes (677).

The body is removed from the bronze casket and is hidden in a closet, probably in the forward galley (680). This is a covert operation (692-697).

2:20
Meanwhile back at Parkland, White House staff member Wayne Hawks arranges a press conference (61). Attending the conference are both Dr. Clark and Dr. Perry (55-56). Dr. Perry announces that the throat wound is an entrance wound (56-62). It is about 1/4 inch in diameter (59). Dr. Carrico will testify that it is 5 to 8 mm in size (275).

There is also a large head wound in the right occipitoparietal area (lower right rear). It is more or less circular, (318n) measuring about 5 to 7 cm across (310, 316, 507) with cerebellum protruding through the wound (322-323) and with the occipital lobes resting on the foramen magnum (324).

2:30
Judge Sarah Hughes arrives at Love Field to administer the oath of office and everyone goes to stateroom of AF-1 to witness the swearing in of LBJ (675). Gen. McHugh returns to rear of AF-1 and stands next to bronze casket (677).

2:38
LBJ is sworn in as the new president (588).

2:47
AF-1 leaves Love Field (205, 675). Ms. Kennedy goes to the rear of AF-1 to sit next to the bronze casket (390), unaware that it is empty (678), as her actions at Bethesda will later testify (478n).

While AF-1 is airborne, there are several radiophone communiques between it and the White House (681-690). The nature of these communiques is to establish where JFK’s body will receive its autopsy. Since her husband was in the Navy and since it was the president’s hospital from the first day of his inauguration (684), Ms. Kennedy wants the autopsy done at Bethesda Naval Hospital (683-684). She is adamant in this (394).

However, after Adm. Burkley talks to Ms. Kennedy about where she wants the body taken and reassuring her that he will comply with her wishes (683), he then makes arrangements for the body to be taken to Walter Reed Army Hospital for the autopsy (689). He contacts Maj. Gen. Chester Clifton, senior military aide, and has him call Gen. Leonard Heaton, Surgeon General of the Army, to make arrangements for the regular post-mortem that has to be done by law to be done at Walter Reed (681, 684).

When AF-1 lands Ms. Marie Fehmer, LBJ’s personal secretary, writes in her notebook: 5:58 Arr Andrews — Body w/Mrs. K to Walter Reed (690).

6:05
AF-1 arrives at Andrews Air Force Base (220-221, 681).

6:09
As AF-1 taxies to a halt, within 90 seconds JFK’s body is removed from the starboard front galley door (680, 688n) and put aboard a helicopter (701-702) for the flight to Walter Reed, just 5 minutes away by air (681-682).

6:10
An army cargo lift is brought to the rear port door of AF-1. As the door of the aircraft opens, Ms. Kennedy, still wearing her blood stained dress, is standing there next to the bronze casket clutching Robert Kennedy’s (RFK) hand (205). The Military District of Washington (MDW) Honor Guard is there waiting to take JFK to Bethesda (393, 406-407).

The bronze casket is lowered and placed in a grey Navy ambulance. Air Force Sgt. Richard E. Gaudreau and Navy Seaman Apprentice Hubert Clark, both of the MDW Honor Guard (398), assist in this (578n).

Between 6:10 and 6:40 the body of JFK is brought to Walter Reed. The bullets are removed, the entry wounds are made to look like exit wounds and wounds resembling entry wounds are put into his back and in the back of his head (281, 283).

6:15 (Time appx.)
The grey Navy ambulance departs for the Bethesda Naval Hospital complex (479) with Ms. Kennedy, RFK and Gen. McHugh sitting next to the bronze casket (220, 390).

Floyd A. Reibe, the photographer’s assistant and a student in medical photography at the Bethesda Medical School, is the duty photographer (636-637). When he learns that JFK is to be brought to the Bethesda morgue, he calls professional medical photographer John Stringer (517), a retired naval officer employed at the hospital, to come and take the necessary photographs of JFK’s autopsy (637).

6:40 (Time appx.)
A helicopter brings JFK’s body to Bethesda (605-606). It lands behind the morgue (605, 682). The body of JFK, now in a body bag inside a metal shipping casket (600-601), is put into a black hearse (575-576).

Laboratory technologist Paul K. O’Connor hears a helicopter landing in back by the officers club (605). He then notes that JFK is brought to the Bethesda morgue in a shipping casket (598), in a zippered body bag (599-600) and that the brain is missing when the body arrives (601-602).

6:43 (Time appx.)
Dennis D. David, Chief of the Day for the Medical School and Donald Rebentisch (a petty officer at Bethesda) observe the arrival of a black hearse (580-81, 701) at the rear entrance with a plain metal shipping casket (701). The hearse entered Bethesda through a rear gate by the officer’s club (572). It is accompanied by 6 or 7 men in plain civilian clothes and two attendants in white smocks (575-576, 666).

6:44 (Time appx.)
The body is rushed into the morgue which is then sealed off by several marine guards (605). The casket is carried in by 7 or 8 sailors who are supervised by D. David (572). JFK’s body is in a body bag (595). Neither Gen. McHugh nor the MDW Honor Guard are present at this time (399, 575).

Reibe notes that when JFK is removed from the plain casket with thumbscrews on it that he is in a dark body bag and that the casket was accompanied by men in civilian clothes (636-637). O’Connor is told that these men are undertakers from New York (666).

6:45 (Time appx.)
The H-21 helicopter carrying Army 1st Lt. Samuel R. Bird and the MDW Honor Guard lands in front of the Bethesda Naval complex (395). They get into a pickup truck and go to the front entrance and wait for the arrival of the Kennedy group (402-403).

6:55
The grey Navy ambulance with the bronze casket and Ms. Kennedy arrives at the front of Bethesda after the arrival of JFK’s body in the rear of the hospital (581). S.S. Agent Clinton Hill notes the time (395).

The two FBI Agents James W. Sibert and Francis X. O’Neill assigned to cover the autopsy are in the third car behind the ambulance, as arranged by the S.S. (475, 489, 577). Ms. Kennedy and RFK get out of the ambulance. She is assisted by Capt. Robert O. Canada, the Commanding Officer of the Naval Hospital (395).

6:56
RFK tells Gen. McHugh and the two or three admirals standing in front of Bethesda to do the full autopsy here at the hospital (413, 420). He then begins to walk toward the main entrance with Ms. Kennedy at his side.

As Ms. Kennedy walks down the walkway, with the belief that the bronze casket still contians the body of JFK, she stops and turns for one last look at the ambulance and bronze casket. Then she slowly walks into the front entrance (478n).

S.S. Agents Hill and Paul Landis escort her and RFK into the building (395, 416). Army Sgt. James L. Felder of the MDW Honor Guard (398) observes this (403). Ms. Kennedy and RFK go to the 17th floor tower (392, 620) which is reserved for dignitaries (394).

Gen. McHugh and S.S. Agents Kellerman and William Greer remain outside in front of the hospital (395). Also present is Gen. Phillip Wehle, Commanding Officer of the MDW and Vice Adm. Calvin Galloway, Commanding Officer of the Medical Center (395). Gen. Wehle notes that there are two ambulances (396).

6:57 (Time appx.)
D. David from the second floor balcony (576, 580-581), Rebentisch from the upstairs lobby (701) and X-ray technician Jerrol Custer (620-621) all see Ms. Kennedy walk into the front of the hospital.

Ms. Kennedy walks within 10 to 15 yards of Custer who has already taken several trips upstairs from the morgue in the rear of the hospital for developing of numerous X-rays of JFK’s body (620-621).

Cmdr. J. Thornton Boswell, Officer of the Day, tells D. David that the bronze casket is empty and that the body was in a decoy ambulance (572-573). Lt. Bird tells Sgt. Felder that there are two ambulances and that one is a decoy ambulance (405). J.S. Layton Ledbetter, Chief of the Day at Bethesda, also witnesses two ambulances that arrive together with the Kennedy motorcade (419-420).

Lt. Richard A. Lipsey, aide to Gen. Wehle, is told that the order for two ambulances came from the White House (418-419). By this time it is general knowledge among those at Bethesda that the Kennedy group arrived after the body of JFK (579, 631n).

7:01 (Time appx.)
After RFK goes inside, the admirals in charge tell Gen. McHugh that they do not have the proper equipment to do an autopsy at Bethesda (413n, 420). Gen. McHugh gets into an argument with Adm. Galloway over whether or not Bethesda can do the autopsy (395-396).

Adm. Galloway does not believe that the Bethesda morgue has the facilities to do it (395). But Gen. McHugh is persistent and Adm. Galloway walks inside the building perturbed (396). This conversation continues for at least 30 minutes after their arrival (420).

7:05
While Adm. Galloway and the others discuss with Gen. McHugh where the autopsy will be performed, they become distracted (420) and the decoy ambulance takes the place of the grey Navy ambulance in front of Bethesda.

The decoy ambulance then takes off for the morgue in the rear of the complex with the MDW Honor Guard, sitting in the back of a pickup truck, following it (402-404). There is a chase for the grey Navy ambulance (409-411). Traveling up to 45 or 50 mph the driver of the ambulance is purposely trying to lose the Honor Guard (411, 586).

Army Sgt. Felder and Navy S.A. Clark are in the back of the pickup truck and witness this. (586). Lt. Bird and the six members of the MDW Honor Guard (398) lose the Navy ambulance (410).

7:07
While the Honor Guard is looking for it, the grey Navy ambulance with the empty casket arrives at the rear of Bethesda to get the body back into the empty bronze casket. FBI agents Sibert & O’Neill help carry the empty casket to the morgue entrance (475, 570n). Neither Gen. McHugh nor the MDW Honor Guard are present at this time (171, 575).

O’Connor mistakenly enters the arrival as 8:00 (598-599). He will later log the body and casket out of the morgue at 5:30 A.M. when it actually leaves at 4:00 A.M. (605).

7:10 (Time appx.)
After ten or fifteen minutes looking for the grey Navy ambulance (411), Lt. Bird and the MDW Honor Guard arrive at the rear of the complex. The Navy ambulance is sitting by the loading dock of the morgue. It is unattended. Lt. Bird goes up to it and sees that it is empty (393). Believing that they have followed the decoy ambulance by mistake, they return to the front of the hospital (399).

7:12 (Time appx.)
The Secret Service personnel and the Naval staff present temporarily prevent Sibert & O’Neill from entering the autopsy room (392, 412). They contact S.S. Agent Kellerman to get permission to observe the autopsy proceedings (475-476) and to obtain any bullets that may still be in the body (475, 634). They are kept out only a few minutes, just long enough for the bronze casket they are escorting to enter the morgue (624).

7:17
Sibert & O’Neill are allowed into the autopsy room. The bronze casket is in the adjourning anteroom of the morgue (624). They report that JFK is on the autopsy table and the preparations for the autopsy begin at this time (484-486) with a pre-inspection of the area of the brain (481).

7:20 (Time appx.)
Sibert & O’Neill note: “Following the removal of the wrapping, it was ascertained that the President’s clothing had been removed and it was also apparent that a tracheotomy had been preformed as well as surgery of the head area, namely, in the top of the skull” (171-172, 624 italics added). There are four symmetrical, postmortem (unbruised) cuts in JFK’s scalp (437, 444).

7:25 (Time appx.)
After another fifteen minutes (411), the MDW Honor Guard arrives at the front of Bethesda only to meet the decoy ambulance. They are told to again go to the morgue in the rear of the hospital to meet the Navy ambulance (415).

7:30 (Time appx.)
Everyone is told to leave the autopsy room so that the body can have X-rays and photographs taken (423). Sibert & O'Neill report that everyone is told to go into an adjourning anteroom and that there is a tight security by the Naval facility and the S.S. (392, 624).

S.S. Agent Kellerman believes that this marks the beginning of the autopsy and he notes the time and names Dr. Calvin Galloway as a fourth autopsy surgeon (479).

The actual autopsy surgeons are: Chief Pathologist Dr. James Humes, Dr. Pierre A. Finck and Dr. J. Thornton Boswell, Medical Corps, USN (479). None of the latter three doctors (the autopsy doctors) has ever performed an autopsy in a death due to a gunshot wound (418n) and Dr. Humes is not a qualified forensic pathologist (418).

Adm. Edward C. Kenney, Navy Surgeon General, Dr. Robert Canada, and Dr. John Stover, Commanding officer of the Medical School, are also present (480).

Sibert & O’Neill and the others are kept out just long enough to put the body back into the bronze casket (624). JFK is replaced in the bronze casket (623) which is then hurriedly put back into the grey Navy ambulance. The Navy ambulance then goes to the front of Bethesda to meet with Gen. McHugh and Lt. Bird and the MDW Honor Guard (583).

When Dr. Humes testifies in 1964 to the Warren Commission and again in 1978 to the House Select Committee on Assassinations (490) he says that the body of JFK arrives at this time (391, 584).

However, since the body arrived earlier and he witnessed its arrival (572-573, 580-581, 602-603) and he also sees a second arrival at 8:00 (623n), demanding that the elaborate casket not be opened until after Lt. Col. Finck arrives, (645-646) and since this delay lasted fifteen to thirty minutes (646), he is probably splitting the time difference between the two arrival times.

7:50 (Time appx.)
The MDW Honor Guard arrives a second time at the rear of Bethesda (711). When they get to the morgue loading dock they find that the Navy ambulance and bronze casket are gone (399). They return to the front entrance of the hospital. This time the Navy ambulance with the bronze casket is there waiting for them (415, 628).

Coast Guard Yeoman 2nd Class George A. Barnum, of the MDW Honor Guard (398), writes a report detailing all these events (414-415).

8:00
The grey Navy ambulance returns to the rear of Bethesda with Lt. Bird and MDW Honor Guard for its official entry. There is no one else assisting them at this time except Gen. McHugh (585-586), who is pushing one of the pallbearers aside to get a hand on the casket (412).

Lamenting on all the confusion, Marine Lance Cpl. Timothy Cheek, of the MDW Honor Guard (398), complains that “nobody tells us anything” (399). Lt. Bird logs the entry of the bronze casket into the morgue at this time (406, 626).

8:04 (Time appx.)
McHugh and Felder witness the opening of the bronze casket with the body of JFK inside (584-586). The body is taken out of the bronze casket and placed on the autopsy table. Hospital corpsman 3rd class James Metzler helps take JFK out of the bronze casket (631).

Dr. David Osborne, Captain, Chief of Surgery at Bethesda Naval Hospital, sees an unmarred bullet fall onto the autopsy table and he picks it up (645-647). He also notes some civilians present who are urging that everything be rushed and done as quickly as possible (646). Dr. Burkley also pressures the doctors to expedite the examination as quickly as possible (529).

Sibert & O’Neill and other personnel are allowed to re-enter the autopsy room (624). Metzler is told to leave and he goes into the adjourning anteroom where he encounters a group of about ten men in civilian clothes with a roster who are keeping track of the comings and goings of everyone (632). They check his identification (633).

8:07 (Time appx.)
Sibert & O’Neill get the impression that the Kennedy family is somehow transmitting step-by-step clearances to the pathologists (665). Laboratory technologist James C. Jenkins also notices that the civilians present seemed to be in charge, directing the proceedings (611). There are more civilians present than the five assigned to be here: FBI Agents Sibert & O’Neill, and S.S. Agents Kellerman, Greer, & Muggsey O’Leary (612).

Ledbetter was told when he came on duty at 4:30 that twenty-six S.S. men were already on the compound ready to receive JFK’s body (636). James Rowley, Secret Service Chief, does not give this information to either the Warren Commission or to the FBI (636).

The Warren Commission mentions only five S.S. men at Bethesda: Hill, Landis, Kellerman, Greer, and O’Leary (636n).

By having different people leave at various times and different groups of people carry in the three casket entries (587), only a choice few people and the Secret Service men present are able to witness all the clandestine events that goes on in the autopsy room (623).

For example, Jenkins was sent to get a laboratory jar (643) and Custer was sent to develop X-rays (623). It is a sleight of hand trick (405) and a shell game played with the bronze casket and the body of JFK(644).

8:13 (Time appx.)
Lt. Bird places his men on guard duty in the corridor and notices two Navy corpsmen rolling a litter. Nothing is on it except a small lump wrapped in sheeting. He asks what’s in it and is told a still born baby (644).

But there were no babies still born that day in the Bethesda Naval Hospital complex (644). It is probably JFK’s brain just arriving from Walter Reed, which Jenkins then places in formaldehyde (609).

8:15
Sibert & O’Neill report that after the completion of X-rays (391) the first incision is made at this time (423, 624). The doctors, S.S. Agent Kellerman and Sibert & O’Neill then discuss whether a full autopsy is necessary to obtain any bullets which may still be in the body (615n).

8:17 (Time appx.)
An argument begins among the doctors about partial/full autopsy (665). Exhibiting a central roll, Dr. Burkley says that Ms. Kennedy has given permission for a limited autopsy (665, 488). Dr. Humes “wanted to do a ‘full autopsy,’ but his military superiors denied him the authority to do so. While this argument proceeded, the Y-incision was postponed” (665).

But the authorization for Post Mortem which RFK signed made no mention of any restrictions (487). These discussions over partial/full autopsy last for at least an hour or two (665). A hasty reconstruction of the head and photographs are taken during this time (658-660, 664, 671-672).

Gen. McHugh notes that reconstruction is carried on in his presence while photographs are taken (658). He even assists the photographers in the photographing of JFK (430). These photos are taken from the time JFK arrived until he is put into a new casket (431).

Professional medical photographer John Stringer (659-660) takes at least two photographs of everything that is done (516), including two of the lung (515-516). Later, when taking pictures of the back wound, he places JFK on his stomach (638).

In none of the pictures he takes is JFK lying on his back with his right shoulder tilted up away from the autopsy table (638). Nor does Stringer take any pictures of JFK with his head lying on a towel labeled “Bethesda Naval Hospital” (638).

Later, when they leave the autopsy room, Sibert & O’Neill will make an inventory of the X-rays and photographs taken by the medical authorities (423).

There are 11 X-rays, twenty-two 4 x 5 color photographs and eighteen 4 x 5 black & white photographs. There is also one roll of 120 film containing five exposures taken by Reibe (500, 516). All the X-rays and photographs are given to S.S. Agent Kellerman (423-424). The photographs will subsequently be developed by the S.S. (508).

The photos in the archives do not agree with those taken by Stringer (522-523). There are fourteen X-rays (523). There are twenty color photos (522n); the two photographs taken of the lung are missing.(516). There are eighteen black & white photographs (522n).

The five exposures of 120 film taken by Reibe (636-637) were immediately destroyed by exposing them to light by a S.S. Agent (500, 513, 516). A receipt signed by Capt. John Stover, Commander Humes immediate superior, lists 28 sheets of exposed flim (photo following 586) but the numbers were changed in the total number of film holders to accommodate ten extra photographs (522-523).

Several of the photographs are unprofessional (660) and will even be criticized by the HSCA (638n) and are obviously not the work of a professional medical photographer (517, 659-660). Many of the photographs are just duplicates of each other (662-663) and nearly impossible to anatomically orient their direction of view (660).

X-rays and photos do not show the wounds as described by Dr. Humes at the start of the autopsy. They exhibit reconstruction to the head for the photos (501, 664) and that the reconstruction on the body was prepared hastily for these photos (512, 660-661).

There is also a X-ray/photo mismatch (707) manifesting that the X-rays and photographs were not exposed at the same time as is done in a normal autopsy. Also, the descriptions of the wounds by several of the technologists assisting Dr. Humes do not match the X-rays and photographs in the archives (656-657).

In a photograph of the back wound, JFK is lying on his back with his right shoulder tilted up away from the autopsy table. Someone is holding him in this position. In another photograph his head is lying on a towel labeled “Bethesda Naval Hospital” (662, & photos following 682).

In the same photograph of the back wound (photo following 682) a ruler is held against JFK’s body, to the right of the spinal column. It does not extend up to the right mastoid process (670) where, according to the autopsy report, the measurement was taken to determine the wounds location (670).

The ruler has the appearance of hiding from the camera the original back wound which is “six inches below the neckline to the right-hand side of the spinal column” (78, 163).

The autopsy photograph of the rear of JFK’s head (photo following 682) does not match the drawing done by medical illustrator Ida Dox and shown to the Warren Commission (photo following 586). It does not show an entrance wound 100 mm (10 cm) above the external occipital protuberance as does Ms. Dox drawing (428-429, 552).

This same photo shows the occipital region of JFK’s head intact (photo following 682) but at the time the pictures were taken JFK’s occipital bone was still lying in Dealey Plaza (504, 530). Numerous Dallas doctors testify that JFK’s cerebellum was damaged and exposed (504).

Years later, New York city urologist Dr. John K. Lattimer will testify after viewing the X-rays and photographs that “the cerebellum is intact” (504).

In a photograph of the top of JFK’s head there is a metallic clip inside the skull (photo following 682). This is clear evidence of reconstruction for the official record (706-707).

The X-ray and photograph evidence is created before the official autopsy gets underway in conjunction with body alterations (426). It will subsequently dominate the official record (668).

10:25 (Time appx.)
Adm. Galloway tells Dr. Humes to perform a complete autopsy (487-488, 667).

10:30
The full autopsy begins (519).

At the start of the autopsy, Dr. Humes and the other autopsy doctors believe the throat wound is a tracheotomy that was neatly sutured by Dallas doctors (541-543, 665-666).

Dr. Humes testifies that it is 7 or 8 cm in length (237, 271) with widely gaping irregular edges (276). X-ray technician Edward Reed describes it as a lot larger than a normal tracheotomy (619).

The wound presumably of entrance that the Bethesda doctors see on the rear of JFK’s head is approximately 2.5 cm (25 mm) laterally to the right and slightly above the external occipital protuberance (39, 551n). Agent Kellerman observes this little hole “in the hairline” (326).

The wound presumably of exit is through the top of the skull (309-310) involving chiefly the parietal bone but extending somewhat into the temporal and occipital regions (319-320). Neither Dr. Humes nor Dr. Finck see an identifiable exit wound with outward beveling along the periphery of this hole (448, 507, 614).

Dr. Boswell measures the hole as being roughly rectangular with dimensions of 10 x 17 cm (318n). O’Connor estimates it as being eight by four inches (601) and Jenkins says that it covers at least a third of JFK’s total head area (616).

Pieces of skull fall onto the autopsy table as Dr. Humes moves scalp about (446, 459). They fail to reveal any specific evidence of exit (448, 451) and the vomer is crushed (453). The fracture pattern on the skull reveals that JFK received violent blow to the top of his head (451).

Dr. Humes describes a cut on the brain as a “longitudinal laceration of the right hemisphere which was parasagittal in position” (174, 190). It is five to six centimeters deep and runs from the tip of the occipital lobe to the tip of the frontal lobe (255).

He also describes a laceration on the corpus callosum as extending from the posterior (rear) to the anterior (front) portion of this structure (255) in the center of the brain toward the bottom (200).

The brain has the appearance of a brain after it has been sectioned for an autopsy (199-201). That is, the interior has been cut into and exposed to facilitate an inspection (200).

Yet there was no surgery performed at Dallas (301) nor were any of the wounds sutured (541-542). There wasn’t enough time as JFK died before the doctors could do anything. “Somewhere between Dallas and Bethesda the President’s body had been altered” (172).

12:00 (Time appx.)
Dr. Humes reports: “Some time later in the evening or very early next morning we were all still engaged in continuing our examination” (525) but will testify that the autopsy concluded around midnight (550).

Secret Service Agent Kellerman says that the autopsy is underway for quite some time before the rear back wound is discovered (360, 615). Dr. Humes probes it; the end of the wound can be felt with his finger (159).

Jenkins, watching Dr. Humes probe the wound, sees that the bullet could not have exited through the throat in the front because the wound is low in the chest cavity near the junction of the descending aorta. It has not broken the pleura, the membrane lining the chest cavity (613).

Dr. Humes continues to believe that the throat wound is a tracheotomy (612). He and the other doctors are at a loss the explain why they have a shallow entrance wound in JFK's back with no corresponding exit wound and no bullets in the body (282). They cannot discern the trajectory of the bullet (343, 382).

Several men in civilian clothes are trying to get Dr. Humes to conclude a back to front, through the body and out the neck, trajectory for the bullet (612). They are arguing with him, trying to put the idea to him that the bullet entered at the rear, exited through where the tracheotomy is located and then went on to hit Governor John Connally (671). They seem to have a pre-concluded idea that is not panning out (611-612). They exhibit much animosity toward the doctors (612, 671).

After much discussions (611) Dr. Humes states that the pattern is clear that one bullet had entered the president’s back and had worked its way out of the body during external cardiac massage and a second high velocity bullet had entered the rear of the skull and had fragmented prior to exit through the top of the skull (525, 615-616).

The trajectory and bullet information is what Sibert & O’Neill have been waiting for (475, 634). Once they have it, they depart from the autopsy room (525) believing that the embalming is about to start (525n). This happens some time between 1:00 and 1:15 A.M. (524). They will arrive at the FBI Laboratory about 1:45 A.M. (525n).

Yet one hour after they leave, at about 2:45 A.M., S.S. Agent Clinton Hill will be summoned to the autopsy room by S.S. Agent Kellerman for the specific purpose of viewing the wounds (163, 525n). Both will later report that the embalming had not yet started (524, 525n).

Autopsy report A63-272 (5) has no precisely fixed beginning, which might answer when the body alterations and reconstructions were made, nor precisely fixed end, which might answer when additional X-rays and photographs were made (525-526).

John van Hoesen, an undertaker from the Gawler’s Funeral Home, has been sitting in bleachers for quite some time, watching pictures being taken from different angles and waiting for the autopsy to be finished (666). At the completion of the autopsy he will prepare the body for burial (525n).

4:00 A.M.
Saturday, the body of JFK leaves the morgue for the White House (605).

Laboratory technologists Jenkins and O’Connor begin cleaning up the morgue and will be here until 9:00 Saturday morning (611, 611n).

The White House gives orders that the facts about the autopsy of JFK are to be kept top secret (639). Custer (620), Jenkins (611), Metzler (634), Reed (619), Reibe (639) and the others are ordered not to talk (607-608). They are even ordered not to tell their families (611) subject to general court martial (619).

There were no prints originally found on the alleged murder weapon, the Mannlicher-Carcano rifle (352-357, 354n). It is a rather difficult-to-operate 1938 bolt action rifle (71) and was probably planted early Friday morning and then conveniently found in the staged sniper’s nest later that afternoon (183, 287-288).

One pristine bullet was planted on a hospital stretcher (372-373) and allowed to be found by an innocent bystander (91, 198). Two more bullets were then planted in JFK’s limousine (94) supposedly under heavy guard by the S.S. (198) so that they too could be found by another innocent bystander (359-360). The FBI subsequently matched all three bullets to the rifle to the exclusion of all other weapons (92-93).

Thus, only a few people in key positions were needed to issue orders under the disguise of national security (639-640). These orders were then subsequently obeyed by unsuspecting innocent citizens (695-696), and on the surface nothing appeared out of the ordinary or of a sinister nature; everything was totally logical and normal (421).

Like the smile on the Cheshire cat from Alice in Wonderland, all that remains are the falsified X-rays and photographs (565). JFK will be buried at Arlington.

Alpha Omega

Appendix B