John F. Kennedy

The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy

My Conclusions

Upon arrival at Bethesda Naval Hospital the first things noted by James W. Sibert and Francis X. O’neill — the two FBI Special Agents assigned to report on the autopsy proceedings — was that there had been surgery on Kennedy’s head prior to the beginning of the autopsy. In their report they noted “it was also apparent that a tracheotomy had been performed as well as surgery of the head area, namely, in the top of the skull” (Lifton, p.171-172, 624) (Emphasis added).

Yet, there was no surgery performed on President Kennedy at Parkland Hospital! He died before the surgeons could do anything! (Lifton, p.301)

An individual could assume that, due to their lack of medical training, these two agents mistook a head wound for surgery. But J. Edgar Hoover announced on November 25, 1966, that “the FBI reports record oral statements made by autopsy physicians” (Lifton, p.296).

One must also take into consideration that the 2 to 3 cm tracheotomy performed by the Parkland doctors (Lifton, p.271) was enlarged to 7 or 8 cm (Lifton, p.237) and sutured (Lifton, p.541-543, 665-666) by the time the body reached Bethesda Hospital. Again, none of the wounds were sutured at Parkland Hospital (Lifton, p.541-542).

The 5 by 7 cm head wound seen by the Doctors at Parkland (Lifton, p.310, 313) was enlarged to approximately 17 cm by the time the body arrived at Bethesda (Lifton, p.318n, 327).

The back wound was not observed by anyone at Parkland (Lifton, p.192-193), yet was noticed by Dr. Humes near the junction of the descending aorta and that it had not broken the pleura, the membrane lining the chest cavity (Lifton, p.613). He was able to put his finger into the hole and discovered that it was only a fraction of an inch deep (Lifton, p.159).

There were four postmortem cuts (unbruised cuts) on Kennedy’s scalp (Lifton, p.437, 444). further, the fracture pattern on the skull reveals that JFK received violent blow to the top of his head (Lifton, p.451).

Also, there were at least two ambulances that arrived at Bethesda, the grey Navy ambulance in which Mrs. Jacqueline Kennedy rode and in which the body of John Kennedy was supposed to be in (Lifton, p.402-415) and the other, a black hearse in which the body of John Kennedy actually did arrive (Lifton, p.569-581).

There were two caskets, the empty bronze casket that was damaged in transit (Lifton, p.399-400) and the grey metal shipping casket that held the body of John Kennedy (Lifton, p.579, 601).

The bronze coffin in which President Kennedy’s body was originally placed in at the Dallas hospital was lined with a plastic mattress cover to protect the satin lining (Lifton, p.599-600n) but when the body arrived at Bethesda in Washington it was in a zippered, plastic body bag (Lifton, p.599-600).

A reasonable question logically follows: How could the body have changed caskets and appearances between Parkland and Bethesda?

One cannot claim that President Kennedy’s body was switched from one casket and ambulance to another casket and hearse for security reasons because of the actions of Ms. Kennedy. Before entering Bethesda hospital she turned for one last look at the grey Navy ambulance (Lifton, p.478n). She did so because she believed that her husband’s body was still in the grey Navy ambulance.

Thus she clearly indicated that she was unaware that the bronze casket was empty at that time.

One knows that it was empty because of the actions of X-ray technician Jerrol Custer. He had already taken several trips from the morgue in the rear of the hospital upstairs for developing of numerous X-rays of Kennedy’s body. Yet he was standing only a few yards from Ms. Kennedy at the time she came through the front door of the hospital just seconds after turning for one last look at the casket which she believed still held her dead husband (Lifton, p.620-621).

When one takes into consideration all these facts about the changes in appearance of John Kennedy’s body, plus the many peculiarities and additional information uncovered by David Lifton and other investigators who have written about the assassination, one is confronted with the undeniable truth that before the official autopsy was preformed, the body of John Kennedy was somehow secreted away from the official motorcade to Bethesda and onto Walter Reed Army Hospital (Lifton, p.689-690) by helicopter (Lifton, p.681-683).

Then just like a magician’s sleight of hand trick, the body was switched from coffin to coffin in the middle of an ambulance chase (Lifton, p.402-405, 409-411, 583). A wound was put in his upper back, other wounds were altered and all the bullets were removed from the body. This was done in order to make it appear as though all the shots were fired from the sixth floor window of the Texas School Book Depository.

After all the evidence is examined one is confronted with several undeniable facts. There were at least four shots fired at the President’s limousine from two different directions: one in front of the car and the other above and to the rear of the automobile.

One bullet hit John Kennedy in the front of his neck and ranged downward into his chest and did not exit.

A second bullet struck Governor Connally in the back, exited from his chest and lodged in his left leg after striking his wrist.

A third bullet hit President Kennedy in the right temporal region and exited from the right posterior of his skull; a piece of his skull flying off and landing in the grass (Lifton, p.316).

A fourth bullet struck a nearby curb and a bystander (CE VI p.221, 238; VII p.508-510; XXI p.475-477, WCR p.116-117).

Thus, the Warren Commission lied and aided in a massive cover-up when it stated that only three shots were fired from the sixth floor window of the southeast corner of the book depository warehouse (WCR p.18-19).

As to the assassinations of Dr. King and Sen. Robert Kennedy I can only venture a guess. However, after studyng the facts I believe that it is an educated guess.

I believe that Dr. King was lured onto the balcony by someone from among those who were with him. Who this Judas was I can only offer conjecture.

The killing of Sen. Kennedy was accomplished with a diversion. Sirhan, standing in front of Kennedy, shot into the ceiling. (I believe that he was told to shoot into the ceiling to celebrate Robert’s victory.) While he was “celebrating” Sen. Kennedy’s victory and everyone was focused upon him, Kennedy’s murderer shot Robert in the back of the head. Was that someone Cesar? Again I can only offer conjecture.

But one fact remains undisputed: The deaths of King and Kennedy changed the 1968 presidential elections and thus the history of our nation and government.

Bernstein, C. (1974). All the President’s Men. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster.

Dean, J.W. (1976). Blind Ambition. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster.

Epstein, E.J. (1966). Inquest. New York, NY: Viking Press.
      (1978). Legend: Secret World of LHO. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.

Garrison, J. (1970). A Heritage of Stone. New York, NY: G.P. Putnam’s Sons.
      (1988). On the Trail of the Assassins. New York, NY: Sheridan Press.

Goode, S. (1979). Assassination: Kennedy, King, Kennedy. New York, NY: F. Watts.

Groden, R.J. & Livingstone, H.E. (1990). High Treason. New York, NY: Berkley Publishing Group.

Guth, D.J. & Wrone, D.R. (1980). The Assassination of John F. Kennedy. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.

Hearings Before the President’s Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy. (1964). Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office.

Land, M. & Gregory, D. (1977). Code Name “Zorro:” The Murder of Martin L. King. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

Lane, M. (1966). Rush To Judgment. Greenwich, CT: Fawcett Publications, Inc.
      (1991). Plausible Denial. New York, NY: Thunder's Mouth Press.

Lifton, D.S. (1980). Best Evidence. New York, NY: Carroll & Graf Publishers, Inc.

Meagher, S. (1967). Accessories After the Fact. New York, NY: Vintage Gooks.

Melanson, P. (1994). The Robert F. Kennedy Assassination. New York, NY: SPI Books.

Moldea, Dan E. (1995). The Killing of Robert F. Kennedy. W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.

Morrow, R.D. (1988). The Senator Must Die. Santa Monica, CA: Roundtable Publishing.

Oglesby, C. (1992). The JFK Assassination: The Facts and the Theories. New York, NY: Signet Penguin Books.

Report of the President’s Commission on the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy. (1964). Washington, D.C.: U. S. Government Printing Office.

Roberts, C. (1994). Kill Zone. New York, NY: Typhoon Press.

Shaw, J.G. (1992). Cover-up. Austin, Tx: Collector's Editions.

Thompson, J. (1967, 1968). Six Seconds in Dallas. New York, NY: Random House.

White, T.H. (1975). Breach of Faith. New York, NY: Atheneum Publishers.

Woodward, B. (1976). Final Days. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster.