Ex-Govt Employee Tells Congress JFK X-Rays 'Actually Reveal A Total Of 3 Headshots,' Records Missing

Forbes Breaking News

At a House Oversight Committee hearing prior to the Congressional recess, Douglas Horne, a former member of the Assassination Records Review Board staff, shared his opening statement about key questions surrounding the JFK Assassination.

Transcript

00:00Well, we might have to bring you back out of retirement, what you're currently doing, and have you help go through it with that.

00:04I'd like to now recognize Mr. Horn for an opening statement.

00:10Chairwoman Luna, Ranking Member Garcia, and members of the committee, thank you for the invitation to appear and testify today.

00:19I served on the staff of the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Review Board for the final three years of its four-year lifespan,

00:27from August of 1995 through September of 1998.

00:32I was hired as a senior analyst on the military records team and was promoted early in 1997 to head the military records team,

00:41serving as chief analyst for military records until the ARRB shut down on September 30, 1998.

00:49During my time on the staff, in addition to securing the declassification and public release of military records

00:58related to Cuba and Vietnam policy, I was privileged to work extensively in the medical evidence arena

01:06and to serve as the Review Board's point man on issues related to the Zapruder film of President Kennedy's assassination.

01:13Although the Review Board was not empowered to reinvestigate the assassination

01:19or generate conclusions or findings of fact, the Board did choose to attempt to clarify the record

01:26of certain aspects of the assassination by taking the depositions of ten persons who participated in

01:33or who were present at the autopsy on President John F. Kennedy

01:37and by later taking one additional joint deposition of five of the Dallas treating physicians.

01:44I served as the principal research assistant to the Review Board's general counsel, Jeremy Gunn,

01:51in preparing for and conducting our ten depositions of the participants and witnesses to JFK's autopsy

01:58and was present at all ten of those depositions.

02:02The sworn testimony of our ten deponents, as well as numerous written interview reports

02:07of additional unsworn medical witnesses, were all deposited in the National Archives

02:13in the JFK records collection without comment or endorsement.

02:19In subsequent years, I wrote a five-volume memoir about my own personal conclusions regarding the medical evidence

02:26and explained the substantial ways in which the work of the ARRB staff

02:31significantly enhanced the totality of the medical evidence

02:35and our understanding of how President Kennedy was killed.

02:39Some outstanding questions were resolved, but many other questions were raised

02:44by the information we gathered, questions that remain unresolved today.

02:50This is the heart of my oral testimony here.

02:53Many Americans remain troubled today by the many conflicts within the JFK medical evidence

03:00and what they might mean, and they remain unsatisfied with the official conclusions offered

03:06up by both the Warren Commission in 1964 and the HSCA Forensic Pathology Panel in 1979.

03:14Based on my work as an analyst at the ARRB and as an independent researcher,

03:22I have concluded that there are ample reasons for the disquiet of so many of the American people to wit.

03:31First, eight different sets of photographs known with confidence to have been taken during the autopsy on JFK

03:39are not in the official collection today and never have been.

03:45Some autopsy photos in the official collection at the National Archives are in gross disagreement

03:51with the head and neck wounds universally observed on November 22, 1963

03:57by the treating physicians at Parkland Hospital,

04:00which they recorded in precise detail in their treatment notes that day

04:05and in their subsequent 1964 testimony.

04:10At least two and possibly three JFK skull x-rays exposed at Bethesda Naval Hospital

04:16are missing today and have never been in the official collection.

04:23The science of optical densitometry reveals that all three surviving skull x-rays are not originals,

04:30but rather are altered copy films.

04:35Two highly qualified and respected MDs who were granted repeated access by the Kennedy family

04:42to the autopsy photographs and x-rays in the deed of gift collection at the archives

04:47both agree that the extant JFK skull x-rays reveal unambiguous and clear evidence

04:55of two headshots fired from in front of the President,

04:59contrary to the findings of the Warren Commission and the HSCA.

05:04The JFK skull x-rays actually reveal a total of three headshots,

05:09one from behind and two from the front.

05:12The so-called Harper fragment of skull bone,

05:17a crucial item of evidence signed for by the President's military physician

05:22and photographed and x-rayed by the FBI,

05:26has been missing since late in 1963.

05:31Many bullet fragments,

05:33known to have been removed from President Kennedy's body at Bethesda Naval Hospital,

05:38were never placed into the official record and are missing today.

05:44The remains of President Kennedy's brain following its examination

05:48were placed in a stainless steel container in 1963,

05:52but the brain is missing today, as many people know already.

05:57That stainless steel container and an original signed autopsy report

06:02were among materials transferred from the Secret Service

06:05to Senator Robert F. Kennedy in April of 1965.

06:10Those materials and others were not among the materials

06:14returned to the U.S. government by RFK

06:17on October 31, 1966,

06:21via a deed of gift to the National Archives.

06:24The Kennedy family attorney, Burke Marshall,

06:28told the HSCA

06:29that Robert F. Kennedy had made those materials

06:33permanently inaccessible

06:34without providing details.

06:39The 14 brain photographs

06:42in the National Archives today

06:44cannot be

06:45and are not photographs

06:47of John F. Kennedy's brain.

06:49They have been impugned by the official photographer

06:52at the brain examination

06:54and by one of the FBI agents

06:56present at JFK's autopsy.

06:58The chain of custody of President Kennedy's body

07:03prior to the start of the autopsy

07:05shortly after 8 p.m. on November 22, 1963,

07:10clearly appears to have been broken,

07:12casting even more doubt

07:13upon the reliability of the official autopsy report.

07:18And finally, Navy pathologists

07:20arrived at four sets

07:23of differing conclusions

07:25about President Kennedy's wounds

07:27and how he died

07:29within the two weeks after his death.

07:33The official autopsy report

07:35that is now in the National Archives

07:37represents only the fourth

07:39and final set of conclusions.

07:41This fact, perhaps more than any of the others above,

07:44is patently unacceptable

07:46in the nation that prides itself

07:48as the world's greatest democracy.

07:49Moving on to a new subject.

07:53The existing deed of gift,

07:56dated October 29, 1966,

07:59that sets severe restrictions

08:01upon who can view the JFK autopsy materials

08:03and how they can be used,

08:05needs to be re-examined and lifted.

08:08It has resulted in de facto suppression

08:10of these materials.

08:12Only by having free and unlimited access

08:14to the autopsy photographs

08:16and skull x-rays,

08:21can troubling and persistent questions

08:23about their authenticity

08:24be definitively and finally resolved

08:27by qualified experts?

08:30In my concluding paragraph,

08:33I wish to make a short statement

08:34about the Zafruder film

08:35of the assassination.

08:37Studies in Hollywood

08:38of the individual film frames,

08:41that is, state-of-the-art digital scans,

08:43of extremely high resolution,

08:45appear to show the use of visual effects,

08:48that is, animation or artwork,

08:50to crudely and blatantly alter

08:52the image content in some key frames.

08:56To state the problem simply,

08:58the digitized Zafruder film,

09:00studied by professionals in Hollywood,

09:02does not show the massive exit wound

09:04in the rear of the head

09:05seen at Parkland Hospital

09:07and by many witnesses at Bethesda

09:09during the autopsy,

09:10because it has been blacked out.

09:14And yet the film does appear to show

09:16head wounds not seen

09:17at Parkland Hospital.

09:19We now know that rather than spending

09:21the entire weekend

09:22following the assassination

09:24in Chicago at the Life Printing Plant,

09:27as was originally claimed,

09:29the Zafruder film actually spent

09:31most of the weekend

09:32in the custody of the CIA

09:34in Washington, D.C.

09:36and at Kodak's Main Research

09:38and Development Laboratory

09:39in Rochester, New York.

09:42The attitude of one National Archives official,

09:45expressed in writing circa 2009,

09:49was that they, quote,

09:50do not ever intend to take the film

09:52out of the freezer again, end quote.

09:54This decision, excuse me,

09:58this decision should be overturned

10:01and the so-called purported original film

10:04should be made available

10:05for appropriate inspection

10:07by qualified film professionals

10:09from the motion picture industry

10:11and academia,

10:13and by that I mean film schools,

10:15so that questions of authenticity

10:18can be definitively resolved.

10:19I've provided many additional details

10:23in my written testimony

10:25and I request that they be included

10:27in the congressional record.

10:28Thank you very much.

10:29Thank you, Mr. Horne, and they will.

10:31Ms. Koh, if you can please

10:33provide opening statement.

10:36Thank you, Madam Chair.

10:37Thank you, Ranking Member Garcia.

10:41It's an honor to address

10:43the committee today.

Category

Transcript

Recommended