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.
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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.