From: jgrant@hq.walldata.com
Newsgroups: alt.conspiracy.jfk.moderated
Subject: Faked autopsy material?
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By and large the theories which posit a CIA/US intelligence
role in the assassination of JFK represent a massive exercise
in the fallacy known as question-begging.  To beg a question is
to assume in the premise what one would demonstrate in the
conclusion.

Conclusion: Therefore, the CIA murdered Kennedy.
Premise: The CIA murdered Kennedy, therefore [fill in the blank]

Nowhere is this more obvious than in the endless charges of evidence
fakery.

There is no chance of convincing the committed conspirati
that all of this evidence fakery is an illusion.  But 
perhaps you "lurkers" out there, tired of the endless
ad hominem attacks in this forum, might want to look at
an example of what happens when disinterested professionals
examine a particular claim of evidence fakery.  You can
then judge for yourselves.  The evidence in question: the
autopsy photographs and x-rays.

(Keep in mind the following typical counter-arguments:

1.  The CIA murdered JFK; therefore all the so-called "experts" are
lying.

2.  The CIA murdered JFK, therefore the forgeries were done
so cleverly that they are undetectable.)

Following the assassination and even through the life of
the Warren Commission and beyond, valid questions about
the autopsy conclusions were raised.  For various
reasons, it became clear that independent review
of the autopsy materials was needed.  But where were these
materials?

Dark rumors were flying around.  The photos and x-rays were
gone!  We would never know the truth about JFK's wounds.
The conspirators, knowing this material would refute the
claims of the WC, destroyed the evidence.  It was vital that 
this material be located and examined by qualified doctors 
to find out how JFK died.

On October 31, 1966, the Kennedy family transferred the
photos and x-rays of the late President to the custody
of the National Archives.  A "deed of gift" was executed
that effectively restricted access to these materials
to serious and appropriately trained medical investigators
and to government panels.  In other words, we who believed
the autopsy documentation had been stolen by the conspirators
were wrong.  The Kennedy family had control all the time.

[Parenthetically, I would maintain that those of us who assert
that the Kennedy family should never have been given ownership
of what should have been public records are still correct.  The
"deed of gift" was challenged in court by Dr. John Nichols.  Nichols
lost.  I wonder if it isn't time for a new challenge?  It is hard
to believe that the American public cannot wrest ownership of the
material.  It is also hard for me to believe that the issue could
not be settled dispositively once and for all by forcing the
disinternment and examination of JFK's body.]

Anyway, shortly after this accession, the 3 prosectors,
the radiologist who took the x-rays, and the medical
photographer who took the photos went to the Archives to
review the material.  They agreed unanimously that the
photos and x-rays turned over by the Kennedys accurately
depicted JKF's wounds and were the authentic x-rays and
photos exposed on the night of the autopsy.  Until the
House Select Committee on Assassinations looked into this
issue in 1977-1978 no further authentication was attempted.

In the meantime, a growing number of forensic pathologists
and other qualified medical investigators were granted access
to the material.  They agreed unamimously: JFK was shot twice
and only twice from behind.  They also unanimously agreed
that the measurements made at autopsy by the prosectors were
off, in some cases substantially so.  (e.g., the entry into
the back of JFK's head was about 4" higher than it was
placed in the autopsy report)

Nevertheless, none of the experts found any evidence that JFK
was hit by shots from the front.  Since the WC critics "knew"
that JFK had been hit by at least one shot from the front, and since
this "knowledge" was essentially immune to counter-evidence,
the next logical step was to assert that the x-rays and
photos had been faked.

When the HSCA retained a panel of nine forensic
pathologists to examine the x-rays and photos in an 
attempt to make a definitive determination as to the
cause and manner of JFK's death, the claim of faked evidence
was very much in the panel's mind.  They asked that the material
be examined to establish if it could reliably be used to 
definitively answer the questions about JFK's wounds.

It is beyond the scope of this post to go into the claims that
someone other than JFK is depicted in the autopsy photos and
x-rays. Suffice it to say that this claim was also examined
by experts retained by the House Forensic Panel (HFP) and the
claim was shown to be false.  The individual in the photos and
x-rays is JFK and no other person.  But what about the wounds?
Was JFK shot from the front and was evidence of this shot somehow
altered by the conspirators?

The HFP's approach was to retain experts in forensic anthropolgy
and odontology (to determine if the person depicted in the
restricted materials was indeed JFK), photographic interpretation,
forensic pathology and radiolgy.  In addition, the HFP was able to
identify all the people who were present in the autopsy room on
the night of 11/22 - 11/23/63.  The HFP determined that the
following people were in the room:

Dr. James Humes, Dr. J. Thornton Boswell, Dr. Pierre Finck (the prosectors),
Admiral Calvin Galloway, Admiral George Burkley, M.D. (JFK's personal
physician), Captain James Stover, John Stringer (medical photographer),
Dr. James Ebersole (the radiologist who took the x-rays), Jan Rudnicki,
Paul O'Conner, Jerrol Custer, James Jenkins, Edward Reed, James
Metzler, Dr. David Osborne, Gen. Godfrey McHugh, Dr. Gregory Cross,
General Phillip Wehle, Chester Boyers, Dr. George Bakeman, Secret
Service Agents Roy Kellerman, Bill Greer, and John O'Leary, 
Richard Lipsey, Samual Bird, Floyd Riebe, and FBI agents Francis
O'Neill and James Sibert.  In addition, 4 employees of Gawler's
Funeral Home were present following the autopsy: John Van Haeson,
Edwin Stoble, Thomas Robinson, and "Mr. Hagen."

The HFP set out to interview all of these people.  I count 28, not
including the Gawler's employees.  Dr. George Bakeman could not be
located.  That leaves 27.  The HFP claimed to have interviewed
26 of the people who were in the autopsy room and that that number
represents all but one of those present.  In either case, the HFP
interviewed 26 people and concluded: "In disagreement with the
observations of the Parkland doctors [as to the location of the
head wound - jg] 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."  (7HSCA37)

One could quibble about what the HFP meant by "general location."
Clearly, though, the HFP was satisfied that those present at the autopsy
had no major problems with what the photos and x-rays depicted - 
although to be sure, conspiracy writers have repeatedly interviewed
a few of the participants and their stories now are different than
they were when the HFP talked with them.

In either case, what about those photos and x-rays?  Did the photographic
and radiological experts concur with the assertions of forgery?  Not
even close.

In testimony to the HSCA, Calvin McCamy said that he, Frank Scott,
David Eisendrath, Bennett Sherman and "one of the professors at
RIT" (1HSCA176) examined the photos and found no evidence whatsoever
of forgery or alteration.  Asked if it was possible that forgery could
have escaped detection, McCamy replied:

	Yes, extremely unlikely.  We have considered the possibilities
	of various photographic techniques that could have been
	used in a train of events to produce these photographs.  Some
	of them are virtually impossible because of the stereoviewing.
	Others would be exceedingly difficult if not impossible. (1HSCA179)

McCamy had previously explained the principles of stereoscopic viewing
of the autopsy photos.  Briefly, autopsy photographers tend to take
more than one photo from each location, in case a photo does not
turn out.  John Stringer, the JFK autopsy photographer, followed this
procedure.  The result is a series of photographs taken of the
same view from essentially identical locations.

Pairs of such photographs can be viewed through a stereoscopic viewer.
A 3D effect is achieved when the photos are viewed in this manner.
The additional depth perception allows the pathologists to get a better
view of the wounds and their relationship to body landmarks.  For the
purposes of detecting forgery, this method is foolproof.

When 2 photos - particularly close-up photos which contain a great deal
of detail - are viewed stereoscopically, even minute differences seem to 
literally "leap out" at the viewer.  Is there a way to fool the
stereoscopic viewer?  According to Frank Scott:

	To successfully avoid detection of picture alteration
	requires taht each picture of a pair of pictures be
	altered identically, which is essentially impossible,
	particularly with a stereo pair *** Any nonidentical
	alteration of the pictures of a pair is readily noted
	when pairs are viewed stereoscopically or microscopically.
	(7HSCA40)

And you have to keep doing this, photo pair after photo pair.
And each alteration must be done with steroscopic viewing
in mind.  And with the hope that no one ever compares them
non-stereoscopically under a microscope.  (the HFP photo experts did
this as well and still couldn't find any fakery)

The following pairs were viewed:  

back of head (photos 42/43)
top of head (32/33 and 34/37)
skull defect (44/45)
head from front right (26/28)
back wound (38/39)
anterior neck wound (40/41)

As I say, forgeries on any of these 14 photos would have been detected
without fail.  No forgeries were detected.  The only reasonable way
out of this conundrum for conspiracy advocates is ad hominem: "Well,
those were GOVERNMENT EXPERTS AND THEY LIED!"  In fact, they were
independent consultants with no ax to grind either way.  And the photos
are still in the archives, ready to be viewed stereoscopically by any
of the various medical experts to have been granted access to the
material.  If the HFP's photo interpretation experts lied, one must
ask why they would do so, given that they would infallibly be
caught.

As for the x-rays, aside from verifying that the x-rays were in
fact taken with film made prior to the autopsy (they were), radiologist
Dr. Gerald McDonnel examined both pre and post-mortem JFK x-rays for
signs of differences and alterations.  He found no evidence of
suspicious image densities, no discontinuity of anatomic structures,
no alteration of continuity of an abnormal pattern, he could not find
any impossible pathologic processes, and he could not find any
non-anatomic images.  In short, he found no evidence whatsoever of
any forgery. (7HSCA26)

The HFP confirmed that the x-rays and photos matched; that is, they
depicted the same damage to JFK.

In short: those of you who follow what passes for arguments or debate
in this forum (rather like stepping through the raindrops) might
wonder how anyone could possibly be stupid enough to claim that
JFK was shot twice and twice only, and that both shots came from
behind.  Well, the above is the sort of thing I find compelling,
particularly as compared to the fairly unconvincing grounds of
eyewitness testimony.  I submit that the only way to involve another
shooter or shooters in the assassination is to make claim after
claim after claim of extraordinary evidence fakery.  And when
such claims are disproved, one must resort to ad hominem
and ad-hocery.  This is not an intellectually honest or scientifically
respectable way to search for the truth.

The best evidence is clear: 2 shots from behind.

Joel Grant