Marilyn Sitzman on JFK's Head Wound

[Tom Graves]

What's with that hole in the occipital region (the back of the skull) - that "ragged, slanting" hole measuring 15 x 6 cm?
It doesn't fit with the notion of a neat rear bullet and the top of his head blasting off.

Correct.

If you can find autopsy photo F8 (as in Fox photo #8) and orient it correctly (i.e., with the skull's deep, "V"-shaped notch to the left of the big semi-circular deformity (where at least one of the largish bullet fragments exited), you'll be looking at JFK's head from front-to-back (you can't see his eyes because his scalp is pulled down over them). The elongated, almost-vertical white "spot" in the dark background is the entrance wound viewed from the inside -- the one that the autopsy doctors said was about one inch to the right of and a little above the External Occipital Protuberance (I'm going from memory here on the exact measurements).

In his Chapter 14, Pat Speer got the photo right side up, thank God, but he interpreted it exactly backwards, i.e., he thinks the deep "V" notch and the semi-circular defect are in the back of JFK's head!

LOL!

If you'll watch the PBS NOVA special, "Cold Case JFK," you'll hear Dr. Peter Cummings (a gunshot-to-the-head expert) talking about these wounds and you'll see the "V" notch and the semi-circular deformity in his digital reconstruction of JFK's skull the way I've described them, i.e., in the front of the skull.

[Tom Graves]

All of which has nothing to do with that 15 cm wide hole in the back of the head.

15mm long and 6mm wide, dude.

[Jim Hawthorn]

15mm long and 6mm wide, dude.

Yes, just realised! 

[Jarrett Smith]

The HSCA confirmed that these are the unaltered originals and through the wonders of modern science(unheard of till decades after 1963) I combined 2 JFK back of head photos into a smoothly rotating GIF, which if any alteration were done it would stand out like a CT at a Mensa meeting.



Likewise, JFK's back was photographed on the night of the 22nd.



JohnM


Dr. Saylor gave the most accurate description. It was tangential wound that ran from the temple the whole way back. If you look at the Zapruder/Moorman films you can clearly see this.

[Tim Nickerson]

What's with that hole in the occipital region (the back of the skull) - that "ragged, slanting" hole measuring 15 x 6 cm?
It doesn't fit with the notion of a neat rear bullet and the top of his head blasting off.

15 x 6 cm? In the back of the skull? Really?  5.9 inches x 2.5 inches. That certainly wouldn't fit with the notion of a neat rear bullet.

[Tim Nickerson]

Yes, just realised! 

15mm x 6mm was the description of the wound in the scalp. Humes did say that there was a corresponding hole in the skull underneath but he said that 6mm would not be the measure of the smallest diameter. He said that 7mm would be the upper limit of it. 15mm x 7mm in the skull bone would not be out of the ordinary for a bullet entry wound in the skull caused by a 6.5mm bullet strike. It would be described as a keyholed entry wound.

[John Mytton]

Regardless, the movement of the ruler a few inches in the same plane from one part of the photo to another part of the photo helps us to verify whether or not Boswell's and Humes' measurement of the distance between the entry wound and the lower tip of JFK's mastoid process was correct.

I don't think Royell understood your original tongue in cheek comment but I thought the obvious cut-out of disembodied hands was a bit of a giveaway!

JohnM