Was Hoover's Warren Commission Testimony Altered?

[Fred Litwin]

Was Hoover's Warren Commission Testimony Altered?

But, nothing of probative or evidentiary value was altered. Hoover's testimony was edited by several people for spelling, grammatical errors, and for a variety of misstatements. The first page of the document spells out exactly who was editing his testimony.

https://www.onthetrailofdelusion.com/post/was-hoover-s-warren-commission-testimony-altered

[Lance Payette]

My first thought was, "It was Hoover who made the changes." Unless a deponent waives the right, he has a right, by rule, to review a deposition transcript and make changes. The changes are typically attached to the court reporter's transcript on a separate sheet called an errata sheet. In many cases, the changes can be quite substantive - like changing a yes answer to a no. See https://www.oasinc.org/everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-deposition-errata-sheet. The only oddity here is that Hoover's testimony was apparently reviewed and edited by an entire FBI team, with even some involvement by Rankin. In the typical case, the original transcript stands together with the errata sheet so the changes are apparent and can be used to impeach the witness at trial if they are substantive. Here, there never was going to be a trial and Hoover was a god, so I assume the WC simply showed him the deference of allowing him and his team to make changes and went with the revised version as his testimony.

If they had changed "the Mafia hitman" to "Oswald" or "11 shots" to "three shots," we'd have something to talk about. But ALTERED!!! does sound more conspiratorial than "routine changes."

[Michael T. Griffith]

Anyone can look at the newly released file and see that Hoover's testimony was altered to remove his reference to a large wound in the back of the head. The file shows the word “portions” was penciled in before “of the skull,” while the typewritten words “the back” were crossed out. His original statement was that

. . . the back of the skull had been practically shot off.

This was changed to

. . . portions of the skull had been practically shot off.

This is certainly a substantive change. As many here know, over 40 witnesses, in three different locations, said there was a large wound in the right-rear part of JFK's head. These witnesses include two of the morticians who reassembled the skull after the autopsy, nearly all of the Dallas doctors and nurses (including the two nurses who cleaned the skull and wrapped the head in a sheet), and numerous witnesses at the autopsy.

Hoover almost certainly got his information from Sibert and O'Neill, both of whom said there was a large wound in the right-rear area of the skull.