Undeniable Proof of Fraud: The Impossible JFK Autopsy Brain Photos

[Michael T. Griffith]

Consider how the evidence of fraud in the autopsy brain photos comes together and mutually corroborates:

-- None other than former HSCA FPP chairman Dr. Michael Baden acknowledged to devout WC defender Vincent Bugliosi that the autopsy brain photos show "less than" 1-2 ounces of brain tissue missing. Not realizing he was providing devastating evidence against the autopsy brain photos, Bugliosi trumpeted Baden's disclosure to "refute" the eyewitnesses who said a large amount of JFK's brain was gone.

-- We know that bits of JFK's brain were blown or fell onto 16 surfaces. Significantly, several witnesses said the tissue was gray or white. About 40% of brain tissue is gray and about 60% is white. Those 16 bits of brain tissue alone certainly added up to more than 2 ounces.

-- We know that Jackie Kennedy brought a "large chunk of brain" into the Parkland ER and handed it to Dr. Jenkins, who then handed it to a Secret Service agent. That chunk of brain surely weighed at least 2 ounces. 2 ounces of brain tissue is about the size of a golf ball.

The autopsy report impossibly says JFK's brain weighed 1,500 grams. The average male brain weighs about 1,350 grams. 1,500 grams equals 53 ounces. 1,350 grams equals 47 ounces.

-- The autopsy skull x-rays show at least 2/3 of the right brain to be missing. Multiple optical-density (OD) measurements of the skull x-rays confirm that only about 30% of the right brain is present in the x-rays.

In 1992, before any OD measurements had been done on the skull x-rays, none other than Dr. James Humes, the chief JFK autopsy doctor, admitted to JAMA that "two thirds of the right cerebrum had been blown away" (Journal of the American Medical Association [JAMA], May 27, 1992, p. 2798).

When Humes revealed this, he was unaware that in 1975, Dr. Fred Hodges, the then-chief of neuro-radiology at the John Hopkins medical school, examined the skull x-rays and found they showed a "goodly portion" of the right brain to be "missing."

-- A number of eyewitnesses who got good looks at the damage to JFK's head said that a substantial part of the brain was blown away. These witnesses included mortician Tom Robinson, assistant autopsy photographer Floyd Riebe, Secret Service agent Clint Hill (who stared into the large hole in JFK's head for several minutes from 3-4 feet away), and FBI agent Francis O'Neill (one of the two FBI agents who observed the autopsy, and observed it from close range most of the time).

-- The autopsy photographer, John Stringer, told the ARRB he was certain he did not take the extant autopsy brain photos.

[Michael T. Griffith]

Jerrol Custer, an x-ray technician at the autopsy, provided clear evidence that there was an effort to produce altered autopsy skull x-rays. Custer informed the ARRB that the morning after the assassination, he was called into the radiology suite by Dr. Ebersole, the autopsy radiologist, and was told to tape some metallic fragments to skull bones. These, explained Custer, were then to be taken to a private room and x-rayed with the same machine, at the same distance, that he used the night before during the autopsy. Custer added that Ebersole said these x-rays would be used to make a bust of JFK:

I was told by Dr. Ebersole that they were to be taken to make measurements, to make a bust of President Kennedy. . . . He gave me three or four different metal fragments, varying in size. And he asked me to tape them to the bone. . . .

Obviously, taping bullet fragments to skull bones and then x-raying the bones had nothing to do with making a bust of JFK. The only skull x-rays that would be used to help create a bust of a gunshot victim would be x-rays taken before the murder, before the skull was damaged, and there would be no conceivable reason to tape metal fragments to skull bones to make a bust.

Ultimately, the plotters opted not to use these x-rays because they realized the skull x-rays could be altered via darkroom techniques that would be extremely hard to detect at the time. Dr. Mantik was able to duplicate how the x-rays were altered.

BTW, Ebersole told the HSCA that one of the skull fragments that arrived late at the autopsy was “a large fragment of the occipital bone." This confirms the numerous accounts that JFK had a large wound in the back of his head.

I discuss these facts in chapter 11 of A Comforting Lie: The Myth that a Lone Gunman Killed President Kennedy.

[Michael T. Griffith]

I adapted this from a recent group email by J. Keven Hofeling. This evidence dovetails nicely with the undeniable evidence that the autopsy brain photos do not show JFK's brain.

Dr. Humes told the Warren Commission, the House Select Committee on Assassinations, and the Assassination Records Review Board that he never needed to use a bone saw to remove President Kennedy's brain, claiming the skull damage was already too extensive to require cutting.

This claim is directly contradicted by multiple credible witnesses:

-- Mortician Tom Robinson testified under oath to the ARRB that he witnessed doctors sawing the skull open. When shown official autopsy photographs in 1996, Robinson rejected them as accurate depictions of the gunshot wound, stating the photos depicted "what the doctors did"—the result of their craniotomy—not the original bullet damage.

-- Radiology technician Edward Reed specifically recalled seeing Dr. Humes make a long incision with a scalpel in the frontal bone above the forehead, just behind the hairline, followed by extensive bone sawing. Reed and his colleague Jerrol Custer were then summarily dismissed from the morgue for approximately 15 minutes before being recalled to take skull x-rays.

-- Autopsy technician James Curtis Jenkins never performed or witnessed a standard craniotomy (the "skull cap" procedure he normally would have executed), yet confirmed that one clearly occurred.

THE FBI AGENTS' CRYPTIC DOCUMENTATION

FBI agents Francis X. O'Neill and James W. Sibert, present to observe the autopsy, included a peculiar notation in their official report: pathologist Humes remarked on "surgery of the head area" that had "apparently been performed before the body arrived at Bethesda."

In 1996 ARRB depositions, both agents testified that prior to the pathologists' first incision, they had seen only one head wound—the occipital-parietal blowout in the back of the skull, not on the top or side. ARRB counsel Jeremy Gunn carefully prefaced his questions with the critical phrase: "prior to the first incision by the pathologists."

By answering that only the rear wound was visible under this condition, the agents implicitly admitted that the massive damage to the top and right side of Kennedy's head visible in official autopsy photographs was created after the body arrived at Bethesda.

THE 85-MINUTE INTERREGNUM: WHEN THE SURGERY OCCURRED

Rigorous timeline analysis by Douglas Horne establishes that JFK's body:

-- Arrived at Bethesda in a shipping casket and body bag at 6:35 PM (per the Boyajian report and witnesses Dennis David and Paul O'Connor).

-- Re-entered the morgue at 8:00 PM in the ceremonial bronze Dallas casket before numerous witnesses.

This created an 85-minute window during which the clandestine surgery took place. Autopsy technicians O'Connor and Jenkins were excluded from the morgue during this critical period—which explains why they did not witness the craniotomy that Robinson and Reed observed.

JENKINS' REVELATIONS AT THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY

At the 2013 JFK Lancer conference, James Curtis Jenkins provided important testimony confirming the cover-up hypothesis:

On the Condition of the Brain:

-- The standard "skull cap" craniotomy incisions were not necessary because "prior incisions" had already been made.

-- The damage to the top of the cranium was much more extensive than damage to the brain itself—highly unusual.

-- Dr. Humes stated: "The brain fell out in my hands" as he removed it. The spinal cord had already been completely severed by incisions on each side, in different planes—not torn, but cut with surgical precision.

-- The brain volume seemed too small for the skull cavity. Both carotid arteries were retracted, indicating they had been cut some time before the autopsy, making needle insertion extremely difficult.

Physical Impossibility:

-- About one-third of brain mass was missing, and Jenkins observed approximately two-thirds remaining.

-- Despite this massive tissue loss visible in the Zapruder film, the autopsy recorded a brain weight of 1,500 grams—exceeding the average of 1,350 grams.

Jenkins' Conclusion: The brain had already been removed before the official autopsy began. The purpose: to remove bullet fragments indicating shots from the front.

NOTE: Dr. Baden, not realizing the damning nature of his admission, informed Bugliosi that the autopsy brain photos show "less than" 1-2 ounces of brain tissue missing. Yet, we know that Jackie brought a "large chunk of brain" into the Parkland ER and handed it to Dr. Jenkins, and that other bits of JFK's brain were blown or fell onto 16 surfaces. We also know that the autopsy skull x-rays show 2/3 of the right brain to be missing, a fact confirmed by multiple optical-density measurements.

THE FBI'S INTERNAL ACKNOWLEDGMENT

-- When David Lifton called FBI agent James Sibert in 1966 about the "surgery" statement, Sibert refused to answer, stating only: "The report stands."

-- A 1966 FBI internal memo (Alex Rosen to Cartha DeLoach) focusing on the "surgery" statement revealed the Bureau's position: the agents wrote the statement "because they heard it from a doctor"—specifically, "orally furnished by the autopsy physician." This confirms the agents documented Humes' own words about surgery he had witnessed or performed.

HUMES' PERJURY AND PSYCHOLOGICAL DISSOCIATION

-- When asked under oath at his ARRB deposition whether he had seen any evidence of surgery on JFK's body, Humes committed perjury and said "No." This denial is particularly significant because:

-- There was barely enough time to transport JFK's body from Andrews AFB to Bethesda by helicopter for its 6:35 PM arrival.

-- Navy Captain R.O. Canada and Tom Robinson confirmed the head wound looked the same at Bethesda upon arrival as it did in Dallas.

-- Therefore, the surgery could not have occurred anywhere but at Bethesda.

Douglas Horne's conclusion: Humes performed the post-mortem surgery himself at Bethesda, then panicked before the large, disbelieving morgue audience shortly after 8:00 PM. His excited utterance about "surgery of the head area" was a defensive dissociation—attempting to create an escape route by implying "I see the surgery just like all of you do, but I didn't do it—someone else did."

[Michael T. Griffith]

Over in the Education Forum, Greg Burnham has posted a CIA document that talks about altering photos taken outside the Soviet Embassy in Mexico City:

Nobody Would Have Altered Any Photographic or Film Evidence, Right?
https://educationforum.ipbhost.com/topic/31885-nobody-would-have-altered-any-photographic-or-film-evidence-right/

See also David Josephs' reply in that thread:

https://educationforum.ipbhost.com/topic/31885-nobody-would-have-altered-any-photographic-or-film-evidence-right/#findComment-585734

No one who has done serious reading on CIA and KGB operations can doubt that photographic alteration was a tactic frequently employed by those agencies.

One would think that with the shocking revelations of evidence planting and evidence tampering by the LAPD in the Rampart scandal and in the Mark Fuhrman tapes in the 1990s, that lone-gunman theorists would stop pretending to be shocked by the argument that some JFK evidence has been altered and would stop summarily dismissing the clear evidence that some JFK autopsy photos and x-rays have been altered (not to mention the Zapruder film).

Here's an interesting article on a few of the known cases of photographic alteration by governments, political campaigns, and magazines/newspapers:

https://faculty.cc.gatech.edu/~beki/cs4001/history.pdf

Clearly, the autopsy brain photos cannot show JFK's brain. They must show someone else's brain. Keep in mind that Bethesda included a pathology school, so there were plenty of human brains available to photograph instead of JFK's badly damaged and incomplete brain. Again, the JFK autopsy skull x-rays show about 2/3 of the right brain to be missing, a fact confirmed by multiple optical-density measurements.

[Michael T. Griffith]

Just bumping this thread, partially for the benefit of newcomers, and partially to remind everyone that lone-gunman theorists clearly have no rational, credible explanation for the evidence that the JFK autopsy brain photos simply cannot be photos of JFK's brain.

We have hard scientific evidence from multiple optical-density (OD) measurements of the JFK autopsy skull x-rays that the x-rays show about 1/3 of the right brain missing. We have Dr. Humes' own admission to JAMA that 2/3 of the right cerebrum was blasted out. We have Dr. Fred Hodges' observation that the skull x-rays show a sizable portion of the right brain to be missing. We know that bits of JFK's brain were blown or fell onto at least 16 surfaces. We know that Jackie Kennedy handed a "large chunk of brain" to Dr. Jenkins in the Parkland ER. We now know that Tom Robinson, one of the morticians at the autopsy, said the amount of tissue missing from JFK's brain equaled the size of a human fist. We have several other accounts of witnesses who said that a substantial amount of brain tissue was missing. Yet, by Vincent Bugliosi's own admission, the brain in the autopsy brain photos has "less than" 1-2 ounces of brain tissue missing.

[Michael T. Griffith]

Since we have some new participants in the forum, I'm bumping this thread. I think objective readers will see that the evidence proves that the JFK autopsy brain photos are fraudulent and cannot be photos of JFK's brain. I think objective readers will also see that lone-gunman theorists have no rational, credible explanation for this crucial evidence.

Here is a summary of the evidence:

-- Former HSCA FPP chairman Dr. Michael Baden acknowledged to famous WC defender Vincent Bugliosi that the autopsy brain photos show "less than" 1-2 ounces of brain tissue missing. Bugliosi did not realize that Baden's disclosure was devastating evidence against the autopsy brain photos. Indeed, Bugliosi trumpeted Baden's disclosure to "refute" the eyewitnesses who said a large amount of JFK's brain was gone.

-- But those eyewitnesses were surely correct. Why? Because we know that bits of JFK's brain were blown or fell onto 16 surfaces. Significantly, several witnesses said the tissue was gray or white. About 40% of brain tissue is gray and about 60% is white. Those 16 bits of brain tissue alone certainly added up to more than 2 ounces, not to mention that it exceeded "less than 1-2 ounces."

We also know that Jackie Kennedy brought a "large chunk of brain" into the Parkland ER and handed it to Dr. Jenkins, who then handed it to a Secret Service agent. That chunk of brain surely weighed at least 2 ounces. 2 ounces of brain tissue is about the size of a golf ball.

-- The autopsy report impossibly says JFK's brain weighed 1,500 grams. The average male brain weighs about 1,350 grams. 1,500 grams equals 53 ounces. 1,350 grams equals 47 ounces.

There is no way that JFK's brain weighed anything close to 1,500, not only because so much brain matter was blown from his skull but because the autopsy skull x-rays show at least 2/3 of the right brain to be missing, and multiple optical-density (OD) measurements of the skull x-rays confirm that only about 30% of the right brain is present in the x-rays.

This is hard scientific evidence that the brain photos are fraudulent.

In addition, it should be noted that in 1992, before any OD measurements had been done on the skull x-rays, none other than Dr. James Humes, the chief JFK autopsy doctor, admitted to JAMA that "two thirds of the right cerebrum had been blown away" (Journal of the American Medical Association [JAMA], May 27, 1992, p. 2798).

When Humes revealed this, he was unaware that in 1975, Dr. Fred Hodges, the then-chief of neuro-radiology at the John Hopkins medical school, examined the skull x-rays and found they showed a "goodly portion" of the right brain to be "missing."

BTW, the term "goodly portion" is a common and recognized idiom that means "substantial," "considerable," "sizeable." One can find the term "goodly portion" used in medical journals, including JAMA. Google AI says, "The phrase 'goodly portion' is used throughout the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) and its network journals as an idiom representing a large or substantial amount."

-- A number of eyewitnesses who got good looks at the damage to JFK's head said that a substantial part of the brain was blown away. These witnesses included mortician Tom Robinson, assistant autopsy photographer Floyd Riebe, Secret Service agent Clint Hill (who stared into the large hole in JFK's head for several minutes from 3-4 feet away), and FBI agent Francis O'Neill (one of the two FBI agents who observed the autopsy, and observed it from close range most of the time).

-- The autopsy photographer, John Stringer, told the ARRB he was certain he did not take the extant autopsy brain photos.

My posts in this thread present a detailed review of this evidence, including sources. The above is just a summary. To gain a better understanding of this crucial evidence, and to see the vacuous attempts of WC apologists to explain it, I recommend going back and reading the rest of the thread.

 

[Lance Payette]

My mother used to say, "Lance, you're like a broken record - move the needle." Tech has advanced too far to call someone a broken record; most people wouldn't know what you were talking about. But MTG does seem to have some weird loop in his head that just plays the same stuff over and over ... and over and over and over ... and .... well, anyway, what on earth is the point? It's like he's preaching to an audience of junior high schoolers who have only the vaguest notion of who JFK was.