Unwanted Science: Scientific Evidence Against the JFK Autopsy Materials

[John Corbett]

     

AP and two lateral views show. . . . A goodly portion of the right brain is apparently missing and the anterior part of the right cranial cavity contains air. ("Kennedy-Connally Shooting," report prepared for the Rockefeller Commission, April 1975, p. 2, available at https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=32027#relPageId=3)

Other private experts, including Dr. Gary Aguilar, have likewise concluded the skull x-rays show a large amount of the right brain to be missing.

Is it supposed to be a revelation that a good chunk of JFK's brain was blown out. That was obvious to Governor Connally, seated in FRONT of JFK, who said he had been splattered by pieces of brain the size of his thumb. Frame 313 of the Zapruder film shows a large discharge of blood and brain flying forward and upward from the right side of JFK's head. So explain to us how good chunk of JFK's brain being blown out calls into question the finding of the WC that JFK was killed by two shots fired from behind that struck him in the upper back and the back of his head.

[Michael T. Griffith]

Here are just a few of the eyewitness accounts regarding the substantial amount of brain matter that was missing from JFK's brain:

Floyd Riebe, who assisted John Stringer with taking photos at the autopsy, said that less than half the brain was present:

Q: Did you see the brain removed from President Kennedy?
A: What little bit there was left, yes.
Q: Were any photographs taken of the brain?
A: I think I did some when they were putting it in that stainless steel pail.
Q: When you say that there was not much left, what do you mean by that?
A: Well, it was less than half of a brain there. (Deposition of Floyd Albert Riebe, ARRB, 5/7/1997, pp. 43-44)

From Clint Hill's 11/22/1963 report, in which he describes what he saw at very close range as he rode on top of the limo's back seat on the way to Parkland--part of the brain was gone and there was a wound in the right-rear part of the head:
         
As I lay over the top of the back seat I noticed a portion of the President's head on the right rear side was missing and he was bleeding profusely. Part of his brain was gone. (11/22/1963 report, p. 3)

When interviewed by CBS News in 2013, Clint Hill repeated his account of seeing a large amount of missing brain:
         
Scott Pelley: What did you see?
         
Clint Hill: Brain matter, blood, bone fragments all come out of the wound.… Then Mrs. Kennedy came up on the trunk. She was trying to grab some of that material and pull it back with her.… I got a hold of her and I put her in the backseat. … And when I did that, his body fell to its left into her lap. His face--is head was in her lap. The right side of his face was up. I could see his eyes were fixed. I could see an area through the skull that there was no brain matter in that area at all. So I assumed it was a fatal wound. (https://www.cbsnews.com/news/agent-who-jumped-on-jfks-limo-recounts-fateful-moments/)

Dr. Robert McClelland, one of the Parkland doctors, told the WC that at least a third of the brain had been blasted out:
         
You could actually look down into the skull cavity itself and see that probably a third or so, at least, of the brain tissue, posterior cerebral tissue and some of the cerebellar tissue, had been blasted out. There was a large amount of bleeding, which was occurring mainly from the large venous channel in the skull which had been blasted open. (6 H 33)

Secret Service agent Sam Kinney, who rode in the follow-up car, stated in a recorded interview with Vincent Palamara that brain matter splattered "all over" his windshield and arm:
         
The back of that Lincoln would be directly in front of me. Well, I had brain matter all over my windshield and arm. That's how close we were. (19:33-19:47 in video)

In 2003, Dr. Robert Grossman, one of the Parkland doctors, wrote that Jackie's dress was splattered with brain tissue and blood:
         
Her face was very white and she appeared to have been crying. She was wearing a light-colored dress. The lap of her dress was covered with blood and brain tissue. (https://www.deseret.com/2003/11/22/19797270/neurosurgeon-recalls-examining-the-dying-jfk)

From FBI agent Francis O'Neill's ARRB interview:
         
Mr. Gunn: Earlier in the deposition we referred to your observation of the brain being removed during the course of the autopsy Do you recall that?
         
Mr. O'Neill: Yes.
         
Mr. O'Neill: [After some discussion about removal procedures] "... Now once again too this is just a portion of it [the brain] because the rest of it was--you know, really gone. And it was a very, very large portion of it. . . .
         
Mr. Gunn: "Do you have any sense of what percentage of the brain was missing at the time it was removed from the cranium?
         
Mr. O'Neill: . . . It was--Oh well, more than half of the brain was missing. (ARRB Deposition of Former FBI SA Francis O'Neill, 9/12/1997, pp. 74-75)

Mortician Tom Robinson, who witnessed the autopsy and who helped to reassemble JFK's skull after the autopsy, said that the amount of brain missing in the back of the head was about the size of a closed fist:

Robinson said that he saw the brain removed from President Kennedy's body and that a large percentage of it was gone "in the back," from the "medulla," and that the portion of the brain that was missing was about the size of a closed fist. He described the condition of the brain in this area as the consistency of "soup." (Meeting Report, ARRB, 6/21/1996, p. 2)

Jack McNairy, who saw the limousine up-close at Parkland Hospital, said in a video-taped interview that there was "gray matter" splattered over a large part of the back seat:

As I looked around, I saw that there was gray matter splattered here [pointing to the inside of the rear passenger door to the right JFK's seat] and along the back of the front seat.

Patrolman H. B. McClain, who helped Jackie get out of the limousine at Parkland Hospital, said in a video-taped interview that there was "matter" splattered all over the inside of the right-hand side of the car:

I could see what looked like a piece of skull, some hair, and matter splattered all over inside the car. It was all on the right-hand side of the car, except the part of the skull--it was laying right in the middle.

Crucially, even Bugliosi mentioned that Jackie Kennedy was holding “a large chunk” of JFK’s brain when she entered the Parkland Hospital emergency room and gave it to Dr. Marion T. (“Pepper”) Jenkins:

Looking shell-shocked, Mrs. Kennedy aimlessly circles the hospital gurney where technicians work feverishly on her husband’s body. Her hands are cupped in front of her, as if cradling something. As she passes Dr. Jenkins, she nudges him with her elbow and hands him what she has been nursing—a large chunk of brain tissue. Jenkins quickly gives it to a nearby nurse. (Reclaiming History, p. 182)

Dr. Jenkins himself confirmed that Jackie Kennedy handed him “a large chunk of her husband’s brain tissues”:

Jacqueline Kennedy was circling the room, walking behind my back. The Secret Service could not keep her out of the room. She looked shell-shocked. As she circled and circled, I noticed that her hands were cupped in front of her, as if she were cradling something. As she passed by, she nudged me with an elbow and handed me what she had been nursing in her hands: a large chunk of her husband’s brain tissues. I quickly handed it to a nurse. (Dennis Breo, “JFK’s Death, Part II,” Journal of the American Medical Association, May 27, 1992, p. 2806, https://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/jfk/arrb/master_med_set/pdf/md221.pdf)

JFK's brain matter was splattered onto 16 surfaces:

• The back seat of JFK’s limousine.

• The right-rear passenger door of the limo.

• The trunk/rear hood of the limo.

• The front seat of the limo (per Roy Kellerman).

• Roy Kellerman's coat ("it was all over my coat").

• The back of William Greer's coat (per Greer himself, and per Kellerman).

• Governor Connally's clothes.

• Nellie Connally's clothes.

• Officer Martin's clothes.

• Officer Hargis's clothes.

• Officer Martin's motorcycle.

• Officer Hargis's motorcycle.

• Sam Kinney's clothes (riding in the follow-up car).

• The windshield of the follow-up car.

• The drapes of JFK’s emergency room cart.

• Jackie's dress (she said JFK's brains were "all over me").

And this is *not* counting the "large chunk" of brain that Jackie handed to Dr. Jenkins in the ER.

How can anyone really believe that the brain pictured in the autopsy brain photos is the same brain (1) that had bits of its matter blown onto 16 surfaces and (2) that was missing the "large chunk" of tissue that Jackie brought into the ER and handed to Dr. Jenkins?