JFK's Throat Wound Was an Entrance Wound: Refuting the Shored-Wound Theory

[Michael T. Griffith]

MTG-

Thanks for posting, but I have always had reservations about the "JFK was shot from the front" narratives.

Have you read the ARRB materials? One of the many historic disclosures from the ARRB-released documents is Dr. Ebersole's statement to the HSCA FPP that by around 10:00 or 10:30 Humes knew about the throat wound from communications with Dallas ("Testimony of John H. Ebersole," HSCA, 3/11/1978, p. 5). This is crucial because we know from the released transcript of the WC's 1/27/64 executive session that one of the first two drafts of the autopsy report said the back wound bullet had no exit, and that the other draft said the throat wound was the exit point for a fragment from the head shot, proving that Humes knew about the throat wound long before he claimed he did.

This, in turn, is very important because we know from the ARRB materials that by the end of the autopsy the autopsy doctors knew for an absolute fact that the back wound had no exit point, that they had done prolonged and repeated probing, that they had even removed the chest organs so they could see where the probe went inside the chest cavity, and that the autopsy doctors and the men standing near the autopsy table could see the end of the probe pushing up against the lining of the chest cavity. Jenkins told Lifton the same thing years before the ARRB.

The long-standing myth had been, and among WC apologists still is, that Humes did not know about the throat wound until the following morning and that this was why he did not identify the throat wound as a possible exit point for the back wound. The 1/27/64 WC executive session transcript alone destroys that myth because it reveals that one of the first drafts of the autopsy report said the throat wound was the exit point for a head-shot fragment. Yet, to this day, lone-gunman theorists continue to repeat the myth that Humes knew nothing about the throat wound until the morning after the autopsy.

The very notion that the autopsy doctors did not know about the throat wound before the autopsy is doubtful on its face. The throat wound had been discussed at the televised press conference with the Dallas doctors held shortly after JFK died. News reports about the press conference were carried on radio stations and appeared in evening-edition newspapers all over the country. For that matter, the autopsy photo that shows JFK's neck clearly shows the bottom half of the circular throat wound; a first-year med student would not have missed it. Anyway, the issue has long since been settled by the 1/27/64 WC executive session transcript and later by Ebersole's disclosure to the FPP that Humes know about the throat wound by no later than 10:30 that night (no wonder Ebersole's FPP testimony was sealed--thank goodness the ARRB released it).

Since the throat wound could not have been caused by the back-wound bullet, and since the throat wound could not have resulted from a head-shot fragment (such a fragment would have had to tear a path from the inner skull to the throat), this is strong evidence that the Dallas doctors and nurses were correct in identifying the throat wound as an entry wound, and this, in turn, explains why the throat wound was small, neat, circular, and punched inward, and why the damage behind and below the throat wound was larger than the wound itself.   

I cover this historic evidence in some detail in the research notes that I linked in the OP: “Research Notes on the Shored-Wound Theory to Explain JFK’s Throat Wound,” https://drive.google.com/file/d/1h48FpT89KrC0rNrl4XC3MDePLDFEBBHb/view.

As for the evidence of a head shot from the front, I would refer you to three articles that are good introductions on the subject:

Dr. Michael Chesser, “A Review of the JFK Cranial x-Rays and Photographs,” Assassination of JFK website, 2015, http://assassinationofjfk.net/a-review-of-the-jfk-cranial-x-rays-and-photographs/

Dr. Michael Chesser, “The Application of Forensic Principles for the Analysis of the Autopsy Skull X-Rays of President Kennedy and a Review of the Brain Photographs,” 2017, Kennedys and King website, https://kennedysandking.com/images/pdf/michael-chesser-houston-2017.pdf

"The Head Shot from the Front"
https://drive.google.com/file/d/19GwhnIVGHlrffoyM_T242fF_J9v4QeQl/view

Just one point on a frontal head shot: Mortician Tom Robinson told the HSCA that there was a small hole in JFK's right temple, and that he filled it with wax to keep embalming fluid from leaking out of it. This is telling because shortly after JFK died, Malcolm Kilduff pointed to his own right temple to show reporters how JFK had been shot. In addition, there is a suspicious lesion in this same spot on the stare-of-death autopsy photo that surely looks like it could be an entry wound--and there is also a notch in this same area on the autopsy skull x-rays, as Dr. Chesser discusses. I think one of the best discussions on the implications of Robinson's disclosure is Dr. Don Thomas's analysis in Hear No Evil, pp. 247-279.

1. The windshield.

This is not a problem for a frontal shot to the throat. This issue has already been covered by a number of scholars. Rather than repeat what they've observed, I would just refer you to their research: Dr. Mantik, Doug Weldon, and Doug Horne.

2. Witnesses. JBC and wife believe the shots came from the rear. There are indisputable bullet wounds in JFK's and JBC's back.

I agree, and we both agree that JFK and Connally were hit by separate non-fatal bullets.

But keep in mind that many witnesses also said shots came from the front, and several witnesses saw gun smoke or smelled gun powder on and near the knoll. In addition, the Wiegman film shows a small cloud of smoke hanging in the air in an area near the fence on the knoll, and that smoke could not have come from the steam pipe over 100 feet away or from patrol bike exhaust, not to mention that the acoustical evidence proves that a shot came from the knoll--and from the same area that Lee Bowers saw two men hanging around and then saw a flash of light or smoke during the shooting. The acoustical evidence for a grassy knoll shot is so strong that even the abjectly biased NAS panel was forced to admit that their own research showed there was a 77.7% probability that the 144.9 impulse pattern was caused by gunfire from the knoll.

I should add that the NAS panel was only able to reduce the probability of the grassy knoll shot from 95%-plus  to 77.7% by introducing two outright errors into their analysis, as Dr. Scheim, Dr. Chambers, and Dr. Thomas have discussed. Even then, 77.7% is a high probability.

3. Where did the bullets from the front go?

I'm a bit surprised by this question, but I would answer it by saying we should first consider what we have long known about the FBI's and the DPD's handling of evidence, what we have long known about the evidence of extra bullets and missed shots in Dealey Plaza, what we now about the finding of an extra bullet--a misshapen bullet--in the limo during the autopsy, and what we now know from ARRB and other disclosures about the amount of bullet fragments found during the autopsy and the finding of a bullet in the sheets that were wrapped around JFK at the autopsy.

I would refer you to my article "Extra Bullets and Missed Shots in Dealey Plaza," https://drive.google.com/file/d/1WRwhDQ9HMydf5pICsHwgtkoNKw0YSO8T/view?usp=sharing.

The front head-shot bullet was a frangible missile that exploded after penetrating the skull. This bullet's fragments remained in the skull, as is typical for frangible ammo. This is why we see a "snowstorm" of dozens of tiny fragments in the right-frontal region on the autopsy skull x-rays. Humes said nothing about this obvious cluster of fragments in the autopsy report because he knew he could not associate it with the EOP entry wound.

The FPP's radiology consultants acknowledged the right-frontal fragment snowstorm, but the FPP themselves merely acknowledged that the x-rays show "numerous minute fragments widely distributed throughout the skull" (7 HSCA 11), and then later in their report they blandly acknowledged that they considered the "small particles of radiopaque materials" at the right coronal suture "to be missile fragments" (7 HSCA 120)--and the FPP obscured the right-frontal lead snowstorm in their "enhanced" versions of the skull x-rays by virtually washing it out of the images.

The "enhanced" skull x-rays fooled Dr. Sturdivan into believing there was no right-frontal cluster of numerous small fragments on the skull x-rays, which cluster he said would be there if a frangible bullet had struck in the right front. (Yet, when he became aware that the unenhanced x-rays show the right-frontal snowstorm, he forgot all about what he told the FPP on the issue and still says the rear head shot was the only head shot.)

We have good evidence that JFK's body arrived about 40-45 minutes before its officially recorded arrival time, and we have at least two witnesses who saw Humes working on the body before the autopsy began. It is entirely possible that Humes removed the throat-wound bullet from the upper chest during this pre-autopsy surgery (the Dallas doctors believed the bullet had ranged downward into the chest).

Another possibility has been raised by several scholars, namely, that a fragment of glass from the bullet that made a hole in the windshield hit the throat and ranged downward into the chest.

The gashed appearance of the throat wound in the autopsy photos could have resulted from pre-autopsy surgery to the wound to remove the projectile that caused it (several Dallas medical witnesses said the throat wound did not look so large and gashed after the tracheostomy).

Those who find the idea of pre-autopsy surgery or another type of suppression of the throat bullet unacceptable need to explain the fact that the throat wound could not have been made by the back-wound bullet or by a head-shot fragment, and the fact that the throat wound had every major textbook characteristic of an entry wound. Fact must govern theory, not the other way around.

It's always a pleasure talking with you, Ben.

[John Corbett]

Of course, then we have the minor problems of where the bullet from the throat wound went, where the bullet from the back wound went, and the "rather" unusually close alignment of the back and throat wounds - so close that one bullet causing both wounds is by far the accepted theory. Hence Cliff Varnell's reliance on melting CIA-issued ice bullets, which frankly strikes most people as "just a bit" unlikely. Even a dud back wound that only penetrated an inch with a melting CIA ice bullet from the front seems "rather" unlikely - and what the hell would be the point of using a melting ice bullet from the front if it wasn't going to disguise a frontal shot anyway? I believe there are legitimate issues with the SBT, but to still try to be arguing that the throat would is an entrance is far-lunatic-fringe stuff.

Is it just me, or does MTG seem to be in near-desperation mode, flooding the forum with his nonsense? He is the very antithesis of my point that CTers who wish to be taken seriously should focus on plausibility, in terms of both evidence and theory, instead of shoveling loads of far-fetched and internally inconsistent poop and hoping some of it sticks. For all of his relentless self-promotion over umpteen years, MTG seems to have scarcely made a dent in the JFKA community; he strikes me as the proverbial legend in his own mind.

I was going to make all of these points but you saved me the trouble.

You make far more sense when you are wearing your LN cap. Maybe you should 86 all the CT caps. You must have a collection of those. One LN cap is all that is needed.

[Steve M. Galbraith]

What's revealing is that Michael Griffith said he believes in the HSCA acoustic evidence. That is four shots: three from the TSBD (or behind JFK) and one shot from the fence/GK (or to his right side.)

That alone disproves a entrance shot to the throat. That's if, as he does, believe the acoustic analysis.

He also believes there was a shooter on top of the linen truck and that Babushka Lady was a CIA agent, June Cobb, and that she "possibly" shot JFK with a camera gun. That's two more shots. And he believes that Oswald conspired with Shaw and Ferrie in a triangulated assassination of JFK. That's another shooter, at least.

He has shooters all over Dealey Plaza shooting from various angles and locations. But he also believe the HSCA acoustic analysis of two shooters and two locations.

He believes in things that contradict other things that he believes. It's a mishmash of claims that are at odds with other claims. Day after day, week after week, month after month. For decades. It's the classic example of a disordered conspiracy obsessed mind.