William Bruce Pitzer: Not exactly a busted factoid

[John Corbett]

So Pitzer supposedly killed himself because he was about to be caught up in a scandal regarding the JFK autopsy materials?! Seriously?! This is not the kind of backward logic one would expect from a self-professed "academic."

I recommend the lengthy chapter on Pitzer's death in Richard Belzer and David Wayne's best-selling book Hit List: An In-Depth Investigation into the Mysterious Deaths of Witnesses to the JFK Assassination, published in 2013 (chapter 26). For an online source, I recommend the article on Pitzer's death on the Spartacus Educational website: https://spartacus-educational.com/JFKpitzerW.htm.

A few facts that Belzer and Wayne document:

-- Pitzer was just about to retire and had a good job lined up. He had no conceivable motive to kill himself.

-- Pitzer's right hand tested negative for GSR/nitrates, indicating he had not fired a revolver.

-- The FBI's own paraffin test in this case indicated the revolver was held some 3 feet away from Pitzer's head when it was fired.

-- The FBI was unable to find any evidence that Pitzer had acquired ammo for the revolver that was signed out from the security office in his name.

-- A heel print found near Pitzer's body was not from the shoes Pitzer was wearing.

-- Pitzer wrote himself a note to remind himself to return the revolver he had signed out.

-- Pitzer's family said he had been repeatedly threatened to keep quiet about his knowledge of the JFK autopsy.

And, pray tell, other than the fact that his story, if true, suggests Pitzer was murdered, what is your basis for saying that Lt. Col. Dan Marvin, a decorated war hero, was "one of the worst of the hoaxers/crackpots"? Where do you get that? As an Army vet and a Vietnam War scholar, I am well acquainted with Lt. Col. Marvin's outstanding service in Vietnam.

I agree with Belzer and Wayne:

Special Forces Lieutenant Colonel Daniel Marvin, a decorated war hero, has testified and written extensively about how he was requested by the CIA to assassinate Lieutenant Commander Pitzer. Lieutenant Colonel Marvin had nothing to gain (and a lot to lose) by clarifying the historical record. A man of high character and loyalty, no one has been able to refute his account. (p. 288)

Lt. Col. Marvin authored the highly acclaimed book Expendable Elite: One Soldier's Journey into Covert Warfare. Marvin fought in the Korean War and then took part in Special Forces operations in Vietnam during the Vietnam War. Marvin commanded Green Beret Team A-424 in South Vietnam and headed 12-man Special Forces team that attacked Viet Cong sanctuaries in Cambodia. In Vietnam, he frequently worked with the CIA. He received three decorations for heroism.

Marvin was also honored by the Hoa Hao in Vietnam. He was awarded with the Hoa Hao purple silk scarf by the Hoa Hao Central Committee when they named Marvin an Honorary Hoa Hao, the only American ever to receive that honor.

As a 21-year Army vet myself, it leaves a bad taste in my mouth when some WC apologist smears a decorated Army Special Forces veteran just because that veteran held a different view of the JFK case and of Pitzer's death. (Lt. Col. Marvin died in 2012.)

Oh, boy. Another "mysterious death" among people who had loose associations with the JFKA. As if these people were supposed to live forever.

Suicides are often committed by people who seem to have everything going for them. It's usually not about what is happening around them. It's about the demons running around inside their heads.

[Lance Payette]

Oh, Jesus, I knew it was inevitable that MTG would take this to the crackpot level, which I was assiduously trying to avoid.

A CT-friendly "problems with the autopsy" scenario is not good enough for MTG. No, the earth has to be flat to keep him happy.

Look, NO ONE this side of the lunatic fringe of the lunatic fringe of the lunatic fringe thinks Pitzer was murdered. That's a dead horse.

Allan Eaglesham is THE premier investigator of the Pitzer murder. He did on-the-ground in-depth investigation. He started out as a full-tilt murder proponent and "Dangerous Dan" believer. He ended up as neither. He fully accepted the verdict of murder as established by two Navy investigations and an FBI investigation. He accepted that Dangerous Dan was a fantasist telling whoppers - his tale is absurd on its face and fell apart under scrutiny.

Kent Heiner's 2019 e-book that I linked is the absolute BEST work on Pitzer you will find. His 2004 edition promoted both the murder claim and Dangerous Dan. As with Eaglesham, the evidence forced him to accept the verdict of suicide and Dangerous Dan as a teller of whoppers.

DENNIS EFFING DAVID, who was almost single-handedly responsible for keeping the murder claim alive, stated at the Ed Forum that he no longer had any position on whether Pitzer was murdered or committed suicide.

The ONLY possible "mysterious" perspective on Pitzer's death is the one I articulated: The possibility that autopsy-related events surrounding the very date of Pitzer's death might have sent this perfectionist Navy career officer off the deep end. This idea wasn't wholly original with me - it occurred to me on the basis of some things Heiner had written. If this angle isn't correct, Pitzer's death is just a garden-variety inexplicable suicide, of which there are thousands of examples.

One might think that a whacked-out CTer would LOVE a theory that preserves Dennis David's credibility and posits a reason for his suicide that calls into question what actually did take place at the autopsy. But noooooo, this is entirely unsatisfactory to the lunatic fringe of the lunatic fringe of the lunatic fringe occupied by MTG.

MTG clearly didn't read anything other than my first post before launching into his laughable litany of murder-suggesting "facts" that NO ONE WHO KNOWS ANYTHING ABOUT THE PITZER CASE STILL BELIEVES.

Consistently, MTG enters threads late in the game and pisses all over the place with his nonsense. HIT LIST - HIT LIST!!! - is his authority vis-a-vis the two premier CT-oriented researchers who spent YEARS on the Pitzer "murder" and came away convinced it was a suicide and Dangerous Dan was a wacko. MTG is not only a 33rd-degree flat earth CT crackpot but an absolute nuisance. Suffice it to say, it's a good thing for MTG that I don't moderate the forum.

[Lance Payette]

For those who don't know Dangerous Dan's tale, it's basically this: He was at some sort of military-killer conference. He was walking outside with another guy when a CIA guy called them over. Speaking to Dan, he said he wanted him to assassinate someone and actually gave him the name William Pitzer (catch that - gave him the name before Dan had accepted the mission!) When Dan learned this would be an assassination within the borders of the U.S. he declined, basically telling the CIA guy "The Mafia does internal hits for you." The CIA guy then approached Dan's companion, whom Dan assumed had carried out the Pitzer hit. Alas, the other guy (Vanek) was located, by Eaglesham I believe. He was a practicing physician who had no clue what Dan was talking about. Dan then started waffling and back-pedaling and declined to confront Vanek by telephone. OK, maybe it wasn't Vanek; he thought it was, but maybe it wasn't. Well, Vanek was 40 feet away from Dan's conversation with the CIA guy, so maybe be didn't hear it and maybe the CIA guy didn't actually approach Vanek. Well, maybe, well, maybe, well, maybe - until both Eaglesham and Heiner checked Dangerous Dan off their lists. Nevertheless, MTG believes Dangerous Dan was the real deal, and if you don't agree MTG hopes you fall off the edge of the earth next time you walk your pooch.

[Lance Payette]

OK, I'll let it go after this: When you think about it, the murder claim, like so much lunatic fringe CT stuff, fails the most basic "What sense would that have made?" test. Lee Bowers is whacked on a remote highway almost three years after the JFKA after saying everything he possibly could have said about it - on camera with Mark Lane, no less - but Ruth Paine lives to be 123 and Marina is still with us. Virtually none of the "mystery deaths," including Pitzer, makes any sense.

Pitzer wasn't even at the autopsy. Many who actually were lived long lives and spoke freely, some making wild CT-oriented claims. Dennis David lived until 2017. What could Pitzer possibly have said that others who weren't murdered couldn't have said? He was retiring after an impeccable 30-year Navy career to teach at a podunk junior college. "Yeah, let's eliminate him now, three years after the JFKA." WHY? What sense would that make? "And let's not just eliminate him, but let's do it in his work area at the Bethesda National Naval Medical Center on a Saturday. We'll somehow do it within minutes after he is seen buying cigarettes at the Navy Exchange Building, where he is teased by a woman about his sloppy appearance." WHY? What sense would that make?

Think, people. Don't just do what characters like MTG do - seize upon all sorts of dubious "facts" while ignoring that the entire premise of murder simply MAKES NO SENSE. Granted, my scenario is highly iffy at best, but at least it MAKES SENSE.

Oh, the "negative paraffin test" that MTG thinks is big stuff? Allan Eaglesham once thought so as well. Here is a 2006 post from the Ed Forum where he explains his mistake, which also give you some idea of the level at which he dived into the Pitzer suicide:

1. NEGATIVE PARAFFIN TEST

In discussing this aspect previously [1], I made the assumption that a dermal nitrate test was referred to in the FBI report; in the early 1960s, "paraffin test" and "dermal nitrate test" were synonymous. With closer inspection of the hand-written laboratory notes (see Figure), I realized that I was in error.

The autopsy doctors prepared paraffin casts of the palm and back of LCDR Pitzer's right hand, presumably expecting them to be used for dermal-nitrate analysis, unaware that the FBI had since replaced this test for analysis of gunshot-residue metals barium (Ba) and antimony (Sb) by flame atomic absorption spectroscopy. For the latter test, acid-moistened cotton swabs are taken directly from the skin. It appears that the laboratory technician did what he could to collect samples from the surfaces of the paraffin casts, concentrating on dark particles 1-4 from the back of the hand and dark particles 5-8 from the palm, none of which tested positively for barium or antimony. The technician was strictly truthful in saying, "Examination of (the) paraffin cast reflected no substance characteristic of, or which could be associated with, gunpowder or gunshot residue," but clearly this was not the whole story. The assay was not performed properly and there was the clear possibility of false negative results. Most significantly, however, the cast from the back of the hand revealed the presence of "large amounts of blood, skin, and hair" (see Figure). Blowback of tissues had occurred from the entry wound onto the back of the hand, some of which had been immobilized in the paraffin cast. The right hand had, indeed, been close to the right temple at the moment of discharge.

[Tom Scully]

Thanks, Tom. There is much wisdom in what you say. My "53 word" quip was prompted by a post by one of the Local Gods (in his own mind anyway), which was quickly removed by Duncan, characterizing me as a "pathetic dipshit" who "thinks he's the smartest guy in the room" and writes unreadable "books" that no one cares about.  And that was in response to a post of mine that had nothing to do with the JFKA! (If anyone wants to see what a "book" looks like, try reading Keven Hofeling's 20,000-word AI-generated posts at the Ed Forum. Yes, there is a point at which "this really doesn't belong on an internet forum.")

The problem with internet forums is that they are a hopeless mix of ages, educational levels, psychological quirks, emotional maturity levels, personal hot buttons, etc., etc. I always say it's like standing in the middle of a crowded Walmart and shouting "So, what does everyone think about Bayes theorem anyway?" - and expecting a productive discussion.

In addition, there is also a certain type who is likely to become a forum regular. I used to limit myself to a maximum of 300 posts on any forum precisely to avoid becoming one of "them." I've never accumulated anywhere near as many posts on any forum as I have here. That type - across all forums, even ones dealing with completely mundane, non-controversial subjects - tends to be ultra-assertive and always looking for a fight. He views the forum as his turf, and woe to you if you fail to acquiesce to his dominance. I have a friend who participates on several completely non-controversial (or so you would think) forums like those devoted to photography, and he says they are exactly the same way. Ditto with my experience on golf forums.

Most people just aren't into deep research or thought. Forums like this really are just 95% mental masturbation, little echo chambers to strut your stuff in 20-word (or less) bites and generate 20-word (or less) responses from those who cheer you on or call you a kook. It's just the reality. My participation is truly for an audience of one - me. It's just self-amusement and putting in writing what I think I've learned simply because I enjoy doing it. If someone actually gains something from it, so much the better - but I have no expectations and don't really care.
Now back to Pitzer: Thanks to one of Mark Ulrik's posts at the Ed Forum, I had seen and taken into consideration Allan Eaglesham's work that is still on the Wayback Machine. To his great credit, Eaglesham had the intellectual honesty to disavow "Dangerous Dan" Marvin after first buying into his schtick and to change his verdict on Pitzer from murder to suicide when the evidence demanded it. However, he seemed to have lost interest at that point. Kent Heiner's 2019 update of his excellent little e-book was the latest thinking I could find.

The notion that Pitzer was experiencing some sort of personal crisis at the time of his suicide just doesn't seem likely to me. He was about to retire at age 50 after a 30-year Navy career and take a low-key teaching position with a local junior college with which he'd been previously affiliated. His lady friend in Florida accepted the relationship for what it was and placed no demands on him. He had a 29-year marriage, including one son who was still a teenager, and no huge domestic problems. He left no note for anyone, and the letter to his lady friend written 90 minutes before his death indicated he would see her in a few months. His wife said he was "quite enthused" about his teaching position, and he in fact went into the office that Saturday ostensibly to work on a speech he would be giving at the junior college in a few days.

It's very difficult for me to find the vaguest inkling of a reason for a suicide in the above, which is what causes me to wonder "Could there have been something else? Could it have been related to what Dennis David described?"

By all accounts, including his lady friend and Eaglesham's work that you linked, Pitzer was a perfectionist and a dedicated "company (Navy) man" who took great pride in his work and career. He was about to retire with an unblemished reputation. Could something that threatened that reputation have sent him off the deep end? As I noted, Lifton first went to Liebeler with his body-alteration theory just days before Pitzer's suicide. The Kennedy family announced that the autopsy materials would be released to the National Archives at exactly the same time. Did Pitzer in fact know more about the autopsy than even David suggested and fear that it was all going to come crashing down after he was out of the Navy and no longer even in a position to contribute to damage control? Perhaps not - perhaps such speculation is 110% off-base. But such speculation doesn't seem preposterous to me in the context of a suicide that has no other plausible explanation.

This little exercise has also been useful to me in steering my thinking toward the possibility that perhaps there actually were autopsy-related shenanigans but that these were not related to the assassination per se but were simply in furtherance of what was seen as a patriotic, WW3-avoiding exercise in maintaining the lone nut explanation. This to me is not necessarily "likely" (although there is certainly evidence pointing in this direction) but is 1000% more likely than the Lifton/Horne-type scenarios where a huge, preplanned operation to alter the body was part and parcel of an almost comically complex conspiracy.

Voila, I've written another book! 

Lance,
Pitzer composed the letter you described and, instead of mailing it on his way home from work, he took time out of the latter part of his work day to
leave his workplace to personally mail that letter, and then return after what amounted to an interruption of his workday.

You seem to think he would have said goodbye in that letter, but he behaved like someone trying to be prepared at all times to give in to the urge
to shoot himself, and to conceal that urge from everyone because he was torn between doing it, or not. It isn't rational to shoot yourself unless escape
is truly justifiable.... terminal illness and associated physical or psychological pain, loss of a loved one, overwhelming remorse after committing murder, etc.

As you can read on page 23, a recap of  FBI interviews,

http://jfk.hood.edu/Collection/Weisberg%20Subject%20Index%20Files/T%20Disk/Third-Fourth%20Decade%20The/Item%2005%20v5n2.pdf

...Finally, an enlisted man in his office reported what
he thought was unusual behavior during the week of
his death, the enlisted man offering to return the Navy
pistol which Pitzer had checked out (with blank ammunition) for training purposes. Pitzer said he would return it himself, an "out of character" act, since he always had enlisted men to do such "errands" for him.
[19

Pitzer allegedly turned down an offer to return the revolver for him and evidently did not ask an enlisted man to mail that letter.
There are quotes at the link above of other witnesses testifying that their impressions were that Pitzer presented visible signs
of disturbance up to a year before.

At the least, it is reasonable to strongly suspect Pitzer's decision to return the revolver and to interrupt work instead of waiting until
the end of his workday or assigning the task to an enlisted man were symptoms of an inner struggle to maintain the choice of committing
suicide if he deemed it his best option at any given moment. The letter had been mailed, the revolver had been retained, BANG!

[Mitch Todd]

So Pitzer supposedly killed himself because he was about to be caught up in a scandal regarding the JFK autopsy materials?! Seriously?! This is not the kind of backward logic one would expect from a self-professed "academic."

I recommend the lengthy chapter on Pitzer's death in Richard Belzer and David Wayne's best-selling book Hit List: An In-Depth Investigation into the Mysterious Deaths of Witnesses to the JFK Assassination, published in 2013 (chapter 26). For an online source, I recommend the article on Pitzer's death on the Spartacus Educational website: https://spartacus-educational.com/JFKpitzerW.htm.

A few facts that Belzer and Wayne document:

-- Pitzer was just about to retire and had a good job lined up. He had no conceivable motive to kill himself.

-- Pitzer's right hand tested negative for GSR/nitrates, indicating he had not fired a revolver.

-- The FBI's own paraffin test in this case indicated the revolver was held some 3 feet away from Pitzer's head when it was fired.

-- The FBI was unable to find any evidence that Pitzer had acquired ammo for the revolver that was signed out from the security office in his name.

-- A heel print found near Pitzer's body was not from the shoes Pitzer was wearing.

-- Pitzer wrote himself a note to remind himself to return the revolver he had signed out.

-- Pitzer's family said he had been repeatedly threatened to keep quiet about his knowledge of the JFK autopsy.

And, pray tell, other than the fact that his story, if true, suggests Pitzer was murdered, what is your basis for saying that Lt. Col. Dan Marvin, a decorated war hero, was "one of the worst of the hoaxers/crackpots"? Where do you get that? As an Army vet and a Vietnam War scholar, I am well acquainted with Lt. Col. Marvin's outstanding service in Vietnam.

I agree with Belzer and Wayne:

Special Forces Lieutenant Colonel Daniel Marvin, a decorated war hero, has testified and written extensively about how he was requested by the CIA to assassinate Lieutenant Commander Pitzer. Lieutenant Colonel Marvin had nothing to gain (and a lot to lose) by clarifying the historical record. A man of high character and loyalty, no one has been able to refute his account. (p. 288)

Lt. Col. Marvin authored the highly acclaimed book Expendable Elite: One Soldier's Journey into Covert Warfare. Marvin fought in the Korean War and then took part in Special Forces operations in Vietnam during the Vietnam War. Marvin commanded Green Beret Team A-424 in South Vietnam and headed 12-man Special Forces team that attacked Viet Cong sanctuaries in Cambodia. In Vietnam, he frequently worked with the CIA. He received three decorations for heroism.

Marvin was also honored by the Hoa Hao in Vietnam. He was awarded with the Hoa Hao purple silk scarf by the Hoa Hao Central Committee when they named Marvin an Honorary Hoa Hao, the only American ever to receive that honor.

As a 21-year Army vet myself, it leaves a bad taste in my mouth when some WC apologist smears a decorated Army Special Forces veteran just because that veteran held a different view of the JFK case and of Pitzer's death. (Lt. Col. Marvin died in 2012.)

-- Pitzer was just about to retire and had a good job lined up. He had no conceivable motive to kill himself.

This, no doubt is a reference to Dennis David's claim that Pitzer had accepted a very lucrative position with a TV network in NYC. However, this is not true. Pitzer's family reported that he had accepted a teaching position at a local community college.


-- Pitzer's right hand tested negative for GSR/nitrates, indicating he had not fired a revolver.

The palmar side of Pitzer's left hand was covered in gunshot residue. This is explained by the left hand being used to steady the gun by wrapping it over the top of the cylinder. The palm side catches the GSR emerging from the cylinder gap. If the muzzle is held against the skin (more about this later), then the gunpowder residue follows the bullet into the wound. Put together, these two factors prevent GSR from reaching the firing hand. BTW, using the non dominant hand to steady a pistol in such a way is more common that you might think.


-- The FBI's own paraffin test in this case indicated the revolver was held some 3 feet away from Pitzer's head when it was fired.

This is a misrepresentation of the evidence. There was a muzzle imprint on the skin at the wound site, which proves that the muzzle of the pistol was held against the skin when the weapon was fired. The soot, residue, and combustion gasses would not have been able to scatter across the surface of the body, as it would in a near-distance shot. Instead, the residue and soot would have followed the bullet into body through the wound the bullet was creating, and there would be no powder tattooing around the entry wound.


-- The FBI was unable to find any evidence that Pitzer had acquired ammo for the revolver that was signed out from the security office in his name.

So what? In those days, .38 Special was the most common cartridge used in the US, with the exception of .22LR. He could have obtained it anywhere, paid cash, and no one would have remembered him buying it. This is just another attempt to argue by insinuation.


-- A heel print found near Pitzer's body was not from the shoes Pitzer was wearing.

Which easily could have been from a first responder or an investigator.


-- Pitzer's family said he had been repeatedly threatened to keep quiet about his knowledge of the JFK autopsy.

Eaglesham and Palmer talked with Pitzer's family as well as friends and co-workers. I don't recall him reporting any of them saying such a thing. Did this really happen, then?
 

[Lance Payette]

-- Pitzer's family said he had been repeatedly threatened to keep quiet about his knowledge of the JFK autopsy.

Eaglesham and Palmer talked with Pitzer's family as well as friends and co-workers. I don't recall him reporting any of them saying such a thing. Did this really happen, then?

I am confident this is BS. As described above in one of my posts that no reads, in the 1976 edition of Penn Jones' Forgive My Grief, Jones borrowed directly from the 1975 newspaper article without contacting Dennis David (and probably without even knowing David was the source) and apparently invented out of whole cloth that Pitzer had been subjected to a "horrifying" debriefing and had repeatedly been warned by military types to keep his mouth shut.

This is precisely how conspiracy factoids with no more foundation than Penn Jones' fertile imagination harden into conspiracy gospel and are repeated as such by someone like MTG 50 years later.

I will now bow out because it really does become tedious to keep repeating things I've already said because know-it-alls can't be bothered to read it before ostensibly "responding."