William Bruce Pitzer: Not exactly a busted factoid

[Lance Payette]

Greg Doudna, who seems to have moved on from here (I suppose the abuse he gets at the Ed Forum does have a certain perverse attraction), said kind of a wise thing at the Ed Forum yesterday:

The problem with sticking to mistaken beliefs—such as the continuing belief that Clay Shaw tried to hire a Marcello attorney in New Orleans (Dean Andrews) to defend Oswald in Dallas (based on WHAT reliable evidence?—think about it)—is: mistaken beliefs like that function to block out and prevent one from being open to actual true solutions.

It is just glaringly obvious—and was corroborated by the leading criminal defense attorney in New Orleans at the time—that the hire of Dean Andrews to represent Oswald was from Marguerite Oswald in Dallas via intermediaries.

Yet this has taken so little traction, and it’s the year 2026, over six decades later and people are still talking Clay Shaw on that, and STILL hardly anyone is talking Marguerite Oswald when that is what it was.

And for every substantive response to the argument in my paper on the source of Dean Andrews’ hire, there seem to be three from persons who haven’t read it enough to understand it or haven’t at all, as if everything has to be threat-attack. It’s not a recipe for advancing in understanding.

This applies in spades, of course, to what MTG has done here. He is wedded to his little Pitzer narrative that is SO outdated, SO demonstrably wrong, that all he can do is generate yet another knee-jerk response without even considering a different perspective. So many people are stuck in their own little JFKA time warps that the discussions are like a bunch of old vinyl 45s being played over and over. Yep, a JFKA forum is its very own oldies station!  ("And, now, hipsters, yet another blast from the past, right here on JFKA FM, your goldmine of golden oldies. Yes, kids, crank up the volume because it's Michael G and the Conspiracy Loons with 'My Baby Killed Pitzer.'")

[Michael T. Griffith]

-- 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?

You haven't read Belzer and Wayne's chapter on the Pitzer case, have you?

Yes, Pitzer had been accepted for an associate professor position at a local college. Most people would consider that to be a good job, a very good job. Between his teaching salary and his Navy retirement pay, Pitzer would have been quite comfortable. So, why would he have suddenly shot himself? I notice you provided no motive for his alleged suicide.

So Pitzer supposedly used his left hand "to steady the gun by wrapping it over the top of the cylinder"? Oh, please. Give me a break. Why would he not have simply held the revolver in his right hand, put up against his head, and pulled the trigger? That's how suicidal people usually shoot themselves in the head. But, nah, you've got Pitzer "wrapping" his left hand "over the top of the cylinder" so you can explain the paraffin test results (no GSR on either side of his right hand).

Yes, the heel print could have been from a first responder, but we don't know whose print it was because the FBI did not bother to check it. The FBI could have easily checked the shoes of the first responders to determine if one of them made the heel print, but they didn't.

No, I did not misrepresent the distance of the shot per the FBI report. It said, "the revolver must have been held at a distance of more than 3 ft when discharged."

I notice you snipped and ignored the fact that Pitzer wrote himself a note to remind him to return the revolver that he had signed out. Humm, now that's hardly what you'd expect from a guy who planned on using the revolver to shoot himself.

Regarding the FBI's failure to find any evidence that Pitzer had obtained ammo for the revolver, you say, "he could have obtained it anywhere, paid cash, and no one would have remembered him buying it." So when the FBI showed a photo of Pitzer to local gun shops and asked if he had bought ammo, no would have recognized him, even though he would have bought the ammo fairly recently? Yeah, of course.

And why in the devil would he have bought the ammo himself when he could have checked out ammo from the security office when he signed out the revolver? 

Pitzer's family and friends rejected the suicide story. They noted that Pitzer was mentally and emotionally tough and not the kind of person to let problems get him down.

Pitzer was literally just a few days away from retiring from the Navy. And, again, he had a good job lined up. His family said he was "very cheerful" that morning.

Pitzer's wife reported that Navy officials threatened her with the loss of her husband's Navy pension if she didn't accept the suicide verdict and "keep her mouth shut."

You question whether Pitzer was ever warned to keep quiet about his knowledge of the JFK autopsy, yet even Heiner admits this happened.

It's just sad that you folks would desecrate a man's life by claiming he killed himself when the evidence indicates he did not -- and all because you can't bring yourselves to admit there was an organized campaign to kill certain JFKA witnesses, even though a decorated Army Special Forces officer reported that a CIA man approached him about killing Pitzer.

[Lance Payette]

Pitzer's wife reported that Navy officials threatened her with the loss of her husband's Navy pension if she didn't accept the suicide verdict and "keep her mouth shut."

Pure BS. She told Dangerous Dan in a phone conversation that the Navy investigators of Pitzer's death had told her not to talk about it, period. She said she knew that those who had been at the autopsy (which did not include Pitzer) had been sworn to secrecy. She said she was 80 years old, that the Navy had treated her very well, and she was concerned about inadvertently saying something that might jeopardize her pension.

You question whether Pitzer was ever warned to keep quiet about his knowledge of the JFK autopsy, yet even Heiner admits this happened.

Heiner says nothing like this. It appears that you're channeling Penn Jones' nonsense, which Heiner reports as uncorroborated nonsense. You apparently skimmed Heiner's e-book and didn't realize what you were reading,

I quote Heiner: "Penn Jones relayed the inaccurate information from the News-Sun and apparently added more of his own, declaring that 'Lt.' Pitzer called his experience of debriefings after JFK's autopsy 'horrifying' and that he told to be silent for national security reasons. Whether Jones had a source for any of this additional information or merely invented it is unclear. It is not implausible that he and Peterson may have shared notes, as Peterson's 'list' was almost certainly in reference to Jones' work. It seems doubtful that Jones did any research of his own in this matter; had he even looked up Pitzer's obituaries, he would have been obliged to give his correct rank as 'Lt. Cmdr.'

Yes, the heel print could have been from a first responder, but we don't know whose print it was because the FBI did not bother to check it. The FBI could have easily checked the shoes of the first responders to determine if one of them made the heel print, but they didn't.

Wrong again, sweetie. From Heiner's book: "A partial heel print from a man’s shoe was noted on one of the four notes (Item 9) submitted by the NIS [Naval Investigative Service]. It was photographed and retained in records for future reference, but the [FBI] lab noted that 'due to the limited detail in this print, it is unlikely that it can be definitely associated with a particular heel.'"

You're a double-barreled threat: both a nutcase and a nuisance. You do nothing but leave a puddle of piss on the floor of every thread you visit.