JFK Assassination Forum

It was July 9, 1964, a little over six months since President John F. Kennedy had been murdered in Dallas, Texas. The former director of the CIA, Allen Dulles, sat in a room inside the National Archives Building on Constitution Avenue for seven hours (minus a break for lunch) with Warren Commission (WC) fellow member, John J. McCloy, three psychiatric experts, and half a dozen other WC staff. Their agenda? A discussion about the possible motives of Kennedy’s purported assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald.

One of the psychiatric experts, Dale C. Cameron, was involved in a secret agreement with the CIA for “the administration and treatment of referrals” from the Agency to the government hospital, St. Elizabeth’s, for which he was superintendent, that is, chief administrator. Dulles knew him, certainly. Another one of the experts was a young psychiatrist from the U.S. Medical Center for Federal Prisoners in Springfield, Missouri, David A. Rothstein. When Dulles looked at him, trademark pipe perhaps in hand, he possibly thought, I don’t really know that fellow.

But Dulles likely knew the third psychiatrist very well. But he had to pretend he didn’t know him. Dr. Howard Phillips Rome was head of psychiatry at the world-renowned Mayo Clinic; the former chairman of the Medical Advisory Group to the Administrator of the Veterans Administration; former “head psychiatrist” [PDF pg. 155] for the U.S. Navy, and later consultant in Psychiatry to the U.S. Navy’s Surgeon General; and now, he was President-elect of the American Psychiatric Association. Still, on the record, in front of McCloy and company, Dulles would not indicate he knew this doctor — at least he gave no indication at the meeting that he knew him. Only people with certain clearances knew everything about this doctor.

I am confident Dulles knew Rome, one of the biggest names in American psychiatry, because Rome was also a clandestine consultant to the CIA’s top secret ARTICHOKE and MKULTRA programs. It was Rome who would provide the Warren Commission with the theory, backed by his psychiatric credentials, that Oswald killed the president in part so he, Oswald, could be seen as a “great man.” (For Dulles’ briefings on CIA’s Project ARTICHOKE, see footnote 3 below.)

According to journalist Tad Szulc at The New Republic (TNR), the session’s transcript was classified until 1971, but actually it was declassified in August 1968, according to a copy of the full executive session transcript that I have obtained. (See the end of this article for an embed link to download the entire 247 page document.)

This article continues my investigation into how the CIA controlled the psychiatric “expert'“ testimony provided to the Warren Commission. By itself, my findings constitute prima facie evidence of the CIA’s interest in controlling the findings of the Warren Commission. In combination with decades of research by others into the connections between Oswald and the CIA, the evidence linking the CIA with psychiatric experts who worked for the Warren Commission helps cement a clear-cut case of CIA interference in the official, initial investigation into JFK’s murder.1

Before I continue, I want to thank Dr. Casimir Klim for his willingness to provide some assistance for this article, including Rome’s CV, and also for his 2024 landmark article, published at Stat, which first described the connection between the CIA and the Mayo Clinic in the 1950s. The priority for that discovery is all his....

In October 2024, I wrote an article showing how the Warren Commission had hired two CIA-connected psychiatrists associated with St. Elizabeth’s Hospital. The first hire was Dr. Winfred Overholser, who had recently retired from his position as the long-time head of St. Elizabeth’s. When Overholser developed “complications from heart disease,” Cameron, his successor at the D.C. hospital, took his place as a psychiatric and/or medical consultant to the Commission. Overholser died on October 7, 1964, nine days after the public release of the 888-page Warren Report.

In my October 2024 article, I described how Overholser had links with the intelligence world going back to World War II, where he headed a secret “truth serum” study for the Office of Strategic Services. Additionally, and more to the point, both he and Cameron had been privy to secret agreements between the CIA and the hospital they led, agreements about the disposition of Agency patients. The impetus to hire Overholser apparently came from either John J. McCloy or Earl Warren, as discussed in my earlier article.

While like Overholser and Cameron, Dr. Rothstein was a government psychiatrist, he appears to have no known link to the CIA or the intelligence world. He got his job as psychiatric consultant to the WC after he wrote a letter to Warren Commission head, Chief Justice Earl Warren, describing his special expertise in the psychopathology of would-be presidential assassins, the knowledge of which he had gained from his position at MCFP. Rothstein interviewed ten patients who had been criminally committed to MCFP for, possibly among other things, threats to kill Kennedy and/or Eisenhower. He wrote up his findings in a paper, “The Presidential Assassination Syndrome"....

The third psychiatric member of the special group gathered at the July 9 meeting, Howard Rome, was not a government employee. He was a very prominent psychiatrist, who had just been elected to the presidency of the American Psychiatric Association, the premier psychiatric institution in the nation. (He had not yet assumed the office and was at this point APA’s “president-elect.”)

Interestingly, according to a copy of Howard Rome’s curriculum vitae, forwarded to me from Dr. Klim, Rome was a consultant to the Pentagon’s National Security Agency from 1965-1966. Perhaps this was a recall or clerical error by Rome when he was constructing his CV, assembled apparently sometime in the late 1970s, because according to the full transcript of the meeting with WC staff, Rome told the latter that he was at that time (July 1964) “a consult [sic] to the National Security Agency” (see PDF pg. 7). One wonders why the NSA needed a psychiatrist on staff.

I don’t know how Rome came to be a consultant for the Warren Commission. But one thing I do know, when he sat in that room for many hours with Allen Dulles, it’s highly probable that Dulles knew exactly who he was, that is, a consultant for the CIA’s top secret interrogation program, Project ARTICHOKE, and likely also MKULTRA itself.

The ARTICHOKE program, the successor to the CIA’s Bluebird project, expanded the the CIA’s Cold War interrogation experiments to include hypnotism, electric shock, LSD, barbiturates, amphetamines, and other substances, such as the purported “truth drug” Sodium Pentothal, with the aim of achieving total control over another human being. ARTICHOKE in particular was obsessed with creating amnesia in its subjects, which, as we have seen from the quote earlier in the article, Dr. Rome was apparently quite aware.

Further along, I will provide a sample of the kind of CIA ARTICHOKE and MKULTRA operations that Rome was briefed on and for which he provided input. A future article will explore the April 1955 CIA visit to the Mayo Clinic in far more detail.

Since I am making rather incredible claims in this article, I want to point out that this is not conspiracy theory. I am writing a serious history of events that happened 60-70 years ago. It is based on documentary evidence, and even more, unlike most such articles, I am also providing downloadable documents and/or links to the relevant evidence....

The psychiatric panel that advised the Warren Commission was part of a stealth cover-up of the real facts of the assassination, and a key component in the construction of the fable around Oswald’s motivation for the killing. This portion of the cover-up was godfathered by Allen Dulles, and probably John J. McCloy. Taken together with other revelations about CIA lies, evidence linking Oswald to intelligence agencies, and the activities of other CIA-linked actors surrounding both Oswald and his killer, Jack Ruby, the revelations about the intelligence origins of the primary psychiatric consultants to the Warren Commission demonstrates clear evidence of CIA intention to deceive the American public.

The evidence also shows how much the Warren Commission was performative, and its “investigation” a real-life instance of political theater.

As for the Mayo Clinic and the cooperation of key doctors and scientists with the CIA’s MKULTRA and ARTICHOKE programs, the only thing I can say in their defense is they weren’t alone in working with the CIA. That’s an important point to close with. The Mayo Clinic and University of Minnesota were only two institutions that contributed to the CIA’s work in these areas.

In 1977, testifying before both the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and a Senate Health subcommittee, then CIA Director Stansfield Turner revealed “that the C.I.A. had secretly supported human behavior control research at 80 institutions, including 44 colleges or universities as well as hospitals, prisons and pharmaceutical companies,” according to a New York Times article. This was probably an undercount.

-- For the rest of the article, including the hyperlinks and footnotes and downloadable declassified documents, please go to the full article at https://kayej.substack.com/p/historic-cia-artichoke-meeting-reveals

Very good stuff. At an early WC meeting, Dulles handed out a book that claimed that all presidential assassinations had been done by lone gunman with no accomplices. McCloy pointed out to Dulles that Lincoln was killed by a conspiracy, and that some of the conspirators were caught and hung or imprisoned. This gives you some idea of Dulles's strong bias going into the "investigation."

You'll find that lone-gunman theorists are decades behind the information curve when it comes to government mind-control programs.

The floor is yours.

Verily, Roosevelt and the "Bull Moose Party."

"Schrank's bullet lodged in Roosevelt's chest after penetrating Roosevelt's steel glasses case and passing through a 50-page-thick (single-folded) copy of his speech titled "Progressive Cause Greater Than Any Individual", which he was carrying in his jacket pocket."

There is a vast difference between a revolver bullet c. 1912 (likely bullet ~880 fps) that first struck a steel glasses case and then a 50-page book...and near 2000-fps large slug from an M-C carbine that passed through a dress shirt (JBC).

From afar, I admire Roosevelt's fortitude, nonetheless. His photos make him look like a fatty, and a faux toughie who shot animals, but who knows maybe some blubber helped his survival too.

We are on different pages on JBC.

Signing out.

I think FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover's memo only 2 days after the assassination should be at or near the top of everyone's list of reasons to consider that Oswald didn't do it... or at least was not the mastermind behind the event...
When top law enforcement officials want to direct the narrative early on in order to sway public opinion - without any semblance of a thorough investigation - they are most likely trying to cover up something. They are not after the truth of the matter in any regard. 
“The thing I am concerned about… is having something issued so we can convince the public that Oswald is the real assassin.” [J. Edgar Hoover, Memo to Deputy Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach, 11/24/63]

Jake, the DP on the very first day had enough evidence to charge Oswald with JFK's murder. And in the next couple of days before the memo, the Authorities accumulated a Mountain of evidence.
How can a sane rational man come to any other conclusion?

1. The recovered bullet and fragments all came from C2766.
2. C2766 was purchased and possessed by Oswald.
3. Oswald made an atypical visit mid-week to Irving to visit his wife.
4. Oswald carried a long package to work which he told Frazier contained curtain rods but later he lied and told the Police that he only carried his lunch.
5. The rifle which was stored in a blanket at Irving was not there on the afternoon of the 22nd.
5. The rifle had Oswald's palm print.
7. The 3 types of fibres on the rifle were a match to Oswald's arrest shirt, while not conclusive the prohibitive probability strongly suggests that they are the same.
8. Oswald immediately fled the scene of the crime (flight)
9. Oswald got on and off a slow moving bus. (flight)
10. Oswald got out of his cab way past his Rooming house.
11. Oswald killed a cop(the first on duty Dallas cop in years to be killed by gunfire), why would Oswald feel the need to kill a cop if he didn't kill Kennedy.
12. Oswald tried to kill more cops when he was arrested.
13. Oswald lied about owning the rifle that killed Kennedy.
14. Oswald lied about the package he took to work on the 22nd.
15. The rifle carry bag had Oswald's prints.
16. Oswald had no alibi.
17. Oswald at the height of the Cold War defected to the Enemy.
18. Oswald took surveillance photos of General Walkers house and a short time later attempted to assassinate General Walker.
19. ETC, ETC,...

With the above evidence, why do hardcore conspiracy theorist's continue to cast doubt on this initial conclusive evidence, and consider that 60+ years later none of this evidence has been refuted.

JohnM

TG--

You are an indomitable, indefatigable colossus, a pillar of gimlet-eyed insights, and a towering figure upon the JFKA research scene.

Flattery, although true in this case, will get you nowhere.

I think JBC did not do a 180-degree turn in his seat after being shot through the chest (taking out four inches of rib and leaving a large, ragged exit hole in his chest), having his right wrist shot through and fractured, and having the slug burrow into his thigh. I think he was immediately incapacitated.

JBC was neither the first nor the last person to do something "superhuman" after having a rib smashed by a bullet.

. . . . . . .

ME: Has anyone ever done something that was physically impressive after having a bullet smash one of their ribs?

GROK: Yes, there are several well-documented real-world examples of people performing physically impressive (or at least highly functional) feats shortly after having ribs broken by gunshot wounds.

Here are some of the most striking (pardon the pun):

Theodore Roosevelt (1912) – The most famous case.

While campaigning in Milwaukee, Roosevelt was shot in the chest with a .38 revolver at close range. The bullet cracked his fourth rib on the right side, deflected slightly, and lodged in the chest wall (it was never removed).

Immediately after being shot, Roosevelt coughed into his hand, saw no bright red blood (correctly concluding the lung was not pierced), stood up, walked to his car, and insisted on delivering his scheduled 90-minute speech before going to the hospital. He began with the legendary line: “Friends, I shall ask you to be as quiet as possible. I don’t know whether you fully understand that I have just been shot—but it takes more than that to kill a bull moose.”

50 Cent (Curtis James Jackson III) – 2000

Shot nine times at point-blank range with a 9 mm handgun while sitting in a car. One bullet struck him in the chest and reportedly fractured a rib (sources vary whether it was a direct rib fracture or secondary from lung collapse).

Despite massive blood loss and injuries to his face, hand, legs, and torso, he survived and within months was back in the studio recording. While not an immediate athletic feat, the fact that he regained full physical capacity (and later became known for intense workout regimens) after that degree of trauma, including rib damage, is remarkable.

Military and law-enforcement cases (multiple)

U.S. soldiers and Marines in Iraq/Afghanistan have continued fighting after taking 5.56 or 7.62 rounds to the plate or body that cracked/fractured ribs but did not penetrate vital organs thanks to body armor or glancing hits. Many accounts describe troops returning fire, dragging wounded buddies, or running hundreds of meters to cover while having one or more cracked ribs from bullet impacts.

One specific documented case: LAPD Officer Kristina Ripatti (2006) was shot in the chest with a .45 ACP; the round cracked a rib and collapsed a lung. Despite being paralyzed from the waist down by a second bullet that hit her spine, she still managed to return fire and wound her assailant before collapsing.


In short: Yes, people have done extraordinarily impressive things—speech-giving, returning fire, continuing to fight, or rapidly returning to high-level physical condition—after having a rib smashed or cracked by a bullet. Theodore Roosevelt’s 90-minute speech minutes after taking a .38 to the chest remains one of the most extreme examples in history.