May 15, 2006 Press Conference:


 Prepared Remarks by Douglas P. Horne,


 Former Chief Analyst for Military Records, Assassination Records Review
 Board (ARRB)


 I served on the staff of the Assassination Records Review Board for just
 over three years, from August 1995 through September 1998. During that
 period of time the Review Board granted permission for the staff to take
 the depositions of 10 persons involved in the autopsy on President
 Kennedy: as a result, today any American citizen can go to the "Archives
 II" facility in College Park, Maryland and obtain copies of the
 transcripts of the sworn testimony of the 3 autopsy pathologists; both of
 the official Navy photographers; both Navy x-ray technicians; a Navy
 photographer's mate who developed some of the post-mortem photography; and
 both of the FBI agents who witnessed the autopsy.


 The Review Board's charter was simply to locate and declassify
 assassination records, and to ensure they were placed in the new "JFK
 Records Collection" in the National Archives, where they would be freely
 available to the public. Although Congress did not want the ARRB to
 reinvestigate the assassination of President Kennedy, or to draw
 conclusions about the assassination, the staff did hope to make a
 contribution to future 'clarification' of the medical evidence in the
 assassination by conducting these neutral, non-adversarial, fact-finding
 depositions. All of our deposition transcripts, as well as our written
 reports of numerous interviews we conducted with medical witnesses, are
 now a part of that same collection of records open to the public. Because
 of the Review Board's strictly neutral role in this process, all of these
 materials were placed in the JFK Collection without comment.


 I have been studying these records for 10 years now. The reason I am here
 today is because contained within our deposition transcripts and interview
 reports is unequivocal evidence that there was a U.S. government cover-up
 of the medical evidence in the Kennedy assassination, yet most members of
 the public know nothing about this. Let me sound a cautionary note here:
 no single statement of any witness stands alone. Before it can be properly
 evaluated, the recollections of each witness must be compared to all of
 his own previous testimony, and to that of other witnesses-before the
 Warren Commission, the House Select Committee on Assassinations, and even
 with independent researchers-as well as all available documentary
 evidence.


 Having said this, after considerable study of all of these records, I am
 firmly convinced that there is serious fraud in the medical evidence of
 the Kennedy assassination in three areas:


 (1) The autopsy report in evidence today, Warren Commission Exhibit # 387,
 is the third version prepared of that report; it is not the sole version,
 as was claimed for years by those who wrote it and signed it.


 (2) The brain photographs in the National Archives that are purported to
 be photographs of President Kennedy's brain are not what they are
 represented to be; they are not pictures of his brain, but rather are
 photographs of someone else's brain. Normally, in cases of death due to
 injury to the brain, the brain is examined one or two weeks following the
 autopsy on the body, and photographs are taken of the pattern of damage.
 Following President Kennedy's autopsy, there were two subsequent brain
 examinations, not one: the first examination was of the President's brain,
 and those photographs were never introduced into the official record; the                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        
 second examination was of a fraudulent specimen, whose photographs were
 subsequently introduced into the official record. The pattern of damage
 displayed in these 'official' brain photographs has nothing whatsoever to
 do with the assassination in Dallas, and in fact was undoubtedly used to
 shore up the official conclusion that President Kennedy was killed by a
 shot from above and behind.


 (3) There is something seriously wrong with the autopsy photographs of the
 body of President Kennedy. It definitely is President Kennedy in the
 photographs, but the images showing the damage to the President's head do
 not show the pattern of damage observed by either the medical
 professionals at Parkland hospital in Dallas, or by numerous witnesses at
 the military autopsy at Bethesda Naval hospital. These disparities are
 real and are significant, but the reasons remain unclear. There are only
 three possible explanations for this, and I will discuss these
 possibilities today.


 The Autopsy Report


 The evidence that a draft autopsy report-as well as a first signed
 version-existed prior to the report in evidence today is both easy                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     
 understand, and undeniable.


 The First Draft


 On November 24, 1963 the chief pathologist at President Kennedy's autopsy,
 Dr. James J. Humes, signed a typed statement he had prepared that read as
 follows:


 "I, James J. Humes, certify that I have destroyed by burning certain
 preliminary draft notes relating to Naval Medical School Autopsy Report
 A63-272 and have officially transmitted all other papers related to this
 report to higher authority." [Author's emphasis]


 On two occasions before the HSCA, in March of 1977 and in September of
 1978, Dr. Humes maintained that he had destroyed notes. He repeated this
 claim in an interview published by the Journal of the American Medical
 Association in May of 1992. The reasons given in each case were that the
 notes were destroyed because they had on them the blood of the President,
 which Dr. Humes deemed unseemly.


 The ARRB General Counsel, Jeremy Gunn, had reason to suspect that an early
 draft of the autopsy report had also been destroyed, based upon an
 analysis of inconsistencies between Dr. Humes' previous testimony about
 when he wrote the draft report, and existing records documenting its
 transmission to higher authority. After extremely thorough and persistent
 questioning by the Review Board's General Counsel in February of 1996, Dr.
 Humes admitted, under oath, that both notes from the autopsy, and a first
 draft of the autopsy report (which had been prepared well after the
 autopsy's conclusion and had no blood on it), had been destroyed in his
 fireplace.


 The First Signed Version


 A simple study of the receipt trail for the transmission of the autopsy
 report reveals that the first signed report is missing as well.


 On April 26, 1965 the Secret Service transferred the autopsy photographs
 and x-rays, and certain vital documents and biological materials to the
 custody of the Kennedy family at the request of Robert F. Kennedy. That
 receipt lists, among other things:


 "Complete autopsy protocol of President Kennedy (orig, & 7 cc's)-Original
 signed by Dr. Humes, pathologist."


 Evelyn Lincoln, secretary to the late President Kennedy, signed for
 receipt of all of the items the same day.


 Incredibly, on October 2, 1967 the head of the Secret Service signed a
 letter transferring the original of CE 387, the autopsy report placed in
 evidence by the Warren Commission, to the National Archives; the National
 Archives signed a receipt for CE 387 the next day, October 3, 1967.


 Warren Commission Chief Counsel J. Lee Rankin, in a declassified
 transcript of a January 27, 1964 Executive Session of the Commission,
 discusses details of the content of "the autopsy report" which are not
 consistent with the details of the report in evidence today, CE 387, thus
 confirming that the first signed version contained different conclusions.


 The dilemma presented here can best be summarized by the following
 rhetorical question: How could the U.S. Secret Service transfer the
 original JFK autopsy protocol to the National Archives (or to anyone else,
 for that matter) on October 2, 1967 when they had previously given it to
 the Kennedy family on April 26, 1965? The answer, of course, is that there
 were two separate reports. The first smooth, or signed version, was given
 to the Kennedy family at the specific request of Robert Kennedy, and has
 disappeared. The second signed version is in the National Archives today.


 Conclusion


 The destruction of both the first draft and the first signed version of
 the autopsy report are clear evidence of the ongoing malleability of the
 autopsy report's specific conclusions during the initial 2 weeks following
 the conclusion of the post mortem examination. Furthermore, it is clear
 that when Dr. Humes testified under oath to the Review Board that there
 was only one autopsy report, and that he only signed one autopsy report,
 he committed perjury.


 [For those interested in obtaining copies of the relevant documents in the
 receipt trail, or in studying the likely content of the first two versions
 of the autopsy protocol, I will make copies of the relevant research memo
 available at the end of the press conference.]


 Two Brain Examinations


 My most remarkable finding while on the Review Board staff, and a totally
 unexpected one, was that instead of one supplemental brain examination
 being conducted following the conclusion of President Kennedy's autopsy,
 as was expected, two different examinations were conducted, about a week
 apart from each other. A thorough timeline analysis of available
 documents, and of the testimony of autopsy witnesses taken by the ARRB,
 revealed that the remains of President Kennedy's badly damaged brain were
 examined on Monday morning, November 25, 1963 prior to the state funeral,
 and that shortly thereafter the brain was turned over to RADM Burkley,
 Military Physician to the President; a second brain examination, of a
 fraudulent specimen, was conducted sometime between November 29th and
 December 2nd, 1963-and it is the photographs from this second examination
 that are in the National Archives today.


 Pertinent Facts Regarding the Two Examinations are as follows:


 First Brain Exam, Monday, November 25th, 1963


 Attendees: Dr. Humes, Dr. Boswell, and Navy civilian photographer John
 Stringer.


 Events: John Stringer testified to the ARRB that he used both Ektachrome
 E3 color positive transparency film, and B & W Portrait Pan negative film;
 both were 4 by 5 inch format films exposed using duplex film holders; he
 only shot superior views of the intact specimen-no inferior views; the
 pathologists sectioned the brain, as is normal for death by gunshot wound,
 with transverse or "coronal" incisions-sometimes called "bread loaf"
 incisions-in order to trace the track of the bullet or bullets; and after
 each section of tissue was cut from the brain, Stringer photographed that
 section on a light box to show the damage.


 Second Brain Exam, Between November 29th and December 2nd, 1963


 Attendees: Dr. Humes, Dr. Boswell, Dr. Finck, and an unknown Navy
 photographer.


 Events: Per the testimony of all 3 pathologists, the brain was not
 sectioned, as should have been normal procedure for any gunshot wound to
 the head-that is, transverse or coronal sections were not made. The brain
 looked different than it did at the autopsy on November 22nd, and Dr.
 Finck wrote about this in a report to his military superior on February 1,
 1965. The color slides of the brain specimen in the National Archives were
 exposed on "Ansco" film, not Ektachrome E3 film; and the B & W negatives
 are also on "Ansco" film, and originated in a film pack (or magazine), not
 duplex holders. The brain photos in the Archives show both superior and
 inferior views, contrary to what John Stringer remembers shooting, and
 there are no photographs of sections among the Archives brain photographs,
 which is inconsistent with Stringer's sworn testimony about what he
 photographed.


 Further indications that the brain photographs in the Archives are not
 President Kennedy's brain are as follows:


 Two ARRB medical witnesses, former FBI agent Frank O'Neill and Gawler's
 funeral home mortician Tom Robinson, both recalled vividly that the major
 area of tissue missing from President Kennedy's brain was in the rear of
 the brain. The brain photos in the Archives do not show any tissue missing
 in the rear of the brain, only in the top.


 When former FBI agent Frank O'Neill viewed the Archives brain photographs
 during his deposition, he said that the photos he was viewing could not be
 President Kennedy's brain because when he viewed the removed brain at the
 autopsy, the damage was so great that more than half of it was
 gone-missing. He described the brain photos in the Archives as depicting a
 'virtually intact' brain.


 Finally, the weight of the brain recorded in the supplemental autopsy
 report was 1500 grams, which exceeds the average weight of a normal,
 undamaged male brain. This is entirely inconsistent with a brain which was
 over half missing when observed at autopsy.


 Conclusions


 The conduct of a second brain examination on a fraudulent specimen, and
 the introduction of photographs of that specimen into the official record,
 was designed to do two things:


 (1) eliminate evidence of a fatal shot from the front, which was evident
 on the brain removed at autopsy and examined on Monday, November 25th,
 1963; and


 (2) place into the record photographs of a brain with damage generally
 consistent with having been shot from above and behind.


 Until I discovered that the photographs in the Archives could not be of
 President Kennedy's brain, the brain photos had been used by 3 separate
 investigative bodies-the Clark Panel, the Rockefeller Commission, and the
 House Select Committee on Assassinations-to support the Warren
 Commission's findings that President Kennedy was shot from above and
 behind, and to discount the expert observations from Parkland hospital in
 Dallas that President Kennedy had an exit wound in the back of his head.


 In my opinion, the brain photographs in the National Archives, along with
 Dr. Mantik's Optical Densitometry analysis of the head x-rays, are two
 irrefutable examples of fraud in this case, and call into question the
 official conclusions of all prior investigations.


 [For those who wish detailed verification of this hypothesis, the 32-page
 research paper on this subject that I completed in 1998 will be made
 available at the end of this press conference.]


 The Head Wound in the Autopsy Photographs


 I would like to conclude with some brief closing remarks about the autopsy
 photographs at the National Archives.


 The images of the President's head wound are inconsistent with both the
 Parkland hospital observations, and the Bethesda autopsy observations of
 almost every witness present in the morgue, as follows:


 Parkland Hospital


 The blowout, or exit wound in the right rear of the head seen in Dallas is
 not present in the autopsy images, which show the back of the head to be
 intact except for a very small puncture interpreted by the HSCA as a wound
 of entry. Furthermore, the autopsy photographs of the head show extensive
 damage to the top of the head, and to the right side of the head, which
 was not seen in Dallas during the 40 minutes that the President was
 observed in trauma room one at Parkland hospital.


 Bethesda Naval Hospital


 Most witnesses from the autopsy also recall a very large wound at the back
 of the head, which, as stated above, is not shown in the autopsy
 photographs. The additional damage many autopsy witnesses recall at the
 top of the head, and on the right side, is present in the photographs-but
 not the damage they remember at the rear. One prominent witness, Dr.
 Ebersole (the radiologist at the autopsy), testified under oath to the
 HSCA Forensic Pathology Panel in 1978 that the large head wound in the
 autopsy photos is more lateral and more superior than he remembered, and
 said that he recalled the back of the head being missing at the autopsy.


 Three Possible Explanations


 There are 3 possible explanations for these inconsistencies:


 (1) Photographic forgery-i.e., "special effects"-to make the rear of the
 head look intact when it was not;


 (2) Major manipulation of loose, and previously reflected scalp from
 elsewhere on the head by the pathologists, so as to make it appear that
 the back of the head was intact when it was not; or


 (3) Partial reconstruction of the head by the morticians, at the direction
 of the pathologists, followed by photography that created the false
 impression that there was no exit defect in the back of the head.


 Many JFK researchers have long suspected photographic forgery, but extreme
 caution is warranted here because all analyses of the autopsy photographs
 done to date have used "bootleg" materials, and not the original materials
 in the Archives. The "bootleg" photographs do represent the actual views
 of the body in the Archives collection, but they are badly degraded,
 suffer from contrast buildup, and are photographic prints-whereas any true
 scientific study of these images for authenticity should use the color
 positive transparencies and B & W negatives in the Archives as subjects,
 not multi-generational prints of uncertain provenance.


 I personally examined magnified and enhanced images of the Archives
 autopsy photographs at the Kodak lab in Rochester, New York in November of
 1997, and I saw no obvious evidence of photographic forgery; but I am the
 first person to admit that I am not an expert in photographic special
 effects techniques circa 1963.


 I am of the opinion that it is likely that the back of the head appears
> intact in the autopsy photographs either because the loose scalp was
 manipulated for photographic purposes, or because the photos in question
 were taken after a partial reconstruction by the morticians. I was steered
 toward this opinion by the ARRB testimony of the two FBI agents who
> witnessed the autopsy. Both men found the images of the intact
 back-of-the-head troubling, and inconsistent with the posterior head wound
 they vividly remembered. Frank O'Neill opined under oath that the images
 of the back-of-the-head appeared "doctored," by which he meant that the
 head had been put back together by the doctors. James Sibert testified
 that the head looked "reconstructed" in these images-he actually used the
 word "reconstructed" at his deposition.


 No final conclusions can yet be drawn about exactly why a large defect in
 the rear of the head is not shown in the autopsy photographs, when one was
 seen by so many witnesses. It is sufficient to say that something is
 terribly wrong here, and that it is an area that requires more study with
 the original materials. Thank you for your attention.


 I also have some interesting declassified FBI documents for anyone that is
 interested.

ALSO SEE>>>   http://whokilledjfk.net/autopsy_photos.htm

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