Exposing Postal Inspector/FBI Informant Harry D. Holmes
In 1963, 57-year old Dallas Postal Inspector Harry D. Holmes was an active
informant for the FBI (Dallas "T-2"). He was also the only non- law
enforcement officer allowed to sit in during one of Oswald's
interrogations. But from Holmes' testimony we realize that he played a
much larger role between the scenes.
Postal inspectors took an interest in Oswald soon after he returned from
the Soviet Union. Theyknew he was receiving subversive materials in Fort
Worth and intereviewed his neighbors on Mercedes Street. Postal employees
in Dallas also notified the FBI that Oswald was receiving "The Worker" at
his box, probably with Holmes' knowledge. If a lookout was placed on
Oswald's post office box 2915, as it should have been, then a firearm or
other large package addressed to "A. Hidell" or Oswald would almost
certainly have been brought to the attention of postal inspectors.
FBI INFORMANT. On November 22, 1963 Holmes played a very
active role as events began to unfold in Dallas and told the Commission:
"Well, throughout the entire period I was feeding change of
addressses as bits of information to the FBI and Secret Service, and sort
of a coordinating deal on it, but then about Sunday morning about
(9:20....."
Commission attorney Belin interruped Holmes and said, "Pardon me a
second." Belin then had a discussion with Holmes "off the record" and
probably warned him not to say anything else about feeding bits of
information to the FBI and Secret Service.
PO BOX 2915. Harry Holmes never explained when he first
learned that Oswald rented a box at the General Post Office, but as a
postal inspector it was his job to know about people who received
"subversive" materials, such as Oswald. Holmes claimed that he received a
telephone call from a postal clerk at the Dallas Terminal Annex who
remembered renting Oswald PO Box 6225 on November 2, 1963,but neither
Holmes nor anyone identified the the postal clerk. Lloyd H. Stephens,
Postal Inspector in Charge at Fort Worth, tried to locate the clerk so
that he could send him a letter of commendation, but the clerk was never
located, and probably existed only in Harry Holmes' mind.
THREE STORIES BY HOLMES. Holmes told the Warren Commission that
on the morning of November 23, "The FBI furnished me information that a
money order of some description in the amount of $21.95 had been used as
reimbursement for the gun that had been purchased from Klein's in Chicago,
and that the purchase date was March 20, 1963" According to Holmes, it was
this inaccurate information which caused a delay of several hours in
locating the correct money order in the amount of $21.45.
STORY#1. Holmes told the Commission that he found the correct
price of the rifle by locating an advertisement in a magazine. He said,
"I had my secretary go out and purchae about half a dozen books on
outdoor-type magazines such as Field and Stream, with the thought that I
might locate the gun to identify it, and I did." The Commission never
sought to verify the accuracy of this statement with Holmes' secretary.
NOTE: Anyone who has ever looked at the rifle pictured in Klein's
small black and white advertisement knows that Holmes' statement is
ridiculous. The picture is nothing more than a black silhouette and could
not possibly be used to identify the rifle.
STORY#2. Holmes told a different story to the FBI and said that he
found a magazine in the "Nixie" section at the post office and after
looking through the magazine found a Klein's ad that showed the price of
an identical rifle for $21.45.
STORY#3. In a letter dated April 10, 1965 to J.V. Staples,
Assistant Inspector in Charge at Fort Worth, Harry Holmes wrote, "In the
afternoon of November 23, through information furnished by Inspector McGee
of Chicago at our request, it was possible for me to isolate and identify
the number of the money order...." Holmes told one story to Assistant
Inspector Staples and a different story to the Warren Commission.
$12.78 RIFLE. Another reason to doubt Holmes' story is that on
Saturday morning the FBI announced that the rifle used to assassinate
President Kennedy was purchased for $12.78. Why would the Bureau tell
Holmes to look for a postal money order in the amount of $21.95 after
announcing that Oswald paid $12.78 for the rifle?
THE INVISIBLE MONEY ORDER STUB. Holmes told the Commission, "I
passed the information to the men who were looking for this money order
'stub' to show the only way you could find ne.....within 10 minutes they
called back and said they had a money order in that amount issued at the
main post office, which is the same place as this post office box was at
the time box 2915, and the money order had been issued early on the
morning of March 12th, 1963. But Harry Holmes never produced a money
order "stub," it was never seen by anybody in Dallas, and not a single
post office employee corrroborated Holmes' story.
EARLY ON THE MORNING OF MARCH 12, 1963. On April 2, 1964 Harry
Holmes told the Warren Commission that he knew the money order had been
issued early on the morning of March 1, 1963. But how did he
know?......There is no time stamp on postal money orders and the only
indication that it was purchased on the morning of March 12 was the
postmark on the envelope allegedly mailed to Klein's, that read "10:30
am." A copy of this envelope was allegedly found on Klein's microfilm,
but the microfilm was confiscated by FBI agents on November 23 and was not
seen again until the Commission deposed William Waldman on May 20,
1964-seven weeks after Holmes testified. Harry Holmes could not possibly
have known that postal money order No, 2,202,130,462 was issued early on
the morning of March 12, 1963, unless he had previously seen the mailing
envelope from Klein's microfilm or issued the money order himself on the
morning of March 12.
MONEY ORDER IN WASHINGTON, DC. Holmes told the Warren Commission,
"This number (2,202,130,462) was transmitted to the Chief Inspector in
Washington, who immediately got the money order center at Washington to
begin a search, which they use IBM equipment to kick out this money order,
and about 7 o'clock (actually 8:00 PM) Saturday night they did kick out
the original money order and sent it over, so they said, by special
conveyance to the Secret Service, chief of the Secret Service at
Washington now, and turned out, so they said, to be the correct money
order.
Holmes is the only person, anywhere in the US Post Office system, who knew
the number of the postal money order No. 2,202,130,462 on the afternoon of
November 23. No other Dallas Postal employee was interviewed by the FBI
or Warren Commission and there is no confirmation whatsoever that a "stub"
for this money order was found at the GPO in Dallas, despite Holmes'
claim.
The money order was allegedly found by National Archives employee Robert
Jackson, but there were no witnesses present and this man was never
questioned by the FBI or Warren Commission. Jackson delivered the money
order to the home of postal finance officer J. Harold Marks and it was
soon picked up by Secret Service agent Parker.
Holmes lied to the Commission. Holmes version of events
surrounding the money order were essential in linking Oswald with the mail
order rifle from Klein's and went unchallenged. But when David Belin
questioned Holmes about statements made by Oswald during his last
interrogation, attended by Captain Fritz, Forrest Sorrels, Thomas Kelly,
and Holmes, Belin immediately noticed some glaring contradictions.
Belin asked Holmes, "Did he (Oswald) ever say anything about going to
Mexico?" Holmes, replied, "Yes. To the extent that mostly about-well- he
didn't spend, 'Where did you get the money?' He didn't say that where he
stayed it cost $26 some off, ridiculous amount to eat, and another
ridiculous small amount to stay all night, and that he went to the Mexican
Embassy to try to get this permission to go to Russia by Cuba, but most of
the talks that we want to talk about was how he got by with a little
amount....They refused him and he became angry and he said he burst out of
there, and I don't know I don't recall now why he went into the business
about how mad it made him...he goes over to the Russian Embassy. he was
already at the American. This was the Mexican-he wanted to go to Cuba.
Then he went to the Russian Embassy and he said, because he said then he
wanted to go to Russia by way of Cuba, still trying to get to Cuba and try
that angle and they refused and said, 'Come back in 30 days,' or something
like that. And, he went out of there angry and disgusted"
Harry Holmes was the only person who sat in on the interrogations of
November 24 who claimed that Oswald said he had been in Mexico City. Belin
recognized the contradiction and said, "Is this something that you think
you might have picked up from just reading the papers, ir is this
something you remember?" Holmes replied, "That is what said in there."
Belin must have realized that Holmes was clearly trying to link Oswald to
Cuba, and also must have realized that Holmes was lying.
NOTE: On December 17, 1963, four months before he was interviewed
by the Warren Commission, Holmes wrote a detailed "Memorandum of
Interview" of Oswald's interrogations on November 24, 1963. This
memorandum was published in the Warren Volumes as Holmes Ex. No. 4, but
Holmes wrote nothing about Oswald's alleged trip to Mexico City.
David Belin then discussed the postal money order with Holmes who said,
"Oswald had bee questioned about it (the money order) from about 10 A.M.
to noon on November 24, before he was killed." Once again Holmes lied to
the Warren Commission, because neither Captain Fritz, Forrest Sorrels, or
Thomas Kelly remembered that Oswald was asked or said anything about a
postal money order.
Holmes' lies and contradictory statements are not enough to prove that he
colluded with the FBI and fabricated the money order that linked Oswald
with the Mannlicher-Carcano rifle. But Holmes was the first person in
Dallas to know the number of the money order, the only person who claimed
to have located the money order "stub," and he had access to postal money
orders and GPO cancellation stamps. If Holmes was not involved, then why
did he wait 4 hours before telling postal inspectors that this
never-deposited, never-cashed money order could be found at the Federal
Records Center in Washington, DC?
Exposing the Warren Commission
The Warren Commission was certainly aware that Oswald's alleged purchase
of a rifle from Klein's was based on highly questionable and inconclusive
evidence. They relied not only on dubious evidence (mis- dated bank
deposits/an uncashed money order/bills of lading that failed to identify
the rifles), they knowingly suppressed evidence (Oswald's application for
PO Box 2915), ignored evidence (postal form 2162), failed to interview
crucial witnesses (Louis Feldsott, Fred Rupp, J.A. Mueller, William Sharp,
Robert Jackson), failed to properly question Klein's employees (about
36-inch Italian carbines, the mounting of scopes, regulations concerning
the shipment of firearms through the USPO), failed to properly evaluate
evidence (postal money order, envelope mailed to Klein's, Klein's bank
statements), and allowed the introduction of irrelevant and misleading
evidence (November, 1963 ad from Field and Stream). The Commission broke
so many rules of civil procedure in trying to "prove" that Oswald
purchased C2766 from Klein's, that we have learned not to trust them,
their methods, or their conclusions.
Harvey and Lee pgs 477-81
https://alt.assassination.jfk.narkive.com/lLeEllA9/exposing-postal-inspector-fbi-informant-harry-d-holmes-exposing-the
JFK Assassination Tour Dallas - The Terminal Annex Building
CE399 was not fired in Dealey Plaza on November 22, 1963. It was in fact fired into a tank of water in the FBI crime lab in DC some weeks before the assassination. It was fired by the Carcano rifle in evidence, Oswald never had that rifle in his posession. it was picked up by FBI when the rifle arrived at the Dallas Postal Annex.
U.S. Postmaster Harry D. Holmes. As postmaster, Holmes already had a relationship with the FBI.
The Terminal Annex sits on the far southern edge of Dealey Plaza at the intersection of Houston and Commerce streets. In another one of those unusual coincidences that populate the assassination story, this art deco building played an curious role in the confluence of events of 11.22.63.
Back in 1963, this post office building was home to U.S. Postmaster Harry D. Holmes. As postmaster, Holmes already had a relationship with the FBI, keeping authorities abreast of suspicious activity at Dallas post office boxes. It was in this very building -- just a stone's throw from the Book Depository's sixth floor window -- that Lee Harvey Oswald rented post office box # 6225 under the alias A.J. Hidell. When Oswald purchased the mail order rifle used in the murder attempt on General Walker and later the assassination of President Kennedy, he had the gun delivered to his PO box in this building.
From the fifth floor window of this building on 11.22.63, Holmes reported that he was watching the motorcade with binoculars and witnessed the assassination. Because of his vantage point and the binoculars, Warren Commission investigators asked him whether he had noticed any suspicious activity in the rail yard beyond the Grassy Knoll, prompting a classic reply: "No. I saw nothing suspicious and I am a trained suspicioner".
Immediately after the assassination, Holmes took a direct role in the investigation, telling the Warren Commission: "I never quit. I didn't get to bed for two days...I was doing all I could to help other agencies."
Among other things, Holmes mounted an investigation into how Oswald obtained the mail-order Italian war surplus rifle, and he tried unsuccessfully to track down the money order used to purchase the gun. Curiously, Holmes was allowed to take part in the interrogation of Oswald after his arrest on Sunday morning, November 24. He told the Warren Commission that he had driven his wife to church but decided to return to the police station where he encountered Dallas police Capt. Fritz, who invited him to take part in the questioning. Just after the interrogation, Oswald would be shot and killed by Jack Ruby in the police headquarters basement.
Holmes' notes of the interview can be found in Warren Commission Exhibit 2064 on pages 488 to 492 of Volume 24. They also appear as Holmes Exhibit No. 4 pages 177 to 181 of Volume 20, and, finally, in Appendix XI pages 633 to 637.
It is my opinion that from the moment JFK’s body was removed from Parkland Hospital, a medical cover-up was assured.
The so-called “autopsy” at Bethesda was beyond incompetent, it was criminal negligence__a complete fraud. This can only indicate one thing: CONSPIRACY.
ROBERT McCLELLAND, MD: In testimony at Parkland taken before Arlen Specter on 3-21-64, McClelland described the head wound as, “…I could very closely examine the head wound, and I noted that the right posterior portion of the skull had been extremely blasted. It had been shattered…so that the parietal bone was protruded up through the scalp and seemed to be fractured almost along its right posterior half, as well as some of the occipital bone being fractured in its lateral half, and this sprung open the bones that I mentioned in such a way that you could actually look down into the skull cavity itself and see that probably a third or so, at least, of the brain tissue, posterior cerebral tissue and some of the cerebellar tissue had been blasted out….” (WC–V6:33) Later he said, “…unfortunately the loss of blood and the loss of cerebral and cerebellar tissues were so great that the efforts (to save Kennedy’s life) were of no avail.” (Emphasis added throughout) (WC–V6:34) McClelland made clear that he thought the rear wound in the skull was an exit wound (WC-V6:35,37). McClelland ascribed the cause of death to, “…massive head injuries with loss of large amounts of cerebral and cerebellar tissues and massive blood loss.” (WC–V6:34)
McClelland’s unwillingness to change his recollection has recently attracted detractors in the aftermath of Charles Crenshaw’s book, “Conspiracy of Silence”. McClelland told Posner, “I saw a piece of cerebellum fall out on the stretcher.” (Posner, G. “CC.”, p. 311, paper). To dismiss McClelland, Posner quotes Malcolm Perry, “I am astonished that Bob (McClelland) would say that… It shows such poor judgment, and usually he has such good judgment.” (Posner G. “Case Closed”. p. 311, paperback edition.) Perry’s own inconsistent and unreliable memory lessens the merit of his opinions of others, as we will see.
3) MARION THOMAS JENKINS, MD: In a contemporaneous note dated 11-22-63, Jenkins described “a great laceration on the right side of the head (temporal and occipital) (sic), causing a great defect in the skull plate so that there was herniation and laceration of great areas of the brain, even to the extent that the cerebellum had protruded from the wound.” (WC–Exhibit #392) To the Warren Commission’s Arlen Specter Dr. Jenkins said, “Part of the brain was herniated. I really think part of the cerebellum, as I recognized it, was herniated from the wound…” (WC–V6:48) Jenkins told Specter that the temporal and occipital wound was a wound of exit, “…the wound with the exploded area of the scalp, as I interpreted it being exploded, I would interpret it being a wound of exit…” (WC–V6:51.)
Jenkins described a wound in JFK’s left temple to Specter. Jenkins: “…I thought there was a wound on the left temporal area, right in the hairline and right above the zygomatic process.” Specter: “The autopsy report discloses no such development, Dr. Jenkins.” Jenkins: “Well, I was feeling for–I was palpating here for a pulse to see whether the closed chest cardiac massage was effective or not and this probably was some blood that had come from the other point and so I thought there was a wound there also.” A few moments later Jenkins again pursued the possibility that there had been a wound in the left temple: “…I asked you a little bit ago if there was a wound in the left temporal area, right above the zygomatic bone in the hairline, because there was blood there and I thought there might have been a wound there (indicating) (sic). Specter: “Indicating the left temporal area?” Jenkins: “Yes; the left temporal, which could have been a point of entrance and exit here (indicating) (sic-presumably pointing to where he had identified the wound in prior testimony–the right rear of the skull), but you have answered that for me (that ‘the autopsy report discloses no such development’).” (WC-V6:51)
In an interview with the HSCA’s Andy Purdy on 11-10-77 Marion Jenkins was said to have expressed that as an anesthesiologist he (Jenkins) “…was positioned at the head of the table so he had one of the closest views of the head wound…believes he was ‘…the only one who knew the extent of the head wound.’) (sic)…Regarding the head wound, Dr. Jenkins said that only one segment of bone was blown out–it was a segment of occipital or temporal bone. He noted that a portion of the cerebellum (lower rear brain) (sic) was hanging out from a hole in the right–rear of the head.” (Emphasis added) (HSCA-V7:286-287) In an interview with the American Medical News published on 11-24-78 Jenkins said, “…(Kennedy) had part of his head blown away and part of his cerebellum was hanging out.”.
CHARLES JAMES CARRICO, MD: On the day of the assassination he hand wrote, ” (the skull) wound had avulsed the calvarium and shredded brain tissue present with profuse oozing… attempts to control slow oozing from cerebral and cerebellar tissue via packs instituted…” (CE 392–WC V17:4-5)
In is first mention of JFK’s skull wound to the Warren Commission on 3/25/64, Carrico said, “There seemed to be a 4 to 5 cm. area of avulsion of the scalp and the skull was fragmented and bleeding cerebral and cerebellar tissue.” (6H3) And… “The (skull) wound that I saw was a large gaping wound, located in the right occipitoparietal area. I would estimate to be about 5 to 7 cm. in size, more or less circular, with avulsions of the calvarium and scalp tissue. As I stated before, I believe there was shredded macerated cerebral and cerebellar tissues both in the wounds and on the fragments of the skull attached to the dura.” (6H6)
On 3/30/64 Carrico appeared again before the Commission. Arlen Specter asked, “Will you describe as specifically as you can the head wound which you have already mentioned briefly?” Dr. Carrico: “Sure. This was a 5 by 71 cm (sic–the author feels certain that Dr. Carrico must have said “5 by 7 cm) defect in the posterior skull, the occipital region. There was an absence of the calvarium or skull in this area, with shredded tissue, brain tissue present…”. Specter: “Was any other wound observed on the head in addition to this large opening where the skull was absent?” Carrico: “No other wound on the head.”(WC–V3:361)
In an interview with Andy Purdy for the HSCA on 1-11-78, Dr. Carrico said, “The skull wound” …was a fairly large wound in the right side of the head, in the parietal, occipital area. (sic) One could see blood and brains, both cerebellum and cerebrum fragments in that wound.” (sic) (HSCA-V7:268)
MALCOLM PERRY, MD: In a note written at Parkland Hospital and dated, 11-22-63 Dr., Perry described the head wound as, “A large wound of the right posterior cranium…” (WC–V17:6–CE#392) Describing Kennedy’s appearance to the Warren Commission’s Arlen Specter Dr. Perry stated, “Yes, there was a large avulsive wound on the right posterior cranium….” (WC- V3:368) Later to Specter: “…I noted a large avulsive wound of the right parietal occipital area, in which both scalp and portions of skull were absent, and there was severe laceration of underlying brain tissue…” (WC–V3:372) In an interview with the HSCA’s Andy Purdy in 1-11-78 Mr. Purdy reported that “Dr. Perry… believed the head wound was located on the “occipital parietal” (sic) region of the skull and that the right posterior aspect of the skull was missing…” (HSCA- V7:292-293) Perry told Mr. Purdy: “I looked at the head wound briefly by leaning over the table and noticed that the parietal occipital head wound was largely avulsive and there was visible brain tissue in the macard and some cerebellum seen…” (HSCA-V7:302-interview with Purdy 1-11-78.
RONALD COY JONES: was a senior General Surgery resident physician at Parkland Hospital. Under oath he told the Warren Commission’s Arlen Specter, “…he had a large wound in the right posterior side of the head… There was large defect in the back side of the head as the President lay on the cart with what appeared to be some brain hanging out of this wound with multiple pieces of skull noted next with the brain and with a tremendous amount of clot and blood.” (WC-V6:53-54) A few minutes later he described “what appeared to be an exit wound in the posterior portion of the skull”. (Emphasis added throughout) (WC-V6:56)
GENE AIKIN, MD: an anesthesiologist at Parkland told the Warren Commission under oath, “The back of the right occipital
parietal portion of his head was shattered with brain substance extruding.” (WC-V6:65.) He later opined, “I assume the right occipital parietal region was the exit, so to speak, that he had probably been hit on the other side of the head, or at least tangentially in the back of the head…”. (WC-V6:67)PAUL PETERS, MD: a resident physician at Parkland described the head wound to the Warren Commission’s Arlen Specter under oath as, “…I noticed that there was a large defect in the occiput…It seemed to me that in the right occipital parietal area that there was a large defect.” (WC-V6:71)
CHARLES CRENSHAW, MD: a resident physician at Parkland neither wrote his observations contemporaneously or was interviewed by the Warren Commission. He, with co-authors, Jess Hansen and Gary Shaw, recently published a book, JFK: Conspiracy of Silence, ” (Crenshaw, CA, Hansen, J, Shaw, G. ( JFK: Conspiracy of Silence, 1992, New York, Signet). Crenshaw has claimed both in his book and in public interviews that the President’s head wound was posterior on the right side. In JFK: Conspiracy of Silence, he wrote, “I walked to the President’s head to get a closer look. His entire right cerebral hemisphere appeared to be gone. It looked like a crater–an empty cavity. All I could see there was mangled, bloody tissue. From the damage I saw, there was no doubt in my mind that the bullet had entered his head through the front, and as it surgically passed through his cranium, the missile obliterated part of the temporal and all the parietal and occipital lobes before it lacerated the cerebellum.” ( JFK: Conspiracy of Silence, p. 86)
CHARLES RUFUS BAXTER, MD: a resident physician at Parkland in a hand written note prepared on 11-22-63 and published in the Warren Report (p. 523) Baxter wrote, “…the right temporal and occipital bones were missing (emphasis added) and the brain was lying on the table…” (WR:523). Very oddly, as Wallace Milam pointed out to one of the authors (Aguilar), when asked to read his own hand written report into the record before the Warren Commission’s Arlen Specter the words are recorded exactly as he wrote them, except for the above sentence. That sentence was recorded by the Warren Commission and reads “…the right temporal and parietal bones were missing. (emphasis added)…”. (WC-V6:44) It is reasonable to assume that Baxter’s original description of a more rearward wound is more reliable than his later testimony before Arlen Specter, who on more than one occasion tried to move the skull wound away from the rear. Baxter then described the head wound saying, “…literally the right side of his head had been blown off. With this and the observation that the cerebellum was present….” (WC-V6:41) Thus the wound he saw was more likely to have been “temporo-occipital” than “temporo-parietal”, because he also recalled, “cerebellum was present”. (WC-V6:41) Shortly later in the same interview he also said, “…the temporal and parietal bones were missing and the brain was lying on the table….” (WC-V6:44) The authors are unaware of any explanation for the discrepancies, and can only speculate that either Baxter was misquoted twice or he adjusted his testimony to conform with what he might have felt was wanted of him. The mystery was confounded when author Livingstone reported that Baxter described the skull wound as “…a large gaping wound in the occipital area.” Livingstone also reported that “(Baxter) could not have been more clear when he rejected the official picture (showing the rear scalp intact).”(Groden & Livingstone, High Treason, 1989, New York, Berkley Books, p. 45)
PAT HUTTON, RN: a nurse at Parkland who met the limousine and helped to wheel the President into Trauma Room 1 wrote a report soon after claiming, “Mr. Kennedy was bleeding profusely from a wound in the back of his head, and was lying there unresponsive.” (Price Exhibit V21 H 216–Emphasis added). While helping with resuscitation efforts a physician asked her to apply a pressure dressing to the head wound, she observed, however, that, “This was no use, however, because of the massive opening in the back of the head.” (IBID)
DORIS NELSON, RN: was a supervising nurse at Parkland. She was interviewed by Arlen Specter for the Warren Commission and she was neither asked or volunteered information regarding the nature of JFK’s wounds. (WC-V6:143-147) As Groden and Livingstone reported, however, journalist Ben Bradlee, Jr. asked her, “Did you get a good look at his head injuries?” Nelson: “A very good look…When we wrapped him up and put him in the coffin. I saw his whole head.” Asked about the accuracy of the HSCA autopsy photographs she reacted: “No. It’s not true. Because there was no hair back there. There wasn’t even hair back there. It was blown away. Some of his head was blown away and his brains were fallen down on the stretcher.” (High Treason I. p. 454)
SECRET SERVICE AGENT WILLIAM GREER: described the President’s wounds upon arrival at Parkland to Arlen Specter of the Warren Commission: “His head was all shot, this whole part was all a matter of blood like he had been hit.” Specter, “Indicating the top and right rear side of the head?” Greer: “Yes, sir; it looked like that was all blown off.”(WCV2:124)
SECRET SERVICE AGENT CLINT HILL: described the wounds he saw at Parkland as, “The right rear portion of his head was missing. It was lying in the rear seat of the car. His brain was exposed…There was so much blood you could not tell if there had been any other wound or not, except for the one large gaping wound in the right rear portion of the head.” (WC–V2:141)
http://www.assassinationweb.com/ag6.htmJOHN F. KENNEDY’S FATAL WOUNDS: THE WITNESSES AND THE INTERPRETATIONS FROM 1963 TO THE PRESENT
by, Gary L. Aguilar, MD
San Francisco, California, August, 1994“That JFK’s head wound was on the right side of his head is universally accepted. With a single exception, all witnesses placed JFK’s major skull defect on the right side, and given the frequency of witness error, this suggests good witness reliability in this case. The most peculiar aspect of JFK’s wounds is that of the 46 witnesses whose opinions I have examined between Parkland and Bethesda, 45 of whom correctly claimed that the skull defect was on the right side, 44 were apparently wrong by the “best” evidence to claim that the wound was in the right-rear, rather than the right-front. The “authenticated” photographs, the originals of which were twice examined by author Aguilar at the National Archives, show no rear defect at all, only an anterior-lateral defect, and so, if valid, the images prove that not a single witness accurately described JFK’s fatal wound, and that even the autopsy report fails to accurately describe the skull defect visible in the images!
The HSCA’s forensic panel, which delved into the mysteries of JFK’s autopsy, accepted the authenticity of the current inventory of X-rays and photographs. Principally on the basis of these images, the panel concluded that the autopsists missed the correct location for the entrance bullet wound to the skull by placing it 10-cm too low, and missed the location of the bullet entrance to JFK’s back by placing it 5-cm too high. While the HSCA’s forensic panel apparently never considered the overwhelming witness testimony that there was a rear defect in JFK’s scalp/skull, it follows that all the witnesses were wrong if the images are right. To add to the muddle, recently revealed documents cast doubt on at least the completeness of the photographic inventory, and the technicians who took JFK’s X-rays and photographs both insist the current images are not those they took.”
CHAINS OF CUSTODY
“In this article I address the chain of custody for the so-called “magic bullet,” otherwise known as Commission Exhibit 399 (or CE399). According to the Warren Commission, this bullet wounded both President Kennedy and Governor John Connally.
In fact, the chain of custody for this central piece of evidence is non-existent. The true and amazing story about the near-pristine “magic bullet” found at Parkland Hospital shortly after JFK’s assassination has been carefully pieced together by analysts such as Sylvia Meagher in the ’60s and John Hunt in the past few years.
Although Secret Service agent Richard Johnsen received the bullet in Parkland Hospital by about 1:30 p.m., an hour after the assassination, Johnsen’s initials are nowhere on the magic bullet, despite regulations mandating Secret Service agents to initial forensic evidence.
Johnsen handed the bullet to the Secret Service Chief James Rowley at Andrews Air Force Base at about 7:30 p.m., who didn’t initial it either. Neither Johnsen nor Rowley could identify the bullet when shown it later.
___________________________________________
The chief of the Dallas police crime lab, Carl Day, said he initialed all three hulls found on the sixth floor at about 1 pm on the afternoon of November 22.When Day testified on 4/22/64 to the Warren Commission, he had to admit that he did not initial any of them during the time that they were found at the 6th floor of the book depository.
As the hulls are nondescript, initialing them is essential if anyone hopes to recognize such an item again. Detective Richard Sims wrote that after Day took pictures of the hulls, he picked up the “empty hulls”, Day held open an envelope, Sims dropped them in. Sims held onto an unsealed envelope with three hulls in it at 2 pm; at some point, homicide chief Will Fritz was given the envelope by Sims. Fritz later gave the envelope to a sergeant, who eventually brought one hull back to Fritz and the other two hulls back to Day.
Day admitted during his Warren Commission testimony that he only initialed the two hulls in the unsealed envelope when he got it back at 10 that night. Day passed the shells on to FBI agent Vince Drain in the early morning, and I am similarly unaware of any record of Drain initialing any of these materials before he passed them on to firearms expert Robert Frazier at the FBI lab. Frazier’s testimony doesn’t mention anything about these shells being initialed by either of these men.
These hulls should have been excluded based on the failure to have a reliable chain of custody.”
~Bill SimpichDarrel Tomlinsen told Josiah Thompson in an interview that this is what the bullet looked like that he had found on the stretcher at Parkland. It looks like a 30-30, and is certainly not CE399.
The Parkland Bullet & Broken Chain of Custody to CE399
Within an hour after the assassination, Johnsen was given the bullet by Parkland hospital security director O.P. Wright, after orderly Darrell Tomlinson found it by a stretcher. Like Johnsen and Rowley, neither Wright nor Tomlinson could identify the bullet.
_______________________________________________________________The first 4 links in the chain of custody of the bullet found a Parkland are unable to identify it as CE399.
They are:1. Orderly Darrell Tomlinson >>
2. Parkland hospital security director O.P. Wright >>
3. SS Agent Richard Johnsen >>
4. Agent Rowley (Secret Service Chief).A break in the chain of custody at this proximate point proves that the bullet of record, CE399 is NOT the bullet found at parkland, and therefor CE399 is a planted bullet by the highest authorities themselves.
Let me remind you once again: A memorandum from the FBI office in Dallas on June 20th to J. Edgar Hoover contains the statement, “neither DARRELL C. TOMLINSON [sic], who found bullet at Parkland Hospital, Dallas, nor O. P. WRIGHT, Personnel Officer, Parkland Hospital, who obtained bullet from TOMLINSON and gave to Special Service, at Dallas 11/22/63, can identify bullet”
http://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=59607#relPageId=29
http://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=59607#relPageId=86Warren Commission Testimony vol. VI
TESTIMONY OF DARRELL C. TOMLINSON
The testimony of Darrell C. Tomlinson was taken on March 20, 1964, at Parkland Memorial Hospital, Dallas, Tex., by Mr. Arlen Specter, assistant counsel of the President’s Commission
http://jfklancer.com/docs.maps/tomlinson.html
However, at the time Tomlinson was questioned by Specter, he had not seen CE399. When Tomlinson finally did see CE399, he said that it was not the bullet he found at Parkland.The Parkland Bullet is a distinct and different bullet from CE399.
Dr. Malcolm O. Perry, Key Parkland Hospital Witness to JFK's Wounds, Dies
Dr. Malcolm Perry's passing, at the age of 80, was just announced in Texas newspapers.
Dr. Perry attempted to save President Kennedy's life on November 22, 1963 by performing a tracheostomy and administering closed chest massage in Trauma Room One at Parkland hospital.
The tracheostomy he performed was a small, transverse incision 2.5 to 3 cm wide, which he made through a puncture in the President's throat---below the Adam's apple and just to the right of the midline---a puncture which he characterized as AN ENTRANCE WOUND three different times during the televised hospital press conference that afternoon following JFK's death.
On the day President Kennedy was treated, all of the attending physicians who saw the bullet wound in the throat characterized it as a typical entrance wound. Their observations have always stood in stark opposition to the official U.S. government cover story that President Kennedy was killed by an assassin firing from above and behind, and that he was not shot from the front by anyone.
What most of the public does not know---and what is detailed in my book, "Inside the Assassination Records Review Board," is that late on the night of President Kennedy's autopsy at Bethesda Naval hospital, Federal officials located at Bethesda began harrassing Dr. Perry on the telephone in an attempt to get him to change his mind about having seen an entry wound in the President's throat earlier in the day. Nurse Audrey Bell told me in 1997 that Dr. Perry complained to her the next morning (on Saturday, November 23, 1963) that he had gotten almost no sleep the night before, because unnamed persons at Bethesda had been pressuring him on the telephone all night long to get him to change his opinion about the nature of the bullet wound in the throat, and to redescribe it as an exit, rather than an entrance.
In his 1981 book "Best Evidence," David Lifton documented that the Secret Service confiscated videotapes of the Parkland hospital press conference from at least one local television station, and that Secret Service Chief James Rowley had informed the Warren Commission in 1964 that no videotapes or transcripts of the press conference could be found. But as Lifton revealed, a White House verbatim transcript of the press conference (White House Transcript 1327-C) later surfaced. In my own book, "Inside the ARRB," I reveal that Chief Rowley lied to the Warren Commission when he said no transcripts could be found, for on the last page of transcript 1327-C, the document is stamped as received by Rowley's office on November 26, 1963. His statement to the Warren Commission was therefore false.
A graduate student, James Gochenaur, revealed to both the Church Committee and to the HSCA in the mid-1970s that Secret Service Agent Elmer Moore had confessed to him in 1970 that he had "leaned on Dr. Perry" shortly after the Bethesda autopsy to get him to stop describing the bullet wound in President Kennedy's throat as an entrance wound. (The Bethesda autopsy report concluded it was an exit wound.) According to Gochenaur, Moore also told him that the Secret Service had to investigate the assassination in an expected, predetermined way or they would "get their heads chopped off." Moore, unfortunately, also told Gochenaur that sometimes he thought President Kennedy was "a traitor" because he was "giving things away to the Russians."
[According to Arlen Specter, this same Elmer Moore was present when Chief Justice Warren, Gerald Ford, and he interviewed Jack Ruby in Dallas; and Arlen Specter also revealed in 2003 (at a conference in Pittsburgh) that Elmer Moore was the Secret Service Agent who showed him an undocumented photograph of President Kennedy's back wound during the May 1964 re-enactment of the Dallas motorcade conducted by the Warren Commission.]
Unfortunately, after Federal officials at Bethesda (on November 22-23, 1963) and Elmer Moore (between November 29-December 11, 1963) "leaned on" Dr. Perry, he spent the remainder of his life straddling the fence and saying that the bullet wound in JFK's throat "could have been either" an entrance or an exit wound.
But that is not what he said on the afternoon of the assassination, before there was an official explanation for the crime to fall in line with. White House Transcript 1327-C makes that very clear, as I reveal in my book, in Chapters 7 and 9.
Former Chief Operating Room nurse Audrey Bell related to me in 1997 that Dr. Perry was in a state of torment on November 23, 1963, after being pressured by Federal officials all night long to change his mind, because, as he put it, "my professional credibility is at stake." Sadly, he appears to have decided for the remainder of his life that discretion was the better part of valor.
The story does not end here. The chief prosector at the President's autopsy, Dr. James J. Humes, described the throat wound in the autopsy report as having "widely gaping, irregular edges," and in his Warren Commission testimony, Humes said the gaping wound in the throat was 7 to 8 cm wide. In contrast, Dr. Charles Crenshaw, a third year resident at Parkland in 1963, told ABC's "20/20" news magazine in 1992 that after the tracheostomy tube and flange were removed from the President's neck following his death, that the very small incision made by Dr. Perry closed of its own volition, and that the bullet wound had NOT been obliterated and was still clearly visible. When Dr. Crenshaw viewed the widely published bootleg autopsy photo (from Bethesda Naval hospital) showing the incision in JFK's neck, he expressed the opinion to ABC's "20/20" that the incision in that photograph was DOUBLE the width of the incision Dr. Perry originally made on the President's body.
The descriptions of the incision in the anterior neck, provided by Dr. Humes and Dr. Crenshaw, together constitute de facto evidence that JFK's throat wound was tampered with prior to the start of the Navy autopsy at Bethesda Naval hospital. President Kennedy's body was in the custody of the U.S. Secret Service while enroute Washington D.C. from Dallas, Texas. ENDhttps://insidethearrb.livejournal.com/2370.html
The Ordeal of Malcolm Perry
Written by James DiEugenio
Using recent evidence discovered by Rob Couteau, Jim DiEugenio revisits the experiences of Parkland Hospital Dr. Malcolm Perry regarding the anterior neck wound he observed in President Kennedy and the concerted and persistent efforts to manipulate his testimony and obscure the clear evidence of a frontal entrance wound.
On the afternoon of the JFK assassination, within an hour or two after his death, there was a press conference at Parkland Hospital. Three important pronouncements were made. In fact, they were so important that they should have shaped the case in a permanent manner.
First, acting press secretary Malcolm Kilduff talked about how Kennedy had died.
Malcolm Kilduff at Parkland press briefing
When he did so, he pointed to his right temple and said something like: it was a matter of a bullet through the head. Very shortly after, Chet Huntley said the same thing live on NBC television. On the air, he revealed his source to be Dr. George Burkley, President Kennedy’s own personal physician.
Above; Parkland Doctors indicating the placement of the gaping exit wound at the right occipital parietal of JFK’s head
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