Pat Speer: 2014 Bethesda Conference.
(CLICK ON IMAGES TO ENLARGE)
Facts that have never been refuted and need to be ignored to push the SBT fiction.
1. The autopsy face sheet and the measurements provided in the autopsy report place the back wound at the level of the shoulder tips. This is at or slightly below the throat wound.
2. Joseph Ball and David Belin were assigned the task of placing Oswald in the sniper's nest window. Among the steps to reaching this task were that they needed to resolve that the back wound was lower than the throat wound on the autopsy face sheet.
3. In early March, Ball accompanied Arlen Specter on a visit to Dr.s Humes and Boswell. They asked the doctors to prepare drawings that could be used to demonstrate that the back wound was really above the throat wound, and not the reverse. Humes and Boswell then corralled Skip Rydberg into making these drawings. Rydberg would later insist they just told him to put the wound on the back of the neck and have the bullet exit the throat, and that no measurements--which would have proved the wound to have been on the back--were provided.
4. These drawings were then entered into the record by Arlen Specter as part of the testimony of Dr. Humes.
5. Within a few weeks, Arlen Specter started having doubts about what he had just done. He knew his career could be in jeopardy. He then began begging that Dr. Humes be allowed to verify the accuracy of these drawings.
6. Judge Earl Warren, who was in a rush to finish the report by June, and was anxious to close doors, not open them, then made the ridiculous and possibly criminal decision that Dr. Humes would not be allowed to review the photographs he'd had taken for his review. Instead, Warren himself reviewed them, and decided they were horrible and awful and that there was nothing to see. Tellingly, these photos proved the wound to have been on the back, in opposition to the drawings already entered into the record.
7. Even so, Specter and others continued to push that the single-bullet theory be tested via a re-enactment in Dallas.
8. Whether through his own efforts or that of Judge Warren, he was shown a photo of the back wound on the day of the re-enactment.
9. This location was then marked in chalk on the back of the Kennedy stand-in. After the re-enactment on the street a more precise re-enactment and measurement of angles was performed in a garage. The FBI took photos of this re-enactment. The photos taken from behind show the trajectory rod pointing back from Connally's wound to the TSBD passing inches above the chalk mark on the back of the Kennedy stand-in. None of these photos were published by the commission or entered into the record. Instead, Specter and the commission chose to publish but one photo--taken from the front--that failed to show the chalk mark on the back of the Kennedy stand-in.
10. It was around this time--after he'd been shown a photo proving the wound was on Kennedy's back--that Specter began saying it was a wound on the back of the neck.
11. The testimony on the re-enactment was also deceptive. Specter had agents say the trajectory rod approximated the location of the back wound, as opposed to entering into the record a photo showing its location. He also had them suggest the chalk mark was derived from the drawings he knew to be incorrect, and that the re-enactment demonstrated that the drawings he knew to be incorrect were accurate. He also had them say the jump seat was 6 inches inboard of the door, when the schematics proved it was actually 2 1/2 inches from the door. All these "errors" served to help sell the single-bullet theory Specter now had plenty of reasons to doubt.
12. A few years later, when the face sheet was published and people began doubting the SBT, the Johnson Administration began pushing that it was government policy that the SBT be supported. At this point the autopsy doctors were shown the photos and Dr. Boswell was co-erced or forced into providing interviews claiming this review supported the accuracy of the drawings we now know to be inaccurate. The next year was Dr. Humes' turn. He was provided a script by the government on what to say on national TV and he also claimed the photos supported the accuracy of the drawings we know to be inaccurate.
13. As a response to Tink Thompson's book and Jim Garrison's investigation, a new top secret review of the autopsy photos and x-rays was then conducted. This panel comprised three pathologists and one radiologist--all colleagues and all heavily-connected to the government. All drafts of their report were destroyed and the final draft was largely put together by a lawyer added onto the panel for undisclosed reasons. Well, this panel, of course, upheld the SBT.
14. Within a few years, moreover, private citizens were allowed to inspect the autopsy materials. The first of these, and the only one within the first year of the materials being available, was John Lattimer. Lattimer then published an article that was widely disseminated within the medical community. It pushed that the drawings we now know were inaccurate were indeed inaccurate, because the wound in the photos was much HIGHER up Kennedy's neck than shown in the photos
12. In order to sell this point, moreover, he claimed the photos proved Kennedy was in fact a hunchback, and that a bullet entering what would appear to be his back (at T-1 or below) had actually entered into a hunch of fat resting on the back of JFK's neck around C-4. (This was completely whack-a-doodle. And yet, very few if any prominent LNs have ever denounced Lattimer for this disgusting lie.)
13. It then fell upon the HSCA FPP to study the SBT. They unanimously agreed that the wound was on the back and not the back of the neck. But they'd been pressured by Blakey who'd told them Guinn's analysis of the bullet fragments (later revealed to be junk science) had confirmed the SBT. So they tried to make things fit. They then signed off on the SBT under the proviso JFK had suddenly leaned forward while behind the sign in the Zapruder film. They were not told that the dictabelt analysis and photography panel had separately concluded that JFK was hit before he went behind the sign in the film. The HSCA, under Blakey, then pretended that the FPP had signed off the SBT, when in fact they had not signed off on the HSCA's version of the SBT.
14. Since that time, numerous TV shows have presented simulations of the SBT...in which the back wound location and the relative positions of the men in the limo have been routinely misrepresented.
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The SBT has been tested ad nauseam, and the results are always the same: the wounds do not line up. Below are some screen grabs from the Discovery Channel program Beyond the Magic Bullet. They positioned simulated torsos in the presumed positions of Kennedy and Connally and fired from what is presumed to have been the angle from the depository window. And the bullet hitting the measured location of Kennedy's back wound exited from his chest and hit the Connally torso well below the armpit. This is demonstrated in the image in the upper right corner.
From patspeer.com, Chapter 12b.
In 2004, the Discovery Channel began running a new program entitled JFK: Beyond the Magic Bullet. While appearing authoritative, using scientists and experts to simulate the shooting in Dealey Plaza, the program was rife with errors and/or distortions. Ultimately, it demonstrated reasons to disbelieve the magic bullet theory, but then turned around and claimed the opposite!
They simulated the shots from the sniper's nest by placing their shooter on on an elevated platform, at a distance of 180 feet, the distance they claim the HSCA claimed for the second shot. Well, there are two problems with this: one is that the HSCA claimed the shot came at around Z-190, which according to the Warren Commission’s recreation, would make it roughly 160 feet, and two is that the Dale Myers animation they used as evidence depicted the shot at Z-224, which would make it roughly 190 feet. It’s unclear where they derived their 180 foot measurement, but the Warren Commission, which failed to pick an exact moment for the shot, estimated the length of the shot to be 180 feet.
They then shot through a gelatin block simulating Kennedy's back and neck to see if the exiting bullet would leave an elongated entrance like the one they claimed was on Connally. (Following the well-worn path of Dr.s Lattimer and Baden, previously discussed, they incorrectly believed the bullet was traveling sideways upon impact with Connally). When the bullet headed straight through the gelatin with scarcely a wobble, they decided to add rope into the gelatin to better simulate the "dense sinu" of the human neck. There is a huge problem with this: Dr. Humes et al testified that the bullet striking Kennedy's neck passed between the strap muscles, and not through them. Their second try, not surprisingly, created the wound desired. They then expanded their test to include two gelatin blocks representing Connally's chest, and were similarly pleased with the results.
They then began to shoot at simulated human torsos. After shooting on some empty shells, they placed a target on a fully-simulated torso of the President at a point several inches to the right of the wound seen on the autopsy photos. They claimed this placement came after “triple-measurement.” What they failed to mention was that the autopsy measurements reflected the distance from the shoulder and from the back of the head and that their torso had no head. The HSCA and Clark Panel made estimates as to the distance from the spine, which they clearly ignored. Even so, the shooter missed this target and actually hit the torso very close to where the wound is depicted on the autopsy photos. (See Exhibit 1 on the slide above.) I’d like to think this “miss” was on purpose.
But this was just the beginning of their troubles. Since their “magic bullet,” after traversing simulated torsos of both Kennedy and Connally, failed to explode the simulated wrist to the extent Connally’s was damaged and actually bounced off the simulated thigh, they had to look for it in the surrounding brush. They found a clearly deformed bullet several yards to the right of the torsos. (See Exhibit 2 on the slide above.)
During a slow-motion replay of the shooting, moreover, the narrator stated as a matter-of-fact that the bullet “struck Kennedy in the neck.” Someone should have told the writer that that particular lie, although an all-time favorite, died with the HSCA. At this point, the direction of the program became obvious. While one of the great controversies surrounding the single-bullet theory is whether or not a bullet striking Kennedy in the back from above would exit his throat as purported, the program failed to show a close-up of the bullet's exit from the Kennedy torso. Nevertheless, the profile shot of the bullet's path made it clear the bullet exited from the Kennedy torso's chest, and not its throat. (See Exhibit 3.)
They then conducted a post-mortem to see what went wrong with their simulation. After taking the Connally torso to a doctor for a cat-scan, they concluded that the bullet struck two of Connally’s ribs instead of the one struck by the “magic bullet” and that this was why their bullet was more damaged. Still, the cat-scan revealed more than the producers of the show could possibly have desired.
The cat-scan (Exhibit 4 above) revealed that the two damaged ribs on the Connally torso were the 8th and 9th ribs, some distance below the entrance on Connally’s 5th rib. This demonstrated once again that the bullet trajectory from the sniper's nest didn't quite line-up with Kennedy's and Connally's wounds.
But this wasn't all the cat-scan revealed.
Astonishingly, (and as seen in Exhibit 5) it also revealed that the simulated ribs on the Connally torso were not even connected to the sternum! This meant that there was no bones in the front of the Connally torso to slow or damage the “magic bullet” before it struck the simulated wrist.
Since the purpose of the simulation was purportedly to see if a bullet creating Kennedy's and Connally's wounds might emerge as undamaged as the "magic" bullet, CE 399, removing bone from the purported path of the bullet was undoubtedly deceptive and dishonest.
At this point, I ran a quick replay. I went back to the beginning of the program where they created the torsos and noticed this time that the Kennedy torso had no spine, and that neither torso had shoulder blades. While these bones may have been left out because the producers believed the real “magic” bullet missed these bones, the exclusion of Connally’s front ribs, where the bullet made its exit, was inexcusable. That this was no mistake is confirmed by the statements of their wound ballistics expert. When they were preparing for their torso shoot by shooting at two gelatin blocks simulating Connally's chest, he said "The thorax is not one piece of muscle. It is a piece of muscle, some bone, then an airspace--the lung--and then another piece of tissue after that." It's almost certain he knew perfectly well that the bullet exiting Connally's chest exited through his fifth rib, and not through just "another piece of tissue".
It then became clear. Rather than testing if a bullet hitting the President in the assumed location would go on to hit Connally in his armpit, wrist and thigh, and come out largely unblemished, the program’s creators were testing if such a bullet, after missing Kennedy’s spine, which is doubtful, after exiting Kennedy’s throat, which is doubtful, and after hitting Connally’s ribs in only one place, which is doubtful, would go on to create the other wounds and appear unblemished.
As if that wasn’t bad enough, the program’s creators neglected to tell their audience the significance of that which they did discover. That the tumbling bullet in their re-enactment hit two ribs while the bullet striking Connally stuck but one suggested that the bullet striking Connally was not tumbling. This supported the statements of Dr. Robert Shaw, Connally’s doctor, who said the entrance wound was only 1.5 cm long. It was, however, in direct contradiction with all too many single-assassin theorists, including the HSCA’s Dr. Baden, who cite the fact (which is not a fact) that the bullet was tumbling as evidence that the bullet first struck Kennedy. These single-assassin theorists, and the Discovery program under their influence, repeat like a mantra that the entrance in Connally’s armpit was 3 cm, the size of a bullet traveling sideways, and ignore Shaw’s statements that the wound was but 1.5 cm and the inconvenient fact that the corresponding tear in Connally’s jacket was only 1.7 cm. (As discussed in the Ovoid? Oy Vey! section of chapter 11.)
In any event, instead of telling the audience the significance of the bullet hitting two ribs, the Beyond the Magic Bullet program cut to some supposed expert stating that their simulation had taken the “magic” out of the “magic bullet”.
But the program wasn’t over. For their final act they took an autopsy report reflecting the wounds incurred by their simulated torsos to an L.A. County Coroner. Surprisingly, the face sheet created for the Kennedy torso revealed that the bullet exited not from the torso’s throat but from its left chest, and that it probably would have hit its spine (if it had one) and must have hit its sternum (if it had one). (Exhibit 6 above.) Even worse, a probe poked through a skeleton by the doctor to depict the path of the bullet exploded the program’s assertion of replicating the magic bullet, as the probe passed below the clavicle and first rib. (Exhibit 7.) A bullet traveling on such a trajectory would not have bruised the President’s lung, but pierced it, and would have exited far below his throat.
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As discussed on my website and on numerous forums, what, twelve years ago? the image above comparing the back wound location in the two photos (which is believed to have originated with Jean Davison) is grossly deceptive, and deliberately so. .
I say "deliberately so" because it's clear NO attempt has been made to match the photos up properly. In reality, the photo at right is grossly undersized compared to the photo at left. This deliberate deception serves to make the "hump" on Kennedy's back appear to be in the same location in each photo.
But in reality they are not. In the photo at right, the back wound is slightly below the level of the shoulders. In the photo at left the shoulders are below the bottom of the photo, that is, BELOW the throat wound. Ergo, the photo at right shows JFK's corpse with its shoulders hunched up.
When one properly sizes the photos and "unhunches" the shoulders, that is, tries to place them in their proper position, it's clear the back wound is at or even slightly below the throat wound.
This is so elementary, in fact, that even the HSCA pathology panel, prone to push all sorts of nonsense, saw that this was true.
So, yeah, on this issue some LNs, most tellingly you, David [Von Pein], have taken to pushing something completely at odds with the expert opinions of the wonderful HSCA Forensic Pathology Panel.
IOW, on this issue you have taken to pushing a completely whack-a-doodle theory based on a gross misunderstanding of the evidence...that is, based on a HOAX.
This is the sin for what most of us on this forum have been regularly accused. It must feel weird to have the shoe on the other foot, right?
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[David Von Pein wrote:] BTW / FWIW....
Dr. James Humes told the Warren Commission in no uncertain terms that "the wound in the anterior [front] portion of the lower neck is physically lower than the point of entrance posteriorly [to the rear], sir".
[Pat Speer wrote in response:] He said that based on a drawing created after he'd met with Joe Ball, who was tasked with explaining how a bullet fired from above could go upwards in the body. Voila! Humes claimed the face sheet was in error and that it was all an optical illusion. Specter, who'd seen the photos and knew the wound was on the back and not the back of the neck, similarly played "ball" and changed the wound from being a back wound to being a back of the neck wound in the report. He then performed interviews in which he said that if the back wound was lower than the throat wound than the autopsy doctors should be prosecuted. When the HSCA FPP determined as much, moreover, instead of complaining about the doctors, or demanding their prosecution, he forced his son onto the HSCA as an assistant to one of its members, and then lawyered up before providing any testimony.
The historical record is clear, then, that these guys all lied and obstructed justice through the falsification of evidence. If your hero Bugliosi had a lick of common sense he would have uncovered this fact over his years and years of "research." But, no, instead he insisted that Oswald killed Kennedy because he was just filled with hate, and that the black warehouse workers were "stockboys".
His book is a travesty, and you're treating it like it's some kind of Bible is an embarrassment.
Not as if I have an opinion on this, or anything...
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David [Von Pein], I've laid out my scenario on my website and on numerous forums for 15 years or more. But it doesn't matter what I think. What matters according to your boy Bugliosi is the historical record.
As to your points..
1.) A bullet hole of entry in JFK's upper back. (That showed no signs of penetrating beyond the outer layer, which is unthinkable if this was high-velocity bullet, as pushed by the single-bullet HOAX.)
2.) A bullet hole in the very lowest part of JFK's neck/throat. (That was recorded as being too small to be the exit of a high-velocity bullet, particularly one that had been tumbling, as pushed by the single-bullet HOAX.)
3.) Not a single bullet located in JFK's body. (No argument here.)
And this fourth item needs to be tacked on here as an extra bonus in the "common sense" department, which is something that nobody (not even a CTer) can possibly think is wrong):
4.) Anybody wanting to kill President Kennedy would have to be a complete moron/idiot to have fired two very low-powered, non-lethal bullets into Kennedy's throat and upper back, which would result in both of those bullets penetrating JFK's body only a few inches (each) and causing virtually no damage to the President's body whatsoever. Buit, hey, maybe the killers just wanted to give JFK a fighting chance to survive those TWO shots, huh? (Please get real!!) (Yes, let's get real. This is a straw man argument. I never said the throat wound only penetrated a few inches, or even that it was an entrance. And you're also wrong. The CIA's Manual on Assassination recommended the use of subsonic ammunition in assassination attempts. Are you, David, Von Pein, telling me you don't think the CIA knows how to kill people?)
The thought occurs that you suffer from a lack of imagination. The SBT HOAX makes sense to you because you were told it was logical by a singularly illogical man, Bugliosi. But have you ever read a book on wound ballistics? Or gunshot wounds? Or anatomy? I suspect not. Because if you had, you would know that the trajectory of the bullet and the nature of the wounds outlined by the SBT HOAX make no sense, and that a better solution is required.
Now, I've always been open to a single-assassin solution, but the single-bullet theory is junk, propped up by deliberate deceptions regarding the nature of Kennedy's wounds, and the position of the men in the limousine. I have been waiting, for years now, for someone to come up with an SBT not reliant upon Specter's lies and deceptions and Myers' inaccurate animation. But, alas, none has been proposed. Instead we get the same ole arguments. And this has led me to believe that single-bullet theorists are a modern day Flat Earth Society, with an emotional attachment to nonsense.
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