Post by Rob Caprio on Sept 25, 2023 20:07:11 GMT -5
All portions ©️ Robert Caprio 2006-2024
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i.ytimg.com/vi/YyEEY5SruYA/maxresdefault.jpg
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The Assassination Records Review Board (ARRB) focused on the medical treatment and autopsy of President John F. Kennedy (JFK) following the assassination on November 22, 1963. JFK had been taken to Parkland Memorial Hospital (PMH) initially following the assassination attempt and then his body was flown back to Washington, D.C., for the autopy once he had been pronounced deceased. The autopsy was conducted at the Bethesda Naval Hospital (BNH) on the evening of November 22 and went into the early hours of November 23, 1963, and we have been told that this location was selected by JFK's wife Jackie Kennedy, but there is no evidence to support that her opinion wasn't listened to.
I wrote this in a post in my "Statements That Sink The WC's Conclusions" series.
Quote on
Dr. George Burkley was JFK’s personal physician and he claimed to leave the choice up to JFK's widow, Jackie Kennedy, but after he received her opinion of BNH he wrote the following in his report.
Quote on
Arrangements were made on the ground for departure to Walter Reed Army Hospital or Bethesda Naval Hospital, as the case may be.
Quote off
Why did he bother asking Jackie her preference then?
Quote off
This shows that her opinion was not listened to as all the air traffic mentioned the body going to Walter Reed General Hospital (Army). Did the body go to BNH after it went to Walter Reed first? That is a very important question, but not the focus of this post.
This post will look at one of the people that was involved in the autopsy of JFK at BNH -- Jerrol Custer. Custer was an X-ray technician. He would perform this duty at JFK's autopsy. He said he first heard of the autopsy around "5:30 p.m." (ARRB Testimony of Jerrol Francis Custer, October 28, 1997, p. 30) and he said he took the first X-ray of JFK's body after the autopsy had begun.
history-matters.com/archive/jfk/arrb/medical_testimony/Custer_10-28-97/pages/Custer_0004a.gif
history-matters.com/archive/jfk/arrb/medical_testimony/Custer_10-28-97/pages/Custer_0004b.gif
Q: Approximately when did you take the first X-rays of President Kennedy?
A: Approximately. I would say, it would have to -. The first thing I remember - It would have to be after the Y incision was made, so the autopsy was already in progress.
Q. ...Approximately how much time passed between the time that you first saw President Kennedy's body and the time you took the first post-Y-incision X-ray photo - X-ray?
A. I would safely say within an hour. Maybe a little less. Maybe a little more, but it wasn't any more than that. (Ibid., pp. 30-31)
www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=789#relPageId=8
Each time Custer took a series of X-rays he had to leave the autopsy and go develop them. This means he was out of the room a number of times -- five according to his testimony. (Ibid., p.33) This is an important point to remember as he could have missed things during these trips. Here is a diagram of the morgue/autopsy room are of BNH as drawn by Paul O'Connor.
www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=732
During his first venture from the morgue area to the X-ray department to develop the X-rays he had taken he said he saw the presidential party entering the rotunda area and then get on the elevators to head to the towers. He saw Secret Service (SS) men and he also saw Jackie Kennedy with the group. They stopped him because they didn't want anyone in the VIP party or the press to see him. He was kept on the side and watched as the party went through the rotunda and went up in the elevators to the executive suites on the 17th floor. Custer said that he saw Jackie Kennedy in her bloody dress. (Ibid., p. 34) Unfortunately he was not asked what time this sighting occurred however, and that is a big omission. He will be asked what he thought of JFK's body when he first saw it and his comment is illuminating.
history-matters.com/archive/jfk/arrb/medical_testimony/Custer_10-28-97/pages/Custer_0004b.gif
history-matters.com/archive/jfk/arrb/medical_testimony/Custer_10-28-97/pages/Custer_0005a.gif
Q. What was, in a very general way, the condition of the body at the last time that you saw it on the night of November 22/23?
A. Do you want me to be blunt?
Q. Yes.
A. A mess. There was body fluid everywhere. The body was literally butchered.
Q. Did you see any reconstruction of the body at all by morticians?
A. I remember when I looked into the skull -- I remember seeing an apparatus in there. I wasn't sure of what it was. I just remembered this.
Q. When was it that you saw what you've identified as "an apparatus" in the skull?
A. This was in the first series of films. The only reason why this clicked is, because I remember I was told by the duty officer that the corpse was taken to Walter Reed Hospital first -- compound -- Walter Reed compound first, and then brought to Bethesda.
Q. Could you describe the apparatus that was in the skull?
A. It was non-human. it had -- I'm not sure if it was metallic or plastic. There was so much going on at that time. I just happened to see it. It registered. And that was it.
Q. Did anyone besides the duty officer make any reference to Walter Reed?
A. The chief on duty that night. There was two.
Q. Okay.
A. There was a duty officer and a duty chief.
Q. Okay. And they both said that the body had been to Walter Reed?
A. Right; Walter Reed compound. They didn't say "hospital." They said "compound.' (Ibid., pp. 36-38)
www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=789#relPageId=9
This exchange is full of good information. Custer said that the body had been "butchered" by the time that it had arrived at BNH. How could that be? They did not do any surgery or major cutting at PMH so how did the body get mutilated? The answer might be in his other comment about the duty officer and duty chief saying that the body had been at Walter Reed first. The theory of body alteration had been proposed for a long time and this testimony would lend support to that theory. Furthermore, an autopsy usually leaves the body in reasonable condition ready for the funeral parlor and not in a butchered condition so one would think this work was done in a chop-shop manner. If the wounds were as the Warren Commission (WC) claimed, why would any work on the body be needed?
Custer would also say that he saw SS agents take film away from Floyd Riebe after he would take photographs as well. (Ibid., pp. 39-40) This is not normal procedure and again one has to wonder why this was necessary IF JFK had suffered the wounds the WC would claim that he did. He also said that when they pulled out a big organ they began "cutting it up" with no purpose of determining the tracing and path of the bullet. They were simply looking for bullet fragments. (Ibid., pp. 46-47)
Custer also mentions a "four-star general" and a "civilian" who he took for JFK's personal physician (Admiral George Burkley) and how they kept disrupting the autopsy by stating that the "Kennedy family would not allow -- like you to pursue that path any further. We do not want you to go any more in this direction." (Ibid., pp. 50-51) Why would the Kennedy family NOT want to learn what really happened? Did they even say this? If so, were they forced to go along with this charade?
Custer bluntly says that the autopsy had to be done, but it didn't have to be done correctly. He said there was no effort to find out the facts of what happened. (Ibid.) It was all a dog and pony show. Nothing could scream conspiracy more than this. For if JFK was killed in the manner the WC claimed an autopsy could ONLY prove this if it was done correctly.
Custer also said that a "king size fragment" fell from JFK's back when he lifted the body to take X-rays. He said Dr. Pierre Finck took the fragment and it was never seen again. He also said that he felt Finck was running the show by barking orders that he received from the gallery by one or more persons. (Ibid., pp.53-54) This is quite different from what most sources have said. In most sources, including Finck himself, the impression is given that Finck was just there for some advice and really did not do much. That both Commanders James Humes and Thorton Boswell were in charge. According to Custer, nothing could be farther from the truth.
Custer told the ARRB that he was told to remove the notation that he made in the Radiology Department's notebook about being ordered to the morgue to take X-rays of JFK. He said he was told to tear the whole page out. (Ibid., p. 60) Why? He then gave it to Dr. John Ebersole who destroyed it? Why was this such a secret? Who knows? As when Custer asked him why he was doing that he was told that it "was none of his business."
It has been disputed by some that FBI Agents James Sibert and Francis O'Neill were really there taking notes, but Custer saw them. He said it was like "they were writing a book" as they wrote everything going on down in a notebook. (Ibid., p. 61)
He is then asked when he first saw the casket. He said he saw it in the morgue and as he was there when it came in. So he did not see it on the loading dock as some others have said. Custer saw a bronze ceremonial casket and not a general shipping casket. (Ibid., p. 70) Custer was shown a photograph of a casket being loaded onto Air Force One and he confirmed that the casket he saw appeared to be the same type. (Ibid., p.71) This photograph was marked as ARRB MD 204. Here it is.
history-matters.com/archive/jfk/arrb/master_med_set/md204/pages/md204_0001a.gif
Custer then says that there was more than one casket brought in that night.
history-matters.com/archive/jfk/arrb/medical_testimony/Custer_10-28-97/pages/Custer_0007b.gif
THE WITNESS: But you got to remember something. There was more than one casket that night.
Q. When you say there was more than one casket, what do you mean?
A. There was a casket brought in the back by a black Cadillac ambulance. Plus, there was a casket that Jacqueline Kennedy had in her entourage, too. (Ibid., p.72)
www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=789#relPageId=14
Custer would see two caskets that were bronze and pretty close in appearance to one another. He did not ask any questions because he was told earlier not to. He said he saw the first casket being unloaded from a black Cadillac ambulance, but if you have seen the footage of the casket being loaded into the ambulance when the plane arrived from Dallas you will notice the ambulance is NOT black. Even in black and white film you can see that. So where did this black Cadillac ambulance come from?
Custer is then asked to describe JFK's appearance when he helped to unload the body from the casket.
history-matters.com/archive/jfk/arrb/medical_testimony/Custer_10-28-97/pages/Custer_0008b.gif
Q. Could you describe the appearance of President Kennedy when the casket was first opened in the morgue.
A. What surprised me, he had a plastic bag around his head with sheets wrapped around it. And you could see the blood on the sheets....
Q. When you say plastic bag around his head, does that mean around the head, but not any other part of the body?
A. To the best of my recollection, that's all I remember. Just around the head. (Ibid., pp. 80-81)
www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=789#relPageId=16
This of course is a big deal as JFK had nothing like that put on him at PMH based on statements from those involved in loading him into the casket. When was this plastic bag added and why? Some researchers have posited over the years that it was because JFK's head had been worked on during the flight back to Washington (or some think the body was taken to Walter Reed first and Custer's testimony supports this thought). There simply seems to be no other reason for the bag to have been added. Custer also said that JFK was still in a suit, but his suit had been removed at PMH when the doctors were trying to save his life. (Ibid. p. 81) How did he get back into a suit?
He first X-rayed the skull and he said it was severely fractured and a complete mess. How could this be if just one full-metal jacketed bullet hit him in the head as the WC claimed? Wasn't this type of military ammunition designed not to cause such devastating wounds based on agreements on humanitarian grounds? He also saw the throat wound and said it was a wound "was a little bigger than my little finger in dimension." He saw no incision or long cut as is seen in the autopsy photographs. (Ibid., p. 90) He also saw a small wound in the back at the midpoint. It was a small bullet wound. He said earlier that a bullet had fallen out of it. (Ibid. p. 91)
Custer noted a huge hole that went from the temporal to the parietal areas. He said that he could put his hands together and fit them both into it. He said the fracturing that this wound caused went back into the occipital area. He would tell the ARRB that it looked like "they had sawed the bone" to make it look like that. (Ibid. pp. 94 & 96) He did not see any hole in the occipital area where many others had seen it. Why? Who would be sawing bone on JFK's skull? And why? He continually said that he saw no damage (hole) in the occipital area. Why didn't he when so many others did?
He also identified the X-rays that he was shown as being the ones that he took on November 22-23 based on his mark. (Ibid., p. 124) So again, unlike others, he identified what was presented as what he took during the autopsy. He does agree with the statement that the trauma to the head began at the front and moved towards the back of the head. (Ibid., p. 126) This is indicative of a frontal shot. To confirm this he says the further you went back into the wound the "more destruction you had...and the more gaping the hole became." (Ibid., p. 138) This is definitive proof of a frontal shot.
Custer mentions that Dr. Ebersole was sent to the White House for a briefing with the SS and "high-ranking people" and he was told to forget everything that he saw so he passed that on to Custer as well. (Ibid., p. 146) He mentions that skull fragments arrived from Dallas, but he never saw them as he just overheard a conversation about them. (Ibid.)
He then mentions another anomaly that has intrigued researchers for years.
history-matters.com/archive/jfk/arrb/medical_testimony/Custer_10-28-97/pages/Custer_0016b.gif
A. Let me put this in the record. Do you notice the apparatus that is holding the head? You can see –
Q. Yes, metal apparatus.
A. It's like a metal half-moon. When I took my X-rays, that wasn't there.
Q. Does that help you identify whether you took the X-rays either before or after the photographs?
A. Yes.
Q. And how -- What would the answer be?
A. Well, this didn't have to be -- This wasn't there, so –
Q. The metal part.
A. The metal. So, that meant, I had to take some them before. Had to. Because the only time that they put that in there is when they start probing. (Ibid., p. 176)
www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=789#relPageId=32
The ARRB counters by saying that they could have taken that off before he got down there to take the X-rays. He backs off and says that he was guessing. That doesn't settle the issue however, as researchers have noticed other anomalies in the photographs like the tiles on the walls not matching the tiles in the actual morgue. Furthermore, Custer said the head rest was put on only for probing, but what did they probe? There is serious doubt that they probed either the neck or back wounds as I have covered in other posts in this series and other series. So to me the removal or addition of it is irrelevant as the real question should be, why was it being used at all? Why was it in Photograph #33 that Custer was shown? There is also a towel in this photograph that Custer said he did not see when he took it.
He again identifies a wound to JFK's back in the "scapula area." (Ibid., p. 181) This is not the area the WC claimed it was located by the way. Their "doctors" -- Mr. Arlen Specter and Congressman Geral Ford -- knew better and said that it was at the base of the neck.
The rest of his deposition reviews Dr. Ebersole's HSCA testimony and it is interesting, but that is outside the scope of this post. You can read it if you wish to.
While Custer didn't see a wound to the occipital area, he did see damage going to the back of the head being much worse which shows a frontal shot hit JFK. He aslo gave testimony involving the body being at Walter Reed first and signs of surgery (sawing). Neither is in the official conclusion.
What do you make of Custer's testimony?
chorus.stimg.co/23760368/merlin_44772047.jpg
i.ytimg.com/vi/YyEEY5SruYA/maxresdefault.jpg
i.ytimg.com/vi/nIxO3y8-5L8/hqdefault.jpg
The Assassination Records Review Board (ARRB) focused on the medical treatment and autopsy of President John F. Kennedy (JFK) following the assassination on November 22, 1963. JFK had been taken to Parkland Memorial Hospital (PMH) initially following the assassination attempt and then his body was flown back to Washington, D.C., for the autopy once he had been pronounced deceased. The autopsy was conducted at the Bethesda Naval Hospital (BNH) on the evening of November 22 and went into the early hours of November 23, 1963, and we have been told that this location was selected by JFK's wife Jackie Kennedy, but there is no evidence to support that her opinion wasn't listened to.
I wrote this in a post in my "Statements That Sink The WC's Conclusions" series.
Quote on
Dr. George Burkley was JFK’s personal physician and he claimed to leave the choice up to JFK's widow, Jackie Kennedy, but after he received her opinion of BNH he wrote the following in his report.
Quote on
Arrangements were made on the ground for departure to Walter Reed Army Hospital or Bethesda Naval Hospital, as the case may be.
Quote off
Why did he bother asking Jackie her preference then?
Quote off
This shows that her opinion was not listened to as all the air traffic mentioned the body going to Walter Reed General Hospital (Army). Did the body go to BNH after it went to Walter Reed first? That is a very important question, but not the focus of this post.
This post will look at one of the people that was involved in the autopsy of JFK at BNH -- Jerrol Custer. Custer was an X-ray technician. He would perform this duty at JFK's autopsy. He said he first heard of the autopsy around "5:30 p.m." (ARRB Testimony of Jerrol Francis Custer, October 28, 1997, p. 30) and he said he took the first X-ray of JFK's body after the autopsy had begun.
history-matters.com/archive/jfk/arrb/medical_testimony/Custer_10-28-97/pages/Custer_0004a.gif
history-matters.com/archive/jfk/arrb/medical_testimony/Custer_10-28-97/pages/Custer_0004b.gif
Q: Approximately when did you take the first X-rays of President Kennedy?
A: Approximately. I would say, it would have to -. The first thing I remember - It would have to be after the Y incision was made, so the autopsy was already in progress.
Q. ...Approximately how much time passed between the time that you first saw President Kennedy's body and the time you took the first post-Y-incision X-ray photo - X-ray?
A. I would safely say within an hour. Maybe a little less. Maybe a little more, but it wasn't any more than that. (Ibid., pp. 30-31)
www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=789#relPageId=8
Each time Custer took a series of X-rays he had to leave the autopsy and go develop them. This means he was out of the room a number of times -- five according to his testimony. (Ibid., p.33) This is an important point to remember as he could have missed things during these trips. Here is a diagram of the morgue/autopsy room are of BNH as drawn by Paul O'Connor.
www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=732
During his first venture from the morgue area to the X-ray department to develop the X-rays he had taken he said he saw the presidential party entering the rotunda area and then get on the elevators to head to the towers. He saw Secret Service (SS) men and he also saw Jackie Kennedy with the group. They stopped him because they didn't want anyone in the VIP party or the press to see him. He was kept on the side and watched as the party went through the rotunda and went up in the elevators to the executive suites on the 17th floor. Custer said that he saw Jackie Kennedy in her bloody dress. (Ibid., p. 34) Unfortunately he was not asked what time this sighting occurred however, and that is a big omission. He will be asked what he thought of JFK's body when he first saw it and his comment is illuminating.
history-matters.com/archive/jfk/arrb/medical_testimony/Custer_10-28-97/pages/Custer_0004b.gif
history-matters.com/archive/jfk/arrb/medical_testimony/Custer_10-28-97/pages/Custer_0005a.gif
Q. What was, in a very general way, the condition of the body at the last time that you saw it on the night of November 22/23?
A. Do you want me to be blunt?
Q. Yes.
A. A mess. There was body fluid everywhere. The body was literally butchered.
Q. Did you see any reconstruction of the body at all by morticians?
A. I remember when I looked into the skull -- I remember seeing an apparatus in there. I wasn't sure of what it was. I just remembered this.
Q. When was it that you saw what you've identified as "an apparatus" in the skull?
A. This was in the first series of films. The only reason why this clicked is, because I remember I was told by the duty officer that the corpse was taken to Walter Reed Hospital first -- compound -- Walter Reed compound first, and then brought to Bethesda.
Q. Could you describe the apparatus that was in the skull?
A. It was non-human. it had -- I'm not sure if it was metallic or plastic. There was so much going on at that time. I just happened to see it. It registered. And that was it.
Q. Did anyone besides the duty officer make any reference to Walter Reed?
A. The chief on duty that night. There was two.
Q. Okay.
A. There was a duty officer and a duty chief.
Q. Okay. And they both said that the body had been to Walter Reed?
A. Right; Walter Reed compound. They didn't say "hospital." They said "compound.' (Ibid., pp. 36-38)
www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=789#relPageId=9
This exchange is full of good information. Custer said that the body had been "butchered" by the time that it had arrived at BNH. How could that be? They did not do any surgery or major cutting at PMH so how did the body get mutilated? The answer might be in his other comment about the duty officer and duty chief saying that the body had been at Walter Reed first. The theory of body alteration had been proposed for a long time and this testimony would lend support to that theory. Furthermore, an autopsy usually leaves the body in reasonable condition ready for the funeral parlor and not in a butchered condition so one would think this work was done in a chop-shop manner. If the wounds were as the Warren Commission (WC) claimed, why would any work on the body be needed?
Custer would also say that he saw SS agents take film away from Floyd Riebe after he would take photographs as well. (Ibid., pp. 39-40) This is not normal procedure and again one has to wonder why this was necessary IF JFK had suffered the wounds the WC would claim that he did. He also said that when they pulled out a big organ they began "cutting it up" with no purpose of determining the tracing and path of the bullet. They were simply looking for bullet fragments. (Ibid., pp. 46-47)
Custer also mentions a "four-star general" and a "civilian" who he took for JFK's personal physician (Admiral George Burkley) and how they kept disrupting the autopsy by stating that the "Kennedy family would not allow -- like you to pursue that path any further. We do not want you to go any more in this direction." (Ibid., pp. 50-51) Why would the Kennedy family NOT want to learn what really happened? Did they even say this? If so, were they forced to go along with this charade?
Custer bluntly says that the autopsy had to be done, but it didn't have to be done correctly. He said there was no effort to find out the facts of what happened. (Ibid.) It was all a dog and pony show. Nothing could scream conspiracy more than this. For if JFK was killed in the manner the WC claimed an autopsy could ONLY prove this if it was done correctly.
Custer also said that a "king size fragment" fell from JFK's back when he lifted the body to take X-rays. He said Dr. Pierre Finck took the fragment and it was never seen again. He also said that he felt Finck was running the show by barking orders that he received from the gallery by one or more persons. (Ibid., pp.53-54) This is quite different from what most sources have said. In most sources, including Finck himself, the impression is given that Finck was just there for some advice and really did not do much. That both Commanders James Humes and Thorton Boswell were in charge. According to Custer, nothing could be farther from the truth.
Custer told the ARRB that he was told to remove the notation that he made in the Radiology Department's notebook about being ordered to the morgue to take X-rays of JFK. He said he was told to tear the whole page out. (Ibid., p. 60) Why? He then gave it to Dr. John Ebersole who destroyed it? Why was this such a secret? Who knows? As when Custer asked him why he was doing that he was told that it "was none of his business."
It has been disputed by some that FBI Agents James Sibert and Francis O'Neill were really there taking notes, but Custer saw them. He said it was like "they were writing a book" as they wrote everything going on down in a notebook. (Ibid., p. 61)
He is then asked when he first saw the casket. He said he saw it in the morgue and as he was there when it came in. So he did not see it on the loading dock as some others have said. Custer saw a bronze ceremonial casket and not a general shipping casket. (Ibid., p. 70) Custer was shown a photograph of a casket being loaded onto Air Force One and he confirmed that the casket he saw appeared to be the same type. (Ibid., p.71) This photograph was marked as ARRB MD 204. Here it is.
history-matters.com/archive/jfk/arrb/master_med_set/md204/pages/md204_0001a.gif
Custer then says that there was more than one casket brought in that night.
history-matters.com/archive/jfk/arrb/medical_testimony/Custer_10-28-97/pages/Custer_0007b.gif
THE WITNESS: But you got to remember something. There was more than one casket that night.
Q. When you say there was more than one casket, what do you mean?
A. There was a casket brought in the back by a black Cadillac ambulance. Plus, there was a casket that Jacqueline Kennedy had in her entourage, too. (Ibid., p.72)
www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=789#relPageId=14
Custer would see two caskets that were bronze and pretty close in appearance to one another. He did not ask any questions because he was told earlier not to. He said he saw the first casket being unloaded from a black Cadillac ambulance, but if you have seen the footage of the casket being loaded into the ambulance when the plane arrived from Dallas you will notice the ambulance is NOT black. Even in black and white film you can see that. So where did this black Cadillac ambulance come from?
Custer is then asked to describe JFK's appearance when he helped to unload the body from the casket.
history-matters.com/archive/jfk/arrb/medical_testimony/Custer_10-28-97/pages/Custer_0008b.gif
Q. Could you describe the appearance of President Kennedy when the casket was first opened in the morgue.
A. What surprised me, he had a plastic bag around his head with sheets wrapped around it. And you could see the blood on the sheets....
Q. When you say plastic bag around his head, does that mean around the head, but not any other part of the body?
A. To the best of my recollection, that's all I remember. Just around the head. (Ibid., pp. 80-81)
www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=789#relPageId=16
This of course is a big deal as JFK had nothing like that put on him at PMH based on statements from those involved in loading him into the casket. When was this plastic bag added and why? Some researchers have posited over the years that it was because JFK's head had been worked on during the flight back to Washington (or some think the body was taken to Walter Reed first and Custer's testimony supports this thought). There simply seems to be no other reason for the bag to have been added. Custer also said that JFK was still in a suit, but his suit had been removed at PMH when the doctors were trying to save his life. (Ibid. p. 81) How did he get back into a suit?
He first X-rayed the skull and he said it was severely fractured and a complete mess. How could this be if just one full-metal jacketed bullet hit him in the head as the WC claimed? Wasn't this type of military ammunition designed not to cause such devastating wounds based on agreements on humanitarian grounds? He also saw the throat wound and said it was a wound "was a little bigger than my little finger in dimension." He saw no incision or long cut as is seen in the autopsy photographs. (Ibid., p. 90) He also saw a small wound in the back at the midpoint. It was a small bullet wound. He said earlier that a bullet had fallen out of it. (Ibid. p. 91)
Custer noted a huge hole that went from the temporal to the parietal areas. He said that he could put his hands together and fit them both into it. He said the fracturing that this wound caused went back into the occipital area. He would tell the ARRB that it looked like "they had sawed the bone" to make it look like that. (Ibid. pp. 94 & 96) He did not see any hole in the occipital area where many others had seen it. Why? Who would be sawing bone on JFK's skull? And why? He continually said that he saw no damage (hole) in the occipital area. Why didn't he when so many others did?
He also identified the X-rays that he was shown as being the ones that he took on November 22-23 based on his mark. (Ibid., p. 124) So again, unlike others, he identified what was presented as what he took during the autopsy. He does agree with the statement that the trauma to the head began at the front and moved towards the back of the head. (Ibid., p. 126) This is indicative of a frontal shot. To confirm this he says the further you went back into the wound the "more destruction you had...and the more gaping the hole became." (Ibid., p. 138) This is definitive proof of a frontal shot.
Custer mentions that Dr. Ebersole was sent to the White House for a briefing with the SS and "high-ranking people" and he was told to forget everything that he saw so he passed that on to Custer as well. (Ibid., p. 146) He mentions that skull fragments arrived from Dallas, but he never saw them as he just overheard a conversation about them. (Ibid.)
He then mentions another anomaly that has intrigued researchers for years.
history-matters.com/archive/jfk/arrb/medical_testimony/Custer_10-28-97/pages/Custer_0016b.gif
A. Let me put this in the record. Do you notice the apparatus that is holding the head? You can see –
Q. Yes, metal apparatus.
A. It's like a metal half-moon. When I took my X-rays, that wasn't there.
Q. Does that help you identify whether you took the X-rays either before or after the photographs?
A. Yes.
Q. And how -- What would the answer be?
A. Well, this didn't have to be -- This wasn't there, so –
Q. The metal part.
A. The metal. So, that meant, I had to take some them before. Had to. Because the only time that they put that in there is when they start probing. (Ibid., p. 176)
www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=789#relPageId=32
The ARRB counters by saying that they could have taken that off before he got down there to take the X-rays. He backs off and says that he was guessing. That doesn't settle the issue however, as researchers have noticed other anomalies in the photographs like the tiles on the walls not matching the tiles in the actual morgue. Furthermore, Custer said the head rest was put on only for probing, but what did they probe? There is serious doubt that they probed either the neck or back wounds as I have covered in other posts in this series and other series. So to me the removal or addition of it is irrelevant as the real question should be, why was it being used at all? Why was it in Photograph #33 that Custer was shown? There is also a towel in this photograph that Custer said he did not see when he took it.
He again identifies a wound to JFK's back in the "scapula area." (Ibid., p. 181) This is not the area the WC claimed it was located by the way. Their "doctors" -- Mr. Arlen Specter and Congressman Geral Ford -- knew better and said that it was at the base of the neck.
The rest of his deposition reviews Dr. Ebersole's HSCA testimony and it is interesting, but that is outside the scope of this post. You can read it if you wish to.
While Custer didn't see a wound to the occipital area, he did see damage going to the back of the head being much worse which shows a frontal shot hit JFK. He aslo gave testimony involving the body being at Walter Reed first and signs of surgery (sawing). Neither is in the official conclusion.
What do you make of Custer's testimony?