Conspiracy theorist James DiEugenio's appearance on Black Op Radio
Show #432 on July 16, 2009, included more pro-conspiracy garbage.
(Gee, there's a surprise, huh?) The July 16th program was another
dry-as-dust snoozefest (like most Black Op programs are, of course.)
But before Show #432 turned into a quick remedy for insomnia,
DiEugenio totally misrepresented my comments relating to the subject
of the unsuccessful "probing" of President Kennedy's upper-back wound
during JFK's autopsy at Bethesda on 11/22/63.
Unfortunately, since Mr. DiEugenio apparently refuses to actually read
for himself anything I've written about the JFK case, Jim has to rely
on second-hand misinformation that somebody else provides him. Such is
the case with the "probing" issue.
Someone evidently e-mailed Jim D. about my supposed online comments
concerning "Arlen Specter" and the probing topic, with DiEugenio then
telling the Black Op audience this falsehood -- "So what does Von Pein
do? He quotes Specter examining Humes [referring to Dr. James J.
Humes' 1964 Warren Commission testimony]."
But this is not accurate at all. When responding to one of DiEugenio's
incorrect rants about the JFK assassination (and about Vincent
Bugliosi's book) during Jim's Black Op Radio appearance of December
11, 2008, here's what I wrote about the "probing" issue:
============================
[Quote on:]
RE: "PROBING" THE BACK WOUND.....
Jim [DiEugenio]...wants to believe (naturally) that since the probes
wouldn't go through the upper-back wound to form a bullet "track"
through Kennedy's body during the attempted probing of the wound at
the autopsy, this must mean that the bullet that entered JFK's back
couldn't possibly have exited from the front of his neck.
But that notion...is nonsense. Two of JFK's autopsy doctors, in 1996,
provided very reasonable explanations for why the probes failed to go
all the way through the President's body, and the official ARRB
testimony given by Dr. Boswell and Dr. Humes should have put this
"probing" issue to bed once and for all. But, of course, no amount of
logical and reasonable-sounding testimony is likely to convince a
person who desperately wants some kind of conspiracy to exist in this
case.
JFK's back muscles had tightened and "closed" (per Boswell), so that
no probing of the upper-back wound was possible, as fully indicated by
the testimony of the two doctors I'm going to cite below (although
both of the doctors, even in 1996, were still referring to the upper-
back wound as being located in the "neck" for some reason).
Dr. J. Thornton Boswell said this on February 26, 1996, during his
ARRB testimony:
"We probed this hole which was in his neck with all sorts of
probes and everything, and it was such a small hole, basically, and
the muscles were so big and strong and had closed the hole and you
couldn't get a finger or a probe through it."
http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/russ/testimony/boswella.htm
And there is also this 2/13/96 ARRB testimony from the leading autopsy
surgeon, Dr. Humes:
QUESTION -- "Do you know what the standard autopsy protocol is for
gunshot wounds and autopsy of the neck?"
DR. HUMES -- "Well, no. I haven't seen that in--what you say,
standard, I mean, many times if you have a track of a missile, it's
helpful to take a long probe and put it in the position. It can tell
you a lot of things. If you know where the point of entrance and the
point of exit are, it's duck soup. But for me to start probing around
in this man's neck, all I would make was false passages. There
wouldn't be any track that I could put a probe through or anything of
that nature. It just doesn't work that way."
QUESTION -- "Was any probe used at all to track the path--?"
DR. HUMES -- "I don't recall that there was. There might have been
some abortive efforts superficially in the back of the neck, but no.
And if there's a standard protocol, I don't know where you'd find it,
to tell you the truth."
http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/russ/testimony/humesa.htm
Naturally, given what DiEugenio had said about Humes' supposed lies
regarding the burning of the original autopsy papers, he (DiEugenio)
isn't likely to believe anything else uttered by Humes either.
So I guess the above testimony coming from the lips of Humes wouldn't
impress Jim D. very much. But, those under-oath words of Dr. Humes are
in the official record nonetheless, whether Jim D. likes them or not.
[/Quote off.]
============================
So, contrary to what DiEugenio thinks I said, I never mentioned Arlen
Specter at all when discussing the "probing" matter. And I didn't talk
about Dr. Humes' 1964 Warren Commission testimony either. Instead, I
focused my attention in that 2008 article on the 1996 ARRB testimony
of both Dr. Boswell and Dr. Humes.
And the following words from Boswell should be of particular
importance to James DiEugenio and all other conspiracy theorists who
think there's something rotten in the state of Denmark (or Bethesda,
Maryland) when it comes to the question of -- "WHY WASN'T PRESIDENT
KENNEDY'S BACK WOUND PROBED?":
"The muscles were so big and strong and had closed the hole and
you couldn't get a finger or a probe through it." -- DR. BOSWELL; 1996
Also -- The above words spoken by Dr. J. Thornton Boswell apply to
WHATEVER MUSCLES WERE DIRECTLY UNDERNEATH THE BULLET HOLE
IN PRESIDENT KENNEDY'S UPPER BACK*, and not necessarily the "strap
muscles" only, which are the two words ("strap muscles") that DiEugenio
was making a big deal about during his 7/16/09 radio appearance. But
James evidently wants to totally ignore the '96 ARRB testimony of
Dr. Boswell (and Dr. Humes too).
Plus (AND THIS IS A PRETTY BIG "PLUS" HERE) --- James DiEugenio's
complaint regarding Arlen Specter and James Humes supposedly talking
about how the "strap muscles" of President Kennedy prevented a probe
from going all the way through JFK's body is a complaint that is
COMPLETELY BASELESS ALTOGETHER.
Why?
Because the words "strap muscles" are only spoken ONE TIME during Dr.
Humes' entire March 16, 1964, Warren Commission session (and those
words aren't uttered by Arlen Specter at all) -- and the one time the
words "strap muscles" come out of Humes' mouth was at a time when
Humes wasn't discussing "probing" at all. Humes was talking about
something else entirely when he said the words "strap muscles" in his
WC testimony:
http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/russ/testimony/humes.htm
http://history-matters.com/archive/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh2/html/WC_Vol2_0178a.htm
For clarification -- I'm not implying here that JFK's back muscles did
NOT "close" and thus prevent a probe from being pushed through the
President's upper back and neck at his autopsy. The testimony of Dr.
Boswell in 1996 makes it quite clear that the back muscles of JFK had,
in fact, "closed" and prevented any probing of the wounds.
I am saying, however, that the exact words "strap muscles" never came
out of the mouths of either Arlen Specter or James Humes when those
two men were DISCUSSING THE PROBING OF THE WOUNDS during Humes'
'64 WC session.
But Mr. DiEugenio seems to be of the opinion that Specter and Humes
DID make such comments about the "strap muscles" in 1964. But, as I
said, he's wrong. And the misinformation continues to another level
when DiEugenio claims that I, myself, have QUOTED Specter and Humes as
having said things that they never said in front of the Warren
Commission (as anyone can easily see for themselves by merely
performing a quick check of Humes' testimony by using their web
browser's "Word Find" tool).
So it appears as though Mr. DiEugenio should re-familiarize himself
with the Warren Commission testimony of Dr. James Joseph Humes.
Because it's fairly obvious (via his 7/16/09 comments on Internet
radio) that DiEugenio doesn't know what he's talking about (again).
Also -- It seems to me that DiEugenio still wouldn't have a leg to
stand on regarding this "strap muscles" topic even if Humes HAD said
in his WC testimony that the "strap muscles" (which are in the neck)
were the muscles that prevented any probing of JFK's wounds.
Why do I say that?
Well, mainly because of the fact that President Kennedy WAS wounded in
the NECK (i.e., bullet CE399 exited from his throat, which is located
in the front of his NECK).
So I cannot really see why DiEugenio seems to think that the closing
up of Kennedy's "strap muscles" would be incompatible with the notion
that it was those precise muscles that prevented the autopsists'
probes from passing through the known wounds that Kennedy sustained in
November 1963?
The strap muscles are in the NECK. And one of the wounds in question
was in the NECK (the throat wound).
So, Jim, what's out of bounds there?
Beats me.
~shrug~
=================================================
* = As I pointed out in my December 2008 post, for some reason Dr.
Boswell and Dr. Humes in 1996 both continued to say "neck" with
respect to the upper-back wound location, which we know is inaccurate
because of Boswell's very own Face Sheet diagram which provides the
details of where that wound was located -- "14 cm. below tip of right
mastoid process" -- which is in the BACK, not the NECK.
David Von Pein
July 2009
