PAT SPEER SAID:
FWIW, I was onto Bugliosi's book from before it was even finished. I sent him a number of letters trying to get him to come to his senses. To no avail.
DAVID VON PEIN SAID:
Thank heaven for that. Because if Pat Speer had gotten Vince to "come to his senses", Vince would have been believing in make-believe bullet holes in the back of President Kennedy's head that nobody else but Pat Speer can see....fake paper bags....and God knows what else.
PAT SPEER SAID:
I knew he wasn't gonna go all CT all of a sudden. As I recall, I sent him some material about the EOP entrance/cowlick entrance. I had hopes he would take a look at it and announce that the bullet entered by the EOP after all. It turned out he refused to go down that road even though two of his consultants (Sturdivan and Zimmerman) similarly urged him to do so. It's too bad. His book could have been on the right side of history on at least one point.
I'm fairly certain he never even saw what I sent him. One envelope came back Return to Sender. The other received no response.
DAVID VON PEIN SAID:
Why on Earth would Vince have done something dumb like that when he had this picture to look at, which proves beyond all reasonable doubt that the bullet entered near the cowlick?....
PAT SPEER SAID:
There is a red oval in this photo [seen above] that resembles a gunshot wound. But it was not the bullet wound identified at the autopsy. If Bugliosi had a lick of sense he would have realized that.
[...]
The cowlick entrance was a myth from the get-go, that has now been abandoned by the myth-makers. Heck, even Fox News figured this out in their 50th anniversary special. Catch up.
DAVID VON PEIN SAID:
Yeah, yeah. Sure, Pat. That's why there's a ruler up next to the red spot. And that's why the red spot is the ONLY thing in that picture which comes even close to resembling a bullet hole. And that's why the HSCA and the Clark Panel BOTH confirmed via multiple measurements (in both the SCALP and the SKULL) that the entry wound on the back of President Kennedy's head was located approximately 100mm. above the EOP.
1978 HSCA Interview With Dr. Pierre A. Finck
The Clark Panel Report
Excerpts from the Clark Panel Report (which is a 1968 report that will forever be ignored or deemed worthless by various conspiracy theorists, including Mr. Patrick J. Speer)....
"One bullet struck the back of the decedent's head well above the external occipital protuberance. Based upon the observation that he was leaning forward with his head turned obliquely to the left when this bullet struck, the photographs and X-rays indicate that it came from a site above and slightly to his right. This bullet fragmented after entering the cranium, one major piece of it passing forward and laterally to produce an explosive fracture of the right side of the skull as it emerged from the head.
[...]
On one of the lateral films of the skull (#2), a hole measuring approximately 8 mm. in diameter on the outer surface of the skull and as much as 20 mm. on the internal surface can be seen in profile approximately 100 mm. above the external occipital protuberance. The bone of the lower edge of the hole is depressed. Also there is, embedded in the outer table of the skull close to the lower edge of the hole, a large metallic fragment which on the anteroposterior film (#1) lies 25 mm. to the right of the midline. This fragment as seen in the latter film is round and measures 6.5 mm. in diameter.
[...]
The foregoing observations indicate that the decedent's head was struck from behind by a single projectile. It entered the occipital region 25 mm. to the right of the midline and 100 mm. above the external occipital protuberance. The projectile fragmented on entering the skull, one major section leaving a trail of fine metallic debris as it passed forward and laterally to explosively fracture the right frontal and parietal bones as it emerged from the head."
PAT SPEER SAID:
There is a 3-D morph of the photo you posted and [the] black and white [autopsy photo] on my website that similarly proves there is no hole in this location.
DAVID VON PEIN SAID:
You're dreaming, Pat. This 3D GIF, created by John Mytton, clearly shows the entry hole high on the head near the cowlick---in stereo yet....
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PAT SPEER SAID:
There is a red oval in the back of the head photo that resembles a gunshot wound. But it was quite clearly not the bullet wound identified at the autopsy. You seem to think it is...
DAVID VON PEIN SAID:
Pat,
Okay, I'll stop you right there. You readily acknowledge the fact that the "red oval" in the autopsy photograph below "resembles a gunshot wound".
So, here's a simple observation and what I think is a very logical (and basic) question to ask after reading your quote above....
Since there is a spot on the back of JFK's head that DOES look like it could be a bullet hole---and since we both KNOW for a fact that there WAS, indeed, one single bullet hole of entry on the back side of President Kennedy's head---then what do you suppose the chances are of the thing that "resembles a gunshot wound" in the autopsy photo really NOT being a bullet hole in JFK's head after all?
Seems like a fair question to me. And I don't think it's a question that can be reasonably answered in the following manner (as some CTers and LNers seem to want to do).....
Well, DVP, the red spot only LOOKS like a bullet hole. The REAL bullet hole is hiding somewhere else in that autopsy picture. It's just a coincidence that the red spot (of blood?) in the photo just happened to take the form and general shape and appearance of a bullet hole. Whereas the REAL bullet hole, which cannot be seen at all in the picture (or at least most people have a hard time seeing it, except perhaps Patrick J. Speer) has decided to go AWOL from the photo, with no "redness" or other qualities to it at all that can be easily noticeable, even though that photo was taken under very good (and bright) lighting conditions. ~shrug~
[End Silly Explanation.]
So I'm just trying to wrap my head around the notion that the thing that looks like the bullet hole in the back of JFK's head really isn't a bullet hole at all. But at the same time, there really is a bullet hole of entrance somewhere else on the back of JFK's head in the above photograph.
What an amazing piece of unintentional and miraculous photographic misinterpretation that would turn out to be indeed, if it is to be believed. And, amazingly, Pat Speer (and many other CTers and LNers) actually do believe in it. I, however, cannot stretch unbelievable coincidence quite that far.
The red spot, in my opinion, is definitely the bullet hole.
PAT SPEER SAID:
BTW, I hope you realize that the HSCA FPP was an extension of the Clark Panel, and that claiming their findings support the Clark Panel is like saying "WHOA! Dick Cheney agrees with George Bush, so there's gotta be WMD's in Iraq!"
DAVID VON PEIN SAID:
The garbage about the HSCA licking the bootstraps of Fisher's Clark Panel just so that Baden & Co. wouldn't have to disagree with the Almighty Dr. Fisher in public is, as I say, garbage. The two panels were independent panels (Clark and the HSCA's Forensic Pathology Panel). One wasn't required to bow down to the other. Such a notion is preposterous. In other words, it's just one more conspiracy myth to add to the sky-high stack of conspiracy-laced myths that never die in this case.
JON TIDD SAID:
DVP,
Who took the color photo in question?
DAVID VON PEIN SAID:
Jon, as far as I know, it was taken by John Stringer.
JON TIDD SAID:
Has John Stringer ever said he took the photo in question?
DAVID VON PEIN SAID:
I'm not sure, Jon.
But there's this from Vince Bugliosi's book....
"Only four people in the autopsy room [had a close-up view of the president's head], the three autopsy surgeons and John Stringer, the chief medical photographer for the navy at the autopsy who took the only photographs of the president's head. When I spoke to Stringer [by telephone on September 21, 2000], he said there was "no question" in his mind that the "large exit wound in the president's head was to the right side of his head, above the right ear."
And in an ARRB interview on April 8, 1996, Stringer said, "There was a fist-sized hole in the right side of his head above his ear."
Though...Stringer's recollection of matters is questionable, he said he remembers this very clearly. When I asked him if there was any large defect to the rear of the president's head, he said, "No. All there was was a small entrance wound to the back of the president's head. During the autopsy, Dr. Humes pointed out this entrance wound to everyone."" -- Pages 409-410 of Vincent Bugliosi's "Reclaiming History"
-------------------
And there's also this....
"Not only do the autopsy photos and X-rays definitively show that the entrance wound is in the upper part of the president's skull, but they show a bullet track (deposit of small metal fragments as the bullet proceeded forward) only in the upper portion of the skull. Additionally, if the bullet had entered the president's skull at the lower point the autopsy surgeons said it did, there would have been damage to the cerebellum, the lower part of the brain, which there was not. Dr. Baden testified that his forensic pathology panel "did not see any photographic or X-ray evidence...indicating any injury of the brain other than the extensive damage to the right upper part of the brain, consistent with the upper track which the panel agrees to."
In concluding that the autopsy surgeons were wrong about the precise location of the entrance wound (as described in the autopsy report), the HSCA also noted that photographs show the lower area of the president's brain to be "virtually intact"—an impossibility had the bullet entered the skull as low as the three autopsy pathologists contend." -- Page 395 of "Reclaiming History"
-------------------
Also See:
http://MaryFerrell.org/ARRB Medical Interviews
The above link includes a July 1996 interview with autopsy photographer John Stringer.
DAVID VON PEIN LATER SAID:
This whole topic about the location of the entry wound on the back of President Kennedy's head is, of course, only an academic one in the first place. Because even if by some miraculous act of God or prestidigitation the bullet hole of entry in JFK's cranium was located low on his head, instead of high on his head as the photographs amply illustrate, it wouldn't change the status of Lee Harvey Oswald's lone guilt one solitary bit. Because either entry site on JFK's head is still perfectly consistent with a conclusion of Oswald shooting the President from the sixth floor of the Book Depository Building.
Back to Vince for a moment....
"Is it possible we are talking about two separate wounds to the back of the head? No. All seventeen pathologists said there was only one gunshot wound to the back of the president's head. So, by definition, we have to be talking about the same wound. Moreover, the fourteen pathologists who followed the three autopsy surgeons were able to demonstrate that the wound they found was the same wound (same dimensions) the autopsy surgeons described in their report." -- Vincent Bugliosi; Page 395 of "Reclaiming History"
David Von Pein
June 9-10, 2015
June 10-11, 2015
