JFK ASSASSINATION ARGUMENTS
(PART 1371)


DAVID VON PEIN SAID:

Part 1371 of my "JFK Assassination Arguments" series includes a variety of my posts and comments covering the period of December 1—31, 2023. To read the entire forum discussion from which my own comments have been extracted, click on the "Full Discussion" logo at the bottom of each individual segment.


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PAT SPEER SAID THIS.


DAVID VON PEIN SAID:

It's clear as day (to me) that when Dr. Robert McClelland wrote the following words in this 4:45 PM Admission Note on 11/22/63....

"The cause of death was due to massive head and brain injury from a gunshot wound of the left temple."

....McClelland was only talking about where he thought at the time the bullet had ENTERED JFK's head (via the erroneous information he had garnered in Trauma Room #1 from Dr. Jenkins).

McClelland's "left temple" reference is obviously not meant to convey information concerning where the large wound was located on the President's head. McClelland never even attempts to mention the location of the large exit wound in his 4:45 Admission Note. He never says a word about the large wound at all.

So it's a mystery to me as to why on Earth Pat Speer seems to think that Dr. McClelland's initial 4:45 PM report suggests that he (McClelland) actually was implying he saw a huge hole in the "left temple" of President Kennedy. I don't interpret it that way at all. And I don't think very many other people would either.


PAT SPEER SAID THIS.


DAVID VON PEIN SAID:

Why not? What rule book did you get that out of?

Anyway, you're obviously wrong in your above comment, because that is exactly what Dr. McClelland did do in his November 22 Admission Note -- i.e., he wrote a report in which he only described the location for where he thought (incorrectly, of course) the bullet had entered the head of President Kennedy, and he did not describe (at all) the location of the large wound of exit.

Like it or not, that's precisely what Dr. McClelland did.

[Also see the related discussion HERE.]


PAT SPEER SAID THIS.


DAVID VON PEIN SAID:

LOL back at ya! I certainly hope you're not placing me in the category of someone who actually finds the story of the late Dr. Robert McClelland "credible". Because nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, I've been ripping McClelland's story to shreds for many years now (particularly his insane "pulled-up scalp" fantasy).

And I certainly don't require the assistance of Mr. Bugliosi (or anyone else) when it comes to evaluating the multiple things that Dr. McClelland gets wrong in his initial November 22nd statement. It's all right there on pages 11 and 12 of CE392, including the bizarre conclusion reached by Dr. McClelland about there being "a fragment wound of the trachea". What the heck is that supposed to mean anyway? It would seem as if McClelland was speculating that a "fragment" of some sort [bullet? bone?] had caused the wound in JFK's throat. Where that notion came from is a mystery to me.

In the final analysis, Dr. McClelland's conclusion concerning the location of JFK's large head wound (which was very similar to many of the other "Back Of The Head" witnesses) is provably wrong—as discussed in greater detail HERE).


DAVID VON PEIN ALSO SAID:

A NOVA/PBS Addendum....

In my last post above, I linked to one of my webpages which includes this 5-minute excerpt from the 1988 NOVA/PBS program ("Who Shot President Kennedy?"), which was hosted by Walter Cronkite. And I recently noticed something odd in that program that I had never noticed before—it's when Mr. Cronkite utters this blatant falsehood to the viewing audience:

"The drawing [pictured below] suggests what many of the photos examined by the doctors and NOVA show—a large wound about this size and location."



The above statement made by Mr. Cronkite is, of course, just flat-out wrong, because there are ZERO autopsy photographs which support the notion of a large blow-out wound in the rear (occipital) portion of JFK's head. So I haven't the slightest idea how NOVA and Cronkite arrived at the conclusion that some of the autopsy photos depict a large back-of-the-head blow-out.

And I find it very strange that a statement like the one quoted above concerning the official autopsy photographs at the National Archives would have been aired on national television, especially when weighed against the observations of the HSCA's Michael Baden (who had full and complete access in the 1970s to all of the first-generation autopsy photographs):

"Clearly, from the autopsy X-rays and photographs and the observations of the autopsy surgeons, the exit wound and defect was not in the occipital area. There was no defect or wound to the rear of Kennedy's head other than the entrance wound in the upper right part of his head."
-- Dr. Michael Baden; January 8, 2000



PAT SPEER SAID THIS.


DAVID VON PEIN SAID:

Dead wrong. (As per usual.)

And CE903 forever provides the proof that Pat Speer is dead wrong when he says that "the autopsy photos show a back wound too low to support the single-bullet theory".



And Pat's above comment also means (I guess) that the Clark Panel was filled with nothing but scheming rotten liars too....

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"There is an elliptical penetrating wound of the skin of the back located approximately 15 cm. medial to the right acromial process, 5 cm. lateral to the mid-dorsal line and 14 cm. below the right mastoid process. This wound lies approximately 5.5 cm. below a transverse fold in the skin of the neck. This fold can also be seen in a lateral view of the neck which shows an anterior tracheotomy wound. This view makes it possible to compare the levels of these two wounds in relation to that of the horizontal plane of the body. .... The center of the circular wound [in the front of the neck] is situated approximately 9 cm. below the transverse fold in the skin of the neck described in a preceding paragraph. This indicates that the bullet which produced the two wounds followed a course downward and to the left in its passage through the body." -- From Clark Panel Report

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So, as we can see, the Clark Panel concluded that the bullet hole in Kennedy's throat was located 3.5 centimeters LOWER (anatomically) than the bullet wound in his upper back.

But, instead of relying on the Clark guys, I'm supposed to trust Dr. Speer's analysis regarding the SBT and CE903 and lots of other medical issues.*

Thanks. But no thanks.

* Yes, it's true that I'm tossing in the trash the HSCA's ridiculous "11-degree upward angle" nonsense concerning the back and throat wounds. But any sensible person must do that after looking just once at the appropriate autopsy photos.

David Von Pein
December 2, 2023





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MARCUS FULLER SAID THIS.


DAVID VON PEIN SAID:

Marcus,

That's a pretty decent job at imitating Oswald's writing. Especially your two "Hidell" attempts. I salute you.

So, Marcus, do you think all of the various "Questioned Documents Experts" (i.e., the handwriting experts) who testified in front of the Warren Commission and HSCA were all wrong (or perhaps lying) when several of them testified that the writing on the money order was put there by Lee Harvey Oswald himself?

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Warren Commission Testimony:

Mr. EISENBERG -- Did you compare Exhibit No. 788 with the standards to determine whether Exhibit No. 788 had been written by Lee Harvey Oswald?

Mr. CADIGAN -- Yes.

Mr. EISENBERG -- What was your conclusion?

Mr. CADIGAN -- That the postal money order, Cadigan Exhibit No. 11, had been prepared by Lee Harvey Oswald.

Mr. EISENBERG -- The postal money order is Commission Exhibit No. 788 and your picture is Cadigan Exhibit No. 11, is that correct?

Mr. CADIGAN -- That is correct.

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HSCA Testimony:

Mr. KLEIN -- The document, which is marked F-509, the money order, is an original document; is it not?

Mr. McNALLY -- It was; yes.

Mr. KLEIN -- And your conclusion is they were written by the same person who wrote the other documents?

Mr. McNALLY -- That is right.

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The second picture below is Cadigan Exhibit No. 11, which is a higher-quality version of the Postal Money Order, which shows the money order prior to it being treated for fingerprints (hence, the "Bleed-Thru" mystery of CE788 is explained):




Mr. EISENBERG -- Are the photographs which you produced photographs of the items before they were treated for fingerprints or after?

Mr. CADIGAN -- Yes; before they were treated for fingerprints. In other words, it is regular customary practice to photograph an exhibit before it is treated for latents for exactly this reason, that in the course of the treatment there may be some loss of detail, either total or partial.


GREG DOUDNA SAID THIS.


DAVID VON PEIN SAID:

Indeed, Greg.

Here's what I said about that topic of "bulk batch" deposits during these marathon EF forum sessions concerning the Hidell money order back in 2015:

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DAVID V.P. SAID:

I would guess that the Hidell money order was probably "endorsed" as part of a bulk batch of U.S. Postal Money Orders sent by First National Bank to the Federal Reserve Bank in Chicago.

All of the money orders in such a "bulk" transfer were going to be sent to the very same place--the FRB in Chicago, Illinois--so I can't see why a single stamped endorsement placed on a separate document (which would be attached to the bundle of bulk money orders being sent from First National to the FRB) wouldn't suffice in a bulk transaction like that, instead of having to stamp a separate endorsement on each and every money order.

I do not know for certain if such a "single endorsement on bulk transfers" procedure was actually in place at major U.S. banks in 1963, but such a process makes perfect sense to me. And it would certainly save the bank a lot of "stamping" time too.


DVP LATER SAID:

To reiterate, a "cash letter" for a bulk deposit would, in my view, still satisfy the regulation cited below, without the First National Bank personnel needing to place multiple separate stamped endorsements on each and every U.S. Postal Money Order that was part of such a "bulk" deposit/transfer.

If the bulk transfer from First National Bank to the Federal Reserve Bank was accompanied by a slip of paper that had all the stamped endorsements and information mentioned in Rule 13 (from the 1960 regulations) or Rule 15 (from the 1969 regulations), please tell me why that would not satisfy the endorsement policy?

Maybe we can now get into a big debate over the words "All cash items" vs. the words "Each cash item".

It seems to me that a bulk transfer, which would include just one piece of paper (i.e., deposit slip) for the entire "batch" of money orders being sent to the FRB (i.e., for "ALL cash items" within the bundled bulk package), would be a way of transferring a large amount of money orders from FNB to the FRB without violating anything written in this regulation here....

"All cash items sent to us, or to another Federal Reserve Bank direct for our account, should be endorsed without restriction to, or to the order of, the Federal Reserve Bank to which sent, or endorsed to, or to the order of, any bank, banker, or trust company, or endorsed with equivalent words or abbreviations thereof. The endorse­ment of the sender should be dated and should show the A.B.A. transit number of the sender, if any, in prominent type on both sides of the endorsement."

And I'd like to again remind everyone of Regulation #12 (from 1960):




SANDY LARSEN SAID THIS.


DAVID VON PEIN SAID:

But banks obviously didn't treat both checks and Postal Money Orders "exactly the same way" in 1963.

How can we know this is so?

1. There's no bank stamps on the Hidell Postal Money Order (other than the Klein's endorsement).

BUT, even though #1 is true with respect to Oswald's $21.45 money order....

2. There IS a File Locator Number (FLN) stamped on the Hidell PMO (just where it should be, in the upper left corner). And we know that FLNs are the very last thing stamped on a PMO after it has been deposited and processed.

3. And the PMO in question ended up in Alexandria, Virginia, at the Postal Records Center --- which is just exactly where it should have ended its journey after being properly processed.

Now, tell me again why anyone would believe the Hidell Postal Money Order was a fraudulent document.


JAMES DiEUGENIO SAID THIS.


DAVID VON PEIN SAID:

The old, worn-out conspiracy myths never die. You should know that that is a basic and fundamental rule of JFK forums by now, shouldn't you Jim?

Another worn-out obsolete argument that's currently making the rounds at The Education Forum is "The SBT Is Impossible" claptrap.

Next week, the "Badge Man" and "Tippit Was Buried In JFK's Grave" myths will likely be revisited.

It never ends. And never will.

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Related Discussions:



David Von Pein
December 3, 2023
December 4-6, 2023




AND....




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TODD VAUGHAN SAID:

There's no photo of the bag [CE142] inside the TSBD.


DAVID VON PEIN SAID:

Actually, there is such a photo....discussed HERE.


PAT SPEER SAID:

Uhh, wait a second, that photo is a bigger problem for WC supporters than it is for those who doubt the veracity of the bag.

Where, exactly, did anyone say they found the bag and then left it sitting around on some boxes? I mean, we know it wasn't there all along.

Numerous witnesses were in that area prior to that photo being taken, and none of the witnesses saw the bag sitting on those boxes, and the Alyea film proves it wasn't there when the sniper's nest was discovered. So we know the bag was placed there shortly before the photo was taken. Well, hell, why?

You have Montgomery and Johnson claiming they found the bag, and that Studebaker then came over and dusted it, etc. And yet they just left it there for ??? how long? Okay, let's say an hour. This PROVES then that the bag was created and/or "found" LONG after the discovery of the sniper's nest.

And this leads back to the question of the day/year. WHY did none of the first men viewing the sniper's nest, including Capt. Fritz, see a bag purported to cover nearly half the open space in the corner of the sniper's nest? ANSWER: Because there wasn't one there at the time.


DAVID VON PEIN SAID:

The CE142 bag, of course, was indeed first seen/found in the southeast corner of the 6th floor (folded up, twice). And I think that bag was very likely initially considered to be merely trash (i.e., something not directly connected to the "crime scene").

But after it was picked up, it was unfolded and placed on the boxes. And then someone realized that this homemade bag could have held the rifle and it was put into evidence.

But to those who want to believe the bag was a complete concoction of the Dallas Police --- why bring it back up to the 6th floor? It certainly wasn't to photograph it, because the DPD never did photograph it (except by accident, just barely visible in CE508).

And if the paper and tape dispensers are located on the FIRST floor (which they were), why the need to bring a "fake" bag up to the 6th? Just to lay it on the boxes and then NOT take a good picture of it? I don't get that logic.

Anyway, there were 4 or 5 officers who testified that they definitely did see the bag on the floor in the southeast corner, folded up, before the police moved it. So the conspiracy theorists have more people to call liars now (I guess).


PATRICK COLLINS SAID:

David,

I agree and would add that the notion that the DPD would "concoct" the paper bag to somehow implicate Oswald is ridiculous. It also is, as you say, illogical. How would they know, for example, that Lee had carried a paper package to work that day? It was also, in my opinion, not needed. Was the rifle not enough?!

It is an example of playing games with the benefit of hindsight. In reality, in real time, you would need unparalleled foresight and luck.

It is a preposterous suggestion.


DAVID VON PEIN SAID:

Indeed, Patrick. The notion of the "fake bag" (being created by the DPD at that very early hour on the afternoon of 11/22/63) is, indeed, "preposterous".

As to the reason(s) for why several of the police officers said they did not see the paper bag while it was still resting on the floor in the southeast corner, I offer up some possible explanations HERE.


PAT SPEER SAID:

Please present any evidence you have suggesting that those first on the scene saw the bag and dismissed it as trash. It seems clear you just made that up.


DAVID VON PEIN SAID:

I have no direct evidence relating to my "trash" comment. It's merely guesswork on my part. (And please don't tell me I shouldn't ever rely on "guesswork", because virtually every single thing that conspiracy theorists do regarding their analysis of the JFK case revolves largely around that very word—"guesswork". Without guesswork, in fact, CTers might as well pack up and go home, because they'd have nothing to pin their hopes on without relying on "guesswork" and "gut feelings", and everybody here knows it.)

Actually, I think my "trash" theory makes quite a bit of (common) sense. The notion that some of the officers could have merely thought the twice-folded-up paper bag that was resting in the farthest reaches of the dusty and dirty sixth floor's southeast corner was simply a piece of discarded trash lying in that corner makes a great deal of sense to me.

Plus, some officers who might have caught a glimpse of the bag might not have even realized it was a "paper bag" at all, seeing as how it had been folded up twice (per the testimony of Police Officer Marvin Johnson), thus reducing its size considerably as it lay in the corner. Johnson testified that the package he saw in the southeast corner was "a fairly small package".

Also....

Another possible answer to the "mystery" as to why some officers never saw the bag at all could be because those officers were simply never in a proper position within (or near) the Sniper's Nest itself to have seen the paper bag in the first place.

In offering up these various "Paper Bag" scenarios, I'm just trying to present some possible non-sinister and non-conspiratorial reasons to explain why we have one group of police officers who said they did see something on the sixth floor, while another group of officers said they didn't see it.

And if some of the members of that second group had actually seen the bag but failed at the time to associate the "fairly small package" with the crime scene, and instead had merely thought it was a piece of paper debris that had been swept into the far southeast corner, then that could (IMO) certainly account for some of the confusion revolving around the testimony of the various witnesses concerning the paper bag.


PAT SPEER SAID:

Those arriving on the scene before its discovery said they saw no such thing ["trash"] and those claiming to have discovered it said it was out in the open covering much of the open floor by the boxes, where anyone inspecting the boxes or looking out the window would have seen it. It’s a mystery.


DAVID VON PEIN SAID:

The things you just said about the bag being "out in the open" and "covering much of the open floor by the boxes" are things that are totally contradicted by two of the officers who said they definitely did see the paper bag on the 6th floor:

MR. STUDEBAKER -- "Over in the corner—in the southeast corner of the building, in the far southeast corner, as far as you can get is where it was."

MR. JOHNSON -- "It was folded and then refolded. It was a fairly small package. .... That sack was right in the corner. .... I would say that the sack was folded up here and it was east of the pipes in the corner."

That doesn't sound to me like Studebaker or Johnson saw the bag "out in the open".

Also....

Can anyone explain to me how the following four Dallas Police Department officers could have seen a brown paper object in the southeast corner of the sixth floor that was never ever there? ....

Robert Studebaker [7 H 143].
L.D. Montgomery [7 H 97].
J.C. Day [4 H 267].
Marvin Johnson [7 H 103].

In some of my comments above, I've been attempting to reconcile the controversy surrounding the "Paper Bag Witnesses" without having to resort to calling any of the witnesses "liars". I think I accomplished that goal. I'm wondering if any conspiracy theorist could do the same. I doubt they can.


PAT SPEER SAID:

It seems apparent you don't know the record, David.

None of the witnesses who saw the sniper's nest before the arrival of Day and Studebaker recalled seeing the bag in the corner, even though the official story has the bag covering most of the open space by the so-called seat box, and at least three of these witnesses--Mooney, McCurley, and Fritz, actually stood in the SN within a foot or so of where the bag was supposedly discovered.

As far as witnesses claiming they saw it, they were all brought forth by Belin after he realized none of the first witnesses remembered anything about the bag. Most notoriously, he dredged up two motorcycle officers whose recollections were so meaningless to the investigation that they were never even asked to write a report on what they saw that day.

And yet, somehow, after going 0 for 7 or 8 or whatever, Belin suddenly coughs up two previously uninterviewed witnesses with foggy recollections of maybe seeing a bag.

It's clear from this--crystal clear--that he put out an APB... "Hello!! Will anyone testify to seeing that freaking bag?" and that he found but two takers.

The other supposed bag witnesses were either involved in its supposed discovery, or blurry headed and clearly incorrect in much of their testimony, like Sims.

And it's worse than that. On my website, I run through the evolution of the statements of Montgomery, Johnson, Studebaker, and Day, and show how they are contradictory and not remotely credible.

I also show how at least one print on the bag was disappeared from the record and how the Warren Commission itself lied about the locations of the prints on the bag.

It's a minefield.


DAVID VON PEIN SAID:

You, Pat, ACTUALLY think ALL FOUR of those Dallas police officers were liars (Montgomery, Johnson, Day, and Studebaker)?? Such a belief is simply ridiculous and over-the-top.

And you've also got to believe that Studebaker's lies concerning the bag were multi-layered....because he said he actually picked up the bag and dusted it for prints. (More lies?)

Plus --- Any idea how the patsy-framing plotters managed to plant Oswald's fingerprints on the paper bag? Lieutenant J.C. Day, as of 2002, didn't even think such a transfer of prints was possible (and he's talking about the rifle in the book excerpt below, but I think it's safe to assume that Lt. Day would have had the same opinion about the "impossible" nature of being able to transfer an inked print to a paper bag as well).

Via Page 802 of Vincent Bugliosi's book, "Reclaiming History"....

Click to enlarge:



David Von Pein
December 7-9, 2023
[Via E-Mail]


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MILES MASSICOTTE SAID THIS.


DAVID VON PEIN SAID:

HERE'S another very "strange" Harold Weisberg clip (which, given the known evidence in the JFK case, is much more ridiculous than even Harold's ultra-preposterous notion that the DPD would have even cared about whether Buell Frazier was shacking up with Marina Oswald).

David Von Pein
December 8, 2023





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JOHN CORBETT SAID:

Question for DVP....

Your webpage on the SBT is one of the best examinations of the subject that I have come across. The toggling features are one of the most illuminating pieces of evidence regarding the SBT. It shows with clarity, the bulging of the jacket at Z224, that JFK's right hand was still moving downward at Z225 when he first becomes fully visible, and it shows both JFK and JBC starting their upward arm movements simultaneously at Z226.

I have never seen this feature from any other source. I truly believe that these frames would be enough to convince most skeptics of the validity of the SBT if they would look at them objectively.

My question is whether you put together the toggling feature between enhanced frames yourself or did you discover them from another source?

If these are your creation and only available on your website, I would hope there would be a way to show these to a wider audience. If you got these from another source, is it one that is widely available to the public at large?

If there was a way to show these clips to a much wider audience than the people who frequent these discussion groups, I think it could be a game changer regarding public perception of the assassination.


DAVID VON PEIN SAID:

Hi John,

The toggling (or looped) Zapruder Film clips that I have on many of my webpages are clips that I downloaded many years ago (thank goodness). However, they were not "created" by me specifically.

I think I got them from Bill Miller when he and I were both posting at Debra Conway's JFK-Lancer forum. Which means that I probably initially downloaded them prior to the Summer of 2005, because that's when I was tossed out the Lancer door by Conway.

Bill Miller, btw, is/was a conspiracy theorist, which is kind of ironic. (And I think Mr. Miller has since passed away.)

I'm actually a little fuzzy concerning the exact individual source for these excellent toggling Z-Film clips that I love to prop up (as do you, John) to illustrate the viability of the Single-Bullet Theory. But I'm almost positive the clips did originate at the now-defunct JFK-Lancer forum.

I have stated in the past that if I had ever had a chance to show those looped Z-Film clips to John and Nellie Connally, I think I could have probably made SBT believers out of both of them.

No hardline conspiracy theorist will ever be convinced by those clips, however. And for proof of that, all you need to do is click on this link here, which features a few of the Education Forum's CTers inventing brand-new ways with which to bury themselves in further "denial" when it comes to what they are seeing in those Zapruder Film clips.




GIL JESUS SAID:

[John Corbett] is convinced there was a "bulge" in Connally's coat caused by a bullet, although he can't prove it.

He's convinced Connally's arm moving upward was caused by a bullet, although he can't prove it.

Corbett believes in things that can't be proven. Speculations made by David Von Pein.

Could Connally's movements have been caused by something other than a bullet?


DAVID VON PEIN SAID:

Is it possible for the anti-SBTers to exhibit MORE denial than the examples displayed here? It will, indeed, be difficult for Gil Jesus and Ben Holmes to top the hilarious and absurd excuses for ignoring the SBT that can be found at that link above, but we must never underestimate the "denial" power that exists within every JFK conspiracy fantasist.

David Von Pein
December 14, 2023
December 14, 2023




AND....




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GREG DOUDNA SAID THIS.


DAVID VON PEIN SAID:

According to Dale Myers' book "With Malice" (1998 Edition) [Page 650; Endnote #800], Myers had "contact" with George M. Doughty on March 14, 1996, which was four years after Doughty had suffered a stroke. This "contact", as Myers refers to it in his book (as opposed to an "interview"), was three pages in length (when put in transcript form) and was evidently mostly in reference to the mysterious "Wallet" issue. I'm not sure if Myers ever talked to Doughty about placing his initials on one of the bullet shells found near the Tippit murder scene.

More importantly....

If you turn to Page 267 of "With Malice" (1998 version), you'll find photos (taken by Dale Myers himself) of the bullet shell that has the initials of Captain George M. Doughty scratched into it. Quoting from Page 267 of Myers' book (1998 Edition):

"FBI Exhibit Q76 .... This Winchester-Western hull was identified by Dallas crime lab Captain George M. Doughty as the hull found by Barbara J. Davis. Three sets of markings are visible on the inside rim of the hull, including Doughty's initials, "GD" in script. Three sets of FBI related initials -- JH, CK, and RF -- are on the outside of the hull."

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So, as we can see from the above book excerpt, Dale Myers himself actually saw Captain Doughty's initials etched into the bullet shell in question.

The photos of the "Q76" shell that appear in Myers' book are, unfortunately, not distinct enough to clearly make out the "GD" initials that Dale says appear (in script) on the inside rim of that shell.

And since there are many conspiracy theorists who seem to enjoy calling Mr. Myers an outright liar when it comes to lots of stuff he has written about J.D. Tippit's murder, I'm guessing that those CTers must also think Myers was telling a tall tale about seeing Doughty's initials with his own eyes on bullet shell Q76.


GREG DOUDNA SAID THIS.


DAVID VON PEIN SAID:

But, Greg, in this particular case (the Tippit murder case), wouldn't you agree that it's much (MUCH!) more likely that the ballistics evidence is just simply telling us the TRUTH, and that it was OSWALD who killed Officer J.D. Tippit....and it was OSWALD'S revolver that fired the fatal bullets into Tippit's body....and it was OSWALD who was really the one who was seen dumping shells out of his gun as he fled the scene of the crime on Tenth Street --- versus believing that all of the witnesses were either mistaken or lying or coerced or whatever else AND that the bullet shells were switched by the police to frame an innocent Oswald?

And in THIS case especially---the case where a local police officer has just been shot dead---don't you have a particularly difficult time believing that anyone in the Dallas Police Department would have had any desire at all to participate in some kind of a frame-up against an innocent Oswald, which would automatically mean those officers participating in such a frame-up would be deliberately allowing the real killer of their brother officer to get away scot-free?

Isn't all of that "frame-up" stuff rather hard to swallow in THIS (Tippit) case particularly? I sure think it is.


DAVID VON PEIN LATER SAID:

Greg Doudna's wild and fantastic (and, IMO, crazy) theory revolving around Mr. Curtis LaVerne "Larry" Crafard (not "Craford", as explained in the last paragraph of Crafard Exhibit No. 5226) made me want to read Crafard's complete Warren Commission testimony for the first time. It's quite a roller coaster ride of a read (starting at 13 H 402).

The long and rambling life story of this drifter named Larry Crafard, which the Warren Commission's Leon Hubert and Burt Griffin probed for hours on end for three days (April 8-10, 1964) and which takes up nearly 200 pages in WC volumes 13 and 14, could have been featured on The Edge Of Night, Guiding Light, and As The World Turns all at the same time, because this guy's constant travels and dozens of different jobs (not to mention a wife who left him twice, and gave birth to Larry's baby boy---or did she?) could probably fill up all three of those soap operas all at once.

Why on Earth all of the details surrounding Crafard's entire life prior to November 1963 were things that Mr. Hubert and Mr. Griffin deemed necessary to place into the Warren Commission's official record, I really have no idea.

Incredibly, Crafard's testimony consumes nearly seven times the number of pages than that of JFK's chief autopsy physician, Dr. James Humes. Humes' testimony takes up only 29 pages in total. Crafard = 197 pages. Unbelievable.


GREG DOUDNA SAID THIS.


DAVID VON PEIN SAID:

Yes, you're right, Greg. I was mistaken about something I read about Crafard on Page 247 of Vincent Bugliosi's book. That page is in the middle of Vince's chronology of events for "Sunday, November 24", but Bugliosi suddenly goes back to talking about the events of Saturday on that page. And that's when the subject of Crafard leaving Dallas comes up.

But it was my error this time, and not Bugliosi's. Vince has it right in his book. Crafard left town on Saturday, Nov. 23rd.

Sorry about the mistake, Greg.


GREG DOUDNA SAID THIS.


DAVID VON PEIN SAID:

$13.87 + $0.23 (bus) + $1.00 (cab) = $15.10

Mr. BALL -- "You let him on the bus, and he paid his fare, how much is that fare?"
Mr. McWATTERS -- "It is 23 cents."

------------

The price of a vending machine Coke was 5 cents thru 1959. Then it went up to 10 cents. So Oswald probably left Ruth Paine's house on Nov. 22 with $15.20 in his pocket.*

* Which assumes he bought just one Coke that day, and it also assumes he didn't merely swipe a bottle of Coke off of one of the tables in the second-floor lunchroom right after his encounter with Officer Baker, instead of buying one himself, which is quite possible, I suppose. I've seen photos of the lunchroom in which we can see bottles of Coke left on the tables ----> such as HERE and HERE.

------------

Here's an interesting hunk of trivia concerning Coca-Cola [copied from this Wiki page]:

The Coca-Cola Company sought ways to increase the five cent price, even approaching the U.S. Treasury Department in 1953 to ask that they mint a 7.5 cent coin. The Treasury was unsympathetic. In another attempt, The Coca-Cola Company briefly implemented a strategy where one in every nine vending machine bottles was empty. The empty bottle was called an "official blank". This meant that, while most nickels inserted in a vending machine would yield cold drinks, one in nine patrons would have to insert two nickels in order to get a bottle. This effectively raised the price to 5.625 cents. Coca-Cola never implemented this strategy on a national scale.

------------

I can certainly see why the Coke Company never followed through with that spiteful strategy of literally stealing an extra nickel from 11% of its vending machine customers by dropping an empty bottle into their hands. I have a hard time believing the company would have even considered such a deceptive act of thievery. Customers wouldn't have stood still for only getting what they paid for 9 times out of 10. And can you imagine a 7.5-cent coin?! Just think of the mess that would have caused for all of the nation's cashiers. They'd have to find a way to give back 2.5 cents change for a 5-cent purchase. What a nightmare! 😁


GREG DOUDNA SAID THIS.


DAVID VON PEIN SAID:

It's fun to play around with stuff like this from time to time, isn't it?

Here's another question for you to ponder, Gregory....

If, as you have suggested, Oswald purchased a movie ticket at the Texas Theater, then why wasn't the ticket stub found on his person after his arrest? And I can only assume that all Texas Theater patrons are, indeed, given a stub after their tickets are torn by somebody at the door who does that sort of thing, like we find at most U.S. theaters. Which, I guess, brings up another question: If Oswald didn't buy a ticket, how did he manage to slip past the "ticket taker" who should have been posted just inside the front door? ~shrug~*

* And the "ticket taker" on 11/22/63 would have been Butch Burroughs (who also sold the candy and popcorn at the theater)....

Mr. BALL -- "During the afternoon of the week, do you take tickets too?"
Mr. BURROUGHS -- "Yes, I take tickets every day."


[Later in Burroughs' WC testimony....]

Mr. BALL -- "If anybody comes in there without a ticket, what do you do, run them off?"
Mr. BURROUGHS -- "I make it a point to stop them and ask them to go out and get a ticket. I just failed to see him when he slipped in."


Oswald, of course, if he had purchased a ticket, could have just thrown his stub in a trash can inside the theater. But I'm wondering why he'd want to do that?

Because by keeping the ticket stub, he could then prove that he didn't "sneak" into the theater without paying. Which would certainly make him look at least a little bit less guilty of any crime --- because by simply being willing to take the extra time and pay for the cheap ticket at the outside box office, it makes him look a bit less desperate to get off the sunny streets in order to get inside that dark theater as fast as he possibly can get in there.

But if he didn't pay for that movie ticket (which I certainly don't think he did), it does indeed make him look mighty anxious (desperate perhaps?) to get off that police-filled Jefferson Boulevard and inside the darkened theater as quickly as possible.

And why would Lee Harvey Oswald be so anxious (even desperate perhaps?) to get inside that movie theater at about 1:40 PM CST on November 22, 1963?

The answer to that last question is, in my opinion, fairly obvious.

David Von Pein
December 18-21, 2023





================================


DAVID VON PEIN SAID:

I've become interested lately in the contradiction that exists in the various media reports and Internet articles relating to the second of the two assassination attempts against President Gerald Ford which occurred within 17 days of each other in September of 1975.

We all know that in the 2nd attempt on Ford's life (on September 22, 1975), a 45-year-old woman named Sara Jane Moore did manage to fire her pistol at the President in San Francisco, and all of the initial reports that I have seen (such as the newspaper seen below) indicate that only one single shot was fired from Moore's gun.

And there's also an audio recording of the shooting (via the CBS Radio Network), which can be heard HERE. In that audio recording, one gunshot can clearly be heard, but no more than one is heard.

But there are some people out there writing articles who evidently are of the opinion that Sara Jane Moore fired two shots at President Ford.

I think a lot of the articles that I've seen on the Internet that are claiming "two shots" have derived their information, in large part, from this Wikipedia page, which claims that the cab driver who was injured in the groin during the shooting was positively struck by a "second shot" fired by would-be assassin Moore. But the injury to the bystander could have been caused by the ONLY shot fired by Moore. A second shot is probably not required.

Based on the audio recording I linked to above, I favor just one single shot being fired by Moore. Because if a second gunshot had actually been fired from that very same weapon, I cannot fathom how the sound of that shot would not have been captured by the CBS Radio microphone that managed to easily capture the very loud noise caused by the first blast.

So, similar to the long-debated question of How many shots did Lee Harvey Oswald really fire?....

I'd like to now ask:

How many shots did Sara Jane Moore fire? One or two?



Also See:
http://dvp-video-audio-archive/Gerald Ford Assassination Attempts

David Von Pein
December 18, 2023





================================


GARY AGUILAR SAID THIS.


DAVID VON PEIN SAID:

My, my. How magnificently humorous Mr. Aguilar can be.



But when Gary's overpowering wit is set aside and the brass tacks of the case are examined (yet again, for the millionth time), nobody can fight the truth that exists in the following authenticated photos, which are photos that depict absolutely no portion of the REAR of JFK's skull OR scalp that is MISSING or BLOWN OUT.

Sorry, Gary.



David Von Pein
December 18, 2023
[Via E-Mail]


================================


DAVID VON PEIN SAID:

Paula Bosse, the expert blogger when it comes to "All Things Relating To Dallas, Texas", recently posted the pictures seen below at her "Flashback: Dallas" website/blog. These 1962 photos depict ads for Jack Ruby's Carousel Club (which was being referred to as "The New Carousel" at the time)....

Click to enlarge:



A few more Carousel Club advertisements, plus one from Abe Weinstein's Colony Club (Jack Ruby's rival club, also located on Commerce Street), can be seen in Paula Bosse's complete blog post here.

David Von Pein
December 19, 2023





================================


SANDY LARSEN SAID THIS AND THIS.


DAVID VON PEIN SAID:

And since you have "no respect" for Hugh Aynesworth, that means, according to you, that Hugh should "Burn In Hell", is that it Sandy?

What a ridiculous over-the-top emotion. You should be ashamed of posting such garbage on this forum. (And you, an "admin"/moderator yet. It's disgusting.)

BTW / FWIW,

Mr. Aynesworth was always very nice and pleasant and helpful in the few conversations I had with him via e-mail.

RIP.

http://Wikipedia.org/Hugh Aynesworth

David Von Pein
December 26, 2023





================================


VINCE PALAMARA SAID THIS.


DAVID VON PEIN POSTED THIS IMAGE:

Click to enlarge....



David Von Pein
December 26, 2023





================================


DAVID VON PEIN SAID:

If you'd like to hear Rob Reiner misrepresent the evidence concerning the events surrounding Lee Harvey Oswald's movements on 11/22/63 and the "Coke" and the "Lunchroom Encounter", then CLICK HERE to listen to Part 8 of Reiner's
10-part "Who Killed JFK?" podcast.

Anyone who is not familiar with the things that Oswald told the Dallas Police after his arrest, and anybody also unfamiliar with the details concerning the Coca-Cola and Lunchroom Encounter topics, will probably tend to believe the untrue things that Mr. Reiner has uttered in Part 8 of his conspiracy-oriented podcast series, such as when Reiner tells us that Oswald told the police that he was on the second floor of the Book Depository when the President was shot.

But Oswald most certainly did not tell the police he was on the second floor at the precise time of the shooting. He specifically told Dallas Police Homicide Captain J.W. Fritz that he had been eating his lunch on the first floor of the building when JFK's motorcade passed the Depository....

From Captain Fritz' typewritten report:

"I asked him [Lee Oswald] what part of the building he was in at the time the President was shot, and he said that he was having his lunch about that time on the first floor." -- Warren Report; Page 600

In his podcast, Reiner has utilized some sleight-of-hand to try and make his podcast listeners think that Oswald must have been located on the second floor all throughout the key minutes before, during, and after the assassination of President Kennedy. Because when Reiner selectively reads this direct quote from the Hosty/Bookhout FBI report that appears on page 613 of the Warren Commission's Final Report....

"[Oswald] went to the second floor where the Coca-Cola machine was located and obtained a bottle of Coca-Cola for his lunch"....

....Mr. Reiner conveniently omitted the very next sentence that is written in that same Hosty/Bookhout report, which is this sentence:

"Oswald claimed to be on the first floor when President John F. Kennedy passed this building." -- Warren Report; Page 613

So, as we can see, Oswald's "alibi" wasn't that he was on the second floor when JFK was shot. Oswald claimed he was on the first floor at that time.

In addition, Mr. Reiner's utilization of the wholly unreliable and inconsistent story of Carolyn Arnold is another sign that Reiner's arguments are mighty weak ones, as I discuss HERE.

And Rob Reiner engages in an even bigger and more blatant misrepresentation of the facts when he inaccurately claims that Roy Truly and Marrion Baker saw Lee Oswald "sitting in the lunchroom with a Coke in his hand".

But anyone who knows the true facts relating to the testimony of both Depository Superintendent Roy S. Truly and Dallas Police Officer Marrion L. Baker, knows that Oswald was most definitely not "sitting" when he was seen by Truly and Baker on 11/22/63. He was standing. Plus, neither Truly nor Baker testified that Oswald had a "Coke in his hand".

Mr. Reiner, like many other conspiracy theorists worldwide, has merely accepted as fact the long-ago-debunked myth about Oswald holding a Coke during the lunchroom encounter with Baker and Truly.

Lots of additional facts concerning the Lunchroom Encounter and The Coca-Cola and Oswald's Whereabouts At 12:30 PM On November 22, 1963, sans any speculative conspiratorial spin, can be found at the link below:

DVP's JFK Archives / Index / Lee Harvey Oswald

David Von Pein
December 27, 2023





================================


DAVID VON PEIN SAID:

The 1966 audio file linked below includes a very rare interview with assassination witness Victoria Adams, who is, of course, a witness that a lot of conspiracy theorists love to prop up as "proof" that Lee Harvey Oswald could not possibly have gone down the back stairs of the Book Depository just after the assassination due to the fact that Miss Adams did not see or hear anyone on those stairs when she and Sandra Styles used them to descend from the 4th floor to the 1st floor very shortly after JFK was shot on 11/22/63.

But the notion that the entire case against Lee Oswald should be flushed down the toilet merely due to the estimated timeline of events as described by Vickie Adams is a very silly notion indeed....as I talk about in great detail on my webpage LINKED HERE.

I think the most interesting thing that is heard in the 1966 interview with Adams is when she talks about the three mistakes that were made by the Warren Commission during the time she was providing her testimony to the Commission in April of 1964. And the three errors that Adams mentions are things that are completely innocuous and relatively unimportant in nature, with none of the three items dealing with any substantive matters at all.

And yet, to hear many conspiracy theorists tell it, Victoria Adams was one of the many witnesses who has said she had key portions of her published testimony "altered" or "changed" by the Warren Commission.

But if that had truly been the case, then why on Earth wouldn't she have said something to Mark Lane and Mort Sahl about that very important fact during her fairly lengthy 1966 interview when she starts talking about the various things that the Commission got wrong in her published testimony?

But instead of raking the Commission over hot coals for "altering" or "eliminating" some of the things she had actually said during her testimony, she didn't say a single word in her 1966 interview about the Warren Commission altering anything that anyone could possibly consider to be of great value or substance whatsoever. She talked only about three very unimportant things that the Commission stenographer got wrong, which are things that I would classify as merely "typos" and nothing more than that.

After hearing Vickie Adams' total silence in 1966 when it comes to certain parts of her WC testimony allegedly being "altered" before it was publicly published (relating specifically to Bill Shelley and Billy Lovelady), it makes me wonder if this rarely-heard 1966 interview with Victoria Adams has inadvertently debunked (at least in part) yet another conspiracy-flavored myth that has endured for decades. That being: the "Altered Testimony" myth (at least with respect to Vickie Adams' testimony specifically, at any rate).

And we must keep in mind when listening to Adams speak in this interview that she most certainly doesn't come across as a fan or a supporter of the Warren Commission in any way whatsoever.

Therefore, I think it's also quite obvious that her complete silence about any alleged "Shelley/Lovelady alterations" during this interview was not brought about as a result of Miss Adams being frightened of what might happen to her if she dared speak out in a negative manner about Earl Warren's Commission.

This interview with the then-25-year-old Vickie Adams was conducted by Mark Lane and Mort Sahl on November 25, 1966:



Audio Source: Click Here.

Also see this excerpt from Vincent Bugliosi's book, "Reclaiming History", concerning Victoria Adams (click to enlarge):



David Von Pein
December 29-30, 2023





================================










JFK ASSASSINATION ARGUMENTS
(PART 1370)


DAVID VON PEIN SAID:

Part 1370 of my "JFK Assassination Arguments" series includes a variety of my posts and comments covering the period of November 1—30, 2023. To read the entire forum discussion from which my own comments have been extracted, click on the "Full Discussion" logo at the bottom of each individual segment.


================================


VINCE PALAMARA POSTED THIS LINK:

http://KennedysAndKing.com/Vince Palamara's Review Of Paul Landis' Book "The Final Witness"


DAVID VON PEIN SAID:

Vince,

Thanks for the link to your Landis book review.

But I have a big problem with the fact that you have (perhaps unintentionally?) taken a large chunk of my writing and then placed it in your book review as if you had written it yourself. And you've also placed no footnote of any kind after the words that I definitely wrote to indicate the true source of that paragraph.

The paragraph in question (which was originally written by me at The Education Forum on September 12, 2023 -- HERE'S THE E.F. LINK) begins with the words "The reason for why his total silence is not believable". ---- [Click.] *

* Please note that Joe Bauer, in his Education Forum reply here, obviously thinks that that particular paragraph (which Bauer himself quoted in his post) was, indeed, written by Vincent Palamara, with Mr. Bauer's reply to much of that paragraph being, "Right on Vince!"

I understand that mistakes and "source" oversights can happen. They happen to me in my writings too. And you, Vince, say in your book review (via a source note) that you had the help of K.K. Lane in putting together your list of questions for Paul Landis (with the part that I wrote appearing as your last "bullet point" item on that list in your review). So maybe K.K. Lane provided you with my quote for you to use in your review, and you (perhaps?) thought that the quote was something that Lane himself had written??

Could that be the explanation for why I'm finding a pretty good-sized amount of my written words within an article with only Vince Palamara's name on it??

Anyway, if you, Vince, would simply add a footnote to my quote that goes directly to this EF Forum post (or to this webpage from my blog, which contains the same quote plus lots of other informative stuff about the Landis topic), that would satisfy me. And, btw, I'm pleased and flattered that you would want to use some of my written words in your own review. I just don't think it's right to pass those words off as your own. (As I'm sure you'll agree.)

Thanks, Vince.

Regards,
DVP


VINCE PALAMARA SAID THIS.


DAVID VON PEIN SAID:

Thank you, Vince.

David Von Pein
November 2-3, 2023





================================


ALAN FORD SAID THIS.


DAVID VON PEIN SAID:

I see we have another indistinct and amorphous blob that is being turned into something that's now being labeled as absolutely definitive and ironclad by conspiracy theorists.

Pathetic.

Plus....

~Grin~


ALAN FORD SAID THIS.


DAVID VON PEIN SAID:

"Reclaiming History" book excerpt (click to enlarge):




ALAN FORD SAID THIS.


DAVID VON PEIN SAID:

FWIW / FYI / IAI [If Anybody's Interested]....

Here's that full discussion from January 2022.

And it then continues on Page 35 of that thread, here.

Excerpt from that 2022 discussion:

[DVP Quote On:]

Alan,

Please tell us what connection there is between the Ruth Paine curtain rods that you seem to be fixated on and the "curtain rods" that Lee Oswald lied about?

Even with a date discrepancy on the document you've posted many times now, tell us what the connection is.

Do you think Oswald DID take some rods into the TSBD and then the cops took them back to Ruth's garage?

Enlighten us all as you answer the proverbial question that can be asked of nearly all conspiracy theorists whenever they start talking about their murky theories----with that question being:

Where are you going with this?

[End 2022 Quote.]

And here is Alan's fabulously speculative reply.


ALAN FORD SAID THIS.


DAVID VON PEIN SAID:

Alan,

Your silliness about the "Exhibit 275" really meaning "27.5 inches" is quite a howler as well.

(Is the "276" supposed to really indicate "27.6 inches"?)

The amazing made-up crap from the desks of CTers never ceases to astound us all.


PAT SPEER SAID THIS.


DAVID VON PEIN SAID:

The odd numbering system occurred for many witness exhibits. Such as:

The "L.C. Graves Exhibits" begin with number 5003-A.

And then there's the "Hardin" exhibits, which begin with No. 5125.

And the "Harrison" exhibits start with #5027.

Plus a bunch of other oddball starting numbers for other Warren Commission witnesses too. (See this link.)

So Ruth Paine's exhibits being numbered 275 and 276 is not unusual IN THIS CASE at all.

Bottom Line: The March 15 date that appears on Warren Commission Exhibit No. 1952 is simply an error. It HAS to be an error, since those curtain rods weren't even retrieved from Ruth Paine's garage until March 23, 1964.


DAVID VON PEIN ALSO SAID:

And here are many more witness exhibits which appear to be just randomly numbered with very high numbers, including the B.G. Patterson exhibits, which begin with #5311. And the Riggs exhibits, which begin with 5128. And then there's the Talbert exhibit series, which begins with numbers 1 and 2, but then jumps to number 5065 for some reason.

And, btw, the Ruth Paine exhibit numbers jump around too, going from #278-A to #461 and finally to #469 for the last one in the Ruth Paine series.

So there doesn't appear to be any rhyme or reason for the strange numbering system utilized by the Warren Commission for the numbers assigned to the exhibits that have the witness' name attached to them---which is something else I've also never understood. Why didn't the Commission just simply label every exhibit the same way (e.g., CE1, CE2, etc.)? Why did some witnesses warrant having their own names being attached to their exhibits? I've always wondered why that was done. ~shrug~


ALAN FORD SAID THIS.


DAVID VON PEIN SAID:

OK. That explains part of the numbering system (I guess). But then the Ruth Paine exhibits jump from 461 to 469 without apparent reason. What's the reason for that particular jump, Alan?

And I also can't help but scratch my head and wonder why CE449 and CE459-1 and CE460 weren't labeled as "Ruth Paine Exhibit 449", etc.?

Quite a confusing numbering system indeed, with some exhibits dealing directly with Ruth Paine materials being straight "CE" numbers and some being labeled with "Ruth Paine Exhibit" numbers.


ALAN FORD SAID THIS.


DAVID VON PEIN SAID:

Alan Ford thinks that "Ruth Paine Exhibit No. 270 is a freak outlier" in the Warren Commission's rather odd system of numbering the WC exhibits. And Alan has asked me if I could prove him wrong "by finding me one exhibit number anywhere that genuinely compares" with Ruth Paine Exhibit No. 270.

Well, after just a brief search, I was indeed able to find a total of FOUR such WC exhibits, all of which appear in WC Volume No. 21, with none of these four examples having numbers in the 5000s.

Here are those four examples:

Pizzo Exhibits 453A—453C.

Raigorodsky Exhibits 9—14A.

Semingsen Exhibit 3001.

Wilcox Exhibits 3002—3017.

Sorry, Alan. Looks like another crackpot conspiracy theory has just gone sliding down the drain. Better luck next time.

----------------

Note --- The "Pizzo" exhibit numbers shown above aren't just "out of the blue" numbers picked by the Warren Commission (which no doubt will make Alan Ford very happy). The WC, in the Pizzo instance, must have chosen the number "453" in order to match "CE453", which is an exhibit that also surfaces in Mr. Pizzo's WC testimony. So there is a "tie in" there. I tried to find such a tie-in with the other three witnesses mentioned in this post, but I couldn't do it. Mr. Wilcox, for example, certainly has no connection with "CE3002", because CE3002 is Lee Oswald's autopsy report and Mr. Wilcox worked at Western Union Telegraph Company in 1963. So there's no "connection" there at all.


ALAN FORD SAID THIS.


DAVID VON PEIN SAID:

No, you've just decided on your own that there's a "3000 club". But there are only TWO witnesses in this "club" (Semingsen and Wilcox). Whereas the "5000 club" has dozens of examples. But there are a mere TWO members of your invented "3000 club" (and both witnesses worked for Western Union).

Plus: as I said, I see no connection between Semingsen and Wilcox and the corresponding "CE" numbers (3001 thru 3017).


ALAN FORD SAID THIS.


DAVID VON PEIN SAID:

Yes, it is.

Why didn't the Commission utilize more 5000+ numbers instead of STARTING at 3001 for the Semingsen Exhibit?


ALAN FORD SAID THIS.


DAVID VON PEIN SAID:

Regarding your [Alan Ford's] non-stop inquiry regarding the 3/15/1964 date on the CSSS document(s)....

Yes, Mr. Ford, you now have my official permission to designate my "repeated evasions" regarding that topic as a "tacit admission" on my part that I have no answer for it --- other than to keep repeating my own opinion that it is an (obvious) mistake, since the curtain rods weren't even retrieved by the Warren Commission from Ruth Paine's garage until the night of March 23rd, 1964.

But, by the same token, you cannot explain the March 15th date either (with any explanation that approaches anything of a PROVABLE nature, that is).


ALAN FORD SAID THIS.


DAVID VON PEIN SAID:

Talk about leaping to an unfounded and wholly unsupportable claim! Mr. Ford has sure done that in this discussion (starting here).

Via a series of cloak-and-dagger conspiratorial contortions and outright speculation, Mr. Ford has decided that there WERE, in fact, some curtain rods found in the TSBD after the assassination of JFK, even though the only actual evidence (and testimony) indicates the exact opposite -- i.e., no curtain rods were found in the TSBD (via CE2640, plus the fact that the police never found a single curtain rod anywhere in the Book Depository Building during their extensive searches of that building for evidence on the weekend of the assassination).

So what we end up with is more of the usual coming from a conspiracy theorist -- with that "usual" being nothing more that a bunch of wishful thinking.


ALAN FORD SAID THIS.


DAVID VON PEIN SAID:

The BIG/HUGE/TREMENDOUS/IMPORTANT difference between JFK conspiracy fantasists and myself is:

I require a total of 0 (Zero) liars (not counting Lee Oswald) in order for my Lone Assassin position to be supported and maintained.

CTers like Alan Ford, however, require a very large number of people to be telling many lies about various aspects of the evidence connected to the 11/22/63 events in Dealey Plaza and on Tenth Street.

In just this "Exhibit 275/Curtain Rod" instance alone, the CTers who think it was nothing more than a staged "charade" require several different people to be telling blatant falsehoods about the curtain rod evidence, including Ruth Paine, John Joe Howlett, Albert Jenner, J.C. Day, and (probably) Michael Paine. And it's very likely that CTers would place many other people at the Depository on this particular Liars List too.

But, as I've said many times in the past, there are a lot of conspiracy theorists who couldn't care less how many people they have to call rotten evil liars in order to try and support their silly theories. It would seem the CTer policy has been (and still remains today): The More Liars, The Better.


PAT SPEER SAID THIS.


DAVID VON PEIN SAID:

But in the "EXHIBIT NO. 275 / CURTAIN ROD" instance, which some CTers are now insisting was all just a "charade", if those CTers are correct, we'd actually have to believe that not only did people in "officialdom" fib/lie out their respective ass cracks, but we'd ALSO have to believe that Ruth Paine (and probably Michael Paine too) were lying about the curtain rods that Ruth said were stored in her garage both BEFORE and AFTER the assassination. And neither Ruth nor Michael are part of the police, the FBI, or "officialdom" in general.

And regarding the "SECOND-FLOOR LUNCHROOM ENCOUNTER", which many many CTers on the Internet now firmly believe NEVER HAPPENED AT ALL .... the liars in that instance would have, just like the "Exhibit 275 Charade", also consisted of a COMBINATION of "officialdom" people telling one lie after another (Marrion Baker) and regular ol' citizens (TSBD Superintendent Roy Truly).

And then there's the Tippit murder (which many conspiracy theorists believe was committed by someone they are sure was NOT Lee Harvey Oswald) .... with witnesses like Johnny Brewer and Ted Callaway and the Davis girls and William Scoggins all being thrown under the bus and treated like liars and crooks by various CTers over the years. And none of those people I just mentioned can be labelled as being part of "officialdom" at all. They were all just ordinary Dallas citizens in 1963.

So, again, in the Tippit case, if the CTers are right, it would have been a combination of ordinary people PLUS various police officials who must have lied through their individual and collective teeth and then they all gathered together in Chief Curry's office at City Hall and decided to join forces to frame an innocent Oswald. It's just flat-out absurd.

And there are, of course, many additional examples that I could easily cite in order to support my previous (admittedly) tongue-in-cheek comment about "The More Liars, The Better" motto/mantra that seems to have been embraced in recent years by many Internet conspiracists. But if I were to cite all of those examples in just this one post, I wouldn't get any sleep for the next five days.


JOHN IACOLETTI SAID THIS.


DAVID VON PEIN SAID:

Better read my quote again, Mr. Conspiracy. I never said there were Zero Liars in the whole case. What I said was this....

"I require a total of 0 (Zero) liars (not counting Lee Oswald) in order for my Lone Assassin position to be supported and maintained."

The above statement is certainly still 100% true even with liars like Russo, Hill, and Craig in the mix. I can easily maintain and support my Lone Assassin position even without those three people ever surfacing in any discussion.

Can CTers maintain and support THEIR position with only THREE measly liars in the mix? Not a chance. You need at least ten times that many (if not more).

P.S. -- People that I think were just simply "wrong" about something don't go into my "Liars" list. Maybe that's something that CTers like you, John, should learn.


JOHN IACOLETTI SAID THIS.


DAVID VON PEIN SAID:

I don't accept any of the claims by any of those people, Mr. Conspiracy.

They were all "wrong", but not necessarily "liars".

Just like the many Parkland witnesses who said they saw a huge hole in the back of JFK's head. I have never called any of those witnesses liars. But they were all "wrong". And they were provably wrong too, with the autopsy photographs and X-rays providing the proof (for all time) that they were wrong.


JOHN IACOLETTI SAID THIS.


DAVID VON PEIN SAID:

The JFK Conspiracy Fantasists have people scheming and plotting and planting and lying and conniving and altering and framing patsies all over the place in this case.

You think all of those never-ending accusations can be wiped out by replacing all of those terms I just used with the simple word "WRONG"?

Get real.


ALAN FORD SAID THIS.


DAVID VON PEIN SAID:

Now you're just making stuff up. There is NO EVIDENCE which points "precisely" to any curtain rods being recovered from the TSBD. None. And your fantasy and cloak-and-dagger crap regarding Paine Exhibits No. 275 & 276 doesn't come close to showing that any rods were found IN THE DEPOSITORY.

Why you think otherwise is yet another mystery.

I have said multiple times that I think the March 15th date on the DPD form is simply an error. Which it so obviously is, when taking into account the totality of the facts surrounding the two curtain rods that were recovered from Ruth Paine's garage on 3/23/64.

"Reclaiming History" book excerpt (click to enlarge):




DAVID VON PEIN ALSO SAID THIS.


ALAN FORD SAID THIS.


DAVID VON PEIN SAID:

I think "this little exchange of ours" merely showcases the utter desperation, wishful thinking, and outright speculation that we (of course) have all been accustomed to seeing in virtually every argument put forth by JFK conspiracy theorists since the crime was committed in November of 1963.

So, thank you, Alan Ford, for being willing to showcase your massive amounts of speculation and your willingness (and eagerness) to call multiple people outright liars, all based on the words "March 15" on one document (plus a copy of said document).

Another fine (and extraordinarily fun and funny) example of CTer desperation and wishful thinking and speculation in action (re: the SBT) can be found HERE.


DAVID VON PEIN ALSO SAID:

Here's another rare DPD image concerning the curtain rods, this one featuring a date --- March 25, 1964 --- which is a date that is perfectly consistent with the rods having been removed from Ruth Paine's garage on the night of March 23rd:




PAT SPEER SAID THIS.


DAVID VON PEIN SAID:

The March 25th date shown in the photo that appears in my last post is consistent with what appears in CE1952, with that version of the DPD form saying the rods were released to Howlett on March 26.

Yes, there's a SECOND copy of the form which says March 24 for the release date, which I can't fully explain. Nor can you. It's one of those "unanswerable" anomalies (unless I can locate more documents in the future that can explain why there are separate copies of the same form featuring different dates).

But it's still quite clear that BOTH forms (the one that says March 24 and the one that says March 26) are referring to the exhibits numbered 275 and 276, which were, of course, the two rods taken from Ruth's house on 3/23.

David Von Pein
November 4-9, 2023





================================


PATRICK COLLINS SAID:

David,

From your Blog ["Oswald Timeline; Part 1"]:

[Quoting DVP:]

"It's my belief that Lee Oswald, during this (approx.) 10-minute time period around noon or shortly after, probably went to the west end of the sixth floor (where he had his rifle hidden in the brown bag). Oswald unwraps the rifle at the west end of the sixth floor and assembles the rifle at the west end (hence, Arnold Rowland sees a white man with a rifle at the west end of the building at approx. this time, maybe a little later, 12:15 or so, but keep in mind the approximation of all times)."

[End DVP Quote.]

I am curious to know why you think LHO assembled the rifle on the 6th floor and around noon?


DAVID VON PEIN SAID:

Mainly because of Arnold Rowland's observations. Despite Vince Bugliosi's belief that Arnold Rowland was a liar (which is a position that I disagree with, although Mr. Rowland probably did embellish and "enhance" his story for his Warren Commission testimony -- Click Here), we can be pretty certain that Rowland DID see Oswald on the WEST end of the 6th floor holding a rifle shortly before the assassination.

Barbara Rowland, in my view, is the person who actually confirmed that particular fact when she testified that her husband, Arnold, told her AT THE TIME [on November 22nd in Dealey Plaza] about the man with a gun up in the window.

So unless BOTH Arnold and Barbara are big fat liars, then Arnold did see a gunman on the west side of the Depository at about 12:15 PM or so. And that gunman was no doubt Lee Harvey Oswald, IMO.

So that means that LHO was definitely on the WEST side of the 6th floor, with his Carcano in his hands, at about 12:15. And while trying to construct a scenario for why Oswald would have been over near that west-end window (which is the opposite end of the 6th floor from where he ultimately chose to shoot JFK from), I put forth the hypothesis that maybe---just maybe---he had assembled the gun somewhere near that west-end window, where he was observed by Rowland.

And if Oswald did, indeed, choose to stash the disassembled rifle somewhere on the west side of the sixth floor when he got to work that morning (prior to any of the "floor repair crew" arriving at work; with perhaps Oswald not realizing, or forgetting about, the fact that there were going to be TSBD employees working all morning in that west-end area of the sixth floor), then that would mean that LHO would not have had any opportunity to get to his rifle prior to lunchtime and assemble it. Which would mean he would have no choice but to wait until lunchtime and until after all the floor-fixers had vacated the sixth floor entirely.

My scenario is just a guess, of course. Just like yours, Patrick, is just a guess as well regarding your theory that LHO assembled the gun on the 7th floor (which might very well be true). But my scenario could be true as well. We'll never know for certain, because Mr. Oswald wasn't kind enough to fill in those pre-12:30 details for us before he was himself murdered.

Here's my "Oswald Timeline; Part 2", which has a give-and-take between myself and Dale Myers on the subject.

David Von Pein
November 8, 2023
[Via E-Mail]


================================


SANDY LARSEN SAID THIS.


DAVID VON PEIN SAID:

I've got an explanation that is 10,000 times "more likely" to be the accurate one when compared to any alternative theory concerning any alleged conspiratorial involvement of Linnie Mae Randle, Ruth Paine, or Buell Wesley Frazier.

But at this stage in your rapidly developing and accelerating conspiracy-oriented mind, I kind of doubt that my ho-hum explanation would interest you much. But I'll repeat a portion of my thoughts anyway (taken from this 2022 discussion):

"There's no way everything connected with the way Lee Oswald got his TSBD job could have been planned in advance by a band of CIA-sponsored housewives on Fifth Street in Irving, Texas." -- DVP; December 18, 2022


DAVID VON PEIN LATER SAID THIS AND THIS.


David Von Pein
November 11-12, 2023





================================


VINCE PALAMARA SAID THIS.


DAVID VON PEIN SAID:

And we know for a FACT—based on this and this (in tandem)—that both Clint Hill and Paul Landis were 100% dead wrong when they stated that the back of President Kennedy's head was "missing".

They aren't liars, they're just wrong, like all of the other Back-Of-The-Head ("BOH") witnesses.

And, very likely, one of the reasons for why most of the BOH witnesses had a mistaken impression of where the large exit wound on President Kennedy's head was located—possibly the #1 primary reason—clearly rests in the lap (literally) of First Lady Jackie Kennedy. Because Mrs. Kennedy, without doubt, manipulated and changed the configuration of JFK's head wound while the limousine was speeding to Parkland Hospital. We know that for a fact because Jackie told us so in her Warren Commission testimony. She said that during the drive to the hospital, she tried to "hold his hair on, and his skull on".

So, Jacqueline Kennedy, in effect, closed up the huge gaping hole in the right-front of JFK's head. And she must have done a pretty good job of "closing" it up too, so that the witnesses in Trauma Room No. 1 weren't even aware there was a huge gaping wound in the upper-right part of the President's head. Which left those witnesses staring at a head that was essentially intact (from their point of view).

So what they mostly saw was the massive amount of blood that was pooling, via gravity, toward the RIGHT-REAR portion of JFK's head, with much of that blood no doubt clinging to the right-rear (occipital) area of the head, giving the false impression that the one and only wound in the President's head was located in the right-rear (occipital) area of the head.

Incredible, you say?

Impossible for so many witnesses to be fooled by the closing up of one single flap on the President's head?

Many people think such a thing was impossible. But what better explanation is there? (And the "Fake Autopsy Photos & X-rays" explanation doesn't come even close to qualifying as a "better" explanation.)

David Von Pein
November 15, 2023





================================


GARY AGUILAR SAID:

I have it on good authority that the Parkland docs piece ["JFK: What The Doctors Saw"] will be available for streaming this coming Tuesday [11/14/23] at Paramount+.

Warren loyalists hate the Parkland doctors, who they regard as so stupid they couldn't tell the anterolateral portion of a human skull from the occipitoparietal portion. This special will no doubt give them even more reason to hate the Dallas doctors.


DAVID VON PEIN SAID:

Basic Fact....

President Kennedy did NOT have a great-big hole in the BACK (occipital) portion of his head UNLESS all (or certainly most) of the autopsy photos AND autopsy X-rays AND the Zapruder Film have been faked / forged / altered / fabricated / manufactured.

The above is just a simple and provable FACT that has existed in this case since the day Kennedy was shot.

And how could anyone who is in their right mind possibly believe that such massive fakery and alteration actually did take place when it comes to all of those various photographic items of evidence I just mentioned (autopsy photographs + autopsy X-rays + Z-Film)?

A person who says they believe in such mass fakery is, in my opinion, practically admitting they are insane and ready for a rubber room.

My $0.02.


LARRY SCHNAPF SAID:

At the very end [of the "What The Doctors Saw" documentary], the doctors agree that the autopsy photos and xrays do not match the injuries they saw in the ER.


DAVID VON PEIN SAID:

That's good that (some of) the Parkland doctors finally made such an obvious admission.

We can only shake our heads and wonder why some of the same doctors said exactly the opposite in 1988, when four doctors told a NOVA/PBS audience that the autopsy pics that they were looking at for the first time somehow matched and corroborated the big "BOH" blow-out they each said they saw on 11/22 [see the video below]. ~shrug~



The most ridiculous statement made during the 1988 NOVA special was this preposterous quote that came out of the mouth of Dr. McClelland:

"I find no discrepancy between the wounds as they're shown very vividly in these photographs and what I remember very vividly." -- Robert McClelland; 1988

~~huge shrug~~

Here's McClelland's 1988 "hands on" demonstration (and just minutes later he said that the autopsy photos matched this hands-on demonstration ["no discrepancy"]):




GARY AGUILAR SAID:

Oh, David!

This shows such desperation.

McClelland then, and again in the Paramount special, said he thought the photo showing the back of JFK's head to be intact only looked that way because someone, apparently Boswell, was pulling the scalp forward over the large rearward skull defect that he said was there, out of which he saw cerebellum fall out.

Why do you not tell the whole story, David?


DAVID VON PEIN SAID:

Why won't you tell the "whole story", Gary? And part of that "whole story" is the FACT that McClelland's "pulled-up scalp" fairy tale is utter nonsense and just plain idiotic (even from a CTer POV). (Not to mention the fact that it's physically impossible.)

Why do I say that?

Because in order for McClelland's crazy "scalp" theory to be accurate, we'd actually have to believe that Kennedy's RIGHT-REAR SCALP was magically left untouched and undamaged by the same bullet that ripped a huge hole in the RIGHT-REAR SKULL of Kennedy....and then on top of that impossibility, we'd also have to believe that JFK's scalp had been "reflected" back on his head while he was at Parkland, in order for McClelland to be able to see any big hole that was underneath the intact scalp.

And neither of those things is the slightest bit believable. Kennedy's scalp could not have been totally damage-free IF there had been a huge "BOH" hole in the occipital area of his head. And, of course, the scalp was certainly not "reflected" (or peeled back) off the skull while Kennedy lay on his stretcher at Parkland Hospital.

Why various conspiracy theorists can't see the illogic that exists within Dr. Robert McClelland's "pulled-up scalp" theory is beyond me. Because the built-in "impossibility" of such a nutty theory is readily apparent to me.


GARY AGUILAR SAID:

David,

This [below] is the correct orientation of the back head photo, and it's obvious that someone, apparently Boswell, is standing and holding JFK's scalp over the back of his head. This is what McClelland is talking about, as if it weren't already glaringly obvious:



While I understand that you place great weight on official claims, let's not neglect that all three of JFK's pathologists, both Stringer and Reibe, as well as Saundra Spencer, agree autopsy photos are missing. In other words, the Dallas docs aren't the only ones saying there are problems with JFK's autopsy photos.

There's much more to the story, so please don't expect me, or anyone who's rational, to accept that, uniquely in the Kennedy case, the US Govt is telling us the truth, something you apparently desperately need to believe.


DAVID VON PEIN SAID:

You must be kidding me, Gary!

When evaluating Dr. McClelland's absurd "pulled-up scalp" theory, you actually think it makes any difference whatsoever which way the BOH autopsy photo is oriented? That's crazy.

Because no matter which way you turn that photo---sideways or any other direction---the scalp in the back of President Kennedy's head is still going to be 100% intact (except, of course, for the small entry wound in the cowlick area, which is where Lee Harvey Oswald's 6.5-millimeter Carcano bullet entered JFK's head).

Which means, of course, regardless of how the BOH photo is positioned, Dr. McClelland's theory about the right-rear SCALP of JFK remaining (somehow and in some mysterious way) completely intact and undamaged, even though (at the same time) the "right posterior portion of the skull had been extremely blasted" [Warren Commission Testimony of Dr. Robert N. McClelland at 6 H 33], will remain a completely untenable (and impossible) theory to swallow.

So, Gary, I don't see how turning the autopsy picture (or the Dox drawing) sideways helps to rehabilitate the late Dr. McClelland's credibility concerning this matter one bit.


GARY AGUILAR SAID:

And while you're working on your rejoinder, please explain how the following credible witnesses from Parkland, who wrote their accounts on 11-22-63, happened to be soooo uniformly wrong (to say nothing of the many other Parkland and autopsy witnesses who said much the same thing):

Warren Report:

Page 518: Kemp Clark, MD: "There was a large wound in the right occipito-parietal region ... There was considerable loss of scalp and bone tissue. Both cerebral and cerebrellar tissue was extruding from the wound." -- [Undated, typed noted]

Page 520: "The other wound had avulsed the calvarium and brain tissue present with diffuse oozing ... attempt to control slow oozing from cerebral and cerebellar tissue via packs instituted." -- [11-22-63, 16:20, Charles J. Carrico, MD]

Page 521: "A large wound of the right posterior cranium was noted." -- [Malcolm O. Perry, MD, 16:30, 11-22-63]

Page 523: "The temporal and occipital bones were missing and the brain was lying on the table." -- [Charles Baxter, MD, Assistant Prof of Surgery, 11-22-63]

Page 524-525: In a hand-written hospital note: "A large 3x3 cm remnant of cerebral tissue present....there was a smaller amount of cerebellar tissue present also....There was a large wound beginning in the right occiput extending into the parietal region .... Much of the skull appeared gone at the brief examination." -- [Kemp Clark, MD, 11-22-63, 16:15 hrs.]

Page 529-530: "There was a great laceration on the right side of the head (temporal and occipital), 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." -- [M.T. Jenkins, MD, 11-22-63, 16:30]

Regards,

Gary


DAVID VON PEIN SAID:

Although this explanation isn't exactly totally satisfying to me either, the best answer that I have been able to come up with to the 60-year-old head-scratcher of how the Parkland Hospital witnesses could have all been so "uniformly wrong" is — (drum roll) — Jackie Kennedy.*

* As I explained (coincidentally) just four days ago in a discussion at The Education ForumHERE.

Also....

With respect to Dr. Baxter's specific comment in which he said "occipital bones were missing":

That specific observation by Baxter is provably wrong, because the X-ray pictured below (which was authenticated by the HSCA) proves for all time that there was absolutely NO occipital bone "missing" from the skull of John F. Kennedy when the autopsy was done on his body at Bethesda on November 22, 1963:



Related "X-ray" discussion HERE.


LARRY SCHNAPF SAID:

Gary and DVP,

Is this a question about scalp vs skull bone?

My understanding is that the scalp was lacerated but not a significant amount was missing as opposed to skull fragments. The images of the skull fragments that I have seen don’t seem to have any hair on them. If they had hair on them that would suggest presence of scalp. So if the scalp was largely intact—albeit lacerated by skull fragments—could the scalp be stretched over an underlying wound caused by missing skull?


DAVID VON PEIN SAID:

Main point (still) being (re: McClelland's crazy theory)....

The SCALP in the back of JFK's head was NOT "blown out" (nor was it "lacerated"). Therefore, how would it even have been possible for McClelland (or anybody else at Parkland) to see any large "blow-out" at the REAR of the SKULL? Such an observation at Parkland was simply not possible, as the THREE different photographic items shown below adequately prove for all time, with those 3 items showing that there was no "missing" SKULL or SCALP at the right-rear (occipital) area of Kennedy's cranium.

Conspiracy theorists cannot get around these facts without resorting to the proverbial "Fake Pictures AND Z-Film" argument.



David Von Pein
November 11-20, 2023
[Via E-Mail]


================================


TONY KROME SAID THIS.


DAVID VON PEIN SAID:

And that same 6th-floor assassination weapon was ALSO described (at various times on Nov. 22 and 23) as a German Mauser, a 30-30 rifle, and a Japanese weapon (and possibly even more inaccurate descriptions). They can't ALL be the right description, can they?

So if you have a desire to cling to bad information based on the early media errors, then, yes, you can easily "create" your own conspiracy theory. It's easy to do that kind of CT "creating". All you need to do is pick one of these many media mistakes and run with it as if it were the unvarnished 100% truth. But why anybody would want to do something so foolish is beyond me.


TONY KROME SAID THIS.


DAVID VON PEIN SAID:

Indeed, it is "a big mix up".

Because....

We know that "Oswald" did not own an "Argentine Mauser".

And....

We know that CE139 is not an "Argentine Mauser" either.

I'm sure that many CTers, though, think it was merely a case of the Oswald Patsy Framers just being idiots and morons when they decided to plant an ARGENTINE MAUSER at the crime scene, even though those plotters had to know that the Oswald they were framing owned a MANNLICHER-CARCANO.

A brilliant strategy indeed.

David Von Pein
November 16, 2023





================================


DAVID VON PEIN SAID:

Wanna see a truly "doctored" photograph?

Click Here. (Also pictured below.)

It's an obviously altered and doctored version of one of James Altgens' Dealey Plaza pictures which appeared on the front page of The Sun-Herald in Sydney, Australia, on November 24, 1963.

What the Sydney newspaper editors did, incredibly, is that they turned a portion of the bottom of a street light pole into the head of JFK. And the newspaper people also totally eliminated the entire light pole from the photo. The original and unaltered photograph can be seen HERE.

I know that some newspaper and magazine publishers have attempted to "enhance" various assassination-related pictures, but I don't think I've ever seen such a blatant and outright distortion of a photograph than that which we see in this Sydney newspaper example. It's shameless and inexcusable (IMO).

It's possible, I suppose, that perhaps other newspaper publishers have also used that "altered" version of the picture which erases the light pole entirely and then "adds in" what they want their readers to believe is the head of the mortally wounded President, but I don't recall seeing any other papers using it.

Here's the doctored image (with the "doctoring" extending to other parts of the picture too -- such as the accentuated markings around Jackie's pillbox hat). Click to enlarge:



David Von Pein
November 17, 2023


================================


DAVID FREE SAID:

Hello David,

I’ve been admiring your JFK work from a distance for a while now. (Actually from a very long distance: I live in Australia). I’m a big fan and user of your JFK YouTube channel—it really is an invaluable resource for any serious student of the case. I especially love those old radio and campus debates from the mid-to-late 60s—the ones featuring Wesley Liebeler, Mark Lane etc. They’ve been very handy in helping to shape and inform the stuff that I have been writing about the assassination myself. And I’m also a big fan of the book you co-wrote with Mel Ayton. If only there were more books like it!

You might enjoy this article that I’ve just published in The Sydney Morning Herald to coincide with the 60th anniversary. My thesis is that after 60 years, it might finally be time to declare that JFK conspiracy theory is officially dead—and that it never delivered any genuine or lasting breakthroughs, and achieved nothing except to pave the way for more damaging forms of conspiratorial thinking. Of course, there is no info in the article that you won’t already be very familiar with, given your expertise about the case. But you may be amused by one or two of the jabs I take at the conspiracy theorists.

I’m currently releasing a podcast about the assassination called “Ghosts of Dallas”. There’s a fair amount of archival audio in the podcast, most of which I have got from your channel—and I’ve given you and the channel a suitably appreciative shout-out on the podcast’s webpage and in the show notes etc.

Mainly I’m trying to tell the “epic story of JFK conspiracism” in a thorough and perhaps definitive way for the general listener who doesn’t know about stuff like the Walker assassination attempt, the curtain rods story, Jack Ruby and Sheba, etc, etc.

It’s funny, when we were pitching the podcast to the youngish American hotshots who commission projects for the podcast studios, several of them candidly admitted that they knew precisely nothing about the details of Kennedy’s assassination, but still tended to suspect that there had been some kind of conspiracy! Anyway, it’s people like that who I’m trying to reach and inform with this podcast.

Anyway, thanks again for your superb JFK video and audio archive. It’s invaluable for all of us who are engaged in the ongoing task of “reclaiming history” on this subject.

All the best,
David Free


DAVID VON PEIN SAID:

Hi David!

Thanks so much for your nice e-mail today. I appreciate the kind words. And I will most certainly read your article that you linked to, and I definitely look forward to also listening to each installment of your podcast regarding the JFK assassination. It should be a refreshing change from all of the non-stop "conspiracy" talk that I am constantly encountering on the JFK forums that I frequent. Thanks (in advance) for producing such an audio podcast.



Very best regards,
David Von Pein
November 17, 2023
[Via E-Mail]


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DAVID VON PEIN SAID:

Video Recommendation....

The "Oral History" interview with Vivian Castleberry linked below is an absolute treat. I watched it for the first time today [November 21st, 2023] after learning that it is one of Stephen Fagin's favorite programs he has ever done for The Sixth Floor Museum's ongoing Oral History project. (Fagin is now the curator of the Museum.)

And after just one viewing, this 2004 interview with this remarkable lady (who was 82 years old at the time) now ranks as one of my favorite assassination-related interviews as well:



David Von Pein
November 21, 2023


================================


DAVID VON PEIN SAID:

I just listened to Episode 3 of Rob Reiner's new 10-part podcast ("Who Killed JFK?") --- and it's just about what I would expect from conspiracy theorists, with all the usual Conspiracy Myths being recycled and rehashed for a new audience here in November of 2023, including the myth about the Warren Commission being forced to accept the Single-Bullet Theory when the WC found out about James Tague. Mr. Reiner and company, as usual, totally ignore (or failed to read and comprehend) Page 117 of the Warren Report, which clearly states that the Commission had considered multiple possibilities to explain Mr. Tague's slight cheek injury.

And then there's the usual CT denial with respect to what can clearly be seen going on with Governor Connally at frames 224 to 230 of the Zapruder Film, with Mr. Reiner assuring his listeners that Connally wasn't reacting to his bullet wounds until well after JFK was reacting to his (which is just a flat-out falsehood).

Etc., etc....

So, if you want to listen to this tripe linked below, just be prepared for the usual conspiracy-flavored conjecture and speculation.



David Von Pein
November 24, 2023





================================


PAT SPEER SAID THIS.


DAVID VON PEIN SAID:

To use one of Pat's favorite expressions here ---- Yikes!

You must be joking with that last post of yours, Pat. Because the doctors in the 1988 NOVA/PBS program most certainly did not say they had been "mistaken" when it comes to the location of the large wound they observed in JFK's head.

None of them said to the camera something like this:

I was mistaken. The large wound was, indeed, to the RIGHT-FRONT of the President's head, just as the autopsy photos show. Therefore, I must have been mistaken.

But instead of saying something like the above, the Parkland doctors said things like this:

"I don't see evidence of any alteration of his wound in these pictures from what I saw in the emergency room."

and....

"Nothing that I've seen would make me think it had been changed from what happened that day."

and....

"Looking at these photos, they're pretty much as I remember President Kennedy at the time."

and....

"I find no discrepancy between the wounds as they're shown very vividly in these photographs and what I remember very vividly."

Crazy!


PAT SPEER SAID THIS.


DAVID VON PEIN SAID:

Yikes (again)!!

You, Pat, actually said what you just said above even though you know that two of the doctors in '88 did admit they were "mistaken" (or in "error") with respect to seeing the cerebellum.

So if they were ready to admit they were "mistaken" on that issue, then why not admit (on camera) that they were mistaken about the location of the wound?

Plus....

Dr. McClelland's laughable "pulled-up scalp" explanation is the proof right there that he certainly was NOT admitting (in any fashion) that he was mistaken about the big BOH wound he has always said he saw. Because both BEFORE and AFTER he went into the NARA room to view the autopsy photos, McClelland still maintained there was a big hole at the REAR of Kennedy's head/SKULL. And that is a SKULL wound we know he could not possibly have seen....and the X-ray below is the proof he couldn't have seen any such "BOH" hole, because all of the skull bone in the right-rear of JFK's head is still present and accounted for in this X-ray. (I wonder if the doctors were shown this X-ray at NARA in 1988 for the NOVA show. Anybody know?)




PAT SPEER SAID THIS.


DAVID VON PEIN SAID:

But Dr. McClelland never saw any "left temple" wound. He got that erroneous info from Dr. Jenkins. See the quotes from McClelland below (via an interview that Vince Bugliosi had with McClelland in 2002).

Quoting from Bugliosi's book, "Reclaiming History" (page 406):

-------------------

"It was getting late in the evening, Dallas time, but before I ended the interview I reminded Dr. McClelland of the fact that in his Parkland Hospital admission note at 4:45 p.m. on the day of the assassination, he had written that the president died "from a gunshot wound of the left temple." "Yes," he said, "that was a mistake. I never saw any wound to the president's left temple. Dr. Jenkins had told me there was a wound there, though he later denied telling me this." "

-------------------

Many more excerpts from Vincent Bugliosi's 2002 interview with Dr. McClelland can be found HERE.

Also go to the 14:21 mark in THIS 2009 INTERVIEW with Dr. McClelland, which is where McClelland talks about the erroneous "left temple" observation (which he, again, attributes to Dr. Jenkins and not to his own observations).

David Von Pein
November 27-29, 2023





================================


DAVID VON PEIN SAID:

As the 60th anniversary of President Kennedy's death quickly approaches here in November of 2023, I wanted to renew a little bit of interest in what is, in my opinion, the very best motion picture film or documentary ever produced about JFK's 1963 assassination....with that film being David L. Wolper's 1964 masterpiece, "Four Days In November".

Here's a review for the film that I wrote at Amazon.com in July 2001:

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------





Four Days In November is my all-time favorite program dealing with the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. You really get a sense of re-living the events of November 22-25, 1963, when America's all-too-young, 46-year-old leader was gunned down on the sunny streets of Dallas, Texas.

This 1964 black-and-white documentary, skillfully narrated by actor Richard Basehart, was filmed only months after the events, making the re-creations that were filmed for this movie all the more effective, since the people involved, the locations, the landmarks, and even the automobiles had not changed to a great degree (if at all) since the tragedy occurred. I truly had the sense of being there BEFORE it happened because of the very good re-created scenes.

This wonderfully-edited chronological documentary guides the viewer through all four of those dark November days that shocked the nation in late 1963. An integral part of this program lies in its outstanding musical score, by Elmer Bernstein. Mr. Bernstein's stirring score fits just perfectly here, adding emotional impact to each portion of the film.

In addition to many re-created scenes, there is a hefty amount of stock news footage presented throughout this 122-minute film, some of which you probably have seen before, and some you probably haven't. The Joan Crawford/Richard Nixon clip was one I'd never seen in the past, as well as the footage of Lee Harvey Oswald's funeral, which nearly no one attended.

One particular re-created scene in the film that has an especially eerie feeling to it is the scene where we see Wesley Frazier driving his 1954 Chevrolet sedan toward the "drab bulk" of the Texas School Book Depository Building, which looms ahead in the foreground. Frazier was the 19-year-old Depository co-worker of Lee Harvey Oswald's who gave Oswald a ride to work on the morning of the President's assassination.

The Zapruder Film is not represented in this documentary. It was to be yet another 11 years before the public at large was to see Mr. Zapruder's infamous film. Four Days does include a sequence from the Nix Film, however.

Wolper Productions sidestepped all the conspiracy theories [thank goodness] and stuck by the Warren Commission Report for this documentary.

Many of the facts surrounding JFK's assassination have been disputed and debated by researchers for decades. And this tragic crime will likely remain a topic that shall cause heated discussion for many more years to come.

But what the film Four Days In November does accomplish is to allow the viewer to re-live those sorrowful November days, in the order in which the events transpired, based on the evidence available. This is definitely one program that deserves to be in anyone's JFK collection.

David Von Pein
July 2001


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Related "Four Days" Links:










David Von Pein
November 5, 2023


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