The Missing Brain Solved

Actually, very few things in the Kennedy assassination are ever fully solved, but the tale I’m about to relate is as close as it gets to having some resolution to the controversy of John Kennedy’s missing, autopsied brain.

The brain is probably the most important piece of evidence in the investigation. From it, the path of the bullet that struck Kenney’s head (whose exact impact location has been highly debated over the years) can be determined as it traces the damage path. Since its disappearance over 40 years ago, the missing brain has the appearance of a dastardly, grand cabal at work. However, it’s easily explained, though the explanation points to other mysteries and acts of cunning on behalf of the Kennedy family.

After the president’s autopsy, all of the materials such as x-rays, photographs, and tissue samples, including the 8"x7” steel canister containing the brain, were placed in a footlocker for safekeeping. It was transferred to the Secret Service office in the White House where it stayed until Robert Kennedy, by now a senator, ordered White House physician Dr. Burkley to transfer it over to the president’s secretary Evelyn Lincoln, on April 22, 1965. At the time, Mrs. Lincoln was provided with a temporary office in the National Archives for the purpose of processing presidential documents over to the archives. A month later Robert Kennedy informs Mrs. Lincoln that he is sending two of his people over to retrieve the footlocker. It stays in the Kennedy family’s possession until Johnson’s Justice Department informs them they want the materials back at the National Archives. It was returned on October 29, 1966 as a “deed gift” from the Kennedy family estate with restrictions. (What a cheek! Returning government property they commandeered as a “gift.”) Restrictions included that none of the materials were allowed to be put on display and only approved scholars could examine the items. At Justice, they are mainly concerned with X-rays and photographs and not the tissue samples. So that is what they ended up with and the Kennedy family got the tissue samples and the container with the brain in it. (Hidden negotiations going on here?)

So there you have it. The Kennedy family absconds with the brain. It is either entrusted within their estate, or destroyed, or buried with John Kennedy’s body when it was reentered. We’ll never know for sure.

But there is more to the story. When autopsy photographer John Springer was giving his testimony to the Assassination Records and Review Board (ARRB) in the mid-90’s he got a chance to review his photographs in the National Archive. Not only did he discover that photographs he shot were missing, there were other photographs that he did not take. For example, there is a photograph of the bottom of the brain; Springer says he only shot the top. More importantly, when he examined the negatives, they were of a brand of film that he did not use. He shot Kodak portrait pan film, with unnumbered frames. The film in the Archive is branded as Ansco and the frames are all numbered! He also concluded the same for his Kodak Ektachrome color positive transparencies (i.e., slides) were not Kodak film either and speculated it was Ansco film as well. In other words, Springer was not looking at his original negatives and transparencies—he was looking at duplicates.

Where then are the originals? I think they are locked away somewhere in the Kennedy family safe.

What about the x-rays in the National Archive that the Kennedy’s supposedly returned? Dr. David Mantik, M.D. and Ph.D., has a freely downloadable essay entitled, “The JFK Autopsy Materials: Twenty Conclusions After Nine Visits.” He documents his nine visits to the Archive to examine the autopsy X-rays and some of the film and other evidence. He concluded that (1) the three remaining skull X-rays were duplicates and open to the possibility of forgery; and (2) that several of the authenticity of several of the autopsy photographs were doubtful as well.

Apparently, the Kennedy family got away with more than the brain and tissue samples. They got the originals of the black and white negatives, color transparencies, and select X-rays as well. This further explains after Robert Kennedy’s death, when Mrs. Lincoln sent her security concerns about the remaining materials in the Archives to the Kennedy family, Ted Kennedy responded via an aide that, “Everything is under control.” Of course it is—they have all the originals locked away in the family vault.

What amazing audacity these people have. But, after all, they are Kennedy’s and this is what they get away with.

The Grassy Knoll Shooter Missed

As you can see by the diagram above, if there was a shooter on the grassy knoll, he didn’t make the kill shot. His angle would have made an exit wound on the left side of Kennedy’s head. Basically, ear to ear. As has been fully documented, Kennedy’s head wound was lateral, from the back to front, or front to back, depending on your orientation and beliefs. So if there were a second shooter he would have to be positioned at or near the railroad overpass in front of the motorcade. But that causes other problems too. If a shooter or shooters were positioned at the railroad overpass they don’t have a lateral angle either. In fact, a careful study of the angles will show that that the kill shot could only have been accomplished from behind.

I’ve always thought there could have been a shooter from the grassy knoll. Now, I am not so sure. There are the eye witness reports of Secret Service agents shooing people away from the area; there is the Newman family standing on the curb, seen later in photos on the grass covering their children claiming they heard shots over the heads (from the knoll); there is Senator Yarbrough’s comments on smelling gun smoke from the knoll; two of Kennedy’s aids said they heard shots from the knoll; eight men on the railroad overpass said they saw smoke coming from the trees in the knoll; there is the photograph of the motorcycle cop climbing over the short wall there as if he was in pursuit of a suspect; Zapruder claiming he heard shots from his right as he filmed the assassination; there are the photos and films of throngs of people rushing up the stairs to look behind the fence after the shooting.

From all of this, it is easy to conclude that something is going on there. The grassy knoll is deeply ingrained in the lore of the Kennedy assassination. In the end, it may turn out to be a straw man of conspiracy belief that leads many astray. So when I say the shooter there missed, I really mean if he were there to begin with, he would have missed, as he couldn’t have gotten the right angle for Kennedy’s fatal head wound. That applies to you, Mr. Files and your claim of being the grassy knoll shooter.

But even with the missing angle there is still the multiple witness testimony of hearing, seeing, and smelling something taking place on the knoll. Could someone have been there firing blanks as a diversion? I find it hard to believe all of these witnesses are mistaken. As Vince Bugliosi wrote in Reclaiming history, find me 10 witnesses that are all wrong. There are more than 10 witnesses here. That salient image of the Newman’s laying on the curb protecting their children means something. A parent does not do that lightly; there is a sense of fear in their faces from the danger they had just experienced and survived. It’s not fakery.

Of course, you can still have more shooters than just Oswald that have the right angle for the kill shot. There is another good position—the Dallas County Records Building, on Huston street. This location provides a bee-line to the limousine as it passes on Elm Street. Jim Mars in Crossfire, tells of a technician working on an air-conditioning unit atop of this very same building. On the roof he spots a large caliber spent cartridge. It’s weathered and has apparently be lying there for years. It also shows signs of being crimped to allow the use of a sabot, an insert used to allow the use of a smaller caliber bullet. This would allow for a higher velocity and higher impact shot. This piece of evidence was found years after the assassination and of course was never entered into evidence by the FBI. Proof of another shooter?

So here again we have another black hole. Loads of witnesses to an event that doesn’t add up. As with issues like this involving the Kennedy assassination one has to weigh all of the facts and try to draw a conclusion from it. And sometimes it’s just not possible.

Sources: Google; Mars, Crossfire; Buglosi, Reclaiming History