The JFK Assassination in two photographs

Written by Michael

The assassinations of the 60s have been on my mind of late, thanks to these Beatle mysteries I’m writing (anybody interested in finding out when they’re coming out should email mikesnewbooks[at]gmail[dot]com). One of the most persistent canards about the JFK assassination is that it’s incredibly difficult to understand, and that one must do a ton of reading to have any chance of “proving” a conspiracy. That’s simply not true. While it does take a ton of reading to get some sense of the totality of what was going on, a conspiracy at the highest levels of government can be shown irrefutably in two photographs.

aut10 HI The JFK Assassination in two photographs

Fig 1: Groden superior right profile.

This first photograph is from the President’s autopsy, performed at Bethesda Naval Hospital on the night of November 22nd, 1963. It’s important to note that, at this point, the body has been solely in government hands; no mortician has touched it, and it should appear exactly as it did to the doctors at Parkland Hospital (there’s considerable debate on this point, but that’s not what I’m driving at). Look at the area of JFK’s right temple, his forehead above his right eye, and his eye socket. Note where the wound clearly ends. While there appears to be some swelling in the eyebrow area, the structure of the President’s face appears to be sound. In fact, judging from the shadow, the right eyebrow ridge seems to be quite pronounced.

X AP The JFK Assassination in two photographs

Fig. 2: AP X-ray.

This photo is an X-ray of President Kennedy’s skull taken from the front. Note how far the defect in the bone extends, all the way down to the eye socket. According to this x-ray, there should be a chunk of forehead and eyebrow shattered, if not actually missing. That eyebrow ridge on the skull? Not only is it present in the photo we looked at earlier, it’s solid enough to be casting a shadow.

These photos are both widely available, and I encourage you to check them out sometime in a higher resolution. More importantly, the veracity of these photos has never been questioned by the defenders of the “lone nut” theory. Unfortunately one of them has to be wrong. Wrong means “faked,” and a faked autopsy photo says a lot of things. It says “coverup,” and it says “inside the government.” The mafia could have been, and perhaps was, part of a shooter team; ditto, the anti-Castro Cubans. But only the US government had access to the body and the autopsy photos.

Does this discrepancy between the photos prove a massive conspiracy to murder the President? No. It proves a government cover-up. Who killed JFK and how is a different question. What this proves is the government’s absolute unreliability as a custodian of evidence in politically sensitive crimes, which is probably worse news for all of us living in 2010.

stare of death The JFK Assassination in two photographs

Fig. 3: Groden "stare of death" photo.

Just for good measure, here’s another autopsy photo showing the same area from a different angle. Note how the right eyebrow and eyesocket both appear normal. No part of the face shows any damage whatsoever–no holes, no lacerations, no bruising, no sagging of flesh; the skin is taut, supported by bone. The heavily traumatized right side casts the same shadows, in the same places, as the undamaged left.

There’s more–a lot more–that I could talk about regarding the medical evidence, but this discrepancy alone is enough to demonstrate that the government cannot be trusted on this matter, and that defending their lone-assassin conclusion is simply an act of faith. I don’t know why someone in the government was faking x-rays and/or photos, who or what they were trying to protect, or what the unfaked documents looked like. Evidence tampering renders that kind of precision impossible, that’s why criminals do it. If I robbed a bank, then whipped up a photo of you doing it and the Chief of Police agreed the photo looked like you, that doesn’t make you a bank robber! Corrupted evidence turns expert witnesses into accessories after the fact. In a manipulated murder, one must be content with broad conclusions, and in the case of JFK, these two or three photos say a lot.

Cover-ups, like other types of fiction, do not have to be plausible to succeed; they need only provide an appealing framework upon which people can hang their own needs and desires. These needs can be noble (fingering Oswald to prevent global thermonuclear war), ignoble (getting away with murder), or simple self-interest (realizing that “you can’t fight City Hall”). But the stronger the needs and desires are, the less plausible the narrative can be. The “lone nut” hypothesis becomes less plausible the more you know, because you continually run into common sense discrepancies like the photos above. Eventually the discrepancies outweigh your need to believe in the official version.

This, in the end, is the fatal flaw of all the official investigations into President Kennedy’s murder: a great, great deal has always ridden upon their coming to the “right” conclusion, that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone. This tangible, immediate, organizational needs have been counterbalanced only by airy, abstract, individual ones—things like an admiration for John Kennedy, or an interest in history, or a general desire to know the truth. Institutions cannot admire, cannot be curious, they do not solve puzzles; only individuals have these motivations, which is why the JFK case always seems to devolve into one august, utterly certain institution versus a rag-tag band of fervent individuals. No government has ever investigated itself worth a damn; asking a government to investigate itself is like asking a shark to turn vegetarian. That’s not to say a shark can’t eat a vegetable occasionally by mistake, but you shouldn’t expect it to. And it’s why, when it comes to JFK, you’re better off believing your own eyes.

Any of you interested in examining this issue more in-depth are invited to go to this page at Mary Ferrell.org.