Did Lee Harvey Oswald Act Alone? Here's a Fresh Analysis and Disturbng Conclusion

It's hard to believe that we are still discussing the JFK assassination of 1963. Even more remarkable is the notion that we still debate the legitimacy of the Warren Commission and the "lone gunman" theory. If you don't trust your government, then it's easier to accept the possibility of rogue elements conspiring to eliminate a sitting president for dark purposes. 

The arguments in favor of Oswald being a lone gunman have been trotted out endlessly. I remember a special edition of Nova in which Walter Cronkite demonstrated how each of the anomalies could have happened. Stephen King, in his novel 11.22.63 (about the assassination) concludes that Oswald acted alone. Yet the doubters remain undaunted. 

A few weeks ago a Substack post by Doomberg deviated from its normal themes to shed light on the Kennedy assassination. It's very straightforward, and I would like to share as much as I can get away with.

Despite the critical role eyewitness testimony plays in Western judicial systems, witnesses are not always accurate in their recollection of events. This is especially true when people are surprised, have only a few seconds to observe their surroundings before a crime concludes, and are untrained in the skill of putting important details to memory under duress. If the woman to the left of you in line at the grocery store is suddenly mugged, it is understandable that you might get the color of the assailant’s shirt wrong when telling your story to the police. It all happened so fast, and your attention quickly turned to helping the woman up from the floor in the moments after the assault. You think it was orange, but it could well have been brown.

As far as witness quality goes, those doctors and nurses at Parkland Memorial were as good as they come. All were trained professionals, they were put on notice ahead of the president’s arrival, and they had ample time to observe his condition mere minutes after he was shot. The lighting was good, the setting familiar. They shared observations among themselves as they tried in vain to save his life, and they had treated countless gunshot victims during their careers. Most importantly, they also knew the full weight of history would soon fall on their shoulders, and they would be wise to pay extreme attention to detail.

In the hours after the president’s body was hurriedly removed and flown back to Washington, the Parkland medical team followed protocol and put to paper copious notes of what had just transpired. Some were written by hand, others typed. More than 50 years after the tragedy, those notes still exist at the US National Archives and Records Administration, open for any curious citizen to peruse. This set of documents is all one needs to come to a definitive conclusion about what happened in Dallas on that fateful day.

Why?

Because the doctors and nurses at Parkland were not yet aware of what they were supposed to write and so they simply wrote the truth. 

The truth told in those notes is clear, definitive, and comprehensive in its unanimity. The president had a giant, gaping wound in the back right corner of his head, a significant part of his brain had been blasted outward from front to back, and he was all but dead before he arrived at the hospital. That’s what the best trained and least biased witnesses with the most intimate access to Kennedy in the minutes after he was shot universally claimed, and there is no legitimate reason or compelling counterevidence to refute those observations.

Doomberg points out that the discrepancies between the autopsy photos and the Parkland medical notes suggest issues with the photos rather than undermining the reliability of the notes as evidence. Similarly, contradictions between the Zapruder film and the Parkland notes point to questions about the film’s current condition rather than diminishing the notes’ evidentiary weight. The fact that some Parkland doctors later altered their accounts likely reflects external pressures they faced rather than questioning the credibility of their original notes.

The notes are all you need to read, and doing so will permanently alter your perspective on the ugly history that follows.

In other words, a key advantage of reviewing the Parkland notes is the ability to set aside the contentious elements of the Kennedy assassination debate, many of which bear the signs of deliberate misdirection by intelligence agencies. There’s no need to delve into theories about throat injuries, the single-bullet theory, Lee Harvey Oswald’s movements, or various films. Does the well-known Altgens photo number 6, capturing the assassination, show Oswald standing at ground level, dressed in the same clothes he was arrested in? It’s irrelevant. The critical fact is the large exit wound in the back of the president’s head, which is the only detail that truly matters.

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Related Links

Occipital Region (Doomberg)

JFK Autopsy Report

JFK's E.R. Doctors Share New Assassination Details

 

GROK Summarizes the Parkland Notes

The medical notes and testimonies from the doctors at Parkland Hospital who attended to President John F. Kennedy after he was shot are critical historical documents. These notes provide detailed descriptions of the wounds and medical procedures attempted to save his life. Here’s an overview of where to find these documents and some of the key observations:

Key Observations from the Doctors:

1. Dr. Malcolm Perry: Dr. Perry described a small, round wound in the front of Kennedy's neck, which he initially thought might be an entrance wound. He performed a tracheotomy over this wound.
2. Dr. Charles Carrico: Dr. Carrico was the first to examine Kennedy in the emergency room. He noted the President's lack of vital signs upon arrival and described the severe head wound, with brain tissue exposed and significant damage.
3. Dr. Robert McClelland: Dr. McClelland provided detailed descriptions of the head wound, noting a large, gaping wound in the back of the head, which he believed indicated an exit wound.
4. Other Doctors: Several other doctors, including Dr. Paul Peters and Dr. William Kemp Clark, also provided crucial observations and supported the descriptions of severe head trauma and the throat wound.

Sources for Medical Notes and Testimonies:

1. Warren Commission Report: The testimonies and medical notes were included in the Warren Commission Report, which investigated the assassination. The report and its associated volumes include detailed medical testimonies and diagrams.
• Warren Commission Report
2. The Assassination Records Review Board (ARRB): The ARRB collected and published many of the documents related to the Kennedy assassination, including medical records and testimonies.
• JFK Assassination Records Collection
3. Parkland Hospital Archives: Parkland Hospital itself holds records and notes from the medical staff who attended to Kennedy. Some of these documents may be accessible through direct request or research institutions.
• Parkland Hospital History

Notable Publications and Analysis:

1. "High Treason: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy" by Robert J. Groden and Harrison Edward Livingstone: This book provides detailed analysis and reproduction of medical notes and testimonies.
2. "Best Evidence: Disguise and Deception in the Assassination of John F. Kennedy" by David Lifton: Lifton's work includes detailed analysis of medical evidence and testimonies from Parkland doctors.

These sources collectively provide a comprehensive view of the medical observations and attempts to save President Kennedy's life, offering insight into the immediate aftermath of one of the most significant events in American history.

Throwback Thursday: Assassinations, Riots and the Temptations' Ball of Confusion

 This week was the 50th anniversary of the Robert Kennedy assassination on the heels of his California primary win. Two months earlier Dr. Martin Luther King was slain. The Viet Nam War was in full swing and the summer more than 100 U.S. cities would experience riots in the streets. Thinking about these things brought to mind the Temptations' hit single Ball of Confusion, which seemed to pretty much sum up the decade we had just been through when it was released in 1970. 

For this reason I thought I'd share the song here as 1968 still seems so fresh in some of our memories. Upon Googling it I learned that I'd actually shared the song in 2010, ironically on the anniversary of Bobby's brother's assassination, November 22. Here's what I posted on that occasion, as relevant as ever.

* * * *
THROWBACK THURSDAY

This weekend on Twitter someone wrote, "The Truth will set you confused." Clearly a parody on the well-known saying from the Gospels. (John 8:32)

Interestingly enough, just before the weekend I'd torn Matt Gruhn's editorial message out of the trade journal Boating Industry with the title Uncertain times. He begins with an unattributed quote: "Anyone who isn't confused here doesn't really understand what's going on."

Harry Truman once declared, "If you can't convince 'em, confuse 'em." Straight talk from inside the Beltway.

Dylan at times addressed the confusion of the times in his songs as well, beginning one 1962 song with the exclamation, "I got mixed up confusion, man, it's a-killin' me."

All this is lead in to a 1970 pop hit by the Temptations which pretty much sums up the tenor of the times.

Ball Of Confusion

People moving out,
People moving in.
Why? Because of the color of their skin,
Run, run, run, but you just can't hide.

An eye for an eye,
Tooth for a tooth,
"Vote for me and I'll set you free,"
Rap on, brother, rap on.

Well, the only person talking about

loving thy brother is the preacher;
And it seems nobody's interested

in learning, but the teacher.

Segregation, demonstration,

integration, determination,

aggravation, humiliation,
Obligation to our nation.

Ball of confusion,
That's what the world is today, hey hey.

The sale of pills is at an all time high,
Young folks walk with their heads in the sky,
The cities aflame in the summertime,
And oh the beat goes on.

Evolution, revolution,

gun control, sound of soul,

shooting rockets to the moon,
Kids growing up too soon,
Politicians say, "More taxes will solve everything."
The band played on.

So, round and around and around we go,
Where the world's headed, nobody knows

Oh, Great Googa-Mooga,
Can't you hear me talking to you,
Just a ball of confusion...
That's what the world is today, hey hey.

Fear in the air, tension everywhere,
Unemployment rising fast,
The Beatles new record's a gas,
And the only safe place to live,
Is on an Indian reservation,
The band played on.

Eve of destruction, tax deduction,
City inspectors, bill collectors,
mod clothes in demand,
Population out of hand,
suicide, too many bills,
Hippies moving to the hills,
People all over the world are shouting, "End the war!"
And the band played on.

Great Googa-Mooga,
Can't you hear me talking to you,
Just a Ball Of Confusion.

* * * *

And the band plays on...

Innocence Lost: A Reflection on the Sixties

"No one ever told me that grief felt so like fear. I am not afraid, but the sensation is like being afraid. The same fluttering in the stomach, the same restlessness, the yawning. I keep on swallowing. At other times it feels like being mildly concussed. There is a sort of invisible blanket between the world and me." 
~ C. S. Lewis

These are the opening words of A Grief Observed, C. S. Lewis' personal reflections on the loss of his wife Joy Davidson. Can it be that our nation itself received this same concussive blow on the day John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963?

I find it interesting that C. S. Lewis, Aldous Huxley and John F. Kennedy all died on the same day in 1963. The deaths of Lewis and Huxley, whose personal lives were more remote from most of us, were eclipsed by the dramatic assassination of our president... and the subsequent events surrounding his passing.

There have been few more powerful events in our personal histories. Television brought this president into our homes like none before him. His PR-created persona made him out to be more than a man. He was a mythological god. He rode a white horse. He was a knight in shining armor. With the vitality of Youth, he provided a euphoric hope that seemed necessary after two world wars, a major depression and the brooding tensions of the Cold War.

I was in sixth grade that day, Stafford School, Maple Heights, Ohio. There was an announcement over the loudspeaker that we were all to go to the auditorium for an assembly. This was the same room where we assembled to see men from NASA demonstrate how a rocket would within the next ten years carry men to the moon.

As we shuffled along toward the nearly filled assembly room, I was distracted by a janitor who was stepping in from outside. I remember the grey November sky. And the janitor's tears, the janitor standing there, cap in hand, tears streaming down his wrinkled cheeks, looking back toward the flag he had just lowered to half mast. I don't remember the assembly, or much of anything else. Only the image of that janitor weeping.

Few people knew it then, but that day was a portent of difficult times ahead for America. Medger Evers, Martin Luther King, Robert Kennedy, race riots in every major city, Kent State, My Lai -- the decade, stained with blood, left a generation of parents concussed and children confused.

Wrote Lewis in A Grief Observed, "I find it hard to take in what anyone says. Or perhaps, hard to want to take it in."

And when Nielsson sang: "Everybody's talkin' at me, I can't hear a word they're saying"... did we not find a resonance in our hearts because we, too, were grieving? What was it we had lost? What is it we were looking for? What was Joe Buck looking for? What did Joe Buck find?

I believe it was Gurdjieff who compared life experiences to the food we take into our stomachs. Eventually the food is digested, but it takes time, and some foods longer than others. Likewise, our experiences take time to digest before they are assimilated to nourish or poison us.

Even though more than 50 years have passed, we who were there still sometimes don't know what to say about what we saw and heard and felt. We are still processing our experiences.

While some of the experiences were uniquely ours, many were shared. For this reason it is my conviction that when we have gained a measure of understanding, we have a responsibility to share the light we have received. In this way, our pain becomes redemptive, a healing influence in an otherwise broken world.

* * * *
The above blog post originally appeared here in 2008. It comes to mind again upon having just finished Charles Murray's Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960-2010. The title is misleading. The book is really about the decline that has taken place in all of America in the half century from 1960 on. He presents stats to show that the decline isn't just because what's happened with minorities has dragged all the stats down.

Though the dates run from 1960-2010, it was the assassination of JFK that really placed a marker in the ground. Many of the outcomes that followed were set in motion by that traumatic event. Check out the review of Murray's book here by Graham H. Seibert.

"Darkness at the break of noon... eclipses both the sun and moon.... Meantime, life goes on all around you."

Bogus Tweet Reminds Us To Be Skeptical

DON'T BELIEVE EVERYTHING YOU READ DEPT.

This past week a bogus tweet reminded us again  of the old adage, "Don't believe everything you see." In an already tense week of terror news the AP Twitter account was hacked and someone tweeted that there had been explosions in the White House and President Obama was injured. The stock market immediately responded. It went down. A few seconds later the Associated Press tweeted that it was bogus. Their account had been hacked.

What's interesting in this Ad Age story is that people took action on what they saw and read. The market sank 1% in seconds. If what we believe impacts how people behave, we need to take extra care with regard to the ideas we embrace and our sources of information.

Nine years ago the subject of man's walk on the moon came up in our department at work. To my great surprise our web assistant at that time stated that he did not believe Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the moon, that it was a hoax. I was somewhat chagrined. I've always known there were people who thought that way, but to meet one in person was a surprise. For me it's like stating that there is no such place as England or that Northern Lights are a hoax. These are simply facts.

But what happens when an apparently credible source makes a statement as fact that isn't a fact?

One survey in the early 1980's found that nearly 90% of all Americans believed that the government's account on the Kennedy Assassination, which determined that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone, was false. Though distrust of our government did not begin with the Warren Commission, this was a fairly good indicator of the times. What's disturbing is not just what people won't believe, it is amazing the things people do believe. Some people who do not believe the "lone gunman" theory are ready to believe that not only were there more gunmen, but also that the CIA, FBI, mafia and half the State of Texas including Vice President Johnson were involved.

AN AGE OF DOUBT AND DISTRUST

How strange our world is today. Modern people have been trained to question everything, yet they believe the most foolish things. Yes, I can understand why someone might not believe the moon walk. We live in an age of falsification. Images, stories, urban legends, and cleverly devised myths abound, along with photos that have been doctored, stories that have no basis in fact. It is an era of deliberate obfuscation, an age of spin, of falsifying perceptions.

"Don't believe everything you see," is advice given wisely, but at the same time it can also unsettle us. Uncertainty makes us anxious. We like things to be firm, solid.

Uncertainty undermines confidence and leaves us feeling confused. When there are things at stake, we want to know what is true. But sometimes we simply can't know. We hear both sides of an issue and we don't know whom to trust.

This is even more the case in our internet age. Sometimes it's good to doubt. Then again, sometimes decisions need to be made and we have to make choices.

In the meantime... life goes on all around you. Enjoy the weekend, wherever you are. Be refreshed, and thrive!