More on Thompson's Last Second in Dallas

 More on Thompson's Last Second in Dallas 

Criticism of  Josia Thompson's Last Second in Dallas is coming from both sides of the fence. 

Some Conspiracy Theorists don't like the fact that Thompson doesn't think the Zapruder Film has been altered, and doesn't even bother to mention the dispute. 

Years ago Thompson explained that since three copies of the Z-film were made immediately, along with the original, that he says is of much better quality, and they all show the same thing, and all went in in different directions shortly after the copies were made, - he asks how could they have been altered? 

In addition, he noted, if the purpose of the alteration was to hide evidence of conspiracy, then why leave in the head shot frame - that clearly indicates a shot from the front and thus a conspiracy? 

As for the dedicated Lone Nutters, they continue to argue against any shot from the front, and dispute Thompson's assertions that the neck wound was an exit wound from a bullet fragment from the head shot from the rear, and Connally's wrist wounds were caused by similar bullet fragments from the same bullet, as Dr. Gregory, who Thompson talked with personally, attested. 

"The government's wrong," Dr. Gregory, a field surgeon in Korea, told Thompson, "Connally wasn't hit in the wrist wit the bullet they say he was. I told them all this in my testimony down there. The bullet they're talking about has a rounded ti. He wasn't hit in the wrist with that. He took a fragment through the wrist." 

One Thompson critic began making a list of mistakes in this book, beginning with Thompson's statement that it was Connally's left wrist that was fractured, rather than the right wrist, though that is a matter of perspective, whether you were looking at Connally or were Connally, from his perspective. 

Another dispute concerning CE#399 is it's discovery on a gurney in the hall outside the Parkland Emergency Room by Darrell Tomlinson, who gave the bullet to Parkland security officer O.P. Wright, a former 30 year Dallas policeman. Wright was clear that the bullet in evidence #399, is not the bullet that he handled, which had a pointed tip, rather than a round one. 

In addition, in talking with Parkland aides who were at the scene at the time, he determined the gurney on which the bullet was found was not used by either JFK or Connally, but rather a young two year old boy Ronnie Fuller, who had cut his cheek that was bleeding badly. That gurney, says Thompson, "is in no way connected to the care of either President Kennedy or Governor Connally." 

Thompson is known for correcting his mistakes however, and I'm sure he will correct any mistakes in future editions, as I'm sure there will be. 

One big change in Thompson's thinking is the fact that he is now convinced the flurry of shots lasted a little more than eight seconds, rather than the six seconds he used as the title of his last book on the subject. 

Thompson's revival of the HSCA acoustics study of the Dallas PD dictabelt recordings has also created a controversary that I will deal with in a separate article. 

Nor does Thompson consider the Ramsey Panel's rejection and attempted refutation of the HSCA acoustics study a concerted conspiracy to hide the truth. Instead he calls it another C word - complicity.

When he asked Dr. Mullen of BBN if the Ramsey panel cheated, he concluded, "No. This all came about through no conspiracy. What happened here was much more complicated, more nuanced, and more human - indeed, all too human. It was complicity. And this complicity had much more to do with who these men were and what they had experienced earlier in their lives." 

As an example of this, Thompson references how three members of the Ramsey Panel had previously served on the Vela Panel, that had previously rejected, much to the satisfaction of the US government, the Vela satellites report of a nuclear blast 1,500 miles south of Cape Town, South Africa, believed to be a joint Israeli-South African test, despite the satellite's record of detecting such blasts. 

I prefer the example of the Doubleday Commission's conclusion that the American game of baseball was invented by Abner Doubleday in Cooperstown, New York on a specific day in a specific year, despite the numerous newspaper reports of the game being played for years before that. That's why the Baseball Hall of Fame is in Cooperstown, where baseball wasn't invented by Abner Doubleday. 

Other examples of this "complicity" is the Warren Commission itself, along with the HSCA Forensic Pathology Panel, that intentionally excluded Dr. Wecht from key meetings and interviews because they knew he would not be complicit. The replacement of non-complicit Richard Sprague as chief counsel of the HSCA is another example. 

What will be interesting will be a March 17 video conference from the Wecht Institute of Forensic Pathology and Law at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, that will feature Dr. Wecht, in celebration of his 90th birthday, Dr. Lee and Michael Baden, the former NYC pathologist who served on the HSCA forensic pathology panel with Wecht. 

What's most curious, is why Josiah Thompson's book Last Second in Dallas has not been reviewed or mentioned in any mainstream media publications, while former CIA director James Woosley's book saying that Oswald was controlled by Soviet KGB agents and ordered to kill Castro by Premier Khruschev. I will be writing about that next. 

Also on the agenda a Sunshine Week (March 14-21) campaign to get the House Oversight Committee to hold public hearings on the JFK Act, as well as a tribute to MLK on the anniversary of his assassination in early April. 

Stay tuned.