Wecht Center Symposium on JFK Assassination

Wecht Center Symposium on the 50th Anniversary of the Assassination of President Kennedy

Bill Kelly Notes:

This might just be the Last Hurrah! for those who have tried to take the investigation of the assassination of President Kennedy seriously, as the still cold case homicide fades slowly from a unsolved murder with unresolved legal issues to an historical anomaly that will be argued about forever. 

While the civic leaders in Dallas have disinvited the world from Dealey Plaza, the scene of the crime, so they can put on their own show, Dr. Cyril Wecht has invited all of his friends and longtime associates to Pittsburgh, where they will hold a symposium "Passing the Torch," with many if not most of the main researchers, writers, doctors, lawyers and journalists who have covered the assassination for much of the past fifty years.

Symposium - actually means "to drink together" - while discussing important matters, and what can be more important an issue than the murder of the president of the United States?

And what better place to do it than Pittsburgh, one of my favorite cities in the world, a city of good friends, nice neighborhoods, great taverns, fine food and spectacular sports.

It's also Cyril Wecht's home and where he spent many years as the official coroner and now has the Cyril Wecht Center for Forensic Sciences at Duquesne University in downtown Pittsburgh, which hosts a conference on various aspects of forensic sciences every year, and this is expected to be the last such event on this topic for quite some time.  So all of those who have been arguing and theorizing about what happened at Dealey Plaza for the past fifty years will have one last chance to make their case, and some good ones have lined up to do so.

Ben Wecht says: As you know, the Wecht Institute will be dedicating its 13th Annual Conference next fall to the JFK assassination, on the occasion of that event's 50th anniversary. The dates are Oct. 17 - 19, a full month ahead of the actual anniversary and all its attendant hype. The location is our Duquesne University campus here in Pittsburgh, though our reach, via streaming video, will be global. 

In keeping with the Institute's mission, the program will address a broad spectrum of scientific, investigative and legal issues in the case, with the overarching goal of enhancing our collective understanding of what happened through interdisciplinary presentations and discussion. The title of the conference, in reference both to the famous line in JFK's inaugural address and to the "new generation of Americans" who must soon assume responsibility for the ongoing study and, perhaps, ultimate resolution of the most infamous of cold cases, is Passing the Torch. Among others, it is our hope to reach and impact thousands of young people, both on-site and via the Internet. 

Passing the Torch
An International Symposium on the 50th Anniversary of the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy
October 17-19, 2013

Following up on its world-renowned 40th anniversary conference, the Wecht Institute is pleased to announce its plans to re-convene many of the leading scientific and legal experts on the murder case that has fascinated and perplexed us for decades.  As the JFK assassination and many of its witnesses, investigators and researchers begin to recede into history, this symposium is intended in large part to interest and inform young people from the Pittsburgh region, across the country and beyond about one of the seminal events of 20th century American history, and why it still matters today.

Featuring:

The JFK Assassination and the Media

October 17, 7-9 p.m. — A special panel discussion to be held at the Senator John Heinz History Center. Join moderator Sally Wiggin and panelists Oliver Stone, David Talbot, Jefferson Morley, Russ Baker, Lisa Pease and Jerry Policoff. Learn more and register »

In town for the conference?  Don't miss...

Kennedy Comedy... Too Soon?

Cyril Wecht, Walt Brown and David Talbot keep them laughing -

The John McIntire Dangerously Live Comedy Talk Show
Saturday, Oct. 19
Cabaret at Theater Square
Featuring Dr. Wecht and other Passing the Torch speakers
Click here for more information

Conference Sponsors:

Senator John Heinz History Center (Presenting Sponsor)
American College of Forensic Examiners Institute
NMS Labs
R.J. Lee Group
JFK Lancer
Coalition on Political Assassinations
Mary Ferrell Foundation

http://www.duq.edu/about/centers-and-institutes/wecht-institute-of-forensic-science-and-law/conferences

Map and Directions

https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?tab=mm - search/wechtben%40duq.edu/140c609b99f59841

Thursday, October 17

The Evidence

7:30 a.m.	Registration
8:30 a.m.	Welcome and Introductions	Benjamin E. Wecht, M.A.  Frederick W. Fochtman, Ph.D. Cyril H. Wecht, M.D., J.D. Andrew E. Masich President and CEO, Senator John Heinz History Center
9:00 a.m.	Why the Study of the JFK Assassination Continues …  and Should	Larry J. Sabato, Ph.D.
10:00 a.m.	Last Second in Dallas: A Micro-Study of the Assassination	Josiah Thompson, Ph.D. Keith Fitzgerald
11:00 a.m.	Break Displays and Vendors
11:15 a.m. Concurrent (Africa Room)	Absolute Proof: A Photographic Analysis of the JFK Assassination An Acoustic Analysis of Witness Reports in the JFK Assassination (A Gunman Near JFK?)	Robert J. Groden Tim Nicholson
12:15 p.m.	Lunch Displays and Vendors
1:30 p.m. Concurrent (Africa Room)	Double Talk: Synchronization of the Acoustical Evidence and the JFK Assassination Imaging Properties of the Bell & Howell 414PD Camera  and Implications for Authenticity of the Zapruder Film	Donald Thomas, Ph.D. Jeffrey Sundberg, MSEE, M.S.
2:30 p.m. Concurrent (Africa Room)	The President's Autopsy: A Forensic Pathological  and Medical-Legal Critique The Harper Fragment Redux: A Panel Discussion	Cyril H. Wecht, M.D., J.D. David W. Mantik, M.D., Ph.D. Pat Speer
3:30 p.m.	Break Displays and Vendors
3:45 p.m.	The View From Trauma Room One	Robert N. McClelland, M.D. (by videoconference)
4:45 p.m.	Adjournment

http://www.duq.edu/events/jfk/agenda/friday

Friday, October 18

The Investigations

7:30 a.m.	Registration
8:45 a.m.	Welcome and Introductions	Benjamin E. Wecht, M.A.
9:00 a.m.	The Secret Service and the Assassination of JFK	Mark Lane, Esq.
10:00 a.m.	Clay Shaw Unmasked: The Garrison Case Corroborated	Joan Mellen, Ph.D.
11:00 a.m.	Break Displays and Vendors
11:15 a.m. Concurrent (Africa Room)	Political Assassinations Revealed: The Church Committee JFK's Medical Evidence: You Don't Need to be a Physician to Understand How Wrong the Official Conclusions Are	Rex Bradford Gary L. Aguilar, M.D.
12:15 p.m.	Lunch Displays and Vendors
1:30 p.m. Concurrent (Africa Room)	An Analysis of Government Misconduct: The House Select Committee on Assassinations Forensic Analysis of the Air Force One Tapes	Robert K. Tanenbaum, J.D. William Kelly
2:30 p.m. Concurrent (Africa Room)	Reviewing the Assassination Records Review Board:  An Uncertain Legacy A View From the Trenches: The HSCA and the CIA	James H. Lesar, Esq. Dan Hardway, Esq.
3:30 p.m.	Break Displays and Vendors
3:45 p.m.	Panel Discussion: From the WC to the ARRB: What Have We Learned?	Moderator: Daniel S. Alcorn, Esq. Panelists: Friday Power Center Speakers; Jerry Policoff Others TBA
4:45 p.m.	Break
5:30 p.m.	Untold History	Oliver Stone
6:30pm	Adjournment

Bill Kelly Notes: Then Saturday night, just to make sure they don't take everything too seriously - Dr. Wecht, Walt Brown and David Talbot will participate in a political satire talk show with John McIntire - Dangerously Live Comedy Talk Show - at the Cabaret Theater at Theater Square (10pm).  

NEWS ITEM:
Passing the Torch - An International Symposium

By Duquesne University

Published: Thursday, Oct. 3, 2013 - 9:05 am

http://www.sacbee.com/2013/10/03/5791170/experts-gathering-to-mark-historic.html

PITTSBURGH, Oct. 3, 2013 -- /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Despite that it happened a half-century ago, the assassination of President John F. Kennedy remains so relevant today that it has drawn together 30 scientific, legal and investigative experts as well as scholars, journalists and authors to discuss and explore this historical event's continued significance.

Reporters are invited to take advantage of this rare gathering of experts and authorities on the subject, who will be in Pittsburgh Thursday, Oct. 17, through Saturday, Oct. 19, for Passing the Torch: An International Symposium on the 50th Anniversary of the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy at Duquesne University.

Among the featured conference presenters are:

• Oliver Stone, director of the Academy-Award winning film JFK and director/narrator ofUntold History of the United States
• Dr. Robert N. McClelland, professor emeritus at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, who served as one of Kennedy's attending physicians at Parkland Hospital
• David Talbot, author of the provocative 2007 book, Brothers: The Hidden History of the Kennedy Years, and founder and former editor in chief of Salon.com
• Dr. Cyril H. Wecht, testified in 1978 before the U.S. House Select Committee on Assassinations, during which he was the only one of a 9-member panel of forensic pathologists re-examining the JFK assassination to disagree with the single-bullet theory; served as a consultant on JFK
• Mark Lane, a criminal defense attorney and author of the pioneering 1966 work, Rush to Judgment, among other books on the subject
• Dr. Josiah Thompson, a private investigator and author of the influential 1967 micro-study of the assassination, Six Seconds in Dallas
• Robert K. Tanenbaum, an attorney and expert legal commentator who served as deputy chief counsel to the U.S. House Select Committee on Assassinations.

Hosted by Duquesne University's Wecht Institute of Forensic Science and Law, the conference will delve into existing evidence and examine new insights and theories on the president's assassination.

Cyril Wecht believes that public interest in the case continues to be high and that further study is essential. "We, as Americans, need to know the truth," he said. "We need to be aware of historical matters, such as the Kennedy assassination, that are important to all of us and that, if ignored, have a very dangerous potential of breeding further secrecy, complacency and lies."

For more information on Passing the Torch, visit www.duq.edu/jfk, contact wechtinstitute@duq.edu or call 412.396.1330

http.www.dug.edu/events/jfk/registration 

Duquesne University Founded in 1878, Duquesne is consistently ranked among the nation's top Catholic universities for its award-winning faculty and tradition of academic excellence. Duquesne, a campus of more than 10,000 graduate and undergraduate students, has been nationally recognized for its academic programs, community service and commitment to sustainability.

www.duq.edu.

COMMENTS:

This will be a great conference.  I was at Duquesne for the 40th anniversary conference of Kennedy's murder.  No other conference in the world could top the speakers they had.  I'm a student of the assassination and I'm spending dollars I don't have to get to it.  If you can attend even one day of the conference you will be a changed person.  It's almost a spiritual experience.- R. Truitt

The Kennedy Suite - Cowboy Junkies at the Winter Garden

Toronto roots band Cowboy Junkies will release on November 12 a concept album The Kennedy Suite – which according to the Junkies themselves will “tell the story of the JFK assassination through the fragmented narratives of a series of characters, each of whom experiences the tragedy from their own intensely personal perspective.”

A collaborative work, it will be produced by Toronto composer Scott Garbe and include special guests Hawksley Workman, Sarah Harmer, Jason Collett, Harlan Pepper, Lee Harvey Osmond, The Good Family and Doug Paisley.

For more on this see:

The Kennedy suite  performance at the Winter Garden Theater

Friday, November 22, 2013 and Saturday November 23, 2013 8 pm

This show is created and designed by Benedict Hillard (associate designer for Les Miserables, Miss Saigon), Stephen Pollard (Lighting director for U2, Adele, Simple Minds) and Geoff Burpee, with the Cowboy Junkies making the stage debut of The Kennedy Suite.

Set around the assassination of John F. Kennedy,  this ambitious stage production will include special guests Sarah Harmer, The Good Family, Jason Collett and others, and afterwards include a special jam session with the Cowboy Junkies and their friends.

http://latentrecordings.com/cowboy junkies/

The Kennedy Suite – Origins by Scott Garbe

By Mike Timmins Oct 2, 2013

(We will be releasing The Kennedy Suite on Latent Recordings on November 12th. Pre-orders will start on October 15th. The debut performance of The Kennedy Suite will be on November 22nd and 23rd at The Winter Garden Theater in Toronto. Please visit The Kennedy Suite website and Facebook page)

Scott Garbe is the writer of The Kennedy Suite. He will be posting a series of blogs about the writing of the Suite, it is a fascinating journey and definitely worth following along…make sure that you check back in every now and then.

 

**********

“Whatever became of the moment when one first knew about death? There must have been one. A moment. In childhood. When it first occurred to you that you don’t go on forever. It must have been shattering, stamped into one’s memory. And yet, I can’t remember it.”

·         Tom Stoppard, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead.

When I think about the origins of The Kennedy Suite it really began when I was in the third grade. I didn’t start writing the songs at that time, of course, I had a formative experience that was to change my perception of the world.

President Kennedy was a hero in our home. The image attached here is of a vinyl record of his most famous speeches that used to lean against our family’s old cabinet stereo in perpetual view. Maybe your family had the same record.

Even at a young age, I was struck by JFK’s beautiful family and the ideas he had left for the world to consider, the stories of his courage during the Second World War (PT 109), of his longing to reach the moon, of his love for poetry. In a sense, I had all the romantic notions of President Kennedy as a young boy that many citizens of the world must have had in the early sixties, that of a man of great dreams and grace – almost invincible.

In the fall of that third-grade year, I was digging through my parent’s bookshelf when I came across a commemorative book published by the Associated Press entitled The Torch Has Passed… Unsuspecting, I flipped through to a sequence of pictures of the assassination in Dallas. I hadn’t known the President had been murdered. In a double page fold of stark, black and white photos I saw for the first time that the world was not what I thought it was. It was a dangerous, frightening place where no one was safe, not even Presidents.

Especially striking was an image taken shortly after the shooting. Kennedy had fallen forward, unconscious, onto the floor of his limousine. The life of the bold leader of the New Frontier had been ruthlessly taken before my eyes – Secret Service Agent Clint Hill’s foot dangling hopelessly over the rear side of the car in a desperate attempt to steady himself as the Presidential party rushed in a violent blur to Parkland Hospital.
That’s when I realized, for the first time, that I wouldn’t go on forever.

And that’s why I had to write these songs.

Talk to you soon,

Scott

- See more at: http://latentrecordings.com/cowboyjunkies/#sthash.TLJZdeyx.dpuf

 The Kennedy Suite – Origins by Scott Garbe

Other Suspects

Vincent Bugliosi and others have made the claim that there were no other suspects than Lee Harvey Oswald.

Well that's certainly not true, as there were and are a number of other suspects in the assassination of President Kennedy.

Just off the top of my head I can come up with a half quick half-dozen:

1) John Martin. Not "Jack Martin" of New Orleans, or the Martin who took the film, this John Martin was from Northern Louisiana, a young guy who was part of a religious cult and was wanted by Secret Service agents at the Trade Mart in the immediate aftermath of the assassination. The SS at the Trade Mart contacted the Special Agent in Charge of the New Orleans SS office - John W. Rice, who was in the office of special investigations at the Air Force base near Schrieveport at the time of the assassination. Rice was ordered to do a quick background check in the hometown of John Martin, which effectively sent him on a wild goose chase for the rest of the afternoon. When Rice got back to New Orleans, they didn't need his info on Martin any more but wanted to know all about Lee Harvey Oswald. Who was and what happened to this John Martin?

2) Joe Molina - Worked in the credit department - a white collar job at the TSBD. Dallas Police Special Service Unit - Jack Revel, Ganaway, et al., raided his home at 2 o'clock in the morning to question him about his membership in subversive leftist organizations and take any literature and correspondence he had. Molina was the only TSBD worker fired because of the assassination.

3) The three or four North Texas State college students who were identified by news photos of them attacking UN Ambassador Adlai Stevenson when he was in Dallas for UN Day a few weeks before the assassination. An undercover Denton, Texas policeman tried to "infiltrate" this group who were also associated with Gen. Walker, their photos were circulated to all SS agents at the Trade Mart and they may have been arrested if they planned a demonstration. One or two of these radical right wing students was belatedly arrested for attacking Stevenson and was in court over it.

4) James Parrott. On the afternoon of the assassination, George H.W. Bush dropped a dime on one James Parrott, saying that Parrott threatened the president and he considered him suspect. Parrott is still a Republican party official in Texas.

5) Ed Lansdale, the former CIA - USAF PsyOps General, one time head of Mongoose, possibly registered at the Fort Worth hotel and photographed with the Tramps at Dealey Plaza a few hours after the assassination.

6) William Harvey, CIA official, America's James Bond, former head of Task Force W and Johnny Rosselli's CIA case officer, CIA COS Rome and legal counsel to Bobbs-Merrell publishers (who maintained an office in the TSBD), Harvey packed a .38, suspected Kim Philby a KGB agent and hated RFK.

7) James Jesus Angleton, CIA counter-intelligence official, office of Security, manned the Israel/MOSSAD desk, friend and mentor of Kim Philby, maintained separate files on Oswald since 1950s and was privy to Oswald's Shennagans in Mexico City, which effectively blackballed if not blackmailed all of the intelligence agencies when the assassination went down and Oswald associated with it, regardless of his role. 

Tony Summer's Not in Your Lifetime Revamped

Tony Summers has recently re-wrote much of his book "Not in Your Lifetime" (aka "Conspiracy"), and has included much new and important information.

The new updated and refreshed edition will be available in the USA on October 1 as an e-book or in paperback from US publisher Open at:

http://www.openroadmedia.com/not-in-your-lifetime 

It will be available in the UK on October 10 from Headline at:

http://www.headline.co.uk/books/detail.page?isbn=9780755365425  

Publication Day for “Not in Your Lifetime”

by Anthony Summers

http://anthonysummersandrobbynswan.wordpress.com/tag/conspiracy/

This note is to let everyone know that I have this year virtually rewritten and updated my book Not in Your Lifetime (né, long ago and over my protest,Conspiracy), on the Kennedy assassination. It will be published on Tuesday, October 1, by Open Road Media in the U.S., and on October 10 by Headline in the UK.

 In the publishers’ view, Not in Your Lifetime has earned a lasting place and should be republished on this 50^th anniversary. Realizing, though, that it needed a thorough revamp, I set to work (with Robbyn) for what turned out to be many months. I have honed this new edition, filling in previously unavailable detail and making amendments, shedding material that has been discredited or no longer seems worth space in the book – and adding elements that do justify inclusion.

 Perhaps most significant is a new final chapter that amounts to an overview of the case as things stand in 2013. This includes a section covering “admissions” – claims of involvement in the assassination, their credibility or otherwise.

 Most interesting, perhaps, is a new interview I recently conducted of a Cuban exile in Florida. In extended conversations , over two days, he identified a fellow Cuban, once his best friend, who – he said he learned - “participated” in the assassination. This especially, I expect, will stir discussion.

 Heartening reviews the book has received include: 

§  (On this new 2013 edition) “Not in Your Lifetime is the best single analysis of what we know and what we don’t know about JFK’s assassination. If you have time to read only one book on the assassination, this is it. By far. – Robert Blakey, former Chief Counsel, House Committee on Assassinations 

§  “An awesome work…with the power of a plea as from Zola for justice” —Los Angeles Times

§  “An important piece of work…exceptionally well written, with all the tone and tension of a thriller. . . A book that must be read” —New York Review of Books

§  “The closest we have to that literary chimera, a definitive work on the events in Dallas.” 

Not in Your Lifetime will be available in the U.S. from October 1, as an e-book or in paperback, from U.S. publisher Open Road, by following this link:http://www.openroadmedia.com/not-in-your-lifetime.

For those who would like to have a look at the British edition, it can be found here on the Headline/Hachette Group website:http://www.headline.co.uk/books/detail.page?isbn=9780755365425

Alfred Goldberg and Rudolph Winnacker DOD Historians

Rudolph Winnacker

Chief Historian – Office of the Secretary of Defense

November 25, 1949 – June 30, 1973
 

http://history.defense.gov/winnacker.shtml

Chief DOD Historian 24 years

Rudolph Winnacker
 

Past Chief Historian

November 25, 1949 – June 30, 1973
 

Rudolph A. Winnacker served as the first Historian for the Office of the Secretary of Defense and remained in that position for 24 years, establishing a firm foundation for the office and achieving a remarkable record of accomplishment.
 

Winnacker was exceptionally well qualified for the position. His academic background included a Harvard history Ph.D. and more than 10 years of teaching experience at the Universities of Michigan and Nebraska. During World War II he performed research work for the Office of Strategic Services. After an assignment as historian in the Office of the Secretary of War, he served on the faculty of the National War College and with the Army Historical Division.
 

As OSD Historian, Winnacker played a notably prominent role, particularly during the 1950s. In 1953 he was a staff member and advisor to the Rockefeller Committee whose report led to a major reorganization of the Department of Defense. Subsequently, at the express direction of Secretary Neil McElroy, Winnacker drafted DoD Directive 5100.1 that implemented the Department of Defense Reorganization Act of 1958. During these years he sometimes acted as a spokesman for the Secretary of Defense, holding press conferences on matters about which he could speak with authority.
 

In 1955, once again at the direction of the secretary, Winnacker coordinated and compiled work by military service historians to produce a detailed report entitled The Entry of the Soviet Union into the War Against Japan. The report received much public attention and laid to rest a long-existing controversy, particularly in Congress. Winnacker also had responsibility for important ongoing functions, including publication of the Annual Report of the Secretary of Defense, and the Annual Public Statements of the Secretary of Defense. Of special note was his persistent and successful collection of DoD and other documents and materials that formed the core of the current Historical Office Archives – a valuable research collection. Not the least of his multiple activities was his service for 20 years on the National Historical Publication and Records Commission as representative of the Secretary of Defense. In one of his final contributions, Winnacker oversaw the review for declassification and release of the Pentagon Papers on the Vietnam War.
 

All of these and many other activities were accomplished with the help of no more than two professional assistants and a secretary. For Winnacker it was a labor of love. He often expressed astonishment that he was being paid for doing something that he found so enjoyable and rewarding.

Alfred Goldberg (Col. USAFR)

http://www.history.defense.gov/goldberg.shtml

Chief DOD Historian 34 years

Alfred Goldberg

Past Chief Historian

October 28, 1973 – November 28, 2007
 

Dr. Alfred Goldberg, an eminent and respected military historian, served as the Chief Historian for the Office of the Secretary of Defense for 34 years. He began his service to the United States in 1942 with the U.S. Army, rising from the rank of private to captain and deploying overseas with the Army Air Forces to England and France. He worked in various capacities, ultimately as a field historian. He left active duty in 1946, but remained in the reserves and retired from the Air Force in 1978 as a colonel.
 

From 1946 to 1965, Dr. Goldberg worked for the U.S. Air Force Historical Division as a senior historian. During that period, in addition to earning a Ph.D. in history from The Johns Hopkins University in 1950, he was a Visiting Fellow at Kings College, University of London in 1962–63; a lecturer at the University of Maryland for many years; and a recipient of a Social Science Research Council Fellowship. In 1964 Chief Justice Earl Warren brought him onto the Warren Commission staff, where Dr. Goldberg served as a historical advisor and as co-author and co-editor of the Warren Commission Report. From 1965 to 1973, Dr. Goldberg was a senior staff member at RAND and also lectured at the University of Southern California and the University of California at Los Angeles.
 

In 1973, Dr. Goldberg assumed duties as the chief historian with OSD. He received the Department of Defense Distinguished Civilian Service Award and the Presidential Meritorious Award. He was a long-time member of the National Historical Publications and Records Commission, whose members include distinguished historians, archivists, and members of the House of Representatives, the Senate, and the Supreme Court. Keenly aware of the historic significance of the attack on the Pentagon on September 11, 2001, Dr. Goldberg joined with other military historians in documenting the event and its effect on the Pentagon and the military and civilian workforce.
 

Dr. Goldberg is the author or editor of numerous historical books and articles, many of which have earned special recognition and prizes. Most notably, he is co-author of the Army Air Forces in World War II (7 volumes); editor and co-author of A History of the U.S. Air Force 1907–1957; co-editor of the Department of Defense: Documents on Establishment and Organization, 1947–1978; co-author of The Department of Defense, 1947-1997—Organization and Leaders; author of The Pentagon: The First Fifty Years; general editor, History of the Office of the Secretary of Defense (5 volumes); and co-author of Pentagon 9/11. In 2011, Dr. Goldberg received the American Historical Association's Herbert Feis Award for distinguished contributions to public history.

Wecht Calls it a Coup

                                                                 Dr. Cyril Wecht

Expert Cyril Wecht calls Kennedy assassination a coup

Katherine Ramsland, a Facebook friend, criminal psychologist and prolific author invited friend and COPA associate Cyril Wecht to give a lecture on the Kennedy assassination to her college conference and a local reporter was there to cover it.

https://www.facebook.com/katherine.ramsland
http://web1.desales.edu/default.aspx?pageid=1230
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katherine_Ramsland

Author: Randy Kraft, WFMZ.com Reporter, Randy.Kraft@wfmz.com

Published: Sep 18 2013 06:58:04 AM EDT   Updated On: Sep 18 2013 01:36:03 PM EDT

http://www.wfmz.com/news/news-regional-lehighvalley/expert-cyril-wecht-calls-kennedy-assassination-a-coup/-/132502/21993392/-/view/print/-/15frgl0/-/index.html

CENTER VALLEY, Pa. -

The assassination of President John F. Kennedy was “the overthrow of the government, it was coup d'état in America.”

So declared Dr. Cyril Wecht, the famous forensic pathologist -- to the applause of about 300 people attending his presentation on the Kennedy assassination Tuesday night at DeSales University in Center Valley, Lehigh Co.

“The assassination of John F. Kennedy was plotted and executed by people in this country,” said Wecht.

“Jack Kennedy was going to be around for five more years – no question – followed by eight years of Bobby Kennedy—almost certainly.”

He said there was no way in the world that “super, super patriots” were going to sit back and allow the Kennedys to move the country politically and ideologically for 13 years.

He said the Kennedys – and civil rights leader Martin Luther King, who like Bobby Kennedy, was assassinated in 1968 -- were undefeatable.

“You could not beat the Kennedys with their charm, their charisma, their power, their money, their colleagues, their friends, the constituencies that fell in line. There was only one way to eliminate that. That was through physical assassination.”

Wecht, one of the nation’s leading experts on the assassination of the president, spoke with so much passion about Kennedy’s death that someone walking into the middle of his talk might have thought he was talking about someone killed just last week, rather than nearly 50 years ago.

The 50th anniversary of his assassination will be observed in November. He was killed on Nov. 22, 1963, while riding in a motorcade through Dallas, Texas.

Wecht told the audience he could not give them the name of the person behind the assassination of the Kennedy brothers. “I probably would be afraid if I knew the name. But there are some people that are very suspect, who were high ranking in the CIA at that time.”

Wecht said it is naïve to suggest that the true reasons for the assassination should have leaked out by now. He said “super spies” would never talk about it, but would do it “for the best of reasons in your mind, to save your country, which is going to hell in a basket under the Kennedys.”

He noted at the time some leading U.S. military leaders were advocating dropping nuclear bombs on Russia and that people opposed Kennedy’s views on civil rights and voting rights. Some also didn’t like the president just because he was Catholic.

“This was the social-political climate in our country.”

Wecht indicated no other president in his lifetime has had as much public support as John Kennedy.

Oswald not alone?

Wecht said history and political science books in high schools and colleges report Lee Harvey Oswald was the sole assassin, but every poll taken from the late 60s until the present shows the American people do not agree.

He said the latest poll, done late last year, shows 85 percent of Americans do not believe Oswald was the sole assassin.

‘There’s not 85 percent of people in America who think that apple pie, baseball, motherhood and sex is a good idea, but 85 percent of Americans reject the Warren Commission report.”

He encouraged his audience to read several different books about the Kennedy assassination, including those defending the Warren Commission report -- which concludes Oswald alone did it -- and come to their own conclusion about whether it is possible for one person “to shoot from that window, with that weapon, to produce those wounds” in 5.6 seconds.

He said the bolt-action rifle Oswald supposedly used takes 2.3 seconds from shot to shot when fired by the best marksmen in the country. But Gov. John Connally of Texas, who was sitting in front of the president in the open motorcade car, was shot 1.5 second after Kennedy was hit.

He said Oswald flunked his first marksmanship test in the U.S. Marines and got the equivalent of a C-minus the second time he took it.

Wecht believes two shooters killed the president that day in Dallas, one from the rear --. “I personally don’t believe it was Oswald” – and one from the picket fence behind the grassy knoll in Dealey Plaza in downtown Dallas. “At least four shots were fired, quite possibly five,” he said. “The president was hit in the head twice.”

As Wecht went frame by frame through the famous Zapruder film of the assassination, Kennedy is first seen grabbing his throat. Many in the audience gasped in horror when the front of the president’s head exploded in blood and gore.

Wecht called that film the single most important piece of evidence in the entire case.

Wecht shot big holes in the single bullet theory, that the same bullet killed the president and wounded the governor. “He called it “scientific nonsense – a forensic folly of the highest order.”

He had his wife Sigrid and program organizer Dr. Katherine Ramsland sit in chairs in the front of the room to simulate the positions of Kennedy and Connally in the car.

He demonstrated that one bullet had to change directions at least twice in mid-air to strike both men. He said Connally had five wounds.

Wecht said the two military pathologists called in to Bethesda Naval Hospital to do the autopsy on the president, after his body was flown to Washington, had never done a single gunshot-wound autopsy in their entire careers. He said 33 people witnessed that autopsy, including admirals and generals.

Wecht said in August 1972, he learned President Kennedy’s brain was missing. “To this day, all these years later, it remains missing.” He said forensic analysis of the brain would have shown trajectories of two different bullets.

He said Jack Ruby, the man who killed Oswald two days after the assassination, had been let into the basement of the police building in Dallas by a high-ranking police officer. “The Warren Commission never said anything about that.” He said Jack Ruby was Mafia, but he does not believe the Mafia orchestrated the death of the president.

He also does not believe vice president Lyndon Johnson, who became president when Kennedy was killed, or FBI director J. Edgar Hoover were involved.

“I do believe Hoover was very much part of the subsequent cover-up and not digging into it.”

He also does not believe the Russians, Cubans or Chinese were behind the assassination.

Waiting for the truth

The 82-year-old Wecht told the audience he used to think the truth about the assassination would be made known in his lifetime. “I now know it’s not going to happen in my lifetime. It’s going to take another generation or two. There remains under seal to this day thousands of documents, which according to an executive order issued in April 1965, remain sealed for 75 years.

“My suggestion is get your children and your grandchildren to read and study, that’s the call to action.”

He encouraged DeSales to get the 26-volume Warren Commission report on the president’s assassination for its library, but to be sure to put it with Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and other works of fiction.

The audience applauded when he called that report “the greatest bit of forensic scientific fiction that has ever been foisted on the American public.”

Robert Kennedy assassination

Wecht said Robert Kennedy had just won the Democratic primary in California and was assured of winning the Democratic nomination for president in 1968. He was assassinated in the kitchen of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles on June 6, 1968.

The accused assassin is Sirhan Sirhan.

Wecht stunned the audience when he said the autopsy of Robert Kennedy showed he was killed by a shot fired from only an inch to an inch-and-a-half behind Kennedy’s right ear.

On that point, he said, “There was unanimity of opinion among 10-12 forensic pathologists, including military people.

“This evidence was never introduced into the trial of Sirhan Sirhan,” said Wecht.

"Also, there were 13 shots fired. The gun only held eight bullets. He sure as heck never reloaded that gun.”

He said a private guard standing right behind Robert Kennedy had a gun, but it was never examined by the authorities. Months later, a search for that gun showed it changed hands several times, then was stolen and never recovered.

King assassination

Wecht said he participated in the autopsy of James Earl Ray, accused assassin of Martin Luther King. He described Ray as a “two-bit, petty, punk thief – a penniless bum who was in jail for most of his adult life.” He also said Ray was not involved in politics.

He expressed skepticism that Ray acted on his own in killing the civil rights leader on April 4, 1968 in Memphis, Tenn.

Wecht said Ray fled to Canada, but forgot to take the rifle with his fingerprints on it. He said, in Canada, Ray had documents “that would make Sean Connery playing 007 green with envy,” and that he managed to flee to England and Portugal before being caught.

Forensic Forum

Wecht spoke for more than an hour, then answered questions from the audience for another 25 minutes.

He said Elvis Presley died not of heart disease, but from 12 central nervous system depressant drugs, including tranquilizers, sedatives and anti-depressants.

One of the several books Wecht has written is about JonBenet Ramsey, the six-year-old Colorado beauty pageant queen found dead in the basement of her home in 1996. He does not believe it was a botched kidnapping attempt, indicating it made no sense for kidnappers to write a ransom note, but then forgot to take the body. He believes JonBenet accidentally was killed by her father during a sex game.

Wecht spoke at the latest in a series of Forensic Forums organized by Ramsland, who teaches forensic psychology at DeSales.

Ramsland introduced Wecht by saying “he seeks social truth and justice in some of our greatest forensic mysteries.”

“I’ve given you the forensic scientific facts,” Wecht told the audience. “I have not said a thing here today that is not subject to corroboration.”

In addition to being a forensic pathologist who has done more than 18,000 autopsies, Wecht is a doctor, a lawyer, an author and a legal and medical consultant who frequently weighs in on high-profile deaths in the national news media.

He said he was interviewed a few months ago for a History Channel program about the Kennedy assassination, which will air in November.

He is clinical professor at the University of Pittsburgh’s Schools of Medicine, Dental Medicine and Graduate School of Public Health.

He said he has another book coming out about the Kennedy assassination in about a month.

He also said his first e-book, called “Final Exams,” is coming out next week.

Copyright 2013 WFMZ. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

ALSO CHECK OUT:

The 2013 Wecht Conference:

http://www.duq.edu/about/centers-and-institutes/wecht-institute-of-forensic-science-and-law/conferences

Passing the TorchAn International Symposium on the 50th Anniversary of the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy
October 17-19, 2013

Following up on its world-renowned 40th anniversary conference, the Wecht Institute is pleased to announce its plans to re-convene many of the leading scientific and legal experts on the murder case that has fascinated and perplexed us for decades.  As the JFK assassination and many of its witnesses, investigators and researchers begin to recede into history, this symposium is intended in large part to interest and inform young people from the Pittsburgh region, across the country and beyond about one of the seminal events of 20th century American history, and why it still matters today.

http://www.duq.edu/events/jfk/agenda/thursday

http://www.duq.edu/events/jfk/agenda/friday

http://www.duq.edu/events/jfk/agenda/saturday