From john.mcadams@marquette.edu Fri Oct 11 22:47:09 2002 Newsgroups: alt.assassination.jfk Subject: Aguilar's "Back of the Head" Witnesses - 20 (Revised) From: john.mcadams@marquette.edu (John McAdams) Date: Sat, 12 Oct 2002 03:47:09 GMT Gary Aguilar claims to have examined the testimony of 46 witnesses to Kennedy's head wound, at both Parkland and Bethesda, and found that 44 of the 46 described the head wound as contradicting the photos and x-rays of the autopsy as they exist in the National Archives. So does Gary have 44 "back of the head" witnesses? Let's take one example: The following quotes from Aguilar are taken from: http://www.assassinationweb.com/ag6.htm -------------------------------------------- 7) GENE AIKIN [sic], MD, an anesthesiologist at Parkland told the Warren Commission under oath, "The back of the right occipitalparietal portion of his head was shattered with brain substance extruding." (WC-V6:65.) He later opined, "I assume the right occipitalparietal region was the exit, so to speak, that he had probably been hit on the other side of the head, or at least tangentially in the back of the head...". (Emphasis added throughout) (WC-V6:67) -------------------------------------------- Gary simply assumes that any reference to "occipital" means the back of the head is blown out, in spite of the fact that doctors often use "occipital" broadly to mean something little more precise than "posterior." But Gary *omits* a certain key passage of Akin's testomony: Mr. SPECTER. With respect to the head wound, Dr. Akin, did you observe below the gaping wound which you have described any other bullet wound in the back of the head? Dr. AKIN. No; I didn't. I could not see the back of the President's head as such, and the right posterior neck was obscured by blood and skull fragments and I didn't make any attempt to examine the neck. (6 H 66) Thus Gary is using Akin as a "back of the head" witness in spite of the fact that he explicitly said he could not see the back of the head! Interestingly, Livingstone interviewed Akin. He showed him the famous McClelland drawing that shows the back of the head blown out. You can see it at: http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/head2.gif Akin's response to Livingstone was "Well in my judgment at the time, what I saw was more parietal. But on the basis of this sketch, if this is what Bob McClelland saw, then it's more occipital." HIGH TREASON, p. 39. So Akin doesn't really agree with the McClelland drawing. He feels the wound was "more parietal." How much more parietal? When the BOSTON GLOBE decided to run a feature article on the issue of JFK's head wound in 1981, journalist Ben Bradlee, Jr. (and Nils Bruzelius, apparently his research assistant) interviewed several of the Parkland Hospital witnesses. Tapes from these interviews can be found at the JFK Library in Boston (accession number MR-81-60). Akin was interviewed in March of 1981, apparently at an airport. Asked about his position relative to the president, Akin said he was to the president's right, at the head. He said he was the "first to notice that he had a gaping wound," and brought the wound to Kemp Clark's attention. Clark was on the left side of the president, looked over and said "Oh, shit, school's out." Asked to describe the wound, Akin said it was a "hole as big as your fist" in the "right parietal region." Asked if the wound he saw could be called "occipital-parietal" he said it could -- "it's sort of a vague term." Q: "Would you say the wound was more in the parietal than the occipital?" Akin first seems confused, and then agrees that it is. The interviewers ask Akin whether he lifted the head up. He said he "didn't take that liberty." Akin said that the rear margin of the wound might have extended back further. He "never saw his brain in rear view." So what Akin told the BOSTON GLOBE is in fact consistent with what he told the Warren Commission. He saw the wound, but he didn't see the "back of the head." He said he never lifted the head up. He's not a "back of the head" witness. .John The Kennedy Assassination Home Page http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/home.htm