The Switched HSCA Fragments
One of the most telling aspects of the Donahue theory is that so much of the evidence that could prove or disprove the theory either shows signs of being tampered with, or has disappeared altogether. As an example, the results of the spectrographic and neutron activation analyses conducted in 1963 by the FBI were suppressed. Later, HSCA had neutron activation analyses conducted on fragments that were switched, not the original fragments. The list of missing/suppressed/altered evidence is extensive, and mainly has to do with evidence that would prove or disprove Donahue’s theory--making me believe that the missing evidence would prove his theory correct.
According to the Menninger book, Donahue placed little confidence in a chemical analysis of bullet lead, since it was extremely variable within even the same bullet, with "pockets" of different substances within the bullet. (See also
http://www.maryferrell.org/wiki/index.php/Essay_-_Is_Vincent_Bugliosi_Right_that_Neutron_Activation_Analysis_Proves_Oswalds_Guilt
for a similar criticism of analyzing bullet lead.) Bullet lead, as I learned, essentially just provides weight to the bullet, and is often comprised of lead mixed with "waste" material. An analysis of bullet lead proves little, if anything.
However, an analysis of jacket material (in both chemical content and thickness) would be conclusive in determining the type of ammunition used.
No jacket fragments were chemically analyzed, either for the Warren Commission or the HSCA. Even the analyses of the lead fragments was highly suspect, as will be seen below.
Donahue believed that the tissue samples from the flesh around the entrance wound and the edge scrapings from the bone around the entrance wound, taken at the autopsy, would have conclusively proven what type of bullet caused Kennedy’s head wound, since these would have contained bits of the bullet jacket.
The tissue samples and edge scrapings disappeared.
The neutron activation analysis results and spectrography results on the edge scrapings, done in 1963 or 1964, were initially suppressed. In fact, it had not even been known that a neutron activation analysis had been done, until a 1964 letter from J. Edgar Hoover to J. Lee Rankin accidentally came to light. Even so, the government was reluctant to release the information, saying it was not in the “national interest,” and when the data was finally released, it was so unorganized as to be impossible to interpret, and therefore was meaningless.
Fragments taken from Kennedy's brain, especially jacket fragments, may have conclusively proven the type of bullet. After all, the 40 or so fragments seen by the autopsy doctors on the X-rays was more consistent with a shot from a frangible .223 round than a military-style Carcano round. An analysis of the brain itself may have proven what type of round caused the explosive head shot. Former ARRB analyst Doug Horne found evidence that there was some funny business going on with the post-autopsy brain analysis (see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSV0FyWJa0c) and believes that another brain had been switched with Kennedy's.
Whoever's brain it was, it went missing, prohibiting farther analysis. And the brain fragments that were removed during Kennedy's autopsy show evidence of tampering (read below).
According to the report of FBI agents Siebert and O’Neill, who were present at the autopsy, three fragments were removed from Kennedy’s brain for analysis. The report documenting three fragments can be found at: http://www.history-matters.com/archive/jfk/arrb/master_med_set/md44/html/Image4.htm. A picture of these fragments as published by the Warren Commission can be found at
http://history-matters.com/archive/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh17/html/WH_Vol17_0434a.htm. Another picture from the National Archives can be found at:
http://www.maryferrell.org/wiki/images/5/50/Photo_naraevid_CE843-1.jpg
There is something odd going on with these brain fragments. Donahue did not believe that the lead content of the bullet fragments, which could be extremely variable even inside the same bullet, was the best proof of the type of bullet that hit Kennedy’s head. Nevertheless, the House Select Committee had Dr. Vincent P. Guinn perform neutron activation analyses on the lead of various pieces of evidence. Guinn stated that he could conclusively determine that the lead came from Carcano rounds. He did not analyze the jacket fragment found in the front seat of the presidential limousine (part of CE 567), because for some reason he was not interested in jacket material, only in lead. He also stated that there were only two fragments from CE-843 that were delivered to him from the National Archives. He did not mention a third fragment, even to say that he did not analyze it because it was jacket material, and he was only interested in lead content.
Why wasn’t he interested in jacket material? Donahue reasoned that the jacket material, rather than the lead, was more conclusive for determining the type of bullet fired.
Looking again at the picture of CE 843 from the National Archives, there is a bit of shiny copper-colored stuff under the measurement tape, between the ½ and 1 mark. If that is jacket material, and the jacket material is more conclusive to determining the type of round fired (as Donahue belived), why didn’t Guinn analyze it?
There’s more.
There is reason to believe that the “brain” fragments Guinn analyzed were not the original fragments removed from Kennedy’s brain. In fact, as stated in Meninger’s book and confirmed by online version of his testimony at http://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/jfk/hsca/reportvols/vol1/pdf/HSCA_Vol1_0908_8_Guinn.pdf , Guinn states that “The particular little pieces that (the FBI) analyzed, I could just as well have analyzed over again, but the pieces that were brought out from the Archives--which reportedly, according to Mr. Gear, were the only bullet-lead fragments from this case still present in the Archives--did not include any of the specific little pieces that the FBI had analyzed. Presumably those are in existence somewhere, I am sure nobody threw them out, but where they are, I have no idea.”
Based on Guinn’s odd statement, Donahue postulated a switch of the brain fragments (Menninger, pp. 164-165). The weights of the fragments supports this. In his report to the Warren Commission, FBI ballistics expert Robert Frasier testified that the two fragments of CE 843 (from Kennedy’s brain) weighed 1.65 grains and 0.15 grains. He did not mention the third fragment removed at the autopsy based on Siebert’s and O’Neill’s report (or the fourth fragment mentioned in Menninger’s book, p. 165), which was apparently too tiny to weigh. Frazier’s testimony can be found online at http://www.history-matters.com/archive/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh5/html/WC_Vol5_0038b.htm . (His testimony begins on p. 58. The specific weights are mentioned on p. 73.) Frasier said that he took his weights before “very small” bits were removed for spectrographic analysis.
Guinn’s report for the HSCA (http://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/jfk/hsca/reportvols/vol1/pdf/HSCA_Vol1_0908_8_Guinn.pdf see p. 27) stated that the weights for his two fragments were 41.9 and 5.4 milligrams.
Converting Frazier’s weight in “grains” to milligrams (various online converter calculators can be found, such as the one at http://www.metric-conversions.org/weight/grains-to-milligrams.htm), Frazier’s fragments weighed 106.92 mg and 9.7198 mg, respectively. The difference in weight for the largest fragment between Frazier’s sample and Guinn’s sample is a reduction of 65.02 mg for the largest sample, and a reduction of 4.3198 mg for the smaller sample.
According to one online source, (http://assassinationresearch.com/v2n2/pittsburgh.pdf ) only 1 mg would have been needed for the spectrographic analysis, although other fragments seem to show that 11-14 mg were taken from the original samples. So why such drastic reduction in the weight of the larger “brain fragment” (more than 65 mg), and the odd weight of the smaller fragment?
The answer may lie with another piece of evidence that went “missing” before the JFK assassination materials were delivered to the National Archives: CE-840.
CE 840 initially included 3 fragments from the rear floor of the presidential limousine but when delivered to the National Archives, CE 840 contained only two fragments.
A photo of CE 840 as published by the Warren Commission can be found here:
http://www.jfklancer.com/photos/Rifle_Bullets/ce840.jpg
A photo of CE 840 from the National Archives (only two fragments) can be found here:
http://www.maryferrell.org/wiki/images/2/26/Photo_naraevid_CE840-1.jpg
What happened to the brain fragments?
According to Robert Frazier’s testimony (http://www.history-matters.com/archive/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh5/html/WC_Vol5_0038b.htm ), the three fragments weighed .7 grains, .7 grains, and .9 grains, which converts to 45.4, 45.4, and 58.3 milligrams, respectively. According to Vincent Guinn’s testimony, the two fragments from the National Archives weighed 33.4 mg and 33.8 mg, a reduction of 11.96 and 11.56 mg for the smaller pieces. So why the change in weight? Again Frazier’s weights were made before the FBI took “small pieces” for spectrographic analyses. Possibly the FBI took samples roughly 11-12 mg, or 10 times larger than the 1 mg samples they needed for the spectrographic analyses.
Guinn’s “brain fragments” (http://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/jfk/hsca/reportvols/vol1/pdf/HSCA_Vol1_0908_8_Guinn.pdf ), weighed 41.9 mg and 5.4 mg, for a total of 47.3 mg. Subtracting 47.3 from 58.3 (the weight of the “missing” limousine rear floor fragment), we get 11 mg, which is pretty darn close to the reduction in weights of the other two fragments from the rear floor of the limousine. My personal theory is that the 2 pieces of “brain fragments” that Guinn analyzed were actually from the largest fragment of the rear floor of the limousine that went “missing” before the evidence was delivered to the National Archives. The reduction in weight of 65.02 and 4.32 milligrams between Frazier’s weights and Guinn’s weights for the large & small “brain” fragments, respectively, makes no sense when compared to the reduction in weights of the other fragments, until one looks at the missing fragment from the rear floor of the limousine.
Below is my own summary chart for the weights of the fragments analyzed by Frazier and Guinn. It does not include CE 399 (the “pristine/magic” bullet), since Guinn used a drilling for his analysis, or CE 567 (the fragment of lead and jacket found in the front of the limousine), because Frazier weighed the jacket and lead together, and Guinn only used the lead in his analysis.
One of the most telling aspects of the Donahue theory is that so much of the evidence that could prove or disprove the theory either shows signs of being tampered with, or has disappeared altogether. As an example, the results of the spectrographic and neutron activation analyses conducted in 1963 by the FBI were suppressed. Later, HSCA had neutron activation analyses conducted on fragments that were switched, not the original fragments. The list of missing/suppressed/altered evidence is extensive, and mainly has to do with evidence that would prove or disprove Donahue’s theory--making me believe that the missing evidence would prove his theory correct.
According to the Menninger book, Donahue placed little confidence in a chemical analysis of bullet lead, since it was extremely variable within even the same bullet, with "pockets" of different substances within the bullet. (See also
http://www.maryferrell.org/wiki/index.php/Essay_-_Is_Vincent_Bugliosi_Right_that_Neutron_Activation_Analysis_Proves_Oswalds_Guilt
for a similar criticism of analyzing bullet lead.) Bullet lead, as I learned, essentially just provides weight to the bullet, and is often comprised of lead mixed with "waste" material. An analysis of bullet lead proves little, if anything.
However, an analysis of jacket material (in both chemical content and thickness) would be conclusive in determining the type of ammunition used.
No jacket fragments were chemically analyzed, either for the Warren Commission or the HSCA. Even the analyses of the lead fragments was highly suspect, as will be seen below.
Donahue believed that the tissue samples from the flesh around the entrance wound and the edge scrapings from the bone around the entrance wound, taken at the autopsy, would have conclusively proven what type of bullet caused Kennedy’s head wound, since these would have contained bits of the bullet jacket.
The tissue samples and edge scrapings disappeared.
The neutron activation analysis results and spectrography results on the edge scrapings, done in 1963 or 1964, were initially suppressed. In fact, it had not even been known that a neutron activation analysis had been done, until a 1964 letter from J. Edgar Hoover to J. Lee Rankin accidentally came to light. Even so, the government was reluctant to release the information, saying it was not in the “national interest,” and when the data was finally released, it was so unorganized as to be impossible to interpret, and therefore was meaningless.
Fragments taken from Kennedy's brain, especially jacket fragments, may have conclusively proven the type of bullet. After all, the 40 or so fragments seen by the autopsy doctors on the X-rays was more consistent with a shot from a frangible .223 round than a military-style Carcano round. An analysis of the brain itself may have proven what type of round caused the explosive head shot. Former ARRB analyst Doug Horne found evidence that there was some funny business going on with the post-autopsy brain analysis (see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSV0FyWJa0c) and believes that another brain had been switched with Kennedy's.
Whoever's brain it was, it went missing, prohibiting farther analysis. And the brain fragments that were removed during Kennedy's autopsy show evidence of tampering (read below).
According to the report of FBI agents Siebert and O’Neill, who were present at the autopsy, three fragments were removed from Kennedy’s brain for analysis. The report documenting three fragments can be found at: http://www.history-matters.com/archive/jfk/arrb/master_med_set/md44/html/Image4.htm. A picture of these fragments as published by the Warren Commission can be found at
http://history-matters.com/archive/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh17/html/WH_Vol17_0434a.htm. Another picture from the National Archives can be found at:
http://www.maryferrell.org/wiki/images/5/50/Photo_naraevid_CE843-1.jpg
There is something odd going on with these brain fragments. Donahue did not believe that the lead content of the bullet fragments, which could be extremely variable even inside the same bullet, was the best proof of the type of bullet that hit Kennedy’s head. Nevertheless, the House Select Committee had Dr. Vincent P. Guinn perform neutron activation analyses on the lead of various pieces of evidence. Guinn stated that he could conclusively determine that the lead came from Carcano rounds. He did not analyze the jacket fragment found in the front seat of the presidential limousine (part of CE 567), because for some reason he was not interested in jacket material, only in lead. He also stated that there were only two fragments from CE-843 that were delivered to him from the National Archives. He did not mention a third fragment, even to say that he did not analyze it because it was jacket material, and he was only interested in lead content.
Why wasn’t he interested in jacket material? Donahue reasoned that the jacket material, rather than the lead, was more conclusive for determining the type of bullet fired.
Looking again at the picture of CE 843 from the National Archives, there is a bit of shiny copper-colored stuff under the measurement tape, between the ½ and 1 mark. If that is jacket material, and the jacket material is more conclusive to determining the type of round fired (as Donahue belived), why didn’t Guinn analyze it?
There’s more.
There is reason to believe that the “brain” fragments Guinn analyzed were not the original fragments removed from Kennedy’s brain. In fact, as stated in Meninger’s book and confirmed by online version of his testimony at http://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/jfk/hsca/reportvols/vol1/pdf/HSCA_Vol1_0908_8_Guinn.pdf , Guinn states that “The particular little pieces that (the FBI) analyzed, I could just as well have analyzed over again, but the pieces that were brought out from the Archives--which reportedly, according to Mr. Gear, were the only bullet-lead fragments from this case still present in the Archives--did not include any of the specific little pieces that the FBI had analyzed. Presumably those are in existence somewhere, I am sure nobody threw them out, but where they are, I have no idea.”
Based on Guinn’s odd statement, Donahue postulated a switch of the brain fragments (Menninger, pp. 164-165). The weights of the fragments supports this. In his report to the Warren Commission, FBI ballistics expert Robert Frasier testified that the two fragments of CE 843 (from Kennedy’s brain) weighed 1.65 grains and 0.15 grains. He did not mention the third fragment removed at the autopsy based on Siebert’s and O’Neill’s report (or the fourth fragment mentioned in Menninger’s book, p. 165), which was apparently too tiny to weigh. Frazier’s testimony can be found online at http://www.history-matters.com/archive/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh5/html/WC_Vol5_0038b.htm . (His testimony begins on p. 58. The specific weights are mentioned on p. 73.) Frasier said that he took his weights before “very small” bits were removed for spectrographic analysis.
Guinn’s report for the HSCA (http://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/jfk/hsca/reportvols/vol1/pdf/HSCA_Vol1_0908_8_Guinn.pdf see p. 27) stated that the weights for his two fragments were 41.9 and 5.4 milligrams.
Converting Frazier’s weight in “grains” to milligrams (various online converter calculators can be found, such as the one at http://www.metric-conversions.org/weight/grains-to-milligrams.htm), Frazier’s fragments weighed 106.92 mg and 9.7198 mg, respectively. The difference in weight for the largest fragment between Frazier’s sample and Guinn’s sample is a reduction of 65.02 mg for the largest sample, and a reduction of 4.3198 mg for the smaller sample.
According to one online source, (http://assassinationresearch.com/v2n2/pittsburgh.pdf ) only 1 mg would have been needed for the spectrographic analysis, although other fragments seem to show that 11-14 mg were taken from the original samples. So why such drastic reduction in the weight of the larger “brain fragment” (more than 65 mg), and the odd weight of the smaller fragment?
The answer may lie with another piece of evidence that went “missing” before the JFK assassination materials were delivered to the National Archives: CE-840.
CE 840 initially included 3 fragments from the rear floor of the presidential limousine but when delivered to the National Archives, CE 840 contained only two fragments.
A photo of CE 840 as published by the Warren Commission can be found here:
http://www.jfklancer.com/photos/Rifle_Bullets/ce840.jpg
A photo of CE 840 from the National Archives (only two fragments) can be found here:
http://www.maryferrell.org/wiki/images/2/26/Photo_naraevid_CE840-1.jpg
What happened to the brain fragments?
According to Robert Frazier’s testimony (http://www.history-matters.com/archive/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh5/html/WC_Vol5_0038b.htm ), the three fragments weighed .7 grains, .7 grains, and .9 grains, which converts to 45.4, 45.4, and 58.3 milligrams, respectively. According to Vincent Guinn’s testimony, the two fragments from the National Archives weighed 33.4 mg and 33.8 mg, a reduction of 11.96 and 11.56 mg for the smaller pieces. So why the change in weight? Again Frazier’s weights were made before the FBI took “small pieces” for spectrographic analyses. Possibly the FBI took samples roughly 11-12 mg, or 10 times larger than the 1 mg samples they needed for the spectrographic analyses.
Guinn’s “brain fragments” (http://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/jfk/hsca/reportvols/vol1/pdf/HSCA_Vol1_0908_8_Guinn.pdf ), weighed 41.9 mg and 5.4 mg, for a total of 47.3 mg. Subtracting 47.3 from 58.3 (the weight of the “missing” limousine rear floor fragment), we get 11 mg, which is pretty darn close to the reduction in weights of the other two fragments from the rear floor of the limousine. My personal theory is that the 2 pieces of “brain fragments” that Guinn analyzed were actually from the largest fragment of the rear floor of the limousine that went “missing” before the evidence was delivered to the National Archives. The reduction in weight of 65.02 and 4.32 milligrams between Frazier’s weights and Guinn’s weights for the large & small “brain” fragments, respectively, makes no sense when compared to the reduction in weights of the other fragments, until one looks at the missing fragment from the rear floor of the limousine.
Below is my own summary chart for the weights of the fragments analyzed by Frazier and Guinn. It does not include CE 399 (the “pristine/magic” bullet), since Guinn used a drilling for his analysis, or CE 567 (the fragment of lead and jacket found in the front of the limousine), because Frazier weighed the jacket and lead together, and Guinn only used the lead in his analysis.
The drastic reduction in the size of the large brain fragment from Frazier’s analysis to Guinn’s analysis is readily apparent, and totally inconsistent with the reductions in weights of the other fragments. On the other hand, if the FBI needed 11-14 mg for its spectrographic analysis, then the reduction in weight of the smaller brain fragment is also inconsistent (and the original fragment wouldn’t even have been large enough for the FBI to even analyze. On the other hand, if the FBI needed only 1 mg for its analyses, why did they take more than ten times that off the other fragments? I don’t necessarily think that the other fragments were switched, but the drastic change in weight of the large brain fragment is extremely suspicious.
I think the "missing" limousine fragment isn't really missing at all. I think it was broken in two, and then substituted for the original brain fragments, which are actually the ones that went missing.
I think the "missing" limousine fragment isn't really missing at all. I think it was broken in two, and then substituted for the original brain fragments, which are actually the ones that went missing.