dChan
jace ID: 93fd89 April 19, 2026, 7 a.m. No.24515789   🗄️.is 🔗kun

Chapter 18: X-ray Specs

Note 4: This is actually Chapter 18a (18b follows), but Speer labels it simply as 18.

Note 5: These twenty questions were prompted by Speer's comments, although the wording here is (mostly) my own.

  1. Why were the JFK X-rays taken with a portable unit – and does it matter? (p. 1)

No, it does not matter. The autopsy suite had no installed unit, so the only option was a portable unit. But Speer quotes (p. 7) Dr. John Ebersole (the autopsy radiologist, who practiced as a radiation oncologist): for the evening's chief purpose (locating metallic debris), this unit was quite satisfactory. I agree that a permanently installed unit would have added very little to this quest. The available images, which Speer describes as "poor," are actually quite adequate to the task. Furthermore, to call the portable equipment "not first-rate," as he does, is a gratuitous attack on GE, which was a major manufacturer of such portable equipment (and was also located in my childhood home of Wisconsin).

 

  1. Was the club-shaped (metallic) object in the forehead "basically invisible to the naked eye" on the original X-rays? (pp. 2 and 22)

No, that's wrong. Speer is correct to say that this object is hard to see on the unenhanced prints, but that is quite irrelevant – it is very easy to see on the extant X-rays. No one has ever said otherwise. See this fragment in my Figures 1 and 2 here. So far as I know, Speer has never actually viewed the extant X-rays at NARA (National Archives and Records Administration), so his conclusions derive solely from the published prints. (He has never asked me about my own viewing of the X-rays at NARA.) This fact (of his viewing only prints) becomes even more significant later in this critique (when he introduces his "slice"). Instead of the label "club-shaped" I have used "7 x 2 mm"; this describes its size (uncorrected for magnification) on the X-ray film. I have no intrinsic objection, however, to Speer's label. My Figures 1 and 2 are the enhanced X-ray prints prepared by the HSCA. Given a choice of viewing the extant X-rays or the enhanced prints, most experts would prefer to see the X-rays. The enhanced prints were produced primarily because they more accurately reflect the X-ray images (than do the unenhanced prints). Jim DiEugenio has asked whether the chiaroscuro effect (dark-light contrast) is as apparent on the actual X-rays as in the prints. Based on my recollection, that answer is "No." The act of printing is what increases the contrast; as anyone can see, that effect is especially evident in the unenhanced prints of the X-rays.

jace ID: 93fd89 April 19, 2026, 7:01 a.m. No.24515797   🗄️.is 🔗kun

Figure 2. The right lateral skull X-ray. Note the faintly visible, tiny metal fragment (OTF, i.e., outer table fragment) at the far rear (oblique yellow arrow), just inferior to the discontinuity (fracture). This fragment correlates with (part of) the 6.5 mm object seen on the AP X-ray. The 7x2 mm fragment, removed by Humes, is at the very front (horizontal red arrow). The single, tiny piece of shrapnel high in the left scalp is indicated by the horizontal green arrow. The external auditory canal (large dark dot) is identified by a vertical pink arrow. The oblique orange arrow in the center identifies Speer's "wing." The vertical blue arrow (near the top) identifies Speer's "large disintegrated fragment" (LDF). Two tiny metallic-like fragments (invisible here – lavender arrow) can be seen on the X-rays at NARA, near the inferior pole of OTF. None, however, lie inside of OTF. Furthermore, some of them may have correlates on the AP X-ray, near the 6.5 mm object, which would then mark them as authentic, tiny metallic debris.

 

  1. Is it reasonable to conclude that the failure of Humes and friends to mention the apparent metal fragment seen within JFK's right orbit (which I have described as the 6.5 mm object) was "some kind of mistake"? (p. 2)

This is a clear mistake all right, but one by Speer, not by Humes. The pathologists were hardly the only ones to view the X-rays that night. While in the morgue, these images were on public display, where many attendees saw them and commented on them. But no one ever described the 6.5 mm object that night. And that was the whole point of the exercise – surely someone would have pointed it out. Even my son (at age 6) and daughter (at age 4) both easily identified it as the dominant feature of the AP X-ray (neither one was then board certified). When I asked Ebersole about it, he abruptly – and forever – stopped talking about the autopsy (listen to my taped interview at NARA). The explanation is simple – it was not there that night. Larry Sturdivan has his own idea: he does not regard this thing as metal (I agree). Instead, he describes it as an artifact (it is), although he seems a bit lost about how that happened (he is not alone). Furthermore, even if Sturdivan were right about this – and it was present that night – how in the world did everyone overlook it? Sturdivan does not comment on this. Even the ARRB experts (see my note 3 above for a reference) all emphasized the gross inconsistency (in optical density) of this thing as viewed on the AP X-ray vs. its partner image on the lateral X-ray. Furthermore, they all agreed on how to correlate its image on the AP with its image on the lateral X-rays, i.e., the 3D coordinates of the 6.5 mm object correlated with the fragment at the rear of the skull. (In my Figure 2, I have labeled this latter object as OTF – for "outer table fragment" – a phrase that derives from the Clark Panel.)

 

Such a gross inconsistency in optical density had never before occurred in forensic radiology. But the ultimate proof of this gross violation of basic radiology principles lies in the optical density (OD) data. Subjective opinions of the X-rays come cheap, but the OD measurements thoroughly validate these conclusions of gross inconsistency – and they do so in a quantitative (and potentially reproducible) fashion. These results were published in Assassination Science (James Fetzer 1998, pp. 120-137). Regrettably, except for incorrectly using one graph below, Speer does not address these OD data, nor does he offer even an opinion on why they might not be reliable. These data show that the 6.5 mm object (as seen on the AP X-ray) must be longer (from front to back) than all of JFK's dental amalgams stacked side by side – which is an obvious paradox. Aside from photographic superposition (in the darkroom) of this 6.5 mm object onto the AP X-ray, no one has even begun to explain that curious fact. Speer has now joined a large congregation of onlookers who have remained literally dumbstruck by the paradox of this 6.5 mm object. As just one example, John Fitzpatrick, the ARRB's forensic radiologist, who reviewed the 6.5 mm object on two different days, "…continued to be disturbed and puzzled by the fact that the large radio-opaque object in the AP skull X-ray could not be located on the lateral skull X-rays." See my Appendix 1 here for a summary of his findings. Even David Davis of the HSCA (p. 10) had trouble with these X-rays; he said, "It is impossible to work this out entirely."

jace ID: 93fd89 April 19, 2026, 7:05 a.m. No.24515810   🗄️.is 🔗kun

  1. Was the right half of JFK's brain "turned to mush" by gunfire? (p. 5)

Since Speer regards the brain photos as truly JFK's, he needs to square this comment with the nearly intact right brain seen in the autopsy photos. Unfortunately, he totally evades this issue. In fact, the OD data demonstrate that a good deal of the right brain was actually missing (which is consistent with the Parkland observations). Ultimately, however, this question cannot be answered – because authentic photographs of the brain no longer exist (Inside the Assassination Records Review Board 2009, Douglas Horne, Chapter 10).

 

  1. Is it common for the brain to settle at the rear after gunshot wounds? (p. 6)

Perhaps it does. Speer cites a peer reviewed article (Radiology 240; No. 2, pp. 522-528, August 2006), in which this occurred in 8 of 10 cases, but he omits the following details. This study included 78 wound tracks in 13 cases, i.e., about six per person (which is clearly different from JFK). All subjects were injured by high-velocity 7.62 mm bullets from an AK-47 (probably also different from JFK). The authors admit that decompositional changes (especially in the brain) could have affected their interpretation. In particular, a distinct linear track within the brain could not be identified in any case. In addition, they emphasize that their small sample size limited their conclusions and they reported that their results would still need to be confirmed in a larger study. I would add that Doug DeSalles and I do not recall a similar outcome (of such brain settling) in any of the nineteen (19, not 9) cases we reviewed (of fatal gunshot wounds to the skull). Also, as best I can now recall, our cases typically had suffered only a single head shot. If such a CT scan study had been available for JFK, many of today's mysteries about his skull trauma would have vanished; in particular, a 3D reconstruction of a skull (in this Radiology article) shows a remarkably detailed image of the comminuted skull fragments and skull fractures.

 

  1. Does it make any sense that the cowlick bullet (I think Speer has in mind the HSCA scenario) did not leave any fragments around the entry hole? (pp. 6 and 14)

But it did leave small fragments! See my slide 33 from the Dallas lecture or my Figure 3 here. My sketch shows tiny metallic debris lying immediately inferior to the 6.5 mm object and at least one piece (paradoxically) inside the 6.5 mm object! (There may be more inside.) These (exterior) pieces can actually be seen in my Figure 1 (horizontal lavender arrow). These observations were made before my Lasik surgery, when I was extremely myopic (-9 diopters) and I could see such small objects in amazing detail without eyeglasses. That these things are metal is strongly suggested by the lateral X-ray, where two tiny fragments lie near the inferior pole of OTF (but outside of it). These two may well have correlating images on the AP X-ray; such a correlation would virtually guarantee their authenticity as metallic debris (presumably from a ricochet). If OTF is authentic, no other fragments should be seen superimposed over the inside of it; in fact, none are (which is different from the 6.5 mm object seen on the AP X-ray).