Features: The Warren Commission, The Truth, and Arlen Specter: Part 2

The Commission Report does not explain or discuss the discrepancy between the FBI version of the autopsy and the final submitted report Signed by Dr. Humes. In fact, it did not even publish the FBI reports in the volumes of evidence.

Today Dr. Humes, who has since been promoted to the rank of captain, also refuses to discuss the discrepancies. ”I’m not concerned with what was in the FBI report," he says. "We did our job and we signed the report and it was very straightforward and unequivocal. We don’t feel we should discuss the matter any more. That is the position we are taking and that is the position we have been instructed to take by our superiors."

One of the principal Commission exhibits is 385. This is a profile drawing of Kennedy’s head and shoulders showing the path of the bullet through the neck. The angle of the bullet is consistent with a shot coming in from above and to the rear and it is obvious, from the drawing, that such a shot would have struck Connally. The entrance of the bullet is placed above the shoulders at the base of the back of the neck. The drawing was prepared by a medical illustrator at the Naval Medical School solely on the basis of a verbal description given by Dr. Humes.

Yet, the FBI report said a, bullet hole was found "below the shoulders." 

Specter says it’s possible that the one thing is just a matter of semantics. "It’s a question of whether you call this point shoulder, base of neck or back. I would say it sure isn’t the shoulder, though I can see how somebody might call it the shoulder."

Secret Service agent Roy Kellerman called it the shoulder. He was standing beside Dr. Pierre Finck, an Army lieutenant colonel who was assisting Humes, at the autopsy. Kellerman testified:

"There were three gentlemen who were performing this autopsy. A Colonel Finck — during the examination of the President, from the hole that was in his shoulder, and with a probe, and we — were standing right alongside of him, he is probing inside the shoulder with his instrument and I said, ‘Colonel, where did it go?’ He said, ‘There are no lanes for an outlet of this entry in this man’s shoulder."

Secret Service agent Glen Bennett called it the shoulder. He was right behind Kennedy in the follow-up car when he heard a sound like a firecracker: "I looked at the back of the President. I heard another firecracker noise and saw that shot hit the President about four inches down from the right shoulder."

Secret Service agent William Greer, who was also at the autopsy, described it as being in "the soft part of that shoulder," and agent Clinton Hill, who saw the President’s body at the morgue, was positive the wound was not in the neck. "I saw an opening in the back, about six inches below the neckline to the right-hand side of the spinal column," he testified.

This, as a matter of fact, was just where Humes himself placed the wound on the diagram of the face sheet to the autopsy notes made during the autopsy. So although Humes was to later testify that the entrance wound in the back was above the throat wound, at the time of the autopsy he marked it below the throat wound.

Whether or not Humes’ marking of the face sheet diagram to the autopsy notes is consistent with the original notes themselves is a question that was never really answered. It couldn’t be. Humes burned the original notes. According to Specter, without any authorization other than his own.

Yet Specter had to accept the final autopsy report as unquestionable in regards to the location and character of Kennedy’s wounds — despite the fact that a good deal of evidence made it very questionable. Not that Specter had any reason to question the integrity or intentions of Humes himself, a career Navy officer. "I went to see him at Bethesda," says Specter, "and you should see his whole demeanor, his whole approach to the problem. You just wouldn’t think for a minute that the guy’s fudging anything. You wouldn’t think for a minute." Specter, as a matter of fact, spent a good deal of time with Humes working out the single-bullet theory. "I was very impressed with Specter," says Humes. "He was a very intelligent young man."

The x-rays and photographs would have definitely confirmed what was in the final autopsy report — or in the FBI report. Nothing was confirmed. The Commission just accepted the final autopsy report.