From: grant_jo@ripple.enet.dec.com (Joel Grant)
Subject: Lattimer, Question Three
Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation
Date: 11 SEP 92 13:09:51 PDT



Question #3: "When it came out that Dr. Humes had tossed the original
working drafts of the autopsy notes into the fire in his study,
after he finished his final copies, people wanted to know why
they were burned, and attached ominous implications to their
being burned.  If the doctor has merely thrown them in the wastebasket,
no one might have thought anything of it.  The act of burning them
conjured up sacrilegious implications in the columns of the critics.
Why were they burned?"

Well, now this sounds like debunking, doesn't it?  

Lattimer's conclusion: (briefly told, since this one is pretty
old news; I expect we have all seen some version of it)  

p. 195  "During the early years of his navy career, Humes had
at one point been assigned to the Detroit area and was sometimes
asked to escort visiting dignitaries on sightseeing tours there,
in addition to showing them the defense production lines at the
factories of the major automobile makers.  One of the great museums
of the world, to which he sometimes took visitors, is the late
Henry Ford's Greenfield Village Museum, at nearby Dearborn,
Michigan, which contains Americana from the mightiest locomotive
to the tiniest light bulb built by Edison, who was a great friend
of Ford's.  In this museum is the original rocking chair in which
Lincoln was sitting when he was shot.  On the upholstery of the
back of the chair, at the level where a man's head might rest,
is a dark area on the fabric.  Humes had watched crowds of visitors
persuade themsevles that this stain was Lincoln's blood [it wasn't,
jg] and then act in a morbid, sometimes joking manner about it,
which Humes found disrespectful."

"During the autopsy on Kennedy, for whom he had felt great admiration,
he made personal notations on loose sheets of paper.  These were,
as is inevitable, stained with blood and fat from his surgical gloves.
Normally, rough working notes such as these would be copied onto
clean paper and a rough draft of the autopsy report prepared - as
he later did.  This draft was then checked and rechecked for
clarity and accuracy with the other members of the autopsy team
and then put in final form.  After this, rough drafts and soiled notes
were discarded, according to normal procedure.  Humes finished
transcribing his notes, conferring with his colleagues, and making
final revisions at about noon on Sunday, November 24.  He then
crumpled up the soiled notes and preliminary drafts and threw
them into the fireplace in his study in the recreation room
of his home where he had sequestered himself while he wrote
up the report."

Lattimer then goes on to point out that, however disposed of,
the notes, because of the blood and fat splatters, would have
become rancid had they been stored.

Humes himself has stated that he burned his notes, not on
Sunday morning, but on Saturday night.  The burning of his
notes was "discovered" when Humes announced that he had
thrown them in the fire.

Next, we'll look at questions four and five together, as they
both deal with the bullet holes in President Kennedy's jacket
and shirt.

Joel Grant  (speaking on his own behalf)


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