Bethesda Naval Hospital no relation conspiracy theory
The autopsy of president John F. Kennedy was performed at the Bethesda Naval Hospital in Bethesda, Maryland. The autopsy began at about 8 p.m. EST November 22, 1963—the day of Kennedy's assassination—and ended in the early morning of November 23, 1963. The choice of autopsy hospital in the Washington, D.C. area was made by his widow, Jacqueline Kennedy, who chose the Bethesda as President Kennedy had been a naval officer during World War II.
The autopsy was conducted by two physicians, Commander James Humes and Commander J. Thornton Boswell. They were assisted by ballistics wound expert Pierre Finck of the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology. Although Kennedy's personal physician, Rear Admiral George Burkley pushed for an expedited autopsy simply to find the bullet, the commanding officer of the medical center—Admiral Calvin Galloway—intervened to order a complete autopsy.
The autopsy found that Kennedy was hit by two bullets. One entered his upper back and exited below his neck, albeit obscured by a tracheotomy. The other bullet struck Kennedy in the back of his head and exited the front of his skull in a large exit wound. The trajectory of the latter bullet was marked by bullet fragments throughout his brain. The former bullet was not found during the autopsy, but was discovered at Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas. It later became the subject of the Warren Commission's single-bullet theory, often derided as the "magic-bullet theory" by conspiracy theorists.
In 1968, U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark organized a medical panel to examine the autopsy's photographs and X-rays. The panel concurred with the Warren Commission's conclusion that Kennedy was killed by two shots from behind. The House Select Committee on Assassinations—which concluded that there likely was a conspiracy and that there had been an assassin in front of the president on the grassy knoll—also agreed with the Warren Commission. Nevertheless, due to procedural errors, discrepancies, and the 1966 disappearance of Kennedy's brain, the autopsy has become the subject of many conspiracy theories.Speculation and conspiracy theories
Most historians regard the autopsy as the "most botched" segment of the government's investigation.In 1966, Kennedy's brain was found to be missing from the National Archives. Conspiracy theorists often claim that the brain may have shown a bullet from the front. It has also been suggested that Robert Kennedy destroyed the brain. Historian James Swanson theorized that he may have done so to "conceal evidence of the true extent of President Kennedy's illnesses, or perhaps to conceal evidence of the number of medications that President Kennedy was taking".Conspiracy theorists often allege that the autopsy was controlled by the military. During the 1969 trial of Clay Shaw for conspiring to assassinate Kennedy, pathologist Finck testified that when Humes asked "Who is in charge here?" an unknown army general stepped forward and said he was. However, Bugliosi notes that Finck was only referring to the "over-all" operations of the autopsy.According to Humes, he "destroyed by burning certain preliminary draft notes" about the autopsy. Mark Lane claimed that this was destruction of evidence. In a 1992 interview with JAMA, Humes explained that he had already transcribed them and, as they were splattered with Kennedy's blood, did not wish for them to become a collector's item.In 1980, David Lifton's Best Evidence was published by Macmillan. It was met with critical praise, made The New York Times Best Seller list, and was selected for the Book of the Month Club. In it, Lifton argues that Kennedy's body was tampered and altered to support the appearance of a single shooter before it arrived at Bethesda. Vincent Bugliosi noted that it may be the most "preposterous" conspiracy theory relating to the assassination. Lifton's strongest piece of evidence, according to Bugliosi, is a November 26, 1963 FBI memo that describes Kennedy's body as having had "surgery of the head area, namely in the top of the skull" before the autopsy. However, former FBI agent James W. Sibbert stated in 1999 that this claim originated from Humes, who said it upon first seeing Kennedy's body.
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