Dr. J. Thornton Boswell

(2) However, a diagram prepared on the night of the autopsy by Dr. Boswell showed a "17" next to the word "missing".He explained to the HSCA (3) and to me, (4) that the skull defect was 17 cm, fore to aft, not 13 cm.
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To muddy the waters further, in the third of three interviews before the HSCA, Dr. Humes seemed to change his mind on the entrance, claiming the bullet entered high, in parietal bone, rather than low, in occipital bone, as per the autopsy report. (6) Further, in testimony before the Conyers Committee on 11/17/93, Gerald Posner claimed he'd interviewed Drs. Humes and Boswell and that " they have confirmed their change of testimony that they gave before the HSCA", and that the entrance wound was "correctly placed 4 inches higher" in parietal bone. (No evidence can be found that Boswell ever admitted to the high location, though Humes may have).
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As to Posner's claim that Boswell admitted a high entrance wound to him, Boswell said "No, no, no, no, no.
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Boswell answered "No, that's not true.
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Boswell staunchly defended the autopsy report ... "Jim and I sat down a couple of years ago and agreed that the most valid statements are our original report because we labored over that long and hard ...
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Boswell answered, " Oh yes, I tell you, we studied that article very well.
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Boswell twice and unequivocally denied to me ever having spoken with Posner, and after I specifically asked about his congressional claims.
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I personally believe that Drs. Humes and Boswell told me the truth, a truth which is consistent with their statements in JAMA endorsing their own autopsy report.
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"17 cm" discrepancy, Boswell explained that JFK's skull defect was 17 cm long when first examined, but only 13 cm after a late-arriving fragment was replaced into the defect.I asked: "On the face sheet - was the "17 cm" (meant) to reflect the size of the wound before placing fragment of bone that arrived late into the autopsy into the OCCIPITAL wound, and the 13 cm to reflect the size of the wound after the fragment was in place?"He answered, "Right."I followed with, "Was there one large defect in the head from fore to aft, or was there (sic) two?"Boswell answered, "Just one defect."I pushed further, "Does the Rydberg diagram (CE-388) show the bone fragment back in place?"Boswell answered, "Yeah, the eh - that fragment - the - defect this wound of entrance was at the base of that defect and, eh, the shelving on the inner surface of the bone was half on the intact portion of the skull and half on that fragment that we received from Dallas and replaced."

Boswell's face sheet diagram was prepared on 11/22/63.As it was prepared closer to the event than even the autopsy report, the diagram should be considered at least as reliable.
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The major argument that the photographic file is inviolate and dependable is the 11/10/66 statement regarding the X-ray and photographic inventory which was signed by Humes, Boswell, Ebersole, and Stringer after they examined the materials.
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This is proved by a recently released document which reads, " On the afternoon of November 10, 1966 I, (Carl W. Belcher) took the original and one carbon copy of the document entitled "Report of Inspection by Naval Medical Staff on November 1, 1966 at National Archives of X-Rays and Photographs of Autopsy of President John F. Kennedy" to the Naval Medical Center, Bethesda, Md. were it was read and signed by Captain Humes, Dr. Boswell, Captain Ebersole and Mr. John T. Stringer.
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(25) BOSWELL: " ... he (Boswell) thought they photographed ' ... the exposed thoracic cavity and lung ... ' but doesn't remember ever seeing those photographs."
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4 Personal interview with J. Thornton Boswell,3/30/94.
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17 Transcript of recorded interview with J. Thornton Boswell, MD, 3/30/94.

Conyer's committee that you had interviewed John F. Kennedy's pathologists, James Humes, M.D. and J. Thornton Boswell, M.D., and that they admitted to you that JFK's fatal wound was not where they have repeatedly described it: (1) in their autopsy report, (2) to the Warren Commission, (3) to the House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) in 1978, (4) to The Journal of the American Medical Association on May 27, 1992, and (5) where they, again, admitted to me it was in a recorded conversation on 3/30/94.
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But to Conyers you claimed that BOTH Humes and Boswell told you they had changed their minds and now believed the wound was high in JFK's skull, a location that might have been consistent with a shot fired from the alleged assassin, Oswald's, position.
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You recall you stated you'd interviewed Drs. Humes and Boswell and that "they have confirmed their change of testimony that they gave before the HSCA, and that the entrance would was correctly placed 4 inches higher" in parietal bone.Dr. Boswell told me that no such "change of testimony" ever occurred before the HSCA, and he told me that as of that date, 3/30/94, he'd never ever spoken with you!But if you are right that Humes and Boswell told you one thing at nearly the same time they told the JAMA another on so important a point as JFK's fatal wound, the implications are enormous. (I am not claiming you falsified the phone records.)
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Surely you must appreciate the fact that it is far less important to the Kennedy case whether you called Boswell than what he may have said.
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That doubt exists about the veracity of your attributions to Humes and Boswell is not solely due to their denials.
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The Assassinations Records Review Board has recently announced it has conducted sworn interviews with Drs. Humes and Boswell, which will eventually be made available to the public.
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The following individuals have expressed to me they would like to know the contents of your alleged recordings of Humes and Boswell: HSCA officials Robert Tanenbaum, J.D., Pittsburgh Coroner, Cyril Wecht, M.D., J.D., Michael Baden, M.D., and D. Andy Purdy, J.D. JFK author, and Ph.D. mathematician, David Scheim, and authors, Peter Dale Scott, Ph.D., James Lesar, J.D., Walt Brown, Ph.D., Harold Weisberg, David Wrone, Ph.D., James DiEugenio, David Lifton and Jerry Rose, Ph.D., among others.
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Other individuals, with varying involvement in the case, have also indicated an interest in your releasing the tapes, including David Mantik, M.D., Ph.D., Randy Robertson, M.D., Paul Langer, M.D., Kathy Cunningham, Wallace Milam, Steve Bochan, Robert Black, and, well, I could go on, but you see there are many people that would like to know what, if anything, Humes and Boswell may have said to you - because Humes and Boswell have already once denied your attributions, and they may well have already done so again to the ARRB.
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Other individuals, with varying involvement in the case, have also indicated an interest in your releasing the tapes, including David Mantik, M.D., Ph.D., Randy Robertson, M.D., Paul Langer, M.D., Kathy Cunningham, Wallace Milam, Steve Bochan, Robert Black, and, well, I could go on, but you see there are many people that would like to know what, if anything, Humes and Boswell may have said to you - because Humes and Boswell have already once denied your attributions, and they may well have already done so again to the ARRB.

14) JAN GAIL RUDNICKI: Dr. Boswell's lab assistant on the night of the autopsy, Rudnicki was interviewed by HSCA's Mark Flanagan on 5/2/78.
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22) J. THORNTON BOSWELL, MD: was the "Chief of Pathology of the Naval Hospital" at the time of JFK's autopsy (while Humes was Director of Laboratories).
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Boswell appeared before the Warren Commission immediately after Humes had completed his testimony.
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Boswell said the wound was fairly low in the back of the head and that the bone was completely gone above the entry wound.He said that during the autopsy, a piece of skull fragment was brought in which included a portion which corresponded to the missing half of the entry wound in the head."(HSCA rec # 180-10093-10430.
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268:1752) "Regarding the autopsy face sheet, Dr. Boswell said that the entry wound to the head, if not exactly accurate, may have been ' ... possibly off a little to the left.'". (IBID. p.11) It is especially significant that Boswell allowed that his face sheet entrance wound might have been off in the horizontal, but not in the vertical dimension.That is, the wound of entrance, which was contiguous with the skull defect, may have been slightly more to the right than he depicted in his contemporaneous drawing, but it was not in the higher location accepted by the HSCA.

In an interview with Humes published in JAMA on May 27, 1992, Boswell repeated the claim that JFK's fatal entrance wound was to the right and just above the external occipital protuberance.
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U.S. Government Printing Office) and not low in the skull where Boswell had previously placed it.
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I wrote Boswell that I had made his admission to me about Posner public in a letter to the editor of the Federal Bar News and Journal, and since that time, Boswell has refused to answer my calls or letters.
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24) PIERRE A. FINCK, MD: the forensics specialist called in to assist Humes and Boswell with JFK's autopsy.
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Ford: 'There has been complete unanimity (with Humes and Boswell who had just testified) on what you saw, what you did, and what you have reported?' Col. Finck: 'Yes.'" (Warren Commission, V.2:383, in: Breo, "JFK's death, part III".