Mr. Chairman, members of the committee, thank you for inviting me to testify. I am a diagnostic radiologist in private practice in Nashville, Tennessee. Several years ago I became interested in the medical evidence in the assassination of the late President John F. Kennedy. In pursuing study of this important evidence I have read extensively from the available government records from the Warren Commission through the House Select Committee on Assassinations (the "HSCA"), as well as medically related articles.

As a researcher, the body of evidence has been limited because many of the principles involved, especially the autopsy pathologists, have been very selective in their discussions of the case and have not been open to critical questioning about the circumstances around the autopsy. In addition, much of the primary source material has, until recently, been inaccessible. Answers to questions posed by official governmental investigators have not been available for the most part. The release of some of the autopsy-related documents from the HSCA investigation, has substantially improved my understanding of the medical evidence of the case. However, many documents remain withheld, apparently, because of the delay in nominating the members of the Assassination Records Review Board.

Recently, I overcame a significant barrier to the study of the medical evidence when I was granted permission to examine the original radiographic and photographic record pertaining to President Kennedy's autopsy. So far as is known, I have the distinction of being the only diagnostic radiologist to be allowed to examine the original radiographic and photographic record of the late President Kennedy's mortal remains independent of any governmental agency or investigative body.

In 1963 the pathologists who conducted the President's autopsy reported that he was struck by a bullet which entered in the back of the head near the hairline. Subsequently, three official government inquiries - the Ramsey Clark Autopsy Panel in 1967, the Rockefeller Commission in 1975, and the House Select Committee on Assassinations in 1979 - all concluded that the autopsy pathologists were mistaken in their placement of this wound by four inches, an error so great that it cannot be attributed to simple human error. From the newly available documents under this law I have found numerous very credible eyewitnesses to the autopsy whose HSCA testimony contradicts the conclusions of three governmental review panels and validates the original autopsy pathologists placement of a wound of entry low in the back of the head near the hairline as seen on autopsy photographs. These eyewitnesses include agents of the Secret Service and FBI and officers of the Armed Forces. Both the autopsy pathologists and the government panels agreed, however, that a single bullet struck President Kennedy in the head. We are left to decide whose conclusion is correct - the government review panels who have had to rely on an admittedly poor radiographic and photographic record or the autopsy pathologists who have had the unparalleled benefit of close, direct and prolonged visual inspection and manipulation of the skull and scalp and who have steadfastly maintained the lower entry point for almost 30 years. The testimony of many other credible witnesses who were also in the autopsy room on 11-22-63 endorses their location. My research has provided the answer.

It is my opinion that the photographic and radiographic record is authentic and that these materials have not been altered. It is my opinion that they provide medico legal evidence of conspiracy in the President's assassination. It is also my considered opinion that to a reasonable degree of scientific certainty, the President was killed when he was struck in the head by two bullets instead of one as previously reported.

I draw these conclusions after a careful and meticulous study of the autopsy related materials at the National Archives, the autopsy report and the testimony of those present the night of the autopsy, some of which have just recently been released. I have discovered radiographic evidence which confirms a low entry in the back of the head. Previous governmental review panels have overlooked or have not reported a transverse fracture of the right occipital bone present on the postmortem skull radiographs. This fracture propagates from the area where the autopsy doctors have persistently maintained a wound of entrance was. When the autopsy pathologists examined the photographs with the HSCA medical review panel they unanimously pointed out the scalp defect near the hairline as the entrance wound. This transverse fracture of the right occipital bone lies immediately under this scalp defect. Dr. Boswell diagrammed this fracture pattern in the autopsy notes at the autopsy table. The postmortem skull radiographs validate the accuracy of Dr. Boswell's drawing.

This pattern of intersecting skull fractures leaves no doubt that the damage to the President's skull is inconsistent with only one bullet entry and was necessarily caused by two separate impacts. The original autopsy team and all subsequent reviewers of the photographic and radiographic record failed to analyze and properly evaluate the intersecting fracture pattern in their reports. The principle is simple and relies on the fact that a secondary series of propagating fractures has to stop abruptly at their intersection with the gap created by a preexisting primary fracture. This analysis of intersecting fracture lines is the first correct interpretation of the evidence which explains the discrepancy between the location of the wound of entry by the autopsy pathologists and subsequent review panels and allows the deduction of two separate bullet wounds to the President's head. I have included a diagram based upon the postmortem skull radiographs to illustrate this principle.

The first shot which struck the President's head was fired from behind the limousine. The photographic and radiographic evidence, as well as eyewitness accounts, corroborates the location of the first point of entry in the rear of the skull described by the autopsy pathologists in their protocol. The evidence does not support the findings by subsequent review panels that the autopsy team erred by four inches in locating that wound. The second shot to the head was fired from the right front of the Presidential motorcade as it traveled through Dealey Plaza in Dallas. It is my opinion that this second shot from the right front accounts for the snap of the President's head back and to the left as seen in the Zapruder film.

The evaluation of the postmortem skull radiographs need not be limited to the proof that President Kennedy was killed by two shots fired from different directions. They provide strong evidence that in some manner they were used in the preparation of Warren Commission exhibit CE 388 which I have included a reproduction of at the end of my prepared statement. CE 388 is a lateral illustration of the damage to the President's skull made under the supervision of Drs. Humes and Boswell for their Warren Commission testimony. According to the autopsy doctors, this was made without the benefit of the radiographs or photographs. On the lateral skull radiograph there is a pair of diverging pencil lines that were drawn there by Dr. John Ebersole, the radiologist present the night of the autopsy. These lines from a 32 degree angle and extend from the entrance, low in the back of the head to the projected exit point of the first bullet in the right front of the skull. On CE 388 there is a pair of lines which corresponds to the proposed trajectory of the first bullet through the skull. These lines have almost exactly the same 32 degree angle and intersect the skull at exactly the same point as the pencil lines drawn by Dr. Ebersole on the lateral skull x-ray. This match is not a coincidence and speaks to the fact that either directly or indirectly the radiographs were used in preparation of CE 388. It also speaks to the fact that the original autopsy team knew exactly where the first bullet entered the skull both on visual inspection and radiographically. Both the pencil lines on the radiographs and the trajectory lines on CE 388 point to the level of entry for the first bullet and the transverse fracture of the right occipital bone which was created by it.

The autopsy team's denial of the obvious radiographic evidence for a second impact point on the back of the skull is shown in their misleading written description in their autopsy protocol of the lead fragment distribution which has lead subsequent review panels to conclude that they erred in their placement of the wound of entry by four inches. The radiographic evidence for the second bullet impact to the back of the head, at a higher location, has been obvious to the governmental review panels. The subtle radiographic evidence confirming the lower entrance has not been obvious to these review panels. We are left to wonder why this obvious evidence of a second impact was not recognized by the original autopsy team. We may also ask why the largest bullet fragment present on these x-rays was not recovered the night of the autopsy. It is my belief that this fragment was dropped out of the evidentiary chain because it was related to the second bullet which struck President Kennedy's head originating from the Grassy Knoll area.

It is my belief that at least some of the physicians present that night were aware of the evidence of a second gunshot wound to the head either through the radiographs or through visual inspection of the wounds. Dr. George Burkley, the President's personal physician present the night of the autopsy, in a recently released interview with HSCA investigators in 1977 conceded the possibility of two gunshot wounds to the head. Ten years earlier in an oral history interview for the John F. Kennedy Library, Dr. Burkley was asked a simple question concerning the assassination. Do you agree with the Warren Report on the number of bullets that entered the Presidents body? His reply was "I would not care to be quoted on that".

In sum, it is a medical and scientific fact that the damage to the President's skull did not result from a single shot but was instead caused by two separate bullets. Furthermore, it is my opinion that at least two gunmen fired upon and assassinated President John F. Kennedy on 11-22-63.

It is imperative that the review board be put in place as soon as possible so that more evidence can be brought forward so that the American people can after 30 years find the truth concerning the circumstances surrounding the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. The intent of the law was for these documents to be released. For this to come to fruition, the review board should be nominated and put in place as soon as possible. They must be allowed to commence work quickly so that we do not squander possibly the last opportunity to see these documents in our lifetime. There is no question in my mind that the medical evidence indicates that President John F. Kennedy was killed as the result of a conspiracy. What is left to be found out is the how and the why. The immediate release of the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records may bring us closer to answers to these questions than we have been in the last 30 years.