JFK Assassination Hearings - Dr. Cyril H. Wecht (Part IV)
JFK Assassination Hearings - Dr. Cyril H. Wecht (Part IV)
Dr. CYRIL H. WECHT, dissenting forensic pathologist, responds to question put forth by Representative HAROLD S. SAWYER that he does not believe bullet 399 cause all the wounds received by Governor JOHN CONNALLY (17:34:31) Sawyers asks Wecht what happened to the bullet that hit Connally - Wecht does not know but points out the sloppiness of the original investigation (17:35:20) Sawyer asks how Connally could have held hat after being shot in the same wrist - Wecht says he doesn't know but doesn't believe Connally to be shot at this point - both men agree it seems unreasonable that hat could have been held on to (17:35:55) Representative RICHARDSON PREYER, taken over at the chair (apparently many members of the committee have left to take a vote on the House floor), asks if Wecht did in fact say the other members of the panel were unwilling to conduct bullet firing tests because they new what the results would be - Wecht confirms he did say this and explains that he thinks the panel was reluctant to do the tests in light of the ones done in 1964 which showed how hard, if not impossible, it would be to produce a bullet in as good shape as 399 - Preyer asks how other "eminent" panel members could not conduct tests if they are as professional as they claim - Wecht suggests they are biased and goes on to explain how easy it would be to conduct tests (17:38:25) Preyer says listening to the day's testimony has helped him realize the limits of common sense, as common sense would dictate that a bullet could not do all the things that bullet 399 supposedly did, however he adds common sense also tells us "the earth is flat" (17:41:15) Representative DODD asks Wecht about Dr. MICHAEL BADEN's claim that in tests there would be a difference between a bullet's path through live and dead tissue - Wecht responds this not true with bones, summarizes Warren Commission's experiments in 1964 (17:42:08) Representative Floyd J. Fithian asks if the angle of trajectory was determined by the bullet's path through JFK and if it is possible that were JFK leaning forward when the bullet hit if this would allow for the bullet to then be in line to pass through Connally - Wecht responds that JFK would have to lean very far forward for this to work and that from the Zapruder film we can see that he is no where near this position, he also adds that the horizontal trajectories also do not line up (17:44:08) Representative ROBERT W. EDGAR confirms that Wecht stated he wanted to access to JFK's brain and that he had criticized the committee for not getting the brain, he then confirms that Wecht is aware of all the steps that the committee has taken to secure the brain and asks what Wecht would he have done had he been in charge - Wecht gives a long response which includes criticisms of other forensic pathologists of him for wanting access to the brain, and why he considers it so important to the investigation, in part he mentions because of the "ridiculous" autopsy that was performed (17:46:12) Edgar asks Professor C. ROBERT BLAKEY to give a summary for the record of the steps the committee has taken to get the brain (17:50:05) Blakey at the podium gives a summary of the brain's movement from hand to hand after the assassination as far as the committee could figure it out, at a point they can no longer figure out where the brain went and after deposing all the people in the chain have turned up nothing other then the suggestion that ROBERT KENNEDY had it destoyed - Blakey asks Wecht if he can suggest any further leads (17:50:14) Chairman STOKES (who has returned from the vote) asks Wecht if he is a ballistics expert - Wecht responds no - Stokes asks if most the past cases the Wecht has diagnosed involved hand gun wounds rather than rifle wounds - Wecht responds yes (17:53:41) Delegate WALTER FAUNTROY confirms Wecht believes another bullet, other than 399 did the damage to Connally, and could this other bullet have done all the damage - Wecht responds that he does belieive there was another bullet involved and that it is possible it did all the damage (17:55:25) Fauntroy asks what sort of test does Wecht invision to see if a bullet could have shattered Connally's wrist and then lodged in his thigh - Wecht explains it would only take a human cadaver - The two men come to an agreement on where the bullet was fired from and how it hit and passed through the wrist (17:56:54) Fauntroy asks for an explanation of the test that Wecht would conduct to test single bullet theory - Wecht gives a detailed description of the tests and what he would be looking for in the results which is mainly to see that one bullet could break both a rib and a wrist bone and emerge in such good shape (17:58:26) Fauntroy points out the extreme difficulty of exactly recreating the situation, it would take a very accurate shot and set up - Wecht responds that only bones are really needed in the test and that accuracy is not an issue with a professional marksman (18:01:08) Sawyer confirms Wecht's suggestion that Connally's wounds could have been from fragments of bullet that hit JFK's head and then exposes this as an impossibility, as according to the Zapruder film Connally has reacted to being shot before JFK's head was hit - Wecht is very visibly embarrassed and stumbles to save himself (18:02:35) Chairman Stokes recognizes Wecht's opportunity to suppliment his testimony (18:04:01) Wecht thanks members of the committee, especially Professor Blakey who let him testify, and goes on to say that he is sorry this sort of investigation was not carried out in '63 or '64 and that there is much still to be explained about what happened (18:04:18)