JFK Assassination Hearings - Dr. Michael Baden (Part II)
JFK Assassination Hearings - Dr. Michael Baden (Part II)
Shot opens to Dr. MICHAEL BADEN, forensic pathologist, confirming for committee chairman LOUIS STOKES that he has seen autopsy photographs (09:58:04) Chairman Stokes explains that everyone on and involved with committee has seen autopsy photographs but that they will not be used in the case because it would reflect poor taste (09:58:11) Counsel KENNETH KLEIN recognized to question Baden, Klein asks Baden to describes his position and define the terms autopsy, forensic, and pathology in the context of his work (09:59:09) Exhibit is entered into record and passed to Baden which is a list of medical documents and materials panel was privy to during investigation - Baden gives a long explanation of what these documents and materials were and thier access to them, many of them are from the National Archive (10:01:14) Klein verifies the authority of the forensic pathology panel to come to expert conclusions - In Baden's response he says that over 100,000 autopsies have been performed by the panel members combined (10:05:05) Baden explains how the panel dealt with materials that could not be secured by the committee, namely JFK's brain and responds that even without these materials the panel could come to definitive conclusions (10:06:15) Klein asks if any members disagreed with the conclusions of the panel - Baden says its finding unanimous with the exception of Dr. CYRIL H. WECHT (10:07:35) Klein asks "what the cause of death of President John F. Kennedy?" - Baden responds JFK died as the result of two bullet wounds to the head and back (10:08:10) Exhibit of autopsy illustration entered into record, it is a very detailed drawing of JFK's back with a little bullet whole in it and a ruler across it, beneath the drawing is another smaller one, a blow up of the bullet hole (10:08:30)
JFK Assassination Hearings - Dr. Michael Baden (Part II)
Baden identifies and describes the drawing and verifies its accuracy (10:09:15) New exhibit is added, it is a huge blow up of the bullet hole in JFK's back - Baden identifies and desribes it (10:10:10) Baden defines the whole as an entrance gun shot wound and explains how the panel came to that conclusion (10:11:45) Two new exhibits added - Representative CHRISTOPHER DODD interrupts to tell the court that some of the committee members will be coming and going as there is a quorum call on the House floor (10:12:30) Using the diagrams introduced which depict stages of a bullet penetrating a surface at two different angles - Baden explains what an abrasion collar is and how its shape and symetry reflect the bullet's angle of entrance into the skin - JFK's abrasian collar indicates the bullet was traveling from right to left (10:13:05) JFK's clothing is introduced as an exhibit, it comes on a headless, armless torso mannequin, it is a suit jacket and shirt which we learn were ripped apart by doctors so they could apply emergency treatement, there is also a tie - Baden identifies and describes the clothing and then reveals the small hole in the back of the jacket which he tells the committee matches the location of the hole in JFK's back (10:16:40) Two more exhibits are taken to the exhibit easel, they are blown up X-rays of JFK's chest and neck - Baden identifies and describes the X-rays, he then tells the committee that the panel concluded from the X-ray that a bullet did pass through the neck and back after the identification of a fractured vertebrae in the president's neck - Baden explains that this finding was confirmed by several radiology specialists who he lists (10:18:40)
JFK Assassination Hearings - Dr. Michael Baden (Part II)
New exhibit added, it is an illustration of JFK's neck and shoulders from the front, the throat is lacerated - Baden identifies and describes the illustration (10:25:00) A blow up photograph of the neck injury is added - Baden describes and indentifies the photograph and tells the committee that the panel concluded that it was the result of both a tracheotomy attempt by the doctors at Parkland hospital and a bullet exit wound - they confirmed their findings with the Parkland doctors (10:25:35) Returning to JFK's clothing Baden points out the bullet hole in the neck corresponds to a rip in the shirt and tie that would have matched the location at the time of the assassination on JFK's body (10:28:20) Klein introduces the autopsy reports as exhibits - Baden indentifies and describes the reports and their preperation, which includes a supplimentry report written two weeks after the assassination analysing the brain after it had fixed in formaldihyde (10:29:39) Baden tells the committee the report's conclusion about the gun shot wound to the back and neck - it is the same as that concluded by the panel - Klein asks if this conclusion was unanimous for the panel to which Baden responds yes (10:31:40) Exhibit of profile images of JFK's head introduced, one head is static, the other is depicted as moving in stages - Baden identifies the pictures and describes them as a depiction of the bullet's track through JFK's neck and the different angle possibilities for it's flight course, depending on JFK's head position (10:32:30)
JFK Assassination Hearings - Dr. Michael Baden (Part II)
Exhibit introduced - color profile of JFK with detail of internal musculature and path of bullet through neck - Baden identifies is at a drawing done for the Warren Commision and describes it as an inaccurate interpretation of the bullet's path through the neck - the entrance point is placed two inches higher than the current panel's conclusion as to where it was located (10:35:00) Exhibit introduced - illustration of the back of JFK's head with a ruler being held up to it and the hair parted - Baden indentifies it as a replica of an autopsy photograph and explains the elements of it which include a bullet hole, skull fragments, and a piece of dried tissue at the neck hair line (10:36:05) Two more exhibits added Baden identifies and describes them, based on the panel's conclusions, as blow ups of back of the head image of JFK, they depict the piece of dried brain tissue at the neck hair line and the bullet hole (they are actually photographs) (10:38:00) More exhibits introduced - 3 skull X-rays of JFK - Baden identifies one as original X-ray from the autopsy of JFK's profile another as the same X-ray processed by a computer and improved in contrast, it is the most detailed and clear image of the three, with it Baden explains the panel's findings: that the skull was heavily fractured by a bullet that entered and passed through it toward the top of the head, they also found fragments of materiall which they concluded to be bullet debris - Baden then puts this in striking comparison to the third X-ray which is from earlier in JFK's life and depicts the same perspective of the skull but the skull is in perfect shape (10:40:50)
JFK Assassination Hearings - Dr. Michael Baden (Part II)
New exhibits introduced - 2 more X-rays, front views (?) of JFK's skull which Baden explains concur with the bullet wound to the head, revealing the bullet's entrance point, a fragment of it within the head and the extensive damage to the skull it imparted (10:46:00) Klein introduces another exhibit - a profile drawing of JFK which makes him semi-transparent so that you can see his skull and a bullet whole in its top front - Baden explains that this drawing depicts the panel's conclusion as to the location of the bullet's point of exit (10:47:30) Another exhibit is introduced - Baden explains it as a photographic blow up of what the panel concluded as the bullet's point of exit out of the front of JFK's skull, he explains how they reached this conclusion (10:48:50) Exhiibt of X-ray is introduced - Baden explains it is the X-ray of fragments of JFK's skull recovered from his car, from it and the autopsy report the panel confirmed that it supports the location of the bullet's exit point as one fragment too was damaged by the bullet and has as a result metal fragments in it (10:51:20)
JFK Assassination Hearings - Dr. Michael Baden (Part II)
Klein asks in what ways was the autopsy report consistant and at odds with the findings of the panel - Baden answers that it was consistant in its identification of the direction of the bullet's path through the head of JFK but that it was odds in it's location of the bullet's point of entry as 4 inches lower than the panel (10:53:00) Klein asks if the panel unanimously concluded that the bullet entered high on the back side of JFK's head and exited high on the right side - Baden answers yes (10:54:25) Two exhibits introduced - Drawings of a 3/4 back view of JFK with an out line of his head within which the skull is detailed, both depict the bullets path through the skull as an arrow and one of the images shows the fragments of the skull in relation to the large hole left behind, the other shows the path of the bullet through the neck as well - Baden explains the drawings and says that the president's head position within them was determined by viewing the Zapruder film (10:55:00)