The news media have failed again. Go to your favorite news sources to find accurate coverage of the May 20, 2025, Congressional hearing on the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy. You will find that the overwhelming majority of news organizations ignored the hearing, which was held by the House Committee on Government Oversight and Reform’s Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets. The video of the hearing is here.
It is common for establishment news organizations to dismiss rational inquiry about JFK’s assassination by us of the phrase “conspiracy theory.” In his article “Conspiracy theory”: The case for being critically receptive, Professor Tim Hayward states:
“Conspiracy theory” is widely used as a pejorative term. An effect of this usage, however, is to discourage certain kinds of legitimate critical inquiry. In a world where conspiracies happen, it is reasonable to seek to formulate good theories of what exactly is happening; and through competent investigation, hypotheses of conspiracy can sometimes be verified. Thus, the general denigration of “conspiracy theory” tends to discourage a kind of practice that there is reason, in fact, to encourage.
Rather than being ignored or dismissed as a “conspiracy theory,” the facts alleged at the House hearing deserve detailed, accurate evaluation, and thereafter, either detailed, accurate refutation, support, or further evaluation.
Public domain.
One of the witnesses was Dr. Don Curtis, who was a 26-year-old medical resident at Parkland Hospital in Dallas, Texas, when Kennedy was shot. Dr. Curtis was one of several doctors and nurses who treated Kennedy. In his testimony at 46:15 – 56:05 in the video, he describes his experience, including the large exit wound he saw at the back of Kennedy’s head. The President’s Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy, commonly known as the Warren Commission, released a report and 26 volumes of testimony and exhibits in 1964 that did not include such an exit wound in its findings.
Another witness was Dan Hardway, who was a researcher on the staff of the House Select Committee on Assassinations (“HSCA”) in 1977-78. His written testimony is here. In his testimony at 1:12:05 – 1:20:10, he testifies in detail about how he personally witnessed the Central Intelligence Agency conduct an illegal, domestic covert operation involving at least one undercover agent to subvert and obstruct the HSCA.
The most important witness was Douglas P. Horne, who was on the staff of the Assassination Records Review Board from 1995 to 1998. The Board was created by law in reaction to Oliver Stone’s 1991 film “JFK” to release records relating to Kennedy’s assassination. Horne rose to the position of Chief Analyst for Military Records on the Board. His written testimony is here. In his testimony at 1:33:25 – 1:43:55, 1:53:50 – 1:55:15, and 2:33:40 – 2:46:45 in the video, among other things, Horne describes evidence of surgical alteration to Kennedy’s body, performed at Bethesda Naval Hospital, before the official autopsy. Horne presents many other facts that the news media have failed to report, including:
a. Eight different sets of photographs known with confidence to have been taken during the autopsy on JFK are not in the official collection today and never have been.
b. Some autopsy photos in the official collection at the National Archives are in gross disagreement with the head and neck wounds universally observed on November 22, 1963, by the treating physicians at Parkland Hospital, and recorded in precise detail in their treatment notes that day, and in their subsequent 1964 testimony.
c. At least two, and possibly three, JFK skull x-rays exposed at Bethesda Naval Hospital are missing today and have never been in the official collection.
d. The science of optical densitometry reveals that all three surviving skull X-rays are not originals, but rather, are altered copy films.
e. Two highly qualified and respected M.D.s who were granted repeated access by the Kennedy family to the autopsy photographs and x-rays in the deed-of-gift collection at the Archives both agree that the extant JFK skull x-rays reveal unambiguous and clear evidence of two head shots fired from in front of the President, contrary to the findings of the Warren Commission and the HSCA. The JFK skull x-rays actually reveal a total of three head shots: one from behind, and two from the front.
f. The so-called “Harper Fragment” of skull bone, a crucial item of evidence signed for by the President’s Military Physician, and photographed by the FBI, has been missing since late 1963.
g. Bullet fragments known to have been removed from President Kennedy’s body at Bethesda Naval Hospital were never placed into the official record and are missing today.
h. The remains of President Kennedy’s brain following its examination were placed in a stainless steel container in 1963, but the brain is missing today. That stainless steel container, and an original, signed autopsy report, were among materials transferred from the Secret Service to Senator Robert F. Kennedy in April of 1965; those materials, and others, were not among the materials returned to the U.S. government by RFK on October 31, 1966, via a deed-of-gift to the National Archives. The Kennedy family attorney, Burke Marshall, told the HSCA that Robert F. Kennedy had made those materials permanently inaccessible, without providing details.
i. The fourteen (14) brain photographs in the National Archives today cannot be, and are not, photos of John F. Kennedy’s brain. They have been impugned by the official photographer at the brain examination and by one of the FBI agents present at JFK’s autopsy.
j. The chain-of-custody of President Kennedy’s body prior to the start of the autopsy shortly after 8:00 PM on November 22, 1963, clearly appears to have been broken, casting even more doubt upon the reliability of the official autopsy report.
k. Navy pathologists arrived at four (4) sets of differing conclusions about President Kennedy’s wounds and how he died within the two weeks after his death. The official autopsy report that is now in the National Archives represents only the fourth, and final, set of conclusions.
l. The film of the assassination taken by bystander Abraham Zapruder that the public has seen is not the original film. The version seen by the public is an altered copy of the original that hides the large exit wound in the back of Kennedy’s head, among other things. The original Zapruder film was in the custody of the Central Intelligence Agency during the weekend after the Friday assassination.
Despite the news media, the facts are available to those willing to dig. One of the doctors to whom Horne refers is David Mantik, whose recent book “Final Analysis” discusses the fraudulent X-rays and photographs. Horne has a YouTube channel with many more details. In this video, Horne conducts a very important interview regarding the Zapruder film.
There is no justification for ignoring or dismissing all of these assertions with the disparaging label of “conspiracy theory” without a detailed, accurate evaluation of the assertions.
Allan J. Favish is an attorney in Los Angeles. His website is allanfavish.com. In 2010, James Fernald and Mr. Favish co-authored a book about what might happen if the government ran Disneyland, entitled “Fireworks! If the Government Ran the Fairest Kingdom of Them All (A Very Unauthorized Fantasy).
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