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In The Eye Of History; Disclosures in the JFK assassination medical evidence
Several years ago, William Matson Law set out on a personal quest to reach an understanding of the circumstances underpinning the assassination of John F. Kennedy. His investigation began with a key component of the events of November 22, 1963, and the days that the autopsy on the president's body at the National Naval Medical Center, Bethesda, Maryland. He contacted those who were involved at Bethesda in various aspects of the aftermath of the assassination; In the Eye of Disclosures in the JFK Assassination Medical Evidence comprises "conversations" with eight individuals who agreed to Dennis David
Paul O'Connor
James Jenkins
Jerrol Custer
Saundra Spencer
Ex-FBI Special Agents James Sibert and Frances O'Neill For the first time, these eyewitnesses relate their stories comprehensively in their own words. Law allows them to tell it as they remember it without attempting to fit any pro- or anti-conspiracy agenda. The reader is the judge of these eyewitness accounts and their implications. Dennis David describes observing the arrival at Bethesda Naval Hospital of the navy ambulance carrying Jackie Kennedy with the official casket purportedly carrying the president's body -- some time after he had supervised the unloading of a shipping casket that he'd been told contained the body of the president. Autopsy technician Paul O'Connor helped remove the president's body -- he recalls that it was in a body bag -- from a shipping casket; this contrasts with the placement of the president's body in an ornate casket in Dallas, after wrapping only in sheets and towels. O'Connor's associate, James Jenkins, emerged from the autopsy convinced that the president had been shot from two directions. X-ray technician Jerrol Custer recalls seeing Mrs. Kennedy enter the Naval Hospital, having just arrived with her husband's body -- yet Custer was on his way to the darkroom to develop X-ray plates already taken of the president's corpse. Ex-FBI Special Agents James Sibert and Frances O'Neill pour scorn on the single-bullet theory -- the sine qua non of the Warren Report -- yet are reluctant to conclude that more than one sniper was involved. Harold Rydberg describes how he illustrated the president's wounds solely from verbal descriptions and provides first-hand impressions of the personalities of the autopsy doctors. Saundra Spencer compares and contrasts the extant photographs from the Kennedy autopsy with those that she developed; the differences are startling. And there is discussion of the 1966 death of William Pitzer in whose possession Dennis David claims to have seen a secret movie of the Kennedy autopsy.
Paul O'Connor
James Jenkins
Jerrol Custer
Saundra Spencer
Ex-FBI Special Agents James Sibert and Frances O'Neill For the first time, these eyewitnesses relate their stories comprehensively in their own words. Law allows them to tell it as they remember it without attempting to fit any pro- or anti-conspiracy agenda. The reader is the judge of these eyewitness accounts and their implications. Dennis David describes observing the arrival at Bethesda Naval Hospital of the navy ambulance carrying Jackie Kennedy with the official casket purportedly carrying the president's body -- some time after he had supervised the unloading of a shipping casket that he'd been told contained the body of the president. Autopsy technician Paul O'Connor helped remove the president's body -- he recalls that it was in a body bag -- from a shipping casket; this contrasts with the placement of the president's body in an ornate casket in Dallas, after wrapping only in sheets and towels. O'Connor's associate, James Jenkins, emerged from the autopsy convinced that the president had been shot from two directions. X-ray technician Jerrol Custer recalls seeing Mrs. Kennedy enter the Naval Hospital, having just arrived with her husband's body -- yet Custer was on his way to the darkroom to develop X-ray plates already taken of the president's corpse. Ex-FBI Special Agents James Sibert and Frances O'Neill pour scorn on the single-bullet theory -- the sine qua non of the Warren Report -- yet are reluctant to conclude that more than one sniper was involved. Harold Rydberg describes how he illustrated the president's wounds solely from verbal descriptions and provides first-hand impressions of the personalities of the autopsy doctors. Saundra Spencer compares and contrasts the extant photographs from the Kennedy autopsy with those that she developed; the differences are startling. And there is discussion of the 1966 death of William Pitzer in whose possession Dennis David claims to have seen a secret movie of the Kennedy autopsy.
- GenresNonfiction
396 pages, Paperback
First published November 22, 2004
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
June 19, 2013
I thought that maybe I was ploughing through a field that I had only recently furrowed. Having just read through all five volumes of the very excellent 'Inside the A.R.R.B.' (2009) by Doug Horne, I questioned myself about ordering Bill Law's 'In the Eye of History', (2005). The subtitle 'Disclosures in the JFK Assassination Medical Evidence' was perhaps going to be a superseded work to Horne's massive and more recent writings.
I sat in on one of Mr Law's lectures a decade ago, and will do so again later this year, so that swung my decision to read his book.
Any student of the JFK assassination will have come across the cold testimony of very many witnesses from Warren, H.S.C.A., the A.R.R.B. and suchlike. 'In the Eye of History' is a very unique historical document. It is also a testimony to the authors extreme dedication and tenacity in tracking down and obtaining the interviews of key persons involved in the autopsy of JFK at Bethesda. However, William Law has achieved even more than that. The detailed conversations with Dennis D. David, Paul K.O'Connor, James C. Jenkins, Jerrol F. Custer and F.B.I. agents James W. Sibert and Francis X. O'Neill, medical artist Harold A. Rydberg and Saundra K.Spencer from N.P.C. Anacostia bring a very human perspective that is quite new and refreshing. Sibert, O'Neill and Spencer for the first time.
Law has been assisted by Vince Palamara and JFK Lancer's Debra Conway. (Lancer are the publishers)
The intimate style of writing added to the dedication and honesty of all involved make this book a must read.
I sat in on one of Mr Law's lectures a decade ago, and will do so again later this year, so that swung my decision to read his book.
Any student of the JFK assassination will have come across the cold testimony of very many witnesses from Warren, H.S.C.A., the A.R.R.B. and suchlike. 'In the Eye of History' is a very unique historical document. It is also a testimony to the authors extreme dedication and tenacity in tracking down and obtaining the interviews of key persons involved in the autopsy of JFK at Bethesda. However, William Law has achieved even more than that. The detailed conversations with Dennis D. David, Paul K.O'Connor, James C. Jenkins, Jerrol F. Custer and F.B.I. agents James W. Sibert and Francis X. O'Neill, medical artist Harold A. Rydberg and Saundra K.Spencer from N.P.C. Anacostia bring a very human perspective that is quite new and refreshing. Sibert, O'Neill and Spencer for the first time.
Law has been assisted by Vince Palamara and JFK Lancer's Debra Conway. (Lancer are the publishers)
The intimate style of writing added to the dedication and honesty of all involved make this book a must read.
March 1, 2016
If you believe Lee Harvey Oswald alone killed JFK, you will want to skip this review and the book.
If you think there was a conspiracy, this book goes into how JFK's body was taken for pre-surgery to make it look like all shots came from the rear; how the throat entry wound was enlarged to look like a tracheotomy wound, etc., all before the official autopsy.
Five eye-witnesses were interviewed and recorded; they tell their stories on the DVD that comes with the book.
Spoilers below.
The body was transported from Parkland to Air Force 1 in a heavy bronze casket. Jackie sat beside the casket for the entire trip home except while she was attending LBJ's swearing-in, at his insistence. During those minutes, the body was moved to a cheap metal transport casket and stowed in the luggage compartment below the passenger area. It arrived at the back door of Bethesda Naval Hospital (the entrance to the morgue), in a Navy ambulance, and was surgically altered by two military surgeons acting under orders from the "gallery" of autopsy witnesses. Meanwhile the hearse carrying Jackie and the (empty) bronze casket waited at the front entrance of the hospital until the driver received clearance, and then was brought through many corridors to the morgue. Spectators were kept out of the anteroom where the casket was deposited. Then the official autopsy proceeded with many people in the room. The bronze casket was removed and replaced with a mahogany casket from the Washington funeral home that handled the arrangements. (The shipping casket had been removed earlier.)
Autopsy photos are included, as are pictures of the witnesses. The wounds are discussed in great detail along with probable angles of the gunshots and other details.
Believe it, or not.
If you think there was a conspiracy, this book goes into how JFK's body was taken for pre-surgery to make it look like all shots came from the rear; how the throat entry wound was enlarged to look like a tracheotomy wound, etc., all before the official autopsy.
Five eye-witnesses were interviewed and recorded; they tell their stories on the DVD that comes with the book.
Spoilers below.
The body was transported from Parkland to Air Force 1 in a heavy bronze casket. Jackie sat beside the casket for the entire trip home except while she was attending LBJ's swearing-in, at his insistence. During those minutes, the body was moved to a cheap metal transport casket and stowed in the luggage compartment below the passenger area. It arrived at the back door of Bethesda Naval Hospital (the entrance to the morgue), in a Navy ambulance, and was surgically altered by two military surgeons acting under orders from the "gallery" of autopsy witnesses. Meanwhile the hearse carrying Jackie and the (empty) bronze casket waited at the front entrance of the hospital until the driver received clearance, and then was brought through many corridors to the morgue. Spectators were kept out of the anteroom where the casket was deposited. Then the official autopsy proceeded with many people in the room. The bronze casket was removed and replaced with a mahogany casket from the Washington funeral home that handled the arrangements. (The shipping casket had been removed earlier.)
Autopsy photos are included, as are pictures of the witnesses. The wounds are discussed in great detail along with probable angles of the gunshots and other details.
Believe it, or not.
September 23, 2016
William Law's "In the Eye of History" is an important look at the medical evidence in the JFK assassination, one that meshes nicely with Harold Weisberg's "Post Mortem" and David Lifton's "Best Evidence." Law's ground breaking work has largely flown under the radar in the research community, and more recognition is long overdue.
Law takes the reader through the murky world of the JFK autopsy. It's a world filled with multiple caskets, and multiple body bags, and decoy ambulances. Whatever theory one subscribes to, something very peculiar was going on at Bethesda Naval Hospital that night. Law found the people who were there, and put them on the record.
Law was the first citizen researcher to interview crucial witnesses like FBI agents James Sibert and Francis O'Neill. The Sibert interview is particularly fascinating. The man who co-wrote the often-quoted report on the Bethesda autopsy was a quite knowledgeable researcher himself. Neither Sibert nor O'Neill bought the absurd single-bullet theory.
I've been studying the JFK assassination since the mid-1970s, and there isn't much about the subject that I don't know. But I found out new things in this book. To cite just one example, I was unaware that J.Thornton Boswell, one of the two pathologists who produced "an autopsy unworthy of a Bowery bum," in the words of Harold Weisberg, rejected an opportunity to perform the autopsy on Martin Luther King, Jr.
William Law has the reputation of being one of the best interviewers in the world, and that is reflected in all the eye-opening interviews in this book. It's time that the research community realized he is a pretty special writer and researcher as well.
Law takes the reader through the murky world of the JFK autopsy. It's a world filled with multiple caskets, and multiple body bags, and decoy ambulances. Whatever theory one subscribes to, something very peculiar was going on at Bethesda Naval Hospital that night. Law found the people who were there, and put them on the record.
Law was the first citizen researcher to interview crucial witnesses like FBI agents James Sibert and Francis O'Neill. The Sibert interview is particularly fascinating. The man who co-wrote the often-quoted report on the Bethesda autopsy was a quite knowledgeable researcher himself. Neither Sibert nor O'Neill bought the absurd single-bullet theory.
I've been studying the JFK assassination since the mid-1970s, and there isn't much about the subject that I don't know. But I found out new things in this book. To cite just one example, I was unaware that J.Thornton Boswell, one of the two pathologists who produced "an autopsy unworthy of a Bowery bum," in the words of Harold Weisberg, rejected an opportunity to perform the autopsy on Martin Luther King, Jr.
William Law has the reputation of being one of the best interviewers in the world, and that is reflected in all the eye-opening interviews in this book. It's time that the research community realized he is a pretty special writer and researcher as well.
January 28, 2024
Good information buried
This could have been a great book but details that stuck out in my mind were buried in technical detail that deters a very interested reader. Good book nut really hard to finish
This could have been a great book but details that stuck out in my mind were buried in technical detail that deters a very interested reader. Good book nut really hard to finish
March 9, 2026
Very good research and interviews with the participants in this tragedy and its cover up.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews