At the Cold Shoulder of History Read online

  At The Cold Shoulder of History: The Chilling Story of a 21-year-old Hospital Corpsman Who Stood at the Shoulder of JFK During the

  Bethesda Autopsy

  Copyright ©2018 James C. Jenkins. All Rights Reserved.

  Published by:

  Trine Day LLC

  PO Box 577

  Walterville, OR 97489

  1-800-556-2012

  www.TrineDay.com

  [email protected]

  Library of Congress Control Number: 2018956440

  Jenkins, James C.

  At The Cold Shoulder of History—1st ed.

  p. cm.

  Epub (ISBN-13) 978-1-63424-212-7

  Kindle (ISBN-13) 978-1-63424-213-4

  Print (ISBN-13) 978-1-63424-211-0

  1. Jenkins, James C. -- 1942- 2. Kennedy, John F. -- (John Fitzgerald) -- 1917-1963 -- Autopsy. 3. Kennedy, John F. -- (John Fitzgerald) -- 1917-1963 -- Assassination. 4. United States -- Politics and government -- History. 5. Conspiracies -- United States -- History. I. Title

  First Edition

  10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

  Printed in the USA

  Distribution to the Trade by:

  Independent Publishers Group (IPG)

  814 North Franklin Street

  Chicago, Illinois 60610

  312.337.0747

  www.ipgbook.com

  Publisher’s Foreword

  That’s a valiant flea that dares to eat its breakfast on the lip of a lion.

  – William Shakespeare

  Success is not final, failure is not fatal:

  it is the courage to continue that counts.

  –Winston Churchill

  Which way did he go, George?

  –John Steinbeck

  We are not here to curse the darkness, but to light the candle that can guide us through that darkness to a safe and sane future.

  – John F. Kennedy

  Just what will it take? There has been so much water under the bridge. John Fitzgerald Kennedy was our 35th president. We are now up to number 45. Where has the time gone? Where has our country gone?

  Many of us find it hard to recognize our world today. There was so much hope in our youth. JFK used the slogans “A time for greatness 1960” and “We Can Do Better.” He presented a “New Frontier,” asked what we could do for our country, created the Peace Corps, signed the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, said “We choose to go to the Moon,” gave us a “A Strategy of Peace,” and vibrantly lived in Camelot with his beautiful family.

  Today’s discourse seems so far away, yet so painfully near. Decorum appears to have been left behind, while appeals to our lowest base instincts are standard fare. We are long way from JFK’s inauguration words: “…civility is not a sign of weakness, and sincerity is always subject to proof.… Let both sides explore what problems unite us instead of belaboring those problems which divide us.” Yes, those words were spoken about US/Russia relations in the Cold War, but I feel that they speak directly to us today.

  TrineDay is honored to bring to you James Jenkins personal testimony of what he saw and experienced as he stood by a murdered President. At The Cold Shoulder of History: The Chilling Story of a 21-year-old Hospital Corpsman Who Stood at the Shoulder of JFK During the Bethesda Autopsy is an amazing story that all Americans should read.

  Jim Jenkins, with Paul O’Conner, prepared the morgue in anticipation of receiving the body. Jim stood at JFK’s right shoulder assisting Dr. Boswell during the autopsy, moving the President’s body, removing and examining internal organs, helping infuse the brain and positioning the body for x-rays. He and Paul helped the mortician dress a dead John F. Kennedy, and then were given the job of cleaning up the morgue. Jim was in the morgue from 3:30 in the afternoon until 9:00 the next morning. He was there.

  Can you imagine?

  Jenkins wasn’t called to testify before the Warren Commission. He was interviewed in 1977 for the House Select Committee on Assassinations, but these were to be hidden from the public until 2029. While working for the Assassination Records Review Board Douglas Horne was told directly to not interview either Jim Jenkins or Paul O’Conner. The interview was finally released because of the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992.

  In 2015 at a JFK conference in Dallas, speaking about one of the most famous JFK autopsy pictures, I heard Jim say something earth-shaking: “We didn’t use that type of head rest in Bethesda.” I got in the question line and asked him to confirm what he had said. He did, and also confirmed that the Bethesda Morgue didn’t have a phone on the wall where the same picture showed one to be. I was floored and flabbergasted. A picture is worth a thousand words, right? Does this mean that photographic lie is …?

  Here we have the personal testimony of what a 21-year saw and participated in November 1963, and the travails that it brought.

  I want to thank James Jenkins for his service to our country and his courage to stand and deliver his recollections of this most unfortunate affair. And a huge thanks to William Matson Law for his continued steady hand and thoughtful inquiry. We are so lucky!

  Onward to the Utmost of Futures!

  Peace,

  Kris Millegan

  Publisher

  TrineDay

  Sepember 6, 2018

  This book is dedicated to the memories of

  Paul Kelly O’Connor

  and Dennis Duane David.

  James Jienkins as a young Naval Corpsman.

  Foreword

  In 1963 had the eyewitness information in this book of the non-autopsy, but actual alteration of the head wounds to President Kennedy’s corpse been made public, more than a dozen of the major perpetrators might also be corpses, hung or shot for treason for the crime that changed America and the world for the worse … like no other in history. Also, we may have seen arrested scores more including some of our most revered names in the Media.

  But sadly, like the truths of District Attorney Jim Garrison’s provable case that: “Elements of our CIA murdered our President,” these too were ruthlessly crushed by every facet of Government and Media hungry for war in Asia – and the Fake Wars that plague us to this day. Crushed till this book. Jim Garrison is dead; but fortunately for history his amazing American story is alive in two documentaries. Now, just as fortunately for us, and history, James C. Jenkins, who as a 21-year-old medical technician stood at the shoulder of the President’s naked bloody body, finally tells of the horrors he witnessed, perpetrated by Drs. Humes and Boswell. And fortunately for us, the readers, James found the perfect investigative journalist and writer to help him tell his totally riveting, terrifying tale, William Matson Law.

  To me, At The Cold Shoulder Of History is not a strong enough title for the rage I felt in what James was recalling and reporting about what his superiors were actually doing to the body, and the heartbreak I felt for this young man who suffered in silence, not just in that room, but for years. Imagine what it must have been like for this young southern boy. As a young man wanting to be a doctor … to help humanity. Wanting to be in the Navy … to help his country. Then quite by accident ends up at Bethesda Naval Hospital and is called in to assist in what he thought was going to be a real medical autopsy of the President. His first shock comes when he sees the body removed from an ordinary casket, not the one the body was placed in at Parkland. A bucket is placed under the autopsy table for the convenience of Dr. Humes. Imagine young James’ shock when he sees Dr. Humes pull the blood-soaked towel from off of the president’s head and just toss it on the floor, ignoring the bucket. Then also ignoring his medical oaths, treating the body as so much trash to be simply discarded. The possibility of two brains!! A g
aping frontal neck wound. And a small bullet hole in the right temple, which they try to conceal. Well, you do not have to imagine it. You will see it in this riveting read. It is more than At The Cold Shoulder Of History. It is: “A Stab In The Back Of Justice.” And for James, “A Stab In the Heart of Truth”: The death of his American Dream.

  Following the outrage of the public when they finally saw the Zapruder film in 1975 on Geraldo Rivera’s TV show with Dick Gregory and Robert Groden, Congress was forced to set up the House Select Committee on Assassinations. When this happened, James felt he could finally unburden himself and tell the truth of what he had been witness to thirteen years earlier. But, this Committee was quickly sabotaged again by the CIA and its Media and Congressional assets. Richard Sprague, the tough Philadelphia lawyer and lead investigator who said he’d solve the case and would investigate both the FBI and CIA, was removed. He was replaced by G. Robert Blakey who turned the entire hearings over to the CIA. And heartbreakingly, James was once again silenced.

  Not being able to put down James and William’s book, I began to wish I was watching an old Frank Capra movie with a happy American ending. The happy ending will have to be that TrineDay finally published the story. Now, I’m going to tell you briefly why this book, perhaps small in size, is so gigantic in History.

  On September 5, 1981 when I was fortunate enough to be interviewing Jim Garrison, I still recall his passion for eventual justice for President Kennedy’s deliberately public execution as he called it; he leaned across his desk showing me Dr. McClelland’s death certificate signed shortly after 1:30pm: “Death by gunshot wound to the right temple.”

  “John,” Mr. Garrison intoned, “In a murder case, nothing is more important than the autopsy. Which never occurred.” Dr. Fink, who is mentioned in this book, under cross examination as a defense witness in the Clay Shaw trial, reaffirmed that under oath. This was never reported by the Media. It is now finally, finally, movingly affirmed in At The Cold Shoulder Of History. The final nail in the coffin of American Injustice.

  James’ and William’s long needed story, for me, completes the quartet of the four major works anyone needs to read or see about the murder of President Kennedy. First would have to be Mark Lane’s Rush To Judgement, which legally shreds the fiction of The Warren Report. Second is Oliver Stone’s brilliantly crafted film, JFK, which brought to life for America and the World, Jim Garrison’s story, resulting in the passage of The President Kennedy Assassination Records Act. Third, Mr. Garrison telling his own story in The Garrison Tapes, and more importantly in Part Two: The American Media & The 2nd Assassination Of President John F. Kennedy.

  Now fourth, and every bit as strong as all the aforementioned, maybe even more so: At The Cold Shoulder Of History!

  John Barbour

  8/22/2018

  John Barbour is an actor, comedian, television host, and is the only performer in TV to win Emmys for both entertainment and news shows. Barbour is known as one of the hosts of the NBC reality television series Real People, for which he was also a creator and co-producer. He also directed and wrote the 1992 documentary The JFK Assassination: The Jim Garrison Tapes. This film covers the investigation of District Attorney Jim Garrison, who, after the 1963 assassination of John F. Kennedy, decided to further investigate the official report given by the Warren Commission. The documentary hypothesizes connections between the assassination and the FBI, the CIA, the Mafia, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Vietnam War, and other organizations and foreign affairs issues. The film won an award in 1993 at the San Sebastian Film Festival in Spain. He released the film, American Media & The Second Assassination of John F. Kennedy in 2017.

  Acknowledgments

  I would like to acknowledge and give special thanks to my friend William Law without whose journalistic knowledge and skills this book could have never been written.

  First and foremost, I would like to thank my wife, Jackie and William’s wife Lori, whose invaluable input and support made this lengthy endeavor possible.

  I would also like to thank my sister Sara, an artist, and my niece, Carol, for their help in my attempt to picture the morgue as I remember it and to my nephew Charlie, a professional photographer, who is responsible for the back-cover photograph.

  To Phil Singer, who so willingly shared his vast knowledge of the Kennedy assassination and to Rick Russo, who freely shared the New York recordings for transcription in this book.

  I would also like to thank Jim Metzler and Bill Lynch, two old friends and fellow classmates at Bethesda in 1963. Thank-you to Dr. Micheal Chesser. They have given me valuable information as to what occurred outside the morgue and helped clarify the events leading up to the autopsy.

  I would like to thank Hugh Clark, James Felder and Tim Cheek, members of the Honor Guard whose shared knowledge of the Dallas casket delivery helped me to clarify some of my vague memories which I discuss in this book.

  I would also like to thank my publisher at Trineday, Kris Millegan ,for standing behind this project from the beginning. I would also like to thank Pete Mellor from the UK, for providing me with his own personal transcript of the 50th November in Dallas conference. Special thanks to Wim Dankbaar for providing me with film of Thomas E. Robinson. And A big thank-you to John Barbour for his wonderful foreword.

  As always, I am sure that I have forgotten someone and for that I apologize, but their input was not considered less valuable. This book has been a collaborative effort of countless people and to all of you I extend my heartfelt thanks.

  Table of Contents

  Cover

  Title Page

  Copyright page

  Publisher’s Foreword

  Dedication

  Photo: James Jenkins as a young Naval Corpsman

  Foreword

  Acknowledgments

  Photo: James Jenkins and William Matson Law at JFK Conference, 2015.

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  August 29, 1977

  Chapter Eight

  Harrison Livingstone

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Thomas Robinson

  Dr. Michael Chesser

  Chapter Eleven

  Bethesda visit with Bill Lynch

  A Conversation with Jim Jenkins and Bill Lynch

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Official Autopsy discussion and comparison:

  Chapter Fourteen

  The Three Caskets

  Chapter Fifteen

  The Cranial Autopsy X-Rays and Photographs Michael Chesser, M.D.

  Bone Loss:

  Right frontal entry:

  Fragment trail:

  Intersecting fractures:

  6.5 mm object:

  White patch:

  Burn marks:

  Digitization of the Autopsy X-Rays:

  Autopsy photographs:

  Conclusions:

  Sources:

  Photo: James Jenkins at JFK’s gravesite 2017

  EPILOGUE

  Index

  Contents

  Landmarks

  James Jenkins and William Matson Law at JFK Conference in 2015.

  Prologue

  In November 2013, I attended the 50th anniversary conference on the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in Dallas, Texas. I attended this conference more as a favor to a friend than out of any curiosity or interest. My role as an assistant in the Bethesda autopsy has always been more of a burden than any highlight in my life. It has caused an intrusion into my private life by individuals who have sought to use what I saw and heard during the autopsy to support their personal hypophysis. For this reason, I have only participated in a limited number of interviews with a few researchers. I later even regretted this limited exposure, because I felt that my words were often used to supp
ort conclusions other than those I intended. This is not to say that the things that were attributed to me by the researchers were totally false, but some parts of the interviews were often left out or taken out of context, to support the researcher’s personal theory or conclusion.

  At the 50th Dallas Conference, I was asked to take questions concerning what I saw and did in the morgue that night. I expected to answer a few questions from a few researchers and authors but was surprised when we went for more than an hour and were asked to return later. That later session lasted until 1:30 in the morning. I was also surprised at the interest of people from other countries. Many people from Japan, Australia, Germany, the Netherlands and the Scandinavian countries stopped me to ask questions about what I saw and did that night. These people seemed to have a great interest in the assassination and the answers I had to their questions. I came away from the conference feeling somewhat selfish, because I had refused to participate in the truly passionate interest of so many people for many years. I also became acutely aware of the corrupted and sometime outright misinformation that had been attributed to me and Paul O’Connor, the other corpsman assisting the Doctors in the morgue that night.

  At this time, I was pretty much unaware of the information that was being attributed to Paul and me. I had received many books written by the few interviewers that I had talked with and had tried to read the parts that pertained to my interviews but became disillusioned with the way my words were used to support conclusions that were never intended by me. Therefore, I decided to limit my discussion with other researchers. This did not stop the phone calls and request for information. I agreed to participate with a few other authors at the urging of Paul. I was disappointed by most of the writings of these researchers with the exception of one, who wrote my words as they were told to him. Over the years he has tried to encourage me to participate more but I have resisted, not wanting to get into the “he said, she said” controversy that has become common- place among researchers and bloggers.