Who Really Killed Kennedy?: 50 Years Later: Stunning New Revelations About the JFK Assassination by Jerome Corsi

would ask the Court so to direct.
    The Court : That is correct, you should answer, Doctor.
    Dr. Finck : We didn’t remove the organs of the neck.
    Mr. Oser : Why not, doctor?
    Dr. Finck : For the reason that we were told to examine the head wounds and that the –
    Mr. Oser : Are you saying someone told you not to dissect the track?
    The Court : Let him finish his answer.
    Dr. Finck : I was told that the family wanted an examination of the head, as I recall, the head and the chest, but the prosecutors in this autopsy didn’t remove the organs of the neck, to my recollection.
    Mr. Oser : You have said they did not. I want to know why didn’t you as an autopsy pathologist attempt to ascertain the track through the body which you had on the autopsy table in trying to ascertain the cause or causes of death? Why?
    Dr. Finck : I had the cause of death.
    Mr. Oser : Why did you not trace the track of the wound?
    Dr. Finck : As I recall I didn’t remove these organs from the neck.
    Mr. Oser : I didn’t hear you.
    Dr. Finck : I examined the wounds but I didn’t remove the organs of the neck.
    Mr. Oser : You said you didn’t do this; I am asking you why you didn’t do this as a pathologist?
    Dr. Finck : From what I recall I looked at the trachea, there was a tracheotomy wound the best I can remember, but I didn’t dissect or remove these organs.
    Mr. Oser : Your Honor, I would ask Your Honor to direct the witness to answer my question.
    Mr. Oser (continued) : I will ask you the question one more time: Why did you not dissect the track of the bullet wound that you have described today and you saw at the time of the autopsy at the time you examined the body. Why? I ask you to answer that question.
    Dr. Finck : As I recall I was told not to, but I don’t remember by whom.
    Mr. Oser : You were told not to but you don’t remember by whom?
    Dr. Finck : Right.
    Mr. Oser : Could it have been one of the Admirals or one of the Generals in the room?
    Dr. Finck : I don’t recall.
    Mr. Oser : Do you have any particular reason why you cannot recall at this time?
    Dr. Finck : Because we were told to examine the head and the chest cavity, and that doesn’t include removal of the organs of the neck.
    Mr. Oser : You are one of three autopsy specialists and pathologists at the time, and you saw what you describe as an entrance wound in the neck area of the President of the United States who had just been assassinated, and you were only interested in the other wound but not interested in the track through his neck, is that what you are telling me?
    Dr. Finck : I was interested in the track and I had observed the conditions of bruising between the point of entry in the back of the neck and the point of exit at the front of the neck, which is entirely compatible with the bullet path.
    Mr. Oser : But you were told not to go into the area of the neck, is that your testimony?
    Dr. Finck : From what I recall, yes, but I don’t remember by whom. 68
    Finck was perhaps the most highly qualified forensic pathologist to attend the JFK autopsy in Bethesda. If he had been allowed to dissect the back and neck wounds to his satisfaction, it is highly likely Finck would have concluded the neck wound was an entry wound and the back wound was an unconnected entry wound, and he likely would have rejected the lone-gun hypothesis. Had Finck been allowed to complete his work, his conclusions would have been devastating to any attempt to frame Lee Harvey Oswald as the sole assassin. Military brass at the autopsy intervened to stop his work most likely because politics dictated they do so. And Dr. Finck acquiesced to Arlen Specter’s hypothetical questions that all the wounds seen in JFK’s body could have been caused by shots from the rear because politics dictated him to do so. As a junior military officer Finck did not feel he had the authority to countermand orders.
    Three decades later, in 1996, the Assassination Records Review Board asked Dr. J. Thornton