Kennedys and King Test host626

Author: Douglas Horne

  • Three Letters to Congresswoman Luna

    Three Letters to Congresswoman Luna

    Letter 1 – Doug Horne to Anna Luna – Subject: Final Determination Orders

    Dear Congresswoman Luna,

    This is Douglas Horne again, one of the witnesses who testified before your Task Force on May 20, 2025.

    As a former senior staff member who worked for the ARRB, I am vitally concerned about the issues related to the mishandling of the ARRB’s JFK assassination records by the National Archives from the time the ARRB shut down, in September 1998, until early this year.

    Attorney Andrew Iler, perhaps the foremost living expert on the JFK Records Act, has detailed this year, in two long articles published by Jim DiEugenio at his website Kennedys and King, the apparent malfeasance of the Archivist of the United States with regard to the handling (or rather, mishandling) of the Review Board’s FINAL DETERMINATION ORDERS regarding each assassination record we turned over to the Archives.

    Approximately 27,000 of these forms were created by the ARRB, containing disposition instructions pertaining to periodic review requirements, and also specific instructions on when each document should have been released.   It appears that in many, many cases the Archivist of the United States failed to perform the ministerial duties required of that incumbent with regard to mandatory periodic review and/or early release, prior to 2017. 

    Most of the 27,000 Final Determination Orders created by the ARRB cannot be located by NARA, or so they say.  Many documents that were ordered released in 2006 or 2007, for example, were not fully declassified and released by NARA, as the ARRB ordered.  Attorney Andrew Iler has documented these facts in his two long articles published this year.

    Whether this malfeasance was due to incompetence and an uncaring attitude, or whether it can be attributed to NARA being a tool of the intelligence community that was continuing to resist release of these records, we do not yet know.

    But the American people deserve to know why the Archivist of the United States failed to perform his ministerial duties over a period of approximately 16-17 years.

    I sincerely hope that the Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets will hold a public hearing in which the Archives, as an institution, is “taken to task” for its failures in this regard—and in which detailed explanations are provided to the Task Force about how this came about, and why.

    Andrew Iler spent years looking into this matter, and his findings have been well-documented, in writing.  He is a man of impeccable integrity.  He has communicated his findings in detail to Jake Greenberg, the Chief Counsel for Investigations for the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.  As I mentioned earlier, his two long articles about these issues have been published at the Kennedys and King blogsite.

    I am sure Andrew Iler (who is “copy to” on this email above) will readily answer any questions you may have about these issues.

    Thank you for your attention to this matter, for it is well within the scope of what your Task Force has been empowered to look into, on behalf of the American people.

    Sincerely,

    Douglas Horne

    Former Chief Analyst for Military Records, ARRB

    Letter 2 – Doug Horne to Jake Greenberg – Subject: List of Missing Medical Evidence (for Task Force Report)

    Dear Jake,

    Jefferson Morley, who apparently is very close to Chairwoman Luna, asked me yesterday for a list of missing JFK medical evidence, and asked me if I had been in touch with her staff to “follow up.”  I responded to him by providing a summary of this information, but now, one day later, I have taken the hint he dropped on me, and have decided to provide such a list to you directly, unfiltered by anyone else.

    Since I am currently the pre-eminent living expert on JFK’s autopsy (no false modesty here), I thought you should receive such a list directly from me, without having any third party possibly filter it, misunderstand the facts here, or water it down.

    So here is my definitive list of missing JFK medical evidence:

    1.  Eight sets of autopsy photographs are known to be missing, based on credible eyewitness testimony and recollections, and were never placed into the official record; most “sets” of autopsy photos known today consist of two black and white negatives, and two-to-four color positive transparencies, 4 x 5 inches in size, of the same view.  Autopsy photographs that I am confident are missing include:

    a. an overhead, wide-shot of JFK’s body taken from a stepladder;
    b. large bruise atop the right lung, taken inside the interior of the chest, after the lungs were removed;
    c. entrance wound in the lower right of the skull, with scalp reflected, taken from the outside of the skull;
    d. entrance wound in the lower right of the skull, taken from inside the
    cranium, after the brain was removed;
    e. condition of the back of the head, after embalming and reconstruction was completed, still showing an exit defect that could not be closed; [witness Saundra Spencer recalled in sworn testimony to the ARRB that this, and similar images, were recorded on color negatives, not color positive transparencies and B&W negatives, as were the remainder of the autopsy photos in the National Archives]
    f. negatives from a B&W film pack showing metal probes in JFK’s body; [these images were developed and seen by White House photographer Robert Knudsen, but were never placed in the National Archives]
    g. B&W prints showing a large exit defect in the rear of JFK’s head; [shown to USIA White House photographer by White House photographer and Navy Chief, Robert Knudsen]
    h. B&W prints (and at least one color positive transparency) showing a small entry wound high in the forehead above the corner of JFK’s right eye. [there are five credible witnesses who have seen such images]

    2.  Two JFK skull x-rays known to have been taken—both oblique views of the exit wound in the right rear of his head—have never been placed into the official record.  [witness: Jerrol Custer, Navy x-ray technician, to the ARRB]

    3.  Furthermore, since all three extant JFK skull x-rays in the National Archives are known to be copy films, and are not originals, the three originals of those x-rays are missing as well.  [specifically, one left lateral skull film, one right lateral skull film, and one A-P, or “anterior-posterior” skull film] 

    4.  The “Harper Fragment” of cranial bone from the occipital region of JFK’s skull, found in Dealey Plaza on November 23, 1963, has been missing since December of 1963.  It was last signed for by the President’s Military Physician, Rear Admiral George Burkley.  Its dimensions were approximately 2.75 inches in width and 2.5 inches high.  Photographs exist in the public record: it was photographed by the 3 pathologists who examined it at Methodist Hospital in Dallas, and also by the FBI, after it was sent to Washington. D.C.

    5.  Missing bullet fragments retrieved from JFK’s body at Bethesda Naval Hospital prior to the commencement of the “autopsy of record” at approximately 8:15 PM on November 22, 1963 include: 

    a. one vial containing about the ten tiny fragments removed from JFK’s brain; [witness: mortician Tom Robinson of Gawler’s Funeral Home, to both the HSCA and the ARRB]

    b. one bullet fragment removed from JFK’s back (from the intercostal tissue, between his ribs); [witnesses: Tom Robinson of Gawler’s to the HSCA; Navy corpsman Paul O’Connor to the HSCA; and Navy x-ray technician Jerrol Custer to the ARRB] 

    c. and finally, the four “large” bullet fragments for which Navy corpsman Dennis David typed a receipt (for a Federal Agent) the night of the autopsy.  [Witness: Navy corpsman Dennis David to the ARRB; he not only typed the receipt, but he also saw the fragments, and was also allowed by the Federal Agent to handle the fragments] 

    All of those fragments, seen by credible witnesses, remain missing today, and were never introduced into the official record.

    END OF LIST

    Jake, I would greatly appreciate it if you would acknowledge receipt of this important summary of missing JFK medical evidence, and if you would also forward it to Chairwoman LUNA and her staff. 

    I am assuming that you may find such a list useful when the Task Force Report is written.

    Sincerely,

    Douglas P. Horne

    Former Chief Analyst for Military Records, ARRB

    Letter 3 – Doug Horne to Anna Luna – Subject: List of Missing Medical Evidence (for Task Force Report)

    Dear Congresswoman Luna,

    I am Douglas Horne, the ARRB medical evidence witness who testified before your Task Force on May 20, 2025.

    I wanted to take this opportunity to forward, directly to you, a comprehensive list of missing JFK autopsy medical evidence which we definitely know today once existed, but which is now missing.

    I sent this list to Jake Greenberg some time ago (back on July 18th), in the hopes that it would find its way into the report your task Force will issue on the JFK records issues, but I never received an acknowledgment from him.

    Therefore, I am forwarding it directly to you and your chief of staff, in the hopes that it will be useful to you in writing your report (and in explaining why we should have no confidence in the Warren Report’s conclusions about a lone assassin).

    If a lone nut had killed the president in 1963, and it was a “simple murder” as some have claimed, there would have been no need to destroy and/or alter so any medical records related to the autopsy, or to dispose of bullet fragments from JFK’s body and a crucial bone fragment from his skull.

    I know from the news stories I am aware of that you are very busy this year, but I hope that you will find this list of missing medical evidence useful when writing the Task Force Report.

    Sincerely,

    Douglas Horne

    Former Chief Analyst for Military Records, ARRB

  • Doug Horne Replies: On Oswald’s Earnings

    Doug Horne Replies: On Oswald’s Earnings

    Here is what I can tell you. Please read most carefully and do not misquote me or even unintentionally misrepresent any of this information. Be most precise, I implore you.

    On September 18, 1997, I reviewed the payment records from both the TSBD and the USMC to Oswald, within the earnings records of the Social Security Administration. Roy Truly was not on the SSA name list of persons paid by the TSBD during the fourth quarter of 1963 (Oct-Dec 63). (I have no idea who was paying Truly; but clearly, on the day of the assassination, he was still acting as LHO’s supervisor, per his encounter of LHO with cop Marion Baker on the TSBD second floor.)

    The Marine Corps did NOT pay Oswald during the third quarter of 1959 (July 1–Sept 11, 1959). The specialist at the SSA told me that while Lee Harvey Oswald was IN the Marine Corps during the third quarter of 1959 (until September 11th, his discharge date), they definitely did not PAY HIM during the third quarter. I reviewed the printed records of the earnings he received from the USMC for that year—which had been stored on microfilm—and it was ZERO for the third quarter, whereas they did pay him for the first and second quarters of 1959. The ARRB’s contact at SSA said there was “no possibility of a mistake” in their records. I printed all of the microfilm records I reviewed on paper and took them back to the ARRB as assassination records.

    Now, as you know, Blakey wrote the draft JFK Act legislation. In it, he exempted both the autopsy materials (“All Deed of Gift” materials donated to the Archives) and “tax information” from the disclosure requirements of the Act. The IRS actually wanted all tax information on Oswald to be subject to the Act and to be released; Congress, erring on the side of privacy (like Blakey), refused to allow this in the Act. That is most unfortunate, because at this juncture, these detailed records that I reviewed can only be released if Section 6103 of the IRS Code is amended to permit their release.

    The Oswald earnings records I reviewed are covered by RIFs 137-10005-10060 through10089, inclusive. They are redacted unless or until Section 6103 of the IRS code is amended by Congress to permit all “tax information” (which definition includes not only tax returns, but also earnings records) to be released.

    I published a memo about all this on September 23, 1998, and all tax information and earnings records issues I was aware of are discussed therein. Its title was: “Questions Raised by John Armstrong and Carol Hewitt About Lee Harvey Oswald’s Tax and Earnings Records.” In that memo, all specifics about the microfilm records of LHO’s earnings that I reviewed on September 18, 1997, are REDACTED. The redactions cannot be unredacted unless or until Section 6103 of the IRS Code is amended by Congress to allow release of all “tax information” on LHO, Jack Ruby, and others identified by ARRB RIFs. (We looked at “tax information” for others besides LHO and they are all identified by RIFs, and all the details are redacted).

    Now, listen to this: in a Feb 3, 1964, letter to J. Lee Rankin from HEW, the Warren Commission was told that there were NO EARNINGS REPORTED for Oswald for the third quarter of 1959. This was initially withheld from the public for the standard privacy reasons surrounding “tax information,” but in 1965, the confidentiality classification for this information was removed by the USG. (See enclosure 13 to my long memo) That information passed to the Warren Commission in Feb 1964 is in CD 353 (the cover letter) and 353a (the specifics about when he earned money and from whom).

    Thus, when reviewing Oswald’s earnings records from the Marine Corps in September of 1997, I was simply confirming (by viewing the dollars and cents details) what the Warren Commission had been told by HEW in the Feb 3, 1964, letter, and for which the confidentiality had been removed in 1965. This means that in my oral statements in the documentary, I am simply confirming information that the WC learned about in Feb 1964, and which became open information in 1965 when the USG lifted its confidentiality.

    To obtain the unredacted version of my long research memo, and to get the RIFs about Oswald’s earnings opened up, Section 6103 of the IRS Code would have to be amended. I do not today have the paper copies of the earnings records. Only the Archives has those, as identified above by RIF numbers.

    Now, some of Oswald’s “tax information” is already open information, including his 1959 tax return, which shows his total earnings for 1959 to be $996.31 for that year. This would seem to indicate that SOMEONE paid him during the third quarter (because his earnings for quarters 1 and 2 are not that much money), but whichever entity paid him did not pay him very much, at all. SPECULATION: Perhaps it was what would have been his normal USMC salary, IN CASH???

    The Review Board recommended in its Final Report “…that Congress enact legislation exempting Lee Harvey Oswald’s tax return information, Oswald’s employment information obtained by the Social Security Administration, and other tax or IRS related information in the files of the Warren Commission and HSCA from the protection afforded by the Section 6103 of the Internal Revenue Code, and that such legislation direct that these records be released to the public in the JFK Collection.”

    That is all I am willing, or able, to say about this.

    In summary, I simply confirmed in my interview for your documentary that what the Warren Commission was told in Feb 1964—that Oswald had no reported earnings in the third quarter of 1959—was confirmed by me through careful examination of the microfilmed paper earnings records at SSA. For someone to actually view and review those records identified by RIF number above, the IRS Code would have to be amended.

    That is all I can say.

    Doug Horne

  • The Two-Brain Memorandum

    From the May-June 2000 issue (Vol. 7 No. 4) of Probe

    (Click here to open in a new page.)