By Jacob Engels
Nearly fifty years ago, Gerald R. Ford took pen in hand and changed the Warren Commission’s initial description of where a bullet had entered John F. Kennedy’s body when he was killed in Dallas. With this act Ford became a pivotal player in the effort to conceal the truth about the Kennedy assassination according to a new book out later this year in time for the 50th Anniversary of the Kennedy Assassination.
A new book by veteran political operative Roger Stone who served as an political aide to Presidents Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan , “The Man Who Killed Kennedy-the case against LBJ’ (Skyhorse), out this November claims Ford “deliberately distorted the location of JFK’s wound to advance the single bullet theory concocted by Warren Commission Junior Counsel Arlen Specter.”
In his block-buster book, Stone tells us;
“The Warren Commission’s conclusion that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone and that there was no conspiracy rests on this “single bullet theory”. The Warren Commission also claims all shots at JFK were from the rear.
As a member of the Warren Commission that investigated the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy, Gerald R. Ford, then a Michigan congressman willfully misrepresent the location of the bullet wound in Kennedy’s back — the wound the location of which was verified by Admiral George Gregory Burkley, personal physician to the president who directed the autopsy at Bethesda – so that the wound would be described as higher up in President Kennedy’s body, so that it entered through the back of his neck.
The initial draft of the Warren Commission report stated: “A bullet had entered his back at a point slightly above the shoulder to the right of the spine.” This description matches that of Admiral Burkley’s autopsy. Burkley noted the would was “in the upper posterior about even with the third thoracic vertebrae.” In fact, autopsy photographs of the back place the wound in the back two to three inches below the base of the neck.
Ford’s handwritten editing, revealed in disclosed papers kept by the commission’s general counsel, was accepted in the final report. He changed this key line to: “A bullet had entered the base of the back of his neck slightly to the right of his spine.”
“A small change,” said Ford when it came to light decades later. He stated that he intended to clarify meaning, not alter history. However, the effect of Ford’s small change was to bolster the commission’s questionable conclusion of a single bullet passed through Kennedy and severely wounded Texas Gov. John Connally – a crucial element in its finding that Lee Harvey Oswald was the lone assassin.
The actual evidence demonstrates the accuracy of the first draft. Bullet holes in Kennedy’s shirt and suit jacket, almost six inches below the top of the collar, place the wound in the upper right back.
As Professor Michael L. Kurtz has pointed out (The JFK Assassination Debates): “If a bullet fired from the sixth-floor window of the Depository building nearly sixty feet higher than the limousine entered the president’s back, with the president sitting in an upright position, it could hardly have exited from his throat at a point just above the Adam’s apple, then abruptly change course and drive downward into Governor Connally’s back.”
Once Ford changed the positioning of the bullet wound, the Warren Commission was able to claim that a single bullet – fired by Oswald from the Texas School Book Depository – passed through Kennedy’s body (at the back of his neck) exited from his throat and wounded Gov. Connally. Then the second, fatal bullet they claimed was fired from the same location — above and behind the president — and tore through Kennedy’s head.
In fact JFK was shot from the front and the back meaning multiple gunmen-and a conspiracy. Gerald Ford, long before he became President, helped conceal the truth about the murder of John F. Kennedy.”
Roger Stone’s Book “the Man Who Killed Kennedy-the Case Against LBJ” from Skyhorse Publishing can be ordered at Amazon.com and will be in bookstores Nov 6th.
Jacob Engels, is the Founder of East Orlando Post. Along with the Post, he owns several other businesses and is currently enrolled at Valencia College. Jacob has lived in Avalon Park since it’s founding and enjoys playing with his black Labradoodle Jasper, listening to indie rock, and seeking out new business ventures. He can be reached at info@eastorlandopost.com
