A new book by David W. Mantik, M.D., Ph.D., and Jerome Corsi, Ph.D., The Assassination of JFK: The Final Analysis (2024), was published on 8 March 2024 and had sold 4,000 copies by 15 March (“The Ides of March”), which reflects the public’s thirst for truth about the death of our 35th President. David and I began collaborating in 1992 in the wake of Oliver Stone’s magisterial film, “JFK”, which presents the most accurate, complete, and detailed account of what actually happened in Dealey Plaza on 22 November 1963 ever offered to the American people through the mass media. But now we know more.
Having published three collections of expert studies on JFK with David Mantik—Assassination Science (1998), Murder in Dealey Plaza (2000) for which he suggested the title and The Great Zapruder Film Hoax (2003)–I would like to explain the dozen-shot/five-hit account of what happened that day in that place, while recommending everyone should follow the lead and obtain this book, which presents the most authoritative analysis of what actually happened based upon the research of the leading expert on the medial evidence regarding JFK in the world today.
Two Shots from the Front
Everyone knows the “official narrative” of three shots fired from the 6th floor of the Texas School Book Depository by the lone gunman, Lee Harvey Oswald. What most do not know is that the FBI and Secret Service had concluded that evening that JFK had been hit three times: once in the back (5.5″ below the collar just to the right of the spinal column, a shallow shot that only went in as far as the 2nd knuckle on your little finger), that Texas Governor John Connally had been hit by a shot to the back, and JFK by a second shot that hit in the back of the head, which killed him.
During the afternoon and evening of the day of the assassination, however, two shots were widely reported over radio and television alike: a shot to the throat described as a small. clean wound of entry three times by Malcolm Perry, M.D., during the Parkland Press Conference held following the announcement of his death by Malcolm Kilduff, Acting Press Secretary. Kilduff had pointed to his right temple and explained that it was “a simple matter of a bullet right through the head”, a finding that was widely reported and attributed to Admiral George Burkely, the President’s personal physician.
When you combine the shot to the throat and the shot to the right temple with the hit to JFK’s back and to the back of his head, you arrive at a 4-hit scenario, which is a very close approximation to the final analysis Mantik provides in his latest book. The Warren Commission bamboozled the public by falsely asserting there had been only three shots, all of which were fired from above and behind. The shots widely reported on radio and TV (to the throat and right temple) had to be suppressed, since their existence contradicted the “official” three-shot/lone-gunman narrative.
The Cover Up Commences
Obviously, shots from more than one direction would imply more than one gunman and therefore that JFK had been killed by a conspiracy. But the facts were elementary. if you put together the two hits agreed upon by the Secret Service and the FBI–which were supposed to have been fired from the 6th floor of the Texas School Book Depository but were actually fired from the top of the County Records Building (in the case of the shot to the back) and from the 2nd floor of the Dal-Tex Building (in the case of the shot to the EOP)–with the shots to the throat (fired from inside the Triple Underpass) and to the right temple (from an above sewer opening at the intersection of the Triple Underpass and the picket fence), there were inescapably 4:
But, instead, the mainstream media, led by The New York Times, went into cover-up mode and promoted the lone gunman theory, claiming three and only three shots had been fired from the 6th floor of the Book Depository, even though the reports of those two shots (to the throat and to the right temple) had been extensive, detailed, and compelling. The vast majority of Americans had listened to or watched these reports, yet now were being told there had been only three shots, all of which had come from above and behind. Can there be any doubt that many felt that something was wrong, whether or not they could put their finger on exactly why?
Most were willing to hold their concerns in suspense and give the government all the time it needed to conduct a complete investigation of (what many regarded as) “the crime of the century”. Little did they know that the government was busy concealing basic facts about how JFK had been taken out, especially those shots from in front, and that their designated “patsy” could not have done it. Indeed, the CIA would soon adopt the massive psy-op of characterizing citizens who could add and conclude JFK had been hit at least 4 times as “conspiracy theorists”, which would become SOP moving forward.
Oswald was in the Doorway
Lee was actually standing on the upper steps of the depository, watching as the JFK motorcade passed by.The Warren Repor t (1964) claimed that “the man in the doorway” (called “Doorman”) was instead his co-worker, Billy Lovelady; but the FBI had interviewed Billy on 29 February 1964 wearing.the same clothing he wore on 22 November 1963, which was a red-and-white vertically striped short-sleeved shirt, completely different than the closely textured, reddish-brown long sleeved shirt that was worn by Oswald that day, where Larry Rivera has rendered a reconstruction of what the doorway looked like at the time:
It was so obvious that Billy was not the figure called “Doorman” that they obfuscated his face by blacking it out (known as “Black Hole Man” to students of these images) and whitened out his shirt. Notice other obvious indications of alternation, where “Black Tie Man” is both in front of and behind “Doorman” at the same time, which is an optical impossibility–and by itself proves the photograph was altered. Some of the best research on this issue has been done by Richard Hooke, Ralph Cinque, and Larry Rivera. You can find Larry’s detailed research in his brilliant book, The JFK Horsemen (2018).
David Exposed X-ray Alteration
As board-certified in radiation oncology, David was ideally prepared to examine the JFK autopsy X-rays in the National Archives, where, just before his entry, he told me that he thought he would find evidence of a second shot to the head but also that the X-rays had been altered. He found both. Using a technique from physics known as “optical densitometry”, he discovered that a blow-out at the back of the cranium had been covered with material too dense to be authentic. I discovered that, in frame 374 of the Abraham Zapruder film, you can see the exposed brains the patch was used to conceal.
Notice the resemblance of “Area P” with exposed brain matter (often called “grey matter”). The pink extension was a (still attached) skull flap (3″ crescent-shaped). This substantiated the bullet trajectory through the head that entered at the right temple. At this point, therefore, we had confirmation of the 4-hit scenario, but questions remained as to whether or not a shot had also been fired from the curbside sewer opening, as many students had long since concluded. In advance of Oliver Stone’s “JFK Revisited”, I summarized our state of knowledge of the assassination at the time:
The Real Deal JFK SPECIAL (18 November 2021) dedicated to Oliver Stone
I knew that David believed there had been another shot to the head–the first to the back of the head, the second to the right temple–but mistakenly inferred it had been from the grass opposite the knoll, where we have two different photos of the same gunman standing beside the lone tree there holding his rifle. It was only with the publication of David’s new book that I understood his position and lingering pieces of the puzzle fell into place for me. The long-standing dispute about the origin of the head shot–from the above ground sewer opening at the intersection of the TUP and the picket fence or the curb sewer opening–would be resolved.
The Curbside Sewer Shot
Larry Rivera had taken photos of the above ground sewer opening at the intersection of the TUP and the picket fence, which aligned perfectly with the entry wound in the right temple and the blow out at the back of the head. I had identified this location as the one from which that shot was taken in my JFK SPECIAL (18 November 2021). At least (in part) I had discounted the curbside sewer opening because years earlier, David and I had taken a close look (where David even climbed inside the sewer itself) and concluded that the trajectory was not right–for the shot that entered the right temple!
Using a sophisticated 3-D modeling technique on Dealey Plaza, Larry had ascertained the view of the limo as it approached the sewer opening, which impressed me greatly as to the prospect of a headshot having been fired from that location. And, indeed, it turns out that David had resolved the differences between those who located a shot to the head from the above ground sewer location and from the curbside sewer opening–because both were right! JFK had been hit a third time in the head from the curbside sewer opening virtually simultaneously with the shot to the right temple from the above-ground sewer opening!
So, JFK had actually been hit FIVE TIMES: (1) in the back by a shallow shot that only penetrated about as far as the second knuckle of your little finger; (2) in the throat by a shot that passed through the windshield en route to its target; (3) in the back of the head (after the limo was brought to an abrupt halt); (4) in the right temple by the shot that blew his brains out the back of his head; and (5) in the right side of the head by the (virtually simultaneous) shot from the curbside sewer opening, where their combined force blew out a triangular piece of skull (known as “the Harper fragment”) and debris galore..
The Limo Stop
The occurrence of the limo stop was such stunning proof of Secret Service complicity that it had to be removed. Indeed, while the original (8mm already split film developed in Dallas) was taken to the National Photographic Interpretation Center in Washington, D.C., on Saturday, the substitute (a 16mm un-split film developed at the secret CIA photo lab “Hawkeye Works” adjacent to Kodak Headquarters in Rochester, New York, was brought there on Sunday and the substitution of films was effected. David Lifton, Best Evidence (1980), had already sorted this out, but it would be Douglas Horne, Inside the ARRB, Vol. IV of V (2009), whose work on this exchange is definitive, and John P. Costella, Ph.D., who proved the extant film to be a sophisticated fabrication.
David and I had both been struck when Newsweek (22 November 1993) published a diagram locating the limo about 30 feet further west than the “X” mark on Elm Street, officially designated as the place where he was taken out. But that difference corresponds to the location of the curbside sewer (and was probably improperly located for that reason). Indeed, yellow paint had been applied the night before (and was still wet) which (it turns out) was used to define the precise location at which the driver, William Greer, should bring the limo to a halt in case the target was still alive.
These photos capture what would have been the view of the shooter inside the curbside sewer when the limo was brought to.a halt. And this accounts for the location of the 8th assassin who fired that day at JFK in an elaborate conspiracy to remove the 35th President of the United States and replace him with Lyndon Johnson, whom I and others (including Phil Nelson and Roger Stone) have identified as the mastermind behind the assassination of JFK. David has thus finally completed the task of accounting for the medical evidence in the death of John Fitzgerald Kennedy for which he richly deserves our gratitude.
Jim Fetzer, Ph.D., is a former Marine Corps officer and retired Professor of Philosophy, who has become deeply engaged in exposing crimes committed by the American government against its own citizens.