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Finck's (Yes, Finck's)Vanishing Notes
(this page still needs some editing, as regards exhibit numbers)
It will become plain during the course of Finck's testimony that Humes was not the only autopsist to appear in retrospect somewhat short of notes.
Dr Pierre Finck at the ARRB (1999):
" Q: I would like to ask you some questions now related to documents that you may have had in your possession at one time or another related to the autopsy of President Kennedy, so let me start out first by asking you, did you prepare any autopsy notes during the course of the autopsy?A: I don't remember walking out of the autopsy room with notes. It was contribution, taking measurements and writing notes, but as far as knowing who wrote what, I don't know.
Q: But did you write some things down yourself during the autopsy?
A: Yes.
Q: We are aware of prior statements that suggested that you did write down autopsy notes originally during the autopsy. Can you provide any clarification?
A: No.
Q: Do you remember a discussion that you had with some other people at the lunch room of the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology shortly after the autopsy where you said that your original autopsy notes had been or were missing and that you had had to recreate autopsy notes from memory?
A: I don't remember that.
Q: Do you remember ever saying to anyone that you gave to Commander Humes notes that you had taken during the course of the autopsy?
A: Can you repeat the question?
Q: Sure. Do you remember ever saying to anyone that you had given autopsy notes to Commander Humes following the autopsy?
A: In the autopsy room?
Q: Notes that you had taken during the autopsy and had given to Commander Humes after the autopsy was completed.
A: I don't remember.
Q: Dr. Finck, I would like to show you testimony that appears to be testimony that you offered to the House Select Committee on
Assassinations, House of Representatives, marked for the purposes of this deposition as [omitted] I would like to draw your attention to page[omitted] , lines through [omitted] , if you could take a look at that. And please feel free to read anything else in the document that you would like to read. [Handing document to witness
A: [Perusing document It is more accurate to determine an anatomic location when you have the wound itself on the dead body. That's what I just told you. Do you have a specific question regarding this?
Q: Yes. I would like to read for the record the question from Mr. Purdy: "When did you write your notes that you gave the location of the wound? "Dr. Finck. During the autopsy I took measurements, but all my notes were turned over to Dr. Humes, and after the autopsy I also wrote notes, but the notes I wrote at the time of the autopsy were turned over to Dr. Humes."
Dr. Finck, do you recall having been asked that question by the House Select Committee on Assassinations and having given that answer?
A: I don't, and I agree with this.
Q: Does this passage help refresh your recollection as to whether you took any notes at the time of the autopsy?.
A: Yes."
So we can conclude that Finck took notes, and that as of 1979 he was announcing under oath that he had given them to Humes at the end of the mortuary procedure.
"Q: You did take notes. Do you recall how many pages of notes you took during the autopsy?
A: No.
Q: Do you have any recollection at all whether it was one or more than one page?
A: No.
Q: Dr. Finck, I would like to show you another document that has been marked as Exhib[omitted] to this deposition, and it is on its face an affidavit of Leonard D. Saslaw, Ph.D. And I wish that you would take a minute to read this affidavit. [Handing document to witness] MR. GUNN: We can go off the record.
[Discussion off the record.]
BY MR. GUNN:
Q: Dr. Finck, have you had an opportunity to read the affidavit of Leonard D. Saslaw, Ph.D.?
A: Yes, I did.
Q: Let me quote from two paragraphs of the affidavit and then I will ask you if that helps refresh your recollection to any events.
Paragraph X states:
"I clearly heard Dr. Finck, who was speaking sufficiently loudly for his words easily to be overheard, complain that he had been unable to locate the handwritten notes that he had taken during the autopsy on President Kennedy. Dr.Finck elaborated to his companions with considerable irritation that immediately after washing up following the autopsy, he looked for his notes and could not find them anywhere. He further recounted that others who were present at the autopsy also had helped him search for his notes to no avail.............Dr. Finck concluded his story by angrily stating that he had to reconstruct his notes from memory shortly after the autopsy."
The question, Dr. Finck, is do these two paragraphs help refresh your recollection first on the question of whether you took notes during the autopsy?
A: I don't know."
This (above) offers us a tiny but highly interesting glimmer of light on the subject.
"Q: Dr. Finck, would it have been your regular practice during the course of an autopsy in which you participated to take notes and measurements?
A: Yes.
Q: Would that be a standard practice and procedure that most prosectors would engage in during the course of an autopsy?
A: Yes.
Q: Dr. Finck, did you keep any kind of diary or written record of events that you were involved in?
A: I don't know.
Q: Dr. Finck, you have no idea at all whether you kept something like a diary in ?
A: I don't remember.
Q: I am not trying to ask you to remember any details of what were in the notes, but just simply whether it was your regular practice and whether you have any knowledge about whether you did take notes at the time of the autopsy.
A: I took notes.
Q: Dr. Finck, I would like to show you a document which has been marked MD-[omitted] for this deposition. I should - perhaps I should state that it appears on its face to be a collection of several documents that may have been created at
different points.
We have numbered the pages here in the bottom right-hand corner as going up to page[omitted] . And I would like you to look at the documents here and ask you whether you have any recollection of having previously seen the documents? [Handing
documents to witness
A: [Perusing documents] I certainly agree with pages and of that exhibit [omitted]- that I signed.
Q: Okay.
A: I agree with that. I recognize it.
MR. GUNN: Let me state for the record that the first two pages appear on their face to be a document dated January "Subject: The Autopsy of President Kennedy Summary;" signed it appears by Pierre A. Finck on the second page.
BY MR.GUNN:
Q: Dr. Finck, is that your signature on the second page?
A: Yes, it is.
Q: Do you have a recollection of having written the document that is the first and second pages of Exhibit[.] ?
A: Yes, I do.
Q: Dr. Finck, when you prepared the document, the first two pages of this exhibit, did you use any notes or reference material in order to be able to write the document?
A: Probably so, but that's why I don't remember the details, how many pages, when did I take the notes, but I agree with those two pages.
Q: Did you ever create a file in any file of records and materials related to the autopsy of President Kennedy?
A: Well, this is an example. I signed that and this is part of the documents. More details I don't remember.
Q: Do you a have a copy of this document, that is the first two pages, in your possession in Switzerland?
A: I don't.
Q: Would it have been your standard practice, before writing a document like the first two pages of Exhibit , to refer to notes before writing the document, or would you typically write something like the first two pages from memory?
A: I don't know. I can't answer.
Q: Could you look at the document that is page of Exhibit and tell me whether you previously have seen that page [indicating]?
A: [Perusing document] Yes. I remember that, yes.
Q: Does this document, page of Exhibit , help refresh your recollection as to whether you kept and compiled notes related to the autopsy of President Kennedy?
A: Yes. But again, without details -
Q: Dr. Finck, let me make it clear, I am not asking you at all to remember any details of what was in notes. My question now is going simply to your practice regarding the taking of notes and whether you did in fact take notes related to the autopsy of President Kennedy? No specifics are being asked, just the fact of whether there is a written record, or ever was a written record created by you?
A: I don't remember the details, it's too much time.
Q: Would you please look at pages through of Exhibit , please. I won't be asking you any questions on specific information. My question will be whether you previously have seen the document, pages through of Exhibit .
A: [Perusing document]
MR. GUNN: We will go off the record for a minute while Dr. Finck is looking at that.
[Discussion off the record.]
MR. GUNN: Back on the record.
BY MR. GUNN:
Q: Dr. Finck, have you had an opportunity to examine the pages?
A: I am not quite through.
Q: Oh. Please continue. Take as much time as you need.
A: Thank you. [Perusing document]
[Discussion off the record.]
MR. GUNN: Back on the record.
BY MR. GUNN:
Q: Dr. Finck, have you now had an opportunity to review the pages that I have previously identified for you?
A: I read the pages through of MD-. It refreshes my memory, and I agree on that.
Q: Does reading pages through refresh your recollection as to whether you originally took notes related to the autopsy of President Kennedy?
A: Yes.
Q: You did originally take notes related to the autopsy?
A: That's what I did. I didn't remember details, but now this shows me that I had taken -I remember taking measurements and I agree with everything mentioned in those eight pages.
Q: Okay. Do you now recall having given some notes to Dr. Humes after the autopsy?
A: I don't recall now. This refreshes my memory after more than - 0 years.
Q: Sure. Again, the questions that I am interested in now go to your recollection of having taken notes and how you might have filed or organized those notes. Do you have any better recollection now as to whether you did compile notes near the time of the autopsy of President Kennedy?
A: I recognize now what I have written then.
Q: Well, once again, Dr. Finck, I'm not asking you to remember any details from the autopsy. My questions now are simply to the question of whether you took notes during the autopsy and whether you collected notes subsequent
to the autopsy?
A: I don't know how to answer that question.
Q: Could you please look at pages through of Exhibit and, again, I am not going to be asking you any detailed questions related to the contents of the document, but I am just going to ask you whether you have previously seen the document or documents before, on pages through
.
MR. GUNN: We will go off the record.
[Discussion off the record.]
MR. GUNN: Back on the record.
BY MR.GUNN:
Q: Dr. Finck, have you had an opportunity to look at the remaining pages of Exhibit ?
A: I have.
Q: And do you recognize those documents?
A: I do.
Q: Is that your signature that appears on pages and of the documents?
A: -
Q: The last two pages of the document.
A: , that's my signature, yes. And that's my signature, yes.
Q: Did you write those documents?
A: I wrote those documents, but I don't recognize a sentence handwritten, this is not my handwriting on page , the lines crossed out and someone wrote by hand. I don't recognize my handwriting here.
Q: Let me read those lines to you that are handwritten.
"One officer who outranked me told me that my request was only of academic interest. The same officer did not agree to state in the autopsy report that the autopsy was incomplete, as I had suggested to indicate."
Do you now recall whether those are your words, even though that is not your handwriting?
A: That could be my words. I don't recognize my handwriting. I don't know what happened."
It is news if Finck in fact didn't write these somewhat notorious words himself.
"Q: Have you ever seen the document or seen page in the form that you now have it in front of you before?
A: I don't remember seeing that in this form.
Q: Do you have a copy of any of the documents that appear in MD- in your personal possession?
A: I don't know.
Q: Do you have any files, either in theUntied States or in Switzerland, that contain information related to the Kennedy assassination or autopsy?
A: I did everything whenever I was asked, I sent those. I don't know if I have copies of everything.
Q: Question is whether you have any records currently in your possession or custody related to the autopsy of President Kennedy?
A: I don't know after all these years.
Q: Dr. Finck, did you do anything to prepare for this deposition today?
A: I did. I went through a box containing the article of the Journal of the American Medical Association, and I have sent you copies of that article.
Q: Did you do anything other than look at the article from the Journal of the American Medical Association?:
A: I looked in the box and that's the pertinent material I found.
Q: Was there anything else in the box that related in any way to the autopsy of President Kennedy?
A: I don't remember.
Q: How long ago did you look through the box?
A: Oh, since you asked me in your letters, you asked to send documents.
Q: So that would be sometime in the last two or three months, you looked through the box?
A: I would say I returned in April, so I must have looked during the month of april. And that's when I wrote to you, answering your letters, and sent you the material."
Gunn has by this time elicited that Finck claims not to be able to remember not something that happened 30 years ago, but something that happened ONE MONTH before he testified to the ARRB itself. All but the most trusting, not to say naive, will by this time be wondering not only what Humes was hiding, but what Finck is hiding in his 'box' in Switzerland. We know by this time that he had lost (somehow) his original autopsy notes, that he had reconstructed them from memory, and that he positively must have used some kind of notes to aid in the writing of his 'Letter to General Blumberg'. Where are those notes? The plain implication would be: in the box in Switzerland. Finck can't admit it, since Gunn would then be enquiring about making arrangements for the ARRB to see them.
"Q: So as you are sitting here today, you do not remember whether there was anything else in the box that related to President Kennedy's autopsy?
A: That's right.
Q: So even though your examination of the box was just last month, you don't remember any?
A: That's right."
Finck, at least to me, has lost a lot of credibilty by this point.
"Q: In the article for the Journal of the American Medical Association, did you prepare any written answers to questions that they put to you?
A: Can you repeat the question?
Q: Sure. Let me rephrase the question. Did the Journal of the American Medical Association send you any written questions related to the autopsy of President Kennedy?
A: Yes.
Q: And did you provide written answers to JAMA?
A: I did.
Q: When you prepared those answers, did you make reference to any other written material, or did you answer the questions from memory?
A: Oh, I must have referred to other materials.
Q: What other materials did you refer to when you brought the answers?
A: I don't remember. I answered at the time. Now I don't remember."
Draw your own conclusions. He's lying, Gunn knows he's lying, & Finck knows Gunn knows it. A video tape of this interview would make renarkable viewing.
"Q Did YOU keep a copy of your written answers to the Journal of the American Medical Association?
A:I did.
Q: Where are those documents or where is that document, your written answer to the Journal of American Medical Association?
A: In Switzerland.
Q: Are they in the box that you previously made reference to?
A: Yes.
Q: Are there any other documents in that box that relate to the autopsy of President Kennedy?
A: No."
Then he either destroyed the notes he made from memory after the autopsy & which he presumably used in writing the 'Letter to Blumberg' and forgot to mention it to Gunn, or he still has those notes. Either possibility implies Finck was grossly dishonest with the ARRB, & by extension, the American people.
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