Interview With Dr. John H. Ebersole by Art Smith

              VOLUME 2 NUMBER 12 JULY 22, 1978
INTERVIEW WITH DR. JOHN H. EBERSOLE
By Art Smith
2713 Curran
Chester, Pa 19013
Dr. John Ebersole was assistant Chief of
Radiology at Bethesda Naval Hospital on Novem­ber
22, 1963 and personally took 14 x-rays of
John Kennedy during the autopsy. He stated he
attended the autopsy from approximately 8:00
p.m. on 11/22/63 to 4:00 a.m. on 11/23/63.
His x-rays of the body were to try and find
any bullet that had lodged itself within the
body. He took two sets of x-rays; one at approx­imately
8:30 - 9:00 and another set around 1:00
a.m. on 11/23/63. He has stated that no missle
could be found from these x-rays. This process
took approximately 15-20 minutes each time. It
is fair to state that Dr. Ebersole attended
most of the autopsy.
John H. Ebersole is now Chief of Radiation
Therapy at Lancaster General Hospital. In fif­teen
years he is the first doctor who was in at­tendance
during the autopsy to state publicly
what took place during the autopsy.
I am only the second person to speak with
Dr. Ebersole about what happened during the
autopsy of President John F. Kennedy.
Dr. Ebersole stated that he assisted in
removing the body from the casket when brought
into the autopsy room. The doctors then placed
the body face-up on a table so that the body
could be examined before the actual autopsy
began.
I asked who was in attendance in the room
and he mentioned that there were many people
including Dr. Humes, Finck, Dr. Boswell, F.B.I.,
Secret Service and many military figures in­cluding
an Admiral Kinney who ordered that the
neck wound not be dissected to find a tract of
the bullet path.
Dr. Ebersole describes the head wound as
being on the side of the head approximately
2x3 inches, "very irregular."
Dr. Ebersole also mentioned that three bone
fragments had been flown up separately to
Bethesda approximately 12:00 midnight and he
was told to x-ray these. At this time I pro­duced
a copy of the Sibert and O'Neill receipt
for a missle they received from Dr. J. J. Humes
that was taken from the body during the autopsy.
When he mentioned that the bone fragments were
sent up he neglected to say anything about the
Parkland Hospital bullet but when I showed him
this receipt he immediately remembered that with
the bone fragments that were being sent up
from Dallas that a bullet that was found at
Parkland was also being sent up. At this point
he seemed confused and I stated that the Humes
bullet did not relate to the bullet that had
been found at Parkland.
I read him the receipt again... "missle
removed by J. J. Humes", his answer very
quickly was, "I have no knowledge of that."
He also stated that x-rays prior and after the
incision showed no bullet.
Question: Where did J. J, Humes get this
missle to hand over to the F.B.I, agents
Sibert and O'Neill?
I called J. J. Humes on 23/28/78 at 11:00
p.m. EST and asked him. He stated that "it
must have been a very small fragment from the
body. It wasn't a whole bullet."
Art Smith: "Could Dr. Humes have removed
anything when you left the autopsy room?"
Ebersole: "He surely could have, but if it
was metalic, it should have shown on the
x-rays."
I showed him the Autopsy Descriptive
sheet and he described the measurements
that were on the sheet but what seemed odd
was that his speech seemed memorized.
Ebersole: "Yes, that the location
(back wound) or slightly higher to the right
of midline, roughly between the spine and
shoulder blade."