Dr. Cyril Wecht continues to reject Warren Commission's findings on JFK's assassination
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — Sixty years ago today, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas.
The Warren Commission was created to determine what happened and concluded that Lee Harvey Oswald was the sole assassin. It's a conclusion that Dr. Cyril Wecht continues to reject, as Wecht told KDKA-TV political editor Jon Delano.
At age 92, Wecht, a noted forensic pathologist, doctor and lawyer, is convinced that Oswald — if involved at all — did not act alone to kill the president.
"There were two shooters," he said. "One from the rear and one from the right front behind the picket fence on the grassy knoll. I don't believe Oswald was the shooter, but I'm not uptight about that. If they wanted Oswald as a shooter, we still have a conspiracy, two or more people involved."
Wecht says there was a cover-up to hide the truth, beginning with the failure to use expert pathologists in the autopsy and the failure to examine the president's brain.
"There's no question about it," he said. "Two shots were fired. They covered up. The autopsy was by two military pathologists who had never done a medical, legal gunshot autopsy in their entire careers. The brain was never examined. It was never dissected because it would have shown two hemorrhagic tracks through the brain by the bullets."
The unanswered question remains: Who was responsible for the conspiracy to kill Kennedy?
Delano: "Do you believe the CIA is responsible for President Kennedy's death?"
Wecht: "Mostly the CIA, maybe a small number of military-type people. Yes, absolutely. They were looking at five more years of John Kennedy followed by eight years of Robert Kennedy, and they saw America going to hell in a basket.."
Wecht says he doesn't know who the perpetrators were, but he says the government has still not disclosed everything they know about the assassination.
"Each of the last three presidents have said that they would release materials and then overnight they change their minds," he said. "So, how do we get to it – when we get the release of all these materials? Complete disclosure."
Wecht says we need to know the truth to keep it from happening again, but he's pessimistic.
Delano: "One-hundred-twenty years from now, we may not know the answer."
Wecht: "That's right, and then it will be forgotten."
A profoundly sad anniversary, especially for those of us who can remember exactly where we were when JFK was shot, but if Wecht is right and there are many who disagree, we may never know what really happened on Nov. 22, 1963.