Ex-FBI agent who watched JFK autopsy reflects on death:
Jim Sibert has answered the questions for 46 years, ever since the night he observed the autopsy of President John F. Kennedy.Over the years, the former FBI special agent has been interviewed for books and calls and questions keep coming from teachers, authors and historians.
Now, as another anniversary of the assassination arrives, Sibert, 91, was asked again about that historic day, Nov. 22, 1963.
"It started out like a normal day," Sibert said.
At the time, Sibert was a 45-year-old FBI special agent stationed in Maryland and only a year younger than Kennedy. Late in the day, the president of the United States lay dead in front of him with a hole in his head.
"It was a piece blown out of the skull," Sibert said.
What happened in Dallas that day remains contested with factions still debating whether Lee Harvey Oswald was the only shooter or if he was part of a wide-ranging conspiracy.
"I don't buy the single-bullet theory," Sibert said. "I won't go as far as to say there was no conspiracy."
Sibert and O'Neill's report, titled "Autopsy of Body of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy," stated that Commander James J. Humes, who conducted the autopsy, noted another wound.
"During the latter stages of this autopsy, Dr. Humes located an opening which appeared to be a bullet hole which was below the shoulders and two inches to the right of the middle line of the spinal column," Sibert and O'Neill reported.
Sibert won't guess on possible conspirators, on who else may have shot Kennedy other than Oswald.
"I wouldn't have any way of knowing," Sibert said. "See, that's another thing. All my work was in Bethesda, Md."
The FBI, Sibert said, had no jurisdiction in the investigation. The FBI website notes that "When President Kennedy was assassinated, the crime was a local homicide; no federal law addressed the murder of a president."
To me, the event of that day - 11/22/63 - was one that changed the United States forever. I think it started a downward spiral caused from full blown shock trauma to the psyche that our Nation has never quite recovered from. Maybe by design, maybe not.
4 comments:
I think he may be right. It may have changed this country forever. I was only 2 months old, but I remember my sister talking about how she was watching Bozo the clown and it was interuppted for Kennedy. She was also young and didn't understand. What a wild memory for her as a child.
A sad day in history indeed. I don't know if it's true, but did it give other 'crazies' the idea? sure seems like it.
Always a day I remember (though I was only a few weeks old when it happened). In 1988 (on the 25th anniversary) I taped a special called "As it Happened" -- I still have the tape(s). It was so fascinating to watch the entire day's newscasts, as if I were watching the events live as they first unfolded. Really made it "real" for me.
I still tend to believe it was a conspiracy. Oswald was a professed communist. He surely had connections. I also tend to believe the government is good at hiding the truth from average people.
And I agree about the slide downhill since then (in general). I'm hopeful we will turn that around one of these days though.
Happy Thanksgiving Tink.
thankful for your friendship. xo
Thanks Grace and Lucy. I remember some of the events. I was 7 and probably in 2nd grade. We had school off and I remember my Mom at home watching the funeral and crying. It was so somber. Yes, I sure hope this country can weather crisis mode. My mom is 83 now. If you ask her about that day, her mood becomes just as sorrowful and somber as it was back in '63. Yikes.
xo
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