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Charles A. Crenshaw,
M.D.
with J. Gary Shaw , D. Bradley Kizzia, J.D., Gary Aguilar,
M.D.,and Cyril Wecht, M.D., J.D.
Foreword by Oliver Stone
Paraview Press, 2001
ISBN: 1-931044-30-9
Conspiracy, 287 pages
Trade Paperback, $16.99
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I have obviously offered my perspective on
controversial issues through the medium of film. One such effort
was the movie, JFK, which hypothesized that there was a
conspiracy behind the assassination of President John Kennedy on
November 22, 1963. The movie depicted actual evidence in a way
that supported a controversial conspiracy theory.
Dr. Charles Crenshaw is a true eyewitness to the historical
event that was the subject of my movie. Unlike many conspiracy
theorists, he was actually in a position to know critical facts
when he participated on the Parkland Hospital trauma teams that
endeavored to save the lives of President Kennedy and his accused
assassin. When Dr. Crenshaw’s book was first published in
April of 1992 (shortly after release of my movie JFK, for
which he served as a technical consultant), he made a significant
contribution to the historical record pertaining to the JFK
assassination.
It seems incredible that the awesome power of the media,
including Journal of the American Medical Association
(JAMA) and those that reported on its New York City press
conference in May 1992, could be employed so irresponsibly in an
attempt to damage Dr. Crenshaw in the eyes and minds of millions
of people—damage which can never be totally undone. Most
private individuals obviously do not have the power or resources
to adequately respond to attacks in the mass media. The legal
system only provides a partial remedy. Because of the freedom
provided to the media by the First Amendment to the United States
Constitution, no court can legally order publication of a
correction or apology; but consider the chilling effect on an
individual’s exercise of free speech about a controversial
subject that vilification in the mass media (or fear of same) can
have. As philosopher Joseph Hall once said: “A reputation
once broken may possibly be repaired, but the world will always
keep their eyes on the spot where the crack was.”
One wonders whether JAMA and its former editor and writer
really believe that their handling of this matter served to
dignify that allegedly prestigious, scientific medical journal.
Do they really think that trying to destroy the reputation of a
distinguished and honorable medical professional who merely
offered his opinions on a controversial subject was appreciated
by its readers? The potentially devastating power of a free press
requires that it be responsibly exercised, a notion that
JAMA apparently either failed to learn or merely decided
to ignore and abandon in the case of the JFK assassination.
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Author’s Note:
Why This Book Was Updated
By Charles A. Crenshaw
The book I originally wrote with Jen Hansen and J. Gary Shaw,
JFK: Conspiracy of Silence, was published in April, 1992
and was well-received across the nation by the American public. I
had broken the “edict of silence” thrust upon us,
those who tried to save President John F. Kennedy, and, two days
later, his accused assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald. My observations
contradicted the “official” version of the
assassination, as reported in the Warren Report. I stated that
President Kennedy was shot at least once, and I believe twice,
from the front, and Oswald could not have been a “lone
gunman.” I had anticipated criticism from some, but I never
expected the vicious attack from my medical colleagues.
In May 1992, the editor and a writer for the Journal of the
American Medical Association (JAMA) called a press conference
in New York to promote a JAMA article which attacked me
both personally and professionally. They quoted some of my fellow
physicians who had been in the Parkland Emergency room on that
tragic day, with statements that varied significantly from the
testimony that they had sworn to before the Warren
Commission.
I repeatedly asked JAMA for a retraction and correction
and received correspondence denying our request. My coauthor Gary
Shaw and I were advised to sue JAMA, and on November 22,
1992, exactly 29 years since that fateful day in Dallas, we filed
suit for “slander with malice.” In October, 1994, we
agreed to court-ordered mediation and accepted a monetary
settlement offered by JAMA. The litigation details and
exposure of JAMA ‘s unethical publication are
included in this book in the section written by our attorney, D.
Bradley Kizzia.
The House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) concluded in
1979 that President Kennedy’s death was the result of a
probable conspiracy, but their records were sealed until the year
2029. The 1992 President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records
Collection Act (JFK Act) was a unique solution to nearly thirty
years of government secrecy, and the government was required to
release whatever information it had concerning the assassination.
The JFK Act created an independent board that would oversee the
government’s implementation of the Act, the Assassination
Record Review Board (ARRB).
Many of the revelations from the ARRB have substantiated my
allegations in the original book. According to Saundra Spencer,
the autopsy photographs of President Kennedy that she developed
at the Naval Photography Center in 1963 were different from those
in the National Archives since 1966. The ARRB Report also
suggests that Dr. Humes, one of three autopsy physicians, appears
to have changed his Warren Commission testimony when his
deposition was taken under oath by the ARRB. Additional testimony
questioned the autopsy and brain photography that are now in the
National Archive and Records Administration.
I have no idea who shot President Kennedy or why. What I do know
is that somehow and for some reason, there was a medical
cover-up. The “official” autopsy photos do not depict
the same wounds I saw in Trauma Room One at Parkland. The wounds
I saw were wounds of entrance, and thus they could have not come
from the rifle of Lee Harvey Oswald.
Copyright 2001 Charles A. Crenshaw
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