How do LNers explain the white patch?

[Zeon Mason]

Is it mere coincidence that  the  lower EOP  (red line ) interests thru the center of the white patch area and connects in line with the point at which the radial fragment lines converge?

The other High EOP (yellow line) does not intersect with the white patch nor does this the angle of this yellow line seem to be in alignment with what (intuitively) one would expect to cause the spread ( or cone) of radial fragmentation lines.

Since the autopsy photo of the gloved hsnd  holding the back of JFK hair /skull fragment in place does not show the high EOP ( hence the necessity for the Ida Dox “drawing”) then there is reason to suspect the “white patch” area was an attempt to nullify the lower EOP location by Humes.

The reason ( if its truly an alteration ) must be that  lower EOP would make the SE 6th story window trajectory for the z313 shot highly improbable.

[Michael T. Griffith]

Would there be a "fragment trail" from a full metal copper jacket?     

Yes, but it would be nothing like the high fragment trail, which includes dozens of tiny fragments clustered toward the right-front part of the skull. FMJ bullets that strike skulls can leave fragments, but only a few. The FMJ bullets in the WC's wound ballistics tests left very few fragments, and none of them left anything resembling the cloud of fragments that compose most of the high fragment trail.

We simply don't know how many fragments were in the low fragment trail, because it no longer appears on the skull x-rays, and because Humes did not mention how many fragments it appeared to contain. He said there were "multiple minute metallic fragments" in the low fragment trail, which he said ran along a line "joining the above described small occipital wound and the right supra-orbital ridge," i.e., just above right eye. "Multiple" can mean a few more than one or many more than one. "Minute," however, implies that the fragments were tiny, which is not typical of FMJ ammo.

Humes faced an obvious and serious problem: the x-rays showed two separate fragment trails, one low and another at least 2 inches higher. One of the trails had to go.

And it goes without saying that Humes could not have failed to see the high fragment trail, which starts/ends in the right frontal region with the cloud of fragments and dissipates considerably as it trails upward toward the back of the skull but does not reach the cowlick. This suggests the impact of a high-velocity frangible bullet in the right temple, and we have several witnesses in two different locations who saw a small wound in the right temple.

The plotters had to pick their poison. The EOP entry site presented an impossible trajectory back to the sixth-floor window, unless one assumes that JFK was leaning forward by about 60 degrees when the bullet struck, which no video or photo shows him doing at the time of the Z-film head shot. So the plotters decided to make the low fragment trail disappear and to plant evidence on the x-rays that would appear to indicate that the bullet struck about 4 inches above the EOP and that would superficially seem to be the source of the high fragment trail.

But, as is well known, there is no wound in the cowlick, and the high fragment trail does not extend to the cowlick. The cowlick entry point poses a much less severe trajectory problem than the EOP site, but that's not saying a whole lot. It's much less severe because the EOP site is self-evidently impossible to align back to the sixth-floor window. However, NASA's Thomas Canning, the HSCA's trajectory expert, had a hard time aligning the sixth-floor window with the trajectory of the cowlick entry site through to the supposed exit wound above the right ear.

[Michael T. Griffith]

This thread deserves a bump because it shows that LNers have no credible, rational explanation for the impossible white patch seen on the right lateral x-ray. The patch is about 1,000 times bright than it should be, about 1,000 times brighter than the same area on a normal human skull x-ray, including JFK's premortem skull x-rays. Dr. Michael Chesser confirmed the latter point by doing OD measurements on one of JFK's premortem skull x-rays in Boston.

It is highly ironic that one WC apologist went running to the writings of ardent WC critic Pat Speer to seek to explain the white patch. Unfortunately, Speer's research on the skull x-rays is not just awful but at times downright comical, as we have seen in this thread.

Dr. Chesser, who is a neurologist, has discussed his findings regarding the white patch following his OD analysis of JFK's premortem and autopsy skull x-rays:

This lateral skull x-ray was performed on President Kennedy in 1960, and it took me a while, but I located the original at the Presidential Library in Boston, where it was labeled as a sinus x-ray. This is shown here to show that the petrous portion of the temporal bone is the most dense, and brightest, region on a skull x-ray. The pattern of variable density throughout the skull is typical. . . .

These OD readings were taken with an X-Rite 341 portable optical densitometer. Calibration was performed. This shows that the most dense part of the skull is easily the petrous (latin “petrosus” – stone hard) portion of the temporal bone. This also shows that the optical densitometer can demonstrate differences in density which aren’t apparent to the human eye. . . .

In the HSCA report you’ll find this very blurred image of the original right lateral skull x-ray (actually the inventory lists two left lateral skull x-rays). Looking at this image in the report would make you think that this x-ray is in horrible condition, and that the anterior half of the skull was so dim that no useful information could be obtained. That couldn’t be further from the truth. The actual original x-rays are in excellent condition, showing only minor aging, and this blurred copy doesn’t represent the original film well. . . .

This is a comparison of the original films, the HSCA computer enhanced images, and then the copies of the HSCA images released to the public.

Now I want to go back to the right lateral view, and to focus on the white patch, which Dr. Mantik has written so much about. I agree completely with him, that this points toward tampering.

This is to highlight the “white patch." Notice on the left this same area on the 1960 skull x-ray, and how it is much less white, or dense, compared to the base of the skull, the petrous portion of the temporal bone.

Dr. Mantik took many more optical density readings that I did, but I wanted to show that my readings agree with his – that the white patch appears much more dense than is possible. On the left lateral x-ray, the OD reading was much more dense than the petrous bone – and again, this is not possible. An optical density of .24 is equivalent to a much higher density of the skull in this region, compared with an optical density of .32, and this is not physiologic, even in the face of traumatic alteration of the skull. . . .

This is a simulation of the left lateral skull x-ray. NARA never released an actual copy of the left lateral skull x-ray. As you see, the back part of the skull isn’t visible. I flipped the image of the right lateral x-ray, and then cut off the occipital region, to simulate the appearance of the left lateral image. I also took optical density measurements of this film, and the left posterior temporal/occipital skull was more dense than the petrous ridge. The skull at the level of the petrous ridge is almost all bone, and it is impossible to explain this finding except to consider that the evidence was altered. (https://assassinationofjfk.net/a-review-of-the-jfk-cranial-x-rays-and-photographs/)

This is hard science based on the long-established science of OD measurement and analysis of x-rays.