The William Pitzer Murder

[Mitch Todd]

So Hersch was the only expert to examine the 20 autopsy photographs?

Eaglesham sent copies of the photos plus a report of his discoveries/findings to Cyril Wecht and Herbert McDonnell for their input.

[Matt Grantham]

Eaglesham sent copies of the photos plus a report of his discoveries/findings to Cyril Wecht and Herbert McDonnell for their input.

 Wecht did not respond I assume

 Were the original navy autopsy examiners contacted

I see nothing to indicate a person is less likely to have gunshot residue on their hands than other shootings It is tough to find estimates, at least for me, on how reliable they were in 63

It is also unclear on the protocol for when toxicology test should be preformed. Couldn't find anything clear online so i used a platform for ask a pathologist . will see if I get a response


 This link was interesting and included the following oints

 The FBI estimates the gun was 3 feet from Pitzers head

 Pitzer supposedly checks out the gun the day of the his death but the signature is illegible

 Several notes are found that Pitzer was writing right before his death One of these notes has a shoe print that was not Pitzers

Fracture, comminuted, supraorbital plate, sphenoid bone, left... After removal of the brain a third defect in the bony skull is encountered. This consists of a large defect in the left supra-orbital plate measuring 3.0 x 1.0 cm.

http://spartacus-educational.com/JFKpitzerW.htm

[Matt Grantham]

 At this point I am inclined to feel that the note Pitzer has written near, or at the time of, a possible attack, and which contains a partial unidentified heel print,is perhaps the most damning evidence for murder. anyone want to be posit another explanation? Does Eaglesham ever mention it?

[Ray Mitcham]

 Wecht did not respond I assume

 Were the original navy autopsy examiners contacted

I see nothing to indicate a person is less likely to have gunshot residue on their hands than other shootings It is tough to find estimates, at least for me, on how reliable they were in 63

It is also unclear on the protocol for when toxicology test should be preformed. Couldn't find anything clear online so i used a platform for ask a pathologist . will see if I get a response


 This link was interesting and included the following points

 The FBI estimates the gun was 3 feet from Pitzers head

Who shoots himself in the head with a pistol held three feet from his head?

[Mitch Todd]

 Wecht did not respond I assume

 Were the original navy autopsy examiners contacted

Wecht did respond: http://www.manuscriptservice.com/WBP-Resolution/WechtConversation.pdf

I see nothing to indicate a person is less likely to have gunshot residue on their hands than other shootings It is tough to find estimates, at least for me, on how reliable they were in 63

There was residue:

"I believe that they missed an important clue in this regard, which is present in the autopsy photographs: William Pitzer's left hand had a heavy deposit of soot on the palm and his right hand had a heavy deposit of soot on the backs of the fingers. This suggests that he held and fired the revolver with his right hand, and steadied it with his left hand held over the barrel. Soot and gunshot residue would thus be propelled into the wound or would be blocked by the palm of the left hand as it escaped from around the barrel, some of which would be deflected over the backs of the fingers of the right hand"

It is also unclear on the protocol for when toxicology test should be preformed. Couldn't find anything clear online so i used a platform for ask a pathologist . will see if I get a response

 This link was interesting and included the following points

 [1] The FBI estimates the gun was 3 feet from Pitzers head

 [2] Pitzer supposedly checks out the gun the day of the his death but the signature is illegible

 [3] Several notes are found that Pitzer was writing right before his death One of these notes has a shoe print that was not Pitzers

[4]Fracture, comminuted, supraorbital plate, sphenoid bone, left... After removal of the brain a third defect in the bony skull is encountered. This consists of a large defect in the left supra-orbital plate measuring 3.0 x 1.0 cm.

http://spartacus-educational.com/JFKpitzerW.htm

I numbered the points in barckets to make my response a bit clearer.

1.) The "gun was at least 3' away" issue has already been explained. The muzzle was held again the skin, so burning powder followed the 
bullet directly into the head, instead of spreading out after clearing the muzzle and tattooing the area around the wound.

2.) The illegible signature implies what, exactly? Mine's not particularly easy to decipher, and I've yet to see a doctor's signature that doesn't look like some kind of alien pictograph from the LSD planet.

3.) Eaglesham described the shoe print as:

"One of the note-pages lying on the floor bore a partial heel print that was not linked with the deceased - described as a style used by the Goodyear Rubber Company. The print was photographed by the FBI 'for possible future reference.'"

But what does it really mean? Could have been the person who found the body, or a clumsy investigator. It might also have been made well before the death.

4.) This fracture is due to cavitation effects caused by the bullets passage.



 

[Matt Grantham]

 I do not have time to respond to the other issues at the moment


From Eagleshams website
If [Dennis] David had not been mistaken about which hand was Pitzer's dominant hand, he may not have mentioned his late friend to any reporter or researcher; few outside Pitzer's family and acquaintances would know his name or his story.

When forensic expert Herbert MacDonell opined that the death-scene photograph shows a bullet wound in the left temple, I felt certain that William Pitzer had been murdered. However, my meeting with SA DiPaola, viewing of the autopsy photographs, and reconsideration of the available information, have brought me to the belief that the gunshot wound was self-inflicted



 From the Education forum in 2012

  John Simkin said:
(4) Do you believe William Pitzer was murdered?

Dennis David replied
(4) I have read the autopsy report, the Investigation report of Bills death, and other material. I am not convinced he committed suicide, nor am I convinced he was murdered.

[Matt Grantham]

 This link includes a transcript of a conversation between Marvin and Mrs Pitzer. She staes she was told to keep quiet on the subject, did not get an autopsy for 25 years, and was still reluctant to talk evven at te time of interview

http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/topic/4267-william-pitzer-reappraisal-of-suicide/

 From John Kays


  But I have to believe David when he remembered W. B. dealing cards with his left hand. Also, favoring David, is support from eye-witnesses that Pitzer was present at JFK?s autopsy. But what I don?t understand, is why family members say he had been left-handed (in their initial statements)?


 Eaglesham's dismissal of the film and claiming that Custer lied suggests a bias on almost every aspect of this case

 From William Dankbaar

Additionally, testimony was received by the review board that Mr. Pitzer was, at the time of his death, in possession of a 16 millimeter film of the autopsy which he had taken during the autopsy examination and been working on at the time he was murdered. The film disappeared and has never again surfaced. No one from any of the five governmental investigations has seen any of these other three sets



 Also I have seen a comment that Mrs Pitzer was threatened with losing Pitzer's pension if she did not remain quiet, and am hoping to find more on that

[Matt Grantham]

Bill Pitzer was shot to death on October 29, 1966. His body was discovered at 7:50 P.M. on the floor of the TV production studio of the National Naval Medical Center, Pitzer?s working area. The estimated time of his death was approximately 4:00 P.M.[583] As an FBI teletype reported early the next morning, the victim was found dead with a gunshot wound in his head and a thirty-eight caliber revolver lying close to his body.[584] Pitzer?s body was found lying face down ?with the head extending under the lower rung of two aluminum step ladders which were leaning against a foundation post.?[585] Following a joint investigation by the Naval Investigative Service (NIS) and the FBI, the Navy ruled that Bill Pitzer had committed suicide.[586] The members of his family were certain that he had not.


The Navy investigative board?s verdict of suicide rested on its claim that Pitzer ?was experiencing marital difficulty and was intimately associated with another woman.?[587] Bill Pitzer?s friends and family resisted the board?s theory of suicide and Pitzer?s supposed motivation, both of which contradicted their knowledge of the man.[588]

The Navy?s claim that Pitzer had an ultimately fatal affair was based on ?an unsigned, undated summary report of two interviews [with an unnamed woman] conducted by unnamed NIS
agents.?[590] The obscurity of the investigation, whose interviews were kept secret and inaccessible until they had been ?routinely destroyed,?[591] made it impossible to scrutinize the Navy?s allegation of the character defect that presumably caused Pitzer?s suicide. If Pitzer was instead killed by government forces, the Navy was adding to that crime its assassination of his character.


Bill Pitzer?s film of John F. Kennedy?s body has never been found. One investigator hypothesized that Pitzer had stored the film in his TV production studio?s false ceiling. The upright ladder under which his head was found after his death was seen as a clue. It could have been the means by which Pitzer, or an assassin, climbed up to retrieve the film from its hiding place the final afternoon of Pitzer?s life. He was then shot to death, and the film vanished.[596]



 In regard to the idea that the investigators of Pitzer's death may have stepped on the papers that contained the shoe print. Here are the names of four people that were involved in that investigation Did Eaglesham ever contacted them in regard to the note?


The duty officer was alerted. Ensign J.M. Quarles and Security Patrol Officer T.E. Blue opened the locked door to Pitzer?s television-studio office at 7:50 PM, and found a body on the floor, the head resting in a pool of coagulated blood, a revolver lying close by. Death was pronounced by Medical Officer Lieutenant Commander R.W. Steyn at 8:10 PM, and identification was made by Captain J.H. Stover and Lt. Cdr. J.G. Harmeling; the corpse was that of Lt. Cmdr. William B. Pitzer of the US Navy Medical Service Corps.