Other
Official Information On The Exit Wound
Let's see if any insight may be garnered regarding
this mysterious exit wound by looking at a few snippets from the official
record . . .
The
FBI On The Exit Wound
 A
heavily redacted (major sections are covered up with large black rectangles)
Teletype from the FBI's Washington Metropolitan Field Office to the FBI's
Director, confirms that the FBI was apprised of the autopsy results on
July 21, 1993, the same day it was performed. This telex reports that there
was no exit wound in Foster's head:
"[P]reliminary
results include the finding that a .38 caliber revolver, constructed from
two different weapons, was fired into the victim's mouth with no exit wound."
A copy of the full telex
may be viewed in the exhibits document available at www.fbicover-up.com.
Inspector
Rolla On The Exit Wound
Investigator
John Rolla At Fort Marcy Park
|
John Rolla was the Park
Police Investigator in charge of the body site. At the site, Rolla
'gloved up' and probed Foster's head for an exit wound. In his sworn
deposition of July 21, 1994 Rolla said he could find no hole . .
. only a "mushy spot".
Rolla testified that
he thought that the bullet might still be in the head:
Q.
Was there any attempt to find bone fragments or anything in the ground?
A.
They searched the area... I still can't believe that the hole -- it's a
small hole. They may put their finger through it, that's a big hole. His
head was not blown out... I probed his head
and there was no big hole there. There was no big blowout.
There weren't brains running all over the place. There
was blood in there. There was a mushy spot. I initially thought the bullet
might still be in his head. Could have been
the brain pushed up against that hole. There's
no big hole or big blowout in his head.
.
. .
[Dr.
Haut] looked at the back of his head. I looked at the back of his head,
and I was wearing gloves, I probed his head and I could feel -- what I
felt in his head was mushy here.
I did not, you know, there was hair, blood and other matter there, and
I did not observe any blowout, like his brains had been blown out all over
the place. It just appeared it was mushy there.
A penetrating gunshot
wound ... a wound caused by a bullet that did not exit but instead splintered
the skull and rebounded into the head would feel 'mushy' if probed.
Finding only a 'mushy spot' instead of the expected hole through the skull
would naturally lead one to believe that the bullet might still be in the
head, just as Investigator Rolla thought . . . but let's continue.
What Did Inspector
Rolla See?
While at the scene,
Rolla and Dr. Haut (the medical examiner called to the death scene), rolled
the body over and inspected the back of the head, where the bullet is supposed
to have exited the skull.
Let's see what Rolla
said when asked by the FBI what he saw when he looked at the exit wound;
here is a scan of the the notes of the FBI interview with Rolla regarding
this crucial point:
Body
was rolled
over
by Rolla to fully
investigate
-- extensive blood back of shirt
back
of head [redacted]
[line
redacted]
[line
redacted]
[line
redacted]
Dr.
Haut declared
dead |
Hmmm . . .
It seems that the notes
of the FBI interview with Investigator Rolla, regarding what he saw when
he looked at the exit wound on the back of Foster's head, have been redacted
from the record (i.e. covered up with large black rectangles). Evidently,
what Investigator Rolla saw when he looked at the exit wound at the death
scene is a secret that we are not to know.
The sidebar to the
right shows what the non secret part of the FBI notes say.
A copy of the FBI notes
on Rolla's interview may be viewed in the exhibits document available at
www.fbicover-up.com.
Drs.
Luke, Stahl, Hirsch & Reay On The Exit Wound
Certainly a situation where a high velocity
.38 caliber slug is supposed ot have exited a head but left a wound in
the skull that is characteristic of a wound caused by a bullet that remained
in the head would pique the interest of highly trained, experienced and
expert forensic pathologists.
Drs. James L. Luke, Charles J. Stahl,
Charles S. Hirsch and Donald T. Reay are the highly trained, experienced
and expert forensic pathologists appointed by Robert Fiske to review Dr.
Beyer's work on the Foster autopsy and report their findings.
Two reports were produced. Neither
report offers an explanation as to how a high velocity .38 caliber bullet
could . . .
1) Exit Foster's head
2) Tear 1 1/4 inch by
1 inch star shaped wound in his scalp
3) . . . yet leave no discernible bullet hole in his skull
Instead of explaining this atypical exit
wound to the skull, a wound that indicates the bullet did not exit Foster's
head, Dr. James L. Luke and Dr. Charles J. Stahl chose to merely
describe the autopsy drawings [612]:
Bullet
course. Penetrates skull, to left of foramen magnum. Internal beveling
not appreciated. Penetrates brain stem (medulla) and medial aspect
of left cerebral hemisphere. No gunpowder residue noted to involve
skull, dura or central nervous system. Exit through comminuted central
occipital skull defect at posterior occiput Cross-hatched area in
diagram represents fragments of bone not identified. Scalp exit wound
stellate, measuring 1 1/4 x 1 inch, located 3 inches below top of
head. No evidence of shoring at exit site.
Page 4 (click for larger
view)
|
Page 5 of the autopsy report
(click for larger view)
|
Page 6 of the autopsy report
(click for larger view)
|
| Bullet
course. Penetrates skull, to left of foramen magnum. Internal beveling
not appreciated. |
Exit
through comminuted central occipital skull defect at posterior occiput
Cross-hatched area in diagram represents fragments of bone not identified. |
Scalp
exit wound stellate, measuring 1 1/4 x 1 inch, located 3 inches below
top of head. |
Dr.
Henry Lee On The Exit Wound
The highly trained, expert and experienced forensic
pathologist Dr. Henry Lee was appointed by Starr to help in Starr's investigation
of the death. Instead of assuring us that the bullet actually exited
Foster's head, the best Dr. Lee can do is say that "the bullet appears
to have exited". From footnote 177, page 61
of the Starr Report (emphasis added):
[177]
Blackbourne Report at 2. In his report, Dr.
Lee similarly states -- based on examination of the scene photographs,
the medical examiner's report, and the autopsy photographs -- that "it
is clear that Mr. Foster died as a result of a single gunshot wound,"
that "[t]he entrance of this wound was in his mouth," and
that "the bullet appears to have exited through
the back of Mr. Foster's head."
Lee Report at 486.
This qualification by
Dr. Lee is quite interesting.
Perhaps Dr. Lee found
it odd that a bullet that is supposed to have exited Foster's head
tearing a 1 1/4 x 1 inch hole in Foster's
scalp could do so without creating a bullet hole in his skull. Perhaps
that is why Dr. Lee qualified his statement regarding the bullet, saying
that it "appears to have exited trough the back of Mr. Foster's
head", instead of saying that the bullet actually did exit the head, as
the other forensic experts found.
As of this writing we don't know exactly
why Dr. Lee refused to definitively state that the bullet actually exited
the head, because the report of Dr. Lee is secret and may not be
viewed by the public.
Even though Kenneth Starr cites Dr. Lee's
report several times, Kenneth Starr doesn't want you to read it.
Dr.
Blackbourne's Comment On The Exit Wound
If Dr. Blackbourne found anything odd about
a bullet that is supposed to have torn a 1 1/4
x 1 inch hole in Foster's scalp without creating a bullet hole in his skull,
there is nothing in Starr's report to indicate this fact.
This doesn't necessarily mean that Dr. Blackbourne
did not comment on this bizarre wound, however. As of this writing, the
report of Dr. Blackbourne is secret and may not be viewed by the public.
Even though Kenneth Starr cites Dr. Blackbourne's report several times,
Kenneth Starr doesn't want you to read it. |
We
would expect Dr. Beyer's drawing to show this wound to Foster's skull .
. . a circular wound with an outwardly beveled edge and radiating fractures
from the exit site.
Dr.
Vincent DiMaio is a forensic pathologist and an expert in gunshot wounds.
The image to the right is a scan from Dr. DiMaio's book (Gunshot Wounds:
Practical Aspects of Firearms, Ballistics, and Forensic Techniques)
and illustrates how a bullet can ricochet within the skull, resulting in
a penetrating gunshot wound to the head.
