Dr. James Beyer

The Foster autopsy was performed by Dr. James Beyer, on Wednesday 21 July, 1993 the day following Foster's death.

Scan of autopsy report indicating x-rays were taken (click on image for full sized view)

Dr. Beyer indicated on his autopsy report that he took x-rays.

Scan of part of Park Police autopsy report  (click on image for full sized view)

The official Park Police witnesses who attended the autopsy wrote in their report that Dr. Beyer told them he had taken X-rays [2128]

Yet no x-rays from the autopsy exist.

FBI Telex sent a few hours after the Foster autopsy reporting no exit wound was found (click on image for larger view)

• X-rays would corroborate the existence of an exit wound, and explain that the FBI telex reporting that preliminary autopsy results showed "no exit wound", was really some sort of mistake¹.  This telex was sent a few hours after the Foster Autopsy was completed.
  
  

Page 5 from Foster autopsy showing the purported exit wound  (click on image for larger view)

• X-rays would corroborate Dr. Beyer's claim that the bullet exited through a very large irregularly shaped area of fragmented bone at the back of Foster's skull.  X-rays would show the exit hole, which Dr. Beyer strangely failed to do when he drew the image on page 5 of the autopsy report. 
  
  

Part of Investigator Rolla's deposition of July 21, 1994  (click on either image for larger view)

• X-rays would show that the 1 x 1.25 in exit wound existed and that Investigator John Rolla was mistaken when he  he probed Foster's head at the scene reported in his deposition that "There's no big hole or blowout in his head",  [401].
  
  



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On page 75 of his report, Starr attempts to explain the lack of x-rays by telling us that the X-ray machine was "not functioning properly at the time" of the autopsy.  Like the ruined phtographic evidence of the death scene, the x-rays were underexposed and therefore useless to the investigation:

C. X-rays

 Although no x-rays were produced from the autopsy, the gunshot wound chart in the autopsy report has a mark next to "x-rays made."  Dr. Beyer has stated that either he did not take x-rays because the machine was not functioning properly at the time, or that if he attempted to take x-rays, they did not turn out.  He stated:

I had intended to take x-rays, but our X-ray machine was not functioning properly that day.  And if we took any all we got was a totally black, unreadable X-ray, so I have no x-rays in the file... I could very well have tried to use it on the Foster autopsy and got an unreadable X-ray.  If his wound had been a penetrating wound, where there was only a wound of entrance, and the missile was retained within the body, then there would have been a requirement that I have an X-ray.  Since this was a perforating wound, where there was a wound of entrance and a wound of exit, and I was going to examine the tissue through which the missile path had taken, I concluded we could proceed without the X-ray, rather than delay it six to eight hours.[221]

Dr. Beyer's assistant recalled that, at the time of the Foster autopsy, the laboratory had recently obtained a new X-ray machine and that it was not functioning properly.  The assistant stated that the machine sometimes would expose the film and sometimes would not.  In this case, the assistant recalled moving the machine over Mr. Foster's body in the usual procedure and taking the X-ray.  He said that he did not know until near the end of the autopsy that the machine did not expose the film [222].  In addition, like Dr. Beyer and the assistant, the administrative manager of the Medical Examiner's Office recalled "numerous problems" with the X-ray machine in 1993 (which, according to records, had been delivered in June of 1993).[223]

With respect to the check of the X-ray box on the report, Dr. Beyer stated that he checked the box before the autopsy while completing preliminary information on the form and that he mistakenly did not erase that check mark when the report was finalized.[224]

[221] OIC, 2/16/95, at 17.

[222] 302, 9/11/95, at 2.

[223] 302, 1/27/95, at 1.

[224] Senate Hearing, 7/29/94, at 236, 242.  The primary purpose of x-rays in this case, given the nature of the entrance and exit wounds, would have been to determine whether any bullet fragments remained in the head.  Dr. Beyer said he felt "confident" without x-rays that "you can examine the brain for a bullet or bullet fragments and identify them."  OIC, 2/16/95, at 18.  As previously set forth, Dr. Beyer, his assistant, and the four Park Police officers at the autopsy (Morrissette, Hill, Johnson, and Rule), all recalled that Dr. Beyer examined the head and brain (and dissected the brain) and found no bullet or fragments.  See supra note 70, at 31-32.  Officer Morrissette's report prepared after the autopsy, stated that "Dr. Byer [sic] stated that X-rays indicated that there was no evidence of bullet fragments in the head."  USPP Report (Morrissette) at 1.  As explained above, however, Dr. Beyer made that statement and reached that conclusion without x-rays.

Because Starr want's us to believe that the primary purpose of the x-rays was only to determine if there were bullet fragments in the brain, and since Dr. Beyer determined this by other means (i.e. slicing the brain into fine pieces), the fact that there are no autopsy x-rays of a government official who died a violent and supposedly unattended death doesn't matter.  Apparently Starr believes this, as he failed to investigate the story that the X-ray machine was broken at the time of the Foster autopsy.

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Three Mistakes and A Bad Break

1. Dr. Beyer "mistakenly did not erase" the check mark indicating that x-rays were taken. 

2. The official Park Police witnesses  mistakenly thought they heard Dr. Beyer say that he had taken x-rays.  These witnesses were so mistaken that they quoted Dr. Beyer very specifically in their official report as saying he taken x-rays.

3. Dr. Beyer's unnamed assistant said he discovered that the x-rays did not come out at the time of the autopsy, yet either mistakenly forgot to mention that the x-rays were bad, or the Park Police witnesses who were present until the end of the autopsy missed hearing the assistant mention that the x-rays were ruined. 


Had the witnesses heard the assistant say that the x-rays didn't come out, they would have never made the mistake of quoting Beyer as saying he had taken x-rays.

The X-ray machine was supposedly not working at the time of the autopsy. 

This bad break is eerily similar to the bad break which resulted in the ruination of all of the 35 millimeter photographic evidence of the death scene --officially, both the photographic evidence of the deaths scene and the radiological evidence of the autopsy were ruined because they were underexposed. 
 

For example, even though Starr tells  us that the machine was installed in June of 1993, Starr never asked when the machine was repaired.

Starr knows that there are records indicating that the first service call on the X-ray machine was not made until three months after the Foster autopsy.

Kenneth Starr not only knows this, Kenneth Starr attempted to suppress this information from the official report on the investigation into Foster's death.

Page from the official report showing X-ray machine was operable during Foster autopsy  (click on image for larger view)

• As he did with the ruined photographic evidence of the crime scene, Kenneth Starr failed to investigate the ruined radiological evidence from the autopsy. 

• Kenneth Starr attempted to suppress the Knowlton portion of the official report which contains evidence which shows that the X-ray machine was functioning at the time of the Foster autopsy.

• Kenneth Starr failed to investigate records which show that the X-ray machine was operable at the time of the autopsy, contradicting Starr's excuse for why no X-rays exist.

1: The FBI telex was obtained in late March 1998 by Judicial Watch as attorney for Reed Irvine's 
    Accuracy in Media in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, filed in Washington, D.C, federal
    court,AIM v. FBI, Civil Action No. 97-CV-02107-GK.  A full copy of the telex, in Adobe Acrobat
   form, may be viewed and downloaded here.

2: The report is available as a two-volume set consisting of a 114-page report and 23-page appendix for $12.  (Price includes regular shipping and handling.)  The report and appendix may be ordered from the Superintendent of Documents by phone, fax, or mail and may be purchased at either of the two U.S. Government Bookstores located in Washington, D.C. (732 North Capitol St. and 1510 H St. NW). 

Orders for Report on the Death of Vincent W. Foster, Jr. should reference the 12-digit stock number028-004-00095-8 and include $12 payment.
 

Citations in brackets are to page numbers of the two 1994 Senate Whitewater Hearings Volumes [S. Hrg. 103-889, Volumes I & II] and of the 1994 Report Volume [Rept. 103-433, Volume I].

 

 jc huntington

 11/98