MORE ON THE LATE ARRIVING FRAGMENT
					by
				Vincent M. Palamara
                                vmplac@telerama.com
	Having read Dr. Randy Robertson's excellent article entitled 
"The Late Arriving Fragment : Reality Bites" in the July 1995 TFD, and 
having communicated with Randy on 7/19/95, I feel compelled to follow-
up and strengthen the work he did related to the fragments of JFK's skull 
found in the presidential limousine and elsewhere. Dr. Gary Aguilar, the 
author of another excellent article in the same issue ( "The HSCA and the 
Autopsy Photographic Evidence"), was excited by the following information 
when I spoke to him last year, shortly before the first COPA conference. 
Having failed to both attend this important symposium and return Dr. Rob-
ertson's phone calls during the research/writing of his article, I feel the 
following information goes a long way toward making ammends:

	During the course of researching and writing for my Secret 
Service manuscript entitled "The Third Alternative-Survivor's Guilt: 
the Secret Service and the JFK Murder", I spoke to and corresponded 
with some twenty-plus former agents and White House aides from the 
JFK era, one of whom was Sam Kinney, the driver of the follow-up car 
on 11/22/63 (in all, I spoke to Kinney in length three different times 
from 1992 to 1994); he had much of value to say. However, it was 
during interviews conducted on 3/5/94 and 4/15/94 that Kinney literally 
bowled me over with details concerning his first-hand observations of the
President's wounds. Sam told me twice that he saw the back of JFK's head 
come off immediately when the fatal shot struck the President's head 
(Kinney was watching Kennedy's head-and the rear bumper of the limous-
ine-as a normal part of his duty to maintain a five-foot distance between 
the follow-up car and JFK's limo, something he did hundreds of times 
before). Sam told me "it was the right rear-I saw that part blow out." 
Kinney added that his windshield and left arm were hit with blood and 
brain matter immediately after the head shot.

	Once at Parkland Hospital, Kinney helped remove the President 
from the back seat of the limousine along with Clint Hill, Roy Kellerman, 
and Dave Powers, thereby receiving an extremely vivid, close-up look at 
the wound on JFK's head. "His brain was blown out," Sam said, " there 
was nothing left !" I pressed further, to which Sam added: "There was brain 
matter all over the place...he had no brains left in his head."

	So far, pretty valuable information, right? Well, there's more: 
Kinney and fellow agent George W. Hickey, Jr., both members of the White 
House Garage Detail (chauffeurs), drove the follow-up car and the limousine 
respectively back to Love Field for boarding onto the C-130 transport plane. 
Once the cars were loaded on board and properly secured to the floor of 
the plane, the C-130 took off for Washington with Kinney, Hickey, and 
the folowing members of the 76th Air Transport Squadron from the 
Charleston, S.C. Air Force Base: Capt. Roland Thomason, Wayne Schake, 
Vincent Gullo, Hersal Woosley, David Conn, Stephen Bening, and Frank 
Roberson [these names are revealed for the first time via Sam's copy 
of the flight manifest]. However, it was Kinney alone who made a most 
valuable discovery: he found the piece of the back of JFK's head lying in the
rear seat of the bloody limousine, exactly were Clint Hill told the Warren
Commision he saw the "right rear" piece at (2H141; fellow agents Roy 
Kellerman [2H85] and Jerry Behn[Sibert & O'Neill interview, 11/27/63] 
confirm this fact)! Sam told me it was "clean as a pin" and that it 
resembled a "flowerpot" or "clay pot" piece. Kinney added: "It was a 
big piece-half his head was gone." When I pressed him on this point and 
asked him if he was sure of the skull piece's orientation, he said " I don't 
know what else it could have been but the back of his head."

	Realizing the obvious significance of this find ( made several 
hours BEFORE the "official" limousine inspection instigated by ASAIC 
FLOYD BORING), Kinney put in a phone patch to Admiral George Burkley 
(unfortunately, like many other events, this radio traffic no longer exists 
on the heavily edited Air Force One radio tapes that are avaliable at the 
present time [I wonder why?]). Kinney had the piece in his suit pocket 
during his talk with Burkley and during the flight back to Washington. 
Upon landing at Andrew Air Force Base, Burkley got a hold of the skull 
piece Kinney had (it is important to note that Sam did NOT attend the 
autopsy and, when pressed on exactly HOW Burkley obtained the fragment, 
Sam constantly changed the subject, the ONLY time he was ever less
than frank with me). For what it's worth, Sam said that Dr. Burkley was a 
"good friend" of his: "I even have his picture on my wall along with the
President's[JFK's] and Harry S. Truman, and I thought as highly of him 
as I did those gentlemen." When asked about the controversy Burkley has 
caused concerning the autopsy, Sam said "well, you have to give orders 
to people...they(?) were very hard on Dr. Burkley."

	Sam told me, in somewhat of an understatement, " All of these 
books are always wondering about this incredible missing part- I've had 
the answer all these years but nobody's called me" (meaning the WC, the 
FBI, private investigators, etc. As Sam told the author of the dreadful 
"Mortal Error"[ "I tried to squelch that book", Sam said], the HSCA DID 
send two investigators to his door...). Why, then, did Sam Kinney tell me 
about this? Well, it's not just because I asked: Sam tried to tell NBC's 
"Today" show about the same thing during Sam's only (first and LAST) 
television interview on 11/22/93, but his lengthy interview was edited 
down to some harmless soundbites about John-John's salute (Sam was one 
of two people who taught JFK's son to do this on the Veteran's Day right 
before the assassination) and other human-interest topics. Kinney, who 
believes there was a conspiracy (although he also believes Oswald
was the lone shooter), wanted his story told, even if it was told to a relative
unknown like me without the reward of money, fame, and prestige, all things 
Sam has little or no desire to obtain at the age of 68. As for the shooting itself
on Elm Street, Kinney was adamant to me, on three different occasions, that he
"saw all three shots hit" and that "the second shot hit Connally and he agrees
with me." Sam added that there were NO missed shots that day- he spoke to
Connally about this during 1963-1964 and Connally agreed with him ( "Very
gracious guy, the Governor", Sam said. " I told him 'I'm the one who called 
you a son-of-a-bitch' and he said 'I wondered who that was'"-this was said 
by Sam to Connally as he tried to get the Governor out of the way in order 
to get JFK out of the limousine on 11/22/63)!

	The significance of all of this speaks volumes in and of itself.
However, in regard to the back-of-the-head skull fragment Kinney found in the
rear of the limousine, there is a definitive chain of possession on it, as Dr.
Robertson confirmed for me: the Nix and Zapruder films show it, spectator
Charles Brehm saw it, Agent Clint Hill observed it in the rear of the limousine
on the way to Parkland, Agent Sam Kinney had it on the C-130, SAIC Gerald
Behn(who I spoke to) confirmed its location to the FBI agents who attended the
autopsy, and Agent Roy Kellerman did the same thing for Arlen Specter of the
Warren Commission.

	In my opinion, something is definitely amiss with the handling and 
chain of possession of the OTHER skull fragments discovered between 11/22 
and 11/23/63:
	1) the "Harper fragement" (11/23/63)- I agree with Dr.
Robertson: this piece cannot be occipitul bone!;
	2) the THREE pieces of skull found by none other than
ASAIC FLOYD BORING during the "official" Secret Service limousine inspection
late on 11/22/63(CD 80. p.3), four hours before the FBI did the same- this is
seperate from the finding made by Kinney;
	3) the small piece found by Seymour Weitzman (7H107)...
	Roy Kellerman told HSCA investigators that he only remembered 
ONE skull fragment being examined at the autopsy, and was only told of 
TWO by ASAIC FLOYD BORING (Memo: Jim Kelly and Andy Purdy-interviews 
with Roy H. Kellerman, 8/24-8/25/77)! Since both Dr. Burkley and Floyd 
Boring were involved in the chain of possession and handling of the above 
fragments ( including, at least Dr. Burkley, the fragment found by Kinney on 
the C-130), the disappearance and possible manipulation/ "switching" of 
fragments at the autopsy leads back to them...and we are all indebted to Dr. 
Randy Robertson for making the whole skull fragment issue much clearer 
now; this is the kind of evidence- and observation- that raises the case to 
a new level.


Special thanks to: Dr. Randy Robertson, M.D. and former Secret Service Agent
Samuel A. Kinney

copyright 7/20/95 by Vincent M. Palamara