Addendum to Plain Talk Seven

I am including Click here a copy of Dr. Noguchi’s testimony before the Supervisor Baxter Ward Hearings in April, 1974. On page 89 of the Supervisor Baxter Ward Hearings transcript Dr. Noguchi is asked to identify the marking on Exhibit No. 47 - the Kennedy neck bullet:

(Please click here for page 89)

“Supervisor Ward: Did you have occasion to re-examine that bullet, Exhibit 47, a few weeks ago?

Dr. Noguchi: Yes, on the April 19, 1974 I was invited to examine Exhibit 47 at the storage place of the Criminal Court Building.

Supervisor Ward: Let me explain, Doctor, to the people here that on that date that you described in April, I had arranged a court order for the photography by the Balliscan camera from your department of many of the evidence bullets in the Senator Kennedy case, and I wanted, at that time, since this was their first reappearance, I wanted at that time to ask you to be present so you could re-examine the bullet known as Exhibit No. 47.

Did you find a marking on the base of the bullet?

Dr. Noguchi: Yes I did.

Supervisor Ward: And it was substantially the marking that you placed in June of 1968, in your opinion?

Dr. Noguchi: Yes, sir….”

Let me explain the reason I failed to include this important document in my Plain Talk Seven report . I was not certain I still had a copy in my files (I could not immediately locate it) It will be remembered I donated my research papers along with numerous documents to the Dr. Henry C. Lee Institute, thus making these recent reports more challenging to write when so many documents are at Lee Inst.

Fortunately, I was able to locate this copy from SUS files of Dr. Noguchi’s identification of the Kennedy neck bullet (Ex. 47) before the Supervisor Baxter Ward Hearings in April, 1974. This is critically important because it shows that Dr. Noguchi was presented with the Kennedy neck bullet correctly marked TN31 on the bullet base in 1974, therefore the Kennedy neck bullet presented at Sirhan trial cannot be known with an absolute certainty to have been a switched bullet in February, 1969. Then too, Harper’s Balliscan photo of K. neck bullet matched Baxter Ward Balliscan photo of K. neck bullet. What we see in panel member Patrick Garland’s Report is that the matter of Balliscan photos is left open.

It is most unfortunate that the 1975 panel members did not take their own Balliscan photos of the Kennedy neck bullet (marked “DW””TN”) which was presented to them. That is truly indefensible.

Rose Lynn Mangan, 1-25-2012