Controversial pathologist who argued more than 1 shooter killed JFK dies at 93
A renowned pathologist and attorney who spent decades arguing his theory that more than one shooter was involved in the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy has died.
Dr. Cyril Wecht’s death at age 93 was announced by the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts, The AP reported. The location or cause of his death was not announced.
Wecht, who served a brief stint at Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, first entered the public spotlight in 1964 when as assistant district attorney in Allegheny, Pennsylvania and a pathologist at a Pittsburgh hospital, he was asked to review the Warren Commission’s report. The commission had determined Lee Harvey Oswald was the lone shooter in the Kennedy assassination.
Wecht disagreed with the findings, calling the idea that one “magic” bullet killed Kennedy and injured Texas Gov. John Connally “absolute nonsense.”
“My analysis is the Warren Commission is quite wrong,” Wecht said during an interview with a Pittsburgh TV station. “I believe there were two shooters. I’m not at all certain that Lee Harvey Oswald was one of the two shooters.”
Wecht was the first civilian permitted to examine the physical evidence in Kennedy’s death and was the one to discover the late president’s brain was missing and had never been examined. The failure to examine the brain, Wecht wrote, prevented an accurate determination of Kennedy’s death.
Wecht wrote dozens of books throughout his life and consulted or spoke on numerous other high-profile deaths, including Elvis Presley, JonBenet Ramsey, Anna Nicole Smith and Michael Jackson.