Cyril Wecht

Dr. Cyril Harrison Wecht (born March 20, 1931 in Dunkard Township, Pennsylvania) is a nationally renowned, controversial American forensic pathologist.^[1] He has served as a consultant in numerous high-profile cases, but is perhaps best known for his outspoken criticism of the Warren Commission's findings concerning the assassination of John F. Kennedy.

He has served as the president of both the American Academy of Forensic Science and the American College of Legal Medicine, and currently heads the board of trustees of the American Board of Legal Medicine. He served as the coroner and, later Medical Examiner of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania until January 2006, when he was indicted on various fraud charges. The case has not yet gone to trial.

Wecht is a resident of the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh.

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Background

Wecht was born to Jewish immigrant parents in the tiny mining village of Bobtown, Greene County, Pennsylvania. His father, Nathan Wecht, was a Lithuanian born storekeeper and his Ukrainian born mother Fannie Rubenstein was a homemaker and helped out in the store. When Cyril was young, Nathan moved the family to the Hill District neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and opened a neighborhood grocery store.

As a teenager he hoped to become a professional musician, and he was concertmaster of the University of Pittsburgh Orchestra ^[2]during his undergraduate years. He earned an undergraduate degree in 1952 and an M.D. degree in 1956 from the University of Pittsburgh, and a J.D. degree from the University of Maryland School of Law. After serving in the United States Air Force, he became a forensic pathologist. He served on the staff of St. Francis Hospital in Pittsburgh before becoming Deputy Coroner of Allegheny County in 1965. Four years later he was elected coroner. Wecht served as coroner from 1970 to 1980, and again from 1996 to 2006.

His wife, Sigrid Wecht, is an attorney in Pittsburgh. They have four children: David, a Judge of the Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County; Dan, a neurosurgeon in Pittsburgh; Ingrid, an OB/GYN in Pittsburgh; and, Benjamin, a writer.

Forensics career

Wecht became famous appearing on television and consulting on deaths with a high media profile. Some of the cases include; Robert F. Kennedy, Sharon Tate, The Symbionese Liberation Army shootout, John F. Kennedy, The Legionnaires’ Disease panic, Elvis Presley, JonBenét Ramsey, Dr. Herman Tarnower (the Scarsdale diet guru), Danielle van Dam, Sunny von Bülow, the Branch Davidian incident, Vincent Foster, Laci Peterson and most recently Daniel and Anna Nicole Smith. During his career, Wecht has personally performed over fourteen thousand autopsies. He is a clinical professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and an adjunct professor of law at Duquesne University.

Wecht is both outspoken and controversial. Journalist Robert Dvorchak of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette newspaper once described Wecht as, "a man who never met a TV camera he didn't like, a man who never had an opinion he didn't share and a man who carries his own local political baggage." He has publicly stated that he believes the autopsy performed on Elvis Presley's body was a fraud. He has argued that the body of Mary Jo Kopechne should be exhumed and reexamined. In his book Who Killed JonBenet Ramsey?, he argues that the death of the 6 year old beauty queen was accidental.

Consultant

Wecht has served as a forensics consultant in numerous instances:

• for the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner Coroner’s Office in regard to the 1968 Robert F. Kennedy assassination, the 1969 Sharon Tate/LaBianca cases, and the 1974 Symbionese Liberation Army Deaths;
• for the Health Hospital, Panama Canal Zone as a member of the Special Expert Panel on American Legionnaires’ Disease (Department of Health, Education and Welfare, Centers for Disease Control)
• for the ABC network television show 20/20 in regard to the John F. Kennedy assassination (in 1976) and the death of Elvis Presley
• U.S. House of Representatives Select Committee on Assassinations, Forensic Pathology Panel
• for the 1991 film JFK

House Select Committee on Assassinations

In 1978 he testified before the House Select Committee on Assassinations as part of a nine member forensic pathology panel. In many of its conclusions, the forensic pathology panel voted 8 to 1, with the dissenting vote being consistently that of Cyril H. Wecht. ^[3] Wecht requested to testify in person before the committee.

Mr. PURDY. Dr. Wecht, what are the major conclusions of the forensic pathology panel with which you are in disagreement?

Dr. WECHT. The major disagreement is the single-bullet theory which I deem to be the very essence of the Warren Commission report's conclusions and all the other corroborating panels and groups since that time. It is the sine qua non of the Warren Commission report's conclusions vis-a-vis a sole assassin. Without the single-bullet theory, there cannot be one assassin, whether it is Oswald or anybody else. I am in disagreement with various other conclusions of the panel.

Wecht introduced the synchronized-bullet theory to the committee. "If the President had been struck in the head with a second bullet, then it would have been fired in synchronized fashion simultaneous with the shot that did strike him in the rear of the head, as has been presented here today." He theorized the bullet could have been made of frangible ammunition. "It is, therefore, possible that that extensive deformity of the scalp, underlying galea, underlying bone calvarium, could also be the locus of the second shot of some kind of frangible ammunition." However he said "it is a remote possibility and I certainly cannot equate that with reasonable medical certainty."

Dr. Wecht was challenged on his veracity regards his assertions that a frangible or dum-dum bullet was used to destroy JFK’s head by Dr. Charles Perry, one of his fellow pathologists on the House Select Committee on Assassination. Dr.Perry wrote: "I happen to be the co-author of the only paper that has ever been written about the wounding capabilities of frangible bullets…they are used in shooting galleries…[and] are specially designed to break up on the backdrop of the…gallery so as not to ricochet and cause injury to either shooters or the people who work in the gallery…Such bullets and the breakup products of [these] bullets are easy to detect in X-rays. There are no such fragments in the X-rays of the late president’s head. There are no frangible bullets fired. I might also add that frangible bullets are produced in .22 caliber loads and they are not produced [for] larger weapons."^[4]

Dr. Wecht then stated that his synchronized frangible-bullet theory was "extreme" remote and "the evidence is not there" to support it. Dr. Wecht later on asserted that it was possible that the assassin(s) used plastic or glass bullets to kill the president, but added, "I have no basis to set forth a theory that a bullet fired from the president’s right side was composed of nonradiopaque [that is, transparent, and hence, not seen on X-rays] materials such as plastic of glass."."^[5]

Dr Wecht's objections were centered in his ballistic theories of the so called "pristine bullet";

" Wrist alone, as I have already said, I believe would have produced more deformation than we see here had those injuries been noted that we demonstrated on a blow-up of Gov. John Connally's wrist X-ray a moment ago"

His photographic analysis of the Zapruder film which led him to conclude the president had been shot before Gov. John Connally;

Dr. WECHT. Yes. President John F. Kennedy has definitely been struck, as seen on F-244, Zapruder frame 225. Gov. John Connally, in my opinion, has not been struck in that frame, as of that frame.

Dr Wecht ...a blowup of Zapruder frame 230, we are told under the single bullet theory that Gov. John Connally, for a period of approximately one and a half seconds, has already been shot through the right chest with the right lung pierced and collapsed, through the right wrist, with the distal end of the radius comminuted and the radial nerve partially severed... the hat is still being held and Governor Connally is not reacting. This is again a very alert individual, under a very special circumstance, and I do not believe or accept for one moment the story that we must accept under the single bullet theory that this gentlemen, at this point, one and a half seconds previously, has already been shot through his chest, through his wrist, and into his left thigh.

and his opinion of the bullet trajectories;

Mr. CORNWELL. ... You wrote an article at one point in Modern Medicine, October 28, 1974, in which you discussed some of the examinations that the FBI had attempted, spectrographic analysis and that sort of thing, at which point after discussing the inconclusiveness of the FBI's examinations, you stated: If it had been found that the composition of the lead in the fragment recovered from Governor Connally's wrist wound was indistinguishable from the composition of the lead in the nearly whole bullet found at Parkland Hospital, that fact alone would lend strong support to the single bullet theory. Do you still have that view?

Dr. WECHT. To some extent, that would be true, but in light of my new knowledge about the trajectory, particularly the vertical trajectory with the upward course through the body, then that statement would be much less definitive, much less positive than it was as expressed by me in that article a few years ago.

Out of the four official examinations into the Kennedy Assassination, Dr. Wecht is the only forensic pathologist who has disagreed with the conclusion that both the single bullet theory and Kennedy’s head wounds are tangible.

These pathologists include:

A. For the Warren Commission

1). Dr. James J. Humes, chief pathologist on the JFK autopsy, who had performed several autopsies on military personal killed by gunshot wounds.^[7] According to the pathologists on the House Select Committee's Medical Panel, "Humes was an extremely competent pathologist." Humes went on to become the president of the American Society of Clinical Pathologists.^[8]

2). Dr. J. Thornton Boswell, chief of Pathology of the Naval Medical School, board-certified in clinical and pathological anatomy.^[9]

3). Dr. Pierre A. Finck, board-certified pathologist who was the head of the Wound Ballistics Pathology Branch of the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology. As chief of staff, Finck had reviewed over four hundred armed forces and civilian autopsy cases involving gunshot wounds. Additionally, as a pathologist at the US Army Hospital in Frankfort, Germany, he was directly involved in over two-hundred autopsies. After the President’s assassination, Finck was assigned to Vietnam to study gunshot deaths before he testified for the prosecution in the much-maligned Clay Shaw case in New Orleans in 1967.^[10]

B. For the Ramsey Clark Panel in 1968

4). Dr. William H. Carnes, MD, Professor of Pathology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, Member of Medical Examiner's Commission, State of Utah, nominated by Dr. J. E. Wallace Sterling, President of Stanford University.Template:Bettercite

5). Dr. Russell S. Fisher, MD, Professor of Forensic Pathology, University of Maryland and Chief Medical Examiner of the State of Maryland, Baltimore, MD, nominated by Dr. Oscar B. Hunter, Jr., President of the College of American Pathologists.Template:Bettercite

6). Dr. Russell H. Morgan, MD, Professor of Radiology, School of Medicine and Professor of Radiological Sciences, School of Hygiene and Public Health, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, nominated by Dr. Lincoln Gordon, President of The Johns Hopkins University.Template:Bettercite

7). Dr. Alan R. Moritz, MD, Professor of Pathology, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH and former Professor of Forensic Medicine, Harvard University, nominated by Dr. John A. Hannah, President of Michigan State University.Template:Bettercite

According to Dr. Wecht, that between Drs. Fisher and Moritz alone, they have conducted roughly in the vicinity of 30,000 autopsies alone.^[11]

C). For the Rockefeller Commission in 1974

8). Dr. Lieutenant Colonel Robert R. McKeekin, Head of aerospace pathology at the Armed Forces of Institute of Pathology, Washington, D.C.^[12]

9). Dr. Werner V. Spritz, Chief Medical Examiner, Wayne County, Detroit Michigan. Spritz was also on the House Select Committee on Assassinations’ Medical Panel.^[13]

10). Dr. Richard Richard Lindenberg, Director of Neuropathology and legal medicine, state of Maryland, Baltimore, Maryland.^[14]

11). Dr. Fred J. Hughes, Professor of Radiology, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland.^[15]

D). For the House Select Committee on Assassination in 1979

12). Dr. Michael Baden, Chief Medical Examiner of New York City.^[16]

13). Dr. John I Coe, Chief Medical Examiner of Hennepin County, Minneapolis, Minnesota.^[17]

14). Dr. Joseph Davis, Chief Medical Examiner of Dade County, Miami Florida.^[18]

15). Dr. George S. Loquvam, Director of the Institute of Forensic Science, Oakland California.^[19]

16). Dr. Charles S. Petty, Chief Medical Examiner, Dallas County, Dallas, Texas.^[20]

17). Dr. Earl Rose, Professor of Pathology at the University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa. Dr. Rose was the pathologist on duty at Parkland Hospital when President Kennedy was rushed in. He was the pathologist who wouldn’t allow the President’s body to be taken from the hospital because a homicide occurred in Dallas County, and under the law, the autopsy was supposed to be performed there. Rose recreated his role at Parkland Hospital for Oliver Stone’s movie, JFK.^[21]

18). Dr. James T. Watson, Chief Medical Investigator, University of New Mexico School of Medicine, Albuquerque, New Mexico.^[22]

According to Wecht, these forensic pathologists had all together—in addition to Wecht—performed roughly over 100,000 autopsies.^[23]

Additionally, two wound ballistic experts examined the President’s wounds, and agreed with the conclusions of the medical examiners.

19). Alfred G. Olivier, Chief of Wound Ballistics Branch, Edgewood Arsenal, Maryland, for the House Select Committee on Assassination.^[24]

20). Dr. John K. Lattimer, an urologist and wound ballistic expert who was hired by the Kennedy family to examine the pictures and x-rays of President’s Kennedy’s wounds. He concluded that President Kennedy was hit twice, both from behind and above in the direction of the Dallas School Book Depository.^[25]

Investigation into the death of Daniel Smith

Wecht was hired by Callenders and Co, a Bahamian law firm, to do an independent autopsy on the body of Daniel Smith, the son of Anna Nicole Smith who died while visiting his mother in the Bahamas.^[26] Wecht stated Daniel Smith died as a result of the interaction of methadone, a painkiller, and the antidepressants sertraline (Zoloft) and escitalopram (Lexapro). Methadone can alter a person's cardiac electrophysiology; it is known to cause prolongation of the ST segment.

"When that [change] is prolonged, the individual could even lose consciousness, and suffer cardiac disrhythmia... I don’t mean frequently, and certainly not predictably, so tragically, with this young man this is what happened. So I have no question at all as to the cause of death."^[27]

Books

Wecht has written several books, including Mortal Evidence: The Forensics Behind Nine Shocking Cases, Cause of Death, Crime Scene Investigation, Grave Secrets, and Who Killed JonBenet Ramsey?

Controversies

Wecht's tenure as Allegheny County Coroner was not without controversy. While he was responsible for significant upgrades in the professionalism and technology of the coroner's office during his service in that office from 1970 to 1980, making the Allegheny County Coroner's office one of the best in the nation, Wecht's political career proved as controversial as many of his forensic findings. In 1979, Wecht was accused of depositing autopsy fees into a personal account rather than the Coroner's office account. He argued that the charges were politically motivated as he was running for Allegheny County Commissioner at the time. He faced criminal charges for the incident but was acquitted when the case went to trial in 1981. The county then sued him seeking $390,000. After losing the case in 1983, he appealed and after a nine year battle, the case was finally settled out of court in 1992 after Wecht agreed to pay $200,000 in damages.^[28]

Wecht was elected an Allegheny County Commissioner in 1979. In 1982, he was the Democratic party's nominee to oppose John Heinz for the U.S. Senate seat to which Heinz had first been elected six years previously. Wecht's challenge was unsuccessful: Heinz won 59 percent of the vote.

Wecht and fellow Democratic County Commissioner Tom Foerster were frequently at odds, and battled for control of the Democratic Party in Allegheny County, which Wecht chaired. The feud became personal at times, and once Wecht referred to Foerster as "the amorphous blob." Although the Democratic Committee rejected Foerster and endorsed Wecht for re-election as commissioner in 1983, the committee paired him with Sheriff Gene Coon, with whom he also had a longstanding political feud. Pittsburgh newspapers ridiculed the pairing, and created an odd creature called the "Cycoon" in their editorial cartoons.

Ultimately Foerster teamed up with former Pittsburgh Mayor Peter F. Flaherty, and the two defeated Wecht and Coon in the primary election for the two Democratic nominations. Wecht then lost the chairmanship of the county's Democratic Party in 1984 to Foerster's hand-picked candidate, Scott Township Tax Collector Ed Stevens. Wecht then sought to become chair of the Pennsylvania Democratic Party that same year, but was defeated by Ed Mezvinsky, a former Congressman from Iowa.

In 1995, Wecht, after 12 years out of public life, was again elected as Allegheny County's Coroner. In 1999, he ran for Allegheny County Chief Executive, defeating County Commissioner Mike Dawida in the Democratic primary, but losing to Republican millionnaire businessman and political novice Jim Roddey.

In 2002 in response to a referendum which sought replace his elected position of coroner with an appointed medical examiner Wecht mobilized his workers to gather signatures on petitions opposing the referendum, seeking to reword it to ask whether the coroner should remain an elected post, rather than ask whether the elected position of coroner should be abolished. Of the 56 people who circulated Wecht's petitions, 53 worked for the coroner. County ethics rules barred officials from asking county workers to engage in political activity.^[29] Beginning in 2004, he was the subject of a grand jury probe into alleged corruption at the coroner's office.

In October 2005 Wecht hired former US Attorney General Richard Thornburgh to lead his defense team.

Wecht continued to serve as Coroner until the position was eliminated in 2006. County Executive Dan Onorato named him as the county's first appointed Medical Examiner in 2006. He served in that position for about a month, until he resigned following his indictment.

2006 indictment

Despite attempts to reach a plea deal, Wecht was indicted by the grand jury on January 20, 2006 on 84 counts ranging from mail fraud and wire fraud to theft from office.^[30][31] The indictment alleges that Wecht used the resources of the Allegheny County Coroner's Office for his private financial gain. The indictment alleges Wecht did this in a number of ways, including: the use of Allegheny County employees, resources, and property to perform private business functions; directing Coroner's Office employees to refer all calls for private autopsy business to Wecht's private company; and the trading of the bodies of deceased individuals with no known next of kin, and other consideration, to a local college for his private autopsy business. As a result of the indictment, he resigned as Allegheny County Coroner.

Mark Rush, one of Wecht's defense attorneys, said the indictment was politically motivated, stemming from a long standing feud with district attorney Steven Zappala.^[32] Attorneys for Wecht filed a motion to dismiss the indictment, claiming, among other things, that the prosecution against their client is vindictive.

On June 30, 2006, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported that a federal judge had denied the motion to dismiss charges against Dr. Cyril Wecht. In a 31-page opinion U.S. District Judge Arthur J. Schwab found that the 84-count indictment against Wecht was sufficient to move forward to trial. The defense then filed a motion seeking the recusal of Judge Schwab. On July 20, 2006 the court filed a memorandum opinion denying the request for recusal, stating that the request might appear to be "improper judge-shopping and manipulation of the criminal justice system."^[33]

As of early 2007, the case has not gone to trial, as 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is considering certain issues regarding the indictment. A former histologist with the Allegheny County Coroner's Office who also worked for former Coroner Cyril H. Wecht, pleaded guilty to theft from an organization receiving federal funds, failing to file a tax return and making false statements to FBI agents. Prosecutors say Hollis cost county taxpayers more than $50,000 by performing work for Wecht's private consulting business while on duty at the coroner's office.^[34]

Notes

1. ^ "Wecht no stranger to controversy", Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, January 21, 2006. 
2. ^ Music Man (letter) Pitt Magazine, Spring 2007, page 3
3. ^ "Report of the Select Committee on Assassinations of the U.S. House of Representatives". The National Archives The JFK Assassination Records. Retrieved on 2007-02-22.
4. ^ Vincent Bugliosi, Reclaiming History, 863.
5. ^ Bugliosi, 863.
6. ^ TESTIMONY OF DR. CYRIL H. WECHT (September 7, 1978).
7. ^ Bugliosi, 384
8. ^ Bugliosi, 389
9. ^ Bugliosi, 384
10. ^ Bugliosi, 384-385
11. ^ Bugliosi, 394
12. ^ Bugliosi, 394
13. ^ Bugliosi, 394
14. ^ Bugliosi, 394
15. ^ Bugliosi, 394
16. ^ Bugliosi, 394
17. ^ Bugliosi, 394
18. ^ Bugliosi, 394
19. ^ Bugliosi, 394
20. ^ Bugliosi, 394
21. ^ Bugliosi, 394
22. ^ Bugliosi, 394
23. ^ Bugliosi, 394
24. ^ Bugliosi, 394
25. ^ New York Times, "John K. Lattimer, Urologist of Varied Expertise, Dies at 92," May 13, 2007
26. ^ "Anna Nicole May Not Pay Callenders", The Bahama Journal, 23rd January 2007. Retrieved on 2007-02-17. 
27. ^ "Pathologist: Meds Killed Daniel Smith", People, people.com, SEPTEMBER 28, 2006. Retrieved on 2007-02-17. 
28. ^ [http://www.post-gazette.com/magazine/19991024wecht1.asp "Cyril H. Wecht: Up-close and personal"
29. ^ "Wecht workers support … Wecht", PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW, December 4, 2002. Retrieved on 2007-02-17. 
30. ^ UNITED STATES OF AMERICA v. CYRIL H. WECHT,  18 U.S.C. Criminal No. §§ 666(a)(1)(A), 1341, 1343, 1346, and 2
31. ^ United States Attorney's Office Western District of Pennsylvania (January 20, 2006). "FEDERAL GRAND JURY INDICTS ALLEGHENY COUNTY MEDICAL EXAMINER CYRIL WECHT". Press release.
32. ^ [1]
33. ^ "ORDER OF COURT DENYING DEFENDANT'S MOTION FOR RECUSAL", 07/20/2006. Retrieved on 2007-02-17. 
34. ^ "Former Wecht employee enters guilty pleas", Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, January 4, 2007. Retrieved on 2007-02-17.