Best Evidence: The Research Video is a 37 minute documentary film based on filmed interviews which I conducted in October, 1980. The main purpose in making this film was to document, on video, the basic accounts of the key witnesses that appear in Best Evidence, accounts I had received via telephone interviews. It was Marshall McLuhan who said: The medium is the message. In 1980, I realized, after hearing these accounts over the telephone, that they belonged on film, to be fully appreciated—and that's why I made the Best Evidence Video. Some background may be in order here. The manuscript for Best Evidence was submitted on April 1, 1980. The central thesis of my book was that JFK's body—the most important evidence in the case against Oswald— had been covertly intercepted between the time of his murder in Dallas, Texas, and the time the body arrived at Bethesda Naval Hospital for the autopsy. Wounds had been altered; and bullets removed. At Bethesda, the body no longer reflected the true "medical facts." In effect, the diagram of the Dealey Plaza shooting had been changed. My publisher, Macmillan, was quite excited by my work, and wanted to see it in print as soon as possible. An ambitious publishing schedule was planned, so that the books would be in the stores by January, 1981. Meanwhile, although I was proud to have interviewed a number of key witnesses to the autopsy—who had been under orders not to talk—I was concerned that my interviews were conducted over the telephone, whereas a television news program like "60 Minutes" might re-interview the same witnesses on film, and attempt --through tricky editing-- to impeach their credibility. From my telephone interviews, I was aware that these witnesses provided accounts which established that the President's body left Dallas wrapped in sheets and inside an elegant (400 lb.) bronze ceremonial coffin, but arrived at Bethesda in a body bag, inside a 60 pound aluminum shipping casket. I suggested we reinforce the credibility of these accounts by filming the witnesses, before they realized the importance of their stories—i.e., before the appearance of the book. In 1980, it was not possible to go to Best Buy, purchase a camera, and be an "oral historian." A film crew consisted of a sound man and a camera man; a director was needed, and then there was me—I had worked out the questions for each witness, designed to elicit responses which could be compared with one another, in the editing room, to bring out the main message in the book—that clearly, something had changed between Dallas and Bethesda. In the space of four days, we flew around the country to interview four witnesses who appeared in the film: to Gainesville, Florida, for Paul O'Connor, the Bethesda medical technician; to Pittsburgh, Pa., for Jerrol Custer, the X-ray technician; to Dallas, Texas for Aubrey Rike, the funeral attendant who placed the body in the original casket; and mid-state Illinois, for Dennis David, who was a first class or E-6 Petty officer and was chief of the day for the U.S. Navy Medical School at the Bethesda naval medical center. Dennis David knew about the arrival of two ambulances, one of which - functioning as a decoy - had an empty casket. All of this was explained (to David) as a "security measure". Upon returning to New York, I rented an editing room and Arnon Mishkin, a talented news editor, shaped and fashioned the film until we had a 21 minute "core" documentary which conveyed the key message: President Kennedy's body did not make an uninterrupted journey from Dallas to Bethesda. Excerpts from the 21 minute film were used on my book tour, after publication. In 1989, I was contacted by Richard Foos, the head of Rhino Video, in Santa Monica, California. He put up additional funds to create "front" and "back" bookends for the core 21-minute film, and the 37 minute home-video documentary was born. Best Evidence: The Research Video was released in 1989 to very favorable reviews. In December 1991 when Oliver Stone's JFK was released, the Best Evidence Research Video was re-released. In all, it sold about 50,000 copies in VHS format. Best Evidence: The Research Video is a copyrighted video. But with my permission, and through the assistance of Alan Lennard, I am making it available on YouTube, so that anyone can see the accounts of these critically important witnesses, and understand what happened to President Kennedy's body sometime during the six-hour period following the Dallas murder. I am convinced that if it can be determined who was responsible for the covert interception and alteration of President Kennedy's body, we would as a practical matter essentially know the answer to the question: who killed President Kennedy? David S. Lifton 12/27/13 Los Angeles, California

• published: 17 Mar 2014
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