Below is a partial transcription of LTC Marvin's words followed by descriptions of errors and embellishments. An important aspect that is open to interpretation is also discussed.

INACCURACIES IN THE TEXT:

1. he told me the details of his death in 1965.�

-- LCDR Pitzer died on October 29, 1966.

2. he was told that it was suicide.�

-- Mrs. Pitzer told LTC Marvin in a telephone conversation on January 29, 1995, �The navy never said he took his life, they just said that he died suddenly.� Of course, the family was aware of the general opinion that William Pitzer had committed suicide. The Informal Board of Investigation was not concluded until February 13, 1967; it deduced that the death occurred from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. It is reasonable to assume that the Naval Investigative Service investigation* was concluded at approximately that time. It appears that, at the conclusion of the investigations, the official verdict of suicide was not conveyed to the widow.

(*The final report on the investigation by the NIS was never released for public consumption and was probably routinely destroyed after 25 years.)

3. �But he was left-handed��

-- The source of greatest confusion in this case is the misconception that William Pitzer was left-handed. When Dennis David, a bridge partner of Pitzer, learned of his friend death from a gunshot wound to the right temple, he immediately doubted the official verdict of suicide because he had a strong memory of Pitzer dealing cards with his left hand. However, in a January 29, 1995, telephone call to Mrs. Pitzer, LTC Marvin asked, �Was he -- was Bill -- right-handed or left-handed?� To which she replied, �He was right-handed.� In response, Marvin said in confirmation, �Right-handed.� I have confirmed that William Pitzer was right-handed with two other members of the family and a colleague, himself left-handed, who saw Pitzer sign his name on many occasions. Author Harrison Livingstone has contributed to the confusion. In his book High Treason 2, he chose, like Marvin in this documentary, to give more weight to how William Pitzer dealt cards than to what he was told by Mrs. Pitzer. In HT2, Livingstone wrote, �Dennis David...states that Pitzer was left-handed,� whereas his earlier book High Treason (co-authored by Robert Groden) states, �His widow said...he was right-handed.�

4. �� yet the gun he supposedly committed suicide with was in his right hand.�

-- In LTC Marvin two telephone conversations with Mrs. Pitzer -- of which I have tapes -- Mrs. Pitzer never stated this. In fact, the .38 revolver at the scene was on the floor. LTC Marvin has in his possession the investigators� sketch of the death scene, which shows the location of the revolver about two feet from the body.

5. ��it was his plan that when he retired is when that information would be released to the public cause [sic] they�d prove that the president was hit with more than one bullet in the head and he was hit from a different direction than they said.�

-- Mrs. Pitzer did not say this in either of her telephone conversations with LTC Marvin. The issue of Pitzer making public the copy of the JFK-autopsy movie that he purportedly had originates with Dennis David, with whom I discussed the matter on 11/10/01. Mr. David recalled that Pitzer told him that �major networks� had contacted him by telephone to discuss a job offer. According to David, whoever spoke to Pitzer seemed to be aware of Pitzer involvement in the aftermath of the Kennedy assassination. Their interest in him was presumably a combination of his television experience plus their knowledge of his possession of the important movie film. Dennis David does not believe that William Pitzer had any intention of making the film public -- assuming that he still had it -- and he did not follow up on the verbal offers. According to Mrs. Pitzer, her husband planned to accept an appointment at Montgomery Junior College, Rockville, MD, after retirement, teaching educational television. Pitzer son told me that he has no recollection of his father mentioning a position in network TV.

6. �When William Bruce Pitzer died that day he was found up against a ladder which would go up to the false ceiling of his office��

-- He was found in the Naval Medical School television studio, not in his office.

INACCURACIES IN THE SKETCH:

7. The body is on its back, face up.

-- The body was belly-down with the right side of the face to the floor. This is clear from documents that LTC Marvin has in his possession, obtained under the FOIA from the FBI.

8. He is dressed in a dark uniform, or a suit and tie.

-- As stated in the autopsy report, of which LTC Marvin has a copy, the body was clothed in civilian attire consisting of a blue knit shirt, grey trousers, etc.

9. The gun is in the right hand.

-- As is shown in the sketch made by the investigators, of which LTC Marvin has a copy, the revolver was on the floor near the body. (The investigators� sketch is entirely consistent with a photograph I have of the death scene.)

10. A stepladder is standing open, adjacent to the body, and a ceiling tile is missing.

-- LCDR Pitzer head was partially under the bottom step of an aluminum stepladder, which was closed and propped against a pillar. This is clear in the investigators' sketch, of which LTC Marvin has a copy. No mention was made in any documents obtained under FOIA, that I am aware of, of a missing ceiling tile.

OPEN TO INTERPRETATION:

11. LTC Marvin stated, he also told me that he had the actual film and slides of the Kennedy autopsy.�

-- If this is true, it is vitally important corroboration of Dennis David account of seeing a movie and photographs of the Kennedy autopsy in LCDR Pitzer possession within a few days of 11/22/63. Mrs. Pitzer actual words to LTC Marvin on 5 January, 1995, were: �I understood that he had parts of the autopsy.� She did not say �Bill had parts of the autopsy� or �He had parts of the autopsy.� Her choice of words, �I understood�� suggests that she was passing along hearsay. I discussed this with a family member who agreed that it indicates that someone other than her husband said this. Pitzer's son told me that from 1966 to approximately 1990, when he read High Treason, he was unaware that his father may have been linked to the Kennedy autopsy. Furthermore, until reading High Treason, he believed that his father had committed suicide.

(Warning: during part of the Pitzer segment of the documentary, file footage of an autopsy is shown, including incising and paring back of the scalp, opening of the cranium with a hammer and chisel, and a close-up of the brain being lifted out.)

Further information on this case, including description of the Pitzer autopsy photographs -- indicating suicide -- is available via the "Pitzer Main Page" links at the top and bottom of this page.

Comments from LTC Marvin are provided here: a discussion lifted from the JFK Lancer Forum.