Tuesday, April 05, 2005

Randle on Kimball (L. K.) & Johnson

A few days ago, I discussed the Roswell account of Lorzeno Kent Kimball, which is not mentioned in the books of the two primary Roswell investigators, Kevin Randle and Stan Friedman. I wrote that I thought Captain Kimball (again, not related), a credible witness, had something to offer to the overall Roswell picture, particularly with reference to the Glenn Dennis story. It was a mistake, I concluded, to not reference his testimony.

Kevin wrote me a nice note, and after a short back and forth, we'll just have to agree to disagree about the relevance of Captain Kimball's testimony, which is fair enough (the study of history is replete with similar disagreements).

However, with respect to Captain Kimball's remarks regarding Jesse B. Johnson, Kevin pointed out to me that the original Randle - Schmitt work on Johnson was the work of Don Schmitt. After Kevin and Schmitt parted ways, Kevin researched Johnson himself, no longer confident of Schmitt's account. He discovered mistakes by Schmitt, and, as a result, published a revised history for Johnson in his Roswell Encyclopedia (New York: Quill, 2000) , at pp. 202 - 203.

Here is what that entry says, which can be compared to Captain Kimball's account, which can be found at www.roswellfiles.com/Witnesses/CaptKimball.htm:

"Johnson, Jesse B. (1920 - 1988) Jesse B. Johnson was born in Temple, Texas, and lived there most of his life. In 1945, he graduated from medical school at the University of Texas. He was a resident at the Scott and White Hospital in Temple from 1945 to 1046, when he was apparently drafted into the Army. During 1947, First Lieutenant Jesse Johnson was assigned to the base hospital at the Roswell Army Air Field. There is no evidence that he played any role in the alleged autopsies of alien beings found near there in July 1947, though his name has been connected to them. Information published suggested that Johnson was a pathologist in 1947 and was called upon to assist in the performance of preliminary autopsies conducted at the base hospital. That information was based on two flawed tales. One of them was by Glenn Dennis, who claimed that he had known a nurse assigned to the base in 1947 who told him about the autopsies. The other assumption was that in 1947, Johnson was a pathologist. The ABMS Compendium of Medical Specialists reveals that in 1947, Johnson had just completed his medical training. He had no training as a pathologist in 1947, so there was no reason to suspect that he would have been brought in to assist in the autopsies. In fact, the information available suggests that Johnson did eventually train as a pathologist at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston from 1948 to 1949. In other words, he did not have the training in 1947 but completed it after his military service. Johnson wasn't finished with his medical education. He trained next as a radiologist in 1950 and 1951. That was apparently the specialty that he practiced for the rest of his medical career. An interview conducted with his wife in the early 1990s revealed nothing to suggest that Johnson was ever involved in the recovery of alien bodies or their autopsy. She had no knowledge of any connection between her husband and the U.S. government. The fact that he had once trained as a pathologist seems to have confused the issue. Dr. Johnson died in 1988."

Paul Kimball

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