Ten Things Joan Mellen Got Wrong About The Mac Wallace Fingerprints
A summary of points from my speech, "Critique of Mellen's Chapter 17 - The Fingerprint"
© 2017 by Richard Bartholomew, all rights reserved
Author’s note (Jan. 20, 2023): In 2016, I was invited to the Dallas JFK conference to critique chapter 17 of Joan Mellen’s book, Faustian Bargains, her failed attempt to debunk the 1997-1998 match of latent fingerprints left unidentified and buried in the Warren Commission’s FBI latent print file after President Kennedy’s assassination. My speech, summarized here in 10 points, was also an update of my previous speech on the fingerprints, delivered at the same conference two years earlier.1
Mellen was wrong that there was only “a single fingerprint collected from the sixth floor” boxes that was unidentified. Several were collected.
She was wrong that Box A was “sitting at the edge of the entrance to the sixth floor.” The entrance is at the opposite corner from where Box A was.
She was wrong that the Department of Public Safety’s inked prints and Austin Police Department’s inked prints were one and the same and were unusable. In 1997, an unnamed original examiner, followed in 1998 by Darby, then by Hoffmeister all used only the DPS rolled prints, which were excellent quality.
She was wrong to talk to Mac Wallace’s son, Michael, who gave her a weak, uncertain alibi for his father, but ignore Nathan Darby’s son, Pastor Steve Darby. Steve, with whom his father lived, has always been absolutely certain that his father kept his certification up to date.
She was wrong that her examiner’s work was blind. His report called it the “Warren Commission Exhibit” and the “Wallace print.” And by 2013, the examination was required to be at least double blind to hide Mellen’s known interest in the assassination. This lack of scientific blindness alone invalidates the examination.
She was wrong that her examiner, Robert Garrett, agreed with her that the DPS prints were “smudged” and unusable. Garrett said the prints were usable, and he used them. Only one of the twenty DPS prints, a flat one, was unusable, and nobody ever used it.
She was wrong not to give Garrett the high quality print copies Darby and the other original examiners used. Still, Garrett could have compared the lower quality DPS print to the higher quality Warren Commission Exhibit and seen the match. But he didn't. Instead, he compared two low-quality enlargements of Darby’s working charts.
The authenticity of the alleged Wallace military print she gave Garrett is suspect.
She was wrong that Garrett concluded the Warren Commission print “belonged to someone else entirely.” Simply put, what he concluded was that not all of the materials he was given for comparison were high enough quality for him to see, in his opinion only, Darby's match.
All of which makes Mellen’s claims junk science. Garbage in—garbage out. But even with the match, it is wrong for Mellen or anyone to believe it puts Wallace on that sixth floor or his hands on those boxes. The provenance of Wallace’s prints goes only as far as the Warren Commission’s FBI latent print file, where they could have easily been planted.
Author’s note (cont.): I agree with renowned researcher James DiEugenio’s review of Mellen’s earlier book, A Farewell to Justice:
The rest of the book [80%] seems to me to be sloppily composed, not proofread for errors of fact, loaded with controversial tenets, in large part assumptive, ideologically biased, has many weighty yet unsupported claims, exhibits a trustworthiness that goes beyond naivetè, and (I believe) deliberately leaves out important details to shape people and events in a certain way. These are serious criticisms. I believe they are merited. Especially for a veteran writer who was producing what was supposed to be a definitive book.2
DiEugenio, however, endorsed Faustian Bargains, a book every bit as flawed. It seems he was not able to assess Faustian Bargains as objectively as he did Mellen's earier work. His history of being inimical to Texas connections to the conspiracy, like Mac Wallace, may explain why. Or perhaps it is the Gell-Mann amnesia effect. Nonetheless, it is a bias DiEugenio once recognized, regreted, and for which he issued a public apology.3
There is a word for a body of work like Joan Mellen’s, composed mostly of factual errors, controversial tenets, assumptions, ideological bias, unsupported claims, and deliberate omission of detail to construct a false narrative: “disinformation.” Not only should honest critics distrust Joan Mellen, they should be actively suspicious of her.
ENDNOTES:
Richard Bartholomew, “Conflicts in Official Accounts of the Cardboard Carton Prints,” Speech delivered at the Arlington JFK Conference, November 2014.
Richard Bartholomew, "Critique of Mellen's Chapter 17 - The Fingerprint," The Deep State in the Heart of Texas: The Texas Connections to the Kennedy Assassination. San Antonio, Texas: Say Something Real Press, 2018, pp. 409-415. Video of speech delivered at the 2016 JFK assassination conference in Dallas:
James DiEugenio, “Joan Mellen, A Farewell To Justice,” Kennedys and King, August 13, 2006. Accessed January 16, 2023. https://kennedysandking.com/john-f-kennedy-reviews/mellen-joan-a-farewell-to-justice
James DiEugenio, Reclaiming Parkland: Tom Hanks, Vincent Bugliosi, and the JFK Assassination in the New Hollywood, 2013, New York, Skyhorse Publishing, Inc., pp. 312-313; “Dead Men Talking: An Update,” Kennedys and King, November 29, 2012. Accessed January 16, 2023. http://kennedysandking.com/john-f-kennedy-articles/dead-men-talking-an-update