WHAT HAPPENED TO KENNEDY'S BRAIN?

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After the autopsy was conducted on President John F. Kennedy, his brain was placed in a stainless steel container and stored by the Secret Service in the Executive Office of the President. On April 26, 1965, a footlocker containing the brain, as well as other autopsy-related items, was placed in the custody of Evelyn Lincoln, Kennedy's former personal secretary, who maintained an office at the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) in order to organize Kennedy's papers and other materials. On Halloween day of 1966, pursuant to an agreement between the Kennedy family and the government, the footlocker was formally transferred to the custody of NARA, whose representatives immediately noticed that the brain was missing. It has not been seen since.

There is no conclusive proof establishing what happened to the brain, but what little evidence there is suggests that the brain was probably removed from Lincoln's custody prior to October 31, 1966, at the direction of Robert F. Kennedy, the President's brother. Why RFK did so (if he did) is open to speculation. One unlikely theory is that an examination of the brain would suggest that the President was not only shot by Lee Harvey Oswald in the back of the head but also by a second gunman in the forehead. Another hypothesis is that RFK simply did not want his brother's brain put on public display. However, while there are in fact many interesting and unusual items which are available for viewing at Presidential Museums (most of which are managed by NARA), it appears unlikely that such a gory exhibit would ever see the light of day. The final theory, and perhaps the most likely one, is that RFK did not want an researcher down the road to do a chemical analysis of the brain and discover the presence of various pharmaceutical compounds. President Kennedy took high-potency medication for a variety of medical problems (including, at least once, an anti-psychotic drug); he and his family went to great lengths to conceal all of his ailments from the public except for the severe back injury he received in combat in World War II.

If Robert Kennedy did take the brain, did he do with it afterwards? There is no evidence that it was ever reunited with the President's body, and it would be almost impossible to do so secretly. What does one do with a sibling's brain? Virtually any scenario I can imagine steps into the realm of the macabre.

You can read the portion of the 1979 Report by the House Select Committee on Assassinations here dealing with the disappearance of the brain and the surrounding circumstances. Parenthetically, the Committee disagreed with the Warren Commission's finding that Oswald acted alone and concluded that there was a second assassin at the infamous "grassy knoll" who fired but missed. You can form your own opinion on this issue when the primary source documents relied upon by the Committee are released to the public in 2029.