DR. CYRIL H. WECHT 

Dr. Cyril H. Wecht, M.D., J.D. (1931-2024): Acclaimed Pathologist, Professor, Author, Civic Leader and Devoted Family Man

“There was, and will only be, one Dr. Cyril H. Wecht.”
President Ken Gormley, J.D., Duquesne University.

No one who came before him or who will come after him can be compared with Dr. Wecht. He stands alone in his accomplishments, whether they be connected to his skill as a forensic pathologist or as a truth-teller about the John F. Kennedy assassination.

That’s the view of virtually all those who knew the man, including the Board of CAPA, an organization he founded and chaired. He advanced to the post of Chairman Emeritus earlier this year and continued to provide active participation at all our board meetings this year until the most recent one.

We’ll describe below our experiences at CAPA working with this brave, honorable and civic-minded leader exploring such sensitive matters as current research on the 1960s deaths of President John F. Kennedy, his brother Robert F. Kennedy and the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.

First, however, it’s both necessary and appropriate to describe how the world, his nation and his other varied communities benefited from his rare expertise and dedication.

Helping illustrate his scope and impact is, for example, the obituary published by the Los Angeles Times on May 13 under the headline: “Dr. Cyril Wecht, celebrity pathologist who argued more than 1 shooter killed JFK, dies at 93.” (https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2024-05-13/dr-cyr…)

He became world famous as an expert broadcast commentator, author, and courtroom expert analyzing the true cause of deaths for such celebrities as JFK, RFK, MLK, Michael Jackson, JonBenet Ramsey, Brian Jones and many, many others.

But the essence of the man is reflected also in his service for 20 years as the elected part-time coroner of Pennsylvania’s Allegheny County, the locale of Pittsburgh. His was a position of trust whereby he served as the indispensable independent expert providing judgment and sometimes accountability regarding the deaths of non-celebrities — including on occasion those who may have met their demise in ways not apparent to police or prosecutors — or even perhaps at the hands of rogue law enforcers and then covered up.

His renown emanated also from his close collaborations and enduring friendships with other leading coroners and medical examiners, including such iconic figures as Dr. Henry Lee of New Haven, Dr. Michael Baden of New York City and Dr. Thomas Noguchi of Los Angeles, plus his prodigious output as an author and teacher. He authored or co-authored 45 professional books for doctors and lawyers, the five-volume set “Forensic Sciences,” plus other books for general readers, plus some 600 expert articles in his field — or we should say “fields” because his wide-ranging expertise covered several.

Of particular pride was his long association with Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, where he taught forensic pathology to medical students for many years and founded The Cyril H. Wecht Institute of Forensic Science and Law, which provides a wide range of continuing learning opportunities on cutting-edge issues vital to medical, law enforcement and other legal professionals. The programs, organized in significant part by Program Director Benjamin Wecht, his son, have long provided both in person and by remote video expert analysis of cause-of-death mysteries, sometimes using for teaching case history medical evidence unlikely to be available for other purposes.

Some of these highlights are available in two recent books that reflect his prodigious energies even late in life, when he performed 500 autopsies a year (double the average number for coroners) until just three years ago. One book is “The JFK Assassination Dissected: An Analysis by Forensic Pathologist Cyril Wecht,” co-authored by Dawna Kaufmann and with a forward by Oliver Stone (Exposit/McFarland, 2022). The other book is his memoir, “The Life and Deaths of Cyril Wecht: America’s Most Controversial Forensic Pathologist,” coauthored with Jeff M. Sewald, (Exposit/McFarland, 2020).

He was well-known for his ability to fight effectively on some of the nation’s hottest and most-longstanding controversies. This includes the medical evidence regarding the JFK assassination, while also maintaining cordial relationships – up to a point – even with some of his major forensic adversaries. One was the late U.S. Senator Arlen Spector, who as a Warren Commission staff member in 1964 successfully advocated to the Commission that it endorse the so-called “single-bullet theory” that pointed, erroneously in Dr. Wecht’s analysis, to the concept that one bullet supposedly fired by Lee Harvey Oswald caused JFK’s death plus multiple other wounds in him and Texas Governor John Connally, a fellow presidential limo passenger, during the fateful motorcade through Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963.

Dr. Wecht, onetime Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate seat then occupied by Spector, served as a pallbearer at Spector’s funeral at the request of the deceased.

Those of us at CAPA came to know him from his pioneering work through the decades to expose, based on scientific evidence, the shortcomings of the Warren Report and conventional wisdom in most of mainstream media that parroted the Warren Report’s misleading narrative, much the same as reporting on other cases, including the deaths of RFK and MLK.

Wecht has been a Pioneer in the practice of forensic pathology. His career is best described by Alan Dershowitz, noted criminal trial lawyer, who made this observation, “When Cyril Wecht started practicing, his profession was not highly regarded. …Forensic science is “in” today; however, in those days, when he was first practicing, Cyril was the lone ranger and he created the profession, professionalized it, and made it what it is today, which is central to the administration of justice.” Peter Vaira is a former U.S. attorney and acts as special hearing master for Pennsylvania courts and clients. He has written an article about Dr. Wecht which states that “Dr. Wecht has shaped the law such that the use of forensic pathology is now de rigueur in death cases.”

Dr. Wecht closely supervised the annual CAPA research conferences held in Dallas each year on the anniversary of the JFK death each November. Also, he generously assisted many authors, filmmakers, academics and other researchers, often with endorsements of books that he admired.

For such reasons, everyone in relevant research communities, especially those of us in CAPA or affiliated with Duquesne, were thrilled that he was able to experience the output of research, love and honor bestowed on his field and personal legacy via the conference last November, “The JFK Assassination At 60: New Frontiers in Scientific, Medical, Legal and Historical Research.”

Duquesne University hosted the conference, which attracted one of the largest and most expert audiences ever in JFK assassination research. Among highlights were the dedication by the university’s president and other eminences of the Cyril H. Wecht Collection in the University’s library, plus speakers who included the bold JFK researcher, author and acting star Alec Baldwin, former Secret Service Special Agent Paul Landis (making his first public remarks following revelations in his memoir, “The Final Witness”) and many other experts.

CAPA organized for Dr. Wecht a special lifetime achievement award and banquet, capturing highlights of his illustrious career in a way meaningful to him and his beloved family, including his family members. The accomplishments and civic service of his wife, Sigrid, and children deserve mention as part of a key part of the life and legacy of this exceptional man:

⦁ Sigrid Wecht, a family law attorney and longtime office manager of Cyril H. Wecht and Pathology Associates

Children, in birth order:
⦁ David N. Wecht, Pennsylvania Supreme Court justice
⦁ Daniel A. Wecht, clinical professor of neurosurgery at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine
⦁ Benjamin E. Wecht, program director of Cyril H. Wecht Institute of Forensic Science and Law at Duquesne University
⦁ Ingrid A. Wecht, obstetrician-gynecologist and a senior staff member at West Penn Hospital.

Dr. Wecht once stated that, if given the opportunity to live his life again by the Supreme Being, he would not change anything and would do exactly what he has done despite the hardships and consequences involved.

“It was a very full life,” he concluded in an extended interview (https://www.wpxi.com/video/it-was-very-full-life-cyril-wecht…) with WPXI-TV, the NBC affiliate in Pittsburgh on Channel 11.

So let us pick up the torch and keep running to honor him, what he fought for, what he endured, and what he stood for.

As he said at the CAPA dinner honoring him last November, “Never give up, keep going, and one day we shall prevail!”

Dr. Wecht, at center wearing a hat, surrounded by family and friends at the CAPA banquet in his honor where he received CAPA’s lifetime achievement award during the “The JFK Assassination at 60” conference organized by the Duquesne University School of Science and Engineering in Pittsburgh from Nov. 15-17, 2023.

Among the well-wishers for Dr. Wecht after the banquet were filmmaker Irving Nestor of Auriela LLC and his wife Stephanie. The filmmaker had presented the results of his Matterport 3D scan of the JFK assassination locale of Dealey Plaza in Dallas, a CAPA-funded project for historical purposes.

Author’s Bio: CAPA Chair Glenda de Vaney, left, based in California, was longtime CAPA Program Chair and a Board director when Dr. Wecht recommended her in 2022 to be his eventual successor as CAPA Chair. She was elected to the post in early 2024 by unanimous vote and leads CAPA’s programming for its next annual conference, to be held in Dallas this coming November.