X-RAYS, SURGERY FAIL TO FIND 'BUG' IN MAN

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000505040002-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 24, 2010
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: June 9, 1984
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/24: CIA-RDP90-00552R000505040002-7
Obi k-; GE r
X-rays,
to find
By BILL LUENING
Iferald Staff Writer
The first CIA operation in
Jackson Memorial Hospital histo-
ry ended in disappointment Friday
for James Pettit.
It was just after 10 a.m. when
Pettit - 39, convicted drug pilot,
accused arsonist and firm believer
that the Central Intelligence
Agency has planted electronic
thought control devices in his
skull - rolled into Ward D at
Jackson in a wheelchair and leg
irons. He was clutching a court
order for the surgery that would
prove his claim, ease his mind
and, maybe. cut his prison time.
"I'm not going to let them put
me to sleep," he said warily.
"Jackson's a damn government
hospital."
He needn't have worried. After
reviewing new X-rays taken Fri-
day. the Jackson physician sched-
uled to do exploratory surgery
and find out just what was in
Pettit's head, refused to operate
above the neck.
"I'm not touching that head,"
said Jackson professor of surgery
Gerado Gomez.
He did take a lump of scar
tissue out of Pettit's back, though,
while two lawyers, three nurses,
another doctor, two policemen,
one newsman and sundry security
guards watched. Pettit said the
lump hurt him when he was in
"the company of a certain per-
son."
As the herd of
MIAMI HERALD
9 June 1984
surgery fail
`bug
spectators
watched, Gomez
dissected the blob of tissue, the color and texture
of a tiny brain. It contained scar tissue.
Pettit demanded Gomez remove lumps from
his scarred arms. Gomez refused. He said it could
be dangerous and was uncalled for since there
was nothing indicated on the X-rays.
"It's getting a little unreasonable. Cut here.
cut there. Just exploring for what he says. I
don't think any [doctor] would go for that,"
Gomez said.
"I want those things that look like bottles
taken out of my head. Any refusal by Jackson
Memorial Hospital to follow this court order
constitutes, in my opinion, collusion with the
CIA," said Pettit, holding the folded order from
Circuit Judge Howard Gross, as senior surgical
resident Michael Kotler sewed up his back. "Tell
me, doctor, do you work for the CIA?"
"What are you talking about?" Gomez said,
laughing uneasily, looking confused. "I don't
work for the government.
"I don't think any surgeon in their right mind
is going to do surgery based on X-rays that show
nothing," Gomez said.
in man
Gomez asked someone to call Judge Gross,
whose order required the surgery. Gross,
however, had gone for the weekend and couldn't
resolve the issue until Monday, assistant state
attorney Philip Maniatty said.
Friday's medical first evolved through Pettit's
steadfast assertion about CIA involvement, tests
which proved him sane and competent to stand
trial, and the ambiguous results of previous
X-rays.
The story began in 1982 when Pettit crashed
an airplane loaded with Quaaludes. He was
horribly burned and underwent surgery at
Brooke Medical Center In San Antonio, Texas.
There, he contends, a government doctor
working for the CIA implanted electronic mind
control devices in his head.
Pettit, already convicted and sentenced to 15
years on a federal drug charge, is on trial again
for an arson charge which alleges he tried to
burn down his girl friend's Dade house in 1983
while resisting federal arrest.
During the trial, Pettit said he agreed to plead
no contest to the arson charge and accept a
30-year sentence if the judge would order new
X-rays. Gross agreed, Pettit said, with the
understanding that if the X-rays showed
something surgery would follow.
To everyone's astonishment - except, per-
haps, Pettit's - the new X-rays showed
something in Pettit's neck. Judge Gross ordered
exploratory surgery.
"I don't know what's in there," said
Maniatty, chief of the arson division said before
Pettit arrived Friday. "But whatever it is, it isn't
a defense for arson."
"I thought he was off the wall until the
X-rays actually showed there was something in
there," Pettit's attorney Roy Gelber said as he
stood at the Ward D admitting desk.
What showed up on Friday's X-rays, Pettit
said, were fragments of shotgun pellets in the
back of his neck from a youthful encounter. Also
showing up were "little bottle-shaped things"
that appeared in the upper jaw.
Sitting in a white surgical gown with blue
designs in the crowded viewing room, Pettit
drew a circle around a shadowy shape on the
jaw of the X-ray with a grease pencil.
"There. See that!" he said.
"Air surrounded by bone," said Jackson
radiologist Dr. Edward Russell.
"I want it known that the doctors at Jackson
Memorial Hospital refused to operate on the
suspicious area," Pettit said.
"Mr. Pettit wants the court order enforced,"
Gelber said. He said they would try again in
court.
"Since I took this case, I've had seven people
come to the office asking if I can help them with
similar problems," Gelber said. "One said she
was John Kennedy's girl friend and the FBI had
put transmitters in her head so she wouldn't get
JFK in trouble. Everybody wants to know what
those things are in his [Pettit's] head."
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/24: CIA-RDP90-00552R000505040002-7