But then why would they change their minds and add it to the story? Precisely because it involved TWO people. Dos. Deux. Due.
To claim that one person died of the flu is one thing. But, to claim that two died? At the same time?
You know, when a really old couple, and they weren't really old, (Clara was just 7 years older than I am) die close to each other in time, say a month apart, it's a marvel. It makes the news.
"Yeah, she just lost her will to live after Chester died and wanted to join him."
Forget 70s, even for a couple in their 90s, it's considered extremely rare for them to die close together in time, say, within a few months. But here, we're talking about on the same day. Although another suspicious thing about the story is the idea that no one saw or heard from them for several days. That seems like a contrivance whose purpose was to widen the time zone of their spontaneous, simultaneous deaths from 1 day to 2 or 3 days. But still, for a couple ages 73 and 76 to die that close together in time is extremely and profoundly rare.
I can see why they wouldn't want to mention the carbon monoxide because it calls for details. Where exactly was the fault in their heating system? And who was responsible? Was Ike going out himself and lighting the pilot light? I doubt that. So, whose job was it? You would want to find out exactly what happened, wouldn't you?
So why mention it later as a contributing cause? They continued to harp on their general ill-health and having the flu, but they added the carbon monoxide. So, why did they do that? Why did they add the carbon monoxide? Precisely because the odds of a couple in their 70s dying simultaneously of natural causes (including the flu) is extremely remote.
When you have the flu, and you have it so bad that you are in danger of dying from it, you tend to know it. You get extremely weak. Extremely prostrated. You have very high fever. You have extreme respiratory distress. You may have protracted vomiting. And, you consult with a doctor. Is there any evidence that either or both of the Altgens saw a doctor for their flu? There would be a record of that, wouldn't there? When people get the flu that bad, they go to the doctor. Or, they may go directly to the hospital. Or, if they go to the doctor, he sends them to the hospital. The odds of just dying at home from it are pretty remote. What are the odds of two people dying that way? They were both that sick, and neither one thought of going to the hospital?
So, I think that somebody must have realized that the idea of a couple in their 70s dying spontaneously and simultaneously of the flu is just not credible. So, the carbon monoxide was added- even though it was something that would have been determined right away. As I have said before, the skin turns pink.
The caption of that photo read: "fatal case of CO poisoning displaying pink discoloration." The reason for the pinkness is that CO attaches to hemoglobin, displacing oxygen, and it results in a very pink color. It can even turn "cherry red."
And one more:
"Carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning. A faulty natural gas room heater caused this fatal poisoning. The characteristic cherry-red color."
So, how could they not mention carbon monoxide as the cause immediately if the Altgens looked anything like that? Why, in the first article, did they stress that they died of natural causes?
The article states that they had not been outside since Sunday. They were found and declared on a Tuesday. (Tuesday, December 12, 1995) So, if they were well enough to be outside on Sunday, what are the chances that by Tuesday they would be dead of the flu? And if autopsies were ordered, how come we never got the results? And why were toxicology tests "underway" when a simple blood test could determine CO level in the blood immediately? Underway? I run a whole big exhaustive gamet of blood tests on myself every year, and I get the results, all of them, within 2 days.
Specifically, you test for carboxyhemoglobin. Keep in mind that it's not uncommon to find a little bit in people generally, such as 1 or 2%, which would mean that 98 or 99% of your hemoglobin is normal, and 1 or 2 per cent is combined to CO instead of oxygen. Did you know that smokers can have up to 10% carboxyhemoglobin? Once you are up to 20%, it's considered acutely toxic. Death from carbon monoxide poisoning usually occurs when the level reaches 60%.
But, finding two people dead in the house at the same time, you would suspect that it was from a common cause, and CO would be among the first things you would think of. So, the whole idea of a delay in diagnosis is preposterous.
But then, the second article brought up the CO but only vaguely.
James Altgens, Photographer at Kennedy Assassination, Dies at 76
By ERIC PACE
Published: December 17, 1995
James W. Altgens, a longtime Associated Press staff member known for his photograph of the anguished Jacqueline Kennedy, seconds after her husband's assassination, clambering onto the back of their car while a Secret Service agent moved to her aid, was found dead on Tuesday in his home in Dallas. He was 76.
Mr. Altgens, who was retired, and his wife, Clara, 73, were both found dead at the home, The Associated Press reported. The Dallas Morning News reported on Friday that relatives said the couple had been suffering from the flu but that the police were looking into the possibility that they had died of carbon monoxide poisoning from a defective furnace.
The possibility? I don't understand that. This was 5 days after they were found. So, how could they not know? It doesn't take that long to do the test. You could find out within minutes.
And again: because hundreds of millions (meaning over 100 million) Americans live in homes that burn a fossil fuel that can generate carbon monoxide, it is important to everybody to find out exactly what happened, exactly what killed them. So, how come there was no follow-up on this? How come we never found out, definitively, how they died and what circumstances led to it, meaning, where the defect was in their home heating system and how it came to be overlooked? Did they not have CO detectors in the home? Or were they malfunctioning too? The article above is the last word that has ever been written about the deaths of the Altgens, and today in 2017, it is still talked about it as a "possibility" as something that "may have contributed" to their deaths.
The simultaneous deaths of James and Clara Altgens, at the ages of 76 and 73 respectively, is very suspicious, and the fact that a complete disclosure about their deaths has NEVER been made heightens the suspicion. The fact that he was connected, in a very big and controversial way, to the JFK assassination heightens the suspicion even more.
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