I'm back. Found more interesting information on a relatively whitewashed part of the wounding of JFK.
Dr. Pierre Finck has been denying the government-approved location of the small head wound since he testified at the trial of Clay Shaw in 1969.
See here:
http://www.jfk-online.com/finckshaw.html
According to a 1978 HSCA report on an interview with Francis X. O'Neill, "
O'Neill said that the autopsy doctors felt that the bullet that entered the head struck the center, low portion of the head and exited from the top, right side, towards the front."
He also drew this diagram:
http://www.history-matters.com/archive/jfk/arrb/master_med_set/md86/html/md86_0011a.htm
Again, nobody who describes who small head wound places it above the level of the ears.
We've already discussed the damage to the right cerebellum, but here's more information on the damage to the brainstem from Dr. Pierre Finck, as addressed in a 1969 letter to his attorney, in whih he suggests that the back-and-to-the-left movement was "
due to the severance of his brain from his spinal cord as described in the autopsy report, he experienced decerebrate rigidity due to loss of cerebral control." (
source)
Actual non-incised severance of the spinal cord is not described in the autopsy report, just some vague damage. Humes said there was only damage, but apparently it might've been severed completely. Who knows.
An under-reported fact about the damage to JFK is that the base of his skull had quite a bit of damage, as consistent with a bullet entering the EOP, and going on to damage the right cerebellum and the brainstem.
Mortician Tom Robinson to the HSCA in 1977:
Robinson: "
The inside of the scull was badly smashed, it could have well been a piece of bone that passed through there or..."
Conzelman: "
Were the facial bones smashed too?"
Robinson: "
Behind, yes, that bullet must have hit him, one of those bullets hit him terribly, it hit him just right."
Also, here is a reference to the small head wound being probed:
Purdy: "
Were there any wounds in the neck, the back.?"
Robinson: "
Now this is where I'm hazy. I can remember the probe. The probe of all this whole area. It was about an 18 piece of metal that we used."
Purdy: "
Do you feel they probed the head or they probed the neck?"
Robinson: "
It was at the base of the head where most of the damage was done, the things that we had to worry about. So it all runs together in my mind."
http://www.history-matters.com/archive/jfk/arrb/master_med_set/pdf/md63.pdf
According to Doug Horne, Tom Robinson told the ARRB in 1996 "
there were fractures all over the cranium, including the floor of the skull"
According to HSCA radiologist Dr. David Davis, "
There is some air in the subarachnoid space of the spinal canal, and also apparently in temporal lobe sulci in the middle fossa, presumably on the right side, but since the fracture is open to the subarachnoid space, this is not at all surprising.", which is consistent with skull base trauma and dural tear.
http://www.history-matters.com/archive/jfk/hsca/reportvols/vol1/pdf/HSCA_Vol1_0907_5_Baden.pdf
In Dr. James Humes' 1996 ARRB Testimony, we read:
Q. "
Was there any other examination that you made of the cranium at that time?"
A. "
Well, we looked with care at the whole interior surface of the skull to see if there were any other defects or what have you. There were no others. Of course, the one that was hard to evaluate, of course, was the exit, because it was all disrupted."
Q. "
Were there any fragments or breaks in the left hemisphere of the cranium, looking from the inside?"
A. "
I can't recall how far over some of these fractures--whether they crossed the midline or not. I really can't recall."
Q. "
When you finished--or did you return to examine the cranium at any subsequent point during the autopsy?"
A. "
No."
However, we go on to read....
Q. "
Okay. If we go down to the bottom of the skull, there are numbers written at the bottom, a 4, a 3, over a 6. Do you see those?"
A. "
Yeah."
Q. "
Do you know what those signify?"
A. "
No."
Q. "
Were there any injuries or fractures in that portion of the skull?"
A. "
Well, yeah, I guess. Yes. Because the wound was below there, you see. You're looking at it from above, and the wound, the entrance wound you wouldn't see on a view from the top. But there were fractures in the posterior cranial fossa radiating from the wound."
http://jfkassassination.net/russ/testimony/humesa.htm
Going back to Tom Robinson's 1977 HSCA interview, here is an an example of someone who saw the body suggesting that a bullet entered low in Kennedy's head and exited the throat.
Purdy: "
Was it your understanding that that was just a tracheotomy , or was there some other cause that may have made it ragged or something else?
Robinson: "
There is something about the bullet exiting from there. A bullet exiting from there. I don't know whether I heard the physicians talking about it or whether I read it now."
Purdy: "
Was it your impression at the time or now thinking about it as to, if you assume a bullet or part of a bullet exited there, or something exited there. Where did that something come from? Where would it have entered from the other side? From the your examination of the body, where could it have come from?"
Robinson: "
You mean you're looking for another hole?"
Purdy: "
Another hole or some other place, either coming from the head down and out or from the back."
Robinson: "
It might have been coming from the head and down. These are all in straight lines here forming down like that."
http://www.history-matters.com/archive/jfk/arrb/master_med_set/pdf/md63.pdf
Are there are other references to the autopsy doctors thinking a bullet entered low in the head and exited the throat?
Richard Lipsey's 1978 HSCA interview makes numerous references to the large head wound as basically a tangential wound, the small head wound as an entrence low in the head and perhaps exiting the throat, and the back wound as not exiting the body. Possible references to a whole bullet and/or fragments discovered within the body, and Lipsey says the autopsy participants were concerned about the wereabouts of "
a third bullet". Lipsey says that the autopsy participants discussed the possibility of a bullet hitting "
the back of his head" and deflected "
off his chest cavity". He said "I don't think they found the third bullet"... "
I don't know whether whey found bullets or whether they found just particles of bullets"... "
I don't think they found any whole bullets... that is just speculation on my part".. "It didn't have an exit mark". Lipsey also says that the doctors were aware that the sniper's bullets came from above, and that they discussed that "
all three bullets came from the same place".
He later said "
the bullet that entered the lower part of the head or the lower part of the neck...
to the best of my knowledge, came out the front of the neck. But the one that I remember they spent so much time on...
obviously was the one that did not come out". When asked "
Was it that you observed, maybe feel that the bullet that entered the rear portion of the head, exited in the throat area?... Was there markings there that indicated, doctors that came to that conclusion?", he replied "
I saw, you know, where they were working, and also listening to their conclusions... "
it never seemed to be any doubt in their mind that bullets were coming from different directions, at all...
they kept talking about the angle of the bullets, because the angles that they entered the body...
I remember measuring, doing doing all kinds of things, they turned the body up at one point to determine where that bullet that entered the back here, that didn't have an exit mark, where was that bullet. When it got down to where they thought it hit his chest cavity, then they started, you know, opened him up, started looking in here".
He said that later, as rigor mortis had set in the body and one of the arms was raising slightly, one of the autopsy participants physically lowered the arm with his knee. He says that the autopsy participants did not discuss the throat wound as a tracheotomy, and that they were convinced that a bullet entered low in the back of the head and exited the throat. He recalls being astonished by the public information that only two bullets struck Kennedy, because the autopsy doctors were convinced that he was struck by three bullets.
Face chart diagram marked by Lipsey:
https://i.imgur.com/1UXF8ji.gif
HSCA interview transcript 1/18/1978:
http://www.history-matters.com/archive/jfk/hsca/med_testimony/Lipsey_1-18-78/HSCA-Lipsey.htm
HSCA report on Lipsey interview:
http://www.history-matters.com/archive/jfk/arrb/master_med_set/md87/html/md87_0001a.htm
audio of 1978 HSCA Lipsey interview:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIM7Tj2s4Hg
Either Richard Lipsey is an incredibly confused witness who barely payed attention to what was going on, or he just exposed a darker, hidden side of the autopsy.
In a ARRB 1996 interview summary for Tom Robinson, it states:
-Use of Probes: Robinson had vivid recollections of a very long, malleable probe being used during the autopsy. His most vivid recollection of the probe is seeing it inserted near the base of the brain in the back of the head (after removal of the brain), and seeing the tip of the probe come out of the tracheotomy incision in the anterior neck. He was adamant about this recollection. He also recalls seeing the wound high in the back probed unsuccessfully, meaning that the probe did not exit anywhere. When asked, Robinson said he could not recall anything about the angle at which the probe went into the back wound (i.e., whether it was steep of shallow).
http://aarclibrary.org/publib/jfk/arrb/master_med_set/md180/html/md180_0004a.htm
In an early report by Parkland Doctor Robert McClelland, it states In an early report by Parkland Doctor Robert McClelland:
"
The President was at the time comatose from a massive gunshot wound of the head with a fragment wound of the trachea."
http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/russ/jfkinfo/app8.htm
As early as 11/13/1963, the Boston Globe reported that
"
The rather meager medical details attributed to Dr. Malcolm Perry, the attending surgeon, described the bullet as entering just below the Adam's Apple and leaving by the back of the head. Since that statement Friday afternoon it is believed from determining the site of the firing that the bullet entered the back of the head first and came out just under the Adam's Apple."
The article was accompanied by this diagram:
https://i.imgur.com/7FEcdbi.jpg
It is fair to say that a bullet entering low in the head and exiting from the throat is a very legitimate possibility.
As pointed out by the doctors, and is apparent on color autopsy photographs, there were distinct bruises on the right neck-shoulder area. This can be mistaken for dried blood. This could be an indicator of some heavy activity going down the neck from a bullet that entered low in the head.
Here are more indicators of some kind of a track between the throat wound and head wound:
In the June 1967 issue of Ramparts magazine, William W. Turner claims that "
a nurse at Parkland Hospital said that when doctors attempted a tracheotomy on the President, the damage was so great the tube pushed out the back of his head".
http://jfk.hood.edu/Collection/Weisberg Subject Index Files/R Disk/Ramparts/Item 09.pdf
From Speer's book, we find another possible reference to this:
There is still another sign, recently uncovered, and not fully documented, that suggests the bullet came down the neck. In November 2008, Christine Jenkins, the daughter of Parkland Hospital anesthesiologist Dr. Marion Jenkins, who stood at the head of Kennedy's stretcher throughout his treatment on 11-22-63, performed a one-woman show on the assassination. At the centerpiece of her show was a videotape of her father discussing Kennedy's death in Emergency Room One. According to one witness to her show, Jack White, Jenkins claimed on this tape that "Each time he squeezed on his air bag, bubbles of blood came out the brain wound." The air tube was, of course, put into the hole in Kennedy's throat. It is impossible to understand how air would bubble out from Kennedy's cranium unless there was a passageway between Kennedy's neck and skull base. If Jenkins mentioned these bubbles to his fellow doctors, moreover, it goes a long way towards explaining why they were so ready to believe the neck wound was connected to the head wound on 11-22.
In retrospect, however, it seems possible Jack White was mistaken. Jack was 81 at the time. Jenkins had told the Warren Commission "As the resuscitative maneuvers were begun, such as 'chest cardiac massage,' there was with each compression of the sternum, a gush of blood from the skull wound, which indicated there was massive vascular damage in the skull and the brain, as well as brain tissue damage." It seems pssoible, then, that Jack misunderstood Jenkins, and thought the bubbles of blood from the brain wound were related to the air tube, and not the chest massage performed by Dr. Perry.
Not that that matters much. If one assumes Jenkins' testimony was correct, as opposed to his latter day recollections as reported by White, and that the blood started bubbling from the brain during cardiac massage, as opposed to when Jenkins used the air bag, one can still take this occurrence as suggestive a bullet traveled down the neck.
John Lattimer's 1980 book
Kennedy and Lincoln says "
As soon as neurosurgeon Dr. William Kemp Clark had established that the right half of President Kennedy's brain had been shot away, that the blood which was being pumped into the veins of the body was being poured out onto the floor through the torn-open ends of the large blood vessels in the base of his skull, and that there was absolutely no hope of survival, he pronounced the President dead."
http://www.patspeer.com/chapter17:newerviewsonthesamescene
Here are more references to there being two shots to the head:
Here is a 1967 Oral History Interview with Dr. George Burkley:
McHUGH: "
I see. Do your conclusions differ at all with the Warren report of the circumstances or cause of death?"
BURKLEY: "
My conclusion in regard to the cause of death was the bullet wound which involved the skull. The discussion as to whether a previous bullet also enters into it, but as far as the cause of death the immediate cause was unquestionably the bullet which shattered the brain and the calvariurm."
McHUGH: "
I see. The brain and the what?"
BURKLEY: "
And the skull, calvarium."
MCHUGH: "
I see. Do you agree with the Warren Report on the number of bullets that entered the President's body?"
BURKLEY: "
I would not care to be quoted on that."
http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/russ/testimony/burkley.htm
According to a 1977 HSCA report, Dr. Burkley said "
the doctors didn't section the brain and if it had been done, it might be able to prove whether or not there were two bullets. Dr. Burkley thinks there was one but concedes of the possibility of there having been two..."
(
source)
HSCA even wrote an affidavit to the HSCA along with his statement, stating:
"
Had the Warren Commission deemed to call me, I would have stated why I retained the brain and the possibility of two bullets having wounded President John F. Kennedy's brain would have been eliminated."
http://www.kenrahn.com/Marsh/Autopsy/BURKLEY.TXT
I wonder what Burkley could mean by "he thinks there was one bullet", yet there are researchers who have gotten a firm answer from Burkey that he thought Oswald couldn't have possibly done the damage he examined on Kennedy.
I've also heard that some single-bullet theorists have claimed that this X-ray is evidence of a track from the back to the throat, in the form of that black line between the throat and the back.
http://www.jfklancer.com/photos/Autopsy_photos/X_AUT_9.JPG
Since the autopsy photograph shows the back wound at T1, anatomically lower than the throat wound, then isn't the dark line more suggestive of an exit track from high in the neck/low in the head?
The people who examined Kennedy's clothing said that the damage hole on his tie could not be better ascribed to a whole bullet exiting downwards, and suggesting something more like a fragment of something. Possibly even bone, as there apparently aren't any traces of metal on the tie.
Also, I do that that Connally's personal physician stated that he would be more likely to ascribe the damage to John as coming from a fragment.
After establishing the small wound low in Kennedy's head, I think it may very well be that a bullet entered the EOP, causing a fragment to deflect out of the throat, and perhaps passed through Connally.
