3 Kennedy: The Head Shot

There is overwhelming evidence that the head shot to President Kennedy came from the front. One glaring example of this evidence is the large wound in the back of his head. Witness after witness, from trained Parkland doctors and nurses to Secret Service agents all observed a large wound in the back of the President�s head. Let�s look at some of their testimony.

Dr. Robert Nelson McClelland
Mr. SPECTER. Before proceeding to describe what you did in connection with the tracheostomy, will you more fully describe your observation with respect to the head wound?
Dr. MCCLELLAND. As I took the position at the head of the table that I have already described, to help out with the tracheotomy, I was in such a position that I could very closely examine the head wound, and I noted that the right posterior portion of the skull had been extremely blasted. It had been shattered, apparently, by the force of the shot so that the parietal bone was protruded up through the scalp and seemed to be fractured almost along its right posterior half, as well as some of the occipital bone being fractured in its lateral haft, and this sprung open the bones that I mentioned in such a way that you could actually look down into the skull cavity itself and see that probably a third or so, at least, of the brain tissue, posterior cerebral tissue and some of the cerebellar tissue had been blasted out. There was a large amount of bleeding which was occurring mainly from the large venous channels in the skull which had been blasted open.


Mr. SPECTER. What effect did this medical treatment have on President Kennedy?
Dr. McCLELLAND. As near as we could tell, unfortunately, none. We felt that from the time we saw him, most of us agreed, all of us agreed rather, that this was a mortal wound, but that in spite of this feeling that all attempts possible should be made to revive him, as far as establishing the airway breathing for him, and replacing blood and what not, but unfortunately the loss of blood and the loss of cerebral and cerebellar tissues were so great that the efforts were of no avail.
Mr. SPECTER. Was he conscious at that time that you saw him?
Dr. McCLELLAND. No.
Mr. SPECTER. And, at what time did he expire?
Dr. McCLELLAND. He was pronounced dead at 1 p.m. on November 22.
Mr. SPECTER. What was the cause of death in your opinion?
Dr. McCLELLAND. The cause of death, I would say, would be massive head injuries with loss of large amounts of cerebral and cerebellar tissues and massive blood loss.



Dr. Paul Conrad Peters

Mr. SPECTER What did you notice in the occiput?
Dr. PETERS. It seemed to me that in the right occipitalparietal area that there was a large defect. There appeared to be bone loss and brain loss in the area.
Mr. SPECTER. Did you notice any holes below the occiput, say, in this area below here?
Dr. PETERS. No, I did not and at the time and the moments immediately following the injury, we speculated as to whether he had been shot once or twice because we saw the wound of entry in the throat and noted the large occipital wound, and it is a known fact that high velocity missiles often have a small wound of entrance and a large wound of exit, and I'm just giving you my honest impressions at the time.


Dr. Gene Coleman Akin:
Mr. SPECTER. Did you observe any wounds on him at the time you first saw him?
Dr. AKIN. There was a midline neck wound below the level of the cricoid cartilage, about 1 to 1.5 cm. in diameter, the lower part of this had been cut across when I saw the wound, it had been cut across with a knife in the performance of the tracheotomy. The back of the right occipitalparietal portion of his head was shattered, with brain substance extruding.

*Note- occipitalparietal means right back part of the head.

Dr. Charles Rufus Baxter:
Mr. SPECTER. What else, if anything, did you do for President Kennedy at that point?
Dr. BAXTER. During the tracheotomy, I helped with the insertion of a right anterior chest tube, and then helped Dr. Perry complete the tracheotomy. At that point none of us could hear a heartbeat present. Apparently this had ceased during the tracheotomy and the chest tube placement.
We then gave him or Dr. Perry and Dr. Clark alternated giving him closed chest cardiac massage only until we could get a cardioscope hooked up to tell us if there were any detectable heartbeat electrically present, at least, and there was none, and we discussed at that moment whether we should open the chest to attempt to revive him, while the closed chest massage was going on, and we had an opportunity to look at his head wound then and saw that the damage was beyond hope, that is, in a word--literally the right side of his head had been blown off. With this and the observation that the cerebellum was present--a large quantity of brain was present on the cart, well--we felt that such an additional heroic attempt was not warranted, and we did not pronounce him dead but ceased our efforts, and awaited the priest and last rites before we pronounced him dead.
Note- I realize that Dr. Baxter said the right side of his head had been blown off but he could have simply misspoke here considering that cerebellum is in the back of the head.

Nurse Diana Hamilton Bowron:

Mr. SPECTER. And what, in a general way, did you observe with respect to President Kennedy's condition?
Miss BOWRON. He was very pale, he was lying across Mrs. Kennedy's knee and there seemed to be blood everywhere. When I went around to the other side of the car I saw the condition of his head.
Mr. SPECTER. You saw the condition of his what?
Miss BOWRON. The back of his head.
Mr. SPECTER. And what was that condition?
Miss BOWRON. Well, it was very bad---you know.
Mr. SPECTER. How many holes did you see?
Miss BOWRON. I just saw one large hole.

Nurse Audrey Bell

Interview by Jeremy Gunn and Douglas Horne of the ARRB 3/20/97(MD184):

In the ER, Bell asked Dr Malcolm Perry where the wound was. "Dr Perry turned the President's head slightly to the President's anatomical left so that she could see a right posterior head wound, which she described as occipital..."


Nurse Doris Nelson

She was an ER Supervisor in 1963, later became the nursing supervisor of Parkland Hospital. She assisted in treating the President and helped in the preparation of the body for the casket. In the revised addition of High Treason, Harrison Livingstone writes �Nurse Nelson drew a picture of the head wound, mostly in the parietal area, but well towards the rear of the head(parietal/occipital). Her drawing conflicts strongly with the official autopsy photograph. When she saw the picture, she said immediately �It�s not true. There wasn�t even hair back there. It was blown away. All that area was blown out"

Dr. Charles James Carrico:
Mr. SPECTER. Will you describe as specifically as you can the head wound which you have already mentioned briefly?
Dr. CARRICO. Sure. This was a 5- by 7-cm defect in the posterior skull, the occipital region. There was an absence of the calvarium or skull in this area, with shredded tissue, brain tissue present and initially considerable slow oozing. Then after we established some circulation there was more profuse bleeding from this wound. (3 H 361)
Mr. SPECTER Would you describe as precisely for me as possible the nature of the head wound which you observed on the President?
Dr. CARRICO. The wound that I saw was a large gaping wound, located in the right occipitoparietal area. I would estimate to be about 5 to 7 cm. in size, more or less circular, with avulsions of the calvarium and scalp tissue. As I stated before, I believe there was shredded macerated cerebral and cerebellar tissues both in the wounds and on the fragments of the skull attached to the dura. (6 H 5-6)
Mr. SPECTER. What did you observe as to the President's condition upon his arrival?
Dr. CARRICO. He was lying on a carriage, his respirations were slow, spasmodic, described as agonal.
Mr. SPECTER. What do you mean by "agonal" if I may interrupt you for just a moment there, Doctor?
Dr. CARRICO. These are respirations seen in one who has lost the normal coordinated central control of respiration. These are spasmodic and usually reflect a terminal patient.
Mr. SPECTER. Would you continue to describe your observations of the President?
Dr. CARRICO. His-- the President's color--I don't believe I said--he was an ashen, bluish, grey, cyanotic, he was making no spontaneous movements, I mean, no voluntary movements at all. We opened his shirt and coat and tie and observed a small wound in the anterior lower third of the neck, listened very briefly, heard a few cardiac beats, felt the President's back, and detected no large or sucking chest wounds, and then proceeded to the examination of his head. The large skull and scalp wound had been previously observed and was inspected a little more closely. There seemed to be a 4-5 cm. area of avulsion of the scalp and the skull was fragmented and bleeding cerebral and cerebellar tissue.
*Note- Dr. Carrico describes the head wound very vividly which defeats the arguments that the Dallas doctors didn�t get a good look at it.

Dr. Malcom Oliver Perry:
Mr. SPECTER. Will you now describe as specifically as you can, the injury which you noted in the President's head?
Dr. PERRY. As I mentioned previously in the record, I made only a cursory examination of the President's head. I noted a large avulsive wound of the right parietal occipital area, in which both scalp and portions of skull were absent, and there was severe laceration of underlying brain tissue. My examination did not go any further than that.


Mr. SPECTER. What did you observe as to the President's head, specifically?
Dr. PERRY. I saw no injuries other than the one which I noted to you, which was a large avulsive injury of the right occipitoparietal area, but I did not do a minute examination of his head.

Mr. SPECTER. So that those efforts were being made at that juncture at least without mechanical aid?
Dr. PERRY. Those were spontaneous efforts on the part of the President.
Mr. SPECTER. Will you continue, then, Dr. Perry, as to what you observed of his condition?
Dr. PERRY. Yes, there was blood noted on the carriage and a large avulsive wound on the right posterior cranium. I cannot state the size, I did not examine it at all. I just noted the presence of lacerated brain tissue.


Dr. William Kemp Clark:

Mr. SPECTER. Assuming that the President had a bullet wound of entry on the upper right-posterior thorax, just above the upper border of the scapula, 14 cms. from the right acromion process, 14 cm. below the tip of the right mastoid process, would there have been a bloody type wound?
Dr. CLARK. I'm sorry--your question?
Mr. SPECTER. Would such a wound of entry by a missile traveling approximately 2,000 feet per second, approximately
Dr. CLARK. No, sir. Such a wound could have easily been overlooked in the presence of the much larger wound in the right occipital region of the President's skull, from which considerable blood loss had occurred which stained the back of his head, neck and upper shoulders.

Mr. SPECTER. What did you observe the President's condition to be on your arrival there?
Dr. CLARK. The President was lying on his back on the emergency cart. Dr. Perry was performing a tracheotomy. There were chest tubes being inserted. Dr. Jenkins was assisting the President's respirations through a tube in his trachea. Dr. Jones and Dr. Carrico were administering fluids and blood intravenously. The President was making a few spasmodic respiratory efforts. I assisted in withdrawing the endotracheal tube from the throat as Dr. Perry was then ready to insert the tracheotomy tube. I then examined the President briefly.
My findings showed his pupils were widely dilated, did not react to light, and his eyes were deviated outward with a slight skew deviation.
I then examined the wound in the back of the President's head. This was a large, gaping wound in the right posterior part, with cerebral and cerebellar tissue being damaged and exposed. There was considerable blood loss evident on the carriage, the floor, and the clothing of some of the people present. I would estimate 1,500 cc. of blood being present.

Federal Agents

Secret Service Special Agent Clint Hill

Mr. SPECTER. What did you observe as to President Kennedy's condition on arrival at the hospital?
Mr. HILL. The right rear portion of his head was missing. It was lying in the rear seat of the car. His brain was exposed. There was blood and bits of brain all over the entire rear portion of the car. Mrs. Kennedy was completely covered with blood. There was so much blood you could not tell if there had been any other wound or not, except for the one large gaping wound in the right rear portion of the head.


Secret Service Special Agent Roy Kellerman

Mr. SPECTER. All right. The topic we are on now, Mr. Kellerman, is your own way of relating the description of the wounds, starting with four wounds on President Kennedy.
Mr. KELLERMAN. Right; OK.
Mr. SPECTER. Proceed, then.
Mr. KELLERMAN. I can eclipse an awful lot here and get into the morgue here in Bethesda, because that is where I looked him over.
Mr. SPECTER. I will come back and pick up some of the other detail.
Mr. KELLERMAN. Fine.
Mr. SPECTER. But for the sequence at the moment, as it relates to your conclusions on the shots which you have already testified about--
Mr. KELLERMAN. OK.
Mr. SPECTER. I would like to develop your understanding and your observations of the four wounds on President Kennedy.
Mr. KELLERMAN. OK. This all transpired in the morgue of the Naval Hospital in Bethesda, sir. He had a large wound this size.
Mr. SPECTER. Indicating a circle with your finger of the diameter of 5 inches; would that be approximately correct?
Mr. KELLERMAN. Yes, circular; yes, on this part of the head.
Mr. SPECTER. Indicating the rear portion of the head.
Mr. KELLERMAN. Yes.
Mr. SPECTER. More to the right side of the head?
Mr. KELLERMAN. Right. This was removed.
Mr. SPECTER. When you say, "This was removed," what do you mean by this?
Mr. KELLERMAN. The skull part was removed.

Bethesda Naval Hospital

Paul O�Connor: �There was an open area all the way across into the rear of the brain�

Floyd Riebe: � �a big gaping hole in the back of the head�

Frank O�Neill: one of two FBI agents who attended the autopsy, along with James Sibert. ��a massive wound in the right rear�

Jerrol Custer: � From the top of the head, almost to the base of the skull, you could see where that part was gone�

Not only that, there were several witnesses who claimed to see an entrance wound in the temple. Look at this picture of Assistant Presidential Press Secretary Malcom Kilduff announcing the death of the President. He is pointing to the entrance wound of the bullet. A witness named Bill Newman also said, "I was looking directly at him when he was hit in the side of the head."

Similarly, Marilyn Sitzman,(Abraham Zapruder's secreatary who stood with him while he shot his famous film) who was standing only 75 feet away when the shot struck, said, "And the next thing I remembered clearly was the shot that hit . . . him on the side of the face . . . above the ear and to the front . . . between the eye and the ear."

I would also like to direct you to a very interesting article by Sherry Gutierrez that can be found here. She concludes that the right frontal explosion in the Zapruder film was something called "back spatter" from an entrance wound in the temple.

Also, a former Marine sniper by the name of Craig Roberts claimed that the right-frontal explosion is characteristic with a high-velocity missile striking the skull.

If that is not enough, Dr. Roger McCarthy, a ballistics expert, testifed at an American Bar Association mock Oswald trial that the explosion indicated a shot from the front.







[Edited on 15-3-2004 by maynardsthirdeye]

[edit on 25-11-2004 by maynardsthirdeye]

EDIT: mod addition to add a link to the Warren Commission report
www.archives.gov...

[edit on 4-9-2006 by DontTreadOnMe]

In the video of him being shot, Mrs. Kennedy climbs on the back of the car to retrieve a piece of his skull that was blown off. So I think he was shot from the front.

I think it might have been logical to place a gun in the car, under the dash and fire by remote. That would explain the confusion on entrance and exit wounds, and the alignments match up on all those 3-d models of it.

Isn�t it funny that the brain was saved and given to the National Archives and some how they have �misplaced it�. If we could look at the brain today we could determine the direction the bullet traveled.

"When my office finally got a court order to examine President Kennedy's brain in the National Archives in the hopes of finding from what direction the bullets came, we were told by the government the President's brain had disappeared!"

The following is from Volume VII of the HOUSE SELECT COMMITTEE ON ASSASSINATIONS.

(117) In his testimony before the committee, Bouck stated that he is quite positive all the autopsy-related material that came into his possession was given to Mrs. Lincoln at the time of the 1965 transfer. He also stated that he was uncertain whether Dr. Burkley had custody of the brain, but that if the brain was part of the autopsy materials in the custody of the Secret
Service, it was transported to the National Archives.

(118) Dr. Burkley clarified this issue, saying that the
stainless steel container mentioned in the inventory held the brain and that he saw the bucket in April 1965, when he and Bouck transferred the autopsy materials to Lincoln. Since this transfer, Dr. Burkley maintains that he has had no further knowledge of or association with these materials.

But look what the last part says:

(150) Consequently, although the committee has not been
able to uncover any direct evidence of the fate of the missing
materials, circumstantial evidence tends to show that Robert
Kennedy either destroyed these materials or otherwise rendered
them inaccessible.

Just out of curiosity, Maynard, what is your avatar of?

Well...cargo...

Not answering for maynardsthirdeye...

But the pic in the avatar, is an enhancement of the cop on the Grassy Knoll, who to me fired the head shot, thus killing JFK...

Has anyone ever tried to duplicate an experiment with a fake body in a car shooting at it from the same angles? I have seen things like that done in similar cases to gather historical evidence from recreations.

I�m not saying that you are wrong about this or that there wasn�t a conspiracy but from growing up around hunters and farmers I have seen many animals shot in the head and I can tell you from seeing the brutal killings myself that �the blood spatter� always came from the exit wound and not the entrance hole of the bullet. The bullet entrance holes would be about the size of the bullet, sometimes even hard to find, but the exit wound would leave a huge gapping hole of gushing blood.

The Secret Service now seals all the man hole covers shut and has people in the sewers when the president takes a nice drive down a street in public? They learned their lesson the first time with Kennedy. According to 3 guys from Corsica on PBS, they were the ones hired by the CIA and Mob to do the job and they were paid in Heroin and flown out of the country via Canada. According to them they came in from Mexico, did the deed, LBJ's dudes wisked them off to New York and paid them, they they flew from Canada back to Corsica.

My God, there's just so many did you ever wonder why about the JFK thing

And, it amazes me when they have TV shows explaining in GREAT detail how it was only one bullet. Pu-leazze.

At this point, did you ever wonder why the government doesn't just 'fess up? Everybody must be killed or dead by now. Well, Gerald Ford is still alive, so maybe otheres from the Committee are still kicking.

after watching the Zapruder film i still believe it was the driver as u can see him pull something upto his shoulder thats nicely inline with kennedys head and moments later its raining bits of skull.

i dont think the film could of been edited to add this in because the quality of it would present too much hassle.

just going to be one of those things we will probly never find out

I know on this site it isnt popular, but OSWALD DID IT!

I know, I thought it was this big conspiracy as well for ever, until I saw the one show done by, crap I will get a link. But a major network. Tom Brokhaw I think.

Anyways a 3-D Artist, took each frame by frame, and with inverse Kinetics if he can match up the exact body positions and produce the shooting in 3D, Matching up everything every single line drew back to the Book Depot. It was amazing the work and REAL evidence they had, and what they did was go into who OZ was.

He almost got kicked outta russia because , they didnt want him, so he slit his wrists to stay there. They guy took a shot with the same rifle at a General 2 months before, and this is from his Wife who had receipts etc..

I will find the info on this and post the links ASAP, f you want to Deny Ignorance you will go to them

Sorry, I just can't buy the magic bullet theory, so I just can't believe Oswald did it. Life would be simpler, sure, but I just can't.

Originally posted by TekNo88
In the video of him being shot, Mrs. Kennedy climbs on the back of the car to retrieve a piece of his skull that was blown off. So I think he was shot from the front.

Actually it looks like from the video that she was, out of shock that her husband just got shot by the secret service, she was going to jump out the back of the car

Did you know there is a theory of a Magic Bullet. This bullet would enter his car and hit him 3 times and would hit the other man I think twice. However the bullet that was a "Magic Bullet" was found in PRISTINE condition. Who killed JFK??

Originally posted by ShiftTrio
I know on this site it isnt popular, but OSWALD DID IT!

I know, I thought it was this big conspiracy as well for ever, until I saw the one show done by, crap I will get a link. But a major network. Tom Brokhaw I think.

Anyways a 3-D Artist, took each frame by frame, and with inverse Kinetics if he can match up the exact body positions and produce the shooting in 3D, Matching up everything every single line drew back to the Book Depot. It was amazing the work and REAL evidence they had, and what they did was go into who OZ was.

He almost got kicked outta russia because , they didnt want him, so he slit his wrists to stay there. They guy took a shot with the same rifle at a General 2 months before, and this is from his Wife who had receipts etc..

I will find the info on this and post the links ASAP, f you want to Deny Ignorance you will go to them

I would advise you to look at my other essay on the Single Bullet Theory.

www.abovetopsecret.com...

And in an attempt to shamelessly promote my other essays, here they are.


www.abovetopsecret.com...

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Originally posted by ShiftTrio
I know on this site it isnt popular, but OSWALD DID IT!

I know, I thought it was this big conspiracy as well for ever, until I saw the one show done by, crap I will get a link. But a major network. Tom Brokhaw I think.

Anyways a 3-D Artist, took each frame by frame, and with inverse Kinetics if he can match up the exact body positions and produce the shooting in 3D, Matching up everything every single line drew back to the Book Depot. It was amazing the work and REAL evidence they had, and what they did was go into who OZ was.

He almost got kicked outta russia because , they didnt want him, so he slit his wrists to stay there. They guy took a shot with the same rifle at a General 2 months before, and this is from his Wife who had receipts etc..

I will find the info on this and post the links ASAP, f you want to Deny Ignorance you will go to them

I think you're talking about the Peter Jennings/ABC special.


[Edited on 15-3-2004 by maynardsthirdeye]

[Edited on 15-3-2004 by maynardsthirdeye]

thanks, I will try to find out info and hopefully media, just to play devils advocate

abcnews.go.com...

Its got the 3d animations and everything, it definitly makes you think

You can't see it from the animation on that page Dale Meyers has his JFK model leaning so far forward his back is off the seat. And he would have to put it that way since the HSCA concluded that the back wound was on the same level as the throat wound.