Complete HSCA Interview with Parkland Nurse Sharon Tuohy

[Denis Morissette]

This is a 1977 or 1978 HSCA interview with Parkland nurse Sharon Thuoy who has quite a dramatic story to tell. The HSCA interviewers could not believe their ears! From my collection of HSCA interviews.

My summary:
THUOY, SHARON
CASSETTE 1, SIDE 1 (28 minutes)
0:41. I was a nurse student at the time.
1:23. There was a phone, and a doctor was using it. A reporter known to us wanted to use it as well, but was told to wait. He hit the doctor on the chin knocking him down, and used the phone. He told to the person on the other end of the phone that someone in the motorcade had been injured. My colleague Donna Schloss and I overheard the conversation. We went to the emergency room.
2:43. A stretcher with a body on it arrived. I went with it.
3:00. The patient had a bullet wound in the throat… The base of the back of his head had a large cavity, big enough for 2 fists to go into.
3:37. A tracheotomy was prepared. JFK had a pulse, his breathing hard to hear.
4:06. An incision for the tracheotomy was made after some comments were made about the wound being at the wrong location to be used for the tracheotomy.
4:27. Dr. Carrico made the incision and getting ready to put the tube in. Dr. Perry opened the door of the room with his hands held up. He said to the people, “You do know we’re operating on the president”
5:14. Blood was withdrawn from the president, and I took it to a technician.
6:06. I saw Jackie in the hall.
6:53. Donna Schloss re-appeared. In front of the elevator, against the wall, was a stretcher with bloody sheets. And there was a bullet. On the metal, the stretcher beside the mattress Donna and I saw that bullet. We went upstairs.
8:12. I saw the casket put into the car. Jackie put her hands on the casket. She shook a policeman’s hands and appeared to touch his cheeks. It looked as if she was telling him, “Thank you”.
8:56. Let me ask you… Did you initially report to the emergency room, and how long was it before JFK arrived?
Not more than 5 minutes.
9:15. The stretcher arrived. You recall the names of those who also accompanied the stretcher to the Trauma Room?
I remember only Dr. Carrico.
11:07. You related that you saw a wound in the neck of the president. When did you observe it?
11:22. Immediately after he entered Trauma One.
11:46. Please describe the wound in the neck?
11:53. Small. Between the size of nickel and a dime. Bloody.
12:22. Where was the wound relatively to the center of the neck?
12:33. About 2 inches to the right… On my right on my body… Towards his right.
13:09. To his right arm. Would have been to your left, his right?
Right.
13:14. You specifically recall the conversations to the point you remember that the wound was at the wrong location?
Yes.
13:42. Who made the incision?
Dr. Carrico.
14:02. At what point did you see the second wound you saw? The one in the rear of the head.
14:26. Could you describe the wound at the back of the head?
Large. Ragged. Large enough for 2 fists to fit in. Very messy.
15:02. Please describe the location of this wound.
15:15. “Not directly in the center. More to the right, his right” The discussion continues on the details.
16:03. Any damage to the top of the head?
16:06. Not at all.
16:25. Any other damage at the back of the body or neck?
16:33. No.
16:40. So only the two you described to us?
Right.
16:52. Did you examine the body in a fashion that you would have seen other wounds?
17:03. Certainly in the chest area. Not on his back.
17:36. Questions on the timing of the events like the spotting of the bullet on the stretcher.
19:16. Could you describe again what was on the stretcher?
Thuoy describes.
21:07. Why have not you ever reported this bullet?
21:23. Thuoy replies.
22:03. When did you come back to the stretcher?
Thuoy: 3 PM.
22:14. Did you at any of the two times in the elevator area see anyone else than Donna Schloss?
No.
22:45. Ever been contacted by official agencies?
22:58. No.
23:07. Have you called any of them to volunteer information?
I called your committee.
23:32. Could you relate this incident in Cambodia?
23:36. Thuoy related the incident when an SS agent told her, ‘You were one of the Parkland nurses”
25:00. What was your reaction to this incident?
25:27. I think we have covered everything.
25:30. You were still there after Dr. Perry left. Right?
Thuoy: I remember seeing Dr. Perry leave Emergency One. I don’t remember him staying there the entire time after he had put in the tube.
25:53. Question on how long she stayed there after Dr. Perry left.
26:27. You were not in the room when JFK was pronounced dead?
Thuoy: No.
26:35. Interviewer is asking personal information on Thuoy.

 

Here is what Donna Schloss had to say about Sharon.

 

 

Edited February 6, 2020 by Denis Morissette

[Lawrence Schnapf]

is the complete recording readily available online?

[Steve Roe]

Thanks Denis for the Sharon Thuoy HSCA interview. She was very coherent and straight forward. The stretcher bullet was interesting and confirms Daryl Tomlinson. 

[Denis Morissette]

6 hours ago, Lawrence Schnapf said:

is the complete recording readily available online?

It is not. I have several of these audios that I have never uploaded on Youtube. I have posted only just excerpts in some cases. This one is complete and it is on the bottom of the page. Ah, it says December 1976. That is well before Lifton published his book, even though he started contacting Parkland people well before. I doubt she was aware of the back of the head controversy in 1976. When I made the copy of these audio tapes at NARA II, I had that list with me. Many of these interviews are not in the boxes of cassettes I had access to. Some were probably stolen. I asked NARA II to produce fresh audio files off the original tapes. It should have been decades ago. 

http://postimg.cc/PphrWMhC 

[Denis Morissette]

The lady speaking is Patricia Orr. Jack White said she was a nice blond woman with cowboy boots. She seemed to be quite a beauty according to him. Never saw a photo, so I can neither confirm or deny his claim.

[Denis Morissette]

I have complete HSCA interviews with several witnesses and investigators like Ed Shields, Guy Rose, DS Bill Wiseman, Amos Euins, James Junior Jarman and his cousin Irma Vanzam who was watching the motorcade just under Jarman's window and seen in Altgens 6, Ann Moore Ruth standing close to Ms. Varnzam, Buell Frazier, Harold Norman, and David Phillips. Partial HSCA interviews with the following: Geneva Dees and Sylvia Duran. Finally, I have the complete 6-hour SS interview of Marina Oswald and the complete famous 1964 phone interview with Helen Markham by Mark Lane. This one is available on my YT channel.

[Denis Morissette]

2 hours ago, Steve Roe said:

Thanks Denis for the Sharon Thuoy HSCA interview. She was very coherent and straight forward. The stretcher bullet was interesting and confirms Daryl Tomlinson. 

Thank you, Steve!

[Micah Mileto]

Sounds like a tiebreaker to the question of which stretcher the bullet was found on.

 

[Ron Bulman]

51 minutes ago, Micah Mileto said:

Sounds like a tiebreaker to the question of which stretcher the bullet was found on.

 

Can you explain further Micah?  I've an idea I might understand but others might not and I'd like confirmation.

[Gary Murr]

Hi Denis

I acquired copies [and still have] both of the Sharon Tuohy – HSCA cassette’s over a decade ago during my research on my three volume Connally work, “Controlling The Past.” I actually was successful in tracking Sharon down as a result of my listening to the tapes. She was initially hesitant to speak to me regarding the subject matter of her theoretical discovery of a bullet at Parkland Hospital. Indeed she only agreed to answer my emails to her if I guaranteed her anonymity and would not reveal where she was then residing. This was and remains our arrangement, though I must admit I have not exchanged any correspondence with her in over five years, indeed do not know if the e address I have is still viable. FWIW my assessment of the matter is that to a large extent it became a “she said/claimed” vs “she said/claimed” between not only Sharon and Donna Schloss but also Sharon and other members of the Parkland nursing staff in 1963 – 1964. I always intended to get back to this particular snippet of the Connally – single bullet theory, but like so many other good intentions I shelved the idea. Who knows, now that I am retired, maybe I will find some time to take a second look at the materials I have stashed away somewhere on Sharon.

Gary Murr

[Denis Morissette]

Gary, Donna Schloss was not even working that day. She was watching the motorcade. Sharon probably misremembered who she was with.

[Micah Mileto]

On 2/6/2020 at 7:52 PM, Ron Bulman said:

Can you explain further Micah?  I've an idea I might understand but others might not and I'd like confirmation.

See Josiah Tompson's explanation, as read in Six Seconds in Dallas (1966) : https://old.reddit.com/r/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/9ooaub/jfk_assassination_was_the_magic_bullet_ce_399/

Now, Tomlinson seems to have changed his description of the gurney where he found the bullet. Here are links to the Tomlinson interviews not mentioned by Thompson:

https://catalog.archives.gov/id/7461223

https://jfk-archives.blogspot.com/2011/12/marcus-tomlinson-interview-7-25-66.html

4-22-77 Dallas Morning News article by Earl Golz: "Darrell C Tomlinson, the senior engineer at Parkland who found the slug, told The News he 'could never say for sure whose stretcher that was ... I assumed it was Connally's because of the way things happened at Parkland at that time.' Tomlinson acknowledged he was not asked to identify the bullet when he testified before the Warren Commission in 1964. He said some federal agents earlier 'came to the hospital with the bullet in a box and asked me if it was the one I found. I told them apparently it was, but I had not put a mark on it. If it wasn't the bullet, it was exactly like it.'"
 

PBS Nova, 1988: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVqT7zOLb80&t=17m7s

 

 

[Guest]

The Bullet on the Stretcher from the Livingstone archive.