VICTORY for the credibility of Parkland nurse Audrey Bell

[Chris Bristow]

1 hour ago, Micah Mileto said:

Not remembering seeing the throat wound is not the same as actually never seeing the throat wound.

Also,

 

In a  November 1988 newspaper article, Dr. Ronald Jones, Nurse Audrey Bell, and Parkland assistant administrator Steve Landregan posed for a photo inside of an emergency room at Parkland - an the caption says "Jones and Bell worked to save Kennedy, although Bell knew at once his wounds were fatal" : https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/132394283/

 

Although this stops just short of having another witness to corroborate Bell being in Trauma Room One.

Interesting points. I had wondered why I did not see any specific documentation of her setting up for a surgery. I thought it would be presumptuous for her to not follow Dr Jones's instructions based on a few early opinions. But Dr Clark halted the resuscitation efforts as soon as he noted to the others that the wound was " unsurvivable". Considering he was a neurosurgeon and had a good understanding of the bone structure of the head, his description of the head wound as a blasted out section of the "occipital parietal" also supports Bell's observations. 
  Not to belabor the point, but Dr Grossman said when he entered the room Clark was "Holding JFK's head in his hands". Clark noted the gushes of blood and brain matter pulsating from the wound due to the chest massage from inches away. There is no doubt That this neurosurgeon made a very sober and informed observation of the wound location that day. Based on that he made the monumental and historic decision to give up on the most powerful man in the world.
    Dr Baxter was also a neurosurgeon and we find out from his written report(ARRB) from 11/22 that he referred to the wound saying "The occipital bone was missing." Nurse Bell's observations are well corroborated. 

[Micah Mileto]

19 minutes ago, Chris Bristow said:

Interesting points. I had wondered why I did not see any specific documentation of her setting up for a surgery. I thought it would be presumptuous for her to not follow Dr Jones's instructions based on a few early opinions. But Dr Clark halted the resuscitation efforts as soon as he noted to the others that the wound was " unsurvivable". Considering he was a neurosurgeon and had a good understanding of the bone structure of the head, his description of the head wound as a blasted out section of the "occipital parietal" also supports Bell's observations. 
  Not to belabor the point, but Dr Grossman said when he entered the room Clark was "Holding JFK's head in his hands". Clark noted the gushes of blood and brain matter pulsating from the wound due to the chest massage from inches away. There is no doubt That this neurosurgeon made a very sober and informed observation of the wound location that day. Based on that he made the monumental and historic decision to give up on the most powerful man in the world.
    Dr Baxter was also a neurosurgeon and we find out from his written report(ARRB) from 11/22 that he referred to the wound saying "The occipital bone was missing." Nurse Bell's observations are well corroborated. 

Who set up the trach tray is ambiguous. The hospital report of Nurse Margaret Margaret Hinchliffe, AKA Hinchcliffe/Henchcliffe, reads “...I opened a tracheostomy tray and gloves for the doctors” (WC Vol. 21, pp. 239-240, Price Exhibit No. 30). Dr. Perry was also reportedly assisted by Drs. Robert McClelland and Charles Baxter. As explained by Dr. Paul Peters in his Warren Commission testimony on 3/24/1964, “Dr. Perry was there and he and Dr. Baxter were doing the tracheotomy and we asked for a set of tracheotomy tubes to try and, get one of the appropriate size. I then helped Dr. Baxter assemble the tracheotomy tube which he inserted into the tracheotomy wound that he and Dr. Perry had created”... “Dr. Perry and Dr. Baxter were doing the tracheotomy and a set of tracheotomy tubes was obtained and the appropriate size was determined and I gave it to Baxter, who helped Perry put it into the wound” (WC Vol. 6, pp. 68-72 [text]).

[Pat Speer]

14 minutes ago, Chris Bristow said:

Interesting points. I had wondered why I did not see any specific documentation of her setting up for a surgery. I thought it would be presumptuous for her to not follow Dr Jones's instructions based on a few early opinions. But Dr Clark halted the resuscitation efforts as soon as he noted to the others that the wound was " unsurvivable". Considering he was a neurosurgeon and had a good understanding of the bone structure of the head, his description of the head wound as a blasted out section of the "occipital parietal" also supports Bell's observations. 
  Not to belabor the point, but Dr Grossman said when he entered the room Clark was "Holding JFK's head in his hands". Clark noted the gushes of blood and brain matter pulsating from the wound due to the chest massage from inches away. There is no doubt That this neurosurgeon made a very sober and informed observation of the wound location that day. Based on that he made the monumental and historic decision to give up on the most powerful man in the world.
    Dr Baxter was also a neurosurgeon and we find out from his written report(ARRB) from 11/22 that he referred to the wound saying "The occipital bone was missing." Nurse Bell's observations are well corroborated. 

Except...no. She failed to report or write down anything about the head wound location for decades, after she'd been exposed to the McClelland drawing, Lifton, etc. So her recollections are almost worthless. 

While Micah's find supports that she was in the room and potentially saw the wound, it does not support her claim Perry showed her the wound and it was low on the back of the head. Perry had no recollection of it and she failed to write a report or an entry in a diary or anything that would support her latter-day claims. 

If you look at the anatomy drawings she drew on for the ARRB, moreover, one can see that the wound on the rear views and side views are not in the same location. Even more problematic, she placed the wound much much lower than the other witnesses, to the extent that "her" wound failed to overlap the wound seen by the majority of " back of the head" witnesses. 

So she doesn't really help the "back of the head" argument much, if at all. 

[Chris Bristow]

1 minute ago, Pat Speer said:

Except...no. She failed to report or write down anything about the head wound location for decades, after she'd been exposed to the McClelland drawing, Lifton, etc. So her recollections are almost worthless. 

While Micah's find supports that she was in the room and potentially saw the wound, it does not support her claim Perry showed her the wound and it was low on the back of the head. Perry had no recollection of it and she failed to write a report or an entry in a diary or anything that would support her latter-day claims. 

If you look at the anatomy drawings she drew on for the ARRB, moreover, one can see that the wound on the rear views and side views are not in the same location. Even more problematic, she placed the wound much much lower than the other witnesses, to the extent that "her" wound failed to overlap the wound seen by the majority of " back of the head" witnesses. 

So she doesn't really help the "back of the head" argument much, if at all. 

You imply she was influenced by later accounts but that is speculation. Her accounts are consistent with reports from that day. Her recollections are not 'almost worthless'. Other staff placed the wound low and others higher. Watching a video of Jones placing his hand at the observed location, he started low, then moved up, then moved up again before his final location. It is clear they vary on the height but they don't place it on the top of the head. We should expect some difference in their accounts. Any scalp hanging down would obscure the top of the wound so we can allow for some vertical variance. In fact we should expect to see some variation. some accounts that place the would high could be debated as mis identifications of the official location but not the ones who placed it lower.  Baxters account from his report written on 11/22 states the occipital bone was missing. So it turns out even a skeptic and neurosurgeons opinion is in line with Bells recollection.
   

[Chris Bristow]

What we have from the Parkland accounts is up to 18 or 19 placing the wound in the O.C and only four, Baxter, Carrico, Jenkins and Grossman who support the official story. But of those 4 Carrico, Baxter and Jenkins wrote contradictory reports from the day of the assassination. So almost everyone described the wound placed it in the O.C at some point, most of them very early.  
     Lets say the numbers were reversed and and only 4 supported the O.C location. If I, as a CT tried to argue that we should accept the 4 over the other 18 I would be called out as a weak minded CT who uses CT logic. 
  But the reverse is true and the vast majority support the O.C. location. Yet skeptics argue  against the majority. Their arguments use a great deal of conjecture as they try to chip away at the testimony they don't agree with. The much much stronger argument leans to the O.C wound.
  Contrary statements  should be expected with them repeating their observations over decades. This muddies the waters. So lets scrutinize the seemingly contrary stories and toss out almost half the O.C. reports. Dulany said O.C in the Nova doc at the archives; but an earlier photo shows him holding his hand closer to the official location, so toss him out. Lets drop the O.C testimonies to 10. But with the same level of scrutiny we can eliminate 3 of the 4 supporters of the official story. that leaves the score at about 10 to 1. There is no way to create a logical arguments that turns the narrative around. The facts overwhelmingly support the the wound in the back of the head. 

Edited September 29, 2023 by Chris Bristow

[Karl Kinaski]

Crenshaw 1992: Occipital bone blown out ... it was gone ... you could see the cerebellum which was intact ... that would not have been the case if shot from back  ... shot entered the temple blew out occipital bone ... 

Neck wound. ... right about the necktie ... small ... very small 3 to 5 millimeters ... (To me an entry of a not so normal missile ...) 

 

My 2 cents: Fits with "Harper fragment" found on Dealey Plaza some days later identified as large part of the blown out occipital bone ...  ( no wonder that this piece of evidence disappeared like JFKs brain ...) 

 

 

[Joe Bauer]

22 hours ago, Tom Gram said:

You’re right, Micah. Bell doesn’t mention the location of the head wound; and like you said, she mentions that she saw the wound either immediately after or while she was positioning the tracheotomy tray for Dr. Perry. That places Bell, with Perry, right next to JFK’s head. It seems plausible, though not conclusive, that Perry pointed out the wound to her, perhaps to point out the futility in what they were doing. 

There may be other reasons to doubt Bell’s later claims, but this article isn’t one of them. Good find. 

Yes, good find.

Bell admits that the trauma to her psyche was so great she experienced some amnesia.

The following however, does sound like she was being honest.

She admits it may have been Dr. Robert McClelland who in some way drew her attention to the JFK head wound.

Dr. McClelland was at the head of the table and a mere 18 inches from JFK's skull and the massive wound there.

During Harrison Livingstone's 1992 Dallas conference, Audrey Bell said "I remember Dr. Perry turned Kennedy's head to show me the wound", she then turned to Dr. McClelland and said "or it could've been you". McClelland didn't give a reply, but nevertheless, the interaction suggests an air of honesty.

Edited September 29, 2023 by Joe Bauer

[Pat Speer]

11 hours ago, Chris Bristow said:

You imply she was influenced by later accounts but that is speculation. Her accounts are consistent with reports from that day. Her recollections are not 'almost worthless'. Other staff placed the wound low and others higher. Watching a video of Jones placing his hand at the observed location, he started low, then moved up, then moved up again before his final location. It is clear they vary on the height but they don't place it on the top of the head. We should expect some difference in their accounts. Any scalp hanging down would obscure the top of the wound so we can allow for some vertical variance. In fact we should expect to see some variation. some accounts that place the would high could be debated as mis identifications of the official location but not the ones who placed it lower.  Baxters account from his report written on 11/22 states the occipital bone was missing. So it turns out even a skeptic and neurosurgeons opinion is in line with Bells recollection.
   

Baxter said he mistakenly wrote occipital, denounced Crenshaw, and never supported conspiracy theories holding that the autopsy photos were fakes and that the wound was on the back of the head. Jones specified numerous times that he didn't get a good look at the wound, and similarly never supported theories that the autopsy photos were fakes and that the wound was on the back of the head. You acknowledge that the doctors' accounts vary. Yes, they do. And yet the majority of them ended up denouncing conspiracy theories in which the autopsy photos were fakes. 

I just don't get it, to be honest. What is this desperation where people NEED the wound to be on the back of the head, when the doctors were inconsistent on this point, and largely deferred to the autopsy photos?

The primary doctors were Carrico, Perry, Clark, McClelland, Jenkins, Peters, Baxter, Salyer, and Jones. Correct? Maybe Midgett and a few others. In any case, despite the frequent claims these guys were all united on there being a blowout wound low on the back of the head, most of them would come to say they were mistaken or didn't get a good look, and that they really saw NOTHING to indicate this shot came from the front. They were not united, after all. In fact, they were far more united on another point--that they thought the autopsy photos were legit--than they were on there being a blow-out wound low on the back of the head. So why do so many people claiming to "support" or "defend" the Parkland witnesses, just ignore everything they had to say after that one report or one comment in which they said something that supported that the wound was low on the back of the head?

And no, it can't be that people believe their first statements are best and their latter-day statements are worthless, (because they are obviously scared or fibbing), because these same people who reject the latter-day statements of Carrico, Perry, Jenkins, and Baxter simultaneously embrace the latter-day statements of McClelland. 

I mean, if one is to engage in any consistency, one would have to realize that you can't have it both ways, and say McClelland made a mistake when he said the wound was "of the left temple" while simultaneously saying Baxter could not have been mistaken about occipital or Carrico could not have been mistaken about cerebellum. 

So, to refresh, we have a large part of the research community devoted to the premise the back of the wound was blown out--no matter what the doctors would later come to say--no matter what the Dealey Plaza witnesses observed--no matter what is shown on the assassination films--no matter what was seen later at Bethesda--no matter what was recorded on the autopsy photos and x-rays. They just know. It has to be. And why? Because they were told all this evidence support a single-assassin solution.

But, guess what, it doesn't. It never did. The vast majority of research into the "medical evidence" has been a red-herring. 

 

Edited September 29, 2023 by Pat Speer

[Pat Speer]

11 hours ago, Chris Bristow said:

What we have from the Parkland accounts is up to 18 or 19 placing the wound in the O.C and only four, Baxter, Carrico, Jenkins and Grossman who support the official story. But of those 4 Carrico, Baxter and Jenkins wrote contradictory reports from the day of the assassination. So almost everyone described the wound placed it in the O.C at some point, most of them very early.  
     Lets say the numbers were reversed and and only 4 supported the O.C location. If I, as a CT tried to argue that we should accept the 4 over the other 18 I would be called out as a weak minded CT who uses CT logic. 
  But the reverse is true and the vast majority support the O.C. location. Yet skeptics argue  against the majority. Their arguments use a great deal of conjecture as they try to chip away at the testimony they don't agree with. The much much stronger argument leans to the O.C wound.
  Contrary statements  should be expected with them repeating their observations over decades. This muddies the waters. So lets scrutinize the seemingly contrary stories and toss out almost half the O.C. reports. Dulany said O.C in the Nova doc at the archives; but an earlier photo shows him holding his hand closer to the official location, so toss him out. Lets drop the O.C testimonies to 10. But with the same level of scrutiny we can eliminate 3 of the 4 supporters of the official story. that leaves the score at about 10 to 1. There is no way to create a logical arguments that turns the narrative around. The facts overwhelmingly support the the wound in the back of the head. 

Sorry, Chris. You are simply incorrect. If you study the statements of the doctors you will find that that basically all of them refused to join the evidence is fake bandwagon. Heck, even McClelland said he thought the autopsy photos were legit. (He thought sagging scalp was pulled up to conceal some of the large head wound.) This idea they were united in describing a "back of the head' blow-out at odds with the autopsy evidence is a canard, essentially a hoax. I remember watching Groden at a 2013 conference in which he claimed he now had 89- I think it was--witnesses stating the back of the head was blown out. People (and by people I mean the top experts on the medical evidence) looked around in confusion and/or rolled their eyes. It was a fabrication. A hoax. And most everyone there knew it. 

Now, a much more valid argument has to do with the throat wound. As I recall, every doctor at Parkland who saw the throat wound described a wound too small to be an exit for a high-velocity bullet. A number of them even put this in their testimony. On this point, moreover, JFK's primary physician at Parkland, Perry, never backtracked. 

If THIS had been the focus of the research community, instead of the possibility of a back of the head blow-out, the doctors would have given their unanimous support, IMO, and the single-bullet theory would have been destroyed. I mean, just think of it. In recent years, several members of the Secret Service have broken their silence, and have all said the single-bullet theory was garbage. Yes, even Clint Hill. Well, if you added the Parkland doctors onto this--who we should recall were the only doctors to see the throat wound--then even the mainstream media would have to notice. The single-bullet theory would have been given a public death. But no, the doctors were pestered into hiding by the likes of Livingstone and Lifton. And here we are. 

[Pat Speer]

13 hours ago, Micah Mileto said:

newspapers.com newspages has an OCR feature that allows anybod to read the scanned text, also it allows anybody to look at whole clippings. Newspapers.com is pretty cool, like a Google for the past. FamilyTree and NewspaperArchives are cool too.

I was able to find the article, and it was as I expected--damaging to Bell's credibility. In a section not quoted in your summary, Bell mentions a "fragment" removed from Connally--singular. Well, by the time she spoke to the HSCA she had taken to claiming it was "four or five fragments." Well, this fueled many a CT discussion--"What happened to the other fragments, etc...Were they disappeared because they were from a different kind of ammo, etc..."  And it gets worse. While her article reported that she turned the fragment over to the Department of Public Safety (which I believe is the official story), she told the HSCA she delivered these four or five fragments to the FBI. Of course, this led to "OOOH... FBI.. She gave four or five fragments to the FBI and only one fragment--a different fragment?--ended up in the record. What happened to these other fragments? What did they do with them?"

Well, now we know the truth. Her memory was shot. I no longer suspect she was a flat-out fibber. But her credibility is next to nothing. 

 

[Sandy Larsen]

 

15 hours ago, Pat Speer said:

While Micah's find supports that she was in the room and potentially saw the wound, it does not support her claim Perry showed her the wound and it was low on the back of the head. Perry had no recollection of it and she failed to write a report or an entry in a diary or anything that would support her latter-day claims. 

 

What? Dr. Perry had no recollection of the back-of-the-head-wound?

I don't think so, Pat.

Here is a summary of what Dr. Perry said about that wound over time, from Dr. Aguilar's list:

In a note written at Parkland Hospital and dated, 11-22-63 Dr., Perry described the head wound as, "A large wound of the right posterior cranium..." (WC--V17:6--CE#392) Describing Kennedy's appearance to the Warren Commission's Arlen Specter Dr. Perry stated, "Yes, there was a large avulsive wound on the right posterior cranium...." (WC- V3:368) Later to Specter: "...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..." (WC--V3:372) In an interview with the HSCA's Andy Purdy in 1-11-78 Mr. Purdy reported that "Dr. Perry... believed the head wound was located on the "occipital parietal" (sic) region of the skull and that the right posterior aspect of the skull was missing..." (HSCA- V7:292-293) Perry told Mr. Purdy: "I looked at the head wound briefly by leaning over the table and noticed that the parietal occipital head wound was largely avulsive and there was visible brain tissue in the macard and some cerebellum seen..." (HSCA-V7:302-interview with Purdy 1-11-78.

Inexplicably, Perry told author Gerald Posner on April 2, 1992, "I did not see any cerebellum." (Gerald Posner, "Case Closed", p. 312) When told that Robert McClelland, MD had claimed "I saw cerebellum fall out on the stretcher", Posner claimed Perry responded, "I am astonished that Bob wound say that... It shows such poor judgment, and usually he has such good judgment."

 

Obviously somebody had gotten to Dr. Perry some time between the HSCA and Gerald Posner's book. Perhaps showed him a back-of-head autopsy photo, which of course had been tempered with and no longer shows the back-of-head wound. Pat has also famously been fooled by this altered photo.

 

15 hours ago, Pat Speer said:

If you look at the anatomy drawings she drew on for the ARRB, moreover, one can see that the wound on the rear views and side views are not in the same location. Even more problematic, she placed the wound much much lower than the other witnesses, to the extent that "her" wound failed to overlap the wound seen by the majority of " back of the head" witnesses. 

 

What is even more problematic than anything Nurse Bell has said or done, is Pat Speer's never-ending crusade against the existence of the back-of-head wound. It is damaging to both the anti-WC cause and to the truth. IMO.

 

[Sandy Larsen]

2 hours ago, Pat Speer said:

I just don't get it, to be honest. What is this desperation where people NEED the wound to be on the back of the head, when the doctors were inconsistent on this point, and largely deferred to the autopsy photos?

 

The desperation, Pat, is for the truth to be told. That is what some of us want.

Even right here you are not telling the truth! The doctors were NOT significantly inconsistent on the location of the wound.... nearly every one of them said it was on the back of the head. Nobody said it was on the top of the head.

Naturally a few of them later changed their stories, like when they were instructed to do so early on, and then later when they learned that the back-of-head autopsy photo shows no wound.

 

[Pat Speer]

4 hours ago, Sandy Larsen said:

 

 

What? Dr. Perry had no recollection of the back-of-the-head-wound?

I don't think so, Pat.

Here is a summary of what Dr. Perry said about that wound over time, from Dr. Aguilar's list:

In a note written at Parkland Hospital and dated, 11-22-63 Dr., Perry described the head wound as, "A large wound of the right posterior cranium..." (WC--V17:6--CE#392) Describing Kennedy's appearance to the Warren Commission's Arlen Specter Dr. Perry stated, "Yes, there was a large avulsive wound on the right posterior cranium...." (WC- V3:368) Later to Specter: "...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..." (WC--V3:372) In an interview with the HSCA's Andy Purdy in 1-11-78 Mr. Purdy reported that "Dr. Perry... believed the head wound was located on the "occipital parietal" (sic) region of the skull and that the right posterior aspect of the skull was missing..." (HSCA- V7:292-293) Perry told Mr. Purdy: "I looked at the head wound briefly by leaning over the table and noticed that the parietal occipital head wound was largely avulsive and there was visible brain tissue in the macard and some cerebellum seen..." (HSCA-V7:302-interview with Purdy 1-11-78.

Inexplicably, Perry told author Gerald Posner on April 2, 1992, "I did not see any cerebellum." (Gerald Posner, "Case Closed", p. 312) When told that Robert McClelland, MD had claimed "I saw cerebellum fall out on the stretcher", Posner claimed Perry responded, "I am astonished that Bob wound say that... It shows such poor judgment, and usually he has such good judgment."

 

Obviously somebody had gotten to Dr. Perry some time between the HSCA and Gerald Posner's book. Perhaps showed him a back-of-head autopsy photo, which of course had been tempered with and no longer shows the back-of-head wound. Pat has also famously been fooled by this altered photo.

 

 

What is even more problematic than anything Nurse Bell has said or done, is Pate Speer's never-ending crusade against the existence of the back-of-head wound. It is damaging to both the anti-WC cause and to the truth. IMO.

 

"Somebody had gotten to Dr. Perry?" Really? We know the "truth" but can't prove it because "somebody got" to our best witnesses? 

It's amazing how self-serving that is... I mean, EVERY time a witness coughs up a statement or story indicating the wound was on the back of the head, the back of the head crowd claims they are brave truth-tellers while at the same time EVERY time a witness says he could have been mistaken or supports the authenticity of the evidence they are fibbers..."somebody got to them"... ANYTHING but admit the obvious fact that as many or more witnesses have been "gotten" by the CT community than by "them". 

That is why Micah's find is important. It shows how Bell's story, in her own words. differed from her subsequent accounts. 

Now, I've had more experience arguing these points than anyone, so I know what comes next... "How do we know her words weren't changed in the article?" "How do we now she meant fragment and not fragments--maybe it's a typo?" 

Let me be clear. The evidence has always suggested more than one shooter. The FBI spun it to be Oswald. The Warren Commission spun it to be Oswald. And the HSCA spun it to be Oswald. This can be proven. But for the past four decades the bulk of JFK "research" has been spent trying to prove the evidence--the very evidence that demonstrates a conspiracy in which Oswald did not shoot Kennedy--was fake. Ludicrous. 

Edited September 30, 2023 by Pat Speer

[Sandy Larsen]

3 hours ago, Pat Speer said:

Baxter said he mistakenly wrote occipital, denounced Crenshaw, and never supported conspiracy theories holding that the autopsy photos were fakes and that the wound was on the back of the head. Jones specified numerous times that he didn't get a good look at the wound, and similarly never supported theories that the autopsy photos were fakes and that the wound was on the back of the head. You acknowledge that the doctors' accounts vary. Yes, they do. And yet the majority of them ended up denouncing conspiracy theories in which the autopsy photos were fakes. 

I just don't get it, to be honest. What is this desperation where people NEED the wound to be on the back of the head, when the doctors were inconsistent on this point, and largely deferred to the autopsy photos?

The primary doctors were Carrico, Perry, Clark, McClelland, Jenkins, Peters, Baxter, Salyer, and Jones. Correct? Maybe Midgett and a few others. In any case, despite the frequent claims these guys were all united on there being a blowout wound low on the back of the head, most of them would come to say they were mistaken or didn't get a good look, and that they really saw NOTHING to indicate this shot came from the front. They were not united, after all. In fact, they were far more united on another point--that they thought the autopsy photos were legit--than they were on there being a blow-out wound low on the back of the head. So why do so many people claiming to "support" or "defend" the Parkland witnesses, just ignore everything they had to say after that one report or one comment in which they said something that supported that the wound was low on the back of the head?

And no, it can't be that people believe their first statements are best and their latter-day statements are worthless, (because they are obviously scared or fibbing), because these same people who reject the latter-day statements of Carrico, Perry, Jenkins, and Baxter simultaneously embrace the latter-day statements of McClelland. 

I mean, if one is to engage in any consistency, one would have to realize that you can't have it both ways, and say McClelland made a mistake when he said the wound was "of the left temple" while simultaneously saying Baxter could not have been mistaken about occipital or Carrico could not have been mistaken about cerebellum. 

So, to refresh, we have a large part of the research community devoted to the premise the back of the wound was blown out--no matter what the doctors would later come to say--no matter what the Dealey Plaza witnesses observed--no matter what is shown on the assassination films--no matter what was seen later at Bethesda--no matter what was recorded on the autopsy photos and x-rays. They just know. It has to be. And why? Because they were told all this evidence support a single-assassin solution.

But, guess what, it doesn't. It never did. The vast majority of research into the "medical evidence" has been a red-herring. 

 

 

Rather than correct what Pat is claiming, doctor by doctor, I'm going to summarize here what all the Parkland doctors said:
 

Note 1: "Occipital" and "cerebellar" refers to the lower back of the head. "Temporal" refers to the low area around the ear.

Note 2:  As can be read below, nearly all the Parkland professionals said early on that the gaping wound was at the lower back of the head. But some changed their minds when it came to their attention that that the Warren Commission contradicted them, saying that the gaping wound was at the top of the head.

 

1) KEMP CLARK, MD: Professor and Director of Neurological Surgery at Parkland, in an undated note apparently written contemporaneously at Parkland described the President's skull wound as, "...in the occipital region of the skull... Through the head wound, blood and brain were extruding... There was a large wound in the right occipitoparietal region, from which profuse bleeding was occurring... There was considerable loss of scalp and bone tissue. Both cerebral and cerebellar tissue were extruding from the wound." (WC--CE#392)

In a hand written note dated 11-22-63, Dr. Clark wrote, "a large 3 x 3 cm remnant of cerebral tissue present....there was a smaller amount of cerebellar tissue present also....There was a large wound beginning in the right occiput extending into the parietal region....Much of the skull appeared gone at the brief examination...." (Exhibit #392: WC V17:9-10)

At a press conference 2&1/2 hours after the shooting Clark said, "The head wound could have been either the exit wound from the neck or it could have been a tangential wound, as it was simply a large, gaping loss of tissue." ("At the White House with Wayne Hawks" news conference, 11/22/63, 3:16 PM, CST, Dallas, Texas) This virtually contemporaneous description is not entirely unequivocal. However, if JFK's skull defect were not rearward, it is impossible to imagine Clark would have conjectured that the skull defect was the possible exit site of the neck wound, for Malcolm Perry, MD, who participated with him in the press conference, and had performed a tracheotomy on JFK, had just claimed three times the neck wound was a wound of entrance.

In a typed summary submitted to Rear Admiral Burkley on 11-23-63, Clark described the head wound as, "a large wound in the right occipito-parietal region... Both cerebral and cerebellar tissue were extruding from the wound. (Warren Report, p.518, Warren Commission Exhibit #392, Lifton, D. Best Evidence, p. 322)

Under oath and to the Warren Commission's Arlen Specter, Clark described his findings upon arrival to the emergency room, "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." (WC--V6:20) Specter, either inattentive to Dr. Clark's skull wound description or wishing to move the wound more anterior than the eyewitness, neurosurgery professor placed it, later asked Clark, "Now, you described the massive wound at the top of the of the President's head, with brain protruding..." (WC:6:25) Dr. Clark later located the skull wound to Mr. Specter again, "...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." (WC--V6:29)

In answer to a question from Specter about the survivability of Kennedy's head wounding, Clark said: "...the loss of cerebellar (sic) tissue wound probably have been of minimal consequence in the performance of his duties. The loss of the right occipital and probably part of the right parietal lobes wound have been of specific importance..." (WC6:26) That Clark, a neurosurgeon, specified that the occipital lobe of the brain was missing cannot suggest anything but a very posterior defect.

On 1/20/94 a steel salesman from Tennessee, David Naro, interviewed Clark, MD. Naro reported Clark said, "The lower right occipital region of the head was blown out and I saw cerebellum." This conveys the same message as the document he prepared on 11/22/63 which read, "There was a large wound in the right occipitoparietal region... Both cerebral and cerebellar tissue was extruding from the wound."

2) ROBERT McCLELLAND, MD: In testimony at Parkland taken before Arlen Specter on 3-21-64, McClelland described the head wound as, "...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...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 half, 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...." (WC--V6:33) Later he said, "...unfortunately the loss of blood and the loss of cerebral and cerebellar tissues were so great that the efforts (to save Kennedy's life) were of no avail." (Emphasis added throughout) (WC--V6:34) McClelland made clear that he thought the rear wound in the skull was an exit wound (WC-V6:35,37). McClelland ascribed the cause of death to, "...massive head injuries with loss of large amounts of cerebral and cerebellar tissues and massive blood loss." (WC--V6:34)

McClelland's unwillingness to change his recollection has recently attracted detractors in the aftermath of Charles Crenshaw's book, "Conspiracy of Silence". McClelland told Posner, "I saw a piece of cerebellum fall out on the stretcher." (Posner, G. "CC.", p. 311, paper). To dismiss McClelland, Posner quotes Malcolm Perry, "I am astonished that Bob (McClelland) would say that... It shows such poor judgment, and usually he has such good judgment." (Posner G. "Case Closed". p. 311, paperback edition.) Perry's own inconsistent and unreliable memory lessens the merit of his opinions of others, as we will see.

3) MARION THOMAS JENKINS, MD: In a contemporaneous note dated 11-22-63, Jenkins described "a great laceration on the right side of the head (temporal and occipital) (sic), causing a great defect in the skull plate so that there was herniation and laceration of great areas of the brain, even to the extent that the cerebellum had protruded from the wound." (WC--Exhibit #392) To the Warren Commission's Arlen Specter Dr. Jenkins said, "Part of the brain was herniated. I really think part of the cerebellum, as I recognized it, was herniated from the wound..." (WC--V6:48) Jenkins told Specter that the temporal and occipital wound was a wound of exit, "...the wound with the exploded area of the scalp, as I interpreted it being exploded, I would interpret it being a wound of exit..." (WC--V6:51.)

Jenkins described a wound in JFK's left temple to Specter. Jenkins: "...I thought there was a wound on the left temporal area, right in the hairline and right above the zygomatic process." Specter: "The autopsy report discloses no such development, Dr. Jenkins." Jenkins: "Well, I was feeling for--I was palpating here for a pulse to see whether the closed chest cardiac massage was effective or not and this probably was some blood that had come from the other point and so I thought there was a wound there also." A few moments later Jenkins again pursued the possibility that there had been a wound in the left temple: "...I asked you a little bit ago if there was a wound in the left temporal area, right above the zygomatic bone in the hairline, because there was blood there and I thought there might have been a wound there (indicating) (sic). Specter: "Indicating the left temporal area?" Jenkins: "Yes; the left temporal, which could have been a point of entrance and exit here (indicating) (sic-presumably pointing to where he had identified the wound in prior testimony--the right rear of the skull), but you have answered that for me (that 'the autopsy report discloses no such development')." (WC-V6:51)

In an interview with the HSCA's Andy Purdy on 11-10-77 Marion Jenkins was said to have expressed that as an anesthesiologist he (Jenkins) "...was positioned at the head of the table so he had one of the closest views of the head wound...believes he was '...the only one who knew the extent of the head wound.') (sic)...Regarding the head wound, Dr. Jenkins said that only one segment of bone was blown out--it was a segment of occipital or temporal bone. He noted that a portion of the cerebellum (lower rear brain) (sic) was hanging out from a hole in the right--rear of the head." (Emphasis added) (HSCA-V7:286-287) In an interview with the American Medical News published on 11-24-78 Jenkins said, "...(Kennedy) had part of his head blown away and part of his cerebellum was hanging out.".

Amazingly, in an interview with author Gerald Posner on March 3, 1992, Jenkins' recollection had changed dramatically. "The description of the cerebellum was my fault," Jenkins insisted, "When I read my report over I realized there could not be any cerebellum. The autopsy photo, with the rear of the head intact and a protrusion in the parietal region, is the way I remember it. I never did say occipital." (Gerald Posner, Case Closed", p. 312) Jenkins has obviously forgotten that in his own note prepared, typed, and signed on the day of the assassination, Jenkins said, "a great laceration on the right side of the head (temporal and occipital) (sic)", and HSCA's Purdy reported that Jenkins said "occipital or temporal bone" was blown out.

When told by Posner that Robert McClelland, MD had claimed, "I saw a piece of cerebellum fall out on the stretcher." Jenkins responded, "Bob (McClelland) is an excellent surgeon. He knows anatomy. I hate to say Bob is mistaken, but that is clearly not right...". (Posner G. Case Closed. p. 313) Clearly, Jenkins had forgotten that he himself had claimed that "cerebellum was hanging out" (as had Ronald Coy Jones, MD--see below). [Might this controversy be resolved in Jenkins' and Jones' favors? Possibly Jenkins believes that cerebellum was 'hanging out' but that it had not reached the surface of the gurney despite the close proximity of the skull in the supine position to its surface?]

Jenkins, however, was not through with discrediting McClelland. To Posner, Jenkins explained how McClelland had made an error, which McClelland later corrected, that there was a wound in JFK's left temple. "I'll tell you how that happened," Jenkins explained, "When Bob McClelland came into the room, he asked me, 'Where are his wounds?' And at that time I was operating a breathing bag with my right hand, and was trying to take the President's temporal pulse, and I had my finger on his left temple. Bob thought I pointed to the left temple as the wound." (Gerald Posner, Case Closed". p. 313)Ignoring the absurdity of such a supposition for the moment, Jenkins failed to reveal an important part of the story. Jenkins failed to tell Posner,who was apparently too uninformed to know, that it was Jenkins himself who had most strikingly claimed that there was an entrance wound in the left temple, as Jenkins' Commission testimony (cited above) proves.

As we will see, Dr. Jenkins' faulty, and possibly self-serving memory seems to have frequently plagued him. It is a testament to JAMA's and Posner's laxity in fact-checking that Jenkins' recollections are so unquestioningly reported. Both Breo and Posner quickly attempted to discredit those who, like McClelland, did not share their biases, and ignored many stupendous inconsistencies of "allies", such as Jenkins (see next chapter). Nonetheless, Jenkins' earliest, "un-enhanced" recollections must be given greatest weight and considered the most likely to be reliable, as in any police investigation. Fortunately, they also agree with the earliest recollections of other Parkland witnesses, an important corroborative factor.

4) CHARLES JAMES CARRICO, MD: On the day of the assassination he hand wrote, " (the skull) wound had avulsed the calvarium and shredded brain tissue present with profuse oozing... attempts to control slow oozing from cerebral and cerebellar tissue via packs instituted..." (CE 392--WC V17:4-5)

In is first mention of JFK's skull wound to the Warren Commission on 3/25/64, Carrico said, "There seemed to be a 4 to 5 cm. area of avulsion of the scalp and the skull was fragmented and bleeding cerebral and cerebellar tissue." (6H3) And... "The (skull) 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." (6H6)

On 3/30/64 Carrico appeared again before the Commission. Arlen Specter asked, "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 71 cm (sic--the author feels certain that Dr. Carrico must have said "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...". Specter: "Was any other wound observed on the head in addition to this large opening where the skull was absent?" Carrico: "No other wound on the head."(WC--V3:361)

In an interview with Andy Purdy for the HSCA on 1-11-78, Dr. Carrico said, "The skull wound" ...was a fairly large wound in the right side of the head, in the parietal, occipital area. (sic) One could see blood and brains, both cerebellum and cerebrum fragments in that wound." (sic) (HSCA-V7:268)

As with several other Parkland witnesses, Carrico's memory seemed to undergo a transformation when confronted by an interviewer who seems to have preferred he recall things differently than he did under oath. In an interview with author Gerald Posner on March 8, 1992, Posner alleges Carrico reported, "We saw a large hole on the right side of his head. I don't believe we saw any occipital bone. It was not there. It was parietal bone...". (Gerald Posner, " Case Closed , New York, Random House, p. 311) The notorious unreliability of recollections so different and so far removedfrom the original event places Carrico's more recent opinions under a cloud. It seems possible that Carrico has been persuaded that the photographs of the back of JFK's head have been "authenticated", a scientific impossibility, and therefore he should adjust accordingly his recollections to agree with this "best evidence".

5) MALCOLM PERRY, MD: In a note written at Parkland Hospital and dated, 11-22-63 Dr., Perry described the head wound as, "A large wound of the right posterior cranium..." (WC--V17:6--CE#392) Describing Kennedy's appearance to the Warren Commission's Arlen Specter Dr. Perry stated, "Yes, there was a large avulsive wound on the right posterior cranium...." (WC- V3:368) Later to Specter: "...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..." (WC--V3:372) In an interview with the HSCA's Andy Purdy in 1-11-78 Mr. Purdy reported that "Dr. Perry... believed the head wound was located on the "occipital parietal" (sic) region of the skull and that the right posterior aspect of the skull was missing..." (HSCA- V7:292-293) Perry told Mr. Purdy: "I looked at the head wound briefly by leaning over the table and noticed that the parietal occipital head wound was largely avulsive and there was visible brain tissue in the macard and some cerebellum seen..." (HSCA-V7:302-interview with Purdy 1-11-78.

Inexplicably, Perry told author Gerald Posner on April 2, 1992, "I did not see any cerebellum." (Gerald Posner, "Case Closed", p. 312) When told that Robert McClelland, MD had claimed "I saw cerebellum fall out on the stretcher", Posner claimed Perry responded, "I am astonished that Bob wound say that... It shows such poor judgment, and usually he has such good judgment."

6) RONALD COY JONES: was a senior General Surgery resident physician at Parkland Hospital. Under oath he told the Warren Commission's Arlen Specter, "...he had a large wound in the right posterior side of the head... There was large defect in the back side of the head as the President lay on the cart with what appeared to be some brain hanging out of this wound with multiple pieces of skull noted next with the brain and with a tremendous amount of clot and blood." (WC-V6:53-54) A few minutes later he described "what appeared to be an exit wound in the posterior portion of the skull". (Emphasis added throughout) (WC-V6:56)

Specter asked Jones to speculate from his observations the nature of JFK's wounding. He asked, "Dr. Jones, did you have any speculative thought as to accounting for the point of wounds (sic) which you observed on the President, as you thought about it when you were treating the President that day, or shortly thereafter?" Jones answered, "With no history as to the number of times that the President had been shot or knowing the direction from which he had been shot, and seeing he wound in the midline of the neck, and what appeared to be an exit wound in the posterior portion of the skull, the only speculation that I could have as far as to how this could occur with a single wound would be that it would enter the anterior neck and possibly strike a vertebral body and then change its course and exit in the region of the posterior portion of the head." (WC.V.6:56) While he then expressed some doubt that a high velocity bullet would so radically change course, JFK's skull wound must have appeared to him quite posterior for him to have advanced such an hypothesis.

It is particularly noteworthy that Jones continued to believe JFK's skull suggested a rear exit of a bullet that entered from anterior. In January, 1983 he told David Lifton, "If you brought him in here today, I'd still say he was shot from the front." (BE, p. 705) Jones told student, Brad Parker, on 8/10/92, again, "...if they brought him in today, I would tend - seeing what I saw, I would say that he was shot from the front." Jones told Parker that he fundamentally agreed with McClelland's drawing of the back of the head as seen in Six Seconds . Jones specifically denied to Parker that hehad seen a right anterior skull defect. He said, "Yeah. I didn't think that there was any wound -- I didn't appreciate any wound, anyway, in the right temporal area or the right side of the upper part of the head, you know, over the -- in front of the ear say, or anything like that ". These description are fully consistent with the autopsy report of a right rear defect. If the defect did extend forward, the anterior portion was quite small. Only Gerald Posner reported Jones described JFK's wound as "a large side wound". Posner made no mention of Jones' Warren Commission testimony, testimony which is incompatible with Posner's thesis, nor did Posner ask about the statements attributed to Jones by Lifton, which Jones repeated to Brad Parker in 1992).

7) GENE AIKIN, MD: an anesthesiologist at Parkland told the Warren Commission under oath, "The back of the right occipitalparietal portion of his head was shattered with brain substance extruding." (WC-V6:65.) He later opined, "I assume the right occipitalparietal region was the exit, so to speak, that he had probably been hit on the other side of the head, or at least tangentially in the back of the head...". (WC-V6:67)

😎 PAUL PETERS, MD: a resident physician at Parkland described the head wound to the Warren Commission's Arlen Specter under oath as, "...I noticed that there was a large defect in the occiput...It seemed to me that in the right occipitalparietal area that there was a large defect." (WC-V6:71)

Peters told author Lifton on 11-12-66, "I was trying to think how he could have had a hole in his neck and a hole in the occiput, and the only answer we could think (of) was perhaps the bullet had gone in through the front, hit the bony spinal column, and exited through the back of the head, since a wound of exit is always bigger than a wound of entry." (David Lifton, Best Evidence. p. 317) Peters repeated this speculation in a speech on the subject on 4/2/92, in a talk entitled, "Who Killed JFK?", given at the 14th annual meeting of the Wilk-Amite Medical Society, at Centreville Academy, Centreville, Mississippi, according to a transcript furnished by Claude B. Slaton, of Zachary, Louisiana.) As if to emphasize the low location of the skull wound, Peters elaborated to Lifton, "I'd be willing to swear that the wound was in the occiput, you know. I could see the occipital lobes clearly, and so I know it was that far back, on the skull. I could look inside the skull, and I thought it looked like the cerebellum was injured, or missing, because the occipital lobes seemed to rest almost on the foramen magnum. Now I didn't put my hand inside his head and lift up the occipital lobes, because I wasn't about to do that under the circumstances... (but it) looked like the occipital lobes were resting on the foramen magnum. It was as if something underneath them, that usually kept them up from that a little ways, namely, the cerebellum and brainstem, might have been injured, or missing." (David Lifton, Best Evidence, p. 324) Author Livingstone read Peters' words of description back to Peters asking for his comment. Peters, after hearing the above quote said, "Well, I would say that's pretty accurate about what I thought at the time. But Dr. Lattimer from New York who was privileged to view the autopsy findings told me that the cerebellum did appear to be intact. So, if I say, what I have reasoned since then is that probably what had happened was that part of the cerebral hemisphere had been shot away, which caused the occipital lobe, you see, to fall down. So rather than the props underneath it being destroyed, part of it was actually destroyed... You have to remember, I've been an American all this time, too. And so I'm subject to what I've learned from reading and looking since." (Transcript of Livingstone interview with Peters)

When shown enlarged Zapruder film frames depicting a right-anterior wound, Peters wrote, "The wound which you marked...I never saw and I don't think there was such a wound. I think that was simply an artifact of copying Zapruder's movie... The only wound I saw on President Kennedy's head was in the occipitoparietal area on the right side." (Personal letter to Wallace Milam 4-14-80, copy, courtesy of Wallace Milam to author Aguilar; also in Lifton, BE: 557)

Peters told author Livingstone that he and others closely examined JFK's skull wound. "...Dr. Jenkins commented that we'd better take a look at the brain before deciding whether to open the chest and to massage the heart with our hands, we stepped up and looked inside the skull and that's how I made note in my own mind of where the wound was in the skull." (Transcript of Livingstone interview with Peters. Peters repeated this assertion in a speech on the subject on 4/2/92, in a talk entitled, "Who Killed JFK?", given at the 14th annual meeting of the Wilk-Amite Medical Society, at Centreville Academy, Centreville, Mississippi, according to a transcript furnished by Claude B. Slaton, of Zachary, Louisiana.)

When shown by author Livingstone the HSCA's Dox drawings of the rear of JFK's skull prepared to precisely replicate the photographs, Peters claimed, "Well, this is an artist's drawing, and I don't think that it's consistent with what I saw... It's to, (sic) in the rear and to the side, that's the parietal area. So it's in the back and the side of the head, I would say in laymen's terms." To eliminate any confusion as to what Peters meant, Livingstone asked, "The way I read it (Lifton's question to Peters regarding the location of the head wound), you're saying that the center of the gaping wound that you did see was 2.5 centimeters to the right of the occipital protuberance." Peters answered, "Well, I wouldn't say that was the center of it (the skull wound he saw). I would say that was about where it began. Yeah." (Transcript of Livingstone interview with Paul Peters)

Author Gerald Posner claimed that on March 10, 1992, Peters told him, "The only thing I would say is that over the last twenty-eight years I now believe the head wound is more forward than I first placed it. More to the side than the rear. I tried to tell Lifton where the wound was, but he did not want to hear." (Posner, Case Closed", p. 310, paperback edition.) On April 2, 1992, Peters said, "...my observations were given earlier but they're still, I think, accurate after 25 years... The wound was occipital-parietal... I saw about a 7 centimeter hole in the occiput...". (Speech by Peters, "Who Killed JFK?", given at the 14th annual meeting of the Wilk-Amite Medical Society, at Centreville Academy, Centreville, Mississippi, according to a transcript furnished by Claude B. Slaton, of Zachary, Louisiana) While Posner seemed to wish to cast doubt on the manner Lifton represented Peters' opinions, it seems that Lifton's account was far more consistent with Peters' other statements than Posner's. Lifton still has a recording of his interview with Peters and told the author the statements Lifton cited were taken from Peters verbatim and in context.

In a speech to a gathering of Urologists in San Francisco in 1992, Peters demonstrated JFK's skull defect as he recalled it, on a human head for author Aguilar, placing the wound at the top rear portion of the skull, which, if the skull were a cube, involved the right rear corner--a location that has no defect in current autopsy photographs.

Peters apparently reported to author Gerald Posner on March 10 1992 that Robert McClelland, MD, who has steadfastly maintained the view that there was a rear skull wound of exit, was in error. "I don't think Bob McClelland was in the best place to see the head wound..." (Posner, Case Closed", p. 313) Robert McClelland, MD had diagramed a skull and indicated JFK's skull wound in the low rear portion of JFK's skull to author Thompson. Peters indicated on that same diagram complete agreement with the McClelland's low placement on 8-7-79 in a letter to author Livingstone. A copy of Peters' letter and diagram was produced in Groden and Livingstone's High Treason ". Peters' letter to author Livingstone reads in full:

"Dear Mr. Livingstone, "I have marked an "X" on the picture which more accurately depicts the wound, although neither is quite accurate in my opinion. There was a large hole in the back of the head through which one could see the brain. Sincerely, Paul C. Peters, MD"

Peters believed that the "X" marked the point of exit for the wound in the head. In an interview with author Livingstone, Peters referred to the "X" in the aforementioned diagram and said, "...the "X" is about where the wound was. The "X" does not imply that that wound is exactly correct. The "X" applies about where I thought the wound of exit was." (transcript of interview with Peters)

The "X" is marked squarely on the right rear portion of the skull parallel with a point just below the top of the ear. (See group of photographs following page 27 in Groden and Livingstone, High Treason", for a copy of the diagram and Peters' letter.) So Peters has done a complete about face after having discussed the case with Lattimer who convinced Peters that he did not see what he had repeatedly said he saw. Moreover, Peters felt confident enough in Latimer's opinion of what Peters had seen that he was willing to reproach McClelland for his refusal to alter his recollection to agree with Lattimer as Peters himself had done. Apparently suggestion from non-witness, Lattimer, has done wonders for Peters' memory of what he saw. It may not, however, have helped his credibility.

9) CHARLES CRENSHAW, MD: a resident physician at Parkland neither wrote his observations contemporaneously or was interviewed by the Warren Commission. He, with co-authors, Jess Hansen and Gary Shaw, recently published a book, JFK: Conspiracy of Silence, " (Crenshaw, CA, Hansen, J, Shaw, G. ( JFK: Conspiracy of Silence, 1992, New York, Signet). Crenshaw has claimed both in his book and in public interviews that the President's head wound was posterior on the right side. In JFK: Conspiracy of Silence, he wrote, "I walked to the President's head to get a closer look. His entire right cerebral hemisphere appeared to be gone. It looked like a crater--an empty cavity. All I could see there was mangled, bloody tissue. From the damage I saw, there was no doubt in my mind that the bullet had entered his head through the front, and as it surgically passed through his cranium, the missile obliterated part of the temporal and all the parietal and occipital lobes before it lacerated the cerebellum." ( JFK: Conspiracy of Silence, p. 86)

The FBI interviewed Crenshaw July 22, 1992 and reported Crenshaw apparently did not like his own description of JFK's skull wound in JFK: Conspiracy of Silence Of the skull wound the FBI reported, "(Crenshaw said) The head wound was located at the back of the President's head and was the approximate size of Doctor CRENSHAW's (sic) fist. It extended from the approximate center of the skull in the back to just behind the right ear, utilizing a left to right orientation and from a position a couple of inches above the right ear to the approximate middle of the right ear utilizing a top to bottom orientation." (FBI file # 89A-DL-60165-99) The FBI also reported, "(Crenshaw's) description which indicates that the wound extended from the hairline back behind the ear and to the back of the head was 'poorly worded.' (sic) The correct description indicates that the wound was located entirely at the rear of the head behind the right ear." (FBI file # 89A-DL-60615-100.) While Crenshaw has been roundly criticized for having kept silent for so long, his observations regarding the head wound are consistent with the contemporaneous observations of others, especially those of Kemp Clark, MD, professor of Neurosurgery, who pronounced Kennedy dead. Crenshaw claimed to have kept quiet about his observations out of professional and personal fear of reprisals.

As will be seen Breo took great exception to Crenshaw's account. Author Gerald Posner dismissed Crenshaw with quotations from fellow Parkland physicians: Perry stated, "I feel sorry for him. I had thought of suing him, but when I saw him on television [promoting his book], (sic) my anger melted. He has to know that what he said is false, and he knows the rest of us know that. You have to pity him. What a way to end his career. His story is filled with half-truths and insinuations, and those of us who know him know he is desperate... He is a pitiful sight." Perry's excoriation of Crenshaw must, however, be considered in the context of his own egregious memory, and his own possible perjury before the Warren Commission. Perry, as will be discussed, denied under oath to the Warren Commission that he had made unequivocal statements to the press claiming the neck wound was a wound of entrance. He falsely accused the press of misrepresenting his comments when an exact transcript of his comments revealed that the press had accurately reported his unequivocal comments that the neck wound was a wound of entrance. Perry, to the author's knowledge, has never apologized to the press nor has he explained his untruthful testimony to the Commission. Moreover, as has been demonstrated, Perry seems to have adjusted his recollections to suit his questioner, whether Specter of the Warren Commission, or author, Posner.

10) CHARLES RUFUS BAXTER, MD: a resident physician at Parkland in a hand written note prepared on 11-22-63 and published in the Warren Report (p. 523) Baxter wrote, "...the right temporal and occipital bones were missing (emphasis added) and the brain was lying on the table..." (WR:523). Very oddly, as Wallace Milam pointed out to one of the authors (Aguilar), when asked to read his own hand written report into the record before the Warren Commission's Arlen Specter the words are recorded exactly as he wrote them, except for the above sentence. That sentence was recorded by the Warren Commission and reads "...the right temporal and parietal bones were missing. (emphasis added)...". (WC-V6:44) It is reasonable to assume that Baxter's original description of a more rearward wound is more reliable than his later testimony before Arlen Specter, who on more than one occasion tried to move the skull wound away from the rear. Baxter then described the head wound saying, "...literally the right side of his head had been blown off. With this and the observation that the cerebellum was present...." (WC-V6:41) Thus the wound he saw was more likely to have been "temporo-occipital" than "temporo-parietal", because he also recalled, "cerebellum was present". (WC-V6:41) Shortly later in the same interview he also said, "...the temporal and parietal bones were missing and the brain was lying on the table...." (WC-V6:44) The authors are unaware of any explanation for the discrepancies, and can only speculate that either Baxter was misquoted twice or he adjusted his testimony to conform with what he might have felt was wanted of him. The mystery was confounded when author Livingstone reported that Baxter described the skull wound as "...a large gaping wound in the occipital area." Livingstone also reported that "(Baxter) could not have been more clear when he rejected the official picture (showing the rear scalp intact)."(Groden & Livingstone, High Treason, 1989, New York, Berkley Books, p. 45)

Baxter's reliability has also been called into question for a comment attributed to him by Dennis Breo, staff writer for JAMA, and Gerald Posner. Baxter apparently supported Breo's suggestion that Charles Crenshaw, MD, author of the recent book, "Conspiracy of Silence", (Crenshaw, CA, Hansen, J, Shaw, G. JFK: Conspiracy of Silence. 1992, New York, Signet) was not in JFK's trauma room. JAMA wrote, "Most of those who know the facts express disgust at Crenshaw's actions and question if he was involved in the care of the President at all... None of the four (interviewed by Breo) recalls ever seeing him at the scene." (Breo, D. L., JAMA, 267:2804-2805). This claim was used by JAMA to support the Warren Commission's reconstruction of the event, and call into question Crenshaw's recollections of JFK's wounds published in his book--recollections that flatly contradicted the Commission's findings. In an interview with author Gerald Posner in 1992, Baxter said, "I don't either (remember that Crenshaw was present in JFK's trauma room)." (Posner, G. Case Closed, p. 312, paper version). Embarrassingly, before the Warren Commission's Arlen Specter, however, Baxter, under oath, listed the physicians present with him in the emergency room with JFK. The first physician he named was Charles Crenshaw. (WC- V6:40)

As if Baxter's credibility had not suffered enough, he reported to author Posner on March 12, 1992, "I never even saw the back of (JFK's) head. The wound was on the right side, not the back." (Posner, Case Closed, p. 312) Baxter would do well to read his own hand-written note, prepared on the day of the assassination, and reproduced legibly in the Warren Report, and read the transcripts of interviews he's given authors before allowing further interviews.

This fact will be explored again in the following chapter. In any case it seems that Baxter is either terribly unreliable or is often misquoted, as seem to be all of Breo's and Posner's "allies". McClelland, disparaged by the other Parkland witnesses used by Breo and Posner, is the only one of these witnesses whose opinion has not seemed to change with the wind.

11) ROBERT GROSSMAN, MD: had just joined the staff of Parkland at the time of the assassination as an Instructor in Neurosurgery. He never testified to the Warren Commission or the HSCA. Authors Groden and Livingstone, however, claim, "He (Grossman) said that he saw two large holes in the head, as he told the (Boston) Globe, and he described a large hole squarely in the occiput, far too large for a bullet entry wound...". (HT-I Groden and Livingstone, p. 51)-& also "Duffy & Ricci, The Assassination of John F. Kennedy--A Complete Book of Facts, p. 207-208.)

12) RICHARD BROOKS DULANEY, MD: was a first year general surgery resident at Parkland Hospital on the day of the assassination. He appeared before the Commission and claimed only, "...he had a large head wound---that was the first thing I noticed." Arlen Specter did not ask him to elaborate and Dulaney did not volunteer any additional details.(WC-V:114). As Groden and Livingston reported, however, Dulaney told journalist Ben Bradlee, Jr., "...Somebody lifted up his head and showed me the back of his head. We couldn't see much until they picked up his head. I was standing beside him. The wound was on the back of his head. On the back side" They lifted up the head and "the whole back-side was gone." (Groden R., Livingston, H., High Treason. 1989 New York, Berkley Books, p.460.)

13) ADOLPH GIESECKE, MD: an assistant professor of anesthesiology at Parkland in 1963 authored a typed summary of his care of Governor Connally on 11-25-63, Warren Commission "Gieske Exhibit #1", (WC-V20:5-7) in which he does not mention JFK's wounds. In Warren Commission testimony he described JFK's head wound as: "...from the vertex to the left ear, and from the brow line to the occiput on the left-hand side of the head the cranium was entirely missing." Specter surprised that Giesecke claimed the left side asked: "That's your recollection?" Giesecke answered: "Right, like I say, I was there a very short time--really." (WC-V:6:72-78) This is the only case of any witness mistaking which side the skull injuries were on. However, despite his error on the laterality, he claimed that the skull defect extended from the occiput to the front of the skull.

14) FOUAD BASHOUR, MD: an associate professor of medicine, cardiology, at Parkland at the time of the assassination. Groden and Livingstone reported, "He was most insistent that the official picture was not representative of the wounds, and he continually laid his hand both on the back of Livingstone's head and his own to show where the large hole was. 'Why do they cover it up?' he repeated numerous times. 'This is not the way it was!' he kept repeating, shaking his head no." (Groden & Livingston, H., High Treason. 1989 New York, Berkley Books, p.45)

15) KENNETH EVERETT SALYER, MD: was an intern at Parkland at the time of JFK's death. In a Warren Commission interview with Arlen Specter, Salyer stated, "...(JFK) had a wound of his right temporal region...I came in on the left side of him and noticed that his major wound seemed to be in his right temporal area, at least from the point of view that I could see him, and other than that--nothing other than he did have a gaping scalp wound-- cranial wound" (Warren Commission-V6:81) Salyer reported to author Aguilar that the wound was right sided but extended both posterior to and anterior to the ear. He repeated a claim made to Robert Groden that the photographs appeared to have been tampered with.

Note: Specter asked Salyer, "To what extent did Dr. Crenshaw participate?"

Salyer answered, "Dr. Crenshaw participated about the extent that I did. We were occupied in making sure an I. V. was going and hanging up a bottle of blood." Specter, "Is the--is Dr. Crenshaw a resident?" Salyer: "yes, he is a third-year resident. That's the reason I remember him specifically because we were sort of working there together on that." (Warren Commission, V6:81)

16) PAT HUTTON, RN: a nurse at Parkland who met the limousine and helped to wheel the President into Trauma Room 1 wrote a report soon after claiming, "Mr. Kennedy was bleeding profusely from a wound in the back of his head, and was lying there unresponsive." (Price Exhibit V21 H 216--Emphasis added). While helping with resuscitation efforts a physician asked her to apply a pressure dressing to the head wound, she observed, however, that, "This was no use, however, because of the massive opening in the back of the head." (IBID)

17) DORIS NELSON, RN: was a supervising nurse at Parkland. She was interviewed by Arlen Specter for the Warren Commission and she was neither asked or volunteered information regarding the nature of JFK's wounds. (WC-V6:143-147) As Groden and Livingstone reported, however, journalist Ben Bradlee, Jr. asked her, "Did you get a good look at his head injuries?" Nelson: "A very good look...When we wrapped him up and put him in the coffin. I saw his whole head." Asked about the accuracy of the HSCA autopsy photographs she reacted: "No. It's not true. Because there was no hair back there. There wasn't even hair back there. It was blown away. Some of his head was blown away and his brains were fallen down on the stretcher." (High Treason I. p. 454)

18) SECRET SERVICE AGENT WILLIAM GREER: described the President's wounds upon arrival at Parkland to Arlen Specter of the Warren Commission: "His head was all shot, this whole part was all a matter of blood like he had been hit." Specter, "Indicating the top and right rear side of the head?" Greer: "Yes, sir; it looked like that was all blown off."(WCV2:124)

19) SECRET SERVICE AGENT CLINT HILL: described the wounds he saw at Parkland as, "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 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." (WC--V2:141)

20) NURSE DIANA HAMILTON BOWRON: greeted the limousine with a stretcher. She claimed, "...the back of his head...well, it was very bad--you know..." Arlen Specter failed to elucidate what she meant by the "back of the head" being very bad. (emphasis added) (WC V6:136:) Within 48 hours of the assassination the British press relayed a second hand account from Bowron through her mother: "...there was blood all over this neck and shoulders. There was a gaping wound in the back of his head." (Livingstone, Killing the Truth , p. 180) Author Livingstone corresponded and spoke by phone with Bowron in 1993. He reported that Bowron claimed, "I first saw the large wound in the back of the head in the car. When we were preparing the body for the coffin I had the opportunity to examine it more closely. It was about five inches in diameter and there was no flap of skin covering it, just a fraction of skin along part of the edges of bone. There was, however, some hair hanging down from the top of the head, which was caked with blood, and most of the brain was missing. The wound was so large I could almost put my whole left fist inside." (Livingstone, Killing the Truth, p. 181) She also said, "...The hole was basically almost the size of a saucer, and sort of from the occiput. So there was quite a reasonable amount missing from the top as well." (Livingstone, Killing the Truth, p. 190) When asked her opinion of the nature of the defect in the rear of the skull, Bowron told Livingstone, "Well, to me it was an exit hole." (Livingstone, Killing the Truth, p. 192) Livingstone asked, "Did you see any entry hole in the back of the head?". "I assumed and I still do that that was an exit wound." Bowron answered. ( Killing the Truth , p. 195). Bowron prepared a drawing depicting the skull wound as she saw it for Livingstone which bears a striking similarity to the diagram of the wound prepared by Robert McClelland, MD and agreed to by Paul Peters, MD ( High Treason in group of images following p. 23 in hard cover edition.) It shows a defect squarely in the occiput on the right side; a second diagram depicting the skull from above shows the right rear quadrant of the skull absent with the notation "missing". (Killing the Truth,in images following p. 368)

21) WILLIAM MIDGETT, MD: an Obstetrics and Gynecology resident at Parkland greeted the President's limousine pushing a stretcher. In an interview with Wallace Milam on February 8, 1993, he described JFK's wound as "right parietal" and said it was behind the right ear.

22) DON T. CURTIS, D.D.S.: an oral surgery resident was mentioned in the Warren Report (p.66), but gave no account to the Commission regarding JFK's wounds. Pre-med student, Brad J. Parker, sent Curtis a copy of McClelland's drawing showing a large right-sided defect in the rear of JFK's skull to ask his opinion about it. On October 25, 1994, Curtis wrote Parker. His letter in full read: Dear Mr. Parker, The drawing by Dr. Robert McClelland is essentially by recollection of the wound suffered by John F. Kennedy. Please let me know if you need any further information. Best regards, Don T. Curtis, D.D.S.

 

Credit: Dr. Gary Aguilar

 

 

[Pat Speer]

10 minutes ago, Sandy Larsen said:

 

The desperation, Pat, is for the truth to be told. That is what some of us want.

Even right here you are not telling the truth! The doctors were NOT significantly inconsistent on the location of the wound.... nearly every one of them said it was on the back of the head. Nobody said it was on the top of the head.

Naturally a few of them later changed their stories, like when they were instructed to do so early on, and then later when they learned that the back-of-head autopsy photo shows no wound.

 

What the doctors really said versus what certain people claim they said is discussed in great detail on my website.

As far as "back of the head"... It turns out that that's an incredibly vague term. When Clint Hill finally pointed out what he meant by the back of the head, he pointed to a location above and behind the right ear. And no, he wasn't being a little coward, as much as big strong men on the internet might choose to believe. if he was trying to push a lone nut scenario because he was scared of the boogie man CIA, whatever, he wouldn't have said, numerous times, that he thinks the single-bullet theory is nonsense. 

And he is not wrong. IF someone runs up behind you and smacks you on the right side of your head above and behind your ear, you don't say "Ouch! He hit me on the side of my head above and behind my ear!" you say "Yikes! That son-uva-bitch smacked on the back of the head!" Fact.