Primary source material for this blog post:
The Head Wound (Parkland and Bethesda Eyewitnesses)
Chapter 19 from Pat Speer's manuscript (see chapters 19f, 19g, and 19h)
My last blog post on the Parkland doctors discussed the issue of whether we should really care about what they thought about JFK's wounds. They were frantically trying to save Kennedy's life and had little time to thoroughly examine his wounds. I also included a major study about the errors that attending physicians make in evaluating gunshot wounds.
A number of researchers have claimed that all the Parkland doctors were in agreement that the back of Kennedy's head was blown out.
With the exception of Adolph Giesecke, MD, the Parkland witnesses were unanimous in placing the skull wound rearward on the right side. No Parkland observer placed the wound solely anteriorly on the right side. (Adolph Giesecke, MD felt the wound extended from occiput to the front, but on the left side.) Given Mrs. Kennedy's recollection of "holding the top of his head down" it may well be that the wound did extend more anteriorly than was apparent to Parkland witnesses. This might be explained by a blood clot forming en route from Dealey Plaza to Parkland while Mrs. Kennedy held "the top" of JFK's "head down" causing the more anterior extent of the wound to be unappreciated by the emergency personnel. It is clear, however, that the Parkland witnesses described a wound in the rear of the skull on the right side. The background and qualifications of the Parkland observers make their repeated, corroborating observations compelling: there was a very obvious defect in the back of the head which was much more than a bullet entrance wound.
But were they unanimous? Were they all certain as to what they had seen? Were they even in a position to really know the extent of JFK's wounds?
So, let's have a look at what the Parkland doctors wrote and what they said. The purpose of this post is to show that their statements were all over the map; that they were not unanimous in their viewpoints; and that their own statements varied over the years.
Dr. McClelland
Dr. McClelland's written report from November 22, 1963, states that JFK had a wound in his left temple, which clearly shows he was either confused or did not get a good look at the wound:
He wrote that "cause of death was due to massive head and brain injury from a gunshot wound of the left temple."
McClelland told Vince Bugliosi that "yes, that was a mistake. I never saw any wound of the left temple. Dr. Jenkins had told me there was a wound there, though he later denied telling me this." Gerald Posner wrote that Jenkins said that when McClelland entered the emergency room, he asked the location of the wounds. Jenkins had his hand on Kennedy's left temple, and McClelland thought he was pointing to a wound. But why McClelland would write this in his report when he had supposedly seen a blow-out in the back of Kennedy's head is beyond me.
On December 18, 1963, Dr. McClelland spoke to Richard Dudman of the St. Lous Post-Dispatch:
Secret Service agent Elmer Moore shared the conclusions of the autopsy pathologists with the Parkland doctors:
Of course, some conspiracy theorists maintain that Moore applied pressure. But McClelland denied that right up front:
McClelland was then quoted in the January 1964 issue of the Texas State Journal of Medicine:
"A gunshot wound of the right side of the head."
McClelland testified that he looked at the head wound when he was helping Dr. Perry with the tracheostomy:
Note that McClelland specifies both that he was at the head of the table helping out with the tracheotomy when he examined Kennedy's head wound, and that this put him in position to closely examine the wound. Here is Figure PR10.1, "Position for Tracheotomy", from the textbook Emergency Medicine (edited by Harold May, 1984):
This closely mirrors the position on the slide above. Note that in order to expose the neck the head is tilted sharply backwards in the tracheotomy position. So how in the heck could McClelland 1) closely examine a wound low on the back of Kennedy's head while Kennedy was in such a position and he (McClelland) was standing at the head of the table? and 2) claim his standing at the head of the table put him in "such a position that I could very closely examine the head wound"?
Dr. McClelland spoke to a reporter from Newsday in 1992:
Dr. Kemp Clark:
Dr. Kemp Clark: ... to relieve any possibility of air being in the pleural space, the electrocardiogram had been hooked up, blood and fluids were being administered by Dr. Perry and Dr. Baxter. It was apparent that the President had sustained a lethal wound. A missile had gone in or out of the back of his head, causing extensive lacerations and loss of brain tissue.
You can see that Clark wasn't sure about the direction of the bullet that hit Kennedy in the head. Notice he did not say bullets.
Question: Doctor, can you describe the course of the wound through the head?
Dr. Kemp Clark: We were too busy to be absolutely sure of the track, but the back of his head.
Yes, they were "too busy" to be sure of the track.
Dr. Malcolm Perry: There was an entrance wound in the neck. As regards the one on the head, I cannot say.
Question: Which way was the bullet coming on the neck wound? At him?
Dr. Malcolm Perry: It appeared to be coming at him.
Question: And the one behind?
Dr. Malcolm Perry: The nature of the wound defies the ability to describe whether it went through it from either side. I cannot tell you that. Can you, Dr. Clark?
Dr. Kemp Clark: 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.
Clark is so unsure about the head wound that he theorizes that it might be an exit wound from the neck or a tangential wound.
He then notes that "further examination was not possible as cardiac arrest occurred at this point."
Here is what he told the Texas State Journal of Medicine:
Dr. Clark did not make many public statements but was quoted in a UPI story from 1983:
UPI, The Kilgore News Herald, November 20, 1983
Dr. Malcolm Perry
Dr. Perry was an attending surgeon and a vascular consultant at Parkland Hospital.
He says the "right posterior parietal area."
Dr. Paul Peters
Dr Peters was a urologist at Parkland Hospital. He arrived in the Emergency room at 12:50 PM.
Dr. Peters changed his views somewhat when talking with Gerald Posner in 1992: (page 311 in Case Closed)
I saw the photograph of the brain when I was in Washington for the Nova program, and I saw the cerebellum was depressed, but it was not lacerated or torn. It is definitely pressed down and that would be the damage I referred to in 1964.… 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.
Dr. Peters was quoted in an article in the Dallas Morning News on June 6, 1992:
Dr. Marion Jenkins
Dr. Marion Jenkins was Chairman of the Department of Anesthesiology at Parkland Hospital.
He wrote that there "was a great laceration on the right side of the head (temporal and occipital).. "
He said, "I thought there was a round on the left temporal area ... " He noted the error in his testimony saying there was some clotted blood there which he thought might have been a wound.
Jenkins said "one segment of bone was blown out -- it was a segment of occipital or temporal bone." So, he's not sure which?
Dr. Jenkins spoke to Gerald Posner in 1992: (page 309 in Case Closed)
From what I read in later books, everyone looked at it in detail from the beginning, but that is not true. We were trying to save the President, and no one had time to examine the wounds. As for the head wound, they couldn’t look at it earlier because I was standing with my body against it, and they would only have looked at my pants.
Jenkins also said he was in error in saying he saw a portion of the cerebellum: (page 311)
The description was my fault. 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.
Dr. Charles Carrico
Dr. Charles Carrico was a resident in surgery at Parkland Hospital.
Dr. Carrico says the head wound is in the "occipitoparietal area."
Now, it's the parietal occipital area and it was "above and posterior to the ear, almost from the crown of he head ... "
Dr. Carrico spoke to Gerald Posner in 1992, and he said that "we never had the opportunity to review his wounds in order to describe them accurately. We were trying to save his life." (page 309 of Case Closed)
He also said: (page 311)
We did say there was a parietal-occipital wound. We did say we saw shattered brain, cerebellum, in the cortex area, and I think we were mistaken. The reason I say that is that the President was lying on his back and shoulders, and you could see the hole, with scalp and brain tissue hanging back down his head, and it covered most of the occipital portion of his head. 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. And if we said otherwise, we were mistaken.
Dr. Charles Baxter:
Baxter said that the "large gaping wound" was covered at that time with blood."
Here is another excerpt:
Baxter testifies that "literally the right side of his head had been blown off."
Baxter says the head wound was "in the temporal parietal plate of bone laid outward to the side ... "
Gerald Posner spoke to Dr. Baxter and quoted him in his book, Case Closed: (page 312)
He had such a bushy head of hair, and blood and all in it, you couldn't tell what was wound versus dried blood or dangling tissue. I have been misquoted enough on this, some saying I claimed the whole back of his head was blown away. That's just wrong. I never even saw the back of his head. The wound was on the right side, not the back.
Dr. Gene Akin
Dr. Akin was an anesthesiologist at Parkland Hospital.
Dr. Ron Jones
Dr. Jones was a resident physician in surgery at Parkland Hospital.
Jones noted a "tremendous amount of clot and blood," which must have affected everybody's view of the wound.
Dr. Adolph Giesecke, Jr.
Dr. Giesecke was an anesthesiologist at Parkland Hospital.
He thought the wound was on the left side:
Dr. Kenneth Salyer
Dr. Salyer was a resident surgeon at Parkland Hospital.
Dr. Bill Midgett
Dr. Bill Midgett was an obstetrics-gynecology resident at Parkland Hospital who took a stretcher to the limousine when it arrived. Aguilar includes him as a back-of-the-head witness because he told Wallace Milam that the head wound was "right parietal."
But Midgett only says the wound was parietal and not occipital. Further, here is what he told Gerald Posner:
The President had quite thick hair, and there was a lot of blood and tissue. All of us were so shocked ... and to have Mrs. Kennedy there -- none of us stared very closely to see the wound. But it was more parietal than occipital -- that much I could see. I did not turn the President over to look, but there was no cerebellum in the car or on the people.
Dr. Charles Crenshaw
Dr. Charles Crenshaw was a third-year surgery resident at Parkland Hospital.
Dr. Crenshaw's book, JFK: Conspiracy of Silence, did not always describe Kennedy's head wound as being on the back of the head:
Page 87:
Dr. Crenshaw is the only source for this quote from Dr. Clark that the "whole right side" of Kennedy's head was shot off.
Page 78:
" .. the entire right hemisphere of his brain was missing ..."
Page 89:
" ... there is still nothing that can save a victim who loses the entire right side of his brain."
Page 132:
Crenshaw writes that the head wound was on the "right side of the President's head."
Doris Nelson
Doris Nelson was a supervising nurse at Parkland Hospital. She did not describe Kennedy's wounds for the Warren Commission. However, she did tell Ben Bradlee, Jr., in an article for the Boston Globe, that she disputed the accuracy of a tracing of an autopsy photo and said that "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."
Please note that I will be writing a separate blog post on the Boston Globe article by Ben Bradlee, Jr.
As you can see, the above statements show a wide variety of opinions about the head wound. There were no precise measurements and no precise placements of the wound -- it was described as occipital, parietal and temporal. Most doctors weren't in a good position to look at the wound, and Dr. McClelland did not even raise JFK's head.
But even more surprising is that the Parkland doctors missed the huge wound at the top of Kennedy's head. The Delta fragment was a triangular fragment found in the limousine: (pages 276 - 277 of JFK Assassinated: In the Courtroom: Debating the Critic Research Community)
Most relevant to this question, however, is that McClelland did not apparently observe the large gaping defect at the top of the president’s head that indisputably existed because of the evacuation of the large Delta fragment, measuring approximately 10 x 6.5 cm (about 4 x 2.5 in.) from either just in front of or behind the coronal suture on top of the president’s head (depending on which CRC [Critical Research Community] opinion one considers most credible concerning the fragment’s source) during the shooting. If, as suggested by Aguilar and Wecht in “The Medical Case for Conspiracy,” the Parkland doctors did spend some time examining the president’s head wounds, it becomes far more curious to suppose these doctors completely missed the large chunk of missing skull on the top of the president’s head (even anterior to the coronal suture, according to some researchers) represented by the Delta fragment. Further, had the Parkland doctors taken the time to examine the president’s head wounds, they would have noticed entry wounds in his forehead or right temple—injuries that others claim were noticeable without much effort or intrusion. But they didn’t notice these.
The Delta fragment came from the top of Kennedy's skull and was not occipital bone.
Wagner concludes: (page 374)
Finally, as I discuss in chapter 8, regardless of coronal or sagittal location for the Delta fragment, can anyone really be convinced that Parkland doctors, including McClelland and Clark, did not notice this large chunk of missing skull on top of the president’s head? Both McClelland and Clark located the blast wound mostly in the back-back side of the president’s head. How can that be? These doctors did not claim to see more than one hole, or even a big hole encompassing a larger portion of the president’s head toward the top. They saw one hole, and the facts and circumstances lead to only one plausible conclusion: The hole they saw was on mostly the top-top right of the president’s head.
Previous Relevant Blog Posts on the Medical Evidence
Attending physicians often make mistakes in determining the nature of gunshot wounds. Should we care what the Parkland doctors think?
The attending physician in the John Lennon murder was proved wrong about his wounds.
Wecht complains about the HSCA's forensic pathology panel.
Wecht has a suggestion for Dr. Baden.
Wecht's memoir mentions his examination of the autopsy materials in 1972 but neglects to talk about his conclusion that the fatal head shot came from behind.
James DiEugenio's obituary of Dr. Wecht leaves out his conclusion that the fatal head shot came from behind.
Dr. Cyril Wecht (1931 - 2024) זיכרונו לברכה
My obituary for Dr. Cyril Wecht.
A letter from Dr. Wecht to Thomas Stamm on the head shot.
A letter from Dr. Wecht to Sylvia Meagher on the head shot.
Dr. Wecht believes that JFK's throat wound was one of exit.
Dr. Robert Kirschner's consultation with the ARRB explains a mystery in the documentary.
JFK Revisited makes a big deal about the weight of JFK's brain and ignores a non-conspiratorial explanation.
Oliver Stone's so-called documentary makes it sound like the autopsy photographer said that he did not take the photos of JFK's brain that are in the current inventory,
Oliver Stone's so-called documentary series, JFK: Destiny Betrayed, features Dr. Charles Crenshaw to bolster its claim that President Kennedy was shot from the front. Viewers are not informed of Dr. Crenshaw's credibility problems.
Oliver Stone's so-called documentary, JFK: Destiny Betrayed, misleads viewers on the opinions of Parkland Hospital doctors and Bethesda witnesses regarding JFK's head wound.
Oliver Stone's so-called documentary series, JFK: Destiny Betrayed, misleads viewers into thinking the Harper fragment was occipital bone that came from the back of Kennedy's head.
Have a look at Dr. Joseph Dolce's bad judgment.
Oliver Stone's so-called documentary series JFK: Destiny Betrayed uses a variety of supposed witnesses to allege that the wound in the back of Kennedy's head was one of exit. Audrey Bell is one such witness and she doesn't have much credibility.
Oliver Stone's so-called documentary series, JFK: Destiny Betrayed, tries to make the case that because Parkland Hospital doctors saw cerebellum extruding from Kennedy's head wound, that it indicated an exit wound.
While Gerald Ford edited some language in the Warren Report, he did not change the location of the back wound. Autopsy photographs show exactly the location of the back wound.
Oliver Stone's so-called documentary series, JFK: Destiny Betrayed, alleges that autopsy pathologists were told to fit the wounds to a presupposed conclusion.
A podcast with Robert Wagner who has written an important book on the medical evidence.