President Lyndon B. Johnson 1971

In 1971, the retired president gave an interview to Leo Sands of the Atlantic Monthly. At that time he said,

“The assassination in Dallas had been part of a conspiracy. I have never believed that Oswald acted alone.”

Congressional Committee 1978

In 1978 a Congressional committee investigating the assassination of President Kennedy, issued a report in September of that year which concluded:

“We believe, and the facts strongly suggest, that President Kennedy was assassinated as the direct result of a conspiracy…”

Life (magazine) 1966: On November 25, 1966, Life magazine editors issued the following statement:

“One conclusion is inescapable: the national interest deserves clear resolution of the doubts. A new investigating body should be set up, perhaps at the initiative of Congress. In a scrupulously objective and unhurried atmosphere, without the pressure to give assurance to a shocked country, it should reexamine the evidence and consider other evidence the Warren Commission failed to evaluate.”

One or Multiple Assassins?

The FBI Report of December 9, 1963 concluded that Lee Harvey Oswald, acting alone, fired his rifle three times from his perch through an open window on the sixth floor of the Book Depository Building. All shots, the Report said, were from behind the President. That Report further stated that:
1. The first shot hit the President in the back

2. The second shot hit Governor Connelly in his back 1.08 seconds later.

3. The third shot hit President Kennedy in the back of the head.

However, during repeated reenactments, expert riflemen could not fire Oswald’s Italian made bolt-action carbine a second time within the 1.08 time frame demanded by the second shot. (As shown in the Zapruder film.)

Therefore, since Oswald could not have fired the shot that hit Governor Connelly, there had to be more than one assassin in Daeley Plaza on November 22, 1963.

But that conclusion did not fit the one reached by the FBI Report that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone. So, the Warren Commission proposed a different scenario in support the lone gunman declaration in the FBI Report.

The Warren Commission staff suggested that the bullet that hit President Kennedy in the back, exited his body through his throat. Then, that same bullet entered the back of Governor Connelly, exited, and  hit his wrist, exited and lodged in his thigh. (see illustration below) At the time, critics called this the ‘magic bullet’ theory.

However, during the autopsy conducted at Bethesda Naval Hospital in Washington D.C., the physicians described a different scenario. They reported that a bullet had entered the President’s back five and one/half inches below his collar and two inches to the right of his spine.Further, they reported that the projectile penetrated his body at a 60 degree angle to the depth of two inches. And, they also concluded in their autopsy report, that this bullet  did not exit his body.

Therefore, we must conclude that the bullet that hit President Kennedy in the back could not have caused the wounds to Governor Connelly.

So,we must also conclude that there had to be more than one assassin in Daeley Plaza on November 22, 1963.

Emergency Room Attending Physician Reports

In their emergency room reports, several Parkland Hospital physicians described a serious and fatal wound to the president on the right rear of his head. In the attached photo, each physician graphically describes the location of the head wound (see the attached montage photograph).  The insert below is of Doctor Carrico, Dr. McCelland, Dr. Jenkins and Dr. Crenshaw. All of these men were present in the emergency room at Parkland Hospital and reported their observations of what they described as an exit wound, in their hospital reports.

The reader should remember that their observations were made immediately after the assassination and their reports were written within hours of the assassination of President Kennedy. None of these men even knew of the Zapruder film, or of the FBI Report or the Warren Commission Report in which it was insisted that all shots came from the rear of the president. These medical professionals shown here were untainted by such conclusions, made later.

These same men testified in 1964 for the Warren Commission and for the Congressional Special Committee meeting in 1977. Their testimony on those occasions was consistent (it did not change) with their Emergency room hospital reports written on November 22, 1963.

There will be two more posts on this subject.  You can order one or both volumes of The Kennedy Assassination Volume I & II at the web site, The Kennedy Murder.com using Pay Pal, or through Amazon. The e books are available through Amazon as well.

Volume I is subtitled, Was Oswald the Only Assassin? The second volume is subtitled, Why Was Kennedy Killed? See more at the web site, The Kennedy Murder.com

President Kennedy’s Fatal Head Wound

The medical professionals at Parkland Hospital’s emergency room discovered two wounds during their initial examination of President Kennedy. The first and most obvious to them, was an entry wound to the president’s throat.

The second and most damaging wound was an exit wound on the back right of JFK’s head.  It was this second wound which they judged caused the president to lose almost a  third of his brain.

Dr. Robert McClelland attached this crude freehand drawing to his Parkland Hospital emergency room report.  He testified that JFK was hit on the right front  of his head with an exit wound in the back of his head. His testimony to the Warren Commission was supported by Dr. Kemp Clark, Dr. Paul Peters, Dr. Ronald Jones, Dr. Gene Akin in their sworn testimony. All of these medical professionals testified that this head wound was an exit wound.

At the scene of the murder, Patrolman Bobby Hargis testified that his uniform and motorcycle windshield was covered with blood and flesh. In the attached photo, Patrolman is seen the rear and left of President Kennedy.

Bill and Gayle Newman were standing along the parade route. They  reported to the Dallas police on November 24, 1963 that they saw a bullet hit President Kennedy on the front right of his head

The Zapruder film clearly shows a bullet hitting the president’s head in the right front. Thirty eight onlookers testified to Warren Commission personnel that they heard gunfire coming from the Grassy Knoll along Elm Street, behind them.

Never-the-less, the FBI Report and later, the Warren Commission Report insisted that all shots came from behind the President and were all fired by Lee Harvey Oswald from the Book Depository building.  In his Warren Commission testimony, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover testified, “there is not one scintilla of proof that there was a conspiracy (more than one assassin), foreign or domestic.”

Despite the testimony of the above professionals and others (see previous blog) to the frontal wounds to the throat and the head, Congressman Gerald Ford. a member of the Warren Commission, wrote for Life Magazine in October 1864, dismissing the existence of either wound.

“There is no evidence of a second gunman, or of other shots or other guns.”

Direction of the Shots: The Throat Wound

The FBI Report of December 9, 1963 was leaked to the media before its authorized release. In that report, the Bureau claimed that all shots fired at President Kennedy came from behind the president and fired by a single assassin.

However, the reports filed by the emergency room doctors at Parkland Hospital lead us to believe otherwise.  Several doctors and an attending nurse stated that they discovered an entry wound in the president’s throat.

Dr. Malcom Perry revealed this finding at a press conference held at 3:16 PM on November 22nd not much more than an hour after JFK was pronounced dead in the Parkland Hospital Emergency Room. During questioning at that press conference, he  repeated three times that the president’s throat wound was one of entry. As a result, the information about this throat entry wound was immediately and widely reported in the press. Following the press conference, Federal officials confiscated the recording of the Perry press conference.  And, in a phone call that evening a federal official told Perry  to change his hospital report about the throat wound being an entrance wound.

Parkland Hospital procedures included a written report detailing any treatment of all patients treated in the Emergency Room. In their reports,  Doctors Carrico and Clark supported Dr. Perry’s  finding that the President’s throat wound was an entry wound. They repeated this observation during their testimony for the Warren Commission in 1964. Also, nurse Margaret Henchliffe, in her Warren Commission testimony, concurred with them about the throat wound being one of entry. So did Dr. Paul Peters and Dr. Ronald Jones who were also observing the examination of the president.

Note: The site of the entry wound referred to above was used for a tracheotomy performed on President Kennedy when he was being treated at Parkland Hospital. Thus, the wound in this photo shows the location of the original wound of entry but it does not reflect the small size of the original wound. It does show the larger incision made for the tracheotomy.

Never-the-less,  the FBI Report issued in December 1963 did not mention  the testimony of these Emergency Room professionals. The Warren Commission Report issued in September 1964, dismissed  their testimony and agreed with the FBI Report that all shots came from behind the president.

But, if the Parkland Emergency Room testimony  given by multiple medical professionals that the wound in the president’s throat was one of entry is correct, there had to be more than one assassin in Dallas that day.  That would mean Lee Harvey Oswald could not have acted alone. Such a conclusion would have necessarily demanded a more thorough investigation; something President Johnson and FBI Director Hoover, agreed they did not want.

Next week, we will examine more disturbing findings from the Parkland Hospital emergency room.

The December 9, 1963 FBI Report

The President of the United States, John F. Kennedy was shot shortly after noon on November 22, 1963 while riding in the presidential limousine through Dallas, Texas. He was pronounced dead at Parkland Hospital at 1 PM that same day.

On Sunday, the 24th, the man who was accused of the president’s murder was killed while in Dallas police custody. The following day, Assistant Director of the FBI Sullivan ordered the agents in the Dallas FBI office to shut down any further investigation of the murder.

On December 9, 1963 the FBI leaked a copy of their report to the media. In that report, they concluded that:

1) Lee Harvey Oswald was the lone assassin. And that,
2) Lee Harvey Oswald fired three shots from the sixth floor of the Book Depository Building. And that,
3) All shots were fired from behind President Kennedy.

The Report further attested that:

1) The first shot hit President Kennedy’s in his back, five and one half inches down from his collar and two inches to the right of his spine.
2) A second shot fired one and eight tenths of a second later, hit Governor Connally in his back.
3) The third shot hit President Kennedy in the head, killing him.

The New Kennedy Blog Series

You might be aware that the people at the National Archives recently released a batch of documents related to the assassination of  President Kennedy. Even then, the intelligence folks in Washington DC asked that some documents still be withheld. President Trump gave them additional time to release those.; but not much time.

Historians who have reviewed some of the released documents have not yet found anything shocking. Or, for that matter, information that wasn’t known long ago. Comments from reviewers I have read seem to support the FBI and Warren Commission reports. That is, a single shooter killed President Kennedy; that  all shots were fired from behind the president; and that  Lee Harvey Oswald was the lone shooter.

(To the left is a photo of President and Mrs. Kennedy in Dallas November 22, 1963. He is in a motorcade waving to the thousands of people standing along the parade route that day.)

As you might know, I have written two historical novels dealing with the assassination of President Kennedy. Volume I is titled, The Kennedy Assassination: Was Oswald the Only Assassin?  Volume II is titled,  Why Was Kennedy Killed? These books can be obtained at Amazon.com. Enter my name Michael J. Deeb and order either a print or an e book. If you go to my website, www.The Kennedy Murder.com.  you can order the autographed books directly from me via pay pal.

So, the purpose of this message is that  I will send you blogs over the next few weeks relating to the Kennedy assassination. The content will be the result of my research and contained in the first volume, Was Oswald the Only Assassin. In these blogs, I will only use information available to the FBI and the Warren Commission before they issued their reports. I hope you enjoy the read.