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.