Warren Commission (02 of 26): Hearings Vol. II (of 15)United States. Warren Commission
History
Warren Commission (02 of 26): Hearings Vol. II (of 15)
United States. Warren Commission
Kennedy, John F. (John Fitzgerald), 1917-1963 -- Assassination; Oswald, Lee Harvey
Mr. KELLERMAN. If you will excuse me just a minute. I was trying to
elaborate on the last question.
Mr. SPECTER. Pardon me. Go ahead.
Mr. KELLERMAN. Just for the record, I wish to have this down. While the
President is in the morgue, he is lying flat. And with the part of the
skull removed, and the hole in the throat, nobody was aware until they
lifted him up that there was a hole in his shoulder. That was the first
concrete evidence that they knew that the man was hit in the back first.
Mr. SPECTER. When did they lift him up and first observe the hole in
the shoulder?
Mr. KELLERMAN. They had been working on him for quite some time,
Mr. Specter--through the photos and other things they do through an
autopsy. And I believe it was this Colonel Finck who raised him and
there was a clean hole.
Mr. SPECTER. What was said, if anything, by those present at the
autopsy concerning the wound in the throat?
Mr. KELLERMAN. To go back just a little further, the reason for the
hole in the throat, the tracheotomy; I am thinking they were of the
opinion that when the--when he was shot in the head, and they had found
this piece remaining above the eye underneath; I am sure there was some
concern as to where the outlet was, and whether they considered--this
is all an assumption now; whether they considered this--that there was
a hole here in the throat prior to the tracheotomy, I don't know. But
to complete the examination, they lifted him up by the shoulders, and
there was this hole. Now, I think you asked me a question. Could you
repeat it, please?
Mr. SPECTER. Well, let's be sure that we have your final answer on the
question of any conversation at all about a point of entry in the front
part of his body, in his throat, or any place else.
Mr. KELLERMAN. I don't believe, Mr. Specter, that it was ever concluded
that there was an entry in the front.
Mr. SPECTER. Then that completes the conversations at the autopsy?
Mr. KELLERMAN. Yes, sir.
Mr. SPECTER. On any of the subjects I have asked you about?
Mr. KELLERMAN. Right.
Mr. SPECTER. The question which I had then started to ask you was
whether you had any impression at the time of the second and third
shots, which you described as a flurry of shots, as to the point of
origin or source of those shots.
Mr. KELLERMAN. The only answer I can give to that is that they would
have to come from the rear.
Mr. SPECTER. Well, is that the impression or reaction you had at the
time of the flurry?
Mr. KELLERMAN. That is right, sir.
Mr. SPECTER. Have you ever, since the time of the assassination to this
date, had any contrary impression, reaction, or view that the shots
came from the front of the President?
Mr. KELLERMAN. No.
Mr. SPECTER. Now, Mr. Kellerman, with respect to the immediate reaction
by you to the emergency situation, did you consider at any time leaving
your seat, on the right front of the President's automobile, to go into
the rear portion, where the President sat?
Mr. KELLERMAN. No, sir.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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