Warren Commission (04 of 26): Hearings Vol. IV (of 15)United States. Warren Commission
History
Warren Commission (04 of 26): Hearings Vol. IV (of 15)
United States. Warren Commission
Kennedy, John F. (John Fitzgerald), 1917-1963 -- Assassination; Oswald, Lee Harvey
That wound was subsequently left open; in other words, we did not
suture it or sew it together. This is done in deference to potential
infection which we know often to be associated with retained organic
material such as cloth.
The wound on the volar surface or the palmar side of his wrist was
enlarged. The purpose in enlarging it was an uncertainty as to the
condition of the major nerves in the volar side of the wrist, and so
these nerves were identified and explored and found to be intact, as
were adjacent tendons. So that that wound was then sutured, closed.
After this, the fracture was manipulated into a hopefully respectable
position of the fragments, and a cast was applied, and some traction,
using rubber bands, was applied to the finger and the thumb in order
to better hold the fracture fragments in their reduced or repositioned
state.
Mr. SPECTER. Dr. Gregory, could all of the rounds which were inflicted
on the Governor, that is, those described by Dr. Shaw, and those which
you have described during your testimony, have been inflicted from
one missile if that missile were a 6.5 millimeter bullet fired from
a weapon having a muzzle velocity of approximately 2,000 feet per
second at a distance of approximately 160 to 250 feet, if you assumed a
trajectory with an angle of decline approximately 45 degrees?
Dr. GREGORY. I believe that the three wounds could have occurred from a
single missile under these specifications.
Mr. SPECTER. Assume, if you will, another set of hypothetical
circumstances: That the 6.5 millimeter bullet traveling at the same
muzzle velocity, to wit, 2,000 feet per second, at approximately 165
feet between the weapon and the victim, struck the President in the
back of the neck passing through the large strap muscles, going through
a fascia channel, missing the pleural cavity, striking no bones and
emerging from the lower anterior third of the neck, after striking the
trachea. Could such a projectile have then passed into the Governor's
back and inflicted all three or all of the wounds which have been
described here today?
Dr. GREGORY. I believe one would have to concede the possibility, but I
believe firmly that the probability is much diminished.
Mr. SPECTER. Why do you say that, sir?
Dr. GREGORY. I think that to pass through the soft tissues of the
President would certainly have decelerated the missile to some extent.
Having then struck the Governor and shattered a rib, it is further
decelerated, yet it has presumably retained sufficient energy to smash
a radius.
Moreover, it escaped the forearm to penetrate at least the skin and
fascia of the thigh, and I am not persuaded that this is very probable.
I would have to yield to possibility. I am sure that those who deal
with ballistics can do better for you than I can in this regard.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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