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
Dr. GREGORY. I think it is plausible that the bullet, having struck
the President's head, may have broken into more than one fragment. I
think you apprised me of the fact that it did, in fact, disperse into
a number of fragments, and they took tangential directions from the
original path apparently.
Mr. SPECTER. Assuming the fact that the autopsy surgeon presented
for the record a statement that the fragments moved forward into the
vicinity of the President's right eye, as the diagram shows, that there
were approximately 40 star-like fragments running on a line through the
head on the trajectory, and that there was substantial fragmentation of
the bullet as it passed through the head, what is your view about that?
Dr. GREGORY. I think it is possible that a fragment from that
particular missile may have escaped and struck the Governor's right arm.
Mr. SPECTER. Did you have an opportunity to observe the slides and
films commonly referred to as the Zapruder film this morning?
Dr. GREGORY. Yes; I saw those this morning.
Mr. SPECTER. Did they shed any light on the conclusions--as to your
conclusions with respect to the wounds of the Governor and what you
observed in the treatment of the Governor?
Dr. GREGORY. Yes, to this extent. It seemed to me in frames marked 234,
235, and 236, Governor Connally was in a position such that a single
missile entered his back, could have passed through his chest, through
his right forearm, and struck his thigh. That is a possibility.
I looked at the film very carefully to see if I could relate the
position of Governor Connally's right arm to the movement when the
missile struck the President's head, presumably the third missile, and
I think that the record will show that those are obscured to a degree
that the Governor's right arm cannot be seen. In the Governor's own
words, he did not realize his right arm had been injured, and he has no
idea when it was struck. This is historical fact to us at the time of
the initial interview with him.
Mr. DULLES. Could I ask just one question? If a bullet had merely
struck the Governor's arm without previously having struck anything
else, is it conceivable that impediment of the bone that it hit there
would be consistent with merely a flesh wound on the thigh? Do you
follow me?
Dr. GREGORY. Yes; I follow you. I would doubt it on the basis of the
kind of wound that the Governor has. Now the kind of wound in the
Governor's right forearm is the kind that indicates there was not an
excessive amount of energy expended there, which means either that the
missile producing it had dissipated much of its energy, either that or
there was an impediment to it someplace else along the way.
It is simply that there was not enough energy loss there, and one would
expect a soft tissue injury beyond that point to be of considerably
greater magnitude.
Mr. SPECTER. Dr. Gregory, did I take your deposition back on March 23,
1964, at Parkland Hospital?
Dr. GREGORY. Yes; you did.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account