Warren Commission (06 of 26): Hearings Vol. VI (of 15)United States. Warren Commission
History
Warren Commission (06 of 26): Hearings Vol. VI (of 15)
United States. Warren Commission
Kennedy, John F. (John Fitzgerald), 1917-1963 -- Assassination; Oswald, Lee Harvey
Dr. McCLELLAND. I don't recall whether I told him that or not. I really
don't remember whether I said I had seen the wound myself or whether
I was merely referring to our sort of collective opinion of it, or
whether I told him I had not seen the wound and was merely going by Dr.
Perry's report of it to me. I don't recall now, this far away in time
exactly what I said to him.
Mr. SPECTER. Dr. McClelland, I want to ask you a few additional
questions, and some of these questions may duplicate questions which I
asked you last Saturday, and the reason for that is, we have not yet
had a chance to transcribe the deposition of last Saturday, so I do not
have before me the questions I asked you at that time and the answers
you gave, and since last Saturday I have taken the depositions of many,
many doctors on the same topics, so it is not possible for me to be
absolutely certain of the specific questions which I asked you at that
time, but permit me to ask you one or several more questions on the
subject.
First, how many bullets do you think were involved in inflicting the
wounds on President Kennedy which you observed?
Dr. McCLELLAND. At the present time, you mean, or at the immediate
moment?
Mr. SPECTER. Well, take the immediate moment and then the present time.
Dr. McCLELLAND. At the moment, of course, it was our impression before
we had any other information from any other source at all, when we were
just confronted with the acute emergency, the brief thoughts that ran
through our minds were that this was one bullet, that perhaps entered
through the front of the neck and then in some peculiar fashion which
we really had, as I mentioned the other day, to strain to explain to
ourselves, had coursed up the front of the vertebra and into the base
of the skull and out the rear of the skull.
This would have been a very circuitous route for the bullet to have
made, so that when we did find later on what the circumstances were
surrounding the assassination, this was much more readily explainable
to ourselves that the two wounds were made by two separate bullets.
Mr. SPECTER. And what is your view or opinion today as to how many
bullets inflicted the injuries of President Kennedy?
Dr. McCLELLAND. Two.
Mr. SPECTER. Now, what would be the reason for your changing your
opinion in that respect?
Dr. McCLELLAND. Oh, just simply the later reports that we heard from
all sources, of all the circumstances surrounding the assassination.
Certainly no further first-hand information came to me and made me
change my mind in that regard.
Mr. SPECTER. Dr. McClelland, let me ask you to assume a few additional
facts, and based on a hypothetical situation which I will put to you
and I'll ask you for an opinion.
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