AUTOPSY SURGEON SAYS PHOTOS SUPPORT WARREN REPORT ON WOUND IN NECK

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP74-00297R000800010003-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 23, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 14, 2013
• Sequence Number: 3
• Publication Date: November 25, 1966
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

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Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2013/05/14: CIA-RDP74-00297R000800010003-3
NOV 'WO
ALiZopsy Surgeon Says Photos Support
Warren Report on Wc:ind in Neck
_
By PETER MILS'S
X-rays and photographs taken
STATduring the autopsy of President
Kennedy verify the location of
-a disputed wound at the base
,of the back of his neck. But by
'themselves they cannot end the
argument over a bullet's path
through his body.
This was the opinion yester-
day of one autopsy surgeon,
who has seen the X-rays and
photographs, which were put
into the National Archives Oct.
31. It is also the private opinion
of two investigators for the
Warren Commission.
In a telephone interview from
Bethesda, Md., Dr. J. Thornton
Boswell,' a retired Navy coin-
mander now in private medical
practice, said he and the chief
autopsy pathologist, Capt.
James J. Humes, agree the pic-
tures cannot prove the so-called
single bullet theory.
This theory holds that one
bullet pierced the back base of
the President's neck, passed
through and emerged at the
ower left part of his tic knot
Iand then wounded Gov. John B.
Connally Jr. .of Texas in the
Iback, chest, wrist and thigh.
The Warren report said there
I was "persuasive evidence" for
I the single bullet theory "al-
though it is not necessary to
any essential findings.", ___, _.
caretin?it Was -i
strictly a work-
mission Exhibit 385, which
..
The comm sheet, the same .as rough work
commission held that Lee ' ? ?
!Shows the downward path the
(Harvey Oswald alone assassi- ing notes. couldYou that.
'noted the President, firi g u osee ng threebullet is thought to have taken
by looking at it. It was very!through the President's neck,
_1 there- -Was*--a. "flagrant- contra-
diction" between the autopsy
report and the F.B.I. agents'
report. Mr. Epstein argued th -
"by viewing the photogr??
the contradiction can be
solved once and for all time."
In his book, Mr. Epstein con-
tended that photographs in one
F.B.I. report showed the bullet-
holes in President Kennedy's
ijacket and shirt 5% inches and
inches "below the collar"
respectively.
He argued these measure-
ments were "obviously, incon-
sistent" with the wound de'
seethed in the autopsy report.
The jacket, he said, might have
been somehow "raised more
than six inches" so the jacket
hole could coincide with a
wound at the base of the neck,
but he asserted that "obviously
a closed shirt collar could not
have been raised six inches on
Associated Press j the neck."
The Warren Report refers to
Autopsy sketch made by Dr. J. .Thorton Boswell when the F.B.I. measurements as "be-
examining President Kennedy's body. Penciled notation "be-
low the top of the collar.".
Jacob Cohen, who is writing
at right places one of the bullet wounds at 14 centimeters a book, "Honest Verdict," which
from the right acromion process (tip of the right shout- will defend the Warren Report
der joint) and 14 centimeters below the tip of the right and is to be published next year,
mastoid process (bony point behind the ear). Dr. Boswell disputes Mr. Epstein in the cur-
says the notation is correct but that the dot marking
the wound was unintentionally drawn too low.
shots in less than eight seconds.
,
including one probable miss. If
. the President and Governor
were wounded separately, ques_ dicate for the autopsy doctors, well said yesterday. ? He said the physicians study-
tions of timing and the possi- right, left, front, back?things l Dr. Boswell noted that his ing the "wound in the lower
like that. The photographs; diagram, which differs from posterior neck of the Presi-.
bility that there were two rifles_
have been raised by critics, were to provide the exact visual Exhibit 385, included his hand- dent" had- "examined carefully
Dr. Boswc.,11 said yesterday 'he description." ? ?lwritten notes of- the specific the bony structures in this
saw the photographs for the Autopsy surgeons have "ala- measurements. These fixed the vicinity as well as the X-rays,
first time last Nov. 1. They solutely no doubt in our minds I disputed wound at 14 centi- to sec if there was any evidence
, show clearly, he said, the accu- now" that a single bullet hit :meters, or 51/2 inches, from the of fracture or of deposition of
racy of the autopsy report and both President Kennedy and 'right acromion process, the tip metallic fragments." They saw
i of the autopsy surgeon's testi- Governor Connally, Dr. Boswell lof the right shoulder joint, and none, he said.
1 mony as to the location of the said, '14 centimeters below the tip ofIf President Kennedy's. family
Iwound. Dr. Boswell said Federal Bu- ithe right mastoid process, the!turned over 14 X-rays, 25 black
It was his diagram, Coniunis- bony point immediately behind and white negatives and 26,
reau of Investigation _ reports -the ear. . four - inch - by - five - inch color
sion Exhibit 397, Dr. Boswellthe
used by the critics were "simply
said, that critics of the Warren wrong." The F.B.I. agents pee- In his book "Inquest:" Ed_l transparencies to the National
,,vard Jay Epstein had cited the,'Archives Oct. 31.
Commission have cited in argu- sent durinr, the autopsy were
0
rent issue of Frontier magazine.
Mr. Cohen says the displace-
ment would need to have been
only "about three inches."
According to Volume 2 of the
Warren Commission documents,
Dr. Humes reported that X-rays
dirty. and they remain "sufficient to and photographs had been made
"Its sole purpose was to in-1 illustrate the finding," Dr. Bos- before and during the autopsy.
ing that the wound was farther "not trained in medicine," said. h gram as indicatinge higher in front than in back. a wound
down the back. He said this said In his first Viking Press edi-
F.B.I. spokesmen have said ?
hasty "work sheet," Made dur- tion Mr. Epstein gave the text
the ao?ent ' r t d d? - ' "
A letter by Burke Marshall,
lawyer for the President's
estate, provided for immediate
access for all Federal investi-
of an F.B.I. summary report,_gative agengies but no public
ing the autopsy, had a "diagram cussions that took place durine-
t?, placed in, the national archives, five
-.. release. For the next'
error "?a dot that placed the the autopsy. The reports did which said medical examination,iive years, unofficial investiga-:
wound incorrectly. But he said not take in the final autopsy
the notes he wrote on the dia.- report, the bureau said.
.. had reported a bullet entering; tors may see them only with
gram did locateac
it curately ? In the report, the sure the President "just below his ,specific consent of the Kennedy'
,cons, family.
I ?Pre-Dallas Fears Reported
I AUGUSTA, Ga., Nov. 24 AP)
i? A former chairman of the
The tracing of the bullet's after having spoken the next s ?I.' ?r*
path must still depend on rnedi- morning with a Dallas hospital In a later Bantam edition,
n added an F.B.I. Epstein cal interpretation because it surgeon, concluded that the Mr. - ?
went through soft tissues and 1 bullet had gone out through areporta said r. Hurnes lo- Georgia Democratic party, J. B.
apparent bullet h 'clow the
muscles, Dr. Boswell said. These hole in the throat, which had cated during o- t.'-7 -- ?tonsv an 1
- ' . - - ,.. ,.i i
Fuquo, disclosed today that he
were bruised, he said, but the ;been obliterated by an emer- ;had persuaded President Ken-
- - .
pictures do not conclusivelv?
gency operation. shoulders."
The Warren Commission pub-
lished "schematic drawings,"
Dr. Boswell said of the dia-- done by a Navy medical illus-
gram: ? trator and based on measure_ that the bullet possibly "work-
"This was unfortunate. If I .merits and verbal descriptions- ed its way out of the body dur-
had.known at the time that goons
him by the autopsy sur-- ing external cardiac massage
eons just before they were the report said. ," to visit Georgia might - be
sketch would become public wise because pf 1)6..
called to testify. In the 1.11' n-
Nfit Esquire maga-i. turmoil sucur cling a civil
record, I woulehave been more The drawings include Corn- zinc( Epstein wrote thatlrights bill that ,.:as pending at
um. Declassified in Part-Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2013/05/14: CIA-RDP74-00297R000800010003-3
ne 3 o cancela speech
"The end of the opening could Atlanta less than two months,
be felt with the finger" and Dr. '
Humes had offered an opinion before Mr. Kennedy was as-
sassinated.
Mr. Fuqua said he
vinced that Mr. Kennedy's glans ?