Several doctors who were in the emergency room when former President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963 raised serious doubts about the official narrative that says a lone gunman was responsible, according to a new documentary featuring interviews conducted in 2013.
The former president was breathing when he entered Parkland Hospital before he was pronounced dead about a half an hour later. However, what seven doctors said in the recent footage disputes the commission's claims about the event.
"Each of them reacted strongly when the autopsy pictures were projected on a screen," Ms. Lueth wrote. "They didn't agree on everything, but it became obvious that the way the president looked at Parkland did not match the autopsy photos taken at Bethesda even before the official autopsy began."
Warning to Keep Silent
In one of the clips from the documentary, several of the doctors recalled what was said by Dr. Malcolm Perry, the surgeon who attended to President Kennedy. He also attended to Mr. Oswald.
“So, at the press conference, Dr. Perry, in describing the [throat] wound here, said that he thought it looked like an entrance wound,” said Dr. Robert McClelland in the video taken from the documentary, released this month.
“So, we were thinking there were two wounds. Had to be an entrance wound and an exit wound. That was the only way we could put it together. And so, I thought it was an entrance wound,” said Dr. Ronald Jones, another Parkland doctor.
Later, Dr. McClelland recalled that he noticed something unusual after the press conference with Dr. Perry about the JFK assassination.
“When [Dr. Perry] left the room, someone came up to him who Dr. Perry thought maybe was a Secret Service man, and he told Dr. Perry, ‘You must never, ever say that was an entrance wound again if you know what’s good for you,’” he said.
And Dr. Jones said that "in retrospect," if Mr. Oswald "was in the sixth floor depository, how could he have been shot from the front then? And so was there more than one assailant?"
Another doctor, Joe Goldstrich, who was a medical student at the time of the assassination, asked: "How could a gunshot from the rear peel the scalp from the front back?
Other than the Warren Commission, established by former President Lyndon B. Johnson, the CIA also has long maintained that Mr. Oswald, who was shot and killed just days later, was the sole perpetrator.
Other Claims
The revelations come as a former U.S. Secret Service agent went public for the first time in 60 years and appeared to refute the "magic bullet" theory.Paul Landis, an 88-year-old former agent, was only a few feet away from President Kennedy when he was shot and killed. He had been assigned to protect Jackie Kennedy, the former first lady.
The former agent then transported the bullet to the hospital where President Kennedy was taken and put on a stretcher to be examined. He said he believed someone might pocket the bullet—which he did not describe in detail—as a keepsake.
Mr. Landis suggested that the reason investigators suspected that a “magic bullet” struck the former president is because the bullet that Mr. Landis discovered was later found on a stretcher belonging to President Kennedy. It wasn’t until the New York Times interview that Mr. Landis confirmed that it was he who found the bullet and placed it there.
It wasn’t until 2014 that he realized that the location of the bullet’s recovery that was cited by him was different than what was mentioned in the Warren Commission, he told the outlet. He then checked with several U.S. officials but was met with skepticism.
That same year, a former Secret Service colleague, Clint Hill, warned Mr. Landis that he shouldn't speak out about what he saw on that day. If he did, there might be "many ramifications" for Mr. Landis, he recalled Mr. Hill as saying.
