Doctors at Parkland worked to save Kennedy’s life, not to examine his wounds. Dr. Malcolm Perry made a tracheotomy incision through a small wound in the front of the throat. Dr. Kemp Clark, who looked most closely at the head, described a large, gaping wound in the right rear part of the head. The doctors never turned the president over, so they did not see the wound in his upper back. [1][3]
At a press briefing that afternoon, Perry said the throat wound could have been an entrance. He later explained he had no way to know, not having seen the back wound; under the Warren account it was an exit. [2]
The Parkland descriptions of a wound at the rear of the head are the strongest single basis for the belief that a shot came from the front, since an exit wound is usually large. The autopsy report, photos and X-rays place the large wound on the right side of the head toward the top, with a small entry wound low at the back. Defenders of the Parkland accounts say the photos were altered or misleading; the House committee tested that, below. [1]
Approved reader comments and ratings appear here when JavaScript is on.