Mr. DULLES. A little bit to the left.
Dr. CARRICO. To the right.
Mr. DULLES. Yes; to the right.
Dr. CARRICO. Yes. And this wound was fairly round, had no jagged edges,
no evidence of powder burns, and so forth.
Representative FORD. No evidence of powder burns?
Dr. CARRICO. So far as I know.
Representative FORD. In the front?
Dr. CARRICO. Yes.
Mr. SPECTER. Have you now described that wound as specifically as you
can based upon your observations at the time?
Dr. CARRICO. I believe so.
Mr. SPECTER. And your recollection at the time of those observations?
Dr. CARRICO. Yes; an even round wound.
Mr. DULLES. You felt this wound in the neck was not a fatal wound?
Dr. CARRICO. That is right.
Mr. SPECTER. That is, absent the head wound, would the President have
survived the wound which was present on his neck?
Dr. CARRICO. I think very likely he would have.
Mr. SPECTER. Based on your observations on the neck wound alone did
you have a sufficient basis to form an opinion as to whether it was an
entrance or an exit wound?
Dr. CARRICO. No, sir; we did not. Not having completely evaluated all
the wounds, traced out the course of the bullets, this wound would have
been compatible with either entrance or exit wound depending upon the
size, the velocity, the tissue structure and so forth.
Mr. SPECTER. Permit me to add some facts which I shall ask you to
assume as being true for purposes of having you express an opinion.
First of all, assume that the President was struck by a 6.5 mm.
copper-jacketed bullet from a rifle having a muzzle velocity of
approximately 2,000 feet per second at a time when the President was
approximately 160 to 250 feet from the weapon, with the President being
struck from the rear at a downward angle of approximately 45 degrees,
being struck on the upper right posterior thorax just above the upper
border of the scapula 14 centimeters from the tip of the right acromion
process and 14 centimeters below the tip of the right mastoid process.
Assume further that the missile passed through the body of the
President striking no bones, traversing the neck and sliding between
the large muscles in the posterior aspect of the President's body
through a fascia channel without violating the pleural cavity, but
bruising only the apex of the right pleural cavity and bruising the
most apical portion of the right lung, then causing a hematoma to the
right of the larynx which you have described, and creating a jagged
wound in the trachea, then exiting precisely at the point where you
observe the puncture wound to exist.
Now based on those facts was the appearance of the wound in your
opinion consistent with being an exit wound?
Dr. CARRICO. It certainly was. It could have been under the
circumstances.
Mr. SPECTER. And assuming that all the facts which I have given you to
be true, do you have an opinion with a reasonable degree of medical
certainty as to whether, in fact, the wound was an entrance wound or an
exit wound?
Dr. CARRICO. With those facts and the fact as I understand it no other
bullet was found this would be, this was, I believe, was an exit wound.
Mr. SPECTER. Were any bullets found in the President's body by the
doctors at Parkland?
Dr. CARRICO. No, sir.
Mr. SPECTER. Was the President's clothing ever examined by you, Dr.
Carrico?
Dr. CARRICO. No, sir; it was not.
Mr. SPECTER. What was the reason for no examination of the clothing?
Dr. CARRICO. Again in the emergency situation the nurses removed the
clothing after we had initially unbuttoned enough to get a look at
him, at his chest, and as the routine is set up, the nurses remove the
clothing and we just don't take time to look at it.
Mr. SPECTER. Was the President's body then ever turned over at any
point by you or any of the other doctors at Parkland?
Dr. CARRICO. No, sir.
Mr. SPECTER. Was President Kennedy lying on the emergency stretcher
from the time he was brought into trauma room one until the treatment
at Parkland Hospital was concluded?
Dr. CARRICO. Yes; he was.
Mr. SPECTER. At what time was that treatment concluded, to the best of
your recollection?
Dr. CARRICO. At about 1 o'clock.
Mr. SPECTER. At approximately what time did you leave the trauma room
where the President was brought?
Dr. CARRICO. I left right at one when we decided that he was dead.
Mr. SPECTER. And did the other doctors leave at the same time or did
any remain in the trauma room?
Dr. CARRICO. I left before some of the other doctors, I do not remember
specifically who was there. I believe Dr. Baxter was, Dr. Jenkins was
still there, I believe. And I think Dr. Perry was.
Mr. SPECTER. You have described a number of doctors in the course of
your testimony up to this point. Would you state what other doctors
were present during the time the President was treated, to the best of
your recollection?
Dr. CARRICO. Well, I have already mentioned Dr. Don Curtis, the surgery
resident; Martin White, an interne; Dr. Perry was there, Dr. Baxter,
Dr. McClelland, a member of the surgery staff; Dr. Ronald Jones,
chief surgery resident; Dr. Jenkins, chief of anesthesia; several
other physicians whose names I can't remember at the present. Admiral
Burkley, I believe was his name, the President's physician, was there
as soon as he got to the hospital.
Mr. SPECTER. What is your view, Dr. Carrico, as to how many bullets
struck the President?
Dr. CARRICO. At the time of the initial examination I really had no
view. In view of what we have been told by you, and the Commission, two
bullets would be my opinion.
Mr. SPECTER. Based on the additional facts which I have asked you to
assume----
Dr. CARRICO. Yes, sir.