Mr. SPECTER. And by whom, if anyone, were the press conferences
arranged?
Dr. PERRY. The initial press conference, to the best of my knowledge,
was arranged by Mr. Hawkes who was identified to me as being of
the White House Press, and Mr. Steve Landregan of the hospital
administration there at Parkland, and Dr. Kemp Clark.
They called me, I was in the operating suite at the time to assist with
the care of the Governor, and they called and asked me if it would be
possible for me to come down to a press conference.
Mr. SPECTER. At about what time did that call come to you, Doctor?
Dr. PERRY. I am not real sure about that but probably around 2 o'clock.
Mr. SPECTER. What action, if any, did you take in response to that call?
Dr. PERRY. I put in a page for Dr. Baxter and Dr. McClelland since they
were also involved, and went down to the emergency room where I met Mr.
Hawkes and Dr. Clark. And from there we went up to classrooms one and
two which had been combined into a large press room, and was packed
with gentlemen and ladies of the press.
Mr. SPECTER. In what building was that located?
Dr. PERRY. This was in Parkland Hospital, in the classroom section.
Mr. SPECTER. Are you able to identify which news media were present at
that time?
Dr. PERRY. No, sir; there were numerous people in the room. I would
estimate maybe a hundred.
Mr. SPECTER. What doctors spoke at that press conference?
Dr. PERRY. Dr. Clark and I answered the questions.
Mr. SPECTER. Who spoke first as between you and Dr. Clark?
Dr. PERRY. I did.
Mr. SPECTER. Would you state as specifically as you can the questions
which were asked of you at that time and the answers which you gave?
Dr. PERRY. Mr. Specter, I would preface this by saying that, as you
know, I have been interviewed on numerous occasions subsequent to that
time, and I cannot recall with accuracy the questions that were asked.
They, in general, were similar to the questions that were asked here.
The press were given essentially the same, but in no detail such as
have been given here. I was asked, for example, what I felt caused the
President's death, the nature of the wound, from whence they came,
what measures were taken for resuscitation, who were the people in
attendance, at what time was it determined that he was beyond our help.
Mr. SPECTER. What responses did you give to questions relating to the
source of the bullets, if such questions were asked?
Dr. PERRY. I could not. I pointed out that both Dr. Clark and I had no
way of knowing from whence the bullets came.
Mr. SPECTER. Were you asked how many bullets there were?
Dr. PERRY. We were, and our reply was it was impossible with the
knowledge we had at hand to ascertain if there were 1 or 2 bullets,
or more. We were given, similarly, to the discussion here today,
hypothetical situations. "Is it possible that such could have been the
case, or such and such?" If it was possible that there was one bullet.
To this, I replied in the affirmative, it was possible and conceivable
that it was only one bullet, but I did not know.
Mr. SPECTER. What would the trajectory, or conceivable course of one
bullet have been, Dr. Perry, to account for the injuries which you
observed in the President, as you stated it?
Dr. PERRY. Since I observed only two wounds in my cursory examination,
it would have necessitated the missile striking probably a bony
structure and being deviated in its course in order to account for
these two wounds.
Mr. SPECTER. What bony structure was it conceivably?
Dr. PERRY. It required striking the spine.
Mr. SPECTER. Did you express a professional opinion that that did,
in fact, happen or it was a matter of speculation that it could have
happened?
Dr. PERRY. I expressed it as a matter of speculation that this was
conceivable. But, again, Dr. Clark and I emphasized that we had no way
of knowing.
Mr. SPECTER. Have you now recounted as specifically as you can
recollect what occurred at that first press conference or is it
practical for you to give any further detail to the contents of that
press conference?
Dr. PERRY. I do not recall any specific details any further than that.
Representative FORD. Mr. Specter--was there ever a recording kept of
the questions and answers at that interview, Dr. Perry?
Dr. PERRY. This was one of the things I was mad about, Mr. Ford. There
were microphones, and cameras, and the whole bit, as you know, and
during the course of it a lot of these hypothetical situations and
questions that were asked to us would often be asked by someone on
this side and recorded by some one on this, and I don't know who was
recorded and whether they were broadcasting it directly. There were
tape recorders there and there were television cameras with their
microphones. I know there were recordings made but who made them I
don't know and, of course, portions of it would be given to this group
and questions answered here and, as a result, considerable questions
were not answered in their entirety and even some of them that were
asked, I am sure were misunderstood. It was bedlam.
Representative FORD. I was thinking, was there an official recording
either made by the hospital officials or by the White House people or
by any government agency?
Dr. PERRY. Not to my knowledge.
Representative FORD. A true recording of everything that was said, the
questions asked, and the answers given?
Dr. PERRY. Not to my knowledge.
Mr. DULLES. Was there any reasonably good account in any of the press
of this interview?
Dr. PERRY. No, sir.