Representative BOGGS. Postoperative, these are after the operation?
Dr. GREGORY. These two. This one was made before the wound was dealt
with.
Mr. SPECTER. Which one?
Dr. GREGORY. "A" is the one made before the wound was dealt with
surgically.
Senator COOPER. Could you mark it 4 "A," "B," "C," and "D," Doctor?
Mr. McCLOY. Is that "B," we have had another "B" here, you know?
Dr. GREGORY. This is "C." "A" and "C" are comparable X-rays, one made
before and one made after the operation was carried out.
Before the operation, you will note a large fragment of metal
visible here, not visible in this one. You will also note a small
satellite fragment not visible here. A second piece of metal visible
preoperatively is still present postoperatively.
No effort incidentally is made to dissect for these fragments. They
are small, they are proverbial needles in hay stacks, and we know from
experience that small flakes of metal of this kind do not ordinarily
produce difficulty in the future, but that the extensive dissection
required to find them may produce such consequences and so we choose
to leave them inside unless we chance upon them, and on this occasion,
those bits of metal recovered were simply found by chance in the course
of removing necrotized material.
Other than that the X-rays have nothing more to offer so far as the
wrist is concerned.
Mr. SPECTER. May we then reserve 692 for "C" and 693 for "D"?
Dr. GREGORY. I will put the other marks on these.
Senator COOPER. So ordered.
Dr. GREGORY. For your convenience.
Mr. DULLES. Was the wound of exit in the wrist also jagged like the
wound of entry or was there, what differences were there between the
wound of entry and the wound of exit?
Dr. GREGORY. The wound of exit was disposed transversely across the
wrist exactly as I have it marked here. It was in the nature of a small
laceration, perhaps a centimeter and a half in length, about a half an
inch long, and it lay in the skin creases so that as you examined the
wrist casually it was a very innocent looking thing indeed, and it was
not until it was probed that its true nature in connection with the
remainder of the wound was evident.
Senator RUSSELL. When did you first see this bullet, Doctor, the one
you have just described in your testimony?
Dr. GREGORY. This bullet?
Senator RUSSELL. Yes.
Dr. GREGORY. This morning, sir.
Senator RUSSELL. You had never seen it until this morning?
Dr. GREGORY. I had never seen it before this time.
Mr. SPECTER. Dr. Gregory, what was then the relative size of the wounds
on the back and front side of the wrist itself?
Dr. GREGORY. As I recall them, the wound dimensions would be so far
as the wound on the back of the wrist is concerned about a half a
centimeter by two and a half centimeters in length. It was rather
linear in nature. The upper end of it having apparently lost some
tissue was gapping more than the lower portion of it.
Mr. SPECTER. How about on the volar or front side of the wrist?
Dr. GREGORY. The volar surface or palmar surface had a wound disclosed
transversely about a half centimeter in length and about 2 centimeters
above the flexion crease to the wrist.
Mr. SPECTER. Then the wound on the dorsal or back side of the wrist was
a little larger than the wound on the volar or palm side of the wrist?
Dr. GREGORY. Yes; it was.
Mr. SPECTER. And is that characteristic in terms of entry and exit
wounds?
Dr. GREGORY. It is not at all characteristic of the entry wound of a
pristine missile which tends to make a small wound of entrance and
larger wound of exit.
Mr. SPECTER. Is it, however, characteristic of a missile which has had
its velocity substantially decreased?
Dr. GREGORY. I don't think that the exchange in the velocity will alter
the nature of the wound of entrance or exit excepting that if the
velocity is low enough the missile may simply manage to emerge or may
not emerge at all on the far side of the limb which has been struck.
Mr. DULLES. Would this be consistent with a tumbling bullet or a bullet
that had already tumbled and therefore entered back side too?
Dr. GREGORY. The wound of entrance is characteristic in my view of an
irregular missile in this case, an irregular missile which has tipped
itself off as being irregular by the nature of itself.
Mr. DULLES. What do you mean by irregular?
Dr. GREGORY. I mean one that has been distorted. It is in some way
angular, it has edges or sharp edges or something of this sort. It
is not rounded or pointed in the fashion of an ordinary missile. The
irregularity of it also, I submit, tends to pick up organic material
and carry it into the limb, and this is a very significant takeoff, in
my opinion.
Mr. SPECTER. Have you now described all of the characteristics on the
Governor's wrist which indicate either the point of entry or the point
of exit?
Dr. GREGORY. There is one additional piece of information that is of
pertinence but I don't know how effectively it can be applied to the
nature of the missile. That is the fact that dorsal branch of the
radial nerve, a sensory nerve in this immediate vicinity was partially
transected together with one tendon leading to the thumb, which was
totally transected.
This could have been produced by a missile entering in the ordinary
fashion, undisturbed, undistorted. But again it is more in keeping with
an irregular surface which would tend to catch and tear a structure
rather than push it aside.
Mr. SPECTER. Would that then also indicate the wound of entrance where
that striking took place?
Dr. GREGORY. I believe it is more in keeping with it, yes.
Mr. SPECTER. As to the thigh wound, what, if anything, did you observe
as to a wound on the thigh, Dr. Gregory?
Dr. GREGORY. I was apprised that the Governor had a wound of the thigh,
and I did examine it immediately the limb was available for it after
Dr. Shaw had completed the surgery.
The wound was located on the inner aspect of the thigh, a little to
the front surface about a third of the way up from the knee. The wound
appeared to me to be rounded, almost a puncture type of wound in
dimension about equal to a pencil eraser, about 6 mm.
I suspected that there might be a missile buried here and so an X-ray
was obtained of that limb, and----
Mr. SPECTER. Have you brought the X-ray with you?
Dr. GREGORY. Yes; I have.
Mr. SPECTER. On what date was that X-ray taken?
Dr. GREGORY. This X-ray is marked as having been taken on November 22,
1963. It indicates that it was made of the left thigh, and it belongs
to John Connally, John G. Connally.
Mr. SPECTER. That says "G" instead of "C"?
Dr. GREGORY. Yes. It appears to me to be a "G." The number again is
219-922.
Mr. SPECTER. Is that the same number as the other X-rays bear?
Dr. GREGORY. I believe it is, yes.
Mr. SPECTER. May we reserve then Commission Exhibit No. 694 for that
X-ray?
Senator COOPER. It may be so done.
Dr. GREGORY. There are a series of these films. Would you like them
marked subsequently "E", "F," and "G"?
Mr. SPECTER. Insofar as you feel they are helpful in characterizing the
wounds, do mark them in that way.
Dr. GREGORY. All right.
This I understand is Exhibit E, then and it is a single X-ray made on
the anterior posterial view of Mr. Connally's thigh. The only thing
found is a very small fleck of metal marked with an arrow here. It is
that small, and almost likely to be overlooked. This was not consonant
with the kind of wound on the medial aspect of his thigh.
Our next natural assumption was that that missile having escaped from
the thigh had escaped the confines of this X-ray and lay somewhere
else. So that additional X-rays were made of the same date and I
submit two additional X-rays identified again as belonging to John G.
Connally, the left lower extremity, November 22, 1963, and these two
are numbered 218-922, and they are an anterial posterior view which I
will mark "F," and a lateral view which I will mark "G."
Mr. SPECTER. May we reserve 695 for "F," and 696 for "G"?
Senator COOPER. So ordered.
Dr. GREGORY. Careful examination of this set of X-rays illustrated
or demonstrates, I should say, a number of artificial lines, this is
one and there is one. These lines I think represent rather hurried
development of these films for they were taken under emergency
conditions. They were intended simply to let us know if there was
another missile in the Governor's limb where it might be located.
The only missile turned up is the same one seen in the original film
which lies directly opposite the area indicated as the site of the
missile wound or the wound in the thigh, but a fragment of metal,
again microscopic measuring about five-tenths of a millimeter by 2
millimeters, lies just beneath the skin, about a half inch on the
medial aspect of the thigh.
Mr. SPECTER. What is your best estimate of the weight of that metallic
fragment?
Dr. GREGORY. This again would be in micrograms, postage stamp weight
thereabouts, not much more than that.
Mr. SPECTER. Could that fragment, in your opinion, have caused the
wound which you observed in the Governor's left thigh?
Dr. GREGORY. I do not believe it could have. The nature of the wound in
the left thigh was such that so small a fragment as this would not have
produced it and still have gone no further into the soft tissues than
it did.
Mr. SPECTER. Would the wound that you observed in the soft tissue of
the left thigh be consistent with having been made by a bullet such as
that identified as Commission Exhibit 399?
Dr. GREGORY. I think again that bullet, Exhibit 399, could very well
have struck the thigh in a reverse fashion and have shed a bit of its
lead core into the fascia immediately beneath the skin, yet never have
penetrated the thigh sufficiently so that it eventually was dislodged
and was found in the clothing.
I would like to add to that we were disconcerted by not finding a
missile at all. Here was our patient with three discernible wounds,
and no missile within him of sufficient magnitude to account for them,
and we suggested that someone ought to search his belongings and other
areas where he had been to see if it could be identified or found,
rather.
Mr. SPECTER. Had the missile gone through his wrist in reverse, would
it likely have continued in that same course until it reached his
thigh, in your opinion?
Dr. GREGORY. The missile that struck his wrist had sufficient energy
left after it passed through the radius to emerge from the soft tissues
on the under surface of the skin. It could have had enough to partially
enter his thigh, but not completely.
Mr. SPECTER. In the way which his thigh was wounded?
Dr. GREGORY. I believe so; yes.
Mr. SPECTER. What did you do, Dr. Gregory, with the missile fragments
which you removed from his wrists?
Dr. GREGORY. Those were turned over to the operating room nurse in
attendance with instructions that they should be presented to the
appropriate authorities present, probably a member of the Texas
Rangers, but that is as far as I went with it myself.
Mr. SPECTER. I now show you a part of a document heretofore identified
as Commission Exhibit 392, a two-page report which bears your name on
the second page, and I ask you if this is the report you made of the
operation on Governor Connally?
Dr. GREGORY. It appears to be the same; yes.
Mr. SPECTER. Are the facts set forth therein true and correct?
Dr. GREGORY. In essence they are true and correct; yes.
Mr. SPECTER. Dr. Gregory, does that report show the name of the nurse
to whom you turned over the metallic fragments?
Dr. GREGORY. There are two nurses who are identified on this page. One
is the scrub nurse, Miss Rutherford, and the second is the circulating
nurse, Mrs. Schrader.
Mr. SPECTER. And is one or the other the nurse to whom you turned over
the metallic fragments?
Dr. GREGORY. I do not remember precisely to whom I handed them. I do
not know.
Mr. SPECTER. I now hand you a document marked Commission Exhibit No.
679, which Dr. Shaw used to identify the wounds on the Governor's back,
and I ask you to note whether these documents accurately depict the
place and the identity of the entry and exit wounds.
Dr. GREGORY. They do not in that, though the location of the wounds
on the forearm is correct, and the dimensions, it is my opinion that
entrance and exit terms have been reversed.
Mr. SPECTER. Would you delete the inaccurate statement and insert the
accurate statement with your initials by the side of the changes,
please?