Commander HUMES. Yes.
Mr. SPECTER. Did you have occasion to discuss that wound on the front
side of the President with Dr. Malcolm Perry of Parkland Hospital in
Dallas?
Commander HUMES. Yes, sir; I did. I had the impression from seeing
the wound that it represented a surgical tracheotomy wound, a wound
frequently made by surgeons when people are in respiratory distress to
give them a free airway.
To ascertain that point, I called on the telephone Dr. Malcolm Perry
and discussed with him the situation of the President's neck when he
first examined the President, and asked him had he in fact done a
tracheotomy which was somewhat redundant because I was somewhat certain
he had.
He said, yes; he had done a tracheotomy and that as the point to
perform his tracheotomy he used a wound which he had interpreted as a
missile wound in the low neck, as the point through which to make the
tracheotomy incision.
Mr. SPECTER. When did you have that conversation with him, Dr. Humes?
Commander HUMES. I had that conversation early on Saturday morning, sir.
Mr. SPECTER. On Saturday morning, November 23d?
Commander HUMES. That is correct, sir.
Mr. SPECTER. And have you had occasion since to examine the report of
Parkland Hospital which I made available to you?
Commander HUMES. Yes, sir; I have.
Mr. SPECTER. May it please the Commission, I would like to note this as
Commission Exhibit No. 392, and subject to later technical proof, to
have it admitted into evidence at this time for the purpose of having
the doctor comment about it.
The CHAIRMAN. It may be so marked.
(The document referred to was marked Commission Exhibit No. 392, for
identification.)
Mr. SPECTER. What did your examination of the Parkland Hospital
records disclose with respect to this wound on the front side of the
President's body?
Commander HUMES. The examination of this record from Parkland Hospital
revealed that Doctor Perry had observed this wound as had other
physicians in attendance upon the President, and actually before a
tracheotomy was performed surgically, an endotracheal tube was placed
through the President's mouth and down his larynx and into his trachea
which is the first step in giving satisfactory airway to a person
injured in such fashion and unconscious.
The President was unconscious and it is most difficult to pass such a
tube when the person is unconscious.
The person who performed that procedure, that is instilled the
endotracheal tube noted that there was a wound of the trachea below the
larynx, which corresponded in essence with the wound of the skin which
they had observed from the exterior.
Mr. SPECTER. How is that wound described, while you are mentioning the
wound?
Commander HUMES. Yes, sir.
Mr. SPECTER. I think you will find that on the first page of the
summary sheet, Dr. Humes.
Commander HUMES. Yes, sir. Thank you.
This report was written by doctor--or of the activities of Dr. James
Carrico, Doctor Carrico in inserting the endotracheal tube noted a
ragged wound of trachea immediately below the larynx.
The report, as I recall it, and I have not studied it in minute detail,
would indicate to me that Doctor Perry realizing from Doctor Carrico's
observation that there was a wound of the trachea would quite logically
use the wound which he had observed as a point to enter the trachea
since the trachea was almost damaged, that would be a logical place in
which to put his incision.
In speaking of that wound in the neck, Doctor Perry told me that before
he enlarged it to make the tracheotomy wound it was a "few millimeters
in diameter."
Of course by the time we saw it, as my associates and as you have
heard, it was considerably larger and no longer at all obvious as a
missile wound.
The report states, and Doctor Perry told me in telephone conversation
that there was bubbling of air and blood in the vicinity of this wound
when he made the tracheotomy. This caused him to believe that perhaps
there had been a violation of one of the--one or other of the pleural
cavities by a missile. He, therefore, asked one of his associates, and
the record is to me somewhat confused as to which of his associates, he
asked one of his associates to put in a chest tube. This is a maneuver
which is, was quite logical under the circumstances, and which would,
if a tube that were placed through all layers of the wall of the chest,
and the chest cavity had been violated one could remove air that had
gotten in there and greatly assist respiration.
So when we examined the President in addition to the large wound which
we found in conversation with Doctor Perry was the tracheotomy wound,
there were two smaller wounds on the upper anterior chest.
Mr. DULLES. These are apparently exit wounds?
Commander HUMES. Sir, these were knife wounds, these were incised
wounds on either side of the chest, and I will give them in somewhat
greater detail.
These wounds were bilateral, they were situated on the anterior chest
wall in the nipple line, and each were 2 cm. long in the transverse
axis. The one on the right was situated 11 cm. above the nipple--the
one on the left was situated 11 cm. on the nipple, and the one on the
right was 8 cm. above the nipple. Their intention was to incise through
the President's chest to place tubes into his chest.
We examined those wounds very carefully, and found that they, however,
did not enter the chest cavity. They only went through the skin.
I presume that as they were performing that procedure it was obvious
that the President had died, and they didn't pursue this.
To complete the examination of the area of the neck and the chest, I
will do that together, we made the customary incision which we use in
a routine postmortem examination which is a Y-shaped incision from the
shoulders over the lower portion of the breastbone and over to the
opposite shoulder and reflected the skin and tissues from the anterior
portion of the chest.
We examined in the region of this incised surgical wound which was
the tracheotomy wound and we saw that there was some bruising of the
muscles of the neck in the depths of this wound as well as laceration
or defect in the trachea.
At this point, of course, I am unable to say how much of the defect in
the trachea was made by the knife of the surgeon, and how much of the
defect was made by the missile wound. That would have to be ascertained
from the surgeon who actually did the tracheotomy.
There was, however, some ecchymosis or contusion, of the muscles of the
right anterior neck inferiorly, without, however, any disruption of the
muscles or any significant tearing of the muscles.
The muscles in this area of the body run roughly, as you see as he
depicted them here. We have removed some of them for a point I will
make in a moment, but it is our opinion that the missile traversed
the neck and slid between these muscles and other vital structures
with a course in the neck such as the carotid artery, the jugular vein
and other structures because there was no massive hemorrhage or other
massive injury in this portion of the neck.
In attempting to relate findings within the President's body to this
wound which we had observed low in his neck, we then opened his chest
cavity, and we very carefully examined the lining of his chest cavity
and both of his lungs. We found that there was, in fact, no defect in
the pleural lining of the President's chest.
It was completely intact.
However, over the apex of the right pleural cavity, and the pleura now
has two layers. It has a parietal or a layer which lines the chest
cavity and it has a visceral layer which is intimately in association
with the lung.
As depicted in figure 385, in the apex of the right pleural cavity
there was a bruise or contusion or ecchmymosis of the parietal pleura
as well as a bruise of the upper portion, the most apical portion of
the right lung.
It, therefore, was our opinion that the missile while not penetrating
physically the pleural cavity, as it passed that point bruised either
the missile itself, or the force of its passage through the tissues,
bruised both the parietal and the visceral pleura.
The area of discoloration on the apical portion of the right upper lung
measured five centimeters in greatest diameter, and was wedge shaped in
configuration, with its base toward the top of the chest and its apex
down towards the substance of the lung.
Once again Kodachrome photographs were made of this area in the
interior of the President's chest.
Mr. SPECTER. Would you mark the point on Exhibit 385, the one on the
rear of the President as point "C" and the one on the front of the
President as point "D" so we can discuss those, Dr. Humes?
Now, what conclusion did you reach, if any, as to whether point "C" was
the point of entry or exit?
Commander HUMES. We reached the conclusion that point "C" was a point
of entry.
Mr. SPECTER. What characteristics of that wound led you to that
conclusion?
Commander HUMES. The characteristics here were basically similar to
the characteristics above, lacking one very valuable clue or piece of
evidence rather than clue, because it is more truly a piece of evidence
in the skull. The skull as I mentioned before had the bone with the
characteristic defect made as a missile traverses bone.
This missile, to the best of our ability to ascertain, struck no bone
protuberances, no bony prominences, no bones as it traversed the
President's body. But it was a sharply delineated wound. It was quite
regular in its outline. It measured, as I mentioned, 7 by 4 mm. Its
margins were similar in all respects when viewed with the naked eye to
the wound in the skull, which we feel incontrovertibly was a wound of
entrance.
The defect in the fascia which is that layer of connective tissue over
the muscle just beneath the wound corresponded virtually exactly to the
defect in the skin.
And for these reasons we felt that this was a wound of entrance.
Mr. SPECTER. Did you search the body to determine if there was any
bullet inside the body?
Commander HUMES. Before the arrival of Colonel Finck we had made X-rays
of the head, neck and torso of the President, and the upper portions
of his major extremities, or both his upper and lower extremities. At
Colonel Finck's suggestion, we then completed the X-ray examination by
X-raying the President's body in toto, and those X-rays are available.
Mr. SPECTER. What did those X-rays disclose with respect to the
possible presence of a missile in the President's body?
Commander HUMES. They showed no evidence of a missile in the
President's body at any point. And these were examined by ourselves and
by the radiologist, who assisted us in this endeavor.
Mr. SPECTER. What conclusion, if any, did you reach as to whether point
"D" on 385 was the point of entrance or exit?
Commander HUMES. We concluded that this missile depicted in 385 "C"
which entered the President's body traversed the President's body and
made its exit through the wound observed by the physicians at Parkland
Hospital and later extended as a tracheotomy wound.
Mr. SPECTER. Does the description "ragged wound" which is found in the
Parkland report shed any light in and of itself as to whether point "D"
is an exit or entry wound?
Commander HUMES. I believe, sir, that that statement goes on, ragged
wound in the trachea. I don't believe that refers to the skin. And you
might say that it is a ragged wound is more likely to be a wound of
exit.
However, the trachea has little cartilaginous rings which have a
tendency, which would be disrupted by this, and most wounds of the
trachea unless very cleverly incised would perhaps appear slightly
ragged.
Mr. SPECTER. Now, what was the angle, if any, that you observed on the
path of the bullet, as you outlined it?
Commander HUMES. The angle which we observed in measuring, in comparing
the point of entrance, our point of entrance labeled "C" on 385 and
"D" point of exit is one that the point of exit is below the point of
entrance compared with the vertical.
Mr. SPECTER. Have you had an opportunity to examine the clothing which
has been identified for you as being that worn by the President on the
day of the assassination?
Commander HUMES. Yes; yesterday, just shortly before the Commission
hearing today was begun, Mr. Chief Justice, we had opportunity for the
first time to examine the clothing worn by the late President.
In private conversation among ourselves before this opportunity, we
predicted we would find defects in the clothing corresponding with the
defects which were found, of course, on the body of the late President.
Mr. SPECTER. Mr. Chief Justice, may it please the Commission, I would
like to have identified for the record three articles on which I
have placed Commission Exhibits Nos. 393 being the coat worn by the
President, 394 being the shirt, and 395 being the President's tie, and
at this time move for their admission into evidence.
The CHAIRMAN. It may be admitted.
(The articles of clothing referred to were marked Commission Exhibits
Nos. 393, 394 and 395 for identification, and received in evidence.)
Mr. SPECTER. Taking 393 at the start, Doctor Humes, will you describe
for the record what hole, if any, is observable in the back of that
garment which would be at or about the spot you have described as being
the point of entry on the President's back or lower neck.
Commander HUMES. Yes, sir. This exhibit is a grey suit coat stated to
have been worn by the President on the day of his death. Situated to
the right of the midline high in the back portion of the coat is a
defect, one margin of which is semicircular.
Situated above it just below the collar is an additional defect. It is
our opinion that the lower of these defects corresponds essentially
with the point of entrance of the missile at Point C on Exhibit 385.
Mr. SPECTER. Would it be accurate to state that the hole which you have
identified as being the point of entry is approximately 6 inches below
the top of the collar, and 2 inches to the right of the middle seam of
the coat?
Commander HUMES. That is approximately correct, sir. This defect, I
might say, continues on through the material.
Attached to this garment is the memorandum which states that one half
of the area around the hole which was presented had been removed
by experts, I believe, at the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and
also that a control area was taken from under the collar, so it is
my interpretation that this defect at the top of this garment is the
control area taken by the Bureau, and that the reason the lower defect
is not more circle or oval in outline is because a portion of that
defect has been removed apparently for physical examinations.
Mr. SPECTER. Now, does the one which you have described as the entry of
the bullet go all the way through?
Commander HUMES. Yes, sir; it goes through both layers.
Mr. SPECTER. How about the upper one of the collar you have described,
does that go all the way through?
Commander HUMES. Yes, sir; it goes all the way through. It is not--wait
a minute, excuse me--it is not so clearly a puncture wound as the one
below.
Mr. SPECTER. Does the upper one go all the way through in the same
course?
Commander HUMES. No.
Mr. SPECTER. Through the inner side as it went through the outer side?
Commander HUMES. No, in an irregular fashion.
Mr. SPECTER. Will you take Commission Exhibit 394 and describe what
that is, first of all, please?
Commander HUMES. This is the shirt, blood-stained shirt, purportedly
worn by the President on the day of his assassination. When viewed
from behind at a point which corresponds essentially with the point of
defect on the jacket, one sees an irregularly oval defect.
When viewed anteriorly, with the top button buttoned, two additional
defects are seen. Of course, with the shirt buttoned, the fly front
of the shirt causes two layers of cloth to be present in this
location, and that there is a defect in the inner layer of cloth and a
corresponding defect in the outer layer of the cloth.
Mr. SPECTER. Is there any observable indication from the fibers on the
front side of the shirt to indicate in which direction a missile might
have passed through those two tears?
Commander HUMES. From an examination of these defects at this point, it
would appear that the missile traversed these two layers from within to
the exterior.
Mr. SPECTER. Would it be accurate to state that the hole in the back of
the shirt is approximately 6 inches below the top of the collar and 2
inches to the right of the middle seam of the shirt?
Commander HUMES. That is approximately correct, sir.
Mr. SPECTER. Now, how, if at all, do the holes in the shirt and coat
conform to the wound of entrance which you described as point "C" on
Commission Exhibit 385?
Commander HUMES. We believe that they conform quite well. When
viewing--first of all, the wounds or the defects in 393 and 394
coincide virtually exactly with one another.
They give the appearance when viewed separately and not as part of the
clothing of a clothed person as being perhaps, somewhat lower on the
Exhibits 393 and 394 than we have depicted them in Exhibit No. 385. We
believe there are two reasons for this.
385 is a schematic representation, and the photographs would be more
accurate as to the precise location, but more particularly the way in
which these defects would conform with such a defect on the torso would
depend on the girth of the shoulders and configuration of the base of
the neck of the individual, and the relative position of the shirt
and coat to the tissues of the body at the time of the impact of the
missile.
Mr. SPECTER. As to the muscular status of the President, what was it?
Commander HUMES. The President was extremely well-developed, an
extremely well-developed, muscular young man with a very well-developed
set of muscles in his thoraco and shoulder girdle.
Mr. SPECTER. What effect would that have on the positioning of the
shirt and coat with respect to the position of the neck in and about
the seam?
Commander HUMES. I believe this would have a tendency to push the
portions of the coat which show the defects here somewhat higher on the
back of the President than on a man of less muscular development.
Mr. SPECTER. Mr. Chief Justice, may it please the Commission, I would
like to mark for identification Exhibit 396, which later proof will
show is a picture of President Kennedy shortly before the first bullet
struck him, and ask the doctor to take a look at that.
Will you describe, Doctor Humes, the position of President Kennedy's
right hand in that picture?
Commander HUMES. Yes. This exhibit, Commission Exhibit No. 396,
allegedly taken just prior to the wounding of the late President, shows
him with his hand raised, his elbow bent, apparently in saluting the
crowd. I believe that this action----
Mr. SPECTER. Which hand was that?
Commander HUMES. This was his right hand, sir. I believe that this
action would further accentuate the elevation of the coat and the shirt
with respect to the back of the President.
Mr. SPECTER. Now. Doctor Humes, will you take Commission Exhibit No.
395----
Mr. McCLOY. Before you go, may I ask a question? In your examination of
the shirt, I just want to get it in the record, from your examination
of the shirt, there is no defect in the collar of the shirt which
coincides with the defect in the back of the President's coat, am I
correct?
Commander HUMES. You are correct, sir. There is no such defect.
Mr. SPECTER. As to Commission Exhibit 395, Dr. Humes, will you identify
what that is, please?
Commander HUMES. We had an opportunity to examine this exhibit before
the Commission met today, sir. This is Commission Exhibit No. 395, and
is the neck tie purportedly worn, purportedly to have been worn, by the
late President on the day of his assassination.
Mr. SPECTER. What defect, if any, is noted on the tie which would
correspond with the path of a missile apparently passing through the
folds of the shirt which you have already described?
Commander HUMES. This tie is one of those--this tie is still in its
knotted state, as we examine it at this time. The portion of the tie
around the neck has been severed apparently with scissors or other
sharp instrument accounting for the loop about the neck.
The tie is tied in four-in-hand fashion but somewhat askew from the way
a person would normally tie a four-in-hand knot.
Situated on the left anterior aspect of this knotted portion of the
tie at a point approximately corresponding with the defects noted
previously in the two layers of the shirt is a superficial tear of the
outer layer only of the fabric of this tie which, I believe, could have
been caused by a glancing blow to this portion of the tie by a missile.
Mr. SPECTER. Mr. Chief Justice, I move at this time for the admission
into evidence of Exhibits 393 through Exhibit 396, the three articles
of clothing and the photograph which we have just used.
The CHAIRMAN. They may be admitted.
(Exhibits Nos. 393 through 396 were received in evidence and may be
found in the Commission files.)
Mr. McCLOY. Commander, did you say left or right?
Commander HUMES. No, sir. In fact, the way this bow is tied now it
would appear to be on the left of this tie, but it is kind of twisted
out of shape.
Mr. McCLOY. Yes. It is twisted. It is not too clear.
Commander HUMES. It is not too clear, it is not clear how that might
have been in position with the shirt, sir.
Mr. SPECTER. Now, Doctor Humes, at one point in your examination of the
President, did you make an effort to probe the point of entry with your
finger?
Commander HUMES. Yes, sir; I did.
Mr. SPECTER. And at or about that time when you were trying to
ascertain, as you previously testified, whether there was any missile
in the body of the President, did someone from the Secret Service call
your attention to the fact that a bullet had been found on a stretcher
at Parkland Hospital?
Commander HUMES. Yes, sir; they did.
Mr. SPECTER. And in that posture of your examination, having just
learned of the presence of a bullet on a stretcher, did that call to
your mind any tentative explanatory theory of the point of entry or
exit of the bullet which you have described as entering at Point "C" on
Exhibit 385?
Commander HUMES. Yes, sir. We were able to ascertain with absolute
certainty that the bullet had passed by the apical portion of the right
lung producing the injury which we mentioned.
I did not at that point have the information from Doctor Perry
about the wound in the anterior neck, and while that was a possible
explanation for the point of exit, we also had to consider the
possibility that the missile in some rather inexplicable fashion had
been stopped in its path through the President's body and, in fact,
then had fallen from the body onto the stretcher.
Mr. SPECTER. And what theory did you think possible, at that juncture,
to explain the passing of the bullet back out the point of entry; or
had you been provided with the fact that external heart massage had
been performed on the President?
Commander HUMES. Yes, sir; we had, and we considered the possibility
that some of the physical maneuvering performed by the doctors might
have in some way caused this event to take place.
Mr. SPECTER. Now, have you since discounted that possibility, Doctor
Humes?
Commander HUMES. Yes; in essence we have. When examining the wounds
in the base of the President's neck anteriorly, the region of the
tracheotomy performed at Parkland Hospital, we noted, and we noted in
our record, some contusion and bruising of the muscles of the neck of
the President. We noted that at the time of the postmortem examination.
Now, we also made note of the types of wounds which I mentioned to you
before in this testimony on the chest which were going to be used by
the doctors there to place chest tubes. They also made other wounds,
one on the left arm, and a wound on the ankle of the President with
the idea of administering intravenous blood and other fluids in hope
of replacing the blood which the President had lost from his extensive
wounds.
Those wounds showed no evidence of bruising or contusion or physical
violence, which made us reach the conclusion that they were performed
during the agonal moments of the late president, and when the
circulation was, in essence, very seriously embarrassed, if not
nonfunctional. So that these wounds, the wound of the chest and the
wound of the arm and of the ankle were performed about the same time as
the tracheotomy wound because only a very few moments of time elapsed
when all this was going on.
So, therefore, we reached the conclusion that the damage to these
muscles on the anterior neck just below this wound were received at
approximately the same time that the wound here on the top of the
pleural cavity was, while the President still lived and while his heart
and lungs were operating in such a fashion to permit him to have a
bruise in the vicinity, because that he did have in these strap muscles
in the neck, but he didn't have in the areas of the other incisions
that were made at Parkland Hospital. So we feel that, had this missile
not made its path in that fashion, the wound made by Doctor Perry in
the neck would not have been able to produce, wouldn't have been able
to produce, these contusions of the musculature of the neck.
Mr. DULLES. Could I ask a question about the missile, I am a little
bit--the bullet, I am a little bit--confused. It was found on the
stretcher. Did the President's body remain on the stretcher while it
was in the hospital?