The testimony of Dr. Ronald Coy Jones was taken at 10:20 a.m., on March
24, 1964, at Parkland Memorial Hospital, Dallas, Tex., by Mr. Arlen
Specter, assistant counsel of the President's Commission.
Mr. SPECTER. May the record show at this point that Dr. Ronald Jones
has arrived in response to a letter of request to give his deposition
for the President's Commission on the assassination of President
Kennedy.
Dr. Jones, the purpose of the President's Commission is to investigate
all the facts relating to the shooting and subsequent medical treatment
of President Kennedy and we have asked you to appear to testify
concerning your knowledge of that treatment.
With that statement of purpose, will you stand up and raise your
right hand. Do you solemnly swear the testimony you give before the
President's Commission during the course of this deposition proceeding
will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help
you God?
Dr. JONES. I do.
Mr. SPECTER. Would you state your full name for the record, please?
Dr. JONES. Ronald Coy Jones.
Mr. SPECTER. What is your profession, sir?
Dr. JONES. General Surgery--resident physician.
Mr. SPECTER. Are you duly licensed by the State of Texas to practice
medicine?
Dr. JONES. Yes.
Mr. SPECTER. Will you outline briefly your educational background?
Dr. JONES. I graduated--I went to undergraduate school at the
University of Arkansas from 1950 to 1953, in pre-med. From 1953 through
1957, I went to medical school and graduated from the University of
Tennessee in Memphis, and in 1957 through 1958 I took an internship in
Los Angeles County General Hospital.
From there I went to the University of Oklahoma and took a 2-year
general practice residency, 1 year, the first year, entailing a year of
internal medicine and its subspecialties, and a second year of surgery
and its subspecialties, which was approved by the American Board of
Surgeons for 1 year of surgical training, and from 1960 until the
present time I have taken an additional 4 years of general surgery at
Parkland, and have served as Chief Resident of Surgery.
Mr. SPECTER. Did you have occasion to aid in the medical treatment of
President Kennedy on November 22, 1963?
Dr. JONES. Yes, sir.
Mr. SPECTER. Would you relate briefly the circumstances surrounding
your being called into the case?
Dr. JONES. I was eating lunch with Dr. Perry and I heard the operator
page Dr. Tom Shires of the staff on two occasions, and the second time
I answered the phone and the operator told me that the President had
been shot and was being brought to the emergency room.
I turned around and immediately notified Miss Audrey Bell, who is
the operating room supervisor so that any arrangements could be made
for immediate surgery, and Dr. M. T. Jenkins, who is the Chief of
the Anesthesiology Department. From there I went across the room and
notified Dr. Perry of the shooting and we both went together to the
emergency room, and it was at that time we arrived shortly after the
President had been brought in.
Mr. SPECTER. What is your best estimate as to the time you arrived at
the emergency room?
Dr. JONES. It was, I would say, around 23 or 25 minutes until 1.
Mr. SPECTER. And who was present, if anyone, at the time you arrived?
Dr. JONES. Dr. James Carrico, and possibly Dr. Richard Dulany, and I'm
not sure that he was there or was there for just a few minutes after we
arrived. I do recall seeing him there as one of the first ones.
Mr. SPECTER. Was any nurse present at that time?