Creative Speculation

Like this one from Josepina C. Aguilar, MD, “Shored gunshot wound of exit,” (Am J Foren Med Path 1983; 4(3):199-204). :

· The bullet wound in Kennedy’s throat was not acknowledged, not described, and not documented in any way by the pathologists during the autopsy.

· Subsequent investigations could not possibly examine the documentation of the remains of the bullet wound in the throat – there was none, other than a poor photograph, taken from too far away to show any detail.

· The Clark Panel was not guided by the scientific principles described by its most prominent member, Alan R. Moritz: the Panel failed to “record a sufficiently detailed, factual, and noninterpretive description of the observed conditions [whatever details suggested the wound was ‘characteristic of an exit’ at the exclusion of an entrance], in order that a competent reader may form his own opinions in regard to the significance of the changes described.”

· Physicians who actually saw the wound gave several reasons for their interpretation of its nature: an entrance wound.

· Entrance wounds need not be perfectly smooth.

· Entrance wounds need not have abrasion collars.

· The size of entrance and exit wounds is affected by the bullet’s velocity.

· Exit wounds can be small if the area of the bullet presented to the skin is also small – and if its exiting velocity is low.

· Abrasion collars of exit wounds are much larger and, in other ways, are distinctly different from those of entrance wounds.

· The known details about the back and throat wounds of John F. Kennedy suggest both could be either entrance or exit wounds.

· The back wound could have been the exit of a bullet that entered the body through the throat. Many researchers doubt this because no hole was reported in the trunk of the limousine; they believe such a trajectory would require the bullet to also penetrate the trunk. This is not necessarily so: if the bullet had exited with very little energy – perhaps after traveling from afar – it would not have penetrated the trunk.

· The back wound could have been the entrance of a bullet (underpowered) that barely penetrated, then fell out, into oblivion. (A bullet superficially penetrated the thigh of Governor John Connally, creating a round,10mm wound, and somehow leaving a small fragment 8mm beneath the skin. This bullet had very little energy -- allegedly -- because it had already perforated Kennedy’s neck, then Connally’s chest and wrist.)

· The abrasion collar on Kennedy’s throat wound was consistent with an entrance – and most definitely not that of a shored exit.

· There is no reported evidence that Kennedy’s shirt collar contained crushed skin.

· If Kennedy’s throat wound were an exit, the bullet that created it could not have had sufficient velocity to perforate Governor John Connally’s chest and wrist.

· If Kennedy’s throat wound was an entrance, it was a typical entrance.