11/22/63 Parkland Medical Reports, the Throat Wound, and the Large Head Wound

[Michael T. Griffith]

Mr. SPECTER. Did you observe the condition of the back of the
     President's head ?
Dr. McCLELLAND. Well, partially; not, of course, as I say, we did
     not lift his head up since it was so greatly damaged. We
     attempted to avoid moving him any more than it was absolutely
     necessary, but I could see, of course, all the extent of the wound.

McClelland seems to say he could not see the very rear of the President's head.

    "That there was not only a horrible gaping wound but that it was
     a cavity that extended down into the head. And as I stood there
     holding the retractor, I was looking down into it all the time. I was
     no more than eighteen inches away from the wound all the time,
     standing just above it, which was ten to fifteen minutes at least."
          -- Robert McClelland, 1991

How can McClelland be "looking down" into a gaping wound at the back of the head if he's "standing just above it" such that he could see it "extended down into the head"? The President's head have to be turned so that the back of the head was upright.

    "He was in terrible shape; the right side of his brain had been
     blown out."
          -- Robert McClelland, 1993

So even in the statements you quote, McClelland said "I could see, of course, all the extent of the wound." And, needless to say, once JFK was pronounced dead, the doctors in the room had plenty of time to observe JFK's wounds, especially when Father Huber conducted the last rites and then when the nurses began to wash the body, pack the rear head wound with gauze squares, and wrap the head and body in sheets in preparation for placing the body in the casket.

I am still waiting for you guys to deal with the fact that McClelland's WC description of the large head wound and his later drawing of the wound closely agree with the descriptions and diagrams of the wound given/drawn by numerous other witnesses, including those given/drawn by the nurse who packed the large head wound with gauze, by the Secret Service agent who saw the wound for several minutes up-close on the way to the hospital and then again at Bethesda, by the nurse who held a pressure dressing against the wound, by the mortician who reassembled the skull after the autopsy, and by the mortician's assistants who helped him prepare the body for burial, not to mention the descriptions in the 11/22/63 Parkland medical reports.

No rational person is going to buy the "they were all mistaken" argument. That dog just won't hunt when you're talking about multiple witnesses in three different locations who saw the wound up-close, who held the head, who packed the wound, etc., especially when many of them were unaware that others had given similar descriptions.

Finally, regarding Mytton's goofy top-of-head GIF, I repeat the fact that Tom Robinson, the mortician, explained to the ARRB that the top of JFK's head had no visible damage until Humes took a saw to it, and that the damage seen in the top-of-head photos was done by Humes and Boswell before the 8:00 PM autopsy started.

[John Iacoletti]

Typical "Mytton".  Sticks an arrow in his preferred location and ignores what the guy's hand is actually doing.

Just like it's typical "Mytton" to claim that a computer generated "rotation" somehow demonstrates anything about the underlying photographs.

[Jerry Organ]

So even in the statements you quote, McClelland said "I could see, of course, all the extent of the wound."

Evasive and diversionary. But true to form.

Again, how can McClelland be "looking down" into a gaping wound at the back of the head if he's "standing just above it" such that he could see it "extended down into the head"? The President's head would have to be turned so that the back of the head was upright.

    "That there was not only a horrible gaping wound but that it was
     a cavity that extended down into the head. And as I stood there
     holding the retractor, I was looking down into it all the time. I was
     no more than eighteen inches away from the wound all the time,
     standing just above it, which was ten to fifteen minutes at least."
          -- Robert McClelland, 1991

And, if he's taking about the "rear", it must be the mostly on the right side.

    "He was in terrible shape; the right side of his brain had been
     blown out."
          -- Robert McClelland, 1993

[Chris Bristow]

JohnM

It is always interesting to see how people draw very different conclusion by interrupting a visual image. What I see is that his hand definitely lands near the official wound location. But the circle he draws ends up in the same place his drawings and other demonstration have shown. When he finishes the circle his finger is nowhere near where it started. It seems like he may have touched his head then dragged his fingers to where he wanted to make the circle.
Try holding your hand 6 inches from your head and decide what part of the head you will touch. You may find that the place your finger lands is an inch or two away from where you thought it would land. 

[Bill Chapman]

Witnesses to the head wound should be using a good-sized mirror so they can close off a circle accurately

[John Mytton]

It is always interesting to see how people draw very different conclusion by interrupting a visual image. What I see is that his hand definitely lands near the official wound location. But the circle he draws ends up in the same place his drawings and other demonstration have shown. When he finishes the circle his finger is nowhere near where it started. It seems like he may have touched his head then dragged his fingers to where he wanted to make the circle.
Try holding your hand 6 inches from your head and decide what part of the head you will touch. You may find that the place your finger lands is an inch or two away from where you thought it would land.

Try holding your hand 6 inches from your head and decide what part of the head you will touch. You may find that the place your finger lands is an inch or two away from where you thought it would land.

McClelland initially points to where his scalp meets his hairline and because I look at this point on myself virtually everyday, I have no trouble locating this position and there is no way that I'd miss this location by two inches, try it yourself. If you have no hair, close your eyes and point to the top of your ear, do you miss the top of your ear by even an inch?
Within context of when the GIF is taken, it's after McClelland is shown the official autopsy photos and he has no choice but to point to where the wounds front most extremity actually was, where he ends up is a subconscious attempt to save face and/or just a muscle memory trace of his usual deceptive location.

Look at the level of McClelland's ear in the GIF as compared to the level of the ear in his infamous drawing, which bears little resemblance to where he's actually pointing.





"I find no discrepancy between the wounds as they're shown very vividly in these photographs and what I remember very vividly"
Dr Robert McClelland from the NOVA JFK documentary.

JohnM

[John Mytton]

Sticks an arrow in his preferred location and ignores what the guy's hand is actually doing.

Are you claiming that McClelland's hand has entered the 4th dimension and is actually doing something else?
In the following still, McClelland is indicating the front edge of the wound which just happens to coincide with the autopsy photo below, Geez Louise, what are the chances!



My "preferred location" is reinforced by the actual autopsy photo's and the HSCA's medical panel's analysis.





JohnM

[Bill Chapman]

Are you claiming that McClelland's hand has entered the 4th dimension and is actually doing something else?
In the following still, McClelland is indicating the front edge of the wound which just happens to coincide with the autopsy photo below, Geez Louise, what are the chances!



My "preferred location" is reinforced by the actual autopsy photo's and the HSCA's medical panel's analysis.





JohnM

Lord Iacoletti the Belittler