Dr. Peters' recalls "bullet fragments taken from his thigh".
MR. GUNN: Did anyone else have an experience of that sort with Mr. Specter or with -
DR. PETERS: I'd like to ask a question about that. Now, as we've constructed it many times over the years, the first bullet that was fired was supposed to have missed. The second bullet went through the President and Governor Connally, and the third bullet hit President Kennedy in the skull. That's the way I think it's been explained to us over the years. Now, like Ron, I had never heard about this other bullet. There's been a lot written about the so-called pristine bullet and the -- Dr. Lattimer and the FBI fired bullets into 15 feet of pine board showing there was almost no deformity. And if you laid the pristine bullet on a flat surface such as this, It would roll irregularity showing it was only a little deformed. And I understood that the amount of lead missing from it actually equaled the calculated weight of lead from -- measured from President Kennedy's X rays, Governor Connally's arm, and the bullet fragments taken from his thigh, suggesting that it was indeed the same bullet that hit President Kennedy and Governor Connally but -
It would help to provide a cite for that. I gather this is from the 1998 AARB hearings. Dr. Peters can say anything he wants but the fact is that there was no fragment taken from JBC's thigh. The front and lateral x-rays show one fragment - the same fragment in the same location within the femur image.
Dr. Gregory testified that the fragment was just beneath the skin and that says "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.."
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.
Dr. Shires says that based on the Xray he believed the fragment was in the Femur, yet says that there was "very little soft tissue damage, less than one would expect", which in my opinion is consistent with Dr. Gregory's assessment of the bullet being just beneath the surface.
Mr. SPECTER - And what did you observe as to the wound on the thigh?
Dr. SHIRES - The wound on the thigh was a peculiar one. There was a 1 cm. punctate missile wound over the junction of the middle and lower third of the leg and the medial aspect of the, thigh. The peculiarity came in that the X-rays of the left leg showed only a very small 1 mm. bullet fragment imbedded in the femur of' the left leg. Upon exploration of this wound, the other peculiarity was that there was very little soft tissue damage, less than one would expect from an entrance wound of a centimeter in diameter, which was seen on the skin. So, it appeared, therefore, that the skin wound was either a tangential wound or that a larger .fragment had penetrated or stopped in the skin and had subsequently fallen out of the entrance wound.
Dr. Shaw recalls being told by Dr. Shire and Dr. Gregory "that that the depth of the wound was only into the subcutaneous tissue, not actually into the muscle of the leg" and Dr. Gregory who was present at this part of Dr. Shaw's testimony agreed.
Mr. SPECTER - Why do you say it is a spent missile, would you elaborate on what your thinking is on that issue?
Dr. SHAW - Only from what I have been told by Dr. Shires and Dr. Gregory, that the depth of the wound was only into the subcutaneous tissue, not actually into the muscle of the leg, so it meant that missile had penetrated for a very short period. Am I quoting you correctly, Dr. Gregory?
Mr. SPECTER - May the record show Dr. Gregory is present during this testimony and----
Dr. GREGORY - I will say yes.
Connally's two dimensional Xray could have the lead fragment from CE399 at any depth, meaning that it was not necessarily embedded in the Femur. And again in my opinion, if CE399 inserted itself all the way into the bone, then just falling out wouldn't be that possible!
All very interesting but Dr. Gregory did not operate on the thigh. He operated on the wrist. Dr. Shires debrided the thigh wound down to the region of the femur and found no lead. A post-op x-ray would have been interesting but no postop xray of the thigh appears in the record as far as I can see. I would be surprised if such an xray would not still show the same lead fragment in the femur. If it was just below the skin one would expect that it would have been removed or at least been moved by Dr. Shires but no fragment was ever found. Dr. Shires maintained to the WC and HSCA that the fragment was in the femur. This is from the HSCA report on the 1978 interview with Dr. Shires, 7 HSCA 335:
"He was open-minded about the possibility that the fragment could have been just under the skin, but preferred to reiterate his initial impressions that the fragment was in the thigh bone . Dr. Shires said that while they explored the entire track of the missile, they were not " . . .exploring it as a track . . ." ; rather they were " . . .exploring the wound looking for a big missile injury ." Dr . Shires said he found little hemorrhage, so he felt it was likely that a high velocity missile did not pass through the skin causing the wound."
Also, it is interesting to note that Dr. Gregory said that he was of the view that the bullet that struck Connally in the back had not struck anything before:
6 H 103:
Dr. Gregory. .... the wound of entry created by such a missile usually is quite large and the destruction it creates is increased, as a matter of fact, by such tumbling, and I would have therefore expected to see perhaps some organic material carried into a large wound of entry in Governor Connally’s back.
These are only theoretical observations, but these are some of the reasons why I would believe that the missile in the Governor behaved as though it had never struck anything except him.
