Autopsy proves SBT impossible

[Tim Nickerson]

Bump for Tim.

Here you go ray:

[Tim Nickerson]

"The apex of the lung was bruised by the shockwave of the bullet as it passed above it."

How does a bullet creating a shockwave that bruises the top of JFK's lung, as it passes over top of it, exit

the front of his throat through a clean punched out hole roughly the same diameter as the alleged bullet?

Doctors who saw the wound pre-tracheotomy said it was an entrance wound. Their reasoning: The shock

wave from a rifle bullet would have created more damage and left a much larger exit wound in the front of

JFK's throat.


http://www.maryferrell.org/mffweb/archive/viewer/showDoc.do?docId=622&relPageId=5

ARRB MD 41 - White House Transcript of Dallas Press Conference

-snip-

Q. Where was the entrance wound?

Dr.Perry: There was an entrance wound in the neck, in regards the one on the
head, I cannot say.

Q. Which way was the bullet coming on the neck wound? At him?

Dr.Perry: It appeared to be coming at him.

-snip-

Q. Doctor, describe the entrance wound. You think from the front in the throat?

Dr.Perry: The wound appeared to be an entrance wound in the front of the throat; yes,
that is correct.

-snip-

Mr. SPECTER - Based on your observations of the neck wound alone, do you have a sufficient basis to form an opinion as to whether it was an entrance wound or an exit wound.
Dr. PERRY - No, sir. I was unable to determine that since I did not ascertain the exact trajectory of the missile. The operative procedure which I performed was restricted to securing an adequate airway and insuring there was no injury to the carotid artery or jugular vein at that level and at that point I made the procedure.
Mr. SPECTER - Based on the appearance of the neck wound alone, could it have been either an entrance or an exit wound?
Dr. PERRY - It could have been either.
Mr. SPECTER - Permit me to supply some additional facts, Dr. Perry, which I shall ask you to assume as being true for purposes of having you express an opinion.
Assume first of all that the President was struck by a 6.5 mm. copper-jacketed bullet fired from a gun having a muzzle velocity of approximately 2,000 feet per second, with the weapon being approximately 160 to 250 feet from the President, with the bullet striking him at an angle of declination of approximately 45 degrees, striking the President on the upper right posterior thorax just above the upper border of the scapula, being 14 cm. from the tip of the right acromion process and 14 cm. below the tip of the right mastoid process, passing through the President's body striking no bones, traversing the neck and sliding between the large muscles in the posterior portion of the President's body through a fascia channel without violating the pleural cavity but bruising the apex of the right pleural cavity, and bruising the most apical portion of the right lung inflicting a hematoma to the right side of the larynx, which you have just described, and striking the trachea causing the injury which you described, and then exiting from the hole that you have described in the midline of the neck.
Now, assuming those facts to be true, would the hole which you observed in the neck of the President be consistent with an exit wound under those circumstances?
Dr. PERRY - Certainly would be consistent with an exit wound.
Mr. SPECTER - Now, assuming one additional fact that there was no bullet found in the body of the President, and assuming the facts which I have just set forth to be true, do you have an opinion as to whether the wound which you observed in the President's neck was an entrance or an exit wound?
Dr. PERRY - A full jacketed bullet without deformation passing through skin would leave a similar wound for an exit and entrance wound and with the facts which you have made available and with these assumptions, I believe that it was an exit wound.

http://spot.acorn.net/jfkplace/09/fp.back_issues/31st_Issue/vs_wounds.html

Mr. Specter. What would be the considerations which, in your mind, would make it, as you characterized it, unlikely?

Dr. Baxter. It would be unlikely because the damage that the bullet would create would be--first its speed would create
a shock wave which would damage a larger number of tissues, as in its path, it would tend to strike, or usually would strike,
tissues of greater density than this particular missile did and would then begin to tumble and would create larger jagged--the
further it went, the more jagged would be the damage that it created; so that ordinarily there would have been a rather large
wound of exit. (VI, H-42)

Dr Baxter: We could not determine, or did not determine at that time whether this represented an entry or an exit wound. Judging from the caliber of the rifle that we later found or become acquainted with, this would more resemble a wound of entry. However, due to the density of the tissues of the neck and depending upon what a bullet of such caliber would pass through, the tissues that it would pass through on the way to the neck, I think that the wound could well represent either exit or entry wound.
Mr. Specter: Assuming some factors in addition to those which you personally observed, Dr. Baxter, what would your opinion be if these additional facts were present: First, the President had a bullet wound of entry on the right posterior thorax just above the upper border of the Scapula with the wound measuring 7 by 4 mm. in oval shape, being 14 cm. from the tip of the right acromion process and 14 cm. below the tip of the right mastoid process--assume this is the set of facts, that the wound Just described was caused by a 6.5 mm bullet shot from approximately 160 to 250 feet away from the President, from a weapon having a muzzle velocity of approximately 2,000 feet per second, assuming as a third factor that the bullet passed through the President's body, going in between the strap muscles of the shoulder without violating the pleura space and exited at a point in the midline of the neck, would the hole which you saw on the President's throat be consistent with an exit point, assuming the factors which I have Just given to you?
Dr. Baxter: Although it would be unusual for a high velocity missile of this type to cause a wound as you have described, the passage through tissue planes of this density could have well resulted in the sequence which you outline; namely, that the anterior wound does represent a wound of exit.
Mr. Specter: What would be the considerations which, in your mind, would make it, as you characterized it, unlikely?
Dr. Baxter : It would be unlikely because the damage that the bullet would create would be---first its speed would create a shock wave which would damage a larger number of tissues, as in its path, it would tend to strike, or usually would strike, tissues of greater density than this particular missile did and would then begin to tumble and would create larger jagged--the further it went, the more jagged would be the damage that it created; so that ordinarily there would have been a rather large wound of exit.
Mr. Specter: But relating the situation as I hypothesized it for you?
Dr. Baxter: Then it is perfectly understandable that this wound of exit was not of any greater magnitude than it was.

"Mr. Specter had even more severe problems with Dr. Ronald Coy Jones of Parkland Hospital, whom he asked about the neck wounds:"

Mr. Specter. In this report, Dr. Jones, you state the following, "Previously described severe skull and brain injury was noted
as well as a small hole in the anterior midline of the neck thought to be a bullet entrance wound." What led you to the thought
that it was a bullet entrance wound, sir?

Dr. Jones. The hole was very small and relatively clean cut, as you would see in a bullet that is entering rather than exiting
from a patient. If this were an exit wound, you would think that it exited at a very low velocity to produce no more damage than
this had done, and if this were a missile of high velocity, you would expect more of an explosive type of exit wound, with more
tissue destruction than this appeared to have on superficial examination. (VI, H-55)

"Even Mr. Specter could not find in this account much opportunity for turning this neck wound into an exit wound. So, in good prosecutor
-like fashion, he prodded for the thin slant of Commission daylight in Dr. Jones's otherwise dark view of the Commission's suggestions:"

Mr. Specter. Would it be consistent, then, with an exit wound, but of low velocity, as you put it?

Dr. Jones. Yes, of very low velocity to the point that you might think that this bullet barely made it through the soft tissues and
just enough to drop out of the skin on the opposite side. (VI, H-55)

Mr. SPECTER - What is your experience, Doctor, if any, in the treatment of bullet wounds?
Dr. JONES - During our residency here we have approximately 1 complete year out of the 4 years on the trauma service here, and this is in addition to the 2 months that we spend every other day and every other night in the emergency room during our first year, so that we see a tremendous number of bullet wounds here in that length of time, sometimes as many as four and five a night.
Mr. SPECTER - Have you ever had any formal training in bullet wounds?
Dr. JONES - No.
Mr. SPECTER - Have you ever had occasion to observe a bullet wound which was inflicted by a missile at approximate size of a 6.5 ram. bullet which passed through the body of a person and exited from a neck without striking anything but soft tissue from the back through the neck, where the missile came from a weapon of the muzzle velocity of 2,000 feet per second, and the victim was in the vicinity of 160 to 250 feet from the weapon?
Dr. JONES - No; I have not seen a missile of this velocity exit in the anterior portion of the neck. I have seen it in other places of the body, but not in the neck.

[Matt Grantham]

Is there any WC testimony on the wound in the back an evidence of the path from that wound to front throat wound?

[Tim Nickerson]

Is there any WC testimony on the wound in the back an evidence of the path from that wound to front throat wound?

Matt, I think Humes' WC testimony is the only one that talks about the entry wound in the 'back",  other than mere references to it in other testimonies. The HSCA FPP and two or three Radiologists  examined the autopsy X-rays to try and determine the path from entry to exit. There are references in the HSCA Volumes to damage to the transverse processes of T1 and C7 and one of the radiologists noted interstitial air between the two wounds that would indicate that a bullet had passed through.

[Ray Mitcham]

Here you go ray:

Trouble is, Tim, the bullet entered the back at a  downward angle o 45/60˚ according to Sibert and O'Neill.

[Tim Nickerson]

Trouble is, Tim, the bullet entered the back at a  downward angle o 45/60˚ according to Sibert and O'Neill.

Did Sibert and O'Neill measure a downward angle o 45/60 degrees? If so, how did they manage to do it?

[Ray Mitcham]

Did Sibert and O'Neill measure a downward angle o 45/60 degrees? If so, how did they manage to do it?

Probably not, as they were watching the ludicrous autopsy by Finck, Humes and Boswell and reported what they saw and heard.

[Tim Nickerson]

Probably not, as they were watching the ludicrous autopsy by Finck, Humes and Boswell and reported what they saw and heard.

Ok, so they didn't measure themselves. Who did the measuring and what method and tools did they use to come up with the 45/60 degree figure?