The Parkland Doctors, Part Six
- Fred Litwin
- 18 minutes ago
- 12 min read
Jefferson Morley believes that Dr. Robert McClelland's recollections provides proof that JFK was shot from the front.
The testimony of Dr. Robert McClelland is especially important to any consideration of the JFK assassination story today.
McClelland was a unique eyewitness to history. He tried to save the life of President Kennedy, and two days later he was called to try to save the life of accused assassin Lee Harvey Oswald. For the next three decades, he never spoke about what he saw on November 22, 1963. He authored a medical textbook and mentored three generations of Parkland Hospital doctors. He was, by all accounts, a distinguished physician and teacher. He died in 2019.
In composing Dr. McClelland’s obituary, the editors of the New York Times were careful not to mention his diagnosis of JFK’s head wound, which is readily available on YouTube.
In this 2013 conversation with a fellow doctor, McClelland could not have been more explicit: “that bullet came from the grassy knoll.”
Morley offers a weak counter to the above:
Posner interviewed a number of the Dallas doctors and attempted to impugn their diagnosis of a blowout rear head wound. Dr. McClelland was simply mistaken, Posner wrote. He didn’t have enough time to examine the head wound, he said. Posner, a lawyer by professional training, raised enough particular questions about each doctor to enable him to dismiss all testimony that didn’t conform to his preferred interpretation of November 22.
In response to “What the Doctors Saw,” Posner cited the interviews in his 1993 book. As far I know, Posner has never addressed or attempted to rebut what Dr. McClelland said in his 2013 interview, other than to repeat his opinion that McClelland was mistaken.
I think Posner's chapter on the medical evidence is excellent. For instance, Morley must have missed these two paragraphs: (pages 309 - 310)
Dr. Baden of the Select Committee concurs: “Parkland was not concerned with whether the bullet was going from front to back or vice versa, they were only treating the symptoms, not the wounds. Some of them could be good surgeons but lousy pathologists. A third of the time, an autopsy shows something was missed by the treating doctors at the hospital. In unnatural deaths, it is common for the treating physicians to mix up stab wounds and gun shots, and they are wrong half the time about exit or entrance. The Parkland doctors did not clean Kennedy off—there is just no way they could have hazarded a real guess about that wound, since it was covered with blood and tissue. If they say they saw cerebellum, they are just wrong because the cerebellum was perfect. And if they say there was a large hole in the rear of the head, they don’t know what they are talking about since there is nothing there but the entry injury in the rear cowlick. The mistakes in judgments from Parkland are exactly why we have autopsies.
“One of the most important aspects of the Zapruder film, often overlooked by the critics, are the frames immediately after the President was shot in the head. It’s very clear on the enhanced frames that there is a wound over the right ear, but the back of the head is clean. That film is incontrovertible evidence that there was no defect on the rear of the head.”
Perhaps Morley should read my five-part series on the Parkland Doctors which offers another perspective on Dr. McClelland. Here is the salient information on Dr. McClelland from those five posts:
Attending physicians often make mistakes in determining the nature of gunshot wounds. Should we care what the Parkland doctors think?
A look at what the Parkland doctors wrote and what they said. Dr. McClelland's written report from November 22, 1963, states that JFK had a wound in his left temple, which clearly shows he was either confused or did not get a good look at the wound:
He wrote that "cause of death was due to massive head and brain injury from a gunshot wound of the left temple."
On December 18, 1963, Dr. McClelland spoke to Richard Dudman of the St. Lous Post-Dispatch:
Secret Service agent Elmer Moore shared the conclusions of the autopsy pathologists with the Parkland doctors:
Of course, some conspiracy theorists maintain that Moore applied pressure. But McClelland denied that right up front:
McClelland was then quoted in the January 1964 issue of the Texas State Journal of Medicine:
"A gunshot wound of the right side of the head."
McClelland testified that he looked at the head wound when he was helping Dr. Perry with the tracheostomy:
Note that McClelland specifies both that he was at the head of the table helping out with the tracheotomy when he examined Kennedy's head wound, and that this put him in position to closely examine the wound. Here is Figure PR10.1, "Position for Tracheotomy", from the textbook Emergency Medicine (edited by Harold May, 1984):
This closely mirrors the position on the slide above. Note that in order to expose the neck the head is tilted sharply backwards in the tracheotomy position. So how in the heck could McClelland 1) closely examine a wound low on the back of Kennedy's head while Kennedy was in such a position and he (McClelland) was standing at the head of the table? and 2) claim his standing at the head of the table put him in "such a position that I could very closely examine the head wound"?
Dr. McClelland spoke to a reporter from Newsday in 1992:
The Boston Globe interviewed some of the Parkland doctors in 1981.
It's instructive to read Pat Speer's analysis of the Boston Globe interviews, in particular his conclusion:
Let's reflect. Ben Bradlee and the Boston Globe interviewed 14 Parkland witnesses in 1981. Of these 14, 8 strongly questioned or rejected the accuracy of the autopsy photo showing the back of Kennedy's head, and 6 supported or failed to question the accuracy of the photo. This is indeed interesting. But what's just as interesting, and just as telling in the long run, is that NINE of these 14 rejected the accuracy of the McClelland drawing, which those focusing on this issue nevertheless propped up as a depiction of the one true wound.
Feel free to scream. And let's reflect that when ultimately reporting on these interviews, in his 1989 best seller High Treason, Livingstone and his co-author Robert Groden claimed that the "McClelland" drawing "was verified by every doctor, nurse, and eyewitness as accurate."
So, I ask again, were we conned?
A 1992 article in the Journal of the American Medical Association has some interesting comments from a few of the Parkland doctors.
Money Quote:
Interviewed in Dallas, he [Dr. McClelland] told this reporter (Dennis Breo) that he maintains a "strong opinion" that the fatal head wound came from the front. Pressed on his reasons, he says, "After I saw the Zapruder film in 1969, I became convinced that the backward lurch of the head had to have come from a shot from the front. Unlike Crenshaw, I do not believe that one can tell the direction from which the bullet came simply by looking at the head wound, as I did, but the wound I observed did appear consistent with a shot from the front."
So, McClelland was swayed by the Zapruder film.
The Parkland Doctors, Part Five
Jacob Carter interviewed Dr. Robert McClelland for his 2015 book Before History Dies, and what he had to say was quite illuminating: (page 50 in the Kindle edition)
Jacob Carter: So, you have no doubt in your mind that there was a wound in the right rear portion of President Kennedy’s head?
Dr. McClelland: Oh gosh, no more so than the sun comes up every morning. I saw that directly as I said from a distance of maybe 18 inches above it, and stared at that wound for five or six minutes before he was pronounced dead.
Jacob Carter: Did the other doctors see the same thing?
Dr. McClelland: No. They weren’t in the position I was in. Dr. Perry and Dr. Baxter were working on the president’s neck, doing the tracheotomy. So, they turned all their attention towards that, not the wound at his head. And, people who were walking around the trauma room didn’t get anything but indirect glances at the head. I had the best and most direct view for the longest period.
So, only Dr. McClelland got a good view of Kennedy's wounds. All the other doctors only had "indirect glances" of the head wound.
He says that he stared at that wound for five or six minutes. It's interesting that his initial written report says that he was only in the Emergency room for ten minutes.
And then there was this question: (page 51 in the Kindle edition)
Jacob Carter: Do you think you couldn’t see the entry wound because of the damage on his head?
Dr. McClelland: It was bloody and there was a lot of hair, and also we didn’t get a chance to examine him closely. All we saw him was five minutes, and all I could see was the back of his head.
Yes, exactly. There was a lot of blood and hair and that obscured everybody's view of Kennedy's head wounds.
McClelland stared at the hole in the back of the president’s head. He looked at where the skull crumpled slightly around the edges. Knowing nothing else of the assassination at the time, he, too, assumed a bullet had come out of that opening.
He wouldn’t feel confident in his initial assessment until 11 and a half years later, when he and his wife watched an episode of The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. As the couple got ready for bed, Carson introduced his guest, a young, ambitious television host named Geraldo Rivera. Rivera had with him footage of the assassination previously unseen by the public, footage known simply as “the Zapruder film.” Shot by Abraham Zapruder, an immigrant from the Ukraine, the 8-millimeter Kodachrome movie shows the motorcade through the duration of the assassination. As McClelland watched it for the first time, he saw the back of the president’s head blasted out. He saw the president swayed “back and to the left,” a phrase later repeated ad nauseum in Oliver Stone’s JFK. McClelland was convinced he had been standing over an exit wound.
Dr. McClelland wasn't sure about the nature of the wound until he saw the Zapruder film? Of course, the Zapruder film does NOT show a blow out to the back of JFK's head.
It's curious that Morley is so anxious to accept Dr. McClelland's opinion, and the opinions of a few of the earwitnesses, but is completely willing to ignore the findings of the autopsy and the autopsy X-rays and photographs.
The only way to sustain a blow-out wound in the back of JFK's head is to accept alteration of the Zapruder Film, alteration of the wounds of JFK, or alteration of the autopsy X-rays and photographs.
The autopsy photographs show that the left hemisphere of JFK's brain was largely intact and thus provides proof that he was not shot from the grassy knoll. Even Dr. Cyril Wecht recognized that:
A letter from Dr. Wecht to Thomas Stamm on the head shot.
A letter from Dr. Wecht to Sylvia Meagher on the head shot.
And this is why Oliver Stone's so-called documentary series, JFK: Destiny Betrayed had to make the case that the autopsy photographer did not take photos of JFK brain.
Stringer was very clear that he took the photographs of JFK's brain.
Oliver Stone's so-called documentary makes it sound like the autopsy photographer said that he did not take the photos of JFK's brain that are in the current inventory,
When David Green, Professor of Psychophysics at Harvard University, testified before the HSCA he said that "any rifle shot from the Knoll was quite evident. It was a very, very loud sound. You almost jumped when the rifle was fired from such a close distance. We were probably 30 to 40 feet of the muzzle blast."
His study also looked at the location of witnesses and their beliefs about the origins of the shots:
Only two of the seven witnesses on the knoll thought the shots came from there.
Previous Relevant Blog Posts on the Medical Evidence
Sitzman, who was standing right behind Abraham Zapruder, thoughts the shots came from the TSBD and that she clearly saw Kennedy's head wound over the right ear.
Stringer was very clear that he took the photographs of JFK's brain.
Attending physicians often make mistakes in determining the nature of gunshot wounds. Should we care what the Parkland doctors think?
A look at what the Parkland doctors wrote and what they said.
The Boston Globe interviewed some of the Parkland doctors in 1981.
A 1992 article in the Journal of the American Medical Association has some interesting comments from a few of the Parkland doctors.
An interesting interview with Dr. Robert McClelland.
The doctor treating John Lennon was mistaken about his wounds.
Wecht complains about the HSCA's forensic pathology panel.
Wecht has a suggestion for Dr. Baden.
Wecht's memoir mentions his examination of the autopsy materials in 1972 but neglects to talk about his conclusion that the fatal head shot came from behind.
James DiEugenio's obituary of Dr. Wecht leaves out his conclusion that the fatal head shot came from behind.
Dr. Cyril Wecht (1931 - 2024) זיכרונו לברכה
My obituary for Dr. Cyril Wecht.
A letter from Dr. Wecht to Thomas Stamm on the head shot.
A letter from Dr. Wecht to Sylvia Meagher on the head shot.
Dr. Wecht believes that JFK's throat wound was one of exit.
Dr. Robert Kirschner's consultation with the ARRB explains a mystery in the documentary.
JFK Revisited makes a big deal about the weight of JFK's brain and ignores a non-conspiratorial explanation.
Oliver Stone's so-called documentary makes it sound like the autopsy photographer said that he did not take the photos of JFK's brain that are in the current inventory,
Oliver Stone's so-called documentary series, JFK: Destiny Betrayed, features Dr. Charles Crenshaw to bolster its claim that President Kennedy was shot from the front. Viewers are not informed of Dr. Crenshaw's credibility problems.
Oliver Stone's so-called documentary, JFK: Destiny Betrayed, misleads viewers on the opinions of Parkland Hospital doctors and Bethesda witnesses regarding JFK's head wound.
Oliver Stone's so-called documentary series, JFK: Destiny Betrayed, misleads viewers into thinking the Harper fragment was occipital bone that came from the back of Kennedy's head.
Have a look at Dr. Joseph Dolce's bad judgment
Oliver Stone's so-called documentary series JFK: Destiny Betrayed uses a variety of supposed witnesses to allege that the wound in the back of Kennedy's head was one of exit. Audrey Bell is one such witness and she doesn't have much credibility.
Oliver Stone's so-called documentary series, JFK: Destiny Betrayed, tries to make the case that because Parkland Hospital doctors saw cerebellum extruding from Kennedy's head wound, that it indicated an exit wound.
While Gerald Ford edited some language in the Warren Report, he did not change the location of the back wound. Autopsy photographs show exactly the location of the back wound.
Oliver Stone's so-called documentary series, JFK: Destiny Betrayed, alleges that autopsy pathologists were told to fit the wounds to a presupposed conclusion.
A podcast with Robert Wagner who has written an important book on the medical evidence.