(Testimony of Comdr. James J. Humes)
Mr. Specter.
So, therefore, we reached the conclusion that the damage to these muscles on the anterior neck just below this wound were received at approximately the same time that the wound here on the top of the pleural cavity was, while the President still lived and while his heart and lungs were operating in such a fashion to permit him to have a bruise in the vicinity, because that he did have in these strap muscles in the neck, but he didn't have in the areas of the other incisions that were made at Parkland Hospital. So we feel that, had this missile not made its path in that fashion, the wound made by Doctor Perry in the neck would not have been able to produce, wouldn't have been able to produce, these contusions of the musculature of the neck.
Mr. Dulles.
Could I ask a question about the missile, I am a little bit--the bullet, I am a little bit--confused. It was found on the stretcher. Did the President's body remain on the stretcher while it was in the hospital?
Commander HUMES. Of that point I have no knowledge. The only--
Mr. Dulles.
Why would it--would this operating have anything to do with the bullet being on the stretcher unless the President's body remained on the stretcher after he was taken into the hospital; is that possible?
Commander HUMES. It is quite possible, sir.
Mr. Dulles.
Otherwise it seems to me the bullet would have to have been ejected from the body before he was taken or put on the bed in the hospital.
Commander HUMES. Right, sir. I, of course, was not there. I don't know how he was handled in the hospital, in what conveyance. I do know he was on his back during the period of his stay in the hospital: Doctor Perry told me that.
Mr. Dulles.
Yes; and wasn't turned over.
Commander HUMES. That is right.
Mr. Dulles.
So he might have been on the stretcher the whole time. is that your view?
The Chairman.
He said he had no view. He wasn't there, he doesn't know anything about it.
Mr. Dulles.
Yes. I wonder if there is other evidence of this.
Mr. Specter.
There has been other evidence, Mr. Dulles. If I may say at this point, we shall produce later, subject to sequential proof, evidence that the stretcher on which this bullet was found was the stretcher of Governor Connally. We have a sequence of events on the transmission of that stretcher which ties that down reasonably closely, so that on the night of the autopsy itself, as the information I have been developing indicates, the thought preliminarily was that was from President Kennedy's stretcher, and that is what led to the hypothesis which we have been exploring about but which has since been rejected. But at any rate the evidence will show that it was from Governor Connally's stretcher that the bullet was found.
Mr. Dulles.
So this bullet is still missing?
Mr. Specter.
That is the subject of some theories I am about to get into. That is an elusive subject, but Dr. Humes has some views on it and we might just as well go into those now.
Mr. Mccloy.
Before he gets into that, may I ask a question?
The Chairman.
Surely, go right ahead.
Mr. Mccloy.
Quite apart from the President's clothing, now directing your attention to the flight of the bullet, quite apart from the evidence given by the President's clothing, you, I believe, indicated that the flight of the bullet was from the back, from above and behind. It took roughly the line which is shown on your Exhibit 385.
Commander HUMES. Yes, sir.
Mr. Mccloy.
I am not clear what induced you to come to that conclusion if you couldn't find the actual exit wound by reason of the tracheotomy.
Commander HUMES. The report which we have submitted, sir, represents our thinking within the 24-48 hours of the death of the President, all facts taken into account of the situation.
The wound in the anterior portion of the lower neck is physically lower than the point of entrance posteriorly, sir.
Mr. Mccloy.
That is what I wanted to bring out.
Commander HUMES. Yes, sir.
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