I felt something sting me on the face ... down by the underpass ... There was a very visible mark on the kerb where a bullet had struck. A fragrant of the bullet or a piece of the concrete flew up and scratched my face. James Tague
Journalist Richard Dudman spotted a police officer and a deputy sheriff – an agent joins them – he removes a bullet and pockets it. News report
Immediately I heard what I formally believe as the President’s voice, ‘My God I’ve been hit.’ I heard Mrs Kennedy shout, ‘What are they doing to you?’ Roy Kellerman, secret service agent report
They’ve murdered my husband! They’ve murdered my husband! Jackie Kennedy
Let them see what they’ve done. Jackie Kennedy, still wearing blooded clothes
When we got to Parkland we were all shouting at each other. What happened? I came through the hall and there was a sight I shall never forget: Mrs Kennedy was sitting just outside the Trauma Room with her arms straight and her hands folded together down between her knees. She looked up like a wounded little rabbit. Henry Gonzalez, Congressman, Manchester Papers
What was a wonderful welcome in downtown Dallas has become a scene of indescribable horror as hundreds of people crowd outside the back door of the emergency room here at Parkland hospital. Faces are ashen white. Bob Huffaker, reporter KRLD-TV
His head had been almost destroyed. His face was intact but very swollen. And it was obvious he had a massive wounds to his head. Dr Robert McClelland, Parkland Hospital
I would estimate that between 20% and 25% percent of the entire brain was missing. Dr Robert McClelland
I thought it was probably an exit wound because generally speaking high-velocity missiles of that type will enter through rather a small opening and by creating a blast effect by the tumbling of the bullet it will then as it exits the body leave a large hole. Dr Robert McClelland
The wounds are consistent I think not with a bullet having been fired from the sixth floor of the depository building from behind the President but from somewhere around the grassy knoll or the triple underpass – somewhere at the front. Dr Robert McClelland
I stepped up and looked and I could see inside President Kennedy’s head. On the right side near the back, we call it the occipital-parietal blasted open by the effect of the high-velocity missile. Dr Paul Peters, Parkland Hospital
Dallas, Texas, November 22nd 1963 ... As assistant press secretary to JFK, it has been [Malcolm] Kilduff’s responsibility to organise the President’s tour of Texas ... Kilduff has helped plan the route. Days that Shook the World: The Assassination of JFK & The Resignation of Nixon, BBC 2003
[Dr Malcolm] Perry discovers the emergency patient is the President. He rushes into Trauma Room One where JFK has been taken. Case #24740. Malcolm Perry attempts to ease the President’s breathing. He quickly performs an emergency tracheotomy by inserting a tube though the wound in Kennedy’s neck. Meanwhile the neuro-surgeons prepare to take readings of electrical activity in the President’s brain. ibid.
The neck wound as visible on the patient revealed a bullet-hole almost in the mid-line. In the lower portion of the neck in front. Below the Adam’s Apple ... The wound appeared to be an entrance wound in the front of the throat; yes that is correct. Dr Malcolm Perry, Parkland Hospital
Prior to the tracheotomy performed by Dr Perry, I observed in the lower third of the neck a small rounded welding-marketed entrance wound. This was obliterated by the tracheotomy. Dr Charles Crenshaw, Parkland Hospital
The evidence at hand from the Parkland Hospital doctors of a small neat wound in the neck ... required a shot from the front. Dr R Livingston
When the photographs of the back of the head at the autopsy were shown to sixteen Parkland doctors, all sixteen said they did not recognise that photograph as what they had seen in the emergency room at Parkland Hospital. Dr David Mantik, densitometry specialist
When I first saw the pictures of the President’s body, so-called wounds, what really struck me was – especially the head wound – they showed a nice little round neat bullet hole on the back of his head, when actually what I saw was the whole side of his head blown off – was gone! I don’t know where those things came from but they’re wrong. They’re all wrong ... There was no brain to be removed at all. Paul O’Connor, assisting with autopsy at Naval Medical Centre
That evening at approximately six o’clock the body arrived in a grey metal casket. It was a very plain casket. Paul O’Connor
Before we put the president in his casket the president’s wife took her wedding band, it looked to be like her wedding band, off of her finger and put in on the president’s and kissed his hand. Dennis McGuire, O’Neal Funeral Home, televised interview
I had the head where most of the blood seemed to be coming from. It’s really a terrible experience to get blood on my hands of the President of the United States. ibid.
We’re gonna get out of town for a while until all of this blows over. John Leggett, attending mortician at Parkland Hospital, to wife Lois; Leggett shot while on remand for later charge of attempted murder
Agents came ... after it was all over, we found ink on Lee Harvey’s hands showing that they had finger-printed him and palm-printed him. Paul Brady, mortician handling Lee Harvey Oswald
Kenny O’Donnell called a quick huddle with the secret service. It was decided in the huddle that Mrs Kennedy must be spared any further delay. O’Donnell said, ‘Let’s go. We are getting out of here now.’ Dave Powers, special assistant, Manchester Papers
The body did not make an uninterrupted journey between Dallas and Bethesda. That means there was an opportunity to alter the body. David Lifton, author & investigator of ‘two coffins’
I helped put the President’s body in a bronze ceremonial casket on November 22nd 1963 at Parkland Memorial Hospital ... I would venture to say it weighed close to a thousand pounds ... We put some more sheets and a mattress liner – a plastic liner – to soak up the blood. Aubrey Wright
Later in the afternoon Dr Malcolm Perry, an attending surgeon, and Dr Kemp Clark chief of neurosurgery at Parkland Hospital, gave more details.
Mr Kennedy was hit by a bullet in the throat, just below the Adam’s Apple, they said. This wound had the appearance of the bullet’s entry. Tom Wicker, New York Times article, ‘Kennedy is Killed by Sniper as He Rides in Car in Dallas’
Dr Berkeley told me that it was a simple matter, Tom, of a bullet right through the head [points to forehead]. Malcolm Kilduff, Kennedy’s assistant press secretary, news conference
White House: Is it true that the body of President Kennedy will go to Bethesda Naval Hospital?
Kilduff: That is a Roger. That is a Roger. But we are not saying that yet. Over.
White House: Well we’ve already said it. I should have checked with you before doing it, but I don’t think it makes too much difference. Radio communication between plane and White House
As we go further into the brain we are able to observe all of the damage that has occurred in this rear exit wound from the very top of the skull down into where to the missile exited through the head. As you can see, this is the scalp area – the damage to the skull – the area of the skull was blown away by the final incoming missile. And now we can go down and see the brain and the exiting bullet has gone through the brain – you can see the path of the bullet here [points to computer screen]. Lee Harvey Oswald did not and could not have fired the fatal shot that killed our president. Tom Wilson, photomics & image processing specialist
The autopsy photographs show a massive wound but it’s in the right temporal area and into the parietal area which is behind it between the two. It is inconceivable to me that every single one of the witnesses who saw the President’s head could be wrong, and specifically wrong about this particular wound. They describe an avulsed exploded open wound in the rear of the head. And in the autopsy photographs you see a small neat wound of entrance. It’s obvious to me that those photographs have been faked. Robert Groden, photographic analyst
The bolt-action Carcano is slow and clumsy. Nova: Cold Case JFK, PBS 2013
The bullet ... is made with a full metal jacket. ibid.
In fact the stretcher bullet is damaged ... from hitting sideways ... The single bullet theory adds up. ibid.