How Dr. Malcolm Perry’s Famous Small Incision Created False History and Countless JFK Assassination Conspiracy Theories

by Dave O’Brien

Little did he know that by simply doing his job, Dr. Malcolm Perry would create a cottage industry of JFK assassination conspiracy theories.

Dr. Perry was an unassuming man before his efforts to save the life of a dying President thrust him uncomfortably into the glaring lights of history and controversy.

The Parkland Memorial Hospital physician was the first doctor to attend to President Kennedy in Trauma Room One within minutes of the shots being fired in Dallas.

Despite a massive head wound and the enormity of his patient being the President of the United States, the unflappable Dr. Perry did what he was trained to do.

Noting that his famous victim was in respiratory distress, Dr. Perry performed an emergency tracheotomy – a small incision in the indent of the throat just below the Adam’s apple so that a tube could be inserted into the airway to assist breathing.

On any other day and on any other patient, a tracheotomy is a routine procedure, but this emergency incision on President Kennedy’s throat would cause epic controversy and cause Dr. Perry to go stealth for the rest of his life, declining thousands of requests for interviews by every kind of media from all over the world.

PEN PALS

Apart from his obligatory Parkland Hospital press conferences and his appearance before the Warren Commission, both of whom he would later claim misrepresented his testimony in a personal letter to this researcher, Dr. Perry sought to distance himself from the fate that made him an unwanted part of history.

He was hounded relentlessly by the world press, helping his decision to leave his home State of Texas for more than a decade. In 1978, he was compelled to testify before the House Select Committee on Assassinations, the second U.S. government investigation of the events that changed history 15 years earlier.

After that, Dr. Perry resumed his efforts to avoid the limelight. For reasons that will become evident here, he was torn by the government’s attempts to have him affirm that Lee Harvey Oswald fired all the shots from above and behind while the media chased him mostly to confirm the possibility of conspiracy.

And so, imagine my surprise when Dr. Malcolm Perry took the time to respond to a letter I wrote to him as a 16-year-old student and researcher.

Over the next four years, we would exchange three handwritten letters that would make clear his frustration over both the government and the media’s tug-of-war about his crucial observations that day.

Perhaps it was because I was a young inquisitive student from Canada that caused him to let his guard down and offer some commentary. I never did find out why he chose me to reflect on his stunning rendezvous with history.

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Author’s Note:

Dr. Perry’s first letter to me is presented
near the end of this article.
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INCOMPLETE AUTOPSY

Like history itself, Dr. Malcolm Perry became a victim of incompetence not of his own doing.

The calamity of events started at 1 p.m. CST when President Kennedy was officially declared dead.

Under Texas state law, the body of the deceased victim should have been turned over to the Dallas County Medical Examiner’s Office for a post-mortem procedure.

However, this was no ordinary victim.

Instead, yet to be sworn in President Lyndon Johnson ordered the Secret Service to forcibly confiscate the President’s body and bring it to Air Force One awaiting takeoff at Love Field airport.

Apparently, Mrs. Kennedy would not attend the swearing in of the new President or head back to Washington until her husband’s body was brought to the jetliner to be at her side.

A second mistake occurred the moment Air Force One touched down in Washington. The body should have been turned over to either the District of Columbia or Maryland Medical Examiner’s Office for autopsy.

For reasons that remain unexplained to this day, instead of civilian ‘forensic’ pathologists being summoned to conduct the post-mortem on the nation’s 35th President, the body was turned over to the military and taken to the Bethesda Naval Hospital in nearby Maryland.

MILITARY COUP D’ ETAT?

It is history’s profound loss that the military assigned three pathologists to conduct the autopsy on the President of the United States who were completely unqualified to undertake such a complex procedure.

Neither lead pathologist Commander James J. Humes, nor assistants Colonel Pierre Finck or Commander J. Thornton Boswell had ever before conducted an autopsy involving death by gunshots!

All three were stellar general hospital pathologists, typically called upon to perform a post mortem on expired victims by means of disease or natural causes.

None of these surgeons had ever done an autopsy whereby death was the result of a violent act!

It didn’t take long for this lack of expertise and experience to cause major problems, as Dr. Malcolm Perry was about to find out first hand.

SHOCKING PHONE CALL

Normally, as part of a properly executed forensic pathology examination, the assigned surgeons would complete a checklist of pre-autopsy preparations, such as requesting x-rays and photographs of the body for review while the examination is underway, as well as a report of any evidence gathered from the time of the crime to the body’s arrival for autopsy.

Knowing that President Kennedy was treated at Parkland Memorial Hospital, a routine procedure before autopsy would be for a ‘forensic’ surgeon to call the doctors at Parkland to get their observations on the record.

Tragically, such a phone call did not happen until the next day…AFTER the autopsy had been completed.

This blunder would lead to one of the ultimate sins of the science of pathology – a post-mortem examination on the nation’s President would be completed without the surgeons having accounted for all the wounds on the victim’s body!

YOU DID WHAT?

By failing to call the Parkland doctors before the autopsy began, Dr. Humes and his team conducted a post mortem and completed their autopsy report without knowing that a wound existed in the front of the President’s neck!

When the body got to the Bethesda Naval Hospital, Dr. Humes correctly observed that a tracheotomy had been done on the victim as shown in this official autopsy photo.

It was the next day, when Dr. Humes connected with Dr. Perry, that the lead autopsy surgeon learned that the tracheal incision obliterated a small wound appearing on the President.

What the autopsy surgical team did not know was that a small, circular puncture wound on the President’s throat was used as the point of incision by Dr. Perry for his tracheal operation.

Remarkably, when Dr. Humes finally learned of this stunning revelation, it threw his official autopsy findings into chaos because not all the wounds sustained by President Kennedy had been accounted for in the finished post-mortem report.

Upon receipt of this stunning revelation, knowing that he could not recall the body and re-examine it, what did Dr. Humes do?

Dr. Humes burned his original autopsy findings in his home fireplace and constructed a new ‘official’ version of the autopsy report on the President!

This is unthinkable, especially knowing that autopsy reports are often a critical submission in a court of law to definitively establish not only the cause of death for a victim of violence, but irrefutable evidence that helps to either convict or exonerate the accused.

Fortunately for Dr. Humes, the murder of the charged assassin Lee Harvey Oswald by Jack Ruby meant that his gaffe would not be questioned or cross examined in a court of law.

And sadly for history, Dr. Humes was not taken to task by the Warren Commission for his dumbfounding change of findings. Why?

FROM CONSPIRACY TO LONE GUNMAN

If accepted as fact, the original autopsy report would have compelled the Warren Commission to conclude that at least two gunmen had fired on the Presidential motorcade that tragic day.

However, the revised autopsy report enabled the Warren Commission to report to the world that Lee Harvey Oswald was the lone assassin in Dealey Plaza. So, what happened?

In the first post-mortem report, as shown in this autopsy chart prepared by Commander Boswell, a shot struck President Kennedy in the upper back, measured to be 5 ¾ inches below the collar line and one inch to the right of the spinal column.

The FBI was present to record the autopsy findings and retrieve any physical evidence, such as bullets or fragments. It’s report not only affirms the Dr. Humes report about the location of the back wound, it goes on to state the following:

“Dr. Humes probed this wound with the finger, at which time
it was determined that the distance travelled by the missile
entering at this point was a short distance inasmuch as the
end of the opening could be felt with the finger (about the
second knuckle).”

During the examination, word reached the autopsy room that a nearly whole bullet has been found at Parkland Hospital. The FBI report goes on to state:

“Upon receipt of this information (about the bullet),
Dr. Humes stated that the pattern was clear – the
bullet that entered in the back had worked its way
back out of the body during external cardiac
massage at Parkland Hospital.”

It is critical to note that the first autopsy report, as verified by the FBI autopsy report signed off by two agents, concluded that the bullet that caused the non-fatal wound in JFK’s back did not transit his body!

Had this finding stood as fact, it would have established that two gunmen fired shots at the limousine because the Zapruder film shows Governor John Connally, seated in front of the President in the car, reacting to his non-lethal wounds no more than one second after JFK is seen reacting to being hit in the back.

In other words, after the President is hit in the back, Connally is then hit prior to the 2.3 seconds it takes to re-cock, aim and fire the Oswald rifle. Since the Governor reacts to being hit only one full second after JFK, he is obviously hit by a second bullet unrelated to the shot that struck Mr. Kennedy.

The phone call between Dr. Humes and Dr. Perry the next day would change history.

NEW WOUND, NEW THEORY

Dr. Perry caused pandemonium when he informed Dr. Humes that a small, neat circular wound, (about the diameter of a pencil) existed on the President’s throat, just below the Adam’s apple.

Unfortunately, because of its position in the neck, Dr. Perry used this wound as his point of incision for the tracheotomy procedure, thereby removing any evidence of it’s existence.

 

One can only imagine how shocking this news was to Dr. Humes, who must have realized that he just conducted a post-mortem on the President of the United States that did not account for all the wounds on the body!

So, what did Dr. Humes do?

He burned his original set of autopsy notes in his home fireplace and constructed a second autopsy report that would be submitted as the post-mortem of record.

In doing so, Dr. Humes made a history-altering change by saying that the bullet that struck President Kennedy did transit his body after all.

Although autopsy surgeons tend to not make assumptions when filing a final post-mortem report, that’s exactly what Dr. Humes did.

Despite probing the back wound on President Kennedy and ascertaining that it only penetrated a short distance, Dr. Humes, on nothing more than speculation based on Dr. Perry’s phone call, now concluded that the bullet found at the hospital did not fall out of the shallow wound due to external cardiac massage.

INTRODUCING THE ‘MAGIC’ BULLET

Dr. Humes revised his report to suggest that CE399, in fact, transited the President’s body and exited at his throat.

The Warren Commission couldn’t be happier.

Based on this flimsy change of finding, the Commission could now say that CE399 exited the President’s throat and went on to strike Governor Connally, causing all the non-fatal wounds sustained by the two men.

And believe it or not, this sudden change in the President’s autopsy report resulted in Commission council Arlen Spector creating the ‘Single Bullet’ Theory which asks us to believe that CE399:

• Struck President Kennedy in the upper back.
• Transited his body and exited at his throat, just below the Adam’s apple.
• Struck Governor Connally in the right side of his back.
• Broke off the Governor’s fifth right rib.
• Exited the Governor’s chest just below the right nipple.
• Struck the Governor’s right wrist, shattering the distal radius bone.
• Exited the Governor’s wrist.
• Entered the Governor’s left thigh and penetrated only a short distance.

Additionally, without any evidence to support it, the Commission decided that CE399, having done all this damage described above, then fell out of the Governor’s thigh wound and was found at Parkland Hospital.

Further, the Commission concluded that CE399 did all this damage and lost only 2.4 grains of metal in the process.

This critical change from two men hit by separate shots from two assassins to both men hit by one shot fired by lone assassin Lee Harvey Oswald all came about because Dr. Perry reported that he destroyed a wound in the President’s throat.

Even more stunning, the Commission offered virtually no evidence in support of its ‘Single Bullet’ conclusion.

In fact, the Commission ignored or suppressed all evidence that suggested the two men were hit by separate shots, such as:

1. Governor’s Testimony – Until his death, Connally maintained that he was hit by the second shot fired, not the first.

2. Zapruder Film – The Zapruder film shows Connally not reacting to his wounds for a full second after JFK is seen reacting to his back wound.

3. Witnesses – More than 40 eyewitnesses and ear witnesses said they believed a shot came from JFK’s right front. Only five witnesses got to appear before the Warren Commission. All were dismissed as mistaken due to the “trauma of the moment.”

4. CE573 – The FBI test fired identical bullets from Oswald’s rifle into the wrist of a cadaver. Although the test produced identical damage to that sustained by the Governor’s wrist, CE573 emerged completely squashed with massive loss of metallic substance whereas CE399 lost only 2.4 grains of metal. And CE399 is said to have also caused six other wounds in two men, plus one more broken bone in Connally.

5. No ‘Matching’ Ballistic Test – Bullet fragments were removed from Connally’s wrist and chest, but these fragments were never tested to see if they came from CE399.

Why did the Commission pass on a test that could have affirmed that CE399 passed through Connally and therefore could have caused all the damage ascribed to it?

KEY FBI TEST DISREGARDED

A sixth piece of disregarded evidence is an FBI ballistic test conducted to establish a highly relevant necessity for the ‘Single Bullet’ theory to be true.

Even if we concede that CE399 did transit the President’s body, then it must be true that the hole in the throat seen only by Dr. Perry was an ‘exit’ wound so that it could continue on to find Connally and cause all his wounds.

In the Dr. Perry letter below, he makes it clear that he could not state that the neck wound was either entry or exit, but when the Commission kept asserting that all the shots came from behind the President, he inferred that the wound could have been a wound of exit.

That was good enough for the Warren Commission to present the ‘Single Bullet’ theory as fact.

In doing so, the Commission disregarded Dr. Perry’s description of the wound as a small circular puncture wound, about the diameter of a pencil, which wound suggest a bullet entry wound.

The Commission also ignored a key test that established that it was most likely an EXIT wound.

The Commission directed the FBI to do a ballistic test to affirm that the throat wound on the President was, in fact, a bullet exit wound.

This test started with the premise that the wound on JFK’s back was measured to be 4 x 7 mm in diameter.

While no measurements of the throat wound were taken before Dr. Perry performed his tracheotomy, he would later describe the wound as “small and circular, about the diameter of a pencil.”

The FBI test fired identical copper-jacketed bullets from Oswald’s rifle into goat flesh to simulate human flesh.

What did they discover?

Commission Exhibit 850 demonstrates that bullet ‘exit’ wounds were consistently TWICE the size of bullet ‘entry’ wounds!

Despite this test, the Warren Commission concluded that the hole at the President’s throat is the one instance whereby the ‘exit’ wound was SMALLER than the ‘entry’ wound.

Rather than accept the accumulative evidence that President Kennedy and Governor Connally were hit by separate shots fired almost simultaneously, the Commission relied on a last-second change to the autopsy report, backed by zero evidence, to fabricate its ‘Single Bullet’ Theory.

In deciding that Oswald was the ‘lone’ assassin of John F. Kennedy, the Commission not only had to ignore witnesses, medical findings and ballistic tests, it misrepresented the observations of Dr. Perry.

In the letter to this researcher below, Dr. Perry claims that his observations of the President’s neck wound were “reported out of context as my opinion.”

As Dr. Perry notes, the Warren Commission also erroneously attributed observations of the neck wound by Dr. Robert McClelland, whom Dr. Perry asserts did not even see the neck wound “as I had incised it prior to his arrival.”

Dr. Malcolm Perry died a conflicted man, not because he couldn’t save the life of President John F. Kennedy, but because of his unwitting role in the government’s cover-up that has managed to outlive him.

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Author’s Note:

All three Dr. Perry letters are reprinted in  the book – Through The ‘Oswald’ Window.

The Dr. Perry letters have been donated to the Sixth Floor Museum

at Dealey Plaza and can be read onsite in the museum library.

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