Report of the President's Commission on the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy

Missile Wounds

The Missile Wounds section describes two wounds. The first involved a large irregular defect of the scalp and skull on the right, chiefly involving the parietal bone but extending into the temporal and occipital regions, with actual absence of scalp and bone producing a defect approximately 13 cm in greatest diameter. Stellate tears extended from the irregular margins of the scalp defect: (a) from the right inferior temporo-parietal margin anterior to the right ear to a point slightly above the tragus; (b) from the anterior parietal margin anteriorly on the forehead to approximately 4 cm above the right orbital ridge; (c) from the left margin of the main defect across the midline antero-laterally for approximately 8 cm; and (d) from the same starting point as (c) 10 cm postero-laterally. A 15 × 6 mm lacerated wound was situated in the posterior scalp approximately 2.5 cm laterally to the right and slightly above the external occipital protuberance, with a corresponding skull wound that exhibited beveling of the inner margins. Lacerated brain tissue exuded from the large defect, representing the major portion of the right cerebral hemisphere; the falx cerebri was extensively lacerated with disruption of the superior sagittal sinus. Multiple complete fracture lines radiated from both the vertex defect and the occipital wound, the longest measuring approximately 19 cm, producing fragments ranging from a few millimeters to 10 cm in greatest diameter. The complexity of these fractures was better appreciated in photographs and roentgenograms. The brain was removed and preserved for further study following formalin fixation. Three separate fragments of skull bone received from Dallas roughly approximated the dimensions of the large defect; one angle of the largest fragment showed a portion of a roughly circular wound presumably of exit, approximately 2.5 to 3.0 cm in diameter, with beveling of the outer aspect of the bone and minute metal particles visible on roentgenograms along its margin. Multiple minute metallic fragments were visible along a line joining the small occipital wound and the right supra-orbital ridge, and two small irregularly shaped metal fragments (7 × 2 mm and 3 × 1 mm) were recovered from the disrupted right cerebral cortex and placed in the custody of FBI Agents Francis X. O’Neill, Jr., and James W. Sibert, who executed attached receipts. The second wound, presumably of entry, was in the upper right posterior thorax, with ecchymosis of the subcutaneous tissue and musculature beneath the skin; the missile path through fascia and musculature could not be easily probed. The wound of exit in the low anterior cervical region, originally described by Dr. Malcolm Perry as “a few millimeters in diameter,” was extended as a tracheostomy incision, distorting its character at autopsy. There was considerable ecchymosis of the right strap muscles of the neck and of the fascia about the trachea adjacent to the tracheostomy line. A third point of reference was in the apex (supra-clavicular portion) of the right pleural cavity, with contusion of the parietal pleura and the extreme apical portion of the right upper lobe measuring 5 cm in maximal diameter; both visceral and parietal pleura were intact overlying these areas.