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

The Autopsy

The Autopsy Mrs. Kennedy chose the National Naval Medical Center at Bethesda, Maryland, for the autopsy because the President had served in the Navy. She and the Attorney General, with three Secret Service agents, accompanied the body on the 45-minute drive from Andrews AFB. On the 17th floor, they joined other Kennedy family members to await completion of the autopsy; Mrs. Kennedy was guarded by agents in assigned quarters, and the Secret Service established a communication system with the White House, screening all calls and visitors. The hospital received the body at approximately 7:35 p.m., with X-rays and photographs taken before the pathological examination began at about 8 p.m. The autopsy report recorded the President as 46 years old, 72½ inches tall, 170 pounds, with blue eyes and reddish-brown hair, and set the cause of death as a gunshot wound to the head. The examination revealed two head wounds: a smaller one to the right of the external occipital protuberance, and a larger one approximately 5 inches in greatest diameter with multiple crisscross fractures. Federal agents brought surgeons three bone fragments recovered from Elm Street and the Presidential automobile, accounting for about three-quarters of the missing skull. X-ray analysis showed 30 to 40 tiny metal fragments running from the rear head wound toward the front, with a sizable metal fragment above the right eye; two small metal fragments were recovered and given to the FBI. The autopsy also disclosed a wound near the base of the back of the neck slightly to the right of the spine, with the bullet traced through the body and, with Parkland Hospital information, concluded to have emerged from the front of the neck at the tracheotomy site. The autopsy concluded at approximately 11 p.m., body preparation for burial finished around 4 a.m., and the President’s body was taken to the East Room of the White House, where it was placed under ceremonial military guard.