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

第三章

This is Chapter III of the Warren Commission report, covering corroboration of medical witness testimony, wound ballistics testing related to the assassination, examination of the clothing and injuries sustained by President John F. Kennedy and Governor John Connally, and analysis of the bullet trajectory that struck Governor Connally.

Dr. Perry’s Testimony Corroboration

Dr. Malcolm Perry’s recollection of his press conference comments regarding President Kennedy’s neck wound is corroborated by a November 23, 1963 New York Herald Tribune report, which quotes Perry stating it was possible the neck wound was an entrance wound and the back-of-head wound was the exit of a single missile. This account aligns with Perry’s formal Commission testimony, in which he noted the neck wound’s characteristics alone were consistent with either an entry or exit wound. Perry and fellow physician Dr. Clark emphasized at the press conference that they had no definitive way to confirm the wound’s nature at the time.

Wound Ballistics Tests

Army Wound Ballistics experts at Edgewood Arsenal, Maryland conducted tests to simulate the path of the bullet that struck President Kennedy’s neck. Using 5.5-inch thick material matching the distance the bullet traveled through the President’s body, with animal skin on both sides, researchers fired 6.5mm Western Cartridge Co. bullets from the C2766 Mannlicher-Carcano rifle at a distance of 180 feet. Entry holes on the simulated neck were regular and round, while exit holes were slightly elongated or round, matching descriptions of the President’s neck wound provided by Drs. Perry and Carrico. Autopsy findings noted the bullet did not strike bone in the President’s neck, traveled at a slight downward angle, and moved right to left laterally through his body; experts confirmed the bullet would lose very little velocity passing through soft neck tissue. Additional tests using break-type screens measured the bullet’s velocity: average entrance velocity was 1,904 feet per second, average exit velocity 1,772 to 1,798 feet per second, with the bullet traveling in a straight, stable line through the simulated neck.