JN-
No, in my layman's view all the doctors in Parkland and Bethesda were honest and scrupulous, and the x-rays of Gov. JBC's wrist genuine.
I agree with Parkland's Dr Gregory, JBC's wrist surgeon, that it is highly improbable that JBC was holding onto his hat, after being shot through the wrist.
Ergo...Gov JBC had not yet been shot through the wrist, at Z-272.
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I agree with Parkland's Dr Gregory, JBC's wrist surgeon, that it is highly improbable that JBC was holding onto his hat, after being shot through the wrist.
I have never read that Dr Gregory ever made that statement. At least not to the WC.
Dr Gregory's priority was to repair the wrist and would have no knowledge of JBC holding his hat.
When Dr Gregory was asked if the bullet that struck JBC’s arm was a direct shot he stated no.
Mr. DULLES - Could I ask just one question? If a bullet had merely struck the Governor's arm without previously having struck anything else, is it conceivable that impediment of the bone that it hit there would be consistent with merely a flesh wound on the thigh? Do you follow me?
Dr. GREGORY - Yes; I follow you. I would doubt it on the basis of the kind of wound that the Governor has.
Now the kind of wound in the Governor's right forearm is the kind that indicates there was not an excessive amount of energy expended there, which means either that the missile producing it had dissipated much of its energy, either that or there was an impediment to it someplace else along the way.
It is simply that there was not enough energy loss there, and one would expect a soft tissue injury beyond that point to be of considerably greater magnitude. -------------------------------
Dr Gregory’s gives a detailed description of the wound and what could have caused it.
Dr. GREGORY - In examining this bullet, I find a small flake has been either knocked off or removed from the rounded end of the missile.
(At this point Representative Boggs entered the room.)
I was told that this was removed for the purpose of analysis. The only other deformity which I find is at the base of the missile at the point where it Joined the cartridge carrying the powder, I presume, and this is somewhat flattened and deflected, distorted. There is some irregularity of the darker metal within which I presume to represent lead.
The only way that this missile could have produced this wound in my view, was to have entered the wrist backward. Now, this is not inconsistent with one of the characteristics known for missiles which is to tumble. All missiles in flight have two motions normally, a linear motion from the muzzle of the gun to the target, a second motion which is a spinning motion having to do with maintaining the integrity of the intial linear direction, but if they strike an object they may be caused to turn in their path and tumble end over, and if they do, they tend to produce a greater amount of destruction within the strike time or the target, and they could possibly, if tumbling in air upon emergence, tumble into another target backward. That is the only possible explanation I could offer to correlate this missile with this particular wound.
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Mr. SPECTER - Is the back of that bullet characteristic of an irregular missile so as to cause the wound in the wrist?
Dr. GREGORY - I would say that the back of this being fiat and having sharp edges is irregular, and would possibly tend to tear tissues more than does an inclined plane such as this.