Malcolm Perry was born
in Allen, Collin County, 1929. Educated at the University of Texas
he graduated in 1951 with a B.A. This was followed by a course at
the Southwestern Medical School and in 1955 he qualified as a doctor.
Perry worked as an intern at Letterman Hospital in San
Francisco before joining the United States
Air Force.
After military service
Perry was employed by Parkland Hospital, Dallas, for four years. In
1962 he was appointed an instructor in surgery at the Southwestern
Medical School. In September, 1963, Perry was appointed as assistant
professor of surgery and vascular consultant for Parkland Hospital
and John Smith Hospital in Fort Worth.
When John
F. Kennedy
was shot on 22nd November,
1963, he was taken to Parkland Hospital and was treated by Dr. Perry.
He performed a tracheotomy over the small wound in Kennedy's throat,
therefore inadvertently destroying crucial evidence concerning the
direction of the bullet that hit the president. At the press conference
that followed the death of Kennedy, Perry stated that he thought the
throat hole looked like an entrance wound.
When interviewed
by the Warren
Commission
Perry admitted he had changed
his mind and now thought that a "full jacketed bullet without
deformation passing through the skin would leave a similar wound for
an exit and entrance wound and with the facts which you have made
available and with these assumptions, I believe that it was an exit
wound."
Perry later
became chief of vascular surgery at New York-Cornell Hospital in Manhattan
(1978-1988). He is currently professor emeritus at University of Texas
Southwestern Medical School.
Open
Debate on the Kennedy Assassination
(1)
The Times (23rd November, 1963)
The assassination
took place as the presidential party drove from the airport into the
city of Dallas. One witness said the shots were fired from the window
of a building. People flung themselves to the ground as armed policemen
and Secret Service agents rushed into the building. A rifle with telescopic
sights was found there.
The President was wounded
in the head and collapsed into the arms of his wife: She was heard
to cry, "Oh, no", as she cradled his head in her lap and
the car, spattered with blood, speeded to Parkland Hospital.
The President was still
alive when he reached the hospital. He was taken into an emergency
room where facilities were said to be adequate. Two Roman Catholic
priests were called and the last rites were administered. Mr. Kennedy
died at 2 p.m. Eastern Standard Time (7 p.m. G.M.T.), about 35 minutes
after the shots were fired.
Vice-President Lyndon Johnson
escaped because his car, following the presidential vehicle, was delayed
by the large crowds.
Mrs. Connally said afterwards
that she thought that President Kennedy was shot first. She said that
the President was in the right rear seat of the open car and Mrs.
Kennedy was at his left. Mr. Connally faced the President on a jump
seat. She herself faced Mrs. Kennedy.
"They had just gone
through the town. They were pleased at the reception they had received.
They got ready to go through the underpass when a shot was heard.
When the first shot was fired Governor Connally turned in his seat
and almost instantly was hit."
An assistant to the Governor
said: "She does not know about the third shot, but it may have
been the one that hit the Governor's wrist. Jackie grabbed the President,
and Mrs. Connally grabbed Connally, and they both ducked down in the
car."
Two Secret Service men
were in the front of the car and one of them instantly telephoned
to a control centre and said, "Let's go straight to the nearest
hospital."
President Kennedy was shot
through the throat and head, possibly by the same bullet, according
to Dr. Malcolm Perry, the surgeon who attended him. Dr. Perry said
that a tracheotomy was performed to relieve the President's breathing
and blood and fluid were administered intravenously. Chest tubes were
inserted, and Dr. Perry tried chest cardiac massage, but to no avail....
Dr. Perry said later that
Mr. Kennedy suffered a neck wound - a bullet hole in the lower part
of the neck. There was a second wound in the President's head, but
Dr. Perry was not certain whether it was inflicted by the same bullet.
He said the President lost
consciousness as soon as he was hit and never recovered consciousness.
"We never had any hope of saving his life," Dr. Perry said,
though eight or 10 doctors attended him.
Dr. Perry said that soon
after he reached the hospital, Mr. Kennedy's heart action failed and
"there was no palpable pulse beat".
(2)
Tom Wicker, New
York Times (23rd November, 1963)
Mr. Kilduff
announced the President's death, with choked voice and red-rimmed
eyes, at about 1:36 p.m.
"President
John F. Kennedy died at approximately 1 o'clock Central standard time
today here in Dallas," Mr. Kilduff said at the hospital. "He
died of a gunshot wound in the brain. I have no other details regarding
the assassination of the President."
Mr. Kilduff
also announced that Governor Connally had been hit by a bullet or
bullets and that Mr. Johnson, who had not yet been sworn in, was safe
in the protective custody of the Secret Service at an unannounced
place, presumably the airplane at Love Field.
Mr. Kilduff
indicated that the President had been shot once. Later medical reports
raised the possibility that there had been two wounds. But the death
was caused, as far as could be learned, by a massive wound in the
brain.
Later in the
afternoon, Dr. Malcolm Perry, an attending surgeon, and Dr. Kemp Clark,
chief of neurosurgery at Parkland Hospital, gave more details.
Mr. Kennedy
was hit by a bullet in the throat, just below the Adam's apple, they
said. This wound had the appearance of a bullet's entry.
Mr. Kennedy
also had a massive, gaping wound in the back and one on the right
side of the head. However, the doctors said it was impossible to determine
immediately whether the wounds had been caused by one bullet or two.
(3)
Michael
Kurtz, Crime of the Century
(1982)
About four
o'clock Saturday morning, Doctor James Humes felt relieved as the
hearse bearing John Kennedy's embalmed body and reconstructed head
departed from Bethesda Naval Hospital. It had been a grueling night
for Commander Humes, made all the more demanding on his professional
skills by the prestigious nature of his autopsy victim and by all
the high-ranking military and naval brass present to witness and supervise
his work. Now that it was all over, Humes could relax. He had just
one minor detail to complete before he could go home. He telephoned
Dr. Malcolm Perry in Dallas, since Dr. Perry had been the surgeon
in charge of President Kennedy's emergency treatment at Parkland Hospital.
Dr. Perry's
revelation that the president had a bullet hole in his throat must
have astounded Dr. Humes. At the autopsy, the three pathologists observed
only the large tracheotomy incision in the neck. The reason was simple.
Dr. Perry had sliced right through the bullet hole as he made the
tracheotomy. Thus, no bullet hole was visible by the time the autopsy
began. But now, James Humes faced a serious dilemma. He and his colleagues
had failed to include one of Kennedy's wounds in their autopsy findings.
Dr. Perry's description of the wound as very small and round sounded
like the description of an entrance wound. But with no exit wounds
anywhere in the body and no bullets found still in the body, Humes
was puzzled. It appeared that both the bullet that entered the president's
back and the one that entered his throat had not exited, yet had somehow
disappeared.
After thinking
about this, Dr. Humes telephoned Dr. Perry again to obtain a more
precise description of the throat wound. During their conversation,
Humes had a sudden inspiration and shouted, "so that's it!"
He went home, attended a school function with his son, and slept for
several hours. Then he took his original autopsy notes, stained with
John Kennedy's blood, and
burned them in his fireplace. Then he drew up a new autopsy protocol
based on the new information he had gleaned from Dr. Perry The new
report stated that a bullet had entered Kennedy's neck and exited
from his throat. Even though there was only slight medical evidence
to confirm this, Dr. Humes concluded that it provided the only reasonable
explanation for the wounds in Kennedy's body.
(4)
Eddie Barker interviewed Dr. Malcolm
Perry for
the documentary The Warren Report:
Part 2, CBS Television (26th June, 1967)
Malcolm Perry: I
noted a wound when I came into the room, which was of the right posterior
portion of the head. Of course, I did not examine it. Again, there
was no time for cursory examination. And if a patent airway cannot
be secured, and the bleeding cannot be controlled - it really made
very little difference. Some things must take precedence and priority,
and in this instance the airway and the bleeding must be controlled
initially.
Eddie
Barker: What about
this wound that you observed in the - in the front of the President's
neck? Would you tell me about that?
Malcolm
Perry: Yes, of course.
It was a very cursory examination. The emergency proceedings at hand
necessitated immediate action. There was not time to do more than
an extremely light examination.
Eddie
Barker: There's
been a lot said and written about was this an exit wound or an entry
wound? Would you discuss that with me, sir?
Malcolm
Perry: Well, this
is a difficult problem. The determination of entrance or exit frequently
requires the ascertation of trajectory. And, of course, this I did
not do. None of us did at the time. There was no time for such things.
The differentiation between
an entrance and exit wound is often made on a disparity in sizes,
the exit wound generally being larger, in the case of an expanding
bullet. If, however, the bullet does not expand - if it is a full
jacketed bullet, for example, such as used commonly in the military,
the caliber of the bullet on entrance and exit will frequently be
the same. And without deformation of the bullet, and without tumbling,
the wounds would be very similar - and in many instances, even a trained
observer could not distinguish between the two.
Eddie
Barker: Did it occur
to you at the time, or did you think, was this
an entry wound, or was this an exit wound?
Malcolm
Perry: Actually,
I didn't really give it much thought. And I realize that perhaps it
would have been better had I done so. But I actually applied my energies,
and those of us there all did, to the problem at hand, and I didn't
really concern myself too much with how it happened, or why. And for
that reason, of course, I didn't think about cutting through the wound-which,
of course rendered it invalid as regards further examination and inspection.
But it didn't even occur to me. I did what was expedient and what
was necessary, and I didn't think much about it.
(5)
Malcolm Perry, interviewed by Arlen Specter
for the Warren
Commission
(1964)
Arlen Specter:
Upon your arrival in the room, where President Kennedy was situated,
what did you observe as to his condition?
Malcolm Perry:
At the time I entered
the door, Dr. Carrico was attending him. He was attaching the Bennett
apparatus to an endotracheal tube in place to assist his respiration.
The President was lying supine on the carriage, underneath the overhead
lamp. His shirt, coat, had been removed. There was a sheet over his
lower extremities and the lower portion of his trunk. He was unresponsive.
There was no evidence of voluntary motion. His eyes were open, deviated
up and outward, and the pupils were dilated and fixed. I did not detect
a heart beat and was told there was no blood pressure obtainable.
He was, however, having ineffective spasmodic respiratory efforts.
There was blood on the carriage.
Allen Dulles:
What does that mean to the amateur, to the unprofessional?
Malcolm Perry:
Short, rather jerky contractions of his chest and diaphragm, pulling
for air.
Allen Dulles:
I see.
Arlen Specter:
Were those respiratory efforts on his part alone or was he being aided
in his breathing at that tame?
Malcolm Perry:
He
had just attached the machine and at this point it was not turned
on. He was attempting to breathe.
Arlen Specter:
So that those efforts were being made at that juncture at least without
mechanical aid?
Malcolm Perry:
Those
were spontaneous efforts on the part of the President.
Arlen Specter:
Will you continue, then, Dr. Perry, as to what you observed of his
condition?
Malcolm Perry:
Yes,
there was blood noted on the carriage and a large avulsive wound on
the right posterior cranium.
I cannot state the size, I did not examine it at all. I just noted
the presence of lacerated brain tissue. In the lower part of the neck
below the Adams apple was a small, roughly circular wound of perhaps
5 mm. in diameter from which blood was exuding slowly. I did not see
any other wounds. I examined the chest briefly, and from the anterior
portion did not see any thing. I pushed up the brace on the left side
very briefly to feel for his femoral pulse, but did not obtain any.
I did no further examination because it was obvious that if any treatment
were to be carried out with any success a secure effective airway
must be obtained immediately. I asked Dr. Carrico if the wound on
the neck was actually a wound or had he begun a tracheotomy and he
replied in the negative, that it was a wound, and at that point...
I asked someone to secure a tracheotomy tray but there was one already
there. Apparently Dr. Carrico had already asked them to set up the
tray...
Arlen Specter:
Why did you elect to make the tracheotomy incision through the wound
in the neck, Dr. Perry?
Malcolm Perry:
The area of the wound, as pointed out to you in the lower third of
the neck anteriorly is customarily the spot one would electively perform
the tracheotomy. This is one of the safest and easiest spots to reach
the trachea. In addition the presence of the wound indicated to me
there was possibly an underlaying wound to the neck muscles in the
neck, the carotid artery or the jugular vein. If you are going to
control these it is necessary that the incision be as low, that is
toward the heart or lungs as the wound if you are going to obtain
adequate control. Therefore, for expediency's sake I went directly
to that level to obtain control of the airway.
(6)
Jimmy Breslin, Newsday
(16th November, 2003)
Malcolm Perry
listens to the wind coming through the trees with a low roar, or a
whistle, or suddenly, a shriek that sometimes is familiar with him.
The shrieks
of Parkland Memorial Hospital have run through all the hallways and
rooms and arenas of all the years, softening now, diminishing, but
burrowing into the wind and reaching the unwilling consciousness of
Dr. Malcolm Perry. He was working on John F. Kennedy's heart when
he died in Parkland Hospital on the fall day in 1963.
"It was
a bad weekend," he remembers. Kennedy was on Friday. On Sunday,
he operated on Lee Harvey Oswald. "A bad weekend and a bad aftermath."
The trouble
at the end came when he walked into a large, writhing news conference,
something in which he never had been involved. And for good reason,
this was the only one like it since Lincoln.
He observed
that a throat hole looked like an entrance wound. He had qualified
the observation in the next sentence but virtually nobody paid attention.
They took that throat wound and carried it over the years into proof
of a conspiracy. Somebody shot Kennedy from the front, in the throat.
Somebody else shot him in the back of the head. So many wanted to
believe the worst.
Malcolm Perry
then slipped away from questioning and walked into his own world of
surgery and silence. He never spoke to news reporters. He mentioned
his experience to practically nobody. He wanted to be known as a fine
doctor.
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