Don Curtis, Parkland resident, on JFK assassination: "the posterior part of his head was blown out."

[Octafish]

64. Dr. Robert McClelland in Trauma Room One

by Brad Parker

After Charles Crenshaw, M.D., perhaps no Parkland physician-witness to John F. Kennedy's wounds has drawn more criticism than Robert McClelland, M.D. In order to help me sort fact from fiction, I contacted Dr. McClelland in 1992, and he was gracious enough to answer my questions. Based on my interview, and other evidence, I believe Dr. McClelland's credibility holds up extremely well, and his information, which has remained remarkably consistant for over thirty years, cannot be ignored.

SNIP...

Another of Posner's favorite sources for refuting the wounds consistently described by Dr. McClelland is Dr. James Carrico. "We never had the opportunity to review his wounds in order to describe them accurately. We were trying to save his life," he told Posner (Posner 309). However, Dr. Carrico apparently observed the wounds well enough to describe them in great detail during a sworn statement to Arlen Specter on March 24, 1964:

Specter: "Would you describe as precisely for me as possible the nature of the wound which you observed on the President?"
Carrico: "The wound that I saw was a large gaping wound, located in the right occipitoparietal area. I would estimate to be 5 to 7 cm. (sic) in size, more or less circular with avulsions of the calvarium and scalp tissue. As I stated before, I believe there was shredded macerated cerebral and cerebellar tissues in both the wounds and on the fragments of skull attached to the dura" (emphasis added throughout) (6WCH 5-6).

During questioning by the HSCA's Andy Purdy in 1978, Dr. Carrico again described "...a fairly large wound in the right side of the head, in the parietal, occipital area. One could see blood and brains, both cerebellum and cerebrum fragments in that wound" (emphasis added) (7HSCA 268). On Purdy's urging, Dr. Carrico became more detailed in his descriptions:

Carrico: "The head wound was a much larger wound than the neck wound. It was five by seven centimeters, something like that, 2 1/2 by 3 (sic) inches, ragged, had blood and hair all around it, located in part of the parietal occipital region" (emphasis added).
Purdy: "Could you just state in layman's terms the approximate place that would be?"
Carrico: "That would be above and posterior to the ear, almost from the crown of the head, there was brain tissue showing through" (emphasis added) (7HSCA 278).

By 1992, however, he had mysteriously changed his opinion:

"We did say we saw shattered brain, cerebellum, in the cortex area, and I think we were mistaken. The reason I say that is that the President was lying on his back and shoulders, and you could see the hole, with the scalp and brain tissue hanging down his head, and it covered most of the occipital portion of his head. We saw a large hole in the right side of his head. I don't believe we saw any occipital bone. It was not there. It was parietal bone. And if we said otherwise, we were mistaken" (Posner 311).

SNIP...

Dr. McClelland is unique in that not only did he have ample opportunity to examine President Kennedy's wounds, but his recollections, confirmed by his and others' early evidence, have remained consistent for over thirty years. This is in stark contrast to several Parkland physicians, most notably the incredible Dr. Jenkins, cited by Gerald Posner as critical of Dr. McClelland. More than once, Dr. Jenkins' and others' criticisms are undermined by their previous sworn testimony. It is ironic that in a book which claimed to have closed the case on the Kennedy assassination, Posner unquestionably relied so heavily upon such inconsistent sources. What is even more ironic is that Posner, a highly educated professional, was apparently ignorant of such contradictions. The same can be said for The Journal of the American Medical Association, whose claim of "Closing the Case in JAMA on the John F. Kennedy Autopsy" (Lundberg 1736- 738) is contradicted by the earlier statements of some of their key witnesses, as put forth in the Breo series of 1992 (Breo, "JFK's Death - Part I," 2794-2803; Breo, "JFK's Death - Part II," 2804-2807; Breo, "JFK's Death - Part III," 1748-1754).

CONTINUED w References...

http://spot.acorn.net/jfkplace../09/fp.back_issues/16th_Issue/mcclelland.html