Forensic issues: Limo Clean-Up/ Secret Service actions re: limo at Parkland Hospital & JFK Skull Fragments

Forensic issues: Limo Clean-Up/ Secret Service actions re: limo at Parkland Hospital & JFK Skull Fragments

 

 

1)      NBC Reporter Robert MacNeil[1]: "The president's car was there [Parkland Hospital], still at the point where it had pulled up, and they had taken the president out into that emergency entrance...I remember that the Secret Service men were then STARTING TO MOP UP THE BACK SEAT OF THE BIG LINCOLN THE PRESIDENT WAS PUT IN, and a few minutes later they started putting the fabric top on it. And when I went over to look at it a little closer, one of the agents waved me aside and said, 'You can't look.' Later, of course, it seemed ironic that this wall of protection went up when it of course could do no good..."

 

2)      Parkland Hospital Orderly Joe L. Richards[2]: asked to get a bucket of water; he complied.

 

3)      21 H 217: Nurse Shirley Randall: was asked if she "would get someone to come and wash the blood out of the car." She said that she would but was so nervous and excited she forgot about it.

 

4)      Reporter Hugh Sidey[3]: "A guard was set up around the Lincoln as Secret Service men got a pail of water and tried to wash the blood from the car."

 

5)      Reporter Don Gardner[4]: "Outside the hospital, blood had to be wiped from the limousine.”

 

6)      Reporter Tom Wicker[5]:"...the police were guarding the Presidential car closely. A bucket of water stood by the car, suggesting that the back seat had been scrubbed out."

 

7)      "...the Secret Service detail was sorry that hospital orderlies had sponged it [the limousine] out."[6]

 

8)      "An inaccurate [?] story reported that they washed out the back seat with a bucket of water. Actually, this was contemplated."[7]

 

9)      White House Photographer Cecil Stoughton[8]: “[Cecil] Stoughton recalls that a man was washing the seat "with a cloth, and he had a bucket. There was blood all over the seat, and flower petals and stuff on the floor." On page 37 there is a Stoughton photo with the caption "A bucket at his feet, an agent [Kinney] is seen leaning into the back seat of the Lincoln cleaning up some of the gore." [Same photo, without this caption, appears on page 41 of Pictures of The Pain]

 

10)   Photographer Thomas Craven, Jr.[9]: "The Secret Service cleaning the blood out of the car---the flowers still lying in the back seat---and just chaos until the police figured out what was happening, and then they started to push us off."

 

11)  Secret Service agents Sam Kinney and George Hickey[10]: The two agents who put on the bubbletop---with the assistance of a DPD motorcycle officer---at Parkland: they are pictured in the infamous photos/films of the bucket beside the limousine. [11]

 

12)  Photographer Henry Burroughs[12]: “The limousines that had carried the Presidential party and the Vice-Presidential party were askew. An agent with a stainless-steel hospital bucket was cleaning up the rear seat of the President's limousine. Flowers were strewn over rear seats of both limos.”

 

13)  Dallas officer Bobby Joe Dale[13]: "…the President was on the gurney beside the car, and they were wheeling him in. At that time, it was obvious that nobody could have survived a wound like that…Blood and matter was everywhere inside the car including a bone fragment which was oblong shaped, probably an inch to an inch and a half long by three-quarters of an inch wide. As I turned it over and looked at it, I determined that it came from some part of the forehead because there was hair on it which appeared to be near the hairline. There were other fragments around, but that was the largest piece that grabbed my attention. What stood out in my mind was that there was makeup up to the hairline. Apparently, he had used makeup for the cameras to knock down the glare. It was fairly distinct where it stopped, and the wrap of skin took up. Other than that, nobody messed with anything inside the car in any manner, shape, or form. Nobody said, "Clean this up!" We then put the top up and secured it."

 

14)  Once again, Secret Service agent Sam Kinney[14]: “Someone wanted to wash the (Presidential) car [at Parkland]. I said no one touch.”

 

15)  Hurchel Jacks, Texas Highway Patrolman assigned to drive LBJ’s car in Dallas motorcade[15]: “ We were assigned by the [Secret Service] to prevent any pictures of any kind to be taken of the President’s car or the inside.” 8/31/98 letter to author from Mrs. H.D. (Bobbie) Jacks, widow of Hurchel Jacks (Jacks passed away 12/19/95): “…he guarded Kennedy’s car to make sure that no photos were taken.”[16]

 

16)  Milton Wright, Texas Highway Patrolman assigned to drive Mayor Cabell’s car in the Dallas motorcade[17]: “…we were instructed to keep the news media away from the car.”

 

17)  Dallas officers James W. Courson and Stavis Ellis[18]: told author Larry Sneed about an incident whereupon a Secret Service agent destroyed the film of a young boy who took pictures of the limousine at Parkland.

Skull Fragments:

 

18)  First Lady Jackie Kennedy[19]: “And just as I turned and looked at him, I could see a piece of his skull (sort of wedge-shaped like that), and I remember it was flesh colored (with little ridges at the top). I remember thinking he just looked as if he had a slight headache. And I just remember seeing that. No blood or anything. And then he sort of did this [indicating], put his hand to his forehead and fell in my lap… [Reference to wounds deleted] …I was trying to hold his hair on. But from the front there was nothing. I suppose there must have been. But from the back you could see, you know, you were trying to hold his hair on, and his skull on.” 1/29/63 interview with writer Theodore H. White: his notes released 5/26/95---"I could see a piece of his skull coming off; it was flesh colored not white---he was holding out his hand---and I can see this perfectly clean piece detaching itself from his head; then he slumped in my lap…”

 

19)  SECRET SERVICE SAIC GERALD A. BEHN[20]- SKULL FOUND IN REAR SEAT.

 

20)  SECRET SERVICE AGENT ROY KELLERMAN[21]- SKULL IN REAR SEAT.

 

21)  SECRET SERVICE AGENT CLINTON J. HILL[22]- BACK OF SKULL IN REAR SEAT.

 

22)  THREE pieces of skull found by none other than SECRET SERVICE ASAIC FLOYD BORING during the "official" Secret Service limousine inspection late on 11/22/63[23], four hours before the FBI did the same- this is separate from the finding made by Kinney on the C-130 will en route to Andrews Air Force Base; the “Harper fragment.”[24]

 

23)  DALLAS OFFICER STAVIS ELLIS: "Yes, I did see a hole in the limousine windshield at Parkland Hospital. I did not see the bone fragment. The officer on the escort with me said there was one fragment, approximately 6 or 7 inches around."[25]

 

24)  DALLAS OFFICER BOBBY JOE DALE: "…the President was on the gurney beside the car, and they were wheeling him in. At that time, it was obvious that nobody could have survived a wound like that…Blood and matter was everywhere inside the car including a bone fragment which was oblong shaped, probably an inch to an inch and a half long by three-quarters of an inch wide. As I turned it over and looked at it, I determined that it came from some part of the forehead because there was hair on it which appeared to be near the hairline. There were other fragments around, but that was the largest piece that grabbed my attention. What stood out in my mind was that there was makeup up to the hairline. Apparently, he had used makeup for the cameras to knock down the glare. It was fairly distinct where it stopped, and the wrap of skin took up. Other than that, nobody messed with anything inside the car in any manner, shape, or form. Nobody said, "Clean this up!" We then put the top up and secured it."[26]

 

25)  DALLAS OFFICER JAMES W. COURSON: "The driver immediately got out into the center lane with me on his left rear and another officer on the right. Mrs. Kennedy had, by that time, gotten back down in the seat and was holding the President's head in her lap. I was able to see that his head was horribly mangled. Skull, brain, and blood material was all along the seat…Flowers were scattered all around the car… Two other officers and I helped take the President out of the car and put him onto the stretcher. From what I was able to see of the wound, the damage seemed to be in the right rear of his head, but it was hard to tell because there was so much blood. The back part of the skull seemed to be laying over the forehead. I didn't actually see an exit wound since I saw only the back part of his head.” [27]

 

26)  DALLAS OFFICER H.B. McCLAIN: "I figured at the time that the wound was fatal. Part of the skull was laying on the floorboard. Blood and brain material was splattered all over as if a ripe watermelon had been dropped. It was a pretty gory scene."[28]

 

27)  3 FBI AGENTS- JAMES SIBERT & FRANCIS O’NEILL AT THE AUTOPSY + FBI AGENT VINCENT E. DRAIN: "When I arrived in the trauma room, the doctors were working with President Kennedy. They were trying to do what they could to stop the gurgling sound he was making by performing a tracheotomy on him. Despite the fact, as I later learned, that he was dead, his body reflexes were still working. I wasn't up close to the body, but I could still see fairly well the large amount of blood from the head wound. The head was badly damaged from the lower right base across the top extending across the top of the ear. It appeared to me as though the bullet traveled upward and had taken off the right portion of his skull. It may have been the security officer or one of the other officers who gave me a portion of the skull, which was about the size of a teacup, much larger than a silver dollar. Apparently, the explosion had jerked it because the hair was still on it. I carried that back to Washington later that night and turned it over to the FBI laboratory."[29]

 

28)  DEPUTY SHERIFF SEYMOUR WEITZMAN: found a small piece of skull in the plaza.[30]

 

29)  DEPUTY SHERIFF JACK FAULKNER: "As we were crossing Elm Street, [A.D.] McCurley picked up a white piece of bone near the north curb. He asked me, "Do you suppose that could be part of his skull?" I said, "There's no blood on it," and he put it down. Later, we got to thinking, and somebody said your skull doesn't necessarily have to be touching something that's bloody. We went back and looked for it later but never found it. To this day, I believe it was a piece of John Kennedy's skull."[31]

 

30)  DEPUTY SHERIFF AL MADDOX: "…I also saw human tissue lying in the street which was being wiped and cleaned up at the time. That was right about where the President was said to have been hit. I also saw one of the motorcycle officers who was splattered with blood."[32]

 

31)  CHARLES BREHM: saw the skull fragment fly back and to the left of where he was standing.[33]

 

32)  DALLAS OFFICER JOE CODY: "No More Silence" by Larry Sneed (1998), page467: "…we jumped in our car and arrived at the scene where Kennedy was shot and killed in just three or four minutes. By that time, it was probably ten minutes after the shooting. While we were there, I searched the plaza and found a bone lying in the gutter that apparently came out of the back of the President's head."

 

33)  POSTAL INSPECTOR HARY HOLMES: "A postal inspector [Holmes] picked up a piece of skull from the Elm St. pavement. He said it was as “...big as the end of my finger..." Furthermore, it was one of many: "...there was just pieces of skull and bone and corruption all over the place..." He later discarded it.[34]

 

 

 

---

[1] The Way We Were-1963: The Year Kennedy Was Shot by Robert MacNeil (1988, Carrol & Graf), p. 197.

[2] 21 H 226.

[3] Time Magazine, 11/29/63, p. 24.

[4] ABC, 11/22/63.

[5] New York Times, 11/23/63, p. 2.

[6] The Day Kennedy Was Shot by Jim Bishop, p. 352 [1992 edition].

[7] The Death of a President by William Manchester, p. 180n [1988 edition].

[8] That Day in Dallas by Richard Trask (1998), page 35 [based off a 7/10/85 interview with Stoughton; same as page 42 of Trask's Pictures of the Pain].

[9] Pictures of The Pain by Richard Trask (1994), pages 377 and 383 [based off a 5/23/85 interview with Thomas Craven, Jr.].

[10] 18 H 731-732 and 18 H 763-764.

[11] JFK Assassination File by DPD Chief Jesse Curry, p. 36 (see also p. 34: same photo, different angle in UPI's Four Days, p. 25); Texas News newsreel (Kennedy In Texas video); WFAA/ ABC video 11/22/63; Cooper/ Sturges film; Reasonable Doubt by Henry Hurt (1985), p. 84.

[12] 10/14/98 letter to Vince Palamara from Henry Burroughs.

[13] No More Silence by Larry Sneed (1998), pp. 135-136.

[14] 2/26/78 HSCA interview of Kinney.

[15] 18 H 801.

[16] Encyclopedia of the JFK Assassination, page 121.

[17] CD 3 Exhibits.

[18] No More Silence, pages 130 & 148.

[19] 5 H 180 / testimony [see also Murder from Within by Fred Newcomb and Perry Adams (1974), pp. 138-139: what comes from the unedited transcript is in parentheses].

[20] (FBI/S&O INTERVIEW, 11/27/63) [Behn: 9/27/92 interviews (3) by Vince Palamara; deceased 4/93].

[21] 2 H 85.

[22] 2 H 141.

[23] CD 80. p.3.

[24] CD 5, pp. 150-151, CD 1269 and FBI 89-43-479 (11/25/63).

 

[25] 9/8/98 letter to Vince Palamara.

[26] No More Silence by Larry Sneed (1998), pp.135-136.

[27] No More Silence by Larry Sneed (1998), pp. 127-131+photos].

[28] No More Silence by Larry Sneed (1998), p.164.

[29] No More Silence by Larry Sneed (1998), p. 246.

[30] 7 H 107.

[31] No More Silence by Larry Sneed (1998), pp. 215-223+photos: page 216].

[32] No More Silence by Larry Sneed (1998), pp. 507, 517+photo: page 509].

[33] NBC 11/22/63 (familiar newsreel interview); Mark Lane Rush To Judgment film 1967 (clip repeated in Lane’s Two Men In Dallas video).

 

[34] Murder From Within by Fred Newcomb and Perry Adams, p. 213 (based off an early 1970's interview).