JFK Throat Wound: Exit or Entry?

[Bob Prudhomme]

The most puzzling wound of all the wounds inflicted during the assassination is, to me, anyways, the small wound in JFK's throat. According to Parkland surgeons who saw it in Trauma Room One, prior to Dr. Malcolm Perry bisecting it while making an incision for a tracheostomy, it was a neat round hole, 3-8 mm in diameter, that looked like an entrance wound inflicted by a bullet. It lacked the characteristic tearing made by a higher velocity bullet exiting flesh, although several of the Parkland surgeons did agree, while testifying, that it could have been made by a bullet exiting at a greatly reduced velocity.

I am going to propose a very radical theory, although it is by no means a new theory. However, I believe I can add a new dimension to the work already done in this area. I have already floated this theory over at the Ed Forum, and it was not well received; especially by Mr. Cliff Varnell.

If we reject the idea of the throat wound as an exit site for the Magic Bullet that supposedly entered JFK's back at the level of his collar, it would seem the only possible explanation for this wound is that it is a wound of entrance for a projectile fired from in front of the limo.

If one believes this "projectile" was a bullet, fired from a rifle or handgun, there are certain problems with this explanation that must be dealt with, and tend to make this explanation highly unlikely, yet, still possible.

If the projectile was a bullet fired from a rifle on the Grassy Knoll (or vicinity), at this short range, there should have been nothing to prevent a bullet travelling at normal rifle velocities from going right through JFK's neck, and out the back. At the very least, the bullet should have become lodged in one of the vertebrae or, if a frangible bullet, broken up completely and left a scattering of particles embedded in surrounding tissue and vertebrae. While the official WC x-rays of the neck do not show anything like this, the possibility of fake x-rays must also be entertained, as Jerrol Custer, the x-ray technician on duty at Bethesda the night of 22/11/63, testified to the ARRB that the neck x-rays of JFK currently in the archives look nothing like the x-rays he developed, and that the ones he saw had many bullet fragments in the cervical vertebrae.

Anything with a lower muzzle velocity than a rifle, such as a handgun or airgun for shooting paralyzing darts does not, IMO, have the accuracy to guarantee a kill shot at the distance from the Stemmons sign to the pergola or picket fence on the Grassy Knoll, and I do not believe anyone would have even contemplated attempting making such a shot with one of these subsonic weapons, especially at a moving target.

So, here comes the heresy. What if JFK did not suffer the throat wound until the moment he suffered the massive head wound(s) at z313, and the throat wound was the exit site of a fragment from a bullet that broke up inside of his skull?

I believe that JFK was actually struck in the head by two bullets, one entering the right temple and the other entering exactly where Humes claimed it did; on the back of JFK's skull and just to the right of the external occipital protuberance.


Arrow pointing to external occipital protuberance

As you all know from my previous posts, I believe the bullet that entered the back of JFK's skull was a type of hollow point frangible bullet, consisting of compressed or glued together lead powder but also containing a small lead pellet in the nose of the bullet. As this pellet would be the component making up the hollow point, it too would break up into several pieces or fragments. The compressed lead powder would disintegrate into a lethal cloud of powder, and would mostly be responsible for the great amount of damage inflicted. While the bullet would have made a small entrance wound, as observed by Humes, brain matter entering the hollow point would have created an enormous hydraulic pressure, and caused the disintegration of this bullet within 2 inches if its entry point.

The following images show the occipital bone highlighted. At the base of the skull (and the occipital bone), an opening called the "foraman magnum" is visible, and it is this opening that allows the spinal cord to enter the skull.






If my estimations are correct, the frangible hollow point bullet's nose would have broken up almost directly over this opening, and it is conceivable a fragment from this nose pellet could have found its way through this opening. It is also possible the many fragments Jerrol Custer claims to have seen in an x-ray of JFK's neck vertebrae also passed through this opening.

How does this opening line up with JFK's throat wound? Here is another diagram that may help to explain.



The cervical vertebrae are seen highlighted in red, and the foraman magnum opening at the base of the skull would be directly above the highest vertebra seen here. I think it entirely possible a fragment could have passed through and exited below his larynx. As the fragment might have been as small as 1-2 mm, it would make perfect sense for it to make a 3-8 mm exit wound, as exit wounds are typically larger than the diameter of the projectile that makes them.