PSC482G, Spring 2000
Answers to Assignment 6
Warren Commission Report 2
Read: Warren Commission Report Chapter II (pp. 28–60), Appendix VIII (515–537; optional), and Appendix IX (538–546).
Answer these questions (briefly):
1. Describe the presidential motorcade’s route through Dealey Plaza and why a dog-leg onto Elm Street was needed. What was the motorcade’s next stop to be? From Main, turned right onto Houston, then sharp left onto Elm. After underpass, right onto Stemmons Freeway. Elm had to be used because access to Freeway from Main was blocked by concrete barrier. Next stop: Dallas Trade Mart for luncheon.
2. Give the dates when: (a) the trip to Texas was decided [5 Jun 63]; (b) the trip was first publicized in the Dallas area [13 Sep]; (c) the Secret Service was notified of the trip [4 Nov]; and (d) the full route of the motorcade was first announced in the Dallas papers [19 Nov]. Compare these dates with the dates when: (a) Lee Harvey Oswald first heard of the job available in the Texas School Book Depository [14 Oct 63]; (b) he interviewed for the job [15 Oct]; and (c) he started to work there [16 Oct]. What is the point of this question? Because he took the job five weeks before the route was announced, it is hard to believe that it was part of a conspiracy or even an individual plan to kill JFK.
3. Describe the precautionary measures taken for the motorcade and who was responsible for them. SS Agent Lawson checked PRS offices in Washington for dangerous persons, and then checked with Dallas police and FBI. Agent Sorrels checked three possible luncheon sites. Lawson and Sorrels drove proposed route alone, then later with the local police. Discussed security with Dallas PD.
4. What was the order of cars in the motorcade? See pp. 43–46 of WCR.
5. Compare how the various occupants of the presidential car recalled the sequence of major events at the moment of the assassination (shots, hits, and reactions of passengers). Were there any significant differences? See table handed out in class. There were differences in the number of shots, the sequence of events, and whether JFK cried out.
6. Same as Question 5 but for Secret Service agents. See other table handed out in class. Fewer differences than in Q5; mostly in number and timing of shots.
7. What efforts were made in Parkland Hospital to save the president’s life? Tracheostomy, incisions in upper chest, intravenous blood and saline, oxygen, hydrocortisone. What was his condition when the car arrived? Slow agonal (deathlike) respiration, weak heart sounds, no pulse, no reactions.
8. Describe the president’s large head wound as reported by the autopsy doctors. Large, irregular defect (missing scalp and skull) on the right, involving chiefly the parietal bone but extending somewhat into the temporal and occipital regions. The defect is 13 cm at its greatest diameter. Use the diagram of skull bones handed out in class. How would you summarize in nonmedical terms where the wound was? Wound was in middle of right side of head, somewhat rear of center.
9. How was the President’s body removed from Dallas? Manhandled out of the hospital by Secret Service, then flown to Washington on Air Force One. Why was it done this way? Reason not given, but probably distrust of local officials. Was it legal? Illegal because Texas law requires local autopsies.
10. Who conducted the autopsy of JFK? Drs. Humes, Boswell, and Finck, pathologists from Bethesda Naval Hospital and Armed Forces Institute of Pathology. Where? At the National Naval Medical Center, Bethesda, MD. Why there? Because the President had served in the Navy, and Mrs. Kennedy thought it appropriate. What were its major findings? The President was hit by two bullets, both fired from behind and above him. The cause of death was a gunshot wound to his head.