President John Kennedy was fatally wounded by an assassin’s second bullet because he was wearing a rigid back brace and did not slump over after being hit by the first shot. says the president-elect of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences.
Dr James Weston who said he believes Kennedy was hit by two bullets fired from behind his right shoulder, said Kennedy was wearing a brace which held him rigid after he was wounded in the neck by the first projectile.
The brace prevented him from slumping forward or sideways, and the second bullet hit him in the head, Dr Weston said. He said Kennedy could have survived the neck wound.
Dr Weston, also the New Mexico State medical examiner, has studied previously classified data dealing with the November 22, 1963, Kennedy assassination.
He spent a week in the national archives in Washington, D. C. studying photographs, X-rays and medical reports at the request of CBS news, which this week televised a documentary on Kennedy’s assassination.
The autopsy on Kennedy was performed by military doctors who were not forensic pathologists and did not follow normal criminal investigation procedures, Dr Weston said.
{{/usCountry}}The autopsy on Kennedy was performed by military doctors who were not forensic pathologists and did not follow normal criminal investigation procedures, Dr Weston said.
{{/usCountry}}But Dr Weston said, he is satisfied with the medical aspect of the inquiry.
“I do not believe anybody could find any more,” he said.
A better autopsy could have shown the angle of the fatal bullet, and a picture of the President when the shots impacted would have allowed experts to determine the bullet’s point of origin, he said.
Dr Weston added, however, that the President’s car is hidden by a roadside sign in the only films of the crucial seconds when he was hit.