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The Blumberg Letter
MARKING STAMP: OTIS HISTORICAL ARCHIVES
NATIONAL MUSEUM OF HEALTH AND MEDICINE
ARMED FORCES INSTITUTE OF PATHOLOGY
1 February 1965
SUBJECT: Personal notes on the Assassination of President Kennedy.
TO: Brig. Gen.. J.M. Blumberg, MC, USA
The Director
Armed Forces Institute of Pathology
Washington, DC 20305
In compliance with your request, attached are Subject notes.
Before the "Warren Report" was published, in September 1964, I received
Directives by telephone, from the White House, through your Office and
through the Naval Medical School in Bethesda, not to discuss Subject autopsy
beyond the contents of the Warren Report.
I wish to take this opportunity to thank you for the confidence you have
shown in my behalf by giving my name to Cdr. Humes, appointing me as
representative of your Institute in the autopsy of President Kennedy.
(original signed)
Lt. Colonel Pierre A. FINCK, MC, USA
Chief, Military Environmental Pathology Division &
Chief, Wound Ballistics Pathology Branch
Armed Forces Institute of Pathology
Washington, DC 20305
PAGE BREAK
PAGE ONE
THE AUTOPSY OF PRESIDENT KENNEDY
by Lt. Colonel Pierre A. FINCK, MC, USA.
Commander Humes, MC, USN, Director of Laboratories, Naval Medical School,
National Naval Medical Center, Bethesda, Maryland, called me at home by
telephone on 22 Nov 1963, 2000 hours. He told me to go immediately to the Naval
Hospital. Brigadier General Blumberg, MC, USA, Director of the Armed Forces
Institute of Pathology, Washington, D. C., had given my name.
I arrived at the Naval Hospital at 2030 hours. I saw a helicopter on the ground.
A seaman escorted me to the autopsy room, guarded outside by military personnel
and inside by Agents of the U. S. Secret Service. Rear Admiral Galloway,
Commanding the Naval Center, Cdr Humes and Cdr Boswell, MC; USN, Chief of
Pathology, showed me the wounds in the President's head. The brain, the heart
and the lungs had been removed before my arrival. X ray films of the head and
chest had been taken.
Also present in the autopsy room were : Rear Admiral Kenney, Surgeon General of
the Navy; Rear Admiral Burkley, White House Physician; one Army Major General; a
Brigadier General, Air Force Aid to the President; Capt Stover, MC, USN,
Commanding the Naval Medical School; Capt Osborne, MC, USN, Chief of Surgery;
Cdr Ebersole, MC, USN, a radiologist; a Navy photographer, Navy officers and
enlisted men; Agents of the U. S. Secret Service and Federal Bureau of
Investigation ( FBI ).
The Autopsy number assigned to the President by the Naval Hospital was : A - 63
- 272.
PAGE TWO
THE WOUNDS
The scalp of the vertex is lacerated. There is an open comminuted fracture of
the cranial vault, many portions of which are missing. .
The autopsy had been in progress for thirty minutes when 1 arrived. Cdr Humes
told me that he only had to prolong the lacerations of the scalp before removing
the brain. No sawing of the skull was necessary.
The opening of the large head wound, in the right fronto-parieto-occipital
region, is 130 millimeters ( mm ) in diameter.
I also noticed another scalp wound, possibly of entrance, in the right occipital
region, lacerated and transversal, 15 x 6 mm.. Corresponding to that wound, the
skull shows a portion of a crater, the beveling of which is obvious on the
internal aspect of the bone; on that basis, I told the prosectors and Admiral
Galloway that this occipital wound is a wound, of ENTRANCE. No EXIT wound is
identifiable at this 'time in the skull, but close to midnight, portions of the
cranial vault are received from DALLAS, Texas. X ray films of these bone
specimens reveal numerous metallic fragments. Two of the bone specimens, 50 mm
in diameter, reveal BEVELING when viewed from the external aspect, thus
indicating a wound of EXIT. Most probably, these bone specimens are part of the
very large right skull wound, 130 mm in diameter and mentioned above. This right
fronto-parieto-occipital wound is therefore an EXIT.
There is another wound, in the region of the right trapezious muscle, at 140 mm
from the right acromion and at 140 mm from the tip of the right mastoid process
( I took these measurements ). The wound is OVAL, 7 x 4 mm, and shows well
demarcated edges.
PAGE THREE
This wound cannot be probed with the soft probe available. There is subpleural
hemorrhage in the right apical mesial region. The apex of the right lung is
hemorrhagic, without laceration of the pleura.
On the basis that there is a wound possibly of entrance, which cannot be probed
through the body, I SUGGEST X RAY FILMS BE TAKEN, ANTEROPOSTERIOR AND LATERAL,
OF THE ENTIRE BODY, BEFORE GOING ANY FURTHER WITH THE AUTOPSY. This radiologic
survey does not reveal any major missile in the President's cadaver. There are
only numerous metallic fragments in the head, in the sagittal plane. Some of
these are recovered and are turned over to FBI Agents against receipt. I help
the Navy photographer to take photographs of the occipital wound ( external and
internal aspects ) as well as of the wound in the back.
There is a recent TRACHEOTOMY wound ( transversal incision ) with moderate
hemorrhage in the subcutaneous tissue. Thanks to a telephone call from Cdr Humes
to Dallas, I found out later that the surgeon in Dallas had EXTENDED THE EXIT
WOUND in the anterior aspect of the neck to make his tracheotomy. The
tracheotomy wound was examined by the three prosectors. None of us noticed a
bullet wound along its course. THE ORGANS OF THE NECK WERE NOT REMOVED: THE
PRESIDENT'S FAMILY INSISTED TO HAVE ONLY THE HEAD EXAMINED Later, the permission
was extended to the CHEST.
Three civilian embalmers from GAWLER FUNERAL HOME prepared the body for burial.
It took four hours to clean, embalm and dress the body of the president. The
cadaver left the Naval Hospital at 0400 hours, 23 November 1963, in a casket of
African mahogany The officers present saluted the casket covered with a flag.
PAGE FOUR
After the body was placed into a USN ambulance, to be brought to the White
House, 1 saw Mrs. Jacqueline Kennedy come out of the hospital and get into her
car, protected by the Secret Service. She had the same pink dress she was
wearing in Dallas at the time of the assassination.
On Sunday 24 November 1963, 1 went to the Naval Hospital to help Cdr Humes who
had written an autopsy report. Humes, Boswell and Finck, the three prosectors,
signed the Autopsy report in the Office of Admiral Galloway. ( I had suggested
several corrections in the autopsy report. Commander Humes agreed. While we were
checking the autopsy report in the Admiral's office, the Television announced
the murder of Oswald by Ruby ).
In my discussion with Cdr Humes, I stated that we should not check the block
"complete Autopsy " in the Autopsy Report Form. In compliance with the wishes of
the Kennedy family, the prosectors had confined their examination to the head
and chest. Humes declared that the block "complete Autopsy" should be checked.
Cdr Humes called me on 29 Nov 63 that the three prosectors would examine the
brain at the Naval Hospital. I asked if a representative of the Neuropathology
Branch of the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology would be invited to the gross
examination of the brain. Humes told me that no additional persons would be
admitted. Humes, Boswell and myself examined the formalin fixed brain. A US Navy
photographer was present.
DESCRIPTION : The formalin fixed brain weighs 1500 grams., The arteries of the
base show no arteriosclerotic plaques. The left hemisphere shows minimal frontal
and parietal subarachnoid hemorrhage.
PAGE FIVE
There is a parasagittal laceration of the right cerebral hemisphere, extending
from the frontal to the occipital lobes and exposing the Thalamus.
The Corpus Callosum is lacerated. No metallic fragments are identified but there
are numerous small bone fragments, between one and ten millimeters in greatest
dimension, in the container where the brain was fixed. The CONVOLUTIONS of the
brain are flat and the SULCI are narrow, but this is interpreted as a fixation
artifact because the change was not observed at the time of autopsy.
COLOR AND BLACK AND WHITE PHOTOGRAPHS are taken by the US Navy photographer :
superior and inferior aspects of the brain.
Cdr Humes takes SECTIONS from the subarachnoid hemorrhage of the left cerebral
hemisphere and from the laceration of the right. cerebral hemisphere but does
not make coronal sections in order to preserve the specimen.
On 13 Dec 1963, 1 had the opportunity to examine the weapon used to kill
President Kennedy. I saw the 6.5 mm Carcano Italian Short Rifle in the Firearms
Unit of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI Laboratory).Use your browsers 'back' button to return where you came from.