Bethesda in History

Commander J. Thornton Boswell assisted Humes and Finck during President Kennedy's autopsy at Bethesda Naval Hospital.

The autopsy of President Kennedy was concluded at approximately 11 p.m. at Bethesda Naval Hospital.

Jacqueline Kennedy chose the National Naval Medical Center at Bethesda for the autopsy because President Kennedy had served in the Navy.

Photographs of President Kennedy were taken at Bethesda as part of the preliminary autopsy documentation.

After the autopsy ended, President Kennedy's body was prepared for burial at Bethesda Naval Hospital.

President Kennedy's body arrived at Bethesda Naval Hospital for autopsy at approximately 7:35 p.m.

Commander James J. Humes served as chief autopsy surgeon during the examination of President Kennedy at Bethesda Naval Hospital.

Boswell was chief of pathology at Bethesda Naval Hospital when he participated in President Kennedy's autopsy.

Two small irregular metallic fragments were recovered from Kennedy's head during the Bethesda autopsy and transferred to the FBI.

X-rays showed numerous tiny metal fragments extending from the rear head wound toward the front of Kennedy's skull.

Humes and the other pathologists traced the neck missile along a slight downward path toward the front of Kennedy's throat.

Attorney General Robert Kennedy accompanied his brother's body from Andrews Air Force Base to Bethesda Naval Hospital.

Robert Kennedy joined other members of the Kennedy family on the seventeenth floor while the autopsy was conducted.

Finck applied experience derived from more than 400 wound cases when evaluating the perforating missile damage to Kennedy's skull.

The Bethesda X-rays showed a sizable metallic fragment positioned above President Kennedy's right eye.

Humes concluded that the large defect on the upper right side of Kennedy's skull represented a wound of exit.

The autopsy found that the neck bullet passed between two large muscles without leaving a permanent channel through either muscle.

At the time of the autopsy, Humes was senior pathologist and director of laboratories at Bethesda Naval Hospital.

Further examination led Humes and the Bethesda team to reject the idea that a bullet had lodged in Kennedy's back and later fallen out.

Jacqueline Kennedy accompanied the President's remains to Bethesda Naval Hospital after returning from Dallas.

Humes agreed that the small, clean-edged wound near the back of Kennedy's neck had the characteristics of an entrance wound.

Finck concluded that the small clean-edged wound at the back of Kennedy's neck was a long-range entrance wound.

The Bethesda pathologists found that the bullet passing through Kennedy's neck did not strike any bone.

The posterior neck wound measured approximately seven by four millimeters and had clean, sharply defined edges.

The Bethesda autopsy report listed the pathological cause of President Kennedy's death as a gunshot wound to the head.

The pathological examination of President Kennedy began at Bethesda at about 8 p.m. on November 22.

The autopsy report recorded Kennedy as 46 years old, 72.5 inches tall, approximately 170 pounds, with blue eyes and reddish-brown hair.

The neck bullet produced a contusion on the upper part of Kennedy's pleural cavity without penetrating that cavity.

Boswell agreed with the other pathologists that the small posterior neck wound was a missile entrance wound.

The autopsy revealed another bullet wound near the base of Kennedy's neck, slightly to the right of his spine.

The autopsy identified a small wound in the rear of Kennedy's skull as a bullet entrance wound.

Boswell agreed that the bullet penetrated the rear of Kennedy's head before passing through the skull.

Preliminary X-rays of President Kennedy were taken at Bethesda before the pathological examination began.

Finck concluded from the cranial wound characteristics that Kennedy had been struck by a bullet fired from above and behind.

The Bethesda examination found bruising at the top portion of President Kennedy's right lung along the neck bullet's path.

The pathologists identified the large defect on the upper right side of Kennedy's skull as the head bullet's exit area.

Boswell joined Humes in concluding that the head missile exited through the large defect on the right side of the skull.

Secret Service agents guarded Jacqueline Kennedy in quarters assigned to her at Bethesda while the autopsy proceeded.

Jacqueline Kennedy waited with members of the Kennedy family on the hospital's seventeenth floor while the autopsy was performed.

Finck examined the skull's beveling pattern to distinguish the bullet's entrance from its exit.

Humes used the beveling of the skull wound to support the conclusion that the smaller posterior defect was an entrance wound.

Recovered skull fragments were fitted together during the Bethesda examination, accounting for much of the missing portion of Kennedy's skull.

Humes determined that the neck missile passed mainly through soft tissue rather than through bone as it crossed Kennedy's neck.

The examining pathologists concluded that the neck bullet damaged Kennedy's trachea as it passed through his neck.

The front neck wound could not be directly examined because the Parkland tracheotomy incision had removed visible evidence of that wound.

Lieutenant Colonel Pierre A. Finck participated in the Bethesda autopsy as the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology's wound-ballistics specialist.

Preparation of President Kennedy's body for burial was completed at approximately 4 a.m. on November 23.

After the burial preparation was completed, President Kennedy's body left Bethesda for the White House East Room.

Early on November 23, Humes telephoned Dr. Malcolm Perry and learned that Perry had used the existing throat wound for the tracheotomy incision.

Humes sought confirmation from Parkland Hospital that a tracheotomy had been performed through the wound on the front of Kennedy's neck.

Perry's information confirmed Humes's conclusion that the neck bullet had exited through the front of Kennedy's throat.

Contributes to rapid design of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine antigen.

Helps lead coronavirus vaccine research at the National Institutes of Health.

Is admitted to Walter Reed after testing positive for COVID-19.

Is admitted to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center after COVID-19 diagnosis.