Doctors who tried to save President John F Kennedy’s life after he was shot in 1963 said they believed there was “more than one shooter” in interviews airing for the first time.
The doctors spoke out in 2013, but the images remained hidden for ten years.
It will feature in the new documentary JFK Assassination: What Happened in the Trauma Room?, which airs on Channel 5 on Sunday.
Kennedy was shot and pronounced dead after arriving at Parkland Memorial Hospital on November 22, 1963, during an official visit to Dallas, Texas.
Official investigation concluded that he was murdered by lone gunman Lee Harvey Oswald from a sixth-floor window of the Texas School Book Depository.
But countless books and documentaries have questioned that conclusion in the six decades since the murder.
The seven doctors who spoke out treated Kennedy in Parkland, where he was taken in his open-top limousine after being shot in the head.
Dr. Robert McClelland, who died in 2019 aged 89 and was an assistant professor of surgery at the hospital in 1963, said: ‘In all probability there was a conspiracy. There was more than one shooter.
John F Kennedy was shot dead on November 22, 1963 during an official visit to Dallas, Texas
The official Warren Commission investigation concluded that Kennedy was shot from behind after his motorcade passed the warehouse, where Oswald was an employee.
But doctors questioned this because of his horrific injuries and the fact that the bullet appeared to enter the front of his head.
Dr. Ronald Jones, senior physician at Parkland, asked, “The question in hindsight is, if Oswald was in the storage room on the sixth floor, how could he have been shot from the front? And so there was more than one attacker?’
Dr. Joe Goldstrich, then a fourth-year medical student, asked, “How can a shot from behind peel the scalp from the front and back?”
The Parkland doctors were brought together in 2013 by filmmaker Jacque Leuth after an investigation revealed that some of them had seen a bullet hole in the front of Kennedy’s neck.
They also examined photos from Kennedy’s autopsy, which they had never looked at as a group.
They all concluded that the images looked different than what they had seen in the trauma room in Parkland.
This could mean that the president’s body has been tampered with.
The footage of the doctors’ memories has not been released until now because Ms Leuth had wanted to interview Jim Jenkins, the only surviving member of the autopsy team.
Dr. Robert McClelland, who died in 2019 aged 89 and was an assistant professor of surgery at the hospital in 1963, said: ‘In all probability there was a conspiracy. There was more than one shooter
Dr. Joe Goldstrich, then a fourth-year medical student, asked, “How can a shot from behind peel the scalp from the front and back?”
Dr. Ronald Jones, senior physician at Parkland, asked, “The question in hindsight is, if Oswald was in the storage room on the sixth floor, how could he have been shot from the front? And so there was more than one attacker?’
Dr. Lawrence Klein, a third-year medical student at the time, recalled his memories of the operating room where Kennedy was treated
Dr. Kenneth Salyer, who was a freshman at the hospital and died in 2020, said: ‘When I saw the autopsy photos I thought someone had tampered with the whole thing and that made me very suspicious’
This was not possible until 2021.
She also wanted to speak with government medical pathologist Michael Baden and attorney Robert Tannenbaum.
He served as deputy counsel to the House of Representatives Select Committee on Assassinations, which investigated both the Kennedy assassination and the assassination of Martin Luther King.
Dr. Kenneth Salyer, who was a freshman at the hospital and died in 2020, said, “When I saw the autopsy photos, I thought someone had tampered with the whole thing and that made me very suspicious.”
Dr. Lawrence Klein, a third-year medical student at the time, recalled his memories of the operating room where Kennedy was treated.
‘Dr [Malcolm] Perry and Dr [Charles] Baxter had walked into the room just before me,” he said.
“And Dr. Perry was standing on the right side of the cart on which the President lay. Dr. Baxter [was] to the left.’
He added: ‘It was a lie, they really weren’t telling the truth about it.’
The Warren Commission concluded that Oswald fired bullets there from a Mannlicher-Carcano rifle.
One bullet missed and reportedly hit a sign.
The second – the so-called “magic” bullet – struck Kennedy near the base of his neck.
The committee concluded that it then passed to Texas Governor John Connally, who sat with his wife Nellie before the President and First Lady Jackie Kennedy.
Connally was injured in the back, chest, wrist and thigh.
The magic bullet theory made sense because the investigation concluded that Oswald would not have been able to reload his weapon in time to fire again.
The third bullet struck President Kennedy in the head.
A bullet – believed to be the one that killed the president – was later found next to Governor Connally on his hospital stretcher and was believed to have come from his body.
But theories that a second gunman was involved have persisted since the shocking killing.
The motorcade carrying the seriously injured president is seen heading towards Parkland Hospital as bodyguard Clint Hill pushes First Lady Jackie Kennedy back into her seat.
The second shooter theory gained further credence last month when one of Kennedy’s bodyguards, Paul Landis, spoke to the Mail.
He had previously revealed that he found a bullet on the back of the presidential limousine and placed it next to the president on his stretcher.
He believed it was moved in the chaotic aftermath of the shooting.
If the bullet found by Landis did not hit the governor, but was the one found on his stretcher, this raises questions about how he was shot.
Some witnesses had said they heard shots from the “grassy knoll” made famous in Oliver Stone’s film JFK.
Landis recalled the moment the president was shot, telling the Mail: “He was leaning slightly to the left, toward Mrs. Kennedy, and I thought he was turning to see where the sound was coming from.
‘I didn’t know at the time that he had been hit by a bullet.
‘I heard the second shot. From my position, standing on the running board of the support car, I saw no reaction in the president’s car, so I thought the shot had been missed.”
The presidential limousine sits outside Parkland Hospital after the shooting of John F Kennedy
He added: “I heard the third shot and I saw the president’s head explode in a mist of blood, flesh and brain matter – and I ducked to avoid being splattered.
“The third shot came pretty soon after the second… and then we ran to Parkland Memorial Hospital.”
After Kennedy’s death was confirmed, he was flown back to Washington DC aboard Air Force One.
Vice President Lyndon Johnson was sworn in as the new president during the flight.
Mrs. Kennedy, still wearing the pink outfit stained with her husband’s blood, was present.
When asked if she wanted to change, she declined and said, “Show them what they’ve done.”
JFK Assassination: What Happened in the Trauma Room? airs on Sundays at 9pm and can be streamed on My5.