One of the most indelible images of November 22, 1963 is the Secret Service (SS) confrontation with Dallas medical officials concerning the removal of JFK’s body from Parkland Hospital. That scene has been recounted in hundreds of books and articles about the assassination and had its most vivid portrayal in Oliver Stone’s movie “JFK”. It has left an impression on the public memory that would be hard to erase or alter. But is it an accurate account of events?
CONFRONTATION AT PARKLAND
The conventional retelling of the Parkland confrontation goes something like this: The Secret Service had taken custody of JFK’s casket and intended to leave Parkland Hospital for Love Field and the flight back to Washington. But Earl Rose, the Dallas medical examiner, steadfastly refused to release the body claiming (correctly) that Texas law required an autopsy after any murder. At that point, SS Agent Roy Kellerman and several staunch JFK associates (who were part of the casket removal team) strongly dissented and attempted to persuade Rose–rather forcefully at times–to make an exception in this case; Rose still refused. After much arguing and even some serious threatening (with a show of weapons?), Earl Rose was shoved aside and the SS contingent with JFK’s casket briskly departed Parkland.
This is a dramatic scenario but is it a full account of that confrontation? Well, NOT exactly. It is true that the Secret Service and several close Kennedy confidants wanted to leave Parkland Hospital with JFK’s casket shortly after Kennedy was pronounced dead (at 1:00) and that medical examiner Earl Rose asserted that Texas law required an instate autopsy. A clear stand-off ensued. Dr. Kemp Clark, the head of neurosurgery at Parkland (who signed President Kennedy’s death certificate), at first attempted to mediate the stand-off by pleading with Rose to step aside and let the casket team (and Mrs. Kennedy) leave Trauma Room One and return to Washington. Rose steadfastly refused. Failing that, a telephone call was (reportedly) placed to Dallas County District Attorney Henry Wade for a legal opinion on the matter. (Wade would later visit Parkland that afternoon to check on his close friend, John Connally.) Wade advised Earl Rose that, given the extraordinary circumstances, he (Wade) had no objection to an immediate casket exit; yet Rose remained unpersuaded.
At this point it was suggested (probably by Dr. Burkley, JFK’s doctor) that a Texas Justice of the Peace (J.P.) be brought into the hospital in order to convince Rose to release the body to the Secret Service. Eventually a young J.P, named Theron Ward did arrive at Parkland–after about a 20 minute delay–but his feeble efforts to resolve the autopsy controversy failed miserably. Indeed, at one point Theron Ward instructed SS Agent Kellerman that he (Ward) believed that he had a clear “legal duty to order an {instate} autopsy” of JFK. End of discussion. “It’s just another homicide as far as I’m concerned” he is reported to have said. Well it was at THAT point that Roy Kellerman and Kenny O’Donnell (and several other Kennedy associates) became extremely agitated (to put it mildly) and began to swear and then shove and then steer JFK’s casket past several Dallas policemen and down the corridor toward the hospital exit. Matters were on the verge of becoming seriously physical (the SS casket team was leaving now no matter what) when a belated call with D.A. Henry Wade confirmed (again) that Dallas had “no {legal} objection” to the removal of JFK’s body from its jurisdiction. Finally, the frustrated medical examiner stepped (or was shoved) aside–after more than 40 minutes of serious acrimony–and the casket team left Parkland Hospital at approximately 2:00.
THE AUTOPSY LOCATION DECISION
Some assassination critics have claimed that this heated confrontation at Parkland was some sort of clandestine effort by the national security apparatus and even Lyndon Johnson himself to take control of JFK’s corpse and whisk it back to Washington for some sort of fraudulent autopsy. Perhaps. On the other hand, there is a far more personal and reasonable explanation for what unfolded at Parkland andshortly afterward.
JFK had just been assassinated in Dallas and there was simply no way that Kennedy’s SS personnel and his fiercely loyal “Irish mafia” (spearheaded by Kenny O’Donnell and Larry O’Brien) were about to leave the body of their beloved “boss” behind for an autopsy at Parkland or some undetermined Texas funeral home. No way, not ever. Besides, Jackie Kennedy herself had made it perfectly clear that she was not flying back to Washington without her deceased husband. She is reported to have said at one point during the trauma room confrontation: “Why can’t I get my husband back to Washington?” And, “I don’t want Jack to go to any awful funeral home.” From a personal perspective, therefore, it would have been inconceivable for the SS and Kennedy loyalists to have left the murdered President and his blood-stained widow behind in Dallas on November 22nd. No way, not ever.
Once on the plane, Jackie was approached by Dr. Burkley (JFK’s doctor and a part of the casket removal team) who explained that the President’s murder did, nonetheless, require an official autopsy and that it probably should be done at a military hospital for security purposes. He told her that the most logical options for that procedure were secure facilities at either Walter Reed or at the Bethesda Naval Hospital in Maryland. Walter Reed was an “Army” hospital and it certainly would have worked; but Jack Kennedy and the entire Kennedy family were entirely “ Navy.” So Jackie agreed with Dr. Burkely that “of course” the autopsy of her husband should be done at Bethesda.
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In closing, the ultimate legal decision to allow JFK’s casket to be removed from Parkland Hospital (and Texas) was likely made by Dallas District Attorney Henry Wade (with a forceful assist from Kenny O’Donnell and Roy Kellerman). In addition, the decision to perform the official autopsy at the Bethesda Naval Hospital in Maryland may have had less to do with any deep state skullduggery (a possibility, of course) and more to do with reasonable security concerns and with the personal history of the fierce Kennedy loyalists and the wishes of the grieving widow.
