Dr. Crenshaw’s Description of how Secret Service Stole the Body

Here is an account of the confrontation of Dr. Earl Rose, who just passed away, and the Secret Service in Dallas regarding custody of JFK’s body and who had jurisdiction for the autopsy.

Dr. Crenshaw’s Description of how Secret Service Stole the Body

The following is Crenshaw’s recollection of events from his book, JFK: Conspiracy of Silence:

As though on cue, a phalanx of guards poured into Trauma Room 1 just as the coffin was being rolled out. They looked like a swarm of locusts descending upon a cornfield. Without any discussion, they encircled the casket and began escorting the President’s body down the hall toward the emergency room exit. A man in a suit, leading the group, holding a submachine gun, left little doubt in my mind who was in charge. That he wasn’t smiling best describes the look on his face. Just outside Trauma Room 1, Jacqueline joined the escort and placed her hand on the coffin as she walked along beside it. I followed directly behind them.

When the entourage had moved into the main hall, Dr. Earl Rose, chief of forensic pathology, confronted the men in suits. Roy Kellerman, the man leading the group, looked sternly at Dr. Rose and announced, “My friend, this is the body of the President of the United States, and we are going to take it back to Washington.”

Dr. Rose bristled and replied, “No, that’s not the way things are. When there’s a homicide, we must have an autopsy.”

“He’s the President. He’s going with us,” Kellerman barked, with increased intensity in his voice.

“The body stays,” Dr. Rose said with equal poignancy.

Kellerman took an erect stance and brought his firearm into a ready position. The other men in suits followed course by draping their coattails behind the butts of their holstered pistols. How brave of these men, wearing their Brooks Brothers suits with icons of distinction (color-coded Secret Service buttons) pinned to their lapels, willing to shoot an unarmed doctor to secure a corpse.

“My friend, my name is Roy Kellerman. I am special agent in charge of the White House detail of the Secret Service. We are taking President Kennedy back to the capitol.”

“You are not taking the body anywhere. There’s a law here. We’re going to enforce it.”

Admiral George Burkley, White House Medical Officer, said, “Mrs. Kennedy is going to stay exactly where she is until the body is moved. We can’t have that … he’s the President of the United States.”

“That doesn’t matter,” Dr. Rose replied rigidly. “You can’t lose the chain of evidence.”

For the second time that day, there was little doubt in my mind as to the significance of what was happening before me.

“Goddammit, get your ass out of the way before you get hurt,” screamed another one of the men in suits. Another snapped, “We’re taking the body, now.”

Strange, I thought, this President is getting more protection dead than he did when he was alive.

Had Dr. Rose not stepped aside I’m sure that those thugs would have shot him. They would have killed me and anyone else who got in their way. Dr. Kemp Clark wanted to physically detain the coffin, but the men with guns acted like tough guys with specific orders. A period of twenty-seven years has neither erased the fear that I felt nor diminished the impression that that incident made upon me.

They loaded the casket into the hearse, Jacqueline got into the backseat, placed her hand on top of the coffin, and bowed her head. As they drove off, I felt that a thirty-year-old surgeon had seen more than his share for one day.

(C. Crenshaw, et al, JFK: Conspiracy of Silence, 1992, pp. 118 – 120)