Malcolm Perry

Malcolm Oliver Perry II (September 3, 1929 – December 5, 2009) was an American physician and surgeon. He was one of the doctors who attended to President John F. Kennedy at Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas, Texas, on November 22, 1963 after Kennedy was shot. Two days later, he attended to Kennedy's assassin Lee Harvey Oswald after he was shot.

Biography Perry was born in Allen, Texas, on September 3, 1929. He was raised by his grandfather, Malcolm Oliver Perry I. Ten years later he said that he was "pretty naive" in making that statement to the press, but that he would not change anything, "I could only report what I saw. I just tried to answer as honestly as I could". When interviewed by the Warren Commission, Perry said that he then believed that a "full jacketed bullet without deformation passing through the skin would leave a similar wound for an exit and entrance wound and with the facts which you have made available and with these assumptions, I believe that it was an exit wound."

Reporter Jimmy Breslin spoke to Perry at length about his thoughts and feelings while operating on Kennedy during a November 23 press conference. Breslin wrote a story the following day that focused on Perry; Rev. Oscar Huber, who administered Kennedy's last rites; and Vernon O'Neal, who supplied a casket for Kennedy's burial. The piece, published in the New York Herald Tribune on Nov. 24, 1963, became an acclaimed classic. Perry complained that the story got the chronology and some of the medical details wrong, but he said later, "the major focus is correct" and said he was touched by Breslin's "concern and kindness" during their interview.

Following the shooting of Lee Harvey Oswald by Jack Ruby on November 24, Perry was one of the doctors to tend to Oswald. Following Oswald's death, Perry made an effort to leave the Dallas area to avoid the many press conferences and press questions. Perry left for McAllen in Hidalgo County in South Texas, the home of his mother-in-law, but he was followed there by a reporter from United Press International.

Perry rarely spoke about the events of November 22, saying that it was simply a terrible day and one he chose not to talk about again.

Perry later became chief of vascular surgery at Weill Cornell Medical Center in Manhattan from 1978 to 1988. He served as a professor in the Department of Surgery at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas, in the early 1990s. He was professor emeritus at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center until his death.

Later life Perry lived in Jacksonville, Texas. He died from lung cancer in Tyler, Texas on December 5, 2009.

Portrayals in film In the 2013 film Parkland, Perry is portrayed by Colin Hanks.