The Double Significance of Dr. Curtis' JFK Testimony

An eyewitness to JFK's death tells Congress under oath what he saw at Parkland Hospital in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963

Former Parkland Hospital Dr. Don Teel Curtis (left) testifies before Congress’ Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets, May 20, 2025, along with (left to right) former House Select Committee on Assassinations investigator Dan Hardway, former Assassination Records Review Board (ARRB) chairman Judge John Tunheim, and former ARRB senior military records analyst Douglas Horne. (Credit: Chad Nagle)

On May 20, Congress and the country heard the startling testimony of retired doctor Donald Curtis at a hearing conducted by the House Oversight Committee’s Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets. Dr. Curtis was one of the first medical personnel to attend to President John F. Kennedy after he was mortally wounded in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963.

The significance of Dr. Curtis’ testimony was twofold. First, he debunked the common falsehood that the doctors at Parkland Memorial Hospital did not have a chance to view the nature of JFK’s head wound in any detail. Second, he documented for the record the intimidation tactics Warren Commission lawyers used to pressure Parkland doctors (and other fact witnesses) to conform their testimony to the pre-ordained conclusion that Lee Harvey Oswald — firing from the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository — was the lone assassin of President Kennedy.