In my recent YouTube documentary titled “The Three Bethesda Casket Entries, Revisited,” I featured the story of a Bethesda nurse (a Navy Ensign, or O-1) who witnessed “a simple casket offloaded from a helicopter by men in trench coats” at or near Bethesda Naval Hospital the night of JFK’s autopsy; she had been informed that the helicopter would be delivering the body of President Kennedy to Bethesda NNMC that night. (The story of the Bethesda nurse had been written about in 1992 by New England journalist Robert “Woody” Woodland.) Here is a link to that documentary, for those who may not have seen it yet.
The “Bethesda Nurse” as depicted in “The Three Bethesda Casket Entries”
Thanks to an obituary published in 2023 by the nurse’s family, the name of the former Navy nurse interviewed by Woody Woodland in 1992 was revealed as Patricia Krueger. Here is the link to the obituary.
As you can see, Patricia Krueger led a varied, interesting, and impressive life.
But Patricia Krueger was not her name in 1963—rather, this was her name by her third marriage. Patricia Krueger’s maiden name was Patricia Pepe; in 1963 she graduated from Georgetown University with a B.S. in Nursing, and was accepted into a Navy nursing program at the Bethesda National Naval Medical Center. In September of 1963, Patricia married John DeSando, so on the night of President Kennedy’s autopsy her name would have been Patricia DeSando.
With the help of Dr. Mike Chesser, I was able to locate and contact Patricia’s ex-husband John DeSando, and he sent me this snapshot taken in 1963 or 1964 of Patricia DeSando in her Navy uniform, provided by her eldest daughter, Courtney.
Patricia DeSando in 1963, courtesy of her eldest daughter Courtney
The next day—on July 28, 2025—I had a captivating hour-and-a-half conversation with Patricia’s eldest daughter, Courtney, who was very gracious and willing to share with me what she could remember about her mother’s recounting about the events she witnessed at Bethesda on 11/22/63. In short, Courtney told me that her mother publicly related her story about “two bodies” at Bethesda to numerous guests (up to as many as “60 or 70” people) at a New Hampshire wedding rehearsal on a Friday night in March of 1992. In short, Courtney explained that the “two bodies” her mother discussed were JFK’s body entering the Bethesda Naval Hospital morgue at two different times the night of the autopsy, and apparently in a different condition later in the evening than he was in, earlier that evening. In Courtney’s recollection of what her mother said that night at the wedding rehearsal (for the wedding the next day of Courtney’s sister, Jessica), she said her mother openly stated to the wedding rehearsal attendees that there was “an author” in the audience who was going to write about it; Patricia Krueger’s contact with the author had apparently emboldened her to publicly reveal key aspects of what she witnessed to her audience at the wedding rehearsal. As Courtney recalled, the few times that her mother had spoken of the events at Bethesda, she had consistently mentioned (1) seeing a casket, and (2) “a long hallway” in which her mother recalled seeing some kind of transfer taking place later on, involving a casket. Regretfully, the details of what Courtney could recall were not more precise than that, 33 years later.
Those who have watched my documentary “The Three Casket Entries at Bethesda, Revisited” will immediately recall many visuals (both photographs, and 3-D animation) of a very long hallway immediately outside the Bethesda morgue where President Kennedy’s autopsy was conducted the night of November 22, 1963. It may be significant that Courtney recalled “the long hallway” (as a key aspect of her mom’s recounting of the events she witnessed) BEFORE she saw those images in my documentary; it was an independent recollection of Courtney’s part.
Courtney was under the very strong impression that her mother had seen JFK’s wounds at some point, probably early that evening—what Courtney understood to be JFK’s appearance “before” a second delivery to the morgue. Courtney is not sure today whether her mother actually saw JFK’s wounds a second time that night, or whether her mother only became aware much later of differences to his wounds by seeing autopsy photographs in books, for example. But Courtney made clear that her mother was quite disturbed by the changes in JFK’s condition that night.
Do I wish Courtney’s memories of what her mom recounted were more precise? Sure I do. The important thing here is that Woody Woodland wrote in his 1992 article only about the Bethesda nurse seeing “a simple casket arrive by helicopter, and offloaded by men in trench coats,” and being told it contained JFK’s body. Courtney’s recollections of her mother’s story strongly suggest that there is much more to the matter than what Woody Woodland reported in 1992—namely, that after JFK’s body arrived by helicopter, her mother may have been inside bldg. 8, in the hallway right outside the morgue, and that her mother may actually have seen JFK’s head wounds herself, shortly following his initial arrival. Courtney’s strongest impression of her mother’s story is that her mom was very disturbed by the fact that there were major differences between the “before” condition of JFK’s wounds (which her mother implied she had seen) and the “after” condition later that evening. It is unclear today whether her mother, Patricia DeSando, learned of the changes in the condition of JFK’s wounds by discussing events at the autopsy with those who had been there and witnessed the post mortem examination after 8:00 PM, or whether her mother was aware of discrepancies between what she apparently saw early that night (the “before” condition) by later viewing the autopsy photos published in books. In any case, her mother was experiencing a strong case of “cognitive dissonance,” which accounted for her agitation at the 1992 wedding rehearsal, and her public revelations that evening before a large audience.
When Patricia Krueger decided to recount her Bethesda experiences to the many attendees at the rehearsal for her own daughter Jessica’s wedding in March of 1992, it created a “disturbance” that evening that many family members found baffling, and hard to understand. The reaction at the time, by many of her children and by her ex-husband John DeSando, was “why now?” and “why here?” It created a breach within the family, and exacerbated doubts among some of her children about the veracity of Patricia’s recollections. But after viewing “The Three Bethesda Casket Entries, Revisited,” Courtney now strongly believes that her mother’s truthfulness has been vindicated. Her mom, she now understands, was a witness to important historical events, and Courtney is gratified to now understand that like many other witnesses to strange goings-on the night of JFK’s autopsy, her mother was an innocent bystander who saw crucial events unfolding, even if their meaning and context was not immediately clear at the time. Patricia Krueger was so disturbed by the “cognitive dissonance” created in her mind by what she had witnessed, and by recounting her experiences to a New England journalist that very weekend, that she felt compelled to bring it all out in the open at her daughter’s wedding rehearsal.
I contacted Woody Woodland the next day, on July 29th, and he did recall Patricia Krueger, and remembered talking to her about the events she witnessed at Bethesda Naval Hospital the night of JFK’s autopsy. He also recalled that Patrica Krueger served as a driver for the Pat Buchanan presidential campaign in 1992, which is how he met her. Woody stands by the accuracy of what he wrote in his 1992 article (titled “Bethesda Nurse,” in Network Publications), as recounted by author Vince Palamara on page 154 of his 2015 book, From Parkland to Bethesda. Courtney spoke at length to Woody Woodland the next day, July 30th, and that conversation jogged both of their memories. They both jointly recalled that Woody Woodland, who was then (as he still is now, at the age of 79) a minister, presided over her sister Jessica’s wedding the next day, on Saturday, which would explain why he was present at the wedding rehearsal on Friday night, when her mother spoke publicly about the events she witnessed at Bethesda Naval Hospital on 11/22/63. Woody confirmed to me after talking to Courtney that he did indeed preside over the wedding of Patricia Krueger’s daughter, Jessica, that weekend. Unfortunately, he does not today have a tape recording of his discussion with Patricia Krueger about what she witnessed at Bethesda, because he did not conduct a formal, sit-down interview with her in his office; he learned about the events she witnessed at Bethesda that weekend in the midst of his ministerial duties, and simply took detailed notes during their discussion. He published his article that same month, in March of 1992.
My assessment at this writing is that there is much more to the “Bethesda nurse” story than was written about by Woody Woodland in 1992—Patricia DeSando may well have accompanied the shipping casket from the Officer’s Club parking lot where it was delivered by the helicopter (according to Navy corpsman Paul O’Connor) to the morgue itself, and she may even have seen JFK’s head wounds shortly after his body arrived and the shipping casket was opened; she may also have witnessed some kind of transfer of his body later that night, in the “long hallway.” Yes, I can assure you that not knowing the full details now, in 2025, is indeed frustrating. The fact that Patricia DeSando was told ahead of time that JFK’s body would be arriving by helicopter, and then witnessed it arrive and saw it offloaded by men in trench coats, SUGGESTS that someone may have been preparing her for some particular role that night. I can’t forget the broken background chatter recorded on the Air Force One tapes—as revealed in my documentary “The Three Bethesda Casket Entries, Revisited”—specifically, the voice that twice directed “have a nurse” there, and that the nurse should be “ready for everything,” during the repeated talk about a “black Cadillac.” It’s a spooky thing to listen to, in view of the above, because we now know for a certainty THAT A NURSE WAS THERE.
Should any of Courtney’s many brothers and sisters recall more details about what their mother recounted about events at Bethesda, I will certainly update this article, if and when that information becomes available.
IN CONCLUSION, I am simply content today to report to you that we now know that the Bethesda nurse who witnessed “a simple casket delivered by helicopter, and offloaded by men in trench coats” was one Patricia DeSando, and that I have been able to provide you with a snapshot taken of her as a Navy Ensign, circa 1963. The “Bethesda nurse” was a witness to history, and her identity has now been positively verified, as well as what she looked like in uniform in 1963, thanks to the cooperation of her ex-husband John DeSando, and her eldest daughter, Courtney.
This article was originally published on Insidethearrb.livejournal.com.
