JFK SHOOTS YOUNG GIRL IN SCALP, MISTAKING HER FOR A WOODCHUCK
Attleboro, Massachusetts (JFK+50) On October 13, 1924, the Associated Press reports Mr. James F. Kennedy, caretaker of an estate here in Attleboro*, "fired a load of shot, expecting to bring down a woodchuck."
Instead, Mr. Kennedy had shot a young girl in the scalp. While Miss Lydia M. White did not sustain a "serious injury", she screamed and swooned.
The A.P. says JFK "had mistaken for a woodchuck** the young woman's bushy bobbed*** hair."
*Attleboro is located in Bristol County on the border of Massachusetts & Rhode Island. It is known as the Jewelry Capital of the World.
**woodchuck, aka groundhog, inhabits yards, fields & meadows of New England. It measures 16 to 26 inches in length & weighs 4.5 to 13 pounds.
***bobbed hair is of short to medium length cut straight around the head at jaw level
SOURCE
"Bobbed Hair Looks Like a Woodchuck, Girl Shot in Scalp," The Evening Star, Washington, D.C., October 13, 1924, Chronicling America, Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/
