Frequently Asked Questions on the JFK Assassination (Pt. 5):The Bullets, Wounds

What is the single bullet  theory'?

The single bullet theory, of which the 'magic bullet' is the centerpiece, was the brainchild of (then) Warren Commission Assistant Counsel Arlen Specter. It is the  logical outcome if one has constrained the number of bullets to  three, and only three, as the Warren Commission did.

Thus, by process of elimination:

 - The bullet that sprayed bystander James Tague is eliminated forthwith

  - The fatal head shot, is eliminated

That leaves one bullet to make the remaining wounds in both Kennedy and John Connally, to wit[1]

"this one bullet  hit the President in the back, exited through his throat, passed through  Connally's body, breaking a rib, then shattered a bone in his wrist, and finally entered his left thigh".

The problem is that it doesn't add up, and any critical thinker examining the placement and geometry can see that. Let's begin by examining the sleight of hand by which the  back wound bullet was altered to a base of neck wound, thereby also creating the basis for the "magic bullet" fiction. The Warren Commission diagram is shown below:

The upper inclined blue arrow shows the trajectory of the bullet that would be needed in order to account for BOTH the JFK neck wound AND the back wound. The problem here is twofold: first, the throat wound was described by Parkland surgeon Malcolm Perry (who should know his business given having to deal with multiple Dallasites' gunshot wounds at Parkland) as an ENTRY wound..

The neck wound placement (from Perry) is shown in the collage below along with the JFK back wound.  Also included is the Zapruder film frame showing the instant JFK grabs at his neck, signifying the bullet impact.



                        

Second, the Warrenites realized that the placement wouldn't work to account for all 7 wounds in JFK  and John Connally (the angle wasn't right- shooter would've had to have been firing from street level) so had to reset the placement higher - changing it to the light yellow trajectory. This was compliments of Gerald Ford as indicated in the notes below, 

wherein he altered the wording from the original autopsy report.  The initial draft of the report had  stated:

"A bullet had entered his back at a point slightly above the shoulder to the right of the spine."

Ford altered it to read:

"A bullet had entered the back of his neck slightly to the right of the spine."
 
The underhanded alteration and its impact was also noted in a later NY Times blurb:

Clearly, Ford wanted the document to conform with the single bullet myth and would stoop to altering an official document on record to attain the goal.  

The problem for Ford and the Warrenites is one of basic anatomy. The original autopsy sheet, including the placement and description of the back wound, was signed and verified by Admiral George Gregory Burkley, personal physician to the president who directed the autopsy at Bethesda. He verified the back wound placement on November 24th (as shown on the right side of Fig.2). That death certificate revealed the back wound to be, in the Admiral's own words, at the president's "third thoracic vertebra.”  The neck has seven CERVICAL vertebrae, and this observed and verified wound was described as three THORACIC vertebrae lower than the neck itself.

The final report then read: "A bullet had entered the base of the back of his neck slightly to the right of his spine." Ford insisted this was “a small change, …intended to clarify meaning, not alter history”. But alter history is exactly what it did! For by altering the original autopsy report, Ford and his cohorts succeeded in conferring a measure of validity on Specter’s single bullet theory. This is despite the fact that analysis of the resulting trajectory doesn’t even conform to basic laws of Newtonian dynamics!

Anyway, after negotiating this tortuous passage as described earlier - including hitting a number of bones, the bullet (designated Commission Exhibit 399, or 'CE399' for short) is alleged to have emerged on John Connally's stretcher (ibid.).  The key to the success of the "theory",  has been the 'success' in explaining away the near pristine condition of the bullet. (And incidentally, it did not even have microscopic traces of blood on it, though it was very slightly deformed.) The array of images shown below of several bullets will help to fix ideas:

WC Exhibit CE 399, or "the magic bullet" is shown as Entry (A)  which purportedly did all this damage.  (B) is a test bullet, one of several fired by Joseph Dolce into the wrists of cadavers to compare the degree of damage sustained with that of the WC Exhibit. The bullet (C) is the one actually taken off the floor at Parkland. What gives here? Answer: too many bullets for too many wounds!

Dolce, consultant in wound ballistics to the Army, has stated he was given one hundred,  6.5mm bullets, by the Warren Commission, to fire at cadavers. (Documentary, 'The Single Bullet Theory' video). In no case,  he went on, did any of the bullets come out pristine. In fact, all showed  significant deformity. In his own words (ibid.):


"No, it (CE399) could NOT have caused all the wounds. Our experiments here show beyond any doubt that merely shooting a wrist deforms the  bullet drastically. In every instance, the front or tip of the bullet was smashed. It's impossible for a bullet to strike a bone, even at low  velocity and still come out with a perfectly normal tip."


So, in fraudulently altering the bullet placement in the record, neither Ford or Specter gained a thing, though they did manage to hoodwink millions of Americans for decades because few people actually looked into the matter, and next, Ford's chicanery wasn't exposed until decades later after the JFK Records Act was passed in 1992. (The Ford editing documents, on which the Times snippet was based, were made public by the Assassination Records Review Board.)

So why is the "magic bullet" still accepted despite its obvious fallacious basis? Probably because it's the only meager thread the Warrenites have to hang their BS  on, and they still hope most Americans will just accept their word (argument from authority - a major fallacy) as opposed to investigating it themselves. (They're betting most people don't have the energy or skill to independently investigate)


What about the kill shot?

The Warrenite version of the head shot - the kill shot - is that it entered from the rear, because, of course, they have the assassin to the rear (in the Texas School Book Depository).  The image is shown below along with the frame from the Zapruder film showing the head shot (Z-313):

The noticeable backward motion of JFK's head in the film is attributed to the reaction of a forward spray out - in what has been called the 'jet effect". (Similar to the well known rocket effect, where fuel leaves the exhaust under pressure and the rocket moves in the opposite direction).

The problem, of course, is that this doesn't comport with Jackie's motion over the limo trunk - as shown in the lower left graphic. The fact she is moving over the limo trunk to the REAR, and her WC testimony (supported by recently released audiotape testimony from 1964) was she was attempting to retrieve a skull fragment (likely the missing occipital bone reported by the Parkland drs.) means that  the shot had to have come from the FRONT. This would be in the grassy knoll area.  This is further supported by the actual autopsy photos which belie the corrupted Warren versions, e.g.

Photo specialist Robert Groden ('The Killing of a President') has indicated that the fake photo image was likely taken after the rear of the head was reconstructed using mortician' plaster.

Again, we are confronted by blatant efforts to conceal the actual wound so as not to diverge from the dogma and presumption that Oswald did it, firing from the rear. Under no circumstances could the c-word be allowed to rear its head. The American people had to be mollified and quieted that it was just a lone deranged nut, and god forbid they know their own government had a hand in it!

Can all bullets and fragments be linked to the Mannlicher-Carcano?

Clearly, they cannot - and even CE399 is in doubt, and as shown above, the 'heritage' of that bullet is very much in doubt. On the assumption that CE399 is from the alleged Oswald rifle, the key is whether the fragments recovered (e.g. in the limo) could be matched to CE399 by composition.  By incredibly favorable happenstance, a test NAA  (Neutron Activation Analysis) was performed which has the capacity to make such distinctions in chemical composition to within 2 or 3 parts per billion.

But in NAA, any deviation, no matter how minute – confirms a difference in composition. That’s because the Neutron Activation Analysis results is an 'all or nothing' test result proposition. Thus, Hoover's reference to 'minor variations' was in an unwitting declaration that there were conclusive variations hence fragments found and tested disclosed different bullets, by composition. This may have been one reason why the NAA test results were suppressed so long.

So how many bullets were fired in all, or can be accounted for?

What we've already exposed is that there had to have been at least four different shots and putatively from 3 different locations (The Dal-Tex building provides a better angle for the back shot than the TSBD). Let's enumerate them thus far:

1) The upper back wound - fired from the Dal-Tex bldg.?

2) Throat wound - fired from the front (GK)

3) Head wound - fired from the GK.

4) Connally wounds (rib, wrist)  - fired from the TSBD

In fact, if we add the shot that chipped off a piece of pavement, and sprayed James Tague - we reach five bullets. If we also add the bullet that left a dent in the frame of the limo we get to six. See e.g.

Of course, the pavement that had been pock marked was painted over, then removed and taken to FBI HQ while the limo itself was ordered dispatched to Ohio and disassembled.

Anyone smell any rats here?  And yet the Warren Commission poppycock is all you can be expected to hear for the next week - as we approach the 50th anniversary of this sad and tragic event.

Go to any media presentation, say like CBS' "As It Happened" tomorrow night, as well as their 60 Minutes special Sunday, and all you will see and hear is Bob Schieffer or other tools-fools  trotting out the "Oswald did it" , pro-Warren bunkum. Ditto for ABC, NBC and the other corporate mouthpieces of propaganda.

But savvy, critical thinking Americans know better, and after fifty years of this BS they aren't buying any more.

Next: The Warren Commission Rifle Tests and Oswald's Marksmanship.

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[1] J.P. Duffy and V.L. Ricci: 1992, ' The Assassination of John F. Kennedy', Thunder's Mouth Press, p. 434.