By Dave O’Brien
Author
Through The ‘Oswald’ Window

According to JFK ‘lone assassin’ trumpeters, also known as ‘lone nutter’s, any talk of conspiracy is all theory and no substance.

The Warren Commission Report on the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy is the ‘lone nutter’s’ Bible of truth.

And its foremost Commandment is that Lee Harvey Oswald was the ‘lone’ assassin of America’s 35th President on November 22, 1963 in Dallas, Texas.

Although they now hold the minority view in America, lone nutter’s are steadfast in their belief that Oswald, as described in the Warren Report, was a Communist sympathizer and a ‘lone nut’ misfit in society who gunned down the most powerful man in the world.

Oswald acted alone! There was no conspiracy, foreign or domestic, period. End of discussion! Any talk to the contrary will get you labelled as a crazy ‘Conspiracy Theorist’ in the company of UFO, Bigfoot and Lock Ness Monster believers.

And yet the one mystifying aspect of the battle of Lone Nutter’s versus Conspiracy Theorists is how they perceive the Warren Commission’s handling and presentation of evidence for the historical record in its 26 supplemental volumes and it’s 888-page summary edition.

Lone Nutter’s see the Warren Report as the definitive answer to the Kennedy assassination, it’s findings virtually without flaws. Any hints of more than one gunman or a conspiracy are to be ignored or frittered away as inconsequential.

Conspiracy Theorists are accused of offhandedly dismissing the circumstantial evidence of Oswald as the solitary assassin or even fabricating exculpatory evidence. They are more akin to the thinking of pioneer researcher and author Mark Lane, who said:

“The best way to disbelieve the
Warren Report is to read it!”

To lone nutter’s, it doesn’t matter that virtually any and all evidentiary inference of Oswald’s innocence or a conspiracy to kill President Kennedy is buried deep in the Warren Report volumes, blatantly ignored or dismissed of relevancy to what happened in Dealey Plaza that horrific day.

Lone Nutter’s readily accept the evidence and finding of Oswald’s guilt in the Warren Report as historical truth, giving no credence to the fact that the accused was denied legal representation in police custody from his arrest to the moment Jack Ruby gunned him down.

Even more alarmingly, the accused was also denied any representation before the Commission hearings.

Conspiracy Theorists, trying to fill the void of a public trial for the 24-year-old accused murderer of Dallas police officer J.D. Tippit and President Kennedy, object to the Commission’s acceptance of evidence without challenge or cross-examination on behalf of Oswald.

Even more troublesome to Conspiracy Theorists is the way the Warren Commission and its investigative agencies ignored, minimalized, altered and even suppressed witnesses and other evidence that suggested Oswald did not act alone or may not have been an assassin that day.

Of all such evidences contained in the Warren Report, there is one particular example of problematic physical evidence that lone nutter’s don’t like to talk about, just as the Warren Commission decided not to talk about it. The reasons why are about to become evident.

UNFRIENDLY BALLISTIC EVIDENCE

We are at a loss to explain why the Warren Commission mandated a number of ballistic tests to specifically explain how all the non-fatal wounds sustained by President Kennedy and Governor Connally were caused by one bullet (CE 399), only to disregard the results of its own testings.

Interestingly, what became known as the ‘Single Bullet Theory’ was adopted by the Warren Commission despite its own ballistic experiments providing practical, scientific proof that CE 399 could not have inflicted the Governor’s major wrist wound, never mind six additional wounds including the severing of a rib in Connally’s chest!

Normally, such scientific tests would help investigators establish means of death or injury when gunfire is involved. In this instance, because CE 399 did not cause death, ballistic experiments should have established the causation of all survivable wounds in Connally.

The tests ordered by the Warren Commission did not definitively clarify how Connally sustained his wounds, but because the results also did not support the ‘Single Bullet Theory’ needed by the Commission to conclude that Oswald fired all the shots from above and behind Kennedy and Connally, the government panel decided to ignore its own ballistic evidence.

It’s all because the Commission was looking for evidence in support of a pre-determined conclusion (both men hit by the same bullet) rather than let the physical evidence lead them to a conclusion.

The Commission put itself in quite a dilemma. Here’s how:

‘SINGLE BULLET THEORY’ ESTABLISHES
LONE GUNMAN OR MULTIPLE GUNMEN!

Regardless of all the circumstantial evidence against Lee Harvey Oswald, nothing establishes guilt or innocence of the man as a ‘lone’ assassin more than the ‘Single Bullet Theory.” Here’s why:

In Zapruder frame 225 at right, JFK is seen emerging from behind the Stemmons Freeway highway sign. As he clears the sign, his hands ascend toward his throat as a natural reaction to the first shot striking him in his upper back, causing a winded effect.

Governor Connally, seated in front of Kennedy, does not yet appear to be reacting to being hit by the same bullet (CE 399), although the ‘Single Bullet Theory’ demands that the Governor has also been hit by that bullet at this point.

It rips through his chest, displacing the fifth right rib and upon exiting the chest, shatters the distal radius bone in Connally’s right wrist before lodging in a shallow wound in Connally’s right thigh.

Approximately ¼ of one second later, Zapruder film frame 230 at left shows Kennedy clearly reacting to the non-lethal bullet that struck him in the upper back.

Connally still does not appear to be hit by the same bullet (CE 399), but the Commission says, in fact, he has been hit in frame 230.

However, the Commission does not explain how the Governor could still be holding on to his white 10-gallon Stetson cowboy hat despite the bullet blowing a hole through the distal radius bone in his right wrist!

In frame 236 below, both men can be seen reacting to their survivable wounds.

Connally’s mouth flies open as he screams in pain, his right shoulder buckles, he lets go of his Stetson hat and he begins to recoil into the lap of his wife Nellie.

These 11 collective frames of the Zapruder film leave the Warren Commission with only two possibilities:

1. Lone Gunman – Kennedy and Connally were both hit by the same bullet (CE 399), thus enabling the ‘Single Bullet Theory.’

2. A Second Gunman – Connally was hit by a second shot fired almost simultaneously to the first shot, thus disproving the ‘Single Bullet Theory.’

Of course, the Warren Commission adopted point number one, which was necessary for the government to name Lee Oswald as the ‘lone’ assassin of President Kennedy. This is also the belief of Lone Nutter’s.

While this author’s book Through The ‘Oswald’ Window devotes an entire chapter to the ‘Single Bullet Theory,’ so does another article on this site.

LONE NUTTER’S, EXPLAIN THIS!

While the ‘Single Bullet Theory’ prompts a massive debate both for and against it, iconic fellow researcher and author Dr. Cyril Wecht has the credentials to discuss the controversy and does so with passion.

Given the importance of the Single Bullet Theory to Oswald’s guilt or innocence as a ‘lone’ assassin, my public seminars on the JFK assassination deals with this topic in great detail as would have been the case had Oswald lived to stand public trial.

Dr. Wecht, as one of America’s pre-eminent forensic pathologists, discusses the Warren Commission’s very own ballistic tests as proof that the Single Bullet Theory is as phony as a three-dollar bill.

Keep in mind that regardless of all other evidence in this case, if the Single Bullet Theory can be proven to be false, then it is a certainty that more than one gunman in Dealey Plaza fired at President Kennedy that day. Why?

Because the Oswald Mannlicher-Carcano rifle, as determined by the FBI, could not be fired twice in less than 2.3 seconds.

Yet, Connally is seen reacting to his wounds prior to the time it takes for the Oswald rifle to fire a second shot.

While this author’s book also uses bullet trajectory and other issues to demonstrate the Single Bullet Theory to be a fairytale contrived to incriminate Oswald as the ‘lone’ assassin, Dr. Wecht applies his scientific expertise as a forensic pathologist by using the Commission’s own ballistic evidence to disprove the Single Bullet Theory.

As the guest speaker of the Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza anniversary event in 2017, Dr. Wecht’s entire presentation is on YouTube.

Of all the evidence published in the Warren Report, Dr. Wecht focuses strictly on the ballistic tests directed by the Commission to establish the impossibility of the Single Bullet Theory.

Once again, if the Single Bullet Theory is shown to be factually correct, then it must be accepted that one bullet (CE 399) could have caused all the non-fatal wounds suffered by Kennedy and Connally, thus enabling the Commission to claim a ‘lone’ assassin by the name of Lee Harvey Oswald.

BULLETS THAT WOULDN’T COOPERATE

All ballistic tests ordered by the Warren Commission were conducted using Oswald’s Mannlicher-Carcano rifle and identical 6.5 millimeter copper jacketed bullets believed to be exclusively used in the assassination.

Given Dr. Wecht’s expertise, we use his words as often as possible:

“In science, we try to prove or disprove something, so what do you do with bullets?

“You fire bullets into water or cotton wadding to see what the bullet will look like having struck nothing of substance. They did that,” notes Dr. Wecht.

“A second set of targets consisted of a goat carcass, which was lined up for a shot through the chest to break a rib to simulate Governor Connally’s rib fracture.

“Then they got human cadavers and lined them up to shoot through the distal end of the radius to simulate Connally’s comminuted fracture,” reports Wecht.

Now a bit of information, in Dr. Wecht’s words, about the bullet (CE 399) that has become known as the ‘Magic Bullet’ because of what it is alleged to have done.

“The bullet in its original state weighed 161 grains. The Single Bullet Theory bullet (CE 399) found on a stretcher at Parkland Hospital (believed to have fallen out of his shallow thigh wound) weighed 158.6 grains.

“2.4 grains is exactly 1.5% of the original weight of the bullet,” states Dr. Wecht.

The Commission asks us to believe that this nearly pristine bullet, losing only the 2.4 grains of metal at its nose, inflicted a total of seven wounds on two men, including two major broken bones in Governor Connally!

“I should mention that bullet fragments taken from Connally were given to nurse Audrey Bell and Governor Connally also took fragments of metal in his chest and wrist to the grave.”

Sadly, when Governor Connally passed away in 1993, Dr. Wecht and some of his forensic colleagues asked U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno to make a formal request of Nellie Connally to allow bullet fragments to be extracted before burial, but she declined.

‘MAGIC’ BULLET STANDS ALONE

For his public appearances, Dr. Wecht delights in presenting the exhibit below, which show the Single Bullet Theory projectile (CE 399) grouped with the assorted ballistic test bullets.

“The government put this picture together, not Wecht or his associates,” stresses Dr. Wecht in astonishment of the Commission’s blatant disregard of its own physical evidence.

These test bullets, intended to support the government’s Single Bullet Theory, in fact, do the opposite when compared to CE 399 at far left. Here’s how Dr. Wecht describes them:

“The second and third bullets to the left (CE 572) were fired into cotton wadding, striking nothing.

“The second bullet from the right (CE 853) is a bullet fired into the rib of a goat, emerging only slightly more misshapen than the bullet shot into a vat of cotton wadding.

“The bullet at far right (CE 856) was test fired into the distal radius section (wrist) of a human cadaver.”

As Dr. Wecht likes to point out, isn’t it interesting that the Commission could only produce a bullet approximating the nearly undisturbed condition of CE 399 when test bullets were fired into a vat of cotton wadding, striking a target of virtually no substance?

Even more eye-opening, when a test bullet (second bullet from right) breaks off a goat’s rib, just as Connally suffered, even this bullet emerges more damaged than CE 399 at far left.

As for CE 856 at far right, the test bullet fired into the wrist of a human cadaver, it caused damage quite similar to Connally, but look at its condition!

The wrist test bullet on its own emerged completely squashed with extensive loss of metallic substance.

Yet both the Warren Commission (1964) and the House Select Committee on Assassinations (1979) were not dissuaded by the ballistic test results. Both panels concluded that even though the test bullets that struck a rib or wrist bone sustained considerably more damage and weight loss than the bullet used in the assassination, they both concluded that CE 399 caused a total of seven wounds in two men, including fractures to Connally’s rib and wrist.

Did CE 399 follow this flightpath to inflict two wounds on JFK and five wounds on Governor Connally, including two broken bones? The Commission had to say it did or admit Oswald could NOT have been the ‘lone’ assassin of JFK.

No wonder this bullet (CE 399), when we combine the damage inflicted with it’s bizarre trajectory in causing this damage, has earned the name “Magic Bullet.”

As Dr. Wecht likes to reiterate, “It was the Warren Commission people, not Wecht or any of my colleagues who did these experiments. They chose the representative bullets you see from each target to prove the validity of the Single Bullet Theory!”

Needless to say, these ballistic experiments did not work as hoped. Even more problematic, the government maintains that CE 399, despite its own experiments, caused all the non-lethal wounds in the two men and emerged in a condition that could not be replicated by test bullets fired from the same weapon!

How is it possible that a test bullet fired into a goat’s rib bone or a cadaver’s wrist both sustained more damage than the bullet (CE 399) said to have caused similar fractures to BOTH Connally’s rib and wrist, not to mention five other wounds?

And how could the Warren Commission have dared to still put forth the Single Bullet Theory after its very own ballistic tests disproved its viability?

The answer is that, unlike prosecutor’s at a public trial, they could. With the Zapruder film not shown to the American public until 1975, the Commission had a 12-year head start in shaping public opinion.

Imagine how a jury would have pondered the Single Bullet Theory when presented with the multiple failed ballistic tests by Oswald’s attorney Mark Lane.

And given the need for the Single Bullet Theory to be 100% correct in order to prove Oswald was the ‘lone’ assassin of President John F. Kennedy, would these ballistic tests have established reasonable doubt in the minds of the jury?

To conspiracy theorists and truth seekers, it’s tragic that Lee Harvey Oswald didn’t survive his attack by Jack Ruby to stand public trial.

We would have learned of even more ballistic tests undertaken to build the case for the Single Bullet Theory that completely backfired, such as CE 850 that established the Oswald rifle and ammunition always produced bullet exit wounds twice as large as entry wounds.

Magically, only bullet CE 399 produced an exit wound in JFK’s throat that was smaller than the entry wound at his upper back!

Interestingly, the Commission even failed to undertake ballistic tests that would have definitively made the Single Bullet Theory plausible.

The fragments removed from Governor Connally were turned over to the FBI. Ballistic tests on these fragments would have easily determined whether or not the fragments came from CE 399.

If the answer were yes, it would have bolstered the one bullet, one assassin claim by the Commission. If the answer was no, then Connally had to have been hit by a separate bullet than what struck JFK in the back.

This test was either not done, as it would have been done as evidence at Oswald’s trial, or the Commission suppressed it because it didn’t get the answer it wanted.

Had Oswald lived to have his day in court, the Warren Commission would never have existed. And what would have become of all those JFK ‘lone’ assassin advocates?

From the researcher and author’s 2022 book – JFK Case ‘NOT’ Closed: Key Evidence Dismissed, Ignored, Altered or Suppressed to Frame Lee Harvey Oswald as the ‘Lone’ Assassin!