The JFK ‘Magic Bullet’ is Proven to be Less Magical than We Thought, but it Cannot Save the ‘Single Bullet Theory’ Fairy Tale!

by Dave O’Brien

‘Single Bullet Theory’ believers don’t get many victories to celebrate, so imagine their euphoria when it was established that the controversial JFK assassination ‘Magic Bullet’ wasn’t as magical as we once thought.

In typical fashion, ‘Lone Nutters,’ those who believe Lee Harvey Oswald was the ‘lone nut’ assassin of President Kennedy, cite this revelation as proof that the ‘Single Bullet Theory’ is in fact…fact.

The ‘Single Bullet Theory’ contends that all the non-fatal wounds sustained by JFK and Governor John Connally were inflicted by one bullet fired from above and behind the Presidential limousine on November 22, 1963.

If true, then it becomes possible that Oswald or an unknown assassin positioned above and behind President Kennedy could have fired the shot that caused a total of seven non-lethal wounds on the two men.

But that’s not good enough for ‘Lone Nutters.’ They insist that the validity of the ‘Single Bullet Theory’ also proves that one man (Oswald) fired all the shots that horrific day in Dallas.

The non-life-threatening wounds suffered by the two politicians are attributed to Commission Exhibit (CE) 399, a copper-jacketed bullet alleged to have been fired from the Mannlicher-Carcano rifle owned by Oswald, who also worked in the Texas School Book Depository Building from which this shot was reportedly discharged.

However, this author’s book Through The ‘Oswald’ Window argues that this shot could NOT have come from Oswald in the Book Depository Building on Elm Street, but rather the adjacent Dal-Tex Records Building on Houston Street.

Regardless, the issue of where this shot originated from, while germane to the question of one or more assassins, cannot soften the debate over the wounds attributed to the so-called ‘Magic’ bullet’s hotly contested flightpath.

The Warren Commission, which investigated the JFK assassination after accused ‘lone assassin’ Lee Harvey Oswald was murdered by Jack Ruby before Oswald could stand trial, created the ‘Single Bullet Theory’ to assert that Oswald was the sole assassin of JFK.

In a court of law, the ‘Single Bullet Theory’ would have been a central focal point because if one bullet did NOT cause ALL seven survivable wounds on the two men, then two shots MUST have been fired too close to each other in time to have come from the same gunman.

This is because the famous Zapruder film shows both JFK and Governor Connally reacting to being hit by a bullet no more than one full second apart. The minimum firing time of Oswald’s rifle to get off two shots was 2.3 seconds.

Zapruder frame #236 shows President Kennedy and Governor Connally both reacting to being hit by a bullet. ‘Lone Nutters’ claim the two men were hit by the same shot whereas ‘Conspiracy Theorists’ say the two men were hit by separate shots fired almost simultaneous to each other by two separate gunmen.

The Warren Report says one bullet struck both men, but the flightpath of the ‘Magic Bullet’ necessary to inflict all these wounds remains the biggest controversy of JFK’s murder.

To prove or disprove the ‘Single Bullet Theory’ and hence solve the ‘Lone Assassin’ or ‘Multiple Assassins’ debate, we must ascertain the flightpath of the so-called ‘Magic Bullet’ once and for all.

Conspiracy theorists have labelled this bullet the ‘Magic Bullet’ because of what the government claims this bullet must have done in flight for a ‘Lone Assassin’ to be possible.

Accordingly, for the ‘Single Bullet Theory’ to be correct, this controversial bullet is required to cause the following wounds (as illustrated above) on JFK and Connally in the order described:

1. Strikes JFK in the upper back, located 5 ¾ inches below the collar line and approximately two inches to the right of the spinal column.

2. Exits JFK’s throat, just below the Adam’s apple.

3. Strikes Governor Connally’s back on the right side.

4. Breaks off Connally’s fifth right rib at its widest point.

5. Exits Connally’s chest just below the right nipple.

6. Strikes Connally’s right wrist, shattering his distal radius bone before exiting the wrist.

7. Enters Connally’s left thigh, causing a shallow wound. During the commotion at Parkland Hospital, the Commission says this bullet (CE 399) worked its way out of the point of entry in his thigh, fell on the floor and was turned over to the FBI. This bullet became CE 399.

LESS MAGICAL BUT…

The latest correction to the flightpath of the so-called ‘Magic Bullet’, to be discussed momentarily, is still problematic for ‘Lone Nutters’ in three ways:

1. Super Bullet – The pristine condition of CE 399 despite the damage the Warren Report says it inflicted on the two victims as outlined above remains a point of controversy.

Despite causing seven wounds and breaking two major bones in Connally, this bullet earns the moniker ‘Magic Bullet’ because it lost only 1.5% of its total weight. As shown at left, the damage totals just 2.4 grains of metal at the nose and looks almost like it has yet to be fired.

2. Point Accepted, But So What? – A less magical flightpath, as you are about to learn, does nothing to substantiate the ‘Single Bullet Theory’ as factually correct.

3. Lone Assassin Assertion – Lone Nutters who believe the ‘Single Bullet Theory’ to be true, falsely claim that this theory supports their belief that Oswald acted alone in killing America’s 35th President.

The marriage between the ‘Single Bullet Theory’ and the ‘Lone Assassin’ claim is a deceiving concept promoted by Lone Nut advocates.

For instance, whether or not this bullet caused all the non-fatal wounds on the two men does nothing to address where JFK’s deadly head shot came from.

Yet Lone Nutters are quick to insist that the ‘Single Bullet Theory’ proves that Oswald acted alone.

Perhaps this is a defense mechanism by Lone Nutters who are faced with this troublesome dilemma:

If the ‘Single Bullet Theory’ is not 100% correct, then JFK and Connally were hit by
separate shots fired almost simultaneous to each other by two assassins.

Of course, this scenario denotes a conspiracy and would effectively eliminate ‘Lone Nutters’ as part of the JFK assassination discussion unless we are to believe that two ‘lone’ assassins, unbeknownst to each other, showed up that day in Dealey Plaza to assassinate President Kennedy.

So, what ‘Magic Bullet’ revelation has breathed new life into the ‘Lone Nut’ advocates?

ONE LESS MAGICAL TURN IN MID-AIR

For years, ‘conspiracy theorists’ have wrongly claimed that Connally couldn’t have been hit by the same bullet that first struck President Kennedy because upon exiting Kennedy’s throat, this bullet is required to make a ‘magical’ right turn in mid-air in order to strike the right side of Connally’s back.

The diagram at right, courtesy of frankwarner.typepad.com, corrects the seating alignment of the two men.

It was once thought that Connally sat directly in front of JFK, but we now know that the Governor was sitting in a jump seat that positions him four to six inches left of Kennedy.

This means that the so-called ‘Magic Bullet’ is NOT required to make a left-to-right turn in mid-air as shown in the lower diagram at right before entering Connally’s back on the right side.

‘Lone Nutters’ claim victory by noting that there is, in fact, nothing ‘magical’ about CE 399, the bullet said to have caused all seven wounds in the two men.

As an avowed ‘Conspiracy Theorist,’ allow me to respectfully doff my cap to ‘Lone Nutters’ and concede that this ‘magical’ left-to-right turn in mid-air is hogwash! It didn’t happen, which validates their ‘Single Bullet Theory’ as fact. Correct?

NOT SO FAST!

Even when we concede that the ‘Magic Bullet’ did NOT have to make a left-to-right turn in mid-air to find Connally’s back, the ‘Single Bullet Theory’ is still seriously flawed.

In fact, it’s still quite impossible for these compelling reasons:

ANOTHER SUDDEN TURN IN MID-AIR

There is still one turn in mid-air that CE 399 must make upon exiting JFK and striking Connally for the ‘Single Bullet Theory’ to be possible.

Upon exiting President Kennedy’s throat just below the Adam’s apple, CE 399 is required to exit at an UPWARD trajectory of at least 11 degrees.

Despite leaving JFK’s body traveling UPWARD, CE 399 is then required to make a sudden DOWNWARD turn in mid-air to find Connally’s back.

Forensic pathologists will tell you that bullets can do remarkable things. Making a sudden turn in mid-air is not one of them.

The Warren Commission recognized this dilemma and decided that to give the ‘Single Bullet Theory’ any plausibility, it had to literally get rid of the UPWARD trajectory of CE 399 as it exited JFK’s throat.

The government panel did this by altering the physical wounds on the President’s body. The Commission then suppressed all photos and x-rays of the wounds and replaced them with artistic drawings to show the wounds as they wanted depicted.

Astonishingly, to make it seem as if the ‘Magic Bullet’ did not have to make a DOWNWARD turn in mid-air, the Commission moved the President’s back entry wound UP 5 ¾ inches to the base of the neck to make it slightly higher than the supposed exit wound at JFK’s throat.

Problem solved, right? Not exactly.

By moving JFK’s non-fatal entry wound up from the upper back to the base of his neck, it may have falsely gotten rid of the necessary DOWNWARD change of direction in mid-air, but two serious problems emerged:

ALTERING BULLET WOUNDS

To make its case for the ‘Single Bullet Theory,’ the Warren Commission consciously decided it had to ignore or fabricate wounds on JFK’s body, such as the Mysteriously Moving Back Wound.

There is ample evidence that the entry wound in Kennedy’s back was located as you see on the official autopsy report at left.

In completing his autopsy chart, Dr. J. Thornton Boswell measured the back entry wound to be 5 ¾ inches below the collar line and 2 inches to the right of the spinal column.

However, this bullet entry location on JFK’s back is troublesome to the ‘Single Bullet Theory.’

The Commission could not expect us to believe that a bullet traveling DOWNWARD struck JFK in the back 5 ¾ inches below the collar line, deflected UPWARD inside the body despite not hitting bone or any hard substance, exited his throat and then somehow changed direction in the air to travel DOWNWARD to find Connally’s back!

The Commission elected to ignore the official autopsy report and move the back entry wound on JFK’s body UP so that the point of entry was now higher than the point of exit, as shown in the drawing lower right.

However, in making this change to JFK’s back entry wound location, the Commission had to also ignore other credible evidence that supports the post mortem location of this wound, such as:

FBI AUTOPSY REPORT

FBI special agents James Sibert and Francis O’Neill were present at the autopsy to retrieve physical evidence, such as bullets or fragments, as well as to document the autopsy procedure as it happened.

During the examination of the back wound, determined to be the result of bullet entry, the official FBI autopsy report notes:

“During the later stages of this autopsy, Dr. Humes located
an opening, which appeared to be a bullet hole, which was
below the shoulders and two inches to the right of the
middle line of the spinal column.

“This opening was probed by Dr. Humes with the finger,
at which time it was determined that the trajectory of the
missile entering at this point entered at a downward
position of 45 to 60 degrees.

“Further probing (by Dr. Humes) determined that the
distance traveled by this missile was a short distance
as the end of the opening could be felt with the finger.”

There is never any mention of a bullet entry wound ‘at the base’ of President Kennedy’s neck! And the very last line would prove to be extremely problematic for the ‘Lone Nut’ side.

SECRET SERVICE AGENT TESTIMONY

Secret Service agent Clint Hill is a tragic figure on one of history’s worst days. His assignment that day was to protect First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy.

Hill is the Secret Service agent you see on the Zapruder film jump up onto the trunk of the President’s limousine and prevent Mrs. Kennedy from falling out of the accelerating car.

While saving Jackie from death or serious injury, agent Hill was a matter of seconds too late to save his President.

After President Kennedy was pronounced dead, agent Hill witnessed the transfer of the President’s body to a casket, which would prompt this exchange with Warren Commission member Hale Boggs:

Mr. Boggs – “When the President’s body was being prepared for placement in a casket, did you see the whole body?”

Agent Hill – “Yes sir.”

Mr. Boggs – “Did you see any wound other than the head wound?”

Agent Hill – “Yes sir. I saw an opening in the back, about six inches below the neckline, to the right-hand side of the spinal column.”

The Commission simply decided to disregard Hill’s eyewitness account of Mr. Kennedy’s back wound.

PRESIDENT’S CLOTHING

Their immediate assumption was that the shirt and tie damage was the result of the ‘exiting’ bullet (CE 399) that went on to hit Connally. However, the shirt also proved to be problematic for the Commission, as did JFK’s suit jacket.

Both garments show a bullet entry hole precisely where all the other evidence places it – 5 ¾ inches below the shirt’s collar line and 2 inches to the right of the spinal column.

Lone Nutters, fully aware that a back entrance wound ‘lower’ than the throat exit wound destroys the ‘Single Bullet Theory,’ were quick to opine that the President’s shirt and jacket were bunched up when the first shot sounded, thereby causing a hole in the clothing lower than it actually was.

However, the clothing aligned perfectly with the back wound on the President’s body.

Additionally, a frame-by-frame analysis of the Zapruder film shows that the President’s suit jacket and suit were in perfect order at the time he received the bullet to his back.

MAGICAL PAUSE

Unless CE 399 caused all the illogical activity the Commission asks us to believe, there is yet another impossibility this bullet must perform for the ‘Single Bullet Theory’ to be even remotely possible.

This ‘Magic Bullet’ is required to pause for nearly a full second in mid-air between the two victims.

A Mannlicher-Carcano rifle discharges a bullet just over 2,100 feet per second, which is also approximately the time that elapsed between President Kennedy reacting to his back wound and Governor Connally reacting to his back wound.

The Governor was seated almost four feet in front of JFK, which causes a major time issue for ‘Lone Nutters.’ For Connally to properly react to being hit by a bullet nearly a full second after Kennedy, the Governor would have to be seated some 2,100 feet away.

However, Connally was positioned just four feet in front of JFK, which means he should have been struck in the back literally a nano-second after Kennedy received his back wound.

Connally himself claimed his entire life that he was hit by the second shot, NOT the first shot that struck JFK and offers the Warren Commission a sound scientific explanation for his account of what happened to him:

“Well, in my judgment, it just couldn’t conceivably have been the
first shot that hit me because I heard the sound of the shot.

“In the first place, I don’t know anything about the velocity
of this particular bullet, but any rifle has a velocity
that exceeds the speed of sound.

“And when I heard the sound of that first shot, the bullet
had already reached where I was, or it had reached that far.

“And after I heard that shot, I had the time to turn to my right
and start to turn to my left before I felt anything.”

Not surprisingly, the Commission dismissed Connally’s recollection of the shooting sequence for the same reason it disregarded all other witnesses who suggested a shot from a second location – Connally was mistaken due to the ‘trauma of the moment.’

Instead, the Commission decided that Connally experienced a “delayed reaction” to being hit by the same bullet that first struck JFK.

While this hypothesis cannot be disputed to a 100% certainty, Dr. Cyril Wecht and other forensic pathologists I have spoken to over the years highly doubt that Connally could have suffered two major broken bones and still experienced a delayed reaction to his multiple wounds.

UNEXPLAINABLE HAT TRICK!

While we can only speculate about a delayed reaction by Governor Connally, Zapruder film frame #230 appears to show that Connally was NOT hit by CE 399, the bullet said to have first hit JFK in the upper back.

Have you ever held a Stetson Cowboy hat in your hands? Most people are surprised by how heavy a Stetson Cowboy hat is. A Stetson is designed that way to keep it atop a cowboy’s head during a windy and bumpy ride on his galloping horse.

During the tragic ride in the motorcade, as the first shot sounds (bullet 399 according to the Warren Report), Governor Connally is seen holding on to the brim of his white Stetson Cowboy hat with right hand.

The Commission asks us to believe that Connally was able to hold on to his heavy cowboy hat even after his right wrist is badly shattered by a bullet that blows a hole completely through his distal radius bone!

We are further asked to believe that Connally’s reaction to a bullet ripping through his chest, breaking off the fifth right rib at its widest point, then shattering his right wrist before lodging in his left thigh is violent and propels him into the lap of his wife Nellie – but he still manages to hold onto his hat with his right hand AFTER this impact and massive damage?

UTTER NONSENSE!

Yet, this must have happened for ‘Lone Nutters’ to be right about one bullet causing ALL the non-lethal wounds sustained by JFK and Connally.

A FINAL DILEMMA FOR THE ‘SINGLE BULLET THEORY’

A major stumbling block for ‘Single Bullet Theory’ advocates is the lack of physical evidence that CE 399 transited President Kennedy’s body before moving on to cause all the wounds on Governor Connally.

There is not one shred of evidence to suggest CE 399 or any other bullet caused all the non-fatal wounds on JFK, never mind all those wounds on Connally as well.

In defense of the Warren Commission, the terribly flawed autopsy performed on the President failed to answer this question. We have the illegal ‘military’ autopsy to blame for this being an unsolved mystery all these decades later.

Dr. Pierre Finck, one of the autopsy surgeons, made a stunning announcement when he told the Warren Commission that he was not permitted to track the wound in the President’s upper back to ascertain the bullet’s flightpath inside JFK’s chest.

When asked by Commission interrogators who prevented him from tracking the pathway of the wound in JFK’s back, Finck stated that his military superiors present at the autopsy ordered him to not examine where the bullet went inside of President Kennedy!

Why?

One plausible explanation comes from the FBI autopsy report, which states:

“Further probing (of the back entry wound by Dr. Humes)
determined that the distance traveled by this missile
was a short distance in as much as the end of the opening
could be felt with the finger.”

If the end of the bullet’s pathway could be felt with the finger by Dr. Humes, then it couldn’t have possibly exited anywhere on JFK’s body and then continue on to hit Connally!

Coincidentally, this autopsy finding recorded by the FBI corresponds to news reaching the autopsy room that a nearly whole bullet (CE 399) was found at Parkland Hospital.

The FBI autopsy report goes on to say the following:

“Upon receipt of this information (about the bullet), Dr. Humes
stated that the pattern was clear. The bullet entering at this point
(in the back) penetrated only a short distance and worked
its way out of the back wound during external cardiac massage
at Parkland Hospital and fell on the stretcher.”

Clearly, this autopsy finding is in complete contrast to what the ‘Single Bullet Theory’ requires and there has never been any viable evidence to refute the FBI autopsy report that CE 399 struck only JFK.

It remains mind-boggling how the official pathology autopsy report and FBI autopsy report were ignored by the Warren Commission with zero evidence to refute them. Certainly, this could not have happened at a public trial of accused ‘lone’ assassin Lee Harvey Oswald.

Accordingly, to make the ‘Single Bullet Theory’ fact instead of fiction, this is how the Commission dealt with the issue:

• What Back Wound? – The Commission moved JFK’s back wound up nearly six inches so that it is slightly higher than the alleged exit wound in the throat despite two sanctioned autopsy reports, agent Hill’s observation and the President’s clothing that pinpoint the exact location of the back wound as measured in the official autopsy report.

• An Inconvenient Truth – The panel ignored Dr. Humes’ finding that the entry wound in JFK’s back only traveled a short distance and did NOT transit his body. This conclusion is also recorded in the Sibert and O’Neill FBI autopsy report.

• Artistic License with Wounds – The government suppressed all photos and x-rays of JFK’s body and replaced them with ‘schematic drawings’ to depict the wounds on Kennedy exactly as they needed them to support the ‘Single Bullet Theory’ and hence the ‘Lone Assassin’ conclusion.

All the artistic drawings by Ida Fox presented in the Warren Report show the President’s back entry wound occurring at the base of the neck, nearly six inches higher than where all the evidence places the back entry wound.

Even President Kennedy’s morbid exit wound on his skull is incorrectly portrayed in schematic drawings to be located above his right ear rather than the lower right Occipital region at the back of his head where the actual photos document the wound to be located. This was done to enable the Commission to conclude that the lethal head shot also came from above and behind Mr. Kennedy in support of it’s one gunman scenario.

The back-of-the-head exit wound on JFK was confirmed by no less than 12 medical experts, such as surgeons, physicians, nurses and trauma room attendants.

• Another Test Ignored – The Commission misrepresented a small hole on JFK’s throat below the Adam’s apple as a bullet ‘exit’ wound despite its own tests and testimony by Dr. Malcolm Perry that suggested this wound was more characteristic of bullet ‘entry.’

Dr. Perry, the physician who obliterated the throat wound on JFK by making a tracheal incision to insert a breathing tube, told the Warren Commission that the wound he saw was a small, neat circular wound, “about the diameter of a pencil.”

Yet when the Commission conducted tests with Oswald’s rifle by firing similar CE 399 bullets through goat flesh to simulate human flesh (Commission Exhibit 850), it was determined that ‘exit’ wounds were consistently much larger than ‘entry’ wounds.

Despite its own testing, the Commission concluded that the President’s throat wound was the one instance in which the ‘exit’ (3×5 mm) was actually smaller than the entry wound (4 x 7 mm) in the back!

The Commission even resorted to fabricating expert testimony to try to portray the throat wound as a bullet ‘exit’ hole by attributing such an observation to Dr. Robert McClelland. But in a hand-written letter to this reporter in 1968, Dr. Perry not only claimed that his testimony before the Commission was taken out of context, he vehemently states that “Dr. McClelland did not see the neck wound as I had incised it prior to his arrival.” 

Is it any wonder that CE 399 has become known as the JFK ‘Magic Bullet’?

Is CE 399 less magical than we thought?

Yes, but that does nothing to make the ‘Single Bullet Theory’ anything more than historical poppycock.