Why the SBT is B.S.
-----
The Single Bullet Theory (SBT) is perhaps the greatest single point of contention between the "Lone Nutters" (i.e., "Oswald did it alone" proponents) and the "Conspiracy Theorists" (i.e., "more than one shooter" proponents). Governor Connally himself maintained his belief that Kennedy was struck by the first bullet and he himself was struck by the second. His wife Nellie similarly maintained that Kennedy was struck first, and then the Governor. However, Warren Commission, through its counsel Arlen Specter, was determined to account for the wounding of bystander James Tague without adding another bullet to the three-shot scenario, given that only three empty hulls were found in the TSBD. The SBT--that a single bullet struck Kennedy (causing 2 of his wounds) and Connally (causing all of his wounds), leaving one Oswald bullet for the "fatal head shot" and the third Oswald bullet for the missed shot that caused minor wounding to bystander James Tague, in some order.
This Oliver Stone excerpt on the SBT from JFK Revisited: Through the Looking Glass (2022) provides a good introduction as to how and why the SBT was created by Arlen Specter, because without the SBT, the originally proposed 3-shot scenario does not account for Tague's wounding (for which there was same-day corroborating evidence, but which did not become problematic until newspapers started reporting it late in the Commission's tenure, i.e., mid-summer, 1964):
This Oliver Stone excerpt on the SBT from JFK Revisited: Through the Looking Glass (2022) provides a good introduction as to how and why the SBT was created by Arlen Specter, because without the SBT, the originally proposed 3-shot scenario does not account for Tague's wounding (for which there was same-day corroborating evidence, but which did not become problematic until newspapers started reporting it late in the Commission's tenure, i.e., mid-summer, 1964):
A recent laboratory examination of the Single Bullet Theory (SBT) concluded that it was "impossible":
A recent laboratory examination of the Single Bullet Theory (SBT) concluded that it was "impossible":
Well, when one uses the (correct) back wound location (as this study does) instead of the (incorrect) neck wound location, it doesn't take a fancy laboratory or 3D animation to realize that the SBT is "impossible." A trajectory between the back wound location and the front throat wound location would indicate an upward path, and in order to strike Governor Connally and cause all of his wounds, the bullet would have to have had a downward path.
This discrepancy is the main reason why the SBT has often been derisively called "the magic bullet,"
The original Oliver Stone movie that caused the public furor that caused the ARRB to be created describes the purported path of the "magic bullet":
-----
Autopsy Report
Note the description of the wound's location in the autopsy report (in the second paragraph of page 3): "Situated on the upper right posterior thorax just above the upper border of the scapula there is a 7 x 4 millimeter oval wound. This wound is measured to be 14 cm. from the tip of the right acromion process and 14 cm below the tip of the right mastoid process."
Note the description of the wound's location in the autopsy report (in the second paragraph of page 3): "Situated on the upper right posterior thorax just above the upper border of the scapula there is a 7 x 4 millimeter oval wound. This wound is measured to be 14 cm. from the tip of the right acromion process and 14 cm below the tip of the right mastoid process."
from https://www.archives.gov/files/research/jfk/warren-commission-report/appendix-09.pdf A less legible version can be found at. https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth340033/ apparently the Dallas Police Department copy
Never mind, as at least one researcher has pointed out, that the acromion process and right mastoid process are on the head, and thus measuring from those points to a wound on the back is changeable, depending on how the head is positioned (tilted back, tilted forward, etc. However, this report also specifies"thorax" and "just above the upper border of the scapula." The "thorax" is the area between the neck and the abdomen. The "thoracic vertebrae" (and one wonders why Humes didn't locate the wound in more precise terms referencing the thoracic vertebrae instead of the "processes" located on the head) are here:
from https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/body/22460-thoracic-spine
But the report also says "top of the scapula."
from https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/body/scapula-shoulder-blade
None of this is "neck." \
-----
Boswell Face Sheet
In order for the SBT to work, the first entrance, into Kennedy, has to be at the level of the neck, not the back. But that's not where the Boswell autopsy face sheet places the wound:
In order for the SBT to work, the first entrance, into Kennedy, has to be at the level of the neck, not the back. But that's not where the Boswell autopsy face sheet places the wound:
The wound location on the Boswell face sheet is too low in the back for the SBT to work.
-----
Arlen Specter's Erroneous Trajectory
Here is a crop of CE903, showing Arlen Specter depicting his SBT trajectory. However, notice how the trajectory rad passes over the top of the Kennedy stand-in's shoulder. If the correct entrance was used, some 6 inches below the neck line (per Clint Hill's sworn testimony), the bullet would have to track upwards to exit at the throat wound location, and then change course to track to the Connally trajectory depicted. But the back wound was not at this level! It was lower!
Here is a crop of CE903, showing Arlen Specter depicting his SBT trajectory. However, notice how the trajectory rad passes over the top of the Kennedy stand-in's shoulder. If the correct entrance was used, some 6 inches below the neck line (per Clint Hill's sworn testimony), the bullet would have to track upwards to exit at the throat wound location, and then change course to track to the Connally trajectory depicted. But the back wound was not at this level! It was lower!
Picture of Arlen Specter's trajectory demonstration, with my annotation
Naturally Specter couldn't go through the model to demonstrate his trajectory, otherwise he'd have to use a non-living model or multiple sticks held by multiple assistants (either one of which might make the errors of his theory more apparent), but the fact that he places his stick on top of the man's shoulder and not through, introduces an error. The entrance point is too high and too far to the right. And if the critics of the "shored throat wound" (i.e., constrained by the shirt collar and tie) are correct, and the throat wound was actually above the shirt collar, as Dr. Carrico reportedly specified, then his exit point in the Kennedy model is also too low, as well as too far to the right.
-----
"Position A"
Here is CE 886 "Photographic exhibit depicting position A, which did not show on the Zapruder film, but which was established as first point at which a person in the southeast corner window of the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository Building could have gotten a shot at the back of the President as his car rounded the corner from Houston Street to Elm Street." From Hearings, Vol. XVIII, p. 85. Notice how the cross-hairs are centered on the white tape at the correct back wound location, and there really is no track to Connally. The FBI apparently thought that the back wound occurred in the early (non-existent) frames of the Z-film. I think that's where it occurred, too, but even before their "Position A." I contend that the back wound (and the throat wound, but not on a connected track) occurred with the frontal shot of my Shot 1 Scenario for the explanation of how that happened.
Here is CE 886 "Photographic exhibit depicting position A, which did not show on the Zapruder film, but which was established as first point at which a person in the southeast corner window of the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository Building could have gotten a shot at the back of the President as his car rounded the corner from Houston Street to Elm Street." From Hearings, Vol. XVIII, p. 85. Notice how the cross-hairs are centered on the white tape at the correct back wound location, and there really is no track to Connally. The FBI apparently thought that the back wound occurred in the early (non-existent) frames of the Z-film. I think that's where it occurred, too, but even before their "Position A." I contend that the back wound (and the throat wound, but not on a connected track) occurred with the frontal shot of my Shot 1 Scenario for the explanation of how that happened.
-----
The Holes in the Clothes
Nor is the back of the neck where the holes in Kennedy's shirt and coat appear:
Nor is the back of the neck where the holes in Kennedy's shirt and coat appear:
FBI expert Robert Frazier's under-oath testimony to the Warren Commission measures these holes as "5 3/8 inches below the top of the collar" for the coat, and "5 3/4 inches below the top of the collar" for the shirt" (Hearings, Vol V, pp. 59-60).
-----
"Bunched" Jacket and Shirt
The locations of the holes in the shirt and jacket clearly do not support the SBT. Consequently, a theory was developed that Kennedy's shirt and coat were "bunched" at the time he was struck--a theory supported by the Croft photo (a photo I contend was altered--see The Altered Croft Photo).
The locations of the holes in the shirt and jacket clearly do not support the SBT. Consequently, a theory was developed that Kennedy's shirt and coat were "bunched" at the time he was struck--a theory supported by the Croft photo (a photo I contend was altered--see The Altered Croft Photo).
I contend that the Croft photo was altered (see The Altered Croft Photo), in part to specifically create the "bunch" to the clothing. After all, we have Linda Willis asserting that her father's pictures were "physically altered, because something showed in them that the Secret Service did not want known." (Video of her saying this this can be found in https://www.a-benign-conspiracy.com/zapruder-film-alteration.html) and we have the CIA document demonstrating that the agency had the ability to alter faces and backgrounds (see https://www.a-benign-conspiracy.com/cia-documents.html). A "bunched jacket" would have been no problem at all to create.
Moreover, a "bunched jacket" would probably necessitate at least three holes in both the shirt and the coat (into the "bunch" and then out of the "bunch" and then into the collar), which did not exist.
Moreover, a "bunched jacket" would probably necessitate at least three holes in both the shirt and the coat (into the "bunch" and then out of the "bunch" and then into the collar), which did not exist.
-----
Glenn Bennett and Clint Hill
A "bunched jacket" would not explain why Secret Service agent Glenn Bennett would have described seeing Kennedy struck about "4 inches down from the shoulder," as the Warren Report (p. 111) quotes his same-day notes.
And most especially, a "bunched jacket" would not explain why Clint Hill, who viewed the body itself (not the clothes) in the morgue, so that he could report on the wounds to the family, would have testified under oath that the back wound was "about 6 inches below the neck line" (Hearings, Vol. II, p. 143).
A "bunched jacket" would not explain why Secret Service agent Glenn Bennett would have described seeing Kennedy struck about "4 inches down from the shoulder," as the Warren Report (p. 111) quotes his same-day notes.
And most especially, a "bunched jacket" would not explain why Clint Hill, who viewed the body itself (not the clothes) in the morgue, so that he could report on the wounds to the family, would have testified under oath that the back wound was "about 6 inches below the neck line" (Hearings, Vol. II, p. 143).
-----
Jerrol Custer's "King-Size" Bullet Fragment from the Back
On top of all that, we have Jerrol Custer's under-oath deposition to the ARRB that a "king-size" bullet fragment fell out of Kennedy's back when the body was lifted to take X-rays:
On top of all that, we have Jerrol Custer's under-oath deposition to the ARRB that a "king-size" bullet fragment fell out of Kennedy's back when the body was lifted to take X-rays:
Excerpts from the transcript of Jerrol Custer's ARRB deposition. The top excerpt describes his "king-size" bullet fragment. The other two describe the C3/C4 bullet fragments. See https://history-matters.com/archive/jfk/arrb/medical_testimony/pdf/Custer_10-28-97.pdf
This "king-size" fragment, of course, isn't in the body of evidence of the Kennedy assassination. (Nor is the X-ray showing the C3/C4 region of the neck.) This "king-size" fragment would, however, along with the miniscule fragments recovered from Kennedy's head and the small fragments found in the rug under the left jump seat, make up the balance of the rest of the bullet whose nose and tail fragments were found in the front of the limousine (which together did not equal even half the weight of a standard Carcanno bullet--see What Happened - Shot 1 for the weights and descriptions of the nose/tail fragments and average Carcanno bullets.)
-----
Mortician Thomas Robinson
There is also mortician Thomas Robinson's ARRB interview in which he expressed that he was "adamant" that he had seen the wound at the front of the throat probed from the back of the skull (an angle to steep to track to Connally, but probably just right for the small fragments found under the left jump-seat), Jerrol Custer's ARRB deposition describing metallic fragments in the C3/C4 region of the neck in an X-ray now missing from the extant collection, and autopsy participant James Jenkins' assertion in his book At the Cold Shoulder of History that the back wound had been probed, and had not penetrated the pleural lining (as it would have had to do in an upward track to the throat wound location. The only mention of probing in the official documentation is Dr. Humes stating that he had put his little finger into the wound, and could only find a penetration to the length of his little finger to the first joint. Any potential track to the front of the throat wound was "presumed" rather than observed.
There is also mortician Thomas Robinson's ARRB interview in which he expressed that he was "adamant" that he had seen the wound at the front of the throat probed from the back of the skull (an angle to steep to track to Connally, but probably just right for the small fragments found under the left jump-seat), Jerrol Custer's ARRB deposition describing metallic fragments in the C3/C4 region of the neck in an X-ray now missing from the extant collection, and autopsy participant James Jenkins' assertion in his book At the Cold Shoulder of History that the back wound had been probed, and had not penetrated the pleural lining (as it would have had to do in an upward track to the throat wound location. The only mention of probing in the official documentation is Dr. Humes stating that he had put his little finger into the wound, and could only find a penetration to the length of his little finger to the first joint. Any potential track to the front of the throat wound was "presumed" rather than observed.
-----
Early Leaked Autopsy Accounts
Early accounts of a leaked autopsy report, presumably an FBI report not in the extant collection (see https://www.a-benign-conspiracy.com/leaked-early-fbi-autopsy-report.html) describes the first bullet as striking Kennedy in the "back"--a wound he might have survived--and the second shot to hit Kennedy striking him in the head, with a fragment angling down to exit at the throat.
So I think it's pretty clear that the SBT could not have happened the way it was supposed to have happened.
But what's clear to me may not be clear to all researchers.
Early accounts of a leaked autopsy report, presumably an FBI report not in the extant collection (see https://www.a-benign-conspiracy.com/leaked-early-fbi-autopsy-report.html) describes the first bullet as striking Kennedy in the "back"--a wound he might have survived--and the second shot to hit Kennedy striking him in the head, with a fragment angling down to exit at the throat.
So I think it's pretty clear that the SBT could not have happened the way it was supposed to have happened.
But what's clear to me may not be clear to all researchers.
-----
True Believers
One such "true believer" in the SBT is researcher David Von Pein, who is a staunch and vocal advocate of the SBT (e.g., http://single-bullet-theory.blogspot.com/).
The reasons Von Pein gives on his web page supporting the SBT are these (which I will refute one-by-one momentarily):
One such "true believer" in the SBT is researcher David Von Pein, who is a staunch and vocal advocate of the SBT (e.g., http://single-bullet-theory.blogspot.com/).
The reasons Von Pein gives on his web page supporting the SBT are these (which I will refute one-by-one momentarily):
1.) President John F. Kennedy and Texas Governor John B. Connally were shot by rifle bullets in Dallas' Dealey Plaza on Friday, November 22, 1963.
2.) Lee Harvey Oswald's Mannlicher-Carcano rifle (Serial Number C2766) was located inside a building which overlooked the assassination site (the Texas School Book Depository) when JFK and JBC were being wounded by gunfire.
3.) A nearly-whole bullet (Warren Commission Exhibit #399) was found inside the hospital where JFK and JBC were taken after the shooting. And CE399 was found in a location within the hospital where President Kennedy was never located prior to the bullet being found by Darrell Tomlinson. (Nor was JFK's stretcher ever in the area of the hospital where Tomlinson discovered the bullet.)
4.) Bullet CE399 was positively fired from Lee Harvey Oswald's rifle.
5.) Bullet CE399, based on the above points in total, HAD to have been inside Governor Connally's body on 11/22/63.
6.) A man who looked like Lee Harvey Oswald was seen firing a rifle at the President's limousine from a southeast corner window on the 6th Floor of the Book Depository Building. No other gunmen were seen firing any weapons in Dealey Plaza on November 22nd.
7.) No bullets (or large bullet fragments) were found in the upper back or neck of John Kennedy's body. And no significant damage was found inside these areas of JFK's body either.
8.) No bullets (or large bullet fragments) were found inside the body of Governor Connally after the shooting. The only bullet, anywhere, that can possibly be connected with Connally's wounds is Bullet CE399.
9.) Given the point in time when both JFK and JBC were first hit by rifle fire (based on the Abraham Zapruder Film), and given the known location of Governor Connally's back (entrance) wound, and also taking into account the individual points made above -- Bullet CE399 had no choice but to have gone through the body of President Kennedy prior to entering the back of John B. Connally
2.) Lee Harvey Oswald's Mannlicher-Carcano rifle (Serial Number C2766) was located inside a building which overlooked the assassination site (the Texas School Book Depository) when JFK and JBC were being wounded by gunfire.
3.) A nearly-whole bullet (Warren Commission Exhibit #399) was found inside the hospital where JFK and JBC were taken after the shooting. And CE399 was found in a location within the hospital where President Kennedy was never located prior to the bullet being found by Darrell Tomlinson. (Nor was JFK's stretcher ever in the area of the hospital where Tomlinson discovered the bullet.)
4.) Bullet CE399 was positively fired from Lee Harvey Oswald's rifle.
5.) Bullet CE399, based on the above points in total, HAD to have been inside Governor Connally's body on 11/22/63.
6.) A man who looked like Lee Harvey Oswald was seen firing a rifle at the President's limousine from a southeast corner window on the 6th Floor of the Book Depository Building. No other gunmen were seen firing any weapons in Dealey Plaza on November 22nd.
7.) No bullets (or large bullet fragments) were found in the upper back or neck of John Kennedy's body. And no significant damage was found inside these areas of JFK's body either.
8.) No bullets (or large bullet fragments) were found inside the body of Governor Connally after the shooting. The only bullet, anywhere, that can possibly be connected with Connally's wounds is Bullet CE399.
9.) Given the point in time when both JFK and JBC were first hit by rifle fire (based on the Abraham Zapruder Film), and given the known location of Governor Connally's back (entrance) wound, and also taking into account the individual points made above -- Bullet CE399 had no choice but to have gone through the body of President Kennedy prior to entering the back of John B. Connally
Let's take a look at each of his reasons in turn and expose the flaws of his argument.
1.) President John F. Kennedy and Texas Governor John B. Connally were shot by rifle bullets in Dallas' Dealey Plaza on Friday, November 22, 1963.
Well, okay, I can accept that statement as true. However, all of the bullets did not come from the same rifle. Von Pein assumes that they did, but they did not. I'll address some of the flaws in the ballistic evidence shortly.
2.) Lee Harvey Oswald's Mannlicher-Carcano rifle (Serial Number C2766) was located inside a building which overlooked the assassination site (the Texas School Book Depository) when JFK and JBC were being wounded by gunfire.
Well, there were early reports that the rifle was actually a "7.65 Mauser." However, we'll assume, for the sake of argument, that the weapon found inside the TSBD actually was the 6.65mm Mannlicher-Carcano rifle attributed to Oswald. Even with that assumption, there is still a long way to go to establish the SBT as more than a theory--and an incorrect one, at that, given the back wound location (and "king-size" fragment that Custer testified fell out of the President's back, as I noted above).
So, for the sake of argument, I'll give Von Pein this one point, and we'll assume that Oswald's Mannlicher-Carcanno rifle was found in the 6th floor of the TSBD. I will even concede that it fired some of the shots. I will not concede, however, that it fired all of the shots.
So, for the sake of argument, I'll give Von Pein this one point, and we'll assume that Oswald's Mannlicher-Carcanno rifle was found in the 6th floor of the TSBD. I will even concede that it fired some of the shots. I will not concede, however, that it fired all of the shots.
3.) A nearly-whole bullet (Warren Commission Exhibit #399) was found inside the hospital where JFK and JBC were taken after the shooting. And CE399 was found in a location within the hospital where President Kennedy was never located prior to the bullet being found by Darrell Tomlinson. (Nor was JFK's stretcher ever in the area of the hospital where Tomlinson discovered the bullet.)
Here Von Pein makes several assumptions that are deeply flawed: 1) that CE-399 was the stretcher bullet; 2) that CE-399 was the bullet found by Darrell Tomlinson; and 3) the inference that since JFK's stretcher was never in the that area of the hallway, the bullet must therefore have come from Connally's stretcher.
While we agree that an intact bullet was found on a hallway stretcher at Parkland Hospital, CE-399 was never properly identified as that bullet. Those who actually saw the bullet (Darrel Tomlinson, and Parkland head of security O.P. Wright) described their bullet as "pointed." CE-399 is certainly not pointed. Nor was it ever properly identified as the "stretcher bullet" in testimony. I contend that round-tipped CE-399 is a substitution for the actual "pointed" bullet that was found on the hallway stretcher.
Nor was the stretcher Connally's. There were actually two stretchers in the hallway, one which Darrell Tomlinson had just pulled off the elevator before finding the bullet (which had to be Connally's), and another that had probably been used by a toddler-aged patient named Ronnie Fuller. The bullet was not found on the elevator/Connally stretcher; it was found on the other (Ronnie Fuller) stretcher. So how did the bullet get there?
We also have accounts of not just one, but two Secret Service agents (Paul Landis and Sam Kinney) placing bullets on stretchers. In recently disclosed accounts, Landis describes having found a bullet in the limousine, and placing his bullet on Kennedy's stretcher in Trauma Room One. Parkland nurse Phyllis Hall saw a bullet (had to have been the same one) picked up from the Trauma Room One stretcher and taken away in a specimen container. Nurse Hall, like Tomlinson and Wright, described her bullet as "pointed," which CE-399 certainly is not. I believe that the Landis/Hall bullet was returned to the limousine, where it was re-discovered by Sam Kinney, who subsequently placed it on the Ronnie hallway stretcher, where Darrell Tomlinson subsequently found it.
So while I believe that the original pointed bullet found on the hallway stretcher was involved in the assassination, the provenance and chain-of-custody for the CE-399 bullet are extremely problematic. CE-399 was never properly identified by witnesses as their "stretcher" bullet, and how it got to be on the stretcher in the first place creates a whole other conundrum. Moreover, there were, in fact, two "stretcher bullets" plus the fragments recovered from Governor Connally, with mix-and-match chains of custody that do not match witness accounts of what happened to their bullets/fragments. Governor Connally himself described his bullet as having fallen "to the floor" as he was placed on a gurney, and a nurse picking the bullet up and putting it into her pocket. A uniformed Texas Highway patrol officer, Bobby Nolan, described a nurse as handing him a "bullet" in an envelope (witnessed by Dallas County DA Henry Wade), which he subsequently delivered to the desk of DPD Captain Will Fritz. Meanwhile, chief surgical nurse Audrey Bell picked up the fragments that had been removed from Connally's body during his surgery, and delivered these to an FBI agent accompanied by a Secret Service agent (probably Gordon Shanklin and Forrest Sorrels). Neither of these was the Tomlinson/Wright "pointed" stretcher bullet.
For a more detailed account of the three evidence chains (the "pointed" stretcher bullet, the Connally bullet, and the fragments recovered during the surgery), see my essay Multiple Stretcher Bullets AKA The Connally Bullet Revisited. Each of the chains is problematic in its own way, because efforts were made to "mix and match" the chains in order to merge two bullets into one, and to try to strengthen the case against Oswald in the court of public opinion. These chains would never have held up in an actual trial, had Oswald lived.
While we agree that an intact bullet was found on a hallway stretcher at Parkland Hospital, CE-399 was never properly identified as that bullet. Those who actually saw the bullet (Darrel Tomlinson, and Parkland head of security O.P. Wright) described their bullet as "pointed." CE-399 is certainly not pointed. Nor was it ever properly identified as the "stretcher bullet" in testimony. I contend that round-tipped CE-399 is a substitution for the actual "pointed" bullet that was found on the hallway stretcher.
Nor was the stretcher Connally's. There were actually two stretchers in the hallway, one which Darrell Tomlinson had just pulled off the elevator before finding the bullet (which had to be Connally's), and another that had probably been used by a toddler-aged patient named Ronnie Fuller. The bullet was not found on the elevator/Connally stretcher; it was found on the other (Ronnie Fuller) stretcher. So how did the bullet get there?
We also have accounts of not just one, but two Secret Service agents (Paul Landis and Sam Kinney) placing bullets on stretchers. In recently disclosed accounts, Landis describes having found a bullet in the limousine, and placing his bullet on Kennedy's stretcher in Trauma Room One. Parkland nurse Phyllis Hall saw a bullet (had to have been the same one) picked up from the Trauma Room One stretcher and taken away in a specimen container. Nurse Hall, like Tomlinson and Wright, described her bullet as "pointed," which CE-399 certainly is not. I believe that the Landis/Hall bullet was returned to the limousine, where it was re-discovered by Sam Kinney, who subsequently placed it on the Ronnie hallway stretcher, where Darrell Tomlinson subsequently found it.
So while I believe that the original pointed bullet found on the hallway stretcher was involved in the assassination, the provenance and chain-of-custody for the CE-399 bullet are extremely problematic. CE-399 was never properly identified by witnesses as their "stretcher" bullet, and how it got to be on the stretcher in the first place creates a whole other conundrum. Moreover, there were, in fact, two "stretcher bullets" plus the fragments recovered from Governor Connally, with mix-and-match chains of custody that do not match witness accounts of what happened to their bullets/fragments. Governor Connally himself described his bullet as having fallen "to the floor" as he was placed on a gurney, and a nurse picking the bullet up and putting it into her pocket. A uniformed Texas Highway patrol officer, Bobby Nolan, described a nurse as handing him a "bullet" in an envelope (witnessed by Dallas County DA Henry Wade), which he subsequently delivered to the desk of DPD Captain Will Fritz. Meanwhile, chief surgical nurse Audrey Bell picked up the fragments that had been removed from Connally's body during his surgery, and delivered these to an FBI agent accompanied by a Secret Service agent (probably Gordon Shanklin and Forrest Sorrels). Neither of these was the Tomlinson/Wright "pointed" stretcher bullet.
For a more detailed account of the three evidence chains (the "pointed" stretcher bullet, the Connally bullet, and the fragments recovered during the surgery), see my essay Multiple Stretcher Bullets AKA The Connally Bullet Revisited. Each of the chains is problematic in its own way, because efforts were made to "mix and match" the chains in order to merge two bullets into one, and to try to strengthen the case against Oswald in the court of public opinion. These chains would never have held up in an actual trial, had Oswald lived.
4.) Bullet CE399 was positively fired from Lee Harvey Oswald's rifle
Well, okay, but doesn't make it the stretcher bullet. I have no doubt that CE-399 was fired into a tube of cotton wadding, and that it was fired from the purported Oswald rifle. What I doubt was that it was ever on any hospital stretcher. See my response to point #3 above.
5.) Bullet CE399, based on the above points in total, HAD to have been inside Governor Connally's body on 11/22/63
No, it didn't. The provenance of CE-399 as the Tomlinson/Wright stretcher bullet was never established. The stretcher was never established as having been used by Connally. The amount of lead missing from the tip of CE-399 was taken for spectrographic analysis, and the amount of lead recovered from Connally's body or left inside the body because removal was too problematic is probably too great to have come from the base of this "pristine" bullet. There are too many weaknesses in the chain-of-custody for the Tomlinson/Wright bullet, not enough lead missing from CE-399, and not enough provenance that CE-399 was ever inside Connally's body for Von Pein to make that assertion with absolute confidence.
6.) A man who looked like Lee Harvey Oswald was seen firing a rifle at the President's limousine from a southeast corner window on the 6th Floor of the Book Depository Building. No other gunmen were seen firing any weapons in Dealey Plaza on November 22nd
There are some researchers who contend that Oswald was not the TSBD gunman. I happen to think he was, but admit that the evidence pointing conclusively to him was rather weak. However, for the sake of argument, let's say that Oswald was the TSBD gunman.
That does not mean he was the only gunman. There is plenty of evidence to suggest that there was at least one (and I contend two) other gunman at play in Dealey Plaza (both, as I contend, Secret Service men). Even though no one is known to have seen another gunman, there are plenty of nose witnesses who smelled gun smoke that could not possibly have come from Oswald's weapon, as well as ear witnesses who heard a gunshot as coming from the vicinity of the President's car (i.e., the follow-up car), or who thought that a shot or shots came from street level. Moreover, I contend that Hickey's gun went off accidentally, in a slam-fire incident, when he fell over. There were witnesses to a "Secret Service man" falling over "like he was killed, too," which gave rise to early erroneous reports that a Secret Service man had also been killed during the assassination. No one saw Hickey take aim, because he didn't take aim. But he did fall over, thus triggering the AR-15's "slam-fire" flaw. Unfortunately, at that instant, it just happened to have been pointed at Kennedy's head. It was a freak accident, but when guns are involved, freak accidents happen all the time.
Acoustically, there is evidence for five shots. The other shot (3 by Oswald, 1 by Hickey = 4 shots, leaving 1) I contend was a "warning" shot fired by one of Johnson's protective agents.
That does not mean he was the only gunman. There is plenty of evidence to suggest that there was at least one (and I contend two) other gunman at play in Dealey Plaza (both, as I contend, Secret Service men). Even though no one is known to have seen another gunman, there are plenty of nose witnesses who smelled gun smoke that could not possibly have come from Oswald's weapon, as well as ear witnesses who heard a gunshot as coming from the vicinity of the President's car (i.e., the follow-up car), or who thought that a shot or shots came from street level. Moreover, I contend that Hickey's gun went off accidentally, in a slam-fire incident, when he fell over. There were witnesses to a "Secret Service man" falling over "like he was killed, too," which gave rise to early erroneous reports that a Secret Service man had also been killed during the assassination. No one saw Hickey take aim, because he didn't take aim. But he did fall over, thus triggering the AR-15's "slam-fire" flaw. Unfortunately, at that instant, it just happened to have been pointed at Kennedy's head. It was a freak accident, but when guns are involved, freak accidents happen all the time.
Acoustically, there is evidence for five shots. The other shot (3 by Oswald, 1 by Hickey = 4 shots, leaving 1) I contend was a "warning" shot fired by one of Johnson's protective agents.
7.) No bullets (or large bullet fragments) were found in the upper back or neck of John Kennedy's body. And no significant damage was found inside these areas of JFK's body either
Au contraire, Jerrol Custer's sworn testimony to the ARRB (see above) described a "king-size" fragment as falling out of the body when it was lifted for X-rays. Custer also described metallic fragments in the C3/C4 area of the neck in an X-ray that is no longer in the extant collection. The missing "king-size" fragment and missing neck X-ray are part of the pattern of inconvenient evidence being made to "disappear." Douglas Horne enumerates missing autopsy evidence in shis work, relying on inventories that were made over the years. (Incredibly, some of the autopsy evidence remains in the control of the Kennedy family, whose "Deed of Gift" to the Archives keeps it unavailable for scrutiny.)
8.) No bullets (or large bullet fragments) were found inside the body of Governor Connally after the shooting. The only bullet, anywhere, that can possibly be connected with Connally's wounds is Bullet CE399
Again, there is a chain of evidence, beginning with Governor Connally himself and involving an unnamed nurse and Texas Highway Patrolman Bobby Nolan, for a "bullet" that came from Connally when he was moved onto a stretcher. My nurse candidate is Diana Bowron, who had recently completed her training in England and went to Parkland in a temporary position, had helped move Connally onto his stretcher, was probably unfamiliar with U.S. laws concerning chain-of-custody, and also had an apparent habit of putting stuff (like Kennedy's watch) into her pocket as a convenient holding place while she was working.
9.) Given the point in time when both JFK and JBC were first hit by rifle fire (based on the Abraham Zapruder Film), and given the known location of Governor Connally's back (entrance) wound, and also taking into account the individual points made above -- Bullet CE399 had no choice but to have gone through the body of President Kennedy prior to entering the back of John B. Connally
Can Von Pein honestly and definitively point to the frame in the Zapruder Film when both JFK and JBC were hit? That has been a subject of debate among researchers for years. My own contention is that it was Connally (not Kennedy) who was struck by a bullet when the limousine was in the Z313 position. See What Happened - Shot 3.
There is plenty of reason to doubt the SBT, and plenty of reason to doubt that CE-399 had any connection to any wounds of either Kennedy or Connally, as I've explained above.
Again, I urge readers to examine how the purported "chains of custody" for the ballistic evidence related to Governor Connally fail to align with the witness accounts given by those who were actually involved, and how CE-399 fails to match the description of the "pointed" stretcher bullet given by those who actually found a bullet on a stretcher in the hallway--a stretcher that had been used by neither Kennedy nor Connally. I give as much detail as I can in my essay Multiple Stretcher Bullets AKA The Connally Bullet Revisited.
There is plenty of reason to doubt the SBT, and plenty of reason to doubt that CE-399 had any connection to any wounds of either Kennedy or Connally, as I've explained above.
Again, I urge readers to examine how the purported "chains of custody" for the ballistic evidence related to Governor Connally fail to align with the witness accounts given by those who were actually involved, and how CE-399 fails to match the description of the "pointed" stretcher bullet given by those who actually found a bullet on a stretcher in the hallway--a stretcher that had been used by neither Kennedy nor Connally. I give as much detail as I can in my essay Multiple Stretcher Bullets AKA The Connally Bullet Revisited.