Posted on 05/17/2007 8:06:33 AM PDT by mjp
Multiple Shooters Possible, Study Says
In a collision of 21st-century science and decades-old conspiracy theories, a research team that includes a former top FBI scientist is challenging the bullet analysis used by the government to conclude that Lee Harvey Oswald alone shot the two bullets that struck and killed President John F. Kennedy in 1963. The "evidence used to rule out a second assassin is fundamentally flawed," concludes a new article in the Annals of Applied Statistics written by former FBI lab metallurgist William A. Tobin and Texas A&M University researchers Cliff Spiegelman and William D. James.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
CE (commission exhibit) 399 is the "pristine" or "magic" bullet, which was recovered at Parkland Hospital. That one I know to be in the Archives; I know people who've handled it.
As I said, my recollection -- and I hasten to say that it's just that -- is that the fatal shot was recovered from inside the limousine. A quick Google didn't find anything to bolster or refute my memory, and this thread has already absorbed a chunk of my day, so I'll flag that to check up on later.
You are correct to say that if I'm right, there should be two bullets in the Archives. I can't prove that there are or aren't, but to the best of my memory there are. CE399 is the center of all the conspiracy theories, so it's a little difficult to get past it and find info on the kill shot.
I believe that Kennedy was wearing a back brace due to the effects of his Addison's Disease and his WWII injuries. His public image was so wrapped up in being healthy and robust that that fact was a deep, dark secret.
In fact, JFK was relatively frail -- and I don't mean relative to an NFL player, I mean relative to oh, say, me. He would have been 4-F in World War II had his father not pulled every available string to get him into the Navy.
A back brace would certainly change the drape of his suit, and would have been covered up to protect his image, not to hide an assassin.
I actually think the autopsy photos were more a product of incompetence rather than anything sinister.
That, and the product of ER docs whose mission is -- and rightly so -- to take every step to save a life, not to preserve evidence. The throat wound, believed to be an exit wound, was mangled by efforts at an emergency tracheotomy.
The problem is the conspiracy nuts can’t leave well enough alone. There are so many theories, so many suggested assassins, that one comes to realize they cannot all be true.
The books “Conspiracy of One” and “Best Evidence” turned the tide for good with me. The OJ trial had a strange relevance as well, for I saw first hand how someone can build a case on nitpicking, distortions, and innuendo. The techniques were exactly the same as those employed by the conspiracy nuts. In both cases there was not a single shred of evidence of another killer, just bogus doubts about the facts that pointed to the real killers.
Don’t forget that Connally sat in a jump seat that was lower, and off to one side relative to JFK. People like Oliver Stone always show diagrams with both men in identical seats perfectly aligned in a straight, level line.
Great response.....thanks for taking the time.
The back brace also explains why his body reacted the way it did before, during, and after the head shot.
‘Oh, and went on to whack the crap out of Connelly too!’
A scientific term from CSI?
(chuckle)
Just kidding, its entirely accurate depiction of what happened to Connelly on that fateful day.
‘So if we find out who really did it Kennedy comes back to life?’
If that works, apply it to Monroe instead....
‘The second shot was substantially deformed, not “pristine,” and it was found on Conally’s gurney, not Kennedy’s. Other than that, you make good points.’
Not the tip. Yep some odd ‘damage’ to the base of the bullet...curiously found on the gurney, with no blood on it as I seem to recall reading.
I’ve never bought the insistence that was ‘the’ bullet. How often do you find a spent round thats claimed to do so much damange to two human beings, break a bone along the way, and not be the proverbial ‘mushroom shape’ if not worse?
Those of us that shoot know a heavy cardboard ‘backing’ to a paper target will ‘deform’ as in ‘flatten’ the tip of a round. If its a case of the bullet ‘tumbling’...well, that just raises even more questions about the ‘deformation’ or lack thereof.
Just my opinion.
You don't really think
Kennedy died, do you? That's
what they tell sheeple!
The "Death Of The King"
ritual was just a show
put on by Masons!
Right now Kennedy
is with Marilyn Monroe
living in Britain!
LOL
Yea, he did get punched up a little. I laugh out loud when I hear some of the conspiracies that think he had something to do with all that.
Man, if he did, he really got the sh!t end of that stick!
I also read Lane’s “Rush to Judgment” and was just as convinced as you were. But also like you, I began to notice the conspiracy theories would cancel each other out. Or in some cases, they co-existed. The moment I saw the clip that appears to show the limo driver firing the head shot, I had to check myself. The stretch was so obvious, I began to wonder if it was simply just the worst presentation in a series of fantasy tales.
Now I can finally live the rest of my life in peace.
thank You.
‘Man, if he did, he really got the sh!t end of that stick!’
And his wife was never the same, from what I read and heard.
My thought exactly when I read the headline.
Oh, please.
Kennedy is living out his days as a semi-veg on a Greek island. Why do you think Jackie married Onassis, anyway? It was just to secure a hideaway for John.
bttt
The tip - the front 1/8 to 1/4 inch -- is pretty much intact. Most of the slug is flattened. As far as he "no blood on it," I don't know -- but blood spills are pretty routinely cleaned up as standard ER practice, and any stray blood could have come off on someone's gloves or scrubs.
I’ve never bought the insistence that was ‘the’ bullet. How often do you find a spent round thats claimed to do so much damange to two human beings, break a bone along the way, and not be the proverbial ‘mushroom shape’ if not worse?
How often does someone shoot through a president and hit a governor? 11/22/63 is a statistical anomaly from jump. In tests with various models -- ballistic wax, sides of beef, goat and pig carcasses -- some bullets came out more deformed, some less. No test can match the precise path of the bullet, nor the muscle tone or bone density of the people involved, but the condition of CE 399 is well within the range of likely outcomes.
Those of us that shoot know a heavy cardboard ‘backing’ to a paper target will ‘deform’ as in ‘flatten’ the tip of a round.
A wadcutter, maybe. A jacketed slug, not so much. I do almost all my shooting at the range and not in the field, so usually someone else harvests my lead and brass for later re-use. But I have seen the odd copper-jacketed slug dug out of a berm, and they're remarkably un-deformed.
For that matter, I have a couple of Civil War-era Minnie Balls dug out of a white pine tree and a red clay hillside, and they're less deformed than CE3999. Of course, those had a far slower muzzle velocity, so you don't want to read too much into that.
If its a case of the bullet ‘tumbling’...well, that just raises even more questions about the ‘deformation’ or lack thereof.
And that's what the conspiracy theories do -- they raise questions. They get farcical when they attempt to provide answers. It's when they lay the blame at the feet of the Mob, or the Cubans, or the CIA, or LBJ that it goes from healthy questioning to wild-eyed speculation.
BTTT!
Booth was just the duped patsy you know.
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