Read Online Not in Your Lifetime: The Defining Book on the J.F.K. Assassination by Anthony Summers - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Anthony Summers
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especially to bones, and still emerge almost unscathed. Typical of such doubters was Dr. Milton Helpern, former Chief Medical Examiner of New York City, once described by the New York Times as knowing “more about violent death than anyone else in the world.” Dr. Helpern, who had conducted two thousand autopsies on victims of gunshot wounds, said of the magic bullet:
The original, pristine weight of this bullet before it was fired was approximately 160–161 grains. The weight of the bullet recovered on the stretcher in Parkland Hospital was reported by the Commission at 158.6. 4 I cannot accept the premise that this bullet thrashed around in all that bony tissue and lost only 1.4 to 2.4 grains of its original weight. I cannot believe either that this bullet is going to emerge miraculously unscathed, without any deformity, and with its lands and grooves intact… . You must remember that next to bone, the skin offers greater resistance to a bullet in its course through the body than any other kind of tissue… .
This single-bullet theory asks us to believe that this bullet went through seven layers of skin, tough, elastic, resistant skin. In addition … this bullet passed through other layers of soft tissue; and then shattered bones! I just can’t believe that this bullet had the force to do what [the Commission has] demanded of it… .
Dr. Robert Shaw, professor of thoracic surgery at the University of Texas, the doctor who treated Governor Connally’s chest wounds, wasnever satisfied that the magic bullet caused all his patient’s injuries.
Three of the seven members of the Warren Commission doubted the magic-bullet theory, even though it appeared in their own report. The commissioners wrangled about it up to the moment their findings went to press. John McCloy had difficulty accepting it. Congressman Hale Boggs had “strong doubts.” Senator Sherman Cooper told the author in 1978 that he was “unconvinced.”
Senator Richard Russell did not want to sign a report that said definitely that both men were hit by the same bullet. He wanted a footnote added that noted his dissent, but Warren failed to put one in. On a audiotape held at the Lyndon B. Johnson Library, Russell is heard telling President Johnson, “I don’t believe it.” And Johnson responds, “I don’t either.”
Was all this doubt unjustified? The House Assassinations Committee thought so—and proceeded to endorse the magic bullet theory.
The majority of the Committee’s forensic pathology panel, for their part, decided that the medical evidence was consistent with the one bullet having wounded both victims. They thought, moreover, that the photographic exhibits, and the Zapruder film, in particular, showed that the President and the Governor were lined up in a way “consistent with the trajectory of one bullet.” They listened to the opinion of a ballistics witness, who said that a Mannlicher-Carcano bullet could indeed emerge only minimally deformed after striking bone. The ballistics experts were satisfied, meanwhile, that the magic bullet had been fired from the Mannlicher-Carcano rifle.
Finally, for the first time, the controversial bullet was linked to the wound in Governor Connally’s wrist. Dr. Guinn’s neutronactivation tests indicated that the makeup of the bullet was indistinguishable from fragments found in the Governor’s wrist. Guinn believed it “extremely unlikely” that they came from different bullets.
In light of all that support and even though—unlike the Warren Commission—it believed a second assassin had fired from the knoll in front of the President, the Assassinations Committee fell into line on the matter of the almost intact “magic bullet.” Here is the sequence of the shots fired on November 22, as the Committee saw it:
Shot 1(from the Depository) missed.
Shot 2(from the Depository)—the almost intact bullet—caused perhaps survivable wounds to both Kennedy and Connally.
Shot 3(from the grassy
The original, pristine weight of this bullet before it was fired was approximately 160–161 grains. The weight of the bullet recovered on the stretcher in Parkland Hospital was reported by the Commission at 158.6. 4 I cannot accept the premise that this bullet thrashed around in all that bony tissue and lost only 1.4 to 2.4 grains of its original weight. I cannot believe either that this bullet is going to emerge miraculously unscathed, without any deformity, and with its lands and grooves intact… . You must remember that next to bone, the skin offers greater resistance to a bullet in its course through the body than any other kind of tissue… .
This single-bullet theory asks us to believe that this bullet went through seven layers of skin, tough, elastic, resistant skin. In addition … this bullet passed through other layers of soft tissue; and then shattered bones! I just can’t believe that this bullet had the force to do what [the Commission has] demanded of it… .
Dr. Robert Shaw, professor of thoracic surgery at the University of Texas, the doctor who treated Governor Connally’s chest wounds, wasnever satisfied that the magic bullet caused all his patient’s injuries.
Three of the seven members of the Warren Commission doubted the magic-bullet theory, even though it appeared in their own report. The commissioners wrangled about it up to the moment their findings went to press. John McCloy had difficulty accepting it. Congressman Hale Boggs had “strong doubts.” Senator Sherman Cooper told the author in 1978 that he was “unconvinced.”
Senator Richard Russell did not want to sign a report that said definitely that both men were hit by the same bullet. He wanted a footnote added that noted his dissent, but Warren failed to put one in. On a audiotape held at the Lyndon B. Johnson Library, Russell is heard telling President Johnson, “I don’t believe it.” And Johnson responds, “I don’t either.”
Was all this doubt unjustified? The House Assassinations Committee thought so—and proceeded to endorse the magic bullet theory.
The majority of the Committee’s forensic pathology panel, for their part, decided that the medical evidence was consistent with the one bullet having wounded both victims. They thought, moreover, that the photographic exhibits, and the Zapruder film, in particular, showed that the President and the Governor were lined up in a way “consistent with the trajectory of one bullet.” They listened to the opinion of a ballistics witness, who said that a Mannlicher-Carcano bullet could indeed emerge only minimally deformed after striking bone. The ballistics experts were satisfied, meanwhile, that the magic bullet had been fired from the Mannlicher-Carcano rifle.
Finally, for the first time, the controversial bullet was linked to the wound in Governor Connally’s wrist. Dr. Guinn’s neutronactivation tests indicated that the makeup of the bullet was indistinguishable from fragments found in the Governor’s wrist. Guinn believed it “extremely unlikely” that they came from different bullets.
In light of all that support and even though—unlike the Warren Commission—it believed a second assassin had fired from the knoll in front of the President, the Assassinations Committee fell into line on the matter of the almost intact “magic bullet.” Here is the sequence of the shots fired on November 22, as the Committee saw it:
Shot 1(from the Depository) missed.
Shot 2(from the Depository)—the almost intact bullet—caused perhaps survivable wounds to both Kennedy and Connally.
Shot 3(from the grassy
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