Mr. DULLES. You are speaking now of the first two wounds, aren't you?
Mr. SPECTER. Yes.
Mr. DULLES. You are not speaking now of the brain wound at all, are you?
Mr. SPECTER. Correct, Mr. Dulles. The wound that I am referring to
on the President is the wound which entered the back of his neck and
exited from the front part of his neck in accordance with the prior
testimony of the doctors in the case.
Now, based on the tests which have been performed, and the other
factors which I will ask you to assume, since you weren't present; for
purposes of expressing an opinion, what is your opinion as to whether
all of the wounds on Governor Connally were inflicted by one bullet?
Dr. DZIEMIAN. My opinion is that it is most probably so, that one
bullet produced all the wounds on Governor Connally.
Mr. SPECTER. And what is your opinion as to whether the wound through
President Kennedy's neck and all of the wounds on Governor Connally
were produced by one bullet?
Dr. DZIEMIAN. I think the probability is very good that it is, that all
the wounds were caused by one bullet.
Mr. SPECTER. When you say all the wounds, are you excluding from that
the head wound on President Kennedy?
Dr. DZIEMIAN. I am excluding the head wound, yes.
Mr. SPECTER. And what is the reasoning behind your conclusion that one
bullet caused the neck wound on President Kennedy and all of the other
wounds on Governor Connally?
Dr. DZIEMIAN. I am saying that the probability is high that that was so.
Mr. SPECTER. What is the reason for your assessment of that high
probability?
Dr. DZIEMIAN. The same reasons that Dr. Olivier gave, based on the
same information, that especially the wound to the wrist. That higher
velocity strike on the wrist would be caused by the bullet slowing down
by going through all this tissue would cause more damage to the wrist
and also more damage to the thigh.
Mr. SPECTER. Had the bullet only gone through Governor Connally's chest
then, what is your opinion as to whether or not there would have been
greater damage to the Governor's wrist?
Dr. DZIEMIAN. I think there would have been greater damage to the
Governor's wrist, and also to the thigh from the information, from the
experiments obtained by Dr. Olivier's group.
Mr. DULLES. Could I ask a question here? Does that take into account
any evidence as to the angle of fire and the relative positions of the
two men, or excluding that?
Dr. DZIEMIAN. Excluding that. I do not know enough details about that
to make an opinion on that. This is just on the basis of the velocities
of the bullets.
Mr. SPECTER. Would the nature of the wounds on the Governor's wrist
and thigh, then, be explained by the hypothesis that the bullet passed
through the President first, then went through the Governor's chest
before striking the wrist and in turn the thigh?
Dr. DZIEMIAN. I think that could be a good explanation.
Mr. SPECTER. What is your opinion as to whether or not a fragment of
a bullet striking the President's head could have caused the wound to
Governor Connally's wrist?
Dr. DZIEMIAN. I think it is unlikely.
Mr. SPECTER. What is your opinion as to whether or not Governor
Connally's wrist wound could have been caused by a pristine bullet?
Dr. DZIEMIAN. That is unlikely, too. Our results with pristine bullets
were very different from the wound that the Governor had.
Mr. SPECTER. Based on the description provided to you of the nature of
the wound in the Governor's back, what is your opinion as to whether,
or not, that was a pristine bullet or had yaw in it, just on the basis
of the nature of the wound on the Governor's back?
Dr. DZIEMIAN. It could very well have yaw in it because of the rather
large wound that was produced in the Governor's back. The wound from a
nonyawing bullet could be considerably smaller.
Mr. SPECTER. For the record, would you define in lay terms what yaw
means?
Dr. DZIEMIAN. It is the procession of the bullet. The bullet is
wobbling on its axis, so that as it wobbles, it presents different
presented areas to the target or to the air, and this changes the drag
coefficient of the bullet. It will slow down the bullet more both in
the air and in tissues, in the yawing.
Mr. SPECTER. What is the course of a bullet, then, which is a pristine
bullet or the nature of the bullet immediately after coming out of the
muzzle of a rifle before it strikes anything?
Dr. DZIEMIAN. A pristine bullet is normally stable. It does not
wobble in the air. It presents the same presented area along most of
its trajectory until it slows down, so that the drag coefficient in
air or in the tissue of this type of bullet is less than the drag
coefficient----
Mr. SPECTER. What do you mean by drag coefficient?
Dr. DZIEMIAN. It is a measurement of the resistance of the target
material or the air to the bullet. The greater the drag coefficient,
the more the resistance to the bullet, the more the bullet slows down
within a given time.
Mr. SPECTER. So would a bullet with yaw cause a greater or lesser hole
on the surface which it strikes than a bullet without yaw?
Dr. DZIEMIAN. It would normally cause a greater hole. It usually would
have more presented area, that is more the surface of the bullet would
hit the skin.
Mr. SPECTER. And would a bullet with yaw decrease in velocity to a
greater, lesser, or the same extent as a bullet without yaw?
Dr. DZIEMIAN. It would decrease in velocity to a greater extent.