The Shots From the Texas School Book Depository
In this chapter the Commission analyzes the evidence and sets forth
its conclusions concerning the source, effect, number and timing
of the shots that killed President Kennedy and wounded Governor
Connally. In that connection the Commission has evaluated (1) the
testimony of eyewitnesses present at the scene of the assassination;
(2) the damage to the Presidential limousine; (3) the examination by
qualified experts of the rifle and cartridge cases found on the sixth
floor of the Texas School Book Depository and the bullet fragments
found in the Presidential limousine and at Parkland Hospital; (4)
the wounds suffered by President Kennedy and Governor Connally; (5)
wound ballistics tests; (6) the examination by qualified experts of
the clothing worn by President Kennedy and Governor Connally; and (7)
motion-picture films and still photographs taken at the time of the
assassination.
THE WITNESSES
As reflected in the previous chapter, passengers in the first few cars
of the motorcade had the impression that the shots came from the rear
and from the right, the general direction of the Texas School Book
Depository Building, although none of these passengers saw anyone
fire the shots. Some spectators at Houston and Elm Streets, however,
did see a rifle being fired in the direction of the President’s car
from the easternmost window of the sixth floor on the south side of
the building. Other witnesses saw a rifle in this window immediately
after the assassination. Three employees of the Depository, observing
the parade from the fifth floor, heard the shots fired from the floor
immediately above them. No credible evidence suggests that the shots
were fired from the railroad bridge over the Triple Underpass, the
nearby railroad yards or any place other than the Texas School Book
Depository Building.
[Illustration: COMMISSION EXHIBIT NO. 477
Position of Howard L. Brennan on November 22, 1963. (Photograph taken
on March 20, 1964, and marked by Brennan during his testimony to show
the window (A) in which he saw a man with a rifle, and the window (B)
on the fifth floor in which he saw people watching the motorcade.)]
Near the Depository
Eyewitnesses testified that they saw a man fire a weapon from the
sixth-floor window. Howard L. Brennan, a 45-year-old steamfitter,
watched the motorcade from a concrete retaining wall at the southwest
corner of Elm and Houston, where he had a clear view of the south side
of the Depository Building.[C3-1] (See Commission Exhibit No. 477, p.
62.) He was approximately 107 feet from the Depository entrance and
120 feet from the southeast corner window of the sixth floor.[C3-2]
Brennan’s presence and vantage point are corroborated by a motion
picture of the motorcade taken by amateur photographer Abraham
Zapruder, which shows Brennan, wearing gray khaki work clothes and a
gray work helmet, seated on the retaining wall.[C3-3] Brennan later
identified himself in the Zapruder movie.[C3-4] While waiting about
7 minutes for the President to arrive, he observed the crowd on the
street and the people at the windows of the Depository Building.[C3-5]
He noticed a man at the southeast corner window of the sixth floor, and
observed him leave the window “a couple of times.”[C3-6]
Brennan watched the President’s car as it turned the corner at Houston
and Elm and moved down the incline toward the Triple Underpass. Soon
after the President’s car passed, he heard an explosion like the
backfire of a motorcycle.[C3-7] Brennan recalled:
Well, then something, just right after this explosion, made me
think that it was a firecracker being thrown from the Texas
Book Store. And I glanced up. And this man that I saw previous
was aiming for his last shot.
* * * * *
Well, as it appeared to me he was standing up and resting
against the left window sill, with gun shouldered to his
right shoulder, holding the gun with his left hand and taking
positive aim and fired his last shot. As I calculate a couple
of seconds. He drew the gun back from the window as though he
was drawing it back to his side and maybe paused for another
second as though to assure hisself that he hit his mark, and
then he disappeared.[C3-8]
Brennan stated that he saw 70 to 85 percent of the gun when it was
fired and the body of the man from the waist up.[C3-9] The rifle was
aimed southwesterly down Elm Street toward the underpass.[C3-10]
Brennan saw the man fire one shot and he remembered hearing a total
of only two shots. When questioned about the number of shots, Brennan
testified:
I don’t know what made me think that there was firecrackers
throwed out of the Book Store unless I did hear the second
shot, because I positively thought the first shot was a
backfire, and subconsciously I must have heard a second shot,
but I do not recall it. I could not swear to it.[C3-11]
Brennan quickly reported his observations to police officers.[C3-12]
Brennan’s description of the man he saw is discussed in the next
chapter.
Amos Lee Euins, a 15-year-old ninth grade student, stated that he was
facing the Depository as the motorcade turned the corner at Elm and
Houston. He recalled:
Then I was standing here, and as the motorcade turned the
corner, I was facing, looking dead at the building. And so I
seen this pipe thing sticking out the window. I wasn’t paying
too much attention to it. Then when the first shot was fired, I
started looking around, thinking it was a backfire. Everybody
else started looking around. Then I looked up at the window,
and he shot again.[C3-13]
After witnessing the first shots, Euins hid behind a fountain bench
and saw the man shoot again from the window in the southeast corner of
the Depository’s sixth floor.[C3-14] According to Euins, the man had
one hand on the barrel and the other on the trigger. Euins believed
that there were four shots.[C3-15] Immediately after the assassination,
he reported his observations to Sgt. D. V. Harkness of the Dallas
Police Department and also to James Underwood of station KRLD-TV of
Dallas.[C3-16] Sergeant Harkness testified that Euins told him that
the shots came from the last window of the floor “under the ledge”
on the side of the building they were facing.[C3-17] Based on Euins’
statements, Harkness radioed to headquarters at 12:36 p.m. that “I have
a witness that says that it came from the fifth floor of the Texas Book
Depository Store.”[C3-18] Euins accurately described the sixth floor as
the floor “under the ledge.” Harkness testified that the error in the
radio message was due to his own “hasty count of the floors.”[C3-19]
Other witnesses saw a rifle in the window after the shots were fired.
Robert H. Jackson, staff photographer, Dallas Times Herald, was in a
press car in the Presidential motorcade, eight or nine cars from the
front. On Houston Street about halfway between Main and Elm, Jackson
heard the first shot.[C3-20] As someone in the car commented that it
sounded like a firecracker, Jackson heard two more shots.[C3-21] He
testified:
Then we realized or we thought that it was gunfire, and then we
could not at that point see the President’s car. We were still
moving slowly, and after the third shot the second two shots
seemed much closer together than the first shot, than they were
to the first shot. Then after the last shot, I guess all of
us were just looking all around and I just looked straight up
ahead of me which would have been looking at the School Book
Depository and I noticed two Negro men in a window straining to
see directly above them, and my eyes followed right on up to
the window above them and I saw the rifle or what looked like
a rifle approximately half of the weapon, I guess I saw, and
just as I looked at it, it was drawn fairly slowly back into
the building, and I saw no one in the window with it.
I didn’t even see a form in the window.[C3-22]
In the car with Jackson were James Underwood, television station
KRLD-TV; Thomas Dillard, chief photographer, Dallas Morning News;
Malcolm O. Couch and James Darnell, television newsreel cameramen.
Dillard, Underwood, and the driver were in the front seat, Couch
and Darnell were sitting on top of the back seat of the convertible
with Jackson. Dillard, Couch, and Underwood confirmed that Jackson
spontaneously exclaimed that he saw a rifle in the window.[C3-23]
According to Dillard, at the time the shots were fired he and his
fellow passengers “had an absolutely perfect view of the School
Depository from our position in the open car.”[C3-24] Dillard
immediately took two pictures of the building: one of the east
two-thirds of the south side and the other of the southeast corner,
particularly the fifth- and sixth-floor windows.[C3-25] These pictures
show three Negro men in windows on the fifth floor and the partially
open window on the sixth floor directly above them. (See Dillard
Exhibits C and D, pp. 66-67.) Couch also saw the rifle in the window,
and testified:
And after the third shot, Bob Jackson, who was, as I recall,
on my right, yelled something like, “Look up in the window!
There’s the rifle!”
And I remember glancing up to a window on the far right, which
at the time impressed me as the sixth or seventh floor, and
seeing about a foot of a rifle being--the barrel brought into
the window.[C3-26]
Couch testified he saw people standing in other windows on the third
or fourth floor in the middle of the south side, one of them being a
Negro in a white T-shirt leaning out to look up at the windows above
him.[C3-27]
Mayor and Mrs. Earle Cabell rode in the motorcade immediately behind
the Vice-Presidential followup car.[C3-28] Mrs. Cabell was seated in
the back seat behind the driver and was facing U.S. Representative
Ray Roberts on her right as the car made the turn at Elm and Houston.
In this position Mrs. Cabell “was actually facing” the seven-story
Depository when the first shot rang out.[C3-29] She “jerked” her head
up immediately and saw a “projection” in the first group of windows
on a floor which she described both as the sixth floor and the top
floor.[C3-30] According to Mrs. Cabell, the object was “rather long
looking,” but she was unable to determine whether it was a mechanical
object or a person’s arm.[C3-31] She turned away from the window to
tell her husband that the noise was a shot, and “just as I got the
words out * * * the second two shots rang out.”[C3-32] Mrs. Cabell did
not look at the sixth-floor window when the second and third shots were
fired.[C3-33]
[Illustration: DILLARD EXHIBIT C
Enlargement of photograph taken by Thomas C. Dillard on November 22,
1963.]
[Illustration: DILLARD EXHIBIT D
Photograph taken by Thomas C. Dillard on November 22, 1963.]
James N. Crawford and Mary Ann Mitchell, two deputy district clerks for
Dallas County, watched the motorcade at the southeast corner of Elm and
Houston. After the President’s car turned the corner, Crawford heard
a loud report which he thought was backfire coming from the direction
of the Triple Underpass.[C3-34] He heard a second shot seconds later,
followed quickly by a third. At the third shot, he looked up and saw a
“movement” in the far east corner of the sixth floor of the Depository,
the only open window on that floor.[C3-35] He told Miss Mitchell “that
if those were shots they came from that window.” When asked to describe
the movement more exactly, he said,
* * * I would say that it was a profile, somewhat from
the waist up, but it was a very quick movement and rather
indistinct and it was very light colored. * * *
* * * * *
When I saw it, I automatically in my mind came to the
conclusion that it was a person having moved out of the window.
* * *[C3-36]
He could not state whether the person was a man or a woman.[C3-37] Miss
Mitchell confirmed that after the third shot Crawford told her, “Those
shots came from that building.”[C3-38] She saw Crawford pointing at a
window but was not sure at which window he was pointing.[C3-39]
On the Fifth Floor
Three Depository employees shown in the picture taken by Dillard were
on the fifth floor of the building when the shots were fired: James
Jarman, Jr., age 34, a wrapper in the shipping department; Bonnie Ray
Williams, age 20, a warehouseman temporarily assigned to laying a
plywood floor on the sixth floor; and Harold Norman, age 26, an “order
filler.” Norman and Jarman decided to watch the parade during the lunch
hour from the fifth-floor windows.[C3-40] From the ground floor they
took the west elevator, which operates with push-button controls, to
the fifth floor.[C3-41] Meanwhile, Williams had gone up to the sixth
floor where he had been working and ate his lunch on the south side of
that floor. Since he saw no one around when he finished his lunch, he
started down on the east elevator, looking for company. He left behind
his paper lunch sack, chicken bones and an empty pop bottle.[C3-42]
Williams went down to the fifth floor, where he joined Norman and
Jarman at approximately 12:20 pm.[C3-43]
Harold Norman was in the fifth-floor window in the southeast corner,
directly under the window where witnesses saw the rifle. (See
Commission Exhibit No. 485, p. 69.) He could see light through the
ceiling cracks between the fifth and sixth floors.[C3-44] As the
motorcade went by, Norman thought that the President was saluting with
his right arm,
[Illustration: COMMISSION EXHIBIT NO. 485 Positions occupied by
Depository employees on fifth floor on November 22, 1963.]
* * * and I can’t remember what the exact time was but I know I
heard a shot, and then after I heard the shot, well, it seems
as though the President, you know, slumped or something, and
then another shot and I believe Jarman or someone told me,
he said, “I believe someone is shooting at the President,”
and I think I made a statement “It is someone shooting at the
President, and I believe it came from up above us.”
Well, I couldn’t see at all during the time but I know I heard
a third shot fired, and I could also hear something sounded
like the shell hulls hitting the floor and the ejecting of the
rifle * * *.[C3-45]
Williams said that he “really did not pay any attention” to the first
shot--
* * * because I did not know what was happening. The second
shot, it sounded like it was right in the building, the second
and third shot. And it sounded--it even shook the building, the
side we were on. Cement fell on my head.
Q. You say cement fell on your head?
A. Cement, gravel, dirt, or something, from the old building,
because it shook the windows and everything. Harold was sitting
next to me, and he said it came right from over our head.[C3-46]
Williams testified Norman said “I can even hear the shell being ejected
from the gun hitting the floor.”[C3-47]
When Jarman heard the first sound, he thought that it was either a
backfire--
* * * or an officer giving a salute to the President. And then
at that time I didn’t, you know, think too much about it. * * *
* * * * *
Well, after the third shot was fired, I think I got up and
I run over to Harold Norman and Bonnie Ray Williams, and
told them, I said, I told them that it wasn’t a backfire or
anything, that somebody was shooting at the President.[C3-48]
Jarman testified that Norman said “that he thought the shots had come
from above us, and I noticed that Bonnie Ray had a few debris in his
head. It was sort of white stuff, or something.”[C3-49] Jarman stated
that Norman said “that he was sure that the shot came from inside the
building because he had been used to guns and all that, and he said
it didn’t sound like it was too far off anyway.”[C3-50] The three men
ran to the west side of the building, where they could look toward the
Triple Underpass to see what had happened to the motorcade.[C3-51]
After the men had gone to the window on the west side of the building,
Jarman “got to thinking about all the debris on Bonnie Ray’s head” and
said, “That shot probably did come from upstairs, up over us.”[C3-52]
He testified that Norman said, “I know it did, because I could hear
the action of the bolt, and I could hear the cartridges drop on the
floor.”[C3-53] After pausing for a few minutes, the three men ran
downstairs. Norman and Jarman ran out of the front entrance of the
building, where they saw Brennan, the construction worker who had seen
the man in the window firing the gun, talking to a police officer, and
they then reported their own experience.[C3-54]
On March 20, 1964, preceding their appearance before the Commission,
these witnesses were interviewed in Dallas. At that time members of the
Commission’s legal staff conducted an experiment. Norman, Williams,
and Jarman placed themselves at the windows of the fifth floor as they
had been on November 22. A Secret Service agent operated the bolt of
a rifle directly above them at the southeast corner window of the
sixth floor. At the same time, three cartridge shells were dropped to
the floor at intervals of about 3 seconds. According to Norman, the
noise outside was less on the day of the assassination than on the day
of the test.[C3-55] He testified, “Well, I heard the same sound, the
sound similar. I heard three something that he dropped on the floor and
then I could hear the rifle or whatever he had up there.”[C3-56] The
experiment with the shells and rifle was repeated for members of the
Commission on May 9, 1964, on June 7, 1964, and again on September 6,
1964. All seven of the Commissioners clearly heard the shells drop to
the floor.
At the Triple Underpass
In contrast to the testimony of the witnesses who heard and observed
shots fired from the Depository, the Commission’s investigation has
disclosed no credible evidence that any shots were fired from anywhere
else. When the shots were fired, many people near the Depository
believed that the shots came from the railroad bridge over the Triple
Underpass or from the area to the west of the Depository.[C3-57] In
the hectic moments after the assassination, many spectators ran in
the general direction of the Triple Underpass or the railroad yards
northwest of the building. Some were running toward the place from
which the sound of the rifle fire appeared to come, others were fleeing
the scene of the shooting.[C3-58] None of these people saw anyone with
a rifle, and the Commission’s inquiry has yielded no evidence that
shots were fired from the bridge over the Triple Underpass or from the
railroad yards.
On the day of the motorcade, Patrolman J. W. Foster stood on the east
side of the railroad bridge over the Triple Underpass and Patrolman
J. C. White stood on the west side.[C3-59] Patrolman Joe E. Murphy
was standing over Elm Street on the Stemmons Freeway overpass, west
of the railroad bridge farther away from the Depository.[C3-60] Two
other officers were stationed on Stemmons Freeway to control traffic
as the motorcade entered the Freeway.[C3-61] Under the advance
preparations worked out between the Secret Service and the Dallas
Police Department, the policemen were under instructions to keep
“unauthorized” people away from these locations.[C3-62] When the
motorcade reached the intersection of Elm and Houston Streets, there
were no spectators on Stemmons Freeway where Patrolman Murphy was
stationed.[C3-63] Patrolman Foster estimated that there were 10 or 11
people on the railroad bridge where he was assigned;[C3-64] another
witness testified that there were between 14 and 18 people there as the
motorcade came into view.[C3-65] Investigation has disclosed 15 persons
who were on the railroad bridge at this time, including 2 policemen,
2 employees of the Texas-Louisiana Freight Bureau and 11 employees of
the Union Terminal Co.[C3-66] In the absence of any explicit definition
of “unauthorized” persons, the policemen permitted these employees to
remain on the railroad bridge to watch the motorcade. (See chapter
VIII, pp. 446-447.) At the request of the policemen, S.M. Holland,
signal supervisor for Union Terminal Co., came to the railroad bridge
at about 11:45 a.m. and remained to identify those persons who were
railroad employees.[C3-67] In addition, Patrolman Foster checked
credentials to determine if persons seeking access to the bridge were
railroad employees.[C3-68] Persons who were not railroad employees were
ordered away, including one news photographer who wished only to take a
picture of the motorcade.[C3-69]
Another employee of the Union Terminal Co., Lee E. Bowers, Jr., was at
work in a railroad tower about 14 feet above the tracks to the north
of the railroad bridge and northwest of the corner of Elm and Houston,
approximately 50 yards from the back of the Depository.[C3-70] (See
Commission Exhibit No. 2218, p. 73.) From the tower he could view
people moving in the railroad yards and at the rear of the Depository.
According to Bowers, “Since approximately 10 o’clock in the morning
traffic had been cut off into the area so that anyone moving around
could actually be observed.”[C3-71] During the 20 minutes prior to
the arrival of the motorcade, Bowers noticed three automobiles which
entered his immediate area; two left without discharging any passengers
and the third was apparently on its way out when last observed by
Bowers.[C3-72] Bowers observed only three or four people in the general
area, as well as a few bystanders on the railroad bridge over the
Triple Underpass.[C3-73]
As the motorcade proceeded toward the Triple Underpass, the spectators
were clustered together along the east concrete wall of the railroad
bridge facing the oncoming procession.[C3-74] (See Commission Exhibit
No. 2215, p. 75.) Patrolman Foster stood immediately behind them and
could observe all of them.[C3-75] Secret Service agents in the lead car
of the motorcade observed the bystanders and the police officer on the
bridge.[C3-76] Special Agent Winston G. Lawson motioned through the
windshield in an unsuccessful attempt to instruct Patrolman Foster to
move the people away from their position directly over the path of the
motorcade.[C3-77] Some distance away, on the Stemmons Freeway overpass
above Elm Street, Patrolman Murphy also had the group on the railroad
bridge within view.[C3-78] When he heard the shots, Foster rushed to
the wall of the railroad bridge over the Triple Underpass and looked
toward the street.[C3-79] After the third shot, Foster ran toward the
Depository and shortly thereafter informed Inspector Herbert J. Sawyer
of the Dallas Police Department that he thought the shots came from the
vicinity of Elm and Houston.[C3-80]
[Illustration: COMMISSION EXHIBIT NO. 2118
VIEW FROM NORTH TOWER OF UNION TERMINAL COMPANY, DALLAS, TEXAS]
[Illustration: COMMISSION EXHIBIT NO. 2214
VIEW FROM TRIPLE UNDERPASS, DALLAS, TEXAS]
[Illustration: COMMISSION EXHIBIT NO. 2215
VIEW OF TRIPLE UNDERPASS FROM LOCATION ON ELM STREET
(BETWEEN ZAPRUDER FRAMES 272-280)]
Other witnesses on the railroad bridge had varying views concerning
the source and number of the shots. Austin L. Miller, employed by the
Texas-Louisiana Freight Bureau, heard three shots and thought that they
came from the area of the Presidential limousine itself.[C3-81] One of
his coworkers, Royce G. Skelton, thought he heard four shots, but could
not tell their exact source.[C3-82] Frank E. Reilly, an electrician
at Union Terminal, heard three shots which seemed to come from the
trees “On the north side of Elm Street at the corner up there.”[C3-83]
According to S.M. Holland, there were four shots which sounded as
though they came from the trees on the north side of Elm Street where
he saw a puff of smoke.[C3-84] Thomas J. Murphy, a mail foreman at
Union Terminal Co., heard two shots and said that they came from a
spot just west of the Depository.[C3-85] In the railroad tower, Bowers
heard three shots, which sounded as though they came either from the
Depository Building or near the mouth of the Triple Underpass. Prior
to November 22, 1963, Bowers had noted the similarity of the sounds
coming from the vicinity of the Depository and those from the Triple
Underpass, which he attributed to “a reverberation which takes place
from either location.”[C3-86]
Immediately after the shots were fired, neither the policemen nor
the spectators on the railroad bridge over the Triple Underpass saw
anything suspicious on the bridge in their vicinity. (See Commission
Exhibit No. 2214, p. 74.) No one saw anyone with a rifle. As he ran
around through the railroad yards to the Depository, Patrolman Foster
saw no suspicious activity.[C3-87] The same was true of the other
bystanders, many of whom made an effort after the shooting to observe
any unusual activity. Holland, for example, immediately after the
shots, ran off the overpass to see if there was anyone behind the
picket fence on the north side of Elm Street, but he did not see anyone
among the parked cars.[C3-88] Miller did not see anyone running across
the railroad tracks or on the plaza west of the Depository.[C3-89]
Bowers and others saw a motorcycle officer dismount hurriedly and
come running up the incline on the north side of Elm Street.[C3-90]
The motorcycle officer, Clyde A. Haygood, saw no one running from the
railroad yards.[C3-91]
THE PRESIDENTIAL AUTOMOBILE
After the Presidential car was returned to Washington on November 22,
1963, Secret Service agents found two bullet fragments in the front
seat. One fragment, found on the seat beside the driver, weighed 44.6
grains and consisted of the nose portion of a bullet.[C3-92] The
other fragment, found along the right side of the front seat, weighed
21.0 grains and consisted of the base portion of a bullet.[C3-93]
During the course of an examination on November 23, agents of the
Federal Bureau of Investigation found three small lead particles,
weighing between seven-tenths and nine-tenths of a grain each, on the
rug underneath the left jump seat which had been occupied by Mrs.
Connally.[C3-94] During this examination, the Bureau agents noted a
small residue of lead on the inside surface of the laminated windshield
and a very small pattern of cracks on the outer layer of the windshield
immediately behind the lead residue.[C3-95] There was a minute particle
of glass missing from the outside surface, but no penetration. The
inside layer of glass was not broken.[C3-96] The agents also observed a
dent in the strip of chrome across the top of the windshield, located
to the left of the rear view mirror support.[C3-97]
The lead residue on the inside of the windshield was compared under
spectrographic analysis by FBI experts with the bullet fragments
found on and alongside the front seat and with the fragments under
the left jump seat. It was also compared with bullet fragments found
at Parkland Hospital. All these bullet fragments were found to be
similar in metallic composition, but it was not possible to determine
whether two or more of the fragments came from the same bullet.[C3-98]
It is possible for the fragments from the front seat to have been a
part of the same bullet as the three fragments found near the left
jump seat,[C3-99] since a whole bullet of this type weighs 160-161
grains.[C3-100] (See app. X, pp. 555-558.)
The physical characteristics of the windshield after the assassination
demonstrate that the windshield was struck on the inside surface. The
windshield is composed of two layers of glass with a very thin layer
of plastic in the middle “which bonds them together in the form of
safety glass.”[C3-101] The windshield was extracted from the automobile
and was examined during a Commission hearing.[C3-102] (See Commission
Exhibit No. 350, p. 78.) According to Robert A. Frazier, FBI firearms
expert, the fact that cracks were present on the outer layer of glass
showed that the glass had been struck from the inside. He testified
that the windshield
could not have been struck on the outside surface because of
the manner in which the glass broke and further because of the
lead residue on the inside surface. The cracks appear in the
outer layer of the glass because the glass is bent outward at
the time of impact which stretches the outer layer of the glass
to the point where these small radial or wagon spoke, wagon
wheel spoke-type cracks appear on the outer surface.[C3-103]
Although there is some uncertainty whether the dent in the chrome on
the windshield was present prior to the assassination,[C3-104] Frazier
testified that the dent “had been caused by some projectile which
struck the chrome on the inside surface.”[C3-105] If it was caused
by a shot during the assassination, Frazier stated that it would not
have been caused by a bullet traveling at full velocity, but rather
by a fragment traveling at “fairly high velocity.”[C3-106] It could
have been caused by either fragment found in the front seat of the
limousine.[C3-107]
[Illustration: COMMISSION EXHIBIT NO. 350
Windshield of Presidential limousine.]
EXPERT EXAMINATION OF RIFLE, CARTRIDGE CASES, AND BULLET FRAGMENTS
On the sixth floor of the Depository Building, the Dallas police
found three spent cartridges and a rifle. A nearly whole bullet was
discovered on the stretcher used to carry Governor Connally at Parkland
Hospital. As described in the preceding section, five bullet fragments
were found in the President’s limousine. The cartridge cases, the
nearly whole bullet and the bullet fragments were all subjected to
firearms identification analysis by qualified experts. It was the
unanimous opinion of the experts that the nearly whole bullet, the two
largest bullet fragments and the three cartridge cases were definitely
fired in the rifle found on the sixth floor of the Depository Building
to the exclusion of all other weapons.
Discovery of Cartridge Cases and Rifle
Shortly after the assassination, police officers arrived at the
Depository Building and began a search for the assassin and
evidence.[C3-108] Around 1 p.m. Deputy Sheriff Luke Mooney noticed a
pile of cartons in front of the window in the southeast corner of the
sixth floor.[C3-109] (See Commission Exhibit No. 723, p. 80.) Searching
that area he found at approximately 1:12 p.m. three empty cartridge
cases on the floor near the window.[C3-110] When he was notified of
Mooney’s discovery, Capt. J. W. Fritz, chief of the homicide bureau of
the Dallas Police Department, issued instructions that nothing be moved
or touched until technicians from the police crime laboratory could
take photographs and check for fingerprints.[C3-111] Mooney stood guard
to see that nothing was disturbed.[C3-112] A few minutes later, Lt.
J. C. Day of the Dallas Police Department arrived and took photographs
of the cartridge cases before anything had been moved.[C3-113]
At 1:22 p.m. Deputy Sheriff Eugene Boone and Deputy Constable Seymour
Weitzman found a bolt-action rifle with a telescopic sight between two
rows of boxes in the northwest corner near the staircase on the sixth
floor.[C3-114] No one touched the weapon or otherwise disturbed the
scene until Captain Fritz and Lieutenant Day arrived and the weapon
was photographed as it lay on the floor.[C3-115] After Lieutenant Day
determined that there were no fingerprints on the knob of the bolt and
that the wooden stock was too rough to take fingerprints, he picked the
rifle up by the stock and held it that way while Captain Fritz opened
the bolt and ejected a live round.[C3-116] Lieutenant Day retained
possession of the weapon and took it back to the police department
for examination.[C3-117] Neither Boone nor Weitzman handled the
rifle.[C3-118]
Discovery of Bullet at Parkland Hospital
A nearly whole bullet was found on Governor Connally’s stretcher
at Parkland Hospital after the assassination. After his arrival at
the hospital the Governor was brought into trauma room No. 2 on a
stretcher, removed from the room on that stretcher a short time later,
and taken on an elevator to the second-floor operating room.[C3-119] On
the second floor he was transferred from the stretcher to an operating
table which was then moved into the operating room, and a hospital
attendant wheeled the empty stretcher into an elevator.[C3-120] Shortly
afterward, Darrell C. Tomlinson, the hospital’s senior engineer,
removed this stretcher from the elevator and placed it in the corridor
on the ground floor, alongside another stretcher wholly unconnected
with the care of Governor Connally.[C3-121] A few minutes later, he
bumped one of the stretchers against the wall and a bullet rolled
out.[C3-122]
[Illustration: COMMISSION EXHIBIT NO. 723
Shield of cartons around sixth floor southeast corner window.]
Although Tomlinson was not certain whether the bullet came from the
Connally stretcher or the adjacent one, the Commission has concluded
that the bullet came from the Governor’s stretcher. That conclusion is
buttressed by evidence which eliminated President Kennedy’s stretcher
as a source of the bullet. President Kennedy remained on the stretcher
on which he was carried into the hospital while the doctors tried to
save his life.[C3-123] He was never removed from the stretcher from the
time he was taken into the emergency room until his body was placed
in a casket in that same room.[C3-124] After the President’s body
was removed from that stretcher, the linen was taken off and placed
in a hamper and the stretcher was pushed into trauma room No. 2, a
completely different location from the site where the nearly whole
bullet was found.[C3-125]
Description of Rifle
The bolt-action, clip-fed rifle found on the sixth floor of the
Depository, described more fully in appendix X, is inscribed with
various markings, including “MADE ITALY,” “CAL. 6.5,” “1940” and the
number C2766.[C3-126] (See Commission Exhibit Nos. 1303, 541(2) and
541(3), pp. 82-83.) These markings have been explained as follows:
“MADE ITALY” refers to its origin; “CAL. 6.5” refers to the rifle’s
caliber; “1940” refers to the year of manufacture; and the number
C2766 is the serial number. This rifle is the only one of its type
bearing that serial number.[C3-127] After review of standard reference
works and the markings on the rifle, it was identified by the FBI as a
6.5-millimeter model 91/38 Mannlicher-Carcano rifle.[C3-128] Experts
from the FBI made an independent determination of the caliber by
inserting a Mannlicher-Carcano 6.5-millimeter cartridge into the weapon
for fit, and by making a sulfur cast of the inside of the weapon’s
barrel and measuring the cast with a micrometer.[C3-129] From outward
appearance, the weapon would appear to be a 7.35-millimeter rifle, but
its mechanism had been rebarreled with a 6.5-millimeter barrel.[C3-130]
Constable Deputy Sheriff Weitzman, who only saw the rifle at a glance
and did not handle it, thought the weapon looked like a 7.65 Mauser
bolt-action rifle.[C3-131] (See chapter V, p. 235.)
The rifle is 40.2 inches long and weighs 8 pounds.[C3-132] The
minimum length broken down is 34.8 inches, the length of the wooden
stock.[C3-133] (See Commission Exhibit No. 1304, p. 132.) Attached
to the weapon is an inexpensive four-power telescopic sight,
stamped “Optics Ordnance Inc./Hollywood California,” and “Made in
Japan.”[C3-134] The weapon also bears a sling consisting of two leather
straps. The sling is not a standard rifle sling but appears to be a
musical instrument strap or a sling from a carrying case or camera
bag.[C3-135]
[Illustration: COMMISSION EXHIBIT NO. 1303]
[Illustration: COMMISSION EXHIBITS NOS. 541(2) AND 541(3)
Photograph of markings on C2766 Mannlicher-Carcano rifle.]
Expert Testimony
Four experts in the field of firearms identification analyzed the
nearly whole bullet, the two largest fragments and the three cartridge
cases to determine whether they had been fired from the C2766
Mannlicher-Carcano rifle found on the sixth floor of the Depository.
Two of these experts testified before the Commission. One was Robert A.
Frazier, a special agent of the FBI assigned to the FBI Laboratory in
Washington, D.C. Frazier has worked generally in the field of firearms
identification for 23 years, examining firearms of various types for
the purpose of identifying the caliber and other characteristics of the
weapons and making comparisons of bullets and cartridge cases for the
purpose of determining whether or not they were fired in a particular
weapon.[C3-136] He estimated that he has made “in the neighborhood of
50,000 to 60,000” firearms comparisons and has testified in court on
about 400 occasions.[C3-137] The second witness who testified on this
subject was Joseph D. Nicol, superintendent of the bureau of criminal
identification and investigation for the State of Illinois. Nicol
also has had long and substantial experience since 1941 in firearms
identification, and estimated that he has made thousands of bullet and
cartridge case examinations.[C3-138]
In examining the bullet fragments and cartridge cases, these experts
applied the general principles accepted in the field of firearms
identification, which are discussed in more detail in appendix X at
pages 547-553. In brief, a determination that a particular bullet or
cartridge case has been fired in a particular weapon is based upon a
comparison of the bullet or case under examination with one or more
bullets or cases known to have been fired in that weapon. When a bullet
is fired in any given weapon, it is engraved with the characteristics
of the weapon. In addition to the rifling characteristics of the
barrel which are common to all weapons of a given make and model,
every weapon bears distinctive microscopic markings on its barrel,
firing pin and bolt face.[C3-139] These markings arise initially
during manufacture, since the action of the manufacturing tools
differs microscopically from weapon to weapon and since, in addition,
the tools change microscopically while being used. As a weapon is
used further distinctive markings are introduced. Under microscopic
examination a qualified expert may be able to determine whether the
markings on a bullet known to have been fired in a particular weapon
and the markings on a suspect bullet are the same and, therefore,
whether both bullets were fired in the same weapon to the exclusion
of all other weapons. Similarly, firearms identification experts are
able to compare the markings left upon the base of cartridge cases and
thereby determine whether both cartridges were fired by the same weapon
to the exclusion of all other weapons. According to Frazier, such
an identification “is made on the presence of sufficient individual
microscopic characteristics so that a very definite pattern is formed
and visualized on the two surfaces.”[C3-140] Under some circumstances,
as where the bullet or cartridge case is seriously mutilated, there are
not sufficient individual characteristics to enable the expert to make
a firm identification.[C3-141]
After making independent examinations, both Frazier and Nicol
positively identified the nearly whole bullet from the stretcher and
the two larger bullet fragments found in the Presidential limousine as
having been fired in the C2766 Mannlicher-Carcano rifle found in the
Depository to the exclusion of all other weapons.[C3-142] Each of the
two bullet fragments had sufficient unmutilated area to provide the
basis for an identification.[C3-143] However, it was not possible to
determine whether the two bullet fragments were from the same bullet
or from two different bullets.[C3-144] With regard to the other bullet
fragments discovered in the limousine and in the course of treating
President Kennedy and Governor Connally, however, expert examination
could demonstrate only that the fragments were “similar in metallic
composition” to each other, to the two larger fragments and to the
nearly whole bullet.[C3-145] After examination of the three cartridge
cases found on the sixth floor of the Depository, Frazier and Nicol
concluded that they had been fired in the C2766 Mannlicher-Carcano
rifle to the exclusion of all other weapons.[C3-146] Two other experts
from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, who made independent
examinations of the nearly whole bullet, bullet fragments and cartridge
cases, reached the identical conclusions.[C3-147]
THE BULLET WOUNDS
In considering the question of the source of the shots fired at
President Kennedy and Governor Connally, the Commission has also
evaluated the expert medical testimony of the doctors who observed
the wounds during the emergency treatment at Parkland Hospital and
during the autopsy at Bethesda Naval Hospital. It paid particular
attention to any wound characteristics which would be of assistance
in identifying a wound as the entrance or exit point of a missile.
Additional information regarding the source and nature of the injuries
was obtained by expert examination of the clothes worn by the two men,
particularly those worn by President Kennedy, and from the results of
special wound ballistics tests conducted at the Commission’s request,
using the C2766 Mannlicher-Carcano rifle with ammunition of the same
type as that used and found on November 22, 1963.
The President’s Head Wounds
The detailed autopsy of President Kennedy performed on the night of
November 22 at the Bethesda Naval Hospital led the three examining
pathologists to conclude that the smaller hole in the rear of the
President’s skull was the point of entry and that the large opening on
the right side of his head was the wound of exit.[C3-148] The smaller
hole on the back of the President’s head measured one-fourth of an
inch by five-eighths of an inch (6 by 15 millimeters).[C3-149] The
dimensions of that wound were consistent with having been caused by
a 6.5-millimeter bullet fired from behind and above which struck at
a tangent or an angle causing a 15-millimeter cut. The cut reflected
a larger dimension of entry than the bullet’s diameter of 6.5
millimeters, since the missile, in effect, sliced along the skull for
a fractional distance until it entered.[C3-150] The dimension of 6
millimeters, somewhat smaller than the diameter of a 6.5-millimeter
bullet, was caused by the elastic recoil of the skull which shrinks the
size of an opening after a missile passes through it.[C3-151]
Lt. Col. Pierre A. Finck, Chief of the Wound Ballistics Pathology
Branch of the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, who has
had extensive experience with bullet wounds, illustrated the
characteristics which led to his conclusions about the head wound by
a chart prepared by him. This chart, based on Colonel Finck’s studies
of more than 400 cases, depicted the effect of a perforating missile
wound on the human skull.[C3-152] When a bullet enters the skull
(cranial vault) at one point and exits at another, it causes a beveling
or cratering effect where the diameter of the hole is smaller on the
impact side than on the exit side. Based on his observations of that
beveling effect on the President’s skull, Colonel Finck testified:
“President Kennedy was, in my opinion, shot from the rear. The bullet
entered in the back of the head and went out on the right side of his
skull * * * he was shot from above and behind.”[C3-153]
Comdr. James J. Humes, senior pathologist and director of laboratories
at the Bethesda Naval Hospital, who acted as chief autopsy surgeon,
concurred in Colonel Finck’s analysis. He compared the beveling or
coning effect to that caused by a BB shot which strikes a pane of
glass, causing a round or oval defect on the side of the glass where
the missile strikes and a belled-out or coned-out surface on the
opposite side of the glass.[C3-154] Referring to the bullet hole on the
back of President Kennedy’s head, Commander Humes testified: “The wound
on the inner table, however, was larger and had what in the field of
wound ballistics is described as a shelving or coning effect.”[C3-155]
After studying the other hole in the President’s skull, Commander Humes
stated: “* * * we concluded that the large defect to the upper right
side of the skull, in fact, would represent a wound of exit.”[C3-156]
Those characteristics led Commander Humes and Comdr. J. Thornton
Boswell, chief of pathology at Bethesda Naval Hospital, who assisted
in the autopsy, to conclude that the bullet penetrated the rear of the
President’s head and exited through a large wound on the right side of
his head.[C3-157]
Ballistics experiments (discussed more fully in app. X, pp. 585-586)
showed that the rifle and bullets identified above were capable of
producing the President’s head wound. The Wound Ballistics Branch of
the U.S. Army laboratories at Edgewood Arsenal, Md., conducted an
extensive series of experiments to test the effect of Western Cartridge
Co. 6.5-millimeter bullets, the type found on Governor Connally’s
stretcher and in the Presidential limousine, fired from the C2766
Mannlicher-Carcano rifle found in the Depository. The Edgewood Arsenal
tests were performed under the immediate supervision of Alfred G.
Olivier, a doctor who had spent 7 years in wounds ballistics research
for the U.S. Army.[C3-158]
One series of tests, performed on reconstructed inert human skulls,
demonstrated that the President’s head wound could have been caused
by the rifle and bullets fired by the assassin from the sixth-floor
window. The results of this series were illustrated by the findings on
one skull which was struck at a point closely approximating the wound
of entry on President Kennedy’s head. That bullet blew out the right
side of the reconstructed skull in a manner very similar to the head
wound of the President.[C3-159] As a result of these tests, Dr. Olivier
concluded that a Western Cartridge Co. 6.5 bullet fired from the C2766
Mannlicher-Carcano rifle at a distance of 90 yards would make the same
type of wound as that found on the President’s head. Referring to the
series of tests, Dr. Olivier testified:
It disclosed that the type of head wounds that the President
received could be done by this type of bullet. This surprised
me very much, because this type of stable bullet I didn’t
think would cause a massive head wound, I thought it would go
through making a small entrance and exit, but the bones of the
skull are enough to deform the end of this bullet causing it to
expend a lot of energy and blowing out the side of the skull or
blowing out fragments of the skull.[C3-160]
After examining the fragments of the bullet which struck the
reconstructed skull, Dr. Olivier stated that--
the recovered fragments were very similar to the ones recovered
on the front seat and on the floor of the car.
This, to me, indicates that those fragments did come from the
bullet that wounded the President in the head.[C3-161]
The President’s Neck Wounds
During the autopsy at Bethesda Naval Hospital another bullet wound
was observed near the base of the back of President Kennedy’s neck
slightly to the right of his spine which provides further enlightenment
as to the source of the shots. The hole was located approximately 5½
inches (14 centimeters) from the tip of the right shoulder joint and
approximately the same distance below the tip of the right mastoid
process, the bony point immediately behind the ear.[C3-162] The
wound was approximately one-fourth by one-seventh of an inch (7 by
4 millimeters), had clean edges, was sharply delineated, and had
margins similar in all respects to those of the entry wound in the
skull.[C3-163] Commanders Humes and Boswell agreed with Colonel Finck’s
testimony that this hole--
* * * is a wound of entrance. * * * The basis for that
conclusion is that this wound was relatively small with clean
edges. It was not a jagged wound, and that is what we see in
wound of entrance at a long range.[C3-164]
The autopsy examination further disclosed that, after entering the
President, the bullet passed between two large muscles, produced a
contusion on the upper part of the pleural cavity (without penetrating
that cavity), bruised the top portion of the right lung and ripped the
windpipe (trachea) in its path through the President’s neck.[C3-165]
The examining surgeons concluded that the wounds were caused by the
bullet rather than the tracheotomy performed at Parkland Hospital.
The nature of the bruises indicated that the President’s heart and
lungs were functioning when the bruises were caused, whereas there
was very little circulation in the President’s body when incisions
on the President’s chest were made to insert tubes during the
tracheotomy.[C3-166] No bone was struck by the bullet which passed
through the President’s body.[C3-167] By projecting from a point of
entry on the rear of the neck and proceeding at a slight downward angle
through the bruised interior portions, the doctors concluded that the
bullet exited from the front portion of the President’s neck that had
been cut away by the tracheotomy.[C3-168]
Concluding that a bullet passed through the President’s neck, the
doctors at Bethesda Naval Hospital rejected a theory that the bullet
lodged in the large muscles in the back of his neck and fell out
through the point of entry when external heart massage was applied at
Parkland Hospital. In the earlier stages of the autopsy, the surgeons
were unable to find a path into any large muscle in the back of the
neck. At that time they did not know that there had been a bullet
hole in the front of the President’s neck when he arrived at Parkland
Hospital because the tracheotomy incision had completely eliminated
that evidence.[C3-169] While the autopsy was being performed, surgeons
learned that a whole bullet had been found at Parkland Hospital on
a stretcher which, at that time, was thought to be the stretcher
occupied by the President. This led to speculation that the bullet
might have penetrated a short distance into the back of the neck and
then dropped out onto the stretcher as a result of the external heart
massage.[C3-170]
Further exploration during the autopsy disproved that theory. The
surgeons determined that the bullet had passed between two large strap
muscles and bruised them without leaving any channel, since the bullet
merely passed between them.[C3-171] Commander Humes, who believed
that a tracheotomy had been performed from his observations at the
autopsy, talked by telephone with Dr. Perry early on the morning of
November 23, and learned that his assumption was correct and that Dr.
Perry had used the missile wound in the neck as the point to make the
incision.[C3-172] This confirmed the Bethesda surgeons’ conclusion that
the bullet had exited from the front part of the neck.
The findings of the doctors who conducted the autopsy were consistent
with the observations of the doctors who treated the President at
Parkland Hospital. Dr. Charles S. Carrico, a resident surgeon at
Parkland, noted a small wound approximately one-fourth of an inch in
diameter (5 to 8 millimeters) in the lower third of the neck below
the Adam’s apple.[C3-173] Dr. Malcolm O. Perry, who performed the
tracheotomy, described the wound as approximately one-fifth of an inch
in diameter (5 millimeters) and exuding blood which partially hid edges
that were “neither cleancut, that is, punched out, nor were they very
ragged.”[C3-174] Dr. Carrico testified as follows:
Q. Based on your observations on the neck wound alone did you
have a sufficient basis to form an opinion as to whether it was
an entrance or an exit wound?
A. No, sir; we did not. Not having completely evaluated all
the wounds, traced out the course of the bullets, this wound
would have been compatible with either entrance or exit wound
depending upon the size, the velocity, the tissue structure and
so forth.[C3-175]
The same response was made by Dr. Perry to a similar query:
Q. Based on the appearance of the neck wound alone, could it
have been either an entrance or an exit wound?
A. It could have been either.[C3-176]
Then each doctor was asked to take into account the other known facts,
such as the autopsy findings, the approximate distance the bullet
traveled and tested muzzle velocity of the assassination weapon. With
these additional factors, the doctors commented on the wound on the
front of the President’s neck as follows:
Dr. CARRICO. With those facts and the fact as I understand it
no other bullet was found this would be, this was, I believe,
was an exit wound.[C3-177]
Dr. PERRY. A full jacketed bullet without deformation passing
through skin would leave a similar wound for an exit and
entrance wound and with the facts which you have made available
and with these assumptions, I believe that it was an exit
wound.[C3-178]
Other doctors at Parkland Hospital who observed the wound prior to
the tracheotomy agreed with the observations of Drs. Perry and
Carrico.[C3-179] The bullet wound in the neck could be seen for only
a short time, since Dr. Perry eliminated evidence of it when he
performed the tracheotomy. He selected that spot since it was the point
where such an operation was customarily performed, and it was one
of the safest and easiest spots from which to reach the trachea. In
addition, there was possibly an underlying wound to the muscles in the
neck, the carotid artery or the jugular vein, and Dr. Perry concluded
that the incision, therefore, had to be low in order to maintain
respiration.[C3-180]
Considerable confusion has arisen because of comments attributed to
Dr. Perry concerning the nature of the neck wound. Immediately after
the assassination, many people reached erroneous conclusions about the
source of the shots because of Dr. Perry’s observations to the press.
On the afternoon of November 22, a press conference was organized
at Parkland Hospital by members of the White House press staff and
a hospital administrator. Newsmen with microphones and cameras were
crowded into a room to hear statements by Drs. Perry and William
Kemp Clark, chief neurosurgeon at Parkland, who had attended to
President Kennedy’s head injury. Dr. Perry described the situation as
“bedlam.”[C3-181] The confusion was compounded by the fact that some
questions were only partially answered before other questions were
asked.[C3-182]
At the news conference, Dr. Perry answered a series of hypothetical
questions and stated to the press that a variety of possibilities
could account for the President’s wounds. He stated that a single
bullet could have caused the President’s wounds by entering through
the throat, striking the spine, and being deflected upward with the
point of exit being through the head.[C3-183] This would have accounted
for the two wounds he observed, the hole in the front of the neck and
the large opening in the skull. At that time, Dr. Perry did not know
about either the wound on the back of the President’s neck or the small
bullet-hole wound in the back of the head. As described in chapter
II, the President was lying on his back during his entire time at
Parkland. The small hole in the head was also hidden from view by the
large quantity of blood which covered the President’s head. Dr. Perry
said his answers at the press conference were intended to convey his
theory about what could have happened, based on his limited knowledge
at the time, rather than his professional opinion about what did
happen.[C3-184] Commenting on his answers at the press conference, Dr.
Perry testified before the Commission:
I expressed it [his answers] as a matter of speculation that
this was conceivable. But, again, Dr. Clark [who also answered
questions at the conference] and I emphasized that we had no
way of knowing.[C3-185]
Dr. Perry’s recollection of his comments is corroborated by some of the
news stories after the press conference. The New York Herald Tribune on
November 23, 1963, reported as follows:
Dr. Malcolm Perry, 34, attendant surgeon at Parkland Hospital
who attended the President, said he saw two wounds--one below
the Adam’s apple, the other at the back of the head. He said he
did not know if two bullets were involved. It is possible, he
said, that the neck wound was the entrance and the other the
exit of the missile.[C3-186]
According to this report, Dr. Perry stated merely that it was
“possible” that the neck wound was a wound of entrance. This conforms
with his testimony before the Commission, where he stated that by
themselves the characteristics of the neck wound were consistent with
being either a point of entry or exit.
_Wound ballistics tests._--Experiments performed by the Army Wound
Ballistics experts at Edgewood Arsenal, Md. (discussed in app. X, p.
582) showed that under simulated conditions entry and exit wounds are
very similar in appearance. After reviewing the path of the bullet
through the President’s neck, as disclosed in the autopsy report,
the experts simulated the neck by using comparable material with a
thickness of approximately 5½ inches (13½ to 14½ centimeters), which
was the distance traversed by the bullet. Animal skin was placed on
each side, and Western Cartridge Co. 6.5 bullets were fired from the
C2766 Mannlicher-Carcano rifle from a distance of 180 feet. The animal
skin on the entry side showed holes which were regular and round.
On the exit side two holes were only slightly elongated, indicating
that the bullet had become only a little unstable at the point of
exit.[C3-187] A third exit hole was round, although not quite as
regular as the entry holes.[C3-188] The exit holes, especially the
one most nearly round, appeared similar to the descriptions given by
Drs. Perry and Carrico of the hole in the front of the President’s
neck.[C3-189]
The autopsy disclosed that the bullet which entered the back of the
President’s neck hit no bony structure and proceeded in a slightly
downward angle. The markings on the President’s clothing indicate
that the bullet moved in a slight right to left lateral direction as
it passed through the President’s body.[C3-190] After the examining
doctors expressed the thought that a bullet would have lost very
little velocity in passing through the soft tissue of the neck, wound
ballistics experts conducted tests to measure the exit velocity of
the bullet.[C3-191] The tests were the same as those used to create
entry and exit holes, supplemented by the use of break-type screens
which measured the velocity of bullets. The entrance velocity of the
bullet fired from the rifle averaged 1,904 feet per second after it
traveled 180 feet. The exit velocity averaged 1,772 to 1,798 feet per
second, depending upon the substance through which the bullet passed.
A photograph of the path of the bullet traveling through the simulated
neck showed that it proceeded in a straight line and was stable.[C3-192]
_Examination of clothing._--The clothing worn by President Kennedy on
November 22 had holes and tears which showed that a missile entered
the back of his clothing in the vicinity of his lower neck and exited
through the front of his shirt immediately behind his tie, nicking the
knot of his tie in its forward flight.[C3-193] Although the caliber
of the bullet could not be determined and some of the clothing items
precluded a positive determination that some tears were made by a
bullet, all the defects could have been caused by a 6.5-millimeter
bullet entering the back of the President’s lower neck and exiting in
the area of the knot of his tie.[C3-194]
An examination of the suit jacket worn by the President by FBI Agent
Frazier revealed a roughly circular hole approximately one-fourth of
an inch in diameter on the rear of the coat, 5⅜ inches below the top
of the collar and 1¾ inches to the right of the center back seam of
the coat.[C3-195] The hole was visible on the upper rear of the coat
slightly to the right of center. Traces of copper were found in the
margins of the hole and the cloth fibers around the margins were pushed
inward.[C3-196] Those characteristics established that the hole was
caused by an entering bullet.[C3-197] Although the precise size of the
bullet could not be determined from the hole, it was consistent with
having been made by a 6.5-millimeter bullet.[C3-198]
The shirt worn by the President contained a hole on the back side 5¾
inches below the top of the collar and 1⅛ inches to the right of the
middle of the back of the shirt.[C3-199] The hole on the rear of the
shirt was approximately circular in shape and about one-fourth of an
inch in diameter, with the fibers pressed inward.[C3-200] These factors
established it as a bullet entrance hole.[C3-201] The relative position
of the hole in the back of the suit jacket to the hole in the back
of the shirt indicated that both were caused by the same penetrating
missile.[C3-202]
On the front of the shirt, examination revealed a hole seven-eighths
of an inch below the collar button and a similar opening seven-eighths
of an inch below the buttonhole. These two holes fell into alinement
on overlapping positions when the shirt was buttoned.[C3-203] Each
hole was a vertical, ragged slit approximately one-half of an inch
in height, with the cloth fibers protruding outward. Although the
characteristics of the slit established that the missile had exited
to the front, the irregular nature of the slit precluded a positive
determination that it was a bullet hole.[C3-204] However, the hole
could have been caused by a round bullet although the characteristics
were not sufficiently clear to enable the examining expert to render a
conclusive opinion.[C3-205]
When the President’s clothing was removed at Parkland Hospital, his tie
was cut off by severing the loop immediately to the wearer’s left of
the knot, leaving the knot in its original condition.[C3-206] The tie
had a nick on the left side of the knot.[C3-207] The nick was elongated
horizontally, indicating that the tear was made by some object moving
horizontally, but the fibers were not affected in a manner which would
shed light on the direction or the nature of the missile.[C3-208]
The Governor’s Wounds
While riding in the right jump seat of the Presidential limousine
on November 22, Governor Connally sustained wounds of the back,
chest, right wrist and left thigh. Because of the small size and
clean-cut edges of the wound on the Governor’s back, Dr. Robert Shaw
concluded that it was an entry wound.[C3-209] The bullet traversed
the Governor’s chest in a downward angle, shattering his fifth rib,
and exited below the right nipple.[C3-210] The ragged edges of the
2-inch (5 centimeters) opening on the front of the chest led Dr. Shaw
to conclude that it was the exit point of the bullet.[C3-211] When
Governor Connally testified before the Commission 5 months after
the assassination, on April 21, 1964, the Commission observed the
Governor’s chest wounds, as well as the injuries to his wrist and thigh
and watched Dr. Shaw measure with a caliper an angle of declination of
25° from the point of entry on the back to the point of exit on the
front of the Governor’s chest.[C3-212]
At the time of the shooting, Governor Connally was unaware that he had
sustained any injuries other than his chest wounds.[C3-213] On the back
of his arm, about 2 inches (5 centimeters) above the wrist joint on
the thumb side, Dr. Charles F. Gregory observed a linear perforating
wound approximately one-fifth of an inch (one-half centimeter) wide
and 1 inch (2½ centimeters) long.[C3-214] During his operation on this
injury, the doctor concluded that this ragged wound was the point of
entry because thread and cloth had been carried into the wound to the
region of the bone.[C3-215] Dr. Gregory’s conclusions were also based
upon the location in the Governor’s wrist, as revealed by X-ray, of
small fragments of metal shed by the missile upon striking the firm
surface of the bone.[C3-216] Evidence of different amounts of air in
the tissues of the wrist gave further indication that the bullet passed
from the back to the front of the wrist.[C3-217] An examination of the
palm surface of the wrist showed a wound approximately one-fifth of
an inch (one-half centimeter) long and approximately three-fourths of
an inch (2 centimeters) above the crease of the right wrist.[C3-218]
Dr. Shaw had initially believed that the missile entered on the palm
side of the Governor’s wrist and exited on the back side.[C3-219]
After reviewing the factors considered by Dr. Gregory, however, Dr.
Shaw withdrew his earlier opinion. He deferred to the judgment of Dr.
Gregory, who had more closely examined that wound during the wrist
operation.[C3-220]
In addition, Governor Connally suffered a puncture wound in the left
thigh that was approximately two-fifths of an inch (1 centimeter) in
diameter and located approximately 5 or 6 inches above the Governor’s
left knee.[C3-221] On the Governor’s leg, very little soft-tissue
damage was noted, which indicated a tangential wound or the penetration
of a larger missile entering at low velocity and stopping after
entering the skin.[C3-222] X-ray examination disclosed a tiny metallic
fragment embedded in the Governor’s leg.[C3-223] The surgeons who
attended the Governor concluded that the thigh wound was not caused
by the small fragment in the thigh but resulted from the impact of a
larger missile.[C3-224]
_Examination of clothing._--The clothing worn by Governor Connally
on November 22, 1963, contained holes which matched his wounds. On
the back of the Governor’s coat, a hole was found 1⅛ inches from
the seam where the right sleeve attached to the coat and 7¼ inches
to the right of the midline.[C3-225] This hole was elongated in a
horizontal direction approximately five-eighths of an inch in length
and one-fourth of an inch in height.[C3-226] The front side of the
Governor’s coat contained a circular hole three-eighths of an inch in
diameter, located 5 inches to the right of the front right edge of the
coat slightly above the top button.[C3-227] A rough hole approximately
five-eighths of an inch in length and three-eighths of an inch in width
was found near the end of the right sleeve.[C3-228] Each of these holes
could have been caused by a bullet, but a positive determination of
this fact or the direction of the missile was not possible because the
garment had been cleaned and pressed prior to any opportunity for a
scientific examination.[C3-229]
An examination of the Governor’s shirt disclosed a very ragged tear
five-eighths of an inch long horizontally and one-half of an inch
vertically on the back of the shirt near the right sleeve 2 inches
from the line where the sleeve attaches.[C3-230] Immediately to the
right was another small tear, approximately three-sixteenths of an inch
long.[C3-231] The two holes corresponded in position to the hole in
the back of the Governor’s coat.[C3-232] A very irregular tear in the
form of an “H” was observed on the front side of the Governor’s shirt,
approximately 1½ inches high, with a crossbar tear approximately 1 inch
wide, located 5 inches from the right side seam and 9 inches from the
top of the right sleeve.[C3-233] Because the shirt had been laundered,
there were insufficient characteristics for the expert examiner to form
a conclusive opinion on the direction or nature of the object causing
the holes.[C3-234] The rear hole could have been caused by the entrance
of a 6.5-millimeter bullet and the front hole by the exit of such a
bullet.[C3-235]
On the French cuff of the right sleeve of the Governor’s shirt was
a ragged, irregularly shaped hole located 1½ inches from the end of
the sleeve and 5½ inches from the outside cuff-link hole.[C3-236] The
characteristics after laundering did not permit positive conclusions
but these holes could have been caused by a bullet passing through the
Governor’s right wrist from the back to the front sides.[C3-237] The
Governor’s trousers contained a hole approximately one-fourth of an
inch in diameter in the region of the left knee.[C3-238] The roughly
circular shape of the hole and the slight tearing away from the edges
gave the hole the general appearance of a bullet hole but it was not
possible to determine the direction of the missile which caused the
hole.[C3-239]
_Course of bullet._--Ballistics experiments and medical findings
established that the missile which passed through the Governor’s wrist
and penetrated his thigh had first traversed his chest. The Army Wound
Ballistics experts conducted tests which proved that the Governor’s
wrist wound was not caused by a pristine bullet. (See app. X, pp.
582-585.) A bullet is pristine immediately on exiting from a rifle
muzzle when it moves in a straight line with a spinning motion and
maintains its uniform trajectory with but a minimum of nose surface
striking the air through which it passes.[C3-240] When the straight
line of flight of a bullet is deflected by striking some object, it
starts to wobble or become irregular in flight, a condition called
yaw.[C3-241] A bullet with yaw has a greater surface exposed to the
striking material or air, since the target or air is struck not only
by the nose of the bullet, its smallest striking surface, but also by
the bullet’s sides.[C3-242]
The ballistics experts learned the exact nature of the Governor’s wrist
wound by examining Parkland Hospital records and X-rays and conferring
with Dr. Gregory. The C2766 Mannlicher-Carcano rifle found in the
Depository was fired with bullets of the same type as the bullet found
on the Governor’s stretcher and the fragments found in the Presidential
limousine. Shots were fired from a distance of 70 yards at comparable
flesh and bone protected by material similar to the clothing worn by
the Governor.[C3-243] One of the test shots wounded the comparable
flesh and bone structure in virtually the same place and from the same
angle as the wound inflicted on Governor Connally’s wrist. An X-ray and
photograph of the simulated wrist confirmed the similarity.[C3-244] The
bullet which inflicted that injury during the tests had a nose which
was substantially flattened from striking the material.[C3-245] The
striking velocity at 70 yards of seven shots fired during the tests
averaged 1,858 feet per second; the average exit velocity of five shots
was 1,776 feet per second.[C3-246]
The conclusion that the Governor’s wrist was not struck by a pristine
bullet was based upon the following: (1) greater damage was inflicted
on the test material than on the Governor’s wrist;[C3-247] (2) the
test material had a smaller entry wound and a larger exit wound,
characteristic of a pristine bullet, while the Governor’s wrist had
a larger entry wound as compared with its exit wound, indicating a
bullet which was tumbling;[C3-248] (3) cloth was carried into the
wrist wound, which is characteristic of an irregular missile;[C3-249]
(4) the partial cutting of a radial nerve and tendon leading to the
Governor’s thumb further suggested that the bullet which struck him was
not pristine, since such a bullet would merely push aside a tendon and
nerve rather than catch and tear them;[C3-250] (5) the bullet found
on the Governor’s stretcher probably did not pass through the wrist
as a pristine bullet because its nose was not considerably flattened,
as was the case with the pristine bullet which struck the simulated
wrist;[C3-251] and (6) the bullet which caused the Governor’s thigh
injury and then fell out of the wound had a “very low velocity,”
whereas the pristine bullets fired during the tests possessed a very
high exit velocity.[C3-252]
All the evidence indicated that the bullet found on the Governor’s
stretcher could have caused all his wounds. The weight of the whole
bullet prior to firing was approximately 160-161 grains and that of the
recovered bullet was 158.6 grains.[C3-253] An X-ray of the Governor’s
wrist showed very minute metallic fragments, and two or three of these
fragments were removed from his wrist.[C3-254] All these fragments were
sufficiently small and light so that the nearly whole bullet found on
the stretcher could have deposited those pieces of metal as it tumbled
through his wrist.[C3-255] In their testimony, the three doctors who
attended Governor Connally at Parkland Hospital expressed independently
their opinion that a single bullet had passed through his chest;
tumbled through his wrist with very little exit velocity, leaving small
metallic fragments from the rear portion of the bullet; punctured his
left thigh after the bullet had lost virtually all of its velocity; and
had fallen out of the thigh wound.[C3-256]
Governor Connally himself thought it likely that all his wounds were
caused by a single bullet. In his testimony before the Commission, he
repositioned himself as he recalled his position on the jump seat, with
his right palm on his left thigh, and said:
I * * * wound up the next day realizing I was hit in three
places, and I was not conscious of having been hit but by one
bullet, so I tried to reconstruct how I could have been hit
in three places by the same bullet, and I merely, I know it
penetrated from the back through the chest first.
I assumed that I had turned as I described a moment ago,
placing my right hand on my left leg, that it hit my wrist,
went out the center of the wrist, the underside, and then into
my leg, but it might not have happened that way at all.[C3-257]
The Governor’s posture explained how a single missile through his
body would cause all his wounds. His doctors at Parkland Hospital had
recreated his position, also, but they placed his right arm somewhat
higher than his left thigh although in the same alinement.[C3-258] The
wound ballistics experts concurred in the opinion that a single bullet
caused all the Governor’s wounds.[C3-259]
THE TRAJECTORY
The cumulative evidence of eyewitnesses, firearms and ballistic
experts and medical authorities demonstrated that the shots were
fired from above and behind President Kennedy and Governor Connally,
more particularly, from the sixth floor of the Texas School Book
Depository Building. In order to determine the facts with as much
precision as possible and to insure that all data were consistent
with the shots having been fired from the sixth floor window, the
Commission requested additional investigation, including the analysis
of motion picture films of the assassination and onsite tests. The
facts developed through this investigation by the FBI and Secret
Service confirmed the conclusions reached by the Commission regarding
the source and trajectory of the shots which hit the President and the
Governor. Moreover, these facts enabled the Commission to make certain
approximations regarding the locations of the Presidential limousine at
the time of the shots and the relevant time intervals.
Films and Tests
When the shots rang out the Presidential limousine was moving beyond
the Texas School Book Depository Building in a southwesterly direction
on Elm Street between Houston Street and the Triple Underpass.[C3-260]
The general location of the car was described and marked on maps by
eyewitnesses as precisely as their observations and recollections
permitted.[C3-261] More exact information was provided by motion
pictures taken by Abraham Zapruder, Orville O. Nix and Mary Muchmore,
who were spectators at the scene.[C3-262] Substantial light has been
shed on the assassination sequence by viewing these motion pictures,
particularly the Zapruder film, which was the most complete and from
which individual 35-millimeter slides were made of each motion picture
frame.[C3-263]
Examination of the Zapruder motion picture camera by the FBI
established that 18.3 pictures or frames were taken each second,
and therefore, the timing of certain events could be calculated by
allowing 1/18.3 seconds for the action depicted from one frame to the
next.[C3-264] The films and slides made from individual frames were
viewed by Governor and Mrs. Connally, the Governor’s doctors, the
autopsy surgeons, and the Army wound ballistics scientists in order
to apply the knowledge of each to determine the precise course of
events.[C3-265] Tests of the assassin’s rifle disclosed that at least
2.3 seconds were required between shots.[C3-266] In evaluating the
films in the light of these timing guides, it was kept in mind that
a victim of a bullet wound may not react immediately and, in some
situations, according to experts, the victim may not even know where he
has been hit, or when.[C3-267]
On May 24, 1964, agents of the FBI and Secret Service conducted a
series of tests to determine as precisely as possible what happened
on November 22, 1963. Since the Presidential limousine was being
remodeled and was therefore unavailable, it was simulated by using
the Secret Service followup car, which is similar in design.[C3-268]
Any differences were taken into account. Two Bureau agents with
approximately the same physical characteristics sat in the car in the
same relative positions as President Kennedy and Governor Connally had
occupied. The back of the stand-in for the President was marked with
chalk at the point where the bullet entered. The Governor’s model had
on the same coat worn by Governor Connally when he was shot, with the
hole in the back circled in chalk.[C3-269]
To simulate the conditions which existed at the assassination scene
on November 22, the lower part of the sixth-floor window at the
southeast corner of the Depository Building was raised halfway, the
cardboard boxes were repositioned, the C2766 Mannlicher-Carcano rifle
found on the sixth floor of the Depository was used, and mounted on
that rifle was a camera which recorded the view as was seen by the
assassin.[C3-270] In addition, the Zapruder, Nix, and Muchmore cameras
were on hand so that photographs taken by these cameras from the same
locations where they were used on November 22, 1963, could be compared
with the films of that date.[C3-271] The agents ascertained that the
foliage of an oak tree that came between the gunman and his target
along the motorcade route on Elm Street was approximately the same as
on the day of the assassination.[C3-272]
The First Bullet That Hit
The position of President Kennedy’s car when he was struck in the
neck was determined with substantial precision from the films and
onsite tests. The pictures or frames in the Zapruder film were marked
by the agents, with the number “1” given to the first frame where
the motorcycles leading the motorcade came into view on Houston
Street.[C3-273] The numbers continue in sequence as Zapruder filmed
the Presidential limousine as it came around the corner and proceeded
down Elm. The President was in clear view of the assassin as he rode up
Houston Street and for 100 feet as he proceeded down Elm Street, until
he came to a point denoted as frame 166 on the Zapruder film.[C3-274]
These facts were determined in the test by placing the car and men
on Elm Street in the exact spot where they were when each frame of
the Zapruder film was photographed. To pinpoint their locations, a
man stood at Zapruder’s position and directed the automobile and both
models to the positions shown on each frame, after which a Bureau
photographer crouched at the sixth-floor window and looked through a
camera whose lens recorded the view through the telescopic sight of the
C2766 Mannlicher-Carcano rifle.[C3-275] (See Commission Exhibit No.
887, p. 99.) Each position was measured to determine how far President
Kennedy had gone down Elm from a point, which was designated as station
C, on a line drawn along the west curbline of Houston Street.[C3-276]
Based on these calculations, the agents concluded that at frame 166 of
the Zapruder film the President passed beneath the foliage of the large
oak tree and the point of impact on the President’s back disappeared
from the gunman’s view as seen through the telescopic lens.[C3-277]
(See Commission Exhibit No. 889, p. 100.) For a fleeting instant, the
President came back into view in the telescopic lens at frame 186 as
he appeared in an opening among the leaves.[C3-278] (See Commission
Exhibit No. 891, p. 101.) The test revealed that the next point at
which the rifleman had a clear view through the telescopic sight of
the point where the bullet entered the President’s back was when the
car emerged from behind the tree at frame 210.[C3-279] (See Commission
Exhibit No. 893, p. 102.) According to FBI Agent Lyndal L. Shaneyfelt,
“There is no obstruction from the sixth floor window from the time
they leave the tree until they disappear down toward the triple
overpass.”[C3-280]
As the President rode along Elm Street for a distance of about 140
feet, he was waving to the crowd.[C3-281] Shaneyfelt testified that
the waving is seen on the Zapruder movie until around frame 205, when
a road sign blocked out most of the President’s body from Zapruder’s
view through the lens of his camera. However, the assassin continued to
have a clear view of the President as he proceeded down Elm.[C3-282]
When President Kennedy again came fully into view in the Zapruder film
at frame 225, he seemed to be reacting to his neck wound by raising
his hands to his throat.[C3-283] (See Commission Exhibit No. 895, p.
103.) According to Shaneyfelt the reaction was “clearly apparent in 226
and barely apparent in 225.”[C3-284] It is probable that the President
was not shot before frame 210, since it is unlikely that the assassin
would deliberately have shot at him with a view obstructed by the oak
tree when he was about to have a clear opportunity. It is also doubtful
that even the most proficient marksman would have hit him through the
oak tree. In addition, the President’s reaction is “barely apparent”
in frame 225, which is 15 frames or approximately eight-tenths second
after frame 210, and a shot much before 210 would assume a longer
reaction time than was recalled by eyewitnesses at the scene. Thus,
the evidence indicated that the President was not hit until at least
frame 210 and that he was probably hit by frame 225. The possibility
of variations in reaction time in addition to the obstruction of
Zapruder’s view by the sign precluded a more specific determination
than that the President was probably shot through the neck between
frames 210 and 225, which marked his position between 138.9 and 153.8
feet west of station C.[C3-285]
[Illustration: COMMISSION EXHIBIT NO. 887
Photograph taken during reenactment showing C2766 rifle with camera
attached.]
[Illustration: COMMISSION EXHIBIT NO. 889
PHOTOGRAPH FROM ZAPRUDER FILM
PHOTOGRAPH FROM RE-ENACTMENT
PHOTOGRAPH THROUGH RIFLE SCOPE
FRAME 166]
[Illustration: COMMISSION EXHIBIT NO. 891
PHOTOGRAPH FROM ZAPRUDER FILM
PHOTOGRAPH FROM RE-ENACTMENT
PHOTOGRAPH THROUGH RIFLE SCOPE
FRAME 186]
[Illustration: COMMISSION EXHIBIT NO. 893
PHOTOGRAPH FROM ZAPRUDER FILM
PHOTOGRAPH FROM RE-ENACTMENT
PHOTOGRAPH THROUGH RIFLE SCOPE
FRAME 210]
[Illustration: COMMISSION EXHIBIT NO. 895
PHOTOGRAPH FROM ZAPRUDER FILM
PHOTOGRAPH FROM RE-ENACTMENT
PHOTOGRAPH THROUGH RIFLE SCOPE
FRAME 225]
[Illustration: COMMISSION EXHIBIT NO. 697
Photograph of Presidential limousine taken during motorcade.]
According to Special Agent Robert A. Frazier, who occupied the position
of the assassin in the sixth-floor window during the reenactment,
it is likely that the bullet which passed through the President’s
neck, as described previously, then struck the automobile or someone
else in the automobile.[C3-286] The minute examination by the FBI
inspection team, conducted in Washington between 14 and 16 hours
after the assassination, revealed no damage indicating that a bullet
struck any part of the interior of the Presidential limousine, with
the exception of the cracking of the windshield and the dent on the
windshield chrome.[C3-287] Neither of these points of damage to the car
could have been caused by the bullet which exited from the President’s
neck at a velocity of 1,772 to 1,779 feet per second.[C3-288] If the
trajectory had permitted the bullet to strike the windshield, the
bullet would have penetrated it and traveled a substantial distance
down the road unless it struck some other object en route.[C3-289] Had
that bullet struck the metal framing, which was dented, it would have
torn a hole in the chrome and penetrated the framing, both inside and
outside the car.[C3-290] At that exit velocity, the bullet would have
penetrated any other metal or upholstery surface of the interior of the
automobile.[C3-291]
The bullet that hit President Kennedy in the back and exited through
his throat most likely could not have missed both the automobile
and its occupants. Since it did not hit the automobile, Frazier
testified that it probably struck Governor Connally.[C3-292] The
relative positions of President Kennedy and Governor Connally at
the time when the President was struck in the neck confirm that the
same bullet probably passed through both men. Pictures taken of the
President’s limousine on November 22, 1963, showed that the Governor
sat immediately in front of the President.[C3-293] Even though the
precise distance cannot be ascertained, it is apparent that President
Kennedy was somewhat to the Governor’s right. The President sat on the
extreme right, as noted in the films and by eyewitnesses, while the
right edge of the jump seat in which the Governor sat is 6 inches from
the right door.[C3-294] (See Commission Exhibit No. 697, p. 104.) The
President wore a back brace which tended to make him sit up straight,
and the Governor also sat erect since the jump seat gave him little leg
room.[C3-295]
Based on his observations during the reenactment and the position of
Governor Connally shown in the Zapruder film after the car emerged
from behind the sign, Frazier testified that Governor Connally was in
a position during the span from frame 207 to frame 225 to receive a
bullet which would have caused the wounds he actually suffered.[C3-296]
Governor Connally viewed the film and testified that he was hit between
frames 231 and 234.[C3-297] According to Frazier, between frames 235
and 240 the Governor turned sharply to his right, so that by frame
240 he was too far to the right to have received his injuries at that
time.[C3-298] At some point between frames 235 and 240, therefore,
is the last occasion when Governor Connally could have received his
injuries, since in the frames following 240 he remained turned too
far to his right.[C3-299] If Governor Connally was hit by a separate
shot between frames 235 and 240 which followed the shot which hit the
President’s neck, it would follow that: (1) the assassin’s first shot,
assuming a minimum firing time of 2.3 seconds (or 42 frames), was fired
between frames 193 and 198 when his view was obscured by the oak tree;
(2) President Kennedy continued waving to the crowd after he was hit
and did not begin to react for about 1½ seconds; and (3) the first
shot, although hitting no bones in the President’s body, was deflected
after its exit from the President’s neck in such a way that it failed
to hit either the automobile or any of the other occupants.
Viewed through the telescopic sight of the C2766 Mannlicher-Carcano
rifle from the sixth-floor window during the test, the marks that
simulated the entry wounds on the stand-ins for the President and the
Governor were generally in a straight line. That alinement became
obvious to the viewer through the scope as the Governor’s model
turned slightly to his right and assumed the position which Governor
Connally had described as his position when he was struck. Viewing
the stand-ins for the President and the Governor in the sight of the
C2766 Mannlicher-Carcano rifle at the location depicted in frames
207 and 210, Frazier testified: “They both are in direct alinement
with the telescopic sight at the window. The Governor is immediately
behind the President in the field of view.”[C3-300] (See Commission
Exhibit No. 893, p. 102.) A surveyor then placed his sighting equipment
at the precise point of entry on the back of the President’s neck,
assuming that the President was struck at frame 210, and measured the
angle to the end of the muzzle of the rifle positioned where it was
believed to have been held by the assassin.[C3-301] That angle measured
21°34’.[C3-302] From the same points of reference, the angle at frame
225 was measured at 20°11’, giving an average angle of 20°52’30” from
frame 210 to frame 225.[C3-303] Allowing for a downward street grade of
3°9’, the probable angle through the President’s body was calculated at
17°43’30”, assuming that he was sitting in a vertical position.[C3-304]
That angle was consistent with the trajectory of a bullet passing
through the President’s neck and then striking Governor Connally’s
back, causing the wounds which were discussed above. Shortly after
that angle was ascertained, the open car and the stand-ins were
taken by the agents to a nearby garage where a photograph was taken
to determine through closer study whether the angle of that shot
could have accounted for the wounds in the President’s neck and the
Governor’s back.[C3-305] A rod was placed at an angle of 17°43’30” next
to the stand-ins for the President and the Governor, who were seated in
the same relative positions.[C3-306] The wounds of entry and exit on
the President were approximated based on information gained from the
autopsy reports and photographs.[C3-307] The hole in the back of the
jacket worn by the Governor and the medical description of the wound
on his back marked that entry point.[C3-308] That line of fire from
the sixth floor of the Depository would have caused the bullet to exit
under the Governor’s right nipple just as the bullet did. Governor
Connally’s doctors measured an angle of declination on his body from
the entry wound on his back to the exit on the front of his chest at
about 25° when he sat erect.[C3-309] That difference was explained
by either a slight deflection of the bullet caused by striking the
fifth rib or the Governor’s leaning slightly backward at the time he
was struck. In addition, the angle could not be fixed with absolute
precision, since the large wound on the front of his chest precluded an
exact determination of the point of exit.[C3-310]
The alinement of the points of entry was only indicative and not
conclusive that one bullet hit both men. The exact positions of
the men could not be re-created; thus, the angle could only be
approximated.[C3-311] Had President Kennedy been leaning forward or
backward, the angle of declination of the shot to a perpendicular
target would have varied. The angle of 17°43’30” was approximately
the angle of declination reproduced in an artist’s drawing.[C3-312]
That drawing, made from data provided by the autopsy surgeons, could
not reproduce the exact line of the bullet, since the exit wound
was obliterated by the tracheotomy. Similarly, if the President or
the Governor had been sitting in a different lateral position, the
conclusion might have varied. Or if the Governor had not turned in
exactly the way calculated, the alinement would have been destroyed.
Additional experiments by the Army Wound Ballistics Branch further
suggested that the same bullet probably passed through both President
Kennedy and Governor Connally. (See app. X, pp. 582-585.) Correlation
of a test simulating the Governor’s chest wound with the neck and
wrist experiments indicated that course. After reviewing the Parkland
Hospital medical records and X-rays of the Governor and discussing his
chest injury with the attending surgeon, the Army ballistics experts
virtually duplicated the wound using the assassination weapon and
animal flesh covered by cloth.[C3-313] The bullet that struck the
animal flesh displayed characteristics similar to the bullet found on
Governor Connally’s stretcher.[C3-314] Moreover, the imprint on the
velocity screen immediately behind the animal flesh showed that the
bullet was tumbling after exiting from the flesh, having lost a total
average of 265 feet per second.[C3-315] Taking into consideration the
Governor’s size, the reduction in velocity of a bullet passing through
his body would be approximately 400 feet per second.[C3-316]
[Illustration: COMMISSION EXHIBIT NO. 902
PHOTOGRAPH FROM NIX FILM
PHOTOGRAPH FROM RE-ENACTMENT
PHOTOGRAPH FROM ZAPRUDER FILM
PHOTOGRAPH FROM RE-ENACTMENT
PHOTOGRAPH THROUGH RIFLE SCOPE
FRAME 313
PHOTOGRAPH FROM MUCHMORE FILM
PHOTOGRAPH FROM RE-ENACTMENT]
Based upon the medical evidence on the wounds of the Governor and
the President and the wound ballistics tests performed at Edgewood
Arsenal, Drs. Olivier and Arthur J. Dziemian, chief of the Army
Wound Ballistics Branch, who had spent 17 years in that area of
specialization, concluded that it was probable that the same bullet
passed through the President’s neck and then inflicted all the wounds
on the Governor.[C3-317] Referring to the President’s neck wound
and all the Governor’s wounds, Dr. Dziemian testified: “I think the
probability is very good that it is, that all the wounds were caused
by one bullet.”[C3-318] Both Drs. Dziemian and Olivier believed that
the wound on the Governor’s wrist would have been more extensive had
the bullet which inflicted that injury merely passed through the
Governor’s chest, exiting at a velocity of approximately 1,500 feet per
second.[C3-319] Thus, the Governor’s wrist wound suggested that the
bullet passed through the President’s neck, began to yaw in the air
between the President and the Governor, and then lost more velocity
than 400 feet per second in passing through the Governor’s chest. A
bullet which was yawing on entering into the Governor’s back would
lose substantially more velocity in passing through his body than
a pristine bullet.[C3-320] In addition, the bullet that struck the
animal flesh was flattened to a greater extent than the bullet which
presumably struck the Governor’s rib,[C3-321] which suggests that the
bullet which entered the Governor’s chest had already lost velocity
by passing through the President’s neck. Moreover, the large wound on
the Governor’s back would be explained by a bullet which was yawing,
although that type of wound might also be accounted for by a tangential
striking.[C3-322]
Dr. Frederick W. Light, Jr., the third of the wound ballistics experts,
who has been engaged in that specialty at Edgewood Arsenal since 1951,
testified that the anatomical findings were insufficient for him to
formulate a firm opinion as to whether the same bullet did or did not
pass through the President’s neck first before inflicting all the
wounds on Governor Connally.[C3-323] Based on the other circumstances,
such as the relative positions of the President and the Governor in
the automobile, Dr. Light concluded that it was probable that the same
bullet traversed the President’s neck and inflicted all the wounds on
Governor Connally.[C3-324]
The Subsequent Bullet That Hit
After a bullet penetrated President Kennedy’s neck, a subsequent shot
entered the back of his head and exited through the upper right portion
of his skull. The Zapruder, Nix and Muchmore films show the instant in
the sequence when that bullet struck. (See Commission Exhibit No. 902,
p. 108.) That impact was evident from the explosion of the President’s
brain tissues from the right side of his head. The immediately
preceding frame from the Zapruder film shows the President slumped to
his left, clutching at his throat, with his chin close to his chest and
his head tilted forward at an angle.[C3-325] Based upon information
provided by the doctors who conducted the autopsy, an artist’s drawing
depicted the path of the bullet through the President’s head, with his
head being in the same approximate position.[C3-326]
By using the Zapruder, Nix and Muchmore motion pictures, the
President’s location at the time the bullet penetrated his head was
fixed with reasonable precision. A careful analysis of the Nix and
Muchmore films led to fixing the exact location of these cameramen. The
point of impact of the bullet on the President’s head was apparent in
all of the movies. At that point in the Nix film a straight line was
plotted from the camera position to a fixed point in the background
and the President’s location along this line was marked on a plat
map.[C3-327] A similar process was followed with the Muchmore film. The
President’s location on the plat map was identical to that determined
from the Nix film.[C3-328] The President’s location, established
through the Nix and Muchmore films, was confirmed by comparing his
position on the Zapruder film. This location had hitherto only been
approximated, since there were no landmarks in the background of the
Zapruder frame for alinement purposes other than a portion of a painted
line on the curb.[C3-329] Through these procedures, it was determined
that President Kennedy was shot in the head when he was 230.8 feet from
a point on the west curbline on Houston Street where it intersected
with Elm Street.[C3-330] The President was 265.3 feet from the rifle in
the sixth-floor window and at that position the approximate angle of
declination was 15°21’.[C3-331]
NUMBER OF SHOTS
The consensus among the witnesses at the scene was that three shots
were fired.[C3-332] However, some heard only two shots,[C3-333] while
others testified that they heard four and perhaps as many as five
or six shots.[C3-334] The difficulty of accurate perception of the
sound of gunshots required careful scrutiny of all of this testimony
regarding the number of shots. The firing of a bullet causes a number
of noises: the muzzle blast, caused by the smashing of the hot gases
which propel the bullet into the relatively stable air at the gun’s
muzzle; the noise of the bullet, caused by the shock wave built up
ahead of the bullet’s nose as it travels through the air; and the noise
caused by the impact of the bullet on its target.[C3-335] Each noise
can be quite sharp and may be perceived as a separate shot. The tall
buildings in the area might have further distorted the sound.
The physical and other evidence examined by the Commission compels
the conclusion that at least two shots were fired. As discussed
previously, the nearly whole bullet discovered at Parkland Hospital
and the two larger fragments found in the Presidential automobile,
which were identified as coming from the assassination rifle, came from
at least two separate bullets and possibly from three.[C3-336] The
most convincing evidence relating to the number of shots was provided
by the presence on the sixth floor of three spent cartridges which
were demonstrated to have been fired by the same rifle that fired the
bullets which caused the wounds. It is possible that the assassin
carried an empty shell in the rifle and fired only two shots, with the
witnesses hearing multiple noises made by the same shot. Soon after
the three empty cartridges were found, officials at the scene decided
that three shots were fired, and that conclusion was widely circulated
by the press. The eyewitness testimony may be subconsciously colored
by the extensive publicity given the conclusion that three shots were
fired. Nevertheless, the preponderance of the evidence, in particular
the three spent cartridges, led the Commission to conclude that there
were three shots fired.
THE SHOT THAT MISSED
From the initial findings that (_a_) one shot passed through the
President’s neck and then most probably passed through the Governor’s
body, (_b_) a subsequent shot penetrated the President’s head, (_c_)
no other shot struck any part of the automobile, and (_d_) three shots
were fired, it follows that one shot probably missed the car and its
occupants. The evidence is inconclusive as to whether it was the first,
second, or third shot which missed.
The First Shot
If the first shot missed, the assassin perhaps missed in an effort to
fire a hurried shot before the President passed under the oak tree, or
possibly he fired as the President passed under the tree and the tree
obstructed his view. The bullet might have struck a portion of the tree
and been completely deflected. On the other hand, the greatest cause
for doubt that the first shot missed is the improbability that the
same marksman who twice hit a moving target would be so inaccurate on
the first and closest of his shots as to miss completely, not only the
target, but the large automobile.
Some support for the contention that the first shot missed is found in
the statement of Secret Service Agent Glen A. Bennett, stationed in
the right rear seat of the President’s followup car, who heard a sound
like a firecracker as the motorcade proceeded down Elm Street. At that
moment, Agent Bennett stated:
* * * I looked at the back of the President. I heard another
firecracker noise and saw that shot hit the President about
four inches down from the right shoulder. A second shot
followed immediately and hit the right rear high of the
President’s head.[C3-337]
Substantial weight may be given Bennett’s observations. Although his
formal statement was dated November 23, 1963, his notes indicate that
he recorded what he saw and heard at 5:30 p.m., November 22, 1963, on
the airplane en route back to Washington, prior to the autopsy, when it
was not yet known that the President had been hit in the back.[C3-338]
It is possible, of course, that Bennett did not observe the hole in
the President’s back, which might have been there immediately after the
first noise.
Governor Connally’s testimony supports the view that the first shot
missed, because he stated that he heard a shot, turned slightly to his
right, and, as he started to turn back toward his left, was struck
by the second bullet.[C3-339] He never saw the President during the
shooting sequence, and it is entirely possible that he heard the missed
shot and that both men were struck by the second bullet. Mrs. Connally
testified that after the first shot she turned and saw the President’s
hands moving toward his throat, as seen in the films at frame
225.[C3-340] However, Mrs. Connally further stated that she thought her
husband was hit immediately thereafter by the second bullet.[C3-341]
If the same bullet struck both the President and the Governor, it is
entirely possible that she saw the President’s movements at the same
time as she heard the second shot. Her testimony, therefore, does not
preclude the possibility of the first shot having missed.
Other eyewitness testimony, however, supports the conclusion that the
first of the shots fired hit the President. As discussed in chapter II,
Special Agent Hill’s testimony indicates that the President was hit by
the first shot and that the head injury was caused by a second shot
which followed about 5 seconds later. James W. Altgens, a photographer
in Dallas for the Associated Press, had stationed himself on Elm Street
opposite the Depository to take pictures of the passing motorcade.
Altgens took a widely circulated photograph which showed President
Kennedy reacting to the first of the two shots which hit him. (See
Commission Exhibit No. 900, p. 113.) According to Altgens, he snapped
the picture “almost simultaneously” with a shot which he is confident
was the first one fired.[C3-342] Comparison of his photograph with
the Zapruder film, however, revealed that Altgens took his picture
at approximately the same moment as frame 255 of the movie, 30 to
45 frames (approximately 2 seconds) later than the point at which
the President was shot in the neck.[C3-343] (See Commission Exhibit
No. 901, p. 114.) Another photographer, Phillip L. Willis, snapped
a picture at a time which he also asserts was simultaneous with the
first shot. Analysis of his photograph revealed that it was taken at
approximately frame 210 of the Zapruder film, which was the approximate
time of the shot that probably hit the President and the Governor. If
Willis accurately recalled that there were no previous shots, this
would be strong evidence that the first shot did not miss.[C3-344]
If the first shot did not miss, there must be an explanation for
Governor Connally’s recollection that he was not hit by it. There was,
conceivably, a delayed reaction between the time the bullet struck him
and the time he realized that he was hit, despite the fact that the
bullet struck a glancing blow to a rib and penetrated his wrist bone.
The Governor did not even know that he had been struck in the wrist or
in the thigh until he regained consciousness in the hospital the next
day. Moreover, he testified that he did not hear what he thought was
the second shot, although he did hear a subsequent shot which coincided
with the shattering of the President’s head.[C3-345] One possibility,
therefore, would be a sequence in which the Governor heard the first
shot, did not immediately feel the penetration of the bullet, then
felt the delayed reaction of the impact on his back, later heard the
shot which shattered the President’s head, and then lost consciousness
without hearing a third shot which might have occurred later.
[Illustration: COMMISSION EXHIBIT NO. 900
PHOTOGRAPH BY AP PHOTOGRAPHER
PHOTOGRAPH FROM RE-ENACTMENT]
[Illustration: COMMISSION EXHIBIT NO. 901
PHOTOGRAPH FROM ZAPRUDER FILM
PHOTOGRAPH FROM RE-ENACTMENT
PHOTOGRAPH THROUGH RIFLE SCOPE
FRAME 255]
The Second Shot
The possibility that the second shot missed is consistent with the
elapsed time between the two shots that hit their mark. From the timing
evidenced by the Zapruder films, there was an interval of from 4.8 to
5.6 seconds between the shot which struck President Kennedy’s neck
(between frames 210 to 225) and the shot which struck his head at frame
313.[C3-346] Since a minimum of 2.3 seconds must elapse between shots,
a bullet could have been fired from the rifle and missed during this
interval.[C3-347] This possibility was buttressed by the testimony of
witnesses who claimed that the shots were evenly spaced, since a second
shot occurring within an interval of approximately 5 seconds would have
to be almost exactly midway in this period. If Altgens’ recollection
is correct that he snapped his picture at the same moment as he heard
a shot, then it is possible that he heard a second shot which missed,
since a shot fired 2.3 seconds before he took his picture at frame 255
could have hit the President at about frame 213.
On the other hand, a substantial majority of the witnesses stated that
the shots were not evenly spaced. Most witnesses recalled that the
second and third shots were bunched together, although some believed
that it was the first and second which were bunched.[C3-348] To the
extent that reliance can be placed on recollection of witnesses as to
the spacing of the shots, the testimony that the shots were not evenly
spaced would militate against a second shot missing. Another factor
arguing against the second shot missing is that the gunman would have
been shooting at very near the minimum allowable time to have fired
the three shots within 4.8 to 5.6 seconds, although it was entirely
possible for him to have done so. (See ch. IV, pp. 188-194.)
The Third Shot
The last possibility, of course, is that it was the third shot which
missed. This conclusion conforms most easily with the probability
that the assassin would most likely have missed the farthest shot,
particularly since there was an acceleration of the automobile after
the shot which struck the President’s head. The limousine also changed
direction by following the curve to the right, whereas previously it
had been proceeding in almost a straight line with a rifle protruding
from the sixth-floor window of the Depository Building.
One must consider, however, the testimony of the witnesses who
described the head shot as the concluding event in the assassination
sequence. Illustrative is the testimony of Associated Press
photographer Altgens, who had an excellent vantage point near the
President’s car. He recalled that the shot which hit the President’s
head “was the last shot--that much I will say with a great degree
of certainty.”[C3-349] On the other hand, Emmett J. Hudson, the
groundskeeper of Dealey Plaza, testified that from his position on
Elm Street, midway between Houston Street and the Triple Underpass,
he heard a third shot after the shot which hit the President in the
head.[C3-350] In addition, Mrs. Kennedy’s testimony indicated that
neither the first nor the second shot missed. Immediately after the
first noise she turned, because of the Governor’s yell, and saw her
husband raise his hand to his forehead. Then the second shot struck the
President’s head.[C3-351]
Some evidence suggested that a third shot may have entirely missed and
hit the turf or street by the Triple Underpass. Royce G. Skelton, who
watched the motorcade from the railroad bridge, testified that after
two shots “the car came on down close to the Triple Underpass” and an
additional shot “hit in the left front of the President’s car on the
cement.”[C3-352] Skelton thought that there had been a total of four
shots, either the third or fourth of which hit in the vicinity of the
underpass.[C3-353] Dallas Patrolman J. W. Foster, who was also on the
Triple Underpass, testified that a shot hit the turf near a manhole
cover in the vicinity of the underpass.[C3-354] Examination of this
area, however, disclosed no indication that a bullet struck at the
locations indicated by Skelton or Foster.[C3-355]
At a different location in Dealey Plaza, the evidence indicated that a
bullet fragment did hit the street. James T. Tague, who got out of his
car to watch the motorcade from a position between Commerce and Main
Streets near the Triple Underpass, was hit on the cheek by an object
during the shooting.[C3-356] Within a few minutes Tague reported this
to Deputy Sheriff Eddy R. Walthers, who was examining the area to
see if any bullets had struck the turf.[C3-357] Walthers immediately
started to search where Tague had been standing and located a place on
the south curb of Main Street where it appeared a bullet had hit the
cement.[C3-358] According to Tague, “There was a mark quite obviously
that was a bullet, and it was very fresh.”[C3-359] In Tague’s opinion,
it was the second shot which caused the mark, since he thinks he heard
the third shot after he was hit in the face.[C3-360] This incident
appears to have been recorded in the contemporaneous report of Dallas
Patrolman L. L. Hill, who radioed in around 12:40 p.m.: “I have one
guy that was possibly hit by a richochet from the bullet off the
concrete.”[C3-361] Scientific examination of the mark on the south
curb of Main Street by FBI experts disclosed metal smears which, “were
spectrographically determined to be essentially lead with a trace
of antimony.”[C3-362] The mark on the curb could have originated
from the lead core of a bullet but the absence of copper precluded
“the possibility that the mark on the curbing section was made by an
unmutilated military full metal-jacketed bullet such as the bullet from
Governor Connally’s stretcher.”[C3-363]
It is true that the noise of a subsequent shot might have been drowned
out by the siren on the Secret Service followup car immediately
after the head shot, or the dramatic effect of the head shot might
have caused so much confusion that the memory of subsequent events
was blurred. Nevertheless, the preponderance of the eyewitness
testimony that the head shot was the final shot must be weighed in any
determination as to whether it was the third shot that missed. Even
if it were caused by a bullet fragment, the mark on the south curb of
Main Street cannot be identified conclusively with any of the three
shots fired. Under the circumstances it might have come from the bullet
which hit the President’s head, or it might have been a product of the
fragmentation of the missed shot upon hitting some other object in the
area.[C3-364] Since he did not observe any of the shots striking the
President, Tague’s testimony that the second shot, rather than the
third, caused the scratch on his cheek, does not assist in limiting the
possibilities.
The wide range of possibilities and the existence of conflicting
testimony, when coupled with the impossibility of scientific
verification, precludes a conclusive finding by the Commission as to
which shot missed.
TIME SPAN OF SHOTS
Witnesses at the assassination scene said that the shots were
fired within a few seconds, with the general estimate being 5 to 6
seconds.[C3-365] That approximation was most probably based on the
earlier publicized reports that the first shot struck the President in
the neck, the second wounded the Governor and the third shattered the
President’s head, with the time span from the neck to the head shots on
the President being approximately 5 seconds. As previously indicated,
the time span between the shot entering the back of the President’s
neck and the bullet which shattered his skull was 4.8 to 5.6 seconds.
If the second shot missed, then 4.8 to 5.6 seconds was the total time
span of the shots. If either the first or third shots missed, then a
minimum of 2.3 seconds (necessary to operate the rifle) must be added
to the time span of the shots which hit, giving a minimum time of 7.1
to 7.9 seconds for the three shots. If more than 2.3 seconds elapsed
between a shot that missed and one that hit, then the time span would
be correspondingly increased.
CONCLUSION
Based on the evidence analyzed in this chapter, the Commission has
concluded that the shots which killed President Kennedy and wounded
Governor Connally were fired from the sixth-floor window at the
southeast corner of the Texas School Book Depository Building. Two
bullets probably caused all the wounds suffered by President Kennedy
and Governor Connally. Since the preponderance of the evidence
indicated that three shots were fired, the Commission concluded that
one shot probably missed the Presidential limousine and its occupants,
and that the three shots were fired in a time period ranging from
approximately 4.8 to in excess of 7 seconds.