Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
At 12.30 p.m. on November 22nd, 1963, President John F. Kennedy’s motorcade passed through
Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas, when he was shot and killed.
On the same day, Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested for the assassination of the President. Oswald
insisted he was a patsy.
Two days later, Oswald was shot and killed by nightclub owner Jack Ruby outside the doors
of the Dallas Police Headquarters. With no signed confession or a trial to prove Oswald’s
guilt, the suspicion of a conspiracy to assassinate the President gripped the American public.
However, the government’s position was that Oswald was a lone gunman – a mad man who
killed the President of the United States without any help from anybody. This position
hinges upon one very controversial theory: the single bullet hypothesis. Critics call
it the Magic Bullet Theory.
The single bullet hypothesis was conceived by Arlen Specter, an investigator with the
Warren Commission. The Warren Commission was established one week after the assassination
by the new President, Lyndon B. Johnson, to investigate Kennedy’s ***.
Based on the testimony of witnesses and the evidence of forensics specialists, the Warren
Commission concluded that Lee Harvey Oswald had acted alone. From a window on the sixth
floor of the Texas School Book Depository on the corner of Dealey Plaza, they said he
fired three shots with a high-powered Italian Carcano bolt-action rifle. The first shot
missed, the second shot pierced the President's throat, and the third shot was fatal, hitting
him in the head.
However, Kennedy was not the only person harmed by the shooting that day. Governor John Connally
was sitting in front of the President in the [presidential] limousine. Connally was also
hit in the back and suffered an exit wound in his chest, a shattered wrist and a wound
in his thigh. According to the Warren Commission, one single bullet – the second shot – wounded
both Kennedy and Connally. If so, it pierced 15 layers of clothing, 7 layers of skin, 15
inches of body tissue, struck a necktie knot, removed 4 inches of rib and shattered a radius
bone.
This bullet was found lying on a gurney in Parkland Hospital, where Governor Connally
and the President were both taken after the shooting. The Warren Commission accepted it
as the second bullet fired by Oswald, despite questions over its near-pristine condition.
Commission that he was injured in the cheek by a ricochet. He and a sheriff found the
impact mark of the bullet on the curbside in Dealey Plaza. When the Warren Commission
asked Tague which shot injured him, he said it was the second shot – the same bullet
that apparently fell from Governor Connally onto the gurney in Parkland Hospital. Years
later, Tague discovered that the bullet damage to the curb had been filled in and smoothed
over. The government seems to have dismissed his evidence.
Could this really be the bullet that caused all those wounds?
The Warren Commission's argument depended on two pieces of evidence. The first was an
amateur film made by dressmaker Abraham Zapruder. His 8mm film recorded the very moments Kennedy
was shot, including the fatal blow to the head. This footage provided the crucial timings
of the event, with which witness statements could be reconciled. From this, we know that
all shots were fired at the President in the space of 7.5 seconds.
The second piece of evidence was more of an assumption - that is, the fact that Lee Harvey
Oswald acted alone and fired the only shots on that fateful day. Army specialists testified
that with the rifle he was using, Oswald could not have fired more than 3 shots in the small
space of 7.5 seconds established by the Zapruder film. Since the first shot missed and the
third shot hit the President’s head, the Commission's conclusions depend on the second
bullet fired by Oswald causing all the non-fatal wounds to both Kennedy and Connally. This
is the single bullet hypothesis.
However, this theory has many critics.
According to them, in order to harm both Kennedy and Connally, the bullet would have had to
pass through the President's throat, pause in midair to turn right and enter Connally's
right shoulder, exit through his ribs and turn right again to shatter his wrist, before
turning left to lodge in his thigh, where fragments were found in the hospital.
This obviously defies the laws of physics. As such, critics of the single bullet theory
say there must have been at least four shots - one that missed and caused Kennedy to turn
his head, one that pierced his throat, a third that hit Connally, and a fourth, fatal shot
that hit the President in the head.
Since even the Warren Commission agreed that Oswald could only have fired three shots,
this fourth shot would have required a second shooter. If there were two shooters, then
there must have been a conspiracy to *** the President of the United States.
Conspiracy theorists are supported by widespread criticism of the Warren Commission. Three
members of the Commission itself expressed doubts over its findings, and President Johnson
was skeptical about its methods. Most damningly, Attorney General Robert Kennedy, John's brother,
called the Warren Report a "shoddy piece of craftsmanship."
In 1976 a Select Committee on Assassinations reviewed the events of November 22nd, 1963.
It acoustically analysed an audio recording from a police dictabelt in the presidential
motorcade, and determined that there was indeed a fourth shot and therefore another shooter.
It concluded that "President John F. Kennedy was probably assassinated as a result of a
conspiracy. The Committee was unable to identify the other gunmen or the extent of the conspiracy."
However, in 1980 the FBI analysed the same recording studied by the Assassinations Committee.
The Bureau concluded that there was no proof of gunshots on the audio recording, and no
way of proving the recording was even from Dealey Plaza. In 1982 the National Academy
of Sciences conducted another review at the behest of the Justice Department, and confirmed
the FBI's findings.
So where does that leave the Magic Bullet Theory?
In 1993, computer animator Dale Myers began a ten-year project to recreate the events
of President Kennedy's assassination in 3D graphics. He used photographs, blueprints,
street plans and the Zapruder film for complete accuracy.
With this animation, Myers was able to map the trajectory of the bullet from the book
depository. He discovered the single bullet hypothesis was correct.
The key piece of information was the arrangement of the presidential limousine's seats. Where
conspiracy theorists believed Governor Connally was sat directly in front of Kennedy, he was
actually sat three inches to the left. The Zapruder film also shows that Connally was
not facing straight ahead, but had turned to his right to look for the source of the
first gunshot. In this position, it is possible that a single bullet could cause all the wounds
that the President and the Governor suffered, just as the Warren Commission had claimed.
For his part, John Connally maintained until his death that the Warren Commission's single
bullet theory was wrong.
If it is wrong, then the FBI and the Justice Department investigations that supported the
Warren Commission are also wrong. Conspiracy theorists believe the FBI and the Warren Commission
are both parts of a giant cover up perpetrated by the U.S. government.
Was the cover up an effort to avoid mass hysteria and lay JFK to rest? Or was Oswald really
a patsy – a scapegoat used by rogue parts of the government to hide their conspiracy
against the President?
According to the official story, Kennedy was simply the victim of a lone mad man.