WECHT CONFERENCE WAS OUTSTANDING!

[Evan Marshall]

spite of doing two tours in Detroit Homicide and writing three. best selling books on ammunition I don't consider myself ant expert BUT I never saw a rifle shot to the rear of the end that left the face relatively intact. And Dr Spitz, our medical examiner and Warren supporter admitted he never had either.

It was obvious to me very early on that Oswald never shot anyone. He was in the Marine Corp when everyone was a rifleman 1st. He had been trained on the M 1 Garand and would have never settled for a piece of junk like the Carcano.

Jack cannon gave us the Glaser Safety Slug and Mitch Werbell a modern suppressor. Both were old China hands and experienced killers.

[Don Roberdeau]

FWIW, while there has been little headway in much of the case, some baby steps were apparent at the conference. When, in 2004, I went to the Lancer Conference and told people I thought the explosion in frame 313 came as a result of a bullet striking the skull at a tangent, just as claimed by Dr. William Kemp Clark, I was pretty much all alone. Now, if I've read them right, Tink Thompson and Robert Groden also believe this is a tangential strike, albeit from the front, and Sherry Fiester seems open to the idea.

In other words, some of the more prominent CTs are gradually coming round to my position there was no small entrance hole by Kennedy's right temple.

I missed Wecht's presentation, but he seemed open to Tink and Groden's new theory, and am pretty sure neither Mantik nor Aguilar discussed this never-seen (except possibly by Robinson) but long presumed entrance by the temple. So yeah, if I'm counting right, that means there were 7 presentations on the medical evidence, none of which discussed an entrance wound by Kennedy's temple.

This has only occurred to me in retrospect, of course, so it's possible one or more of the presenters mentioned it in passing. But I sure do remember hearing the word "tangential" a lot.

Baby steps.

.... Hi Pat.... I wholeheartedly agree with your "baby steps." ( that reminded me of the film, "Contact," which, imho, is a very good + multi-faceted, thoughts-provoking film! )

Pat, imho, you are definitely not "pretty much all alone" in your thoughts for the tangential JFK head-impacting bullet, and as many of Our Colleagues have also shared publicly + privately, the tangential head-impacting, inner-head-shallow-transiting bullet that was fired from behind.

THE question is, "From WHERE were the 'shots' fired from behind the president that impacted him?" (and, that impacted CONNALLY), and, for which "shot" in the many times stated 1...... 2..3 "shots" timing sequence, when the last two heard "shots" were bunched distinctly closer together than the first two heard "shots."

In our several always interesting, privately shared, phone conversations I am sure that I have most likely mentioned that we are definitely on many of the same pages with respect to the actual "shots" sequence and the assassins locations! (+ have privately also shared the exact same with many of our independently more open-minded Team members during the years/decades)

Unless a newly-11-22-63-interested person or a researcher interested in the Realities for the cumulative details, micro-details, + and the evidence with respect to the assassination chooses to go down into what is, imho, the valuable-time-consuming, time/years/decades/lifetime-balance-wasting 'rabbit holes' of being self-locked into an 0-pine theory for which the evidence is sorely lacking that nearly-all-evidence/all-evidence was somehow/somewhere/sometime deliberately altered by someone's, the very simple fact is that the evidence is that President Kennedy WAS initially struck in the head by a bullet fired from a location behind him. (and, no bullet hit him from a "shot" fired location from the 8.4' higher than his head top GK picket fence top, that at Z-312 the president was at a near-perfect, head-profile facing-away-from the entire north GK that was at 87-degrees nearly directly to his head's right)

Along with the Holly-weird-conditioned visuals of the JFK's post-Z-312 reactions, it is my opinion that two of the several, very possible reasons that some people 0-pine and choose to cling-to a theory that a GK assassin's bullet hit JFK in the head is because many people and dedicated JFK Scholars are simply, understandably, not at all or not really, completely, familiar with the exact geographical relationship of where the north GK picket fence was located, relative to JFK's head facing direction where he was exactly located on Elm Street at Z-313, and relative to the evidence (and, they are not familiar with his Elm Street location relative to the GK picket fence, relative to the evidence during Z-frames before 313). ....Another of several reasons, imho, is that some/many of Our Colleague researchers have simply never fired a weapon, nor has he/she ever personally inspected the results of a bullet.

During my military career and personal time target skills practicing (I have never hunted animals) I have acquired several decades of experience firing and seeing the results of many caliber sizes of military-specifications-grade-fired bullets along with commercial hunting-grade target-fired bullets that were FMJ's (full metal jacket), HP's (hollow-point), + SP's (soft-point).

I have, will always, + can very confidently share with anyone + everyone that has never fired a weapon that the JFK medical evidence does not support a bullet that impacted JFK's head at 313 that came in from an 87-degrees angle away from his head's right side....That is NOT to say that a so-called "shot" (albeit, a "shot" fired in an audible muzzle blast, and/or, a different, additional weapon's "shot" in a mechanically-suppressed-fired "silenced" bullet bow N-wave shock wave, with either set-up choosing to employ a hearable super-sonic speed bullet, or, an un-hearable sub-sonic speed bullet) that completely missed JFK, missed the limo, and missed hitting any witness could not have been fired, or, was not fired from a point 87-degrees to JFK's nearly direct right.....and a missed, super-sonic, GK triggered "shot" bullet is precisely what the HSCA concluded was fired at Z-290 to 294, and, was heard, stated, testified-to, and maintained among several, actual DP witnesses (including very close witness JEAN HILL -- as deliberately buried by politico-washDC-flip-flopper, warrenatti-lawyer SPECTER, deep near the very end of her wc-testimony), and by additional, actual weapons-experienced, DP witnesses.

.... Of course, then there is also (to provide a couple of among the many key considerations) the GK-encountered, identification-flashing-"agent," along with the assassination "shots" sequencing = that the warrenatti even admitted in its report-canard that a "substantial majority" of the actual witnesses remembered hearing (or *could* hear) of....

1 ...... 2..3

not

1...2 .....3

Best Regards in Research

+++Don

P.S.... An aside.... Once in a while, I will still shake my head while thinking (hoping!!) that with everything else happening the exact same during the attack except for the following, IF President KENNEDY had just moved a mere 2" to 4" more to his left at the right micro-instant, and/or he was pulled/pro-actively knocked more to his left, and/or the limo was quickly swerved hard and would have jostled him more to his left (and jostled him DOWN), he most likely would not have been hit tangentially in his head at 313. (and, in the Real World, IF a frog had wings, it might fly)

Donald Roberdeau

United States Navy

U.S.S. John F. Kennedy, CV-67, plank walker

Sooner, or later, The Truth emerges Clearly

For your key considerations + independent determinations....

Homepage: President KENNEDY "Men of Courage" speech, and Assassination Evidence, Witnesses, Photographers, Suspects, + Outstanding Researchers Discoveries + Key Considerations.... http://droberdeau.blogspot.com/2009/08/1-men-of-courage-jfk-assassination_09.html

The Dealey Plaza Detailed Map: Detailing 11-22-63 Victims Precise Locations + Reactions, Evidence, Witnesses Locations, Photographers, Suspected Bullet Trajectories, Important Information + Key Considerations, in One Convenient Resource....

http://img835.imageshack.us/img835/3966/dppluschartsupdated1111.gif

(updated map, + new information)

Visual Report: The First Bullet Impact Into President Kennedy: While JFK was Still Hidden Under the "magic-limbed-ricochet-tree"....

http://img504.imageshack.us/img504/2446/206cropjfk1102308ms8.gif

Visual Report: Reality Versus C.A.D. : the Real World, versus, Garbage-in, Garbage-out.... http://img14.imageshack.us/img14/5066/jsf.gif

Discovery: "Very Close JFK Assassination Witness ROSEMARY WILLIS

Zapruder Film Documented 2nd Headsnap: West, Ultrafast, and

Directly Towards the Grassy Knoll"....

http://droberdeau.blogspot.com/2011/01/discovery-close-jfk-assassination.html

T ogether

E veryone

A chieves

M ore

For the United States:

http://www.dhs.gov

Edited October 23, 2013 by Don Roberdeau

[Cliff Varnell]

emphasis added

Jack cannon gave us the Glaser Safety Slug and Mitch Werbell a modern suppressor. Both were old China hands and experienced killers.

Bingo!

And WerBell had access to US Army Special Forces gear, right?

[William Kelly]

emphasis added

Jack cannon gave us the Glaser Safety Slug and Mitch Werbell a modern suppressor. Both were old China hands and experienced killers.

Bingo!

And WerBell had access to US Army Special Forces gear, right?

It was mentioned at the Wecht conference that there are still a lot of documents on Weerbell that are still being with held.

And someone mentioned that there was some ballistics testing done at Fort Detrick. What was that all about?

[Cliff Varnell]

emphasis added

Jack cannon gave us the Glaser Safety Slug and Mitch Werbell a modern suppressor. Both were old China hands and experienced killers.

Bingo!

And WerBell had access to US Army Special Forces gear, right?

It was mentioned at the Wecht conference that there are still a lot of documents on Weerbell that are still being with held.

And someone mentioned that there was some ballistics testing done at Fort Detrick. What was that all about?

Bill, check out the following:

http://www.intelligence.senate.gov/pdfs94th/94intelligence_activities_I.pdf

Specifically Senseney's testimony here:

http://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/church/reports/vol1/pdf/ChurchV1_6_Senseney.pdf

[William Kelly]

emphasis added

Jack cannon gave us the Glaser Safety Slug and Mitch Werbell a modern suppressor. Both were old China hands and experienced killers.

Bingo!

And WerBell had access to US Army Special Forces gear, right?

It was mentioned at the Wecht conference that there are still a lot of documents on Weerbell that are still being with held.

And someone mentioned that there was some ballistics testing done at Fort Detrick. What was that all about?

Bill, check out the following:

http://www.intelligence.senate.gov/pdfs94th/94intelligence_activities_I.pdf

Specifically Senseney's testimony here:

http://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/church/reports/vol1/pdf/ChurchV1_6_Senseney.pdf

I had seen the Church Committee records but hadn't read Senseney's testimony.

Senseney says he didn't make any policy decisions, that would have been the division chief - Dr. Cowan at University of Maryland.

They end the testimony seeking to question Dr. Cowan. I wonder if they ever got around to doing that?

I can't find ANYTHING on a Dr. Cowan at UM, and I don't believe the Church Committee questioned him, though I hope to be proven wrong by a more diligent researcher.

Rex Bradford did a real good presentation on the legacy of the Church Committee, based primarily on the limited documents that were released under the JFK Act, so most of the Church records remain sealed.

I was familiar with MKNAOMI - "The Army agreed that the Special Operations Division (SOD) at Fort Detrick would assist the CIA in developing testing and maintaining biological weapons suited for CIA use...The National Security Council staff, charged by the President with determining what U.S. policy should be, did not discover MKNAOMI in the course of its study, and did not, there fore, consider the possibility that the CIA had biological weapons....The CIA employee who claims to have made the decision, on his own, to retain the toxin received no written instructions to destroy them. Kept outside the National Security Council's study, the employee had to rely only on the newspaper account of the President's announcement and on his own interpretation of it."

It is possible that Dr./Col. Jose Rivera, who knew of Oswald's role in the Walker shooting before the assassination and Oswald's New Orleans apartment address before Oswald knew it, worked at Fort Detrick on a still secret project that may have been MKNAOMI.

And they were wrong when they claimed that they didn't test the chemical agents on human subjects because they did -on prisoners at Holmesburg prison in Pennsylvania, as reported in the US Army Inspector General's Report on the Use of Human Subjects in Chemical Agent Research.

BK

Edited October 23, 2013 by William Kelly

[Paul Brancato]

Senseney says they made dart weapons that could be disguised as even an umbrella, and that the dart would dissolve once it entered the body. I have seen this info before. Is there good info to support the idea that a neurotoxin-coated dart weapon could have been made as early as 1963? Once I was alerted to at least the possibility of this, I viewed the Zapruder film differently. I can't watch it without being astonished that JFK's arms appear immobilized, and that he did not duck for cover, nor did Jackie fully realize he had been hurt. Seriously, if it had been a bullet wound would we not expect a different reaction?

[Cliff Varnell]

Senseney says they made dart weapons that could be disguised as even an umbrella, and that the dart would dissolve once it entered the body. I have seen this info before. Is there good info to support the idea that a neurotoxin-coated dart weapon could have been made as early as 1963? Once I was alerted to at least the possibility of this, I viewed the Zapruder film differently. I can't watch it without being astonished that JFK's arms appear immobilized, and that he did not duck for cover, nor did Jackie fully realize he had been hurt. Seriously, if it had been a bullet wound would we not expect a different reaction?

Paul, I think the umbrella would be used in close quarters, in a crowd, not at a moving target at a bit of distance..

I think it far, far more likely that the throat shot came from Black Dog Man.

[Cliff Varnell]

emphasis added

Jack cannon gave us the Glaser Safety Slug and Mitch Werbell a modern suppressor. Both were old China hands and experienced killers.

Bingo!

And WerBell had access to US Army Special Forces gear, right?

It was mentioned at the Wecht conference that there are still a lot of documents on Weerbell that are still being with held.

And someone mentioned that there was some ballistics testing done at Fort Detrick. What was that all about?

Bill, check out the following:

http://www.intelligence.senate.gov/pdfs94th/94intelligence_activities_I.pdf

Specifically Senseney's testimony here:

http://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/church/reports/vol1/pdf/ChurchV1_6_Senseney.pdf

I had seen the Church Committee records but hadn't read Senseney's testimony.

Senseney says he didn't make any policy decisions, that would have been the division chief - Dr. Cowan at University of Maryland.

They end the testimony seeking to question Dr. Cowan. I wonder if they ever got around to doing that?

I can't find ANYTHING on a Dr. Cowan at UM, and I don't believe the Church Committee questioned him, though I hope to be proven wrong by a more diligent researcher.

Rex Bradford did a real good presentation on the legacy of the Church Committee, based primarily on the limited documents that were released under the JFK Act, so most of the Church records remain sealed.

I was familiar with MKNAOMI - "The Army agreed that the Special Operations Division (SOD) at Fort Detrick would assist the CIA in developing testing and maintaining biological weapons suited for CIA use...The National Security Council staff, charged by the President with determining what U.S. policy should be, did not discover MKNAOMI in the course of its study, and did not, there fore, consider the possibility that the CIA had biological weapons....The CIA employee who claims to have made the decision, on his own, to retain the toxin received no written instructions to destroy them. Kept outside the National Security Council's study, the employee had to rely only on the newspaper account of the President's announcement and on his own interpretation of it."

It is possible that Dr./Col. Jose Rivera, who knew of Oswald's role in the Walker shooting before the assassination and Oswald's New Orleans apartment address before Oswald knew it, worked at Fort Detrick on a still secret project that may have been MKNAOMI.

And they were wrong when they claimed that they didn't test the chemical agents on human subjects because they did -on prisoners at Holmesburg prison in Pennsylvania, as reported in the US Army Inspector General's Report on the Use of Human Subjects in Chemical Agent Research.

BK

Good stuff, Bill.

I think Senseney was covering his ass when he denied it was used on anything other than guard dogs.

Colby admitted they tested them on humans, in his Church testimony.

Two outfits tested the weapons -- CIA and U.S. Army Special Forces.

[Cliff Varnell]

The JFK Assassination Research Community is losing a generation.

Kids tune out because, in the words of one 25-year old I spoke with, "They make it so boring."

I had two conversations with this 25-year old, a young lady from New England as rock-ribbed as any of her generation.

I mentioned the "central issue" of the JFK assassination to her and she insisted I say what it was.

"JFK had a wound of entrance in the back, without an exit. There was no bullet recovered at the autopsy. He had a wound of entrance in his throat, without an exit. No bullet recovered during the autopsy."

She didn't know what to make of it, at first.

"Some people think the bullets were removed prior to the autopsy--" I said.

"--Or it was some government xxxx that dissolved!" she said, excited.

I had a wide smile at that one.

[Robert Prudhomme]

Pat

I have read the original notes on the Tom Robinson interview and I do not understand what you mean by "A lot of stuff has been added on to Tom Robinson's statements over the years". Mr. Robinson quite clearly stated in his interview that the hole in JFK's temple was approximately 1/4" in diameter. Last time I checked, a 6.5mm Carcano bullet was also approximately 1/4" in diameter.

If it was not a through and through hole, why would Mr. Robinson so clearly state it was an exit wound from inside the skull? He also tells a rather confusing story in which an FBI agent present at the autopsy, claiming to be a ballistics expert, told Mr. Robinson the large gaping wound in the rear of JFK's head was an entry wound and the small 1/4" wound in the temple was an exit wound. Utter nonsense, of course, as, if anything, the reverse ould be true. What surprises me is that Mr. Robinson seems to accept this information from the FBI "ballistics expert" as Gospel. Surely, a man in his trade would have encountered through and through bullet wounds before, and would know that exit wounds tend to be much larger.

From patspeer.com:

Well, then, what about the entrance on the front of the head observed by Robinson? Certainly, Robinson's recollection of THAT wound is important. Well, WHAT entrance on the front of the head? He saw no such thing.

Here is his discussion with Purdy of the wound he observed.

PURDY: Did you notice anything else unusual about the body which may not have been artificially caused, that is caused by something other than the autopsy?

ROBINSON: Probably, a little mark at the temples in the hairline. As I recall, it was so small it could be hidden by the hair. It didn't have to be covered with make-up. I thought it probably a piece of bone or a piece of the bullet that caused it.

PURDY: In other words, there was a little wound.

ROBINSON: Yes.

PURDY: Approximately where, which side of the forehead or part of the head was it on?

ROBINSON: I believe it was on the right side.

PURDY: On his right side?

ROBINSON: That's an anatomical right, yes.

PURDY: You say it was in the forehead region up near the hairline?

ROBINSON: Yes.

PURDY: Would you say it was closer to the top of the hair?

ROBINSON: Somewhere around the temples.

PURDY: Approximately what size?

ROBINSON: Very small, about a quarter of an inch.

PURDY: Quarter of an inch is all the damage. Had it been closed up by the doctors?

ROBINSON: No, he didn't have to close it. If anything, I just would have probably put a little wax in it.

When asked later what he thought caused this wound, moreover, he claimed "I think either a piece of bone or a piece of the bullet. Or a very small piece of shrapnel." When then asked if that was the only place he thought a bullet could have exited, he repeated "It was no bullet. It was a fragment or a piece of the bone." When then asked yet again--for once and for all--what he thought caused the wound, he reiterated "A piece of the bone or metal exiting."

So, Robinson did not call this wound an entrance, nor think it was an entrance. No, he believed it to have been an exit for a very small fragment of some sort, or perhaps even a mark created by shrapnel. This is NOT the description of an entrance hole for an explosive round so many pretend it is, nor a bullet hole of any kind.

Heck, it was a wound so small that Robinson wasn't even sure he put wax in it.

So why pretend otherwise?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Pat

Have you ever seen an entrance wound made by a 6.5mm (.257 calibre) bullet?

Robert, if you read Robinson's words--his words--not mine---you will see that he specifies that what he saw was not a bullet entrance, and may have just been a shrapnel wound. Robinson, as a mortician, had almost certainly seen some bullet wounds. As a cosmetician, he'd almost certainly noted the abrasion collars apparent at bullet entrances. Apparently, he noted no such collar on this wound. In fact, when one realizes that he said this may have been a shrapnel wound, it becomes clear he failed to note the through and through hole one would expect to find at a bullet's entrance.

Now, you can convince yourself what you like... but those wishing to believe Robinson saw a bullet's entrance should not go around saying Tom Robinson said he saw an entrance wound on Kennedy's forehead or some such thing, when he specified that he saw no such thing. Can we at least agree on that?

Pat

Have you ever seen an entrance wound made by a 6.5mm (.257 calibre) bullet?

[William Kelly]

The JFK Assassination Research Community is losing a generation.

Kids tune out because, in the words of one 25-year old I spoke with, "They make it so boring."

I had two conversations with this 25-year old, a young lady from New England as rock-ribbed as any of her generation.

I mentioned the "central issue" of the JFK assassination to her and she insisted I say what it was.

"JFK had a wound of entrance in the back, without an exit. There was no bullet recovered at the autopsy. He had a wound of entrance in his throat, without an exit. No bullet recovered during the autopsy."

She didn't know what to make of it, at first.

"Some people think the bullets were removed prior to the autopsy--" I said.

"--Or it was some government xxxx that dissolved!" she said, excited.

I had a wide smile at that one.

The Wecht Conference "Passing the Torch," often touched on the role of new young, researchers, and there were many there on Thursday and Friday, the first two days, when high school and college students could receive credit for attending, and I presume paying attention, but on the third day, someone took a hand count of how many people were in the audience who were under 40 years old and there were only a dozen or so.

But there were some good, young researchers there, including Zack and Steve Rosen, and Will Paris, all forum members who appear willing to carry the torch.

As David Talbot said, we have to figure out a way to continue by developing social media - networking, Facebook, Tweet, Blogs, etc., and one 70 year old retired school teacher asked, "What do you want us to do when we get home?" Her assignment is to begin networking a mass public movement to get Congressional Oversight of the JFK Act.

Can we bring the new generation into the act as the old generation checks out? Will anybody be there in October 2017 when the NARA releases the last secret document on the assassination?

Maybe somebody will make a great thriller suspense movie ala JFk, Bourne Legacy, that will be based on the assassination and garner the attention and interest of the next generation?

Edited October 23, 2013 by William Kelly

[Cliff Varnell]

Maybe somebody will make a great thriller suspense movie ala JFk, Bourne Legacy, that will be based on the assassination and garner the attention and interest of the next generation?

It would take something like that.

In the meantime, it would be helpful if people didn't study the cover-up as if they were studying the killing.

For instance, Oswald is a study of the cover-ups, not the killing.

[Pat Speer]

Pat

I have read the original notes on the Tom Robinson interview and I do not understand what you mean by "A lot of stuff has been added on to Tom Robinson's statements over the years". Mr. Robinson quite clearly stated in his interview that the hole in JFK's temple was approximately 1/4" in diameter. Last time I checked, a 6.5mm Carcano bullet was also approximately 1/4" in diameter.

If it was not a through and through hole, why would Mr. Robinson so clearly state it was an exit wound from inside the skull? He also tells a rather confusing story in which an FBI agent present at the autopsy, claiming to be a ballistics expert, told Mr. Robinson the large gaping wound in the rear of JFK's head was an entry wound and the small 1/4" wound in the temple was an exit wound. Utter nonsense, of course, as, if anything, the reverse ould be true. What surprises me is that Mr. Robinson seems to accept this information from the FBI "ballistics expert" as Gospel. Surely, a man in his trade would have encountered through and through bullet wounds before, and would know that exit wounds tend to be much larger.

From patspeer.com:

Well, then, what about the entrance on the front of the head observed by Robinson? Certainly, Robinson's recollection of THAT wound is important. Well, WHAT entrance on the front of the head? He saw no such thing.

Here is his discussion with Purdy of the wound he observed.

PURDY: Did you notice anything else unusual about the body which may not have been artificially caused, that is caused by something other than the autopsy?

ROBINSON: Probably, a little mark at the temples in the hairline. As I recall, it was so small it could be hidden by the hair. It didn't have to be covered with make-up. I thought it probably a piece of bone or a piece of the bullet that caused it.

PURDY: In other words, there was a little wound.

ROBINSON: Yes.

PURDY: Approximately where, which side of the forehead or part of the head was it on?

ROBINSON: I believe it was on the right side.

PURDY: On his right side?

ROBINSON: That's an anatomical right, yes.

PURDY: You say it was in the forehead region up near the hairline?

ROBINSON: Yes.

PURDY: Would you say it was closer to the top of the hair?

ROBINSON: Somewhere around the temples.

PURDY: Approximately what size?

ROBINSON: Very small, about a quarter of an inch.

PURDY: Quarter of an inch is all the damage. Had it been closed up by the doctors?

ROBINSON: No, he didn't have to close it. If anything, I just would have probably put a little wax in it.

When asked later what he thought caused this wound, moreover, he claimed "I think either a piece of bone or a piece of the bullet. Or a very small piece of shrapnel." When then asked if that was the only place he thought a bullet could have exited, he repeated "It was no bullet. It was a fragment or a piece of the bone." When then asked yet again--for once and for all--what he thought caused the wound, he reiterated "A piece of the bone or metal exiting."

So, Robinson did not call this wound an entrance, nor think it was an entrance. No, he believed it to have been an exit for a very small fragment of some sort, or perhaps even a mark created by shrapnel. This is NOT the description of an entrance hole for an explosive round so many pretend it is, nor a bullet hole of any kind.

Heck, it was a wound so small that Robinson wasn't even sure he put wax in it.

So why pretend otherwise?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Pat

Have you ever seen an entrance wound made by a 6.5mm (.257 calibre) bullet?

Robert, if you read Robinson's words--his words--not mine---you will see that he specifies that what he saw was not a bullet entrance, and may have just been a shrapnel wound. Robinson, as a mortician, had almost certainly seen some bullet wounds. As a cosmetician, he'd almost certainly noted the abrasion collars apparent at bullet entrances. Apparently, he noted no such collar on this wound. In fact, when one realizes that he said this may have been a shrapnel wound, it becomes clear he failed to note the through and through hole one would expect to find at a bullet's entrance.

Now, you can convince yourself what you like... but those wishing to believe Robinson saw a bullet's entrance should not go around saying Tom Robinson said he saw an entrance wound on Kennedy's forehead or some such thing, when he specified that he saw no such thing. Can we at least agree on that?

Pat

Have you ever seen an entrance wound made by a 6.5mm (.257 calibre) bullet?

6.5mm Military Rifle Wounds

Let's go back to the beginning and see if there's anything we've overlooked.

Fortunately, the wound ballistics of most every rifle known to man has been studied, and has been written up sometime somewhere. And so one bright day at UCLA I spent hour after hour combing through old Military Surgeon Magazines in search of a report, any report, on any World War II battle between the allied forces and Italy, in hopes of reading first-hand descriptions of Mannlicher-Carcano wounds. While I was unable to find such a study, I was able to find studies of wounds caused by similar rifles, and these helped convince me that the Clark Panel and HSCA’s purported wound of entrance near the cowlick was far from the “typical entrance wound” they described in their report, and that the official explanation for Kennedy's large head wound was in fact incorrect.

Of particular help was a World War II report by Dr.s Ashley Oughterson, Harry Hull, Francis Sutherland, and Daniel Greiner on allied casualties in Bougainville, Fiji. This report was published in Wound Ballistics, by the Medical Department of the Army, and featured the autopsy protocols of more than one hundred soldiers. Many of these soldiers died after being shot by Japanese 6.5mm rifles. Other online articles I found revealed that these Japanese Arisaka rifles fired a bullet slightly smaller than the bullets fired by Oswald’s Mannlicher-Carcano but that their bullets traveled slightly faster, imparting an almost identical amount of energy into the wound. (The articles I found indicated the Arisaka bullet weighed 139 grains and traveled at 2395 fps and the Mannlicher-Carcano bullet weighed 160 grains and traveled at 2200 fps.) If any ballistics experts out there disagree with these numbers or with my assumption of a similarity between Arisaka and Carcano wound ballistics, please let me know.

The doctors summarized their findings regarding the effects of rifle ammunition on the head as follows: "Head.—Head wounds produced by rifle fire were characterized without exception by extensive destruction of the brain and skull. Laceration, massive herniation, or total absence of large portions of the brain were the usual findings. Large areas of bony skull and scalp were frequently avulsed with shattering or widespread comminution of the residual portions of the skull. Ofttimes, bone fragments were driven deep into the brain tissue. Perforating skull wounds were more common than gutter wounds. Frequently, long, stellate fracture lines radiated across the base of the skull. Extensive damage was sometimes observed in one hemisphere of the brain, when the traversing missile track lay entirely in the opposite hemisphere. All these findings were interpreted as additional evidence in support of the modern hypotheses of wound production by high-velocity missiles.

Well, so far, so good. From this summary it sounds like the doctors would have claimed Kennedy's head wound was a typical wound.

Unfortunately, a closer inspection of the autopsy protocols proves this not to be the case.

The autopsy protocols of those dying from 6.5 mm bullet wounds to the head follow. These refer to the bullets as .25 caliber, which wasn't quite true. According to Bolt Action Rifles, by Fred de Haas and Wayne Zwoll, "much erroneous information circulated about that "small caliber Jap rifle" during WWII, with many believing its 6.5 mm bullets, which were .263 caliber, to be only .25 caliber. These protocols have been arranged in order of shot distance. For the sake of brevity, references to wounds other than head wounds have been removed.

• Case 10: A Fijian soldier, peering over the edge of an open foxhole to fire at the enemy, was struck by a .25 caliber Japanese bullet fired from a distance of 15 yards. He was killed instantly at 1400 hours on 1 April 1944. Examination revealed a perforating wound of the head and multiple wounds of the extremities. The head wound of entry (3.7 cm. in diameter) was located at the inner canthus of the left eye and the exit wound (8.7 cm. in diameter) at the vertex of the skull. The skull was comminuted, and there was almost complete destruction of the left half of the brain.
• Case 2: A Fijian soldier, while on patrol, was standing behind a tree when he was struck by a .25 caliber Japanese bullet fired from a distance of 20 yards. He was killed instantly on 31 March 1944. Examination revealed a perforating wound of the head. The entrance wound (0.5 cm. in diameter) was situated over the lateral border of the right supraorbital ridge and the exit wound (1.2 cm. in diameter) over the occipital bone. Stellate fractures of the frontal and occipital bones radiated from both perforations. The frontal and parietal lobes of the brain were perforated, and the cerebellum was grooved.
• Case 11: A soldier of the 129th Infantry was crouching and moving forward in a skirmish line when he was struck by a Japanese .25 caliber bullet fired from a distance of 20 yards. He was killed instantly at 1300 hours on 24 March 1944. Cursory examination revealed an extensive gutter wound 15 x 10 cm. involving the left temporal, occipital, and parietal regions. Large portions of these bones and underlying brain were absent. Extensive comminution of the remaining cranial vault was present.
• Case 8: A soldier of the 129th Infantry, 37th Division, was standing on his bunk in an open tent in battalion headquarters firing at the enemy, when he was struck by a .25 caliber Japanese bullet fired from a distance of 25 yards. He was killed instantly at 0630 hours on 24 March 1944. Examination revealed a gutter wound (5 x 2½ cm.) of the left parietal region. Brain tissue exuded through the perforation in his helmet. Lacerated brain tissue, portions of the frontal and parietal lobes, was herniated through the wound. Marked subgaleal hemorrhage was present. The cranial vault was comminuted by stellate fractures. Both hemispheres of the brain were extensively lacerated. A mushroomed .25 caliber bullet was found in the right anterior fossa.
• Case 20: A soldier of the 129th Infantry was sitting on a log holding a flamethrower when he was struck in the head by a .25 caliber Japanese bullet fired from a distance of 75 yards. His perforated helmet was found lying on the ground. He was killed instantly at 1130 hours on 27 March 1944. Examination revealed a gutter wound 17.5 x 4 cm. involving the right temporal and frontal regions. There were deep lacerations of the frontal, parietal, and temporal lobes. Disorganized brain tissue filled the wound. Extensive comminution of the cranial vault was found.
• Case 25: A soldier of the 129th Infantry was standing in an open foxhole when he was struck by a .25 caliber Japanese bullet fired by a sniper from a distance of 75 yards. His helmet was perforated. He was wounded in action at 1430 hours on 24 March 1944 and died 5 hours later, despite shock therapy. Examination revealed a gutter wound (15 x 7½ cm.) occupying the right parieto-occipital region. Portions of these bones as well as the underlying cerebral hemisphere were absent. A small metal fragment was recovered from the remaining brain tissue and was identified as part of the jacket of a .25 caliber Japanese bullet. The right lateral ventricle was filled with blood. Petechial hemorrhages were present in the left half of the brain. Stellate fracture lines coursed through the bones of the vault.
• Case 59: A soldier of the 24th Infantry, while running forward in a skirmish line, was struck by .25 caliber Japanese machinegun bullets fired from a distance of 75 yards. He was killed instantly at 1100 hours on 14 April 1944. Examination revealed multiple wounds. (One) bullet struck the left side of the face producing a gutter wound 12.5 x 3.7 x 0.25 cm., which destroyed the left temporomandibular joint.
• Case 17: A soldier of the 129th Infantry, while walking up a jungle trail, was struck by a Japanese .25 caliber bullet fired from a distance of 100 yards. He was killed instantly at 1320 hours on 24 March 1944. Examination revealed a perforating wound of the head. The wound of entrance (2.5 cm. in diameter) traversed the right infraorbital ridge; the exit wound (3 cm. in diameter) was located in the left parieto-occipital region. When the body was received, the helmet had not been removed and brain tissue was extruded over its surface.
• Case 5: A Fijian soldier, while on patrol, peered over a ridge and was struck in the head by a .25 caliber Japanese machine gun bullet fired from a distance of 150 yards. He was killed instantly at 1000 hours on 26 March 1944. Examination revealed a gutter wound (6.5 x 2.5 cm.) in the center of the forehead with a portion of the frontal bone blown away. Fracture lines radiated through the temporal, parietal, and occipital bones. Both frontals and the right temporal lobes were lacerated. A bullet was recovered from the right temporal fossa.
• Case 18: A U.S. soldier was standing in a cleared area digging a foxhole when he was struck in the head by a .25 caliber bullet. The shot was fired by a Japanese sniper at a distance of over 150 yards. The soldier was killed instantly at 1500 hours on 26 March 1944. Examination revealed a perforating wound of the head. The entrance wound (0.6 cm. in diameter) was posterior to the left mastoid process, and the exit wound (1.2 cm. in diameter) was at the outer canthus of the right eye. The bullet coursed in a superior and anterior direction and perforated the atlas; it then crossed the foramen magnum and severed the brain stem at the lower level of the pons. The track continued through the base of the skull, right ethmoid, and right orbit to the point of exit.
• Case 19: A U.S. soldier, while on duty as a sniper in the jungle, peered over a protecting log and was struck in the head by a .25 caliber bullet. The shot was fired by a Japanese sniper from an unknown distance. The soldier was killed instantly on 24 March 1944. Cursory examination revealed a penetrating wound of the skull, with the wound of entrance in the left orbit. A compound comminuted fracture of the skull with marked brain destruction was present. (NOTE: while this entrance wound was not measured, it was photographed, and revealed to be many times the purported size of the entrance on the back of Kennedy's head.)
• President Kennedy: The President of the United States was shot while driving down the street in an open limousine. The shot was believed to have been fired from a distance of 90 yards. The doctors at his autopsy claimed that a 1.5 x .6 cm entrance wound was found low on the back of his head, and that a 13 cm exit was found on the top of his head above his right temple. They also claimed that a large amount of skull was missing at the exit, and that the right side of his skull was largely fractured.

Notice anything? Surprisingly, 6 of the 11 bullets discussed in the autopsy protocols didn’t leave easily distinguishable entrances and exits on the skull, but left large “gutter” or "tangential" type wounds of both entrance and exit. Even if one were to exclude the "gutter" wounds of cases 8, 20 and 25 under the assumption that the perforation of these soldier's helmets may have led to their creation, 3 of the 8 remaining bullets created "gutter" wounds.

The tendency of military rifle bullets to create such wounds was documented as far back as the 19th century, when full-metal jacketed bullets were first introduced. As an early example, 1916's Gunshot Injuries, by Louis Anatole La Garde, noted that gutter fractures were "especially common with the use of steel-jacketed bullets" and went so far as to say they were "characteristic of jacketed bullet wounds." The close identification of these wounds with jacketed ammunition eventually led Dr.s Sherman et al, of the L.A. County--USC Department of Neurosurgery, to note in a 1980 Western Journal of Medicine article on gunshot wounds to the brain involving civilian ammunition that "Our experience did not reflect any tangential wounds to the head with the massive brain guttering and soft tissue loss as described in the military literature."

(Note that while many online medical dictionaries define a "gutter" wound as one that leaves a furrow in the skin without actually breaking the skin, that the "gutter" wounds discussed in these older publications are actually quite gruesome. Thankfully, Missile Wounds of the Head and Neck, Vol.1 (1999) clears this up, and reports that these more severe wounds, in which the bullet leaves a gaping hole, are "class 3" gutter wounds.)

The comparative size of the defects was also unusual. If one excludes the three bullets first striking helmets, the entrance on Kennedy's skull was comparatively small, the third smallest of 8. While the exit in Kennedy's skull wasn’t measured until the scalp was reflected and parts of his skull fell to the table, the autopsy photos taken before the measurements and the size of the skull fragments found outside the body reveal an exit of at least 5 x 10 cm stretching from the top of Kennedy’s head to his temple. This proves that it, too, was unusual. It is, in fact, far larger than any non-gutter wound observed in the Bougainville Campaign, outside the one observed on Case 10, created by a rifle over 200 feet closer to its victim. As we don't know at what point in the autopsy the wound on Case 10 was measured, moreover, it remains quite possible that the 8.7 cm measurement for this wound was also taken after bone fell to the table. If so, then it too was much smaller than the 13 cm wound measured on Kennedy after his scalp had been reflected.

This raises lots of questions. While some will say that the small entrance/large exit on Kennedy’s skull came as a result of the 6.5 mm bullet’s breaking up, this small entrance/large exit anomaly was not, as near as can be determined, replicated in the tests performed at Edgewood Arsenal in 1964. While it is indeed a characteristic of soft-nosed hunting ammunition to enter a skull and break up while passing through the brain, these 1964 tests showed that bullets like those fired in Oswald’s gun were not likely to break up in the brain. These tests showed that the bullets fired in Oswald’s gun, moreover, were among the most stable ever tested. This means that the bullet striking Kennedy, should it have entered the skull intact, would most probably have not tumbled, and, if it did, would most probably have not fragmented. Dr. Olivier, who supervised the 1964 tests, told Howard Donahue that most of the bullets he tested broke into only two or three large fragments. That's it.

[Robert Prudhomme]

Pat

Have you ever seen an entrance wound made by a 6.5mm (.257 calibre) bullet?