CE 399: Specter's "bastard"

[Gil Jesus]

By Gil Jesus ( 2022 )

An absence of provenence


The Warren Commission credited Darrell Tomlinson, a maintenence man at Parkland Hospital, with the discovery of the "stretcher bullet", it said was Commission Exhibit 399.


CE 399 allegedly fell off a stretcher that had been removed from an elevator on the first floor. The bullet fell off when Tomlinson moved the stretcher against a wall and it bumped the wall.


But the Commission was never able to prove that CE 399 was the bullet that fell off the stretcher.


The Commission concluded that Tomlinson then gave the bullet to O.P. Wright, the Head of Security Personnel who gave it to Secret Service Agent Richard Johnson, who carried it back to Washington in his pocket. Johnson then turned it over the Secret Service Chief James Rowley, who then gave it to FBI agent Elmer Todd.


Tomlinson was deposed by the "Godfather of the Single Bullet Theory", Arlen Specter on March 20, 1964 at his place of employment, Parkland Hospital.

Tomlinson's testimony spanned six pages ( 6 H 128-134 ) and Specter asked him a total of 84 questions.

Specter never asked him to describe the bullet he found.

Specter never showed him CE 399 in order to prove that it was the bullet he found.

In fact, Specter never asked him one question about the bullet he found.


Plenty of questions about the stretcher but not one question about the bullet.


Witnesses O.P. Wright and Secret Service Agent Richard Johnson were never called to give testimony.


Secret Service Chief James Rowley WAS called. He appeared before the Commission on June 18, 1964. His testimony spanned 37 pages and he was asked a total of 283 questions.

He was asked about his 1965 and 1966 budgets.
He was asked about the pay levels of agents.
He was never asked to describe the bullet agent Johnson gave him.

He was never shown CE 399 and asked to identify it as the bullet he was handed and gave to agent Todd.

In fact, he was never asked one question about the bullet he handled.


Commission Exhibit 2011 is the FBI report on identification of CE 399 as the "stretcher bullet" the four men handled.

It reveals that Tomlinson, Wright and Secret Service employees Johnson and Rowley were all shown CE 399 and not one of them could identify CE 399 as the bullet they handled.

 

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This was the reason why Commission counsel was careful not to ask Tomlinson and Rowley about the stretcher bullet and why the FBI left Wright and Johnson off the witness list: to hide the fact that CE 399's chain of possession began with the FBI.

It's an established fact that witnesses were interviewed by Commission counsel prior to their testimony. In doing so, Counsel was given the insight into what questions to ask and what questions to not ask.

Without the positive identification of the people who handled it prior to its being received by the FBI, the Commission failed to establish the bullet's provenence and thus left open the possibility that CE 399 was substituted for the real "stretcher bullet" sometime between its discovery and CE 399's official arrival at the FBI lab.

Thus making it without an origin and a "bastard" bullet.

Arlen Specter's "bastard".

Edited June 15, 2022 by Gil Jesus