New Article: "Multiple Stretcher Bullets, AKA 'The Connally Bullet, Revisited' "

[Denise Hazelwood]

(I also posted this in the "Research" and "Discussion" threads, but since this seems to be the one with all the action, I'm posting it here, as well.)

In light of the recent Paul Landis revelations, I thought I should finally write the article I've been meaning to do. It's rather long, but worth the read--everything you ever wanted to know about the two "stretcher" bullets: 1) the "pointed" Tomlinson/Wright bullet, and 2) the Wade/Nolan bullet--as well as 3) the small bullet fragments removed from Connally's wrist. Spoiler alert: the "pointed" Tomlinson/Wright bullet was the AR-15 bullet, which was disappeared. The Wade/Nolan bullet was the actual Connally bullet. Whether CE 399 was the original Wade/Nolan (Connally) bullet, l can't say. But I've scoured for every scrap of information I can find on these mutually exclusive chain-of-custody histories. Everything you want to know about the "stretcher bullet/s" is right here, with links to the original sources.

Read all about it at https://www.a-benign-conspiracy.com/multiple-stretcher-bullets-aka-the-connally-bullet-revisited.html.

Please read the article before commenting. Thank you.

[Ron Bulman]

I almost quit reading with Oswald was on the sixth floor.  But you had already mentioned an AR-15 bullet.  That was the ah-hah moment, I kept reading to see if my suspicions were true.  When I read this I thought, yep.

Spoiler alert: there were two other shooters, both Secret Service agents. One did nothing more than fire a warning shot or two to alert his fellow agents to the danger. The other was handling a defective AR-15 prone to slam fire discharge, and when the gun went off, it just happened to be pointed at the President's head. It seems too incredible to believe, but that is exactly what happened. 
 

Two Secret Service Agents, that's new for me (that one fired warning shot(s) to alert the other agents).  So, I scanned the rest of the article and there they were.  SSA Hickey and author Menninger, I won't grace this post with the name of his piece of junk book.

You do know Hickey sued St. Martin's Press and Menninger and won?

Hickey v. St. Martin's Press, Inc., 978 F. Supp. 230 | Casetext Search + Citator

This has been discussed in some detail on the forum here, for your reference.

 

[Denise Hazelwood]

I am aware that there was a lawsuit. I wrote about it in one of my books. The amount of the settlement was undisclosed. The book was published anyway. Howard Donahue was not named as a defendant. The only other witnesses to the event in question, upon which the suit was based (beyond Donahue and Gary Mack) said the whole thing had the stink of a set-up. I agree.

Did you actually read my article? Do you have an opinion on the Wade/Nolan bullet history? Wade actually saw the bullet, Nolan didn't open the envelope, but was told it was a "bullet" (not a "fragment" or "fragments"). Nurse Audrey Bell said that she gave her envelope to two plainclothes federal agents (naming "Sorrels" specifically, not some uniformed highway patrolman. O.P. Wright and Nathan Burgess Pool said that their stretcher bullet was "pointed," (a word echoed by Nurse Phyllis Hall in describing her stretcher bullet), which the round-tipped Carcanno rounds most certainly are not. You pooh-pooh the Donahue theory without even considering my variation of it, wherein I correct the mistakes he made (which were made because he relied on fabricated evidence, not because of errors in his thinking). If the evidence doesn't point to a cover-up, and if the AR-15 accident doesn't explain the motive, means, and opportunity behind the cover-up, then what's your explanation for the Wade/Nolan bullet history? Do you think the Hoover-Johnson phone call was made up? (If so, wouldn't that point to a cover-up? If not, how do you account for the Tague wounding? I account not only for those, but also for the EOP (rather than "cowlick"--one of the mistakes Donahue made) 6mm entrance wound, the limousine windshield hole, the damage in the chrome strip, the middle section of the bullet whose nose and tail fragments were inside the limo, the throat wound, statements made by Jerrol Custer and Floyd Reibe about the autopsy X-rays and photographs being "fake" and "phony" and "not the images we took," in addition to Navy Corpsman Saundra Kay Spencer describing "no correspondence" between the autopsy photos she processed in 1963 and the ones shown to her by the ARRB, and just about all of the other anomalies associated with the case. Do you have an alternative explanation? One that fits with all the evidence of a cover-up better than the AR-15 accident scenario that I give? If so, I'm all ears.

I did ask that you read the article before posting a reply. Obviously, you did not. You only read my original post only enough to realize I supported a version of the AR-15 accident scenario, without bothering to read the article itself. I, too, was skeptical of the "Hickey did it" theory, until I started looking into it farther. That deeper look made me realize that Donahue was on the right track, even if he got some of the details wrong. Do you think Audrey Bell, Henry Wade, and Bobby Nolan (in his description of the envelope) were all "mistaken"? That Hoover in his phone call was "mistaken"? That O.P. Wright, Darrell Tomlinson, and Nathan Burgess Pool were "mistaken"? Or do you believe the Single Bullet Theory (recently disproved by Knox Laboratory) nonsense? 

Why don't you do what I asked, and read the article (as I asked) before pooh-poohing my hard work? And if you have an alternative scenario that explains all of the evidence better than mine, again, I'm all ears.

[Denise Hazelwood]

Oh, I almost forgot to add a response about your belief that the Bronson frame you refer to "debunks" the George Hickey theory. I address this in one of my books, but not so much in my documentary or on my website, so I'll give the quick run-down.

1) I believe that the explosive head shot happened farther down Elm Street than the extant Zapruder Film shows, when the limousine was about where the FBI's "visual aid" model photographs put it, not in the Mary Moorman photo position. Mary Moorman herself believed that her photo was simultaneous with the "first" shot, and that it must have "been the one" that hit JFK was only because JFK was "slumped" in her photo. I believe that the Zapruder Film was altered (I show anomalous indications in addition to John Costella's more scientific "proofs") to hide the actual AR-15 head shot, and that in fact, the shot that was simultaneous with the Moorman photo was the one that struck Governor Connally (inattention blindness explaining why she "missed" the first shot along with the common mistaken belief that early sounds of gunfire were "firecrackers" or "backfire." After all, she was so excited by the thought of seeing the President that she forgot to take his picture as he was approaching, and only barely managed to take a picture just after he had passed her. She did not see Kennedy's head erupt simultaneously with  her photo, but as she was looking through her viewfinder preparing to take one last photo. In short, I believe the Moorman photo to be about simultaneous with the shot that struck Governor Connally, and you can see indications of that in her photo. Kennedy had already been struck by the first shot, gone into the "chest grab" ("Lazarus Sign") decorticate posture position, and was slumping to his left just at the point of the Moorman photo. I discuss all this in my documentary, along with the FBI "Visual Aid" image and clips of Mary Moorman saying just what I described here. 

2. I believe the extant Zapruder Film to be a highly altered product. That's why I spend so much time discussing it in both my documentary and on my website (see https://www.a-benign-conspiracy.com/zapruder-film-alteration.html). I also believe the Tina Towner film to have been altered--something I note in at least one of my books, though not so in my documentary or website--with the bizarrely shaped JFK head. The Bronson film may or may not be altered. Let's assume that the Bronson film image is authentic but that the Z-film is not.

3 That said, let's look at the Bronson image specifically. How do you know that this Bronson image was made at the exact time of the head shot? Do you you see any head spray? No. How do you know the agent purported to be "Hickey" actually is Hickey, and not, say, Glen Bennett? Or Clint Hill preparing to jump off the car? The agent is too blurry and too distant to identify clearly. You'd first have to prove to me that this Bronson frame is, in fact, simultaneous with the explosive head shot, which you cannot do with the Bronson film by itself. You can only do it by aligning the frame with the (fraudulent) Z313 head shot and the Mary Moorman photo, which does not show any definitive head shot, not by anything visible in this image. Assuming that this Bronson frame is about simultaneous with the Moorman photo, which again, is about simultaneous with the shot that hit Connally, I've got about 5 seconds (according to my acoustical study, which is in my documentary) before the explosive AR-15 head shot. 

[Gary Murr]

Hello Denise:

As someone with more than a passing interest in the wounding of John Connally I thank you for your lengthy article on the governors wounding. I have not had the time to read the entire treatise in detail, end to end, but intend to do so as my time allows. In a cursory speed read over the first half of your article I came across a couple of statements you made, listed below, statments concerning Audrey Bell, Bob Nolan, and the half-page PMH inter-office memorandum, to wit:

"The half-page Interoffice Memorandum on Parkland letterhead, which she said she had one of the two federal agents sign upon turning over the fragments to them and which she subsequently gave to Parkland supervisor Jack Price was not in the collection of evidence..."

 "So where is that half-page Interoffice Memorandum receipt that was executed when she turned the fragments over to the plainclothes federal agents? It seems to have disappeared altogether! However, unlike the supposed "302" reports of the purported Bardwell Odum interviews of Darrell Tomlinson and O.P. Wright, which I believe never existed, I believe this receipt did exist, and then was later "disappeared" because it was inconvenient to the desired narrative."

In truth, the inter-office receipt did exist, did not "disappear[ed]" and continues to exist and can be found in Connally's "complete" PMH medical record as obtained by members of the HSCA staff. As you can see, Nolan did sign the receipt - "Bob Nolan" - and in his own handwriting. Of course what is truly of interest is the fact that Audrey Bell, who did compose the other writing on this receipt, indicates that the foreign body envelope she was turning over to Nolan contained a "fragment", singular, not fragments.  Furthermore, if you compare the capital letters "B" and "N" as signature written by Nolan on the inter-office memorandum with his initials as found on the foreign body envelope - CE 842 - you will note that they are identical, unique to Nolans handwriting, which leads me to conclude that his intials were not "forged" on CE 842 as you suggest. 

FWIW - Gary Murr

 

[Denise Hazelwood]

Thank you, Gary. Can you give me your source for this, please? I notice it says "HSCA (RC 233) on the side, but if you have the actual link, that would be helpful.

If this is authentic, I wonder why the ARRB was unable to locate it? And why Audrey Bell would remember the name "Sorrels" (an actual Secret Service agent) as one of the two "plainclothes federal agents" who received the fragments? Or why it would say "fragment" (singular) when Audrey Bell specifically disavowed "fragment" singular? Or why Nolan didn't recount signing a memo for his "bullet"? Or why it would be addressed to "Lt. Alexander, Crime Lab" and Nolan (a Highway Patrol officer) signed for it? Or why Nolan would question his initials being "upside down"? Why would there be "fragment" (singular) written on the receipt and "fragments" (plural) written on the envelope?

Audrey Bell seemed specifically attuned to "procedure," and the nurse who was showing the bullet to Henry Wade in the hallway seemed unaware of procedure. However, in trying to reconcile this receipt with everything else, I'm thinking the following possibilities:

1. Audrey Bell was the nurse who turned a single large bullet "fragment" (note the technicality as noted in my article of CE 399 being a "fragment" since it was not a complete bullet) over to Nolan, and had him sign a receipt for it, telling him to deliver it to the DPD crime lab. Perhaps in the process, having Nolan call his superior (in Audrey Bell's presence?) who told him to "Give it Fritz." Audrey Bell, being a stickler for procedure, had Nolan sign this receipt for it. There was a separate envelope containing the Connally wrist "fragments" (plural). The ARRB was only asking Audrey Bell about the wrist fragments, which is why she was only answering about that rather than about the large bullet "fragment" that came out of Connally's thigh? I know from experience that when answering questions in a deposition, the lawyers tell you only to respond to what's being asked, not to volunteer anything, so she didn't volunteer the information about the bullet (technically a large "fragment") from Connally's thigh.
2. Nolan returned to Parkland to provide additional security for Connally, not that night, but the next day and throughout the next week. Perhaps Audrey Bell was trying to cover for one of her more inexperienced nurses and realized there was a problem, and retroactively had him sign a receipt, dating it as the date he received the bullet "fragment" rather than the date he signed the receipt. Nolan's "upside down" signature was later forged onto the CE 482 envelope, or he was brought this envelope retroactively and asked to sign it retroactively. Retroactively could be after Oswald's murder, when the cover-up began in earnest.
3. It could be that both Nolan's signature on both the envelope and the entire receipt are forgeries. Or just the envelope signature is a forgery, added after the Single Bullet Theory became necessary in order to account for Tague's wounding and one of the bullet histories. had to be disappeared.

I believe those who saw the Tomlinson/Wright bullet and described it as "pointed." After all, it fits the AR-15 accident scenario. Which raises the questions: Why would Hoover tell Johnson in the phone call that they had "all three" bullets if they didn't? And given that the Tomlinson/Wright bullet was "pointed," what happened to the actual Connally bullet?

I'll add this info as an update to my article, but I would also like to add your source info for this receipt.

-Denise

[Denise Hazelwood]

I've added an update to my article based on Gary Murr's information, mostly with the information posted above, but with an additional thought or two. Sorry for a slight mistake in my reply to Gary Murr above. The correct Commission Exhibit number for the fragment and envelope are CE 842, not whatever number my dyslexic fingers typed. -Denise

[Pat Speer]

3 hours ago, Denise Hazelwood said:

Thank you, Gary. Can you give me your source for this, please? I notice it says "HSCA (RC 233) on the side, but if you have the actual link, that would be helpful.

If this is authentic, I wonder why the ARRB was unable to locate it? And why Audrey Bell would remember the name "Sorrels" (an actual Secret Service agent) as one of the two "plainclothes federal agents" who received the fragments? Or why it would say "fragment" (singular) when Audrey Bell specifically disavowed "fragment" singular? Or why Nolan didn't recount signing a memo for his "bullet"? Or why it would be addressed to "Lt. Alexander, Crime Lab" and Nolan (a Highway Patrol officer) signed for it? Or why Nolan would question his initials being "upside down"? Why would there be "fragment" (singular) written on the receipt and "fragments" (plural) written on the envelope?

Audrey Bell seemed specifically attuned to "procedure," and the nurse who was showing the bullet to Henry Wade in the hallway seemed unaware of procedure. However, in trying to reconcile this receipt with everything else, I'm thinking the following possibilities:

1. Audrey Bell was the nurse who turned a single large bullet "fragment" (note the technicality as noted in my article of CE 399 being a "fragment" since it was not a complete bullet) over to Nolan, and had him sign a receipt for it, telling him to deliver it to the DPD crime lab. Perhaps in the process, having Nolan call his superior (in Audrey Bell's presence?) who told him to "Give it Fritz." Audrey Bell, being a stickler for procedure, had Nolan sign this receipt for it. There was a separate envelope containing the Connally wrist "fragments" (plural). The ARRB was only asking Audrey Bell about the wrist fragments, which is why she was only answering about that rather than about the large bullet "fragment" that came out of Connally's thigh? I know from experience that when answering questions in a deposition, the lawyers tell you only to respond to what's being asked, not to volunteer anything, so she didn't volunteer the information about the bullet (technically a large "fragment") from Connally's thigh.
2. Nolan returned to Parkland to provide additional security for Connally, not that night, but the next day and throughout the next week. Perhaps Audrey Bell was trying to cover for one of her more inexperienced nurses and realized there was a problem, and retroactively had him sign a receipt, dating it as the date he received the bullet "fragment" rather than the date he signed the receipt. Nolan's "upside down" signature was later forged onto the CE 482 envelope, or he was brought this envelope retroactively and asked to sign it retroactively. Retroactively could be after Oswald's murder, when the cover-up began in earnest.
3. It could be that both Nolan's signature on both the envelope and the entire receipt are forgeries. Or just the envelope signature is a forgery, added after the Single Bullet Theory became necessary in order to account for Tague's wounding and one of the bullet histories. had to be disappeared.

I believe those who saw the Tomlinson/Wright bullet and described it as "pointed." After all, it fits the AR-15 accident scenario. Which raises the questions: Why would Hoover tell Johnson in the phone call that they had "all three" bullets if they didn't? And given that the Tomlinson/Wright bullet was "pointed," what happened to the actual Connally bullet?

I'll add this info as an update to my article, but I would also like to add your source info for this receipt.

-Denise

An AR-15 bullet is far smaller than an M/C bullet, and far smaller than the pointed tip bullet Wright showed Thompson. So, no, the stretcher bullet was not an AR-15 bullet. 

[Gary Murr]

On 2/3/2024 at 5:53 PM, Denise Hazelwood said:

Thank you, Gary. Can you give me your source for this, please? I notice it says "HSCA (RC 233) on the side, but if you have the actual link, that would be helpful.

As per your request - the Audrey Bell  half-page memorandum can be found in the records of the HSCA, specifically: HSCA: Record Number: 180-10096-10351: Agency File Number: 001894. It is rather curious that the HSCA has, as part of its records, two “different” versions of the Governor’s theoretical complete medical history of his stay at Parkland Memorial Hospital. The “second” version, that possessing the higher HSCA record number, comprises some eleven more total pages than its predecessor, listed as being 130 pages in length. Though allegedly larger in documentation than the Fenton/Moriarity version, this second rendering actually contains nine fewer pages of pertinent medical data prepared by various Parkland Memorial Hospital personnel. Included in this listing of fewer pages is; analysis of X-rays taken of the Governor on November 27, December 2, and December 4, all prepared by radiologist Jack Reynolds, as well as post-operative shift notations prepared by the nursing staff responsible for the Governor convalescing care, specifically nurses notes for the dates November 26, 27, 29, 30, and December 1, 2, 3. However, what is different in the second version is the inclusion of three disjointed pages from Secret Service prepared files constructed in January and February, 1964; photostatic copies of the front and back of the “Foreign Body Envelope” which originally was thought to have contained the fragment or fragments removed by Dr. Gregory from the Governor’s right distal radius, and; a single page from an FBI report dated 11/29/63, a report filed by FBI-SA Vincent Drain describing Drain’s acquisition of X-rays of the Governor’s thigh wound and the analysis of these same X-rays by Dr. Reynolds.

As to your myriad of questions, many of which to me appear to be based upon hypothetical nuances that cannot be answered satisfactorily to everyones liking - after all truth, like art, is in the eye of the beholder. However, I do find it interesting that on occasions in the past when I have produced this same document the authenticity of the document is the first thing called into question - as to why, I cannot answer. What I do know, that may or may not be relevant, is that on November 22, 1963, Bob Nolan was assigned to security detail at the Trade Mart. Because of this he was dressed in "plainclothes" not in what some may consider to be the uniform clothing normally associated with a member of the State of Texas, Department of Public Safety Highway Patrol Division, which Bob Nolan was. Why  Nolan would question his initials on the envelope as being upside down, I cannot answer. But why is this a curiousity? After all, Captain Fritz's initials are also upside down on this same envelope. Why did Audrey Bell write "fragment" on the half-page memo and "fragments" on the envelope is, again, a question I cannot answer. What I can indicate to you is that when the envelope was received in the FBI lab, and thereafter opened, it would appear it contained but a singular fragment. The "official" FBI lab photograph of this item, designated inititally Q9 and then C9, is a picture of a fragment, singular, not fragments. [image attached herein]. And as to your thought that the Nolan "envelope signature is a forgery, added after the Single Bullet theory became a necessity..." is not borne out as true because a photograph of the "first day evidence" generated by the DPD after the initial evidence taken by the FBI, via Vince Drain, was returned to the DPD shows the envelope on a desk with the rest of the returned evidence and Nolan's initials are already on the envelope - this months in advance of any thoughts of a SBT. FWIW

 

 

Edited February 6 by Gary Murr

[Denise Hazelwood]

Update #2: About Audrey Bell's ARRB Interview and a Speculation about the Unnamed Nurse

Audrey Bell's ARRB Interview

Well, I finally did something I should have done earlier--actually listened to Audrey Bell's ARRB interview tape (https://history-matters.com/archive/jfk/arrb/medical_interviews/audio/ARRB_Bell.htm) instead of just relying on the summary, as interesting as that is.

On Side 2 of the tape, there is discussion of what appears to be the receipt Gary Murr provided, as shown above. Here is an excerpt (starting about 6:38):

Q: We have a little bit of a mystery here that we’re trying to clarify and resolve. What I would like to do is read to you an excerpt from a memo written by one of our (ARRB) staff members, Mr. Joe Kramer (sp?) who wrote this memo on April 26, 1996. And it concerns the Connally fragments, and concerns the subject of your transmission of them to another person. If you may, I’d like to read a paragraph from it, and I’ll let you read it if you like, and ask for your comments. Mr. (Freeman?) writes, “We discussed this foreign body envelope, which he found in this letter I just showed you. And then he says,  “Hell, after consulting with one or more members of Governor Connally’s staff present at Parkland concerning turning the envelope containing the fragments over to State—Texas State Trooper Bobby M. Nolan. There is a receipt for this transaction written in handwriting which appears to be the same as that on the envelope—i.e., it appears to be Audrey Bell’s handwriting. On the receipt, as opposed to the envelope, the term ‘fragment’ (singular) is used to describe the envelope’s contents, as opposed to the plural version of the noun on the envelope. The receipt is written on an office memorandum from—and in the “to” category, Bell writes what appears to be “Lt. Alexander” on the top line, “crime lab” on the second line. End quote. Bell and Nolan each signed the receipt, which is dated 11/22/63. Nolan also initialed the envelope itself.
A: Well, Lieutenant Alexander was with the Dallas crime lab. We had a Lieutenant Alexander who we worked with who was down there. How—if he was up there that day—
Q: Do you—Have you ever met Bobby Nolan, Texas State Trooper Bobby Nolan
A: I could have met him. I just don’t recognize who he is at this time. I had so many from the Texas Trooper’s office there, because they were the ones guarding the Governor.
Q: Were they normally in uniform, or not?
A: Yeah. They were in uniform. The ones that I recall were in uniform. That’s the reason I don’t think that is correct.  You know, that kind of ties them to—there was a newspaper report out in Dallas. There was somebody—and I think it was with Texas State Department, said that they had a handful of those fragments themselves. This came out in the Dallas Times Herald. And that they were—pulled them out of his pocket accidentally, and I don’t think they ever said that knew knew how they got there, and said that they were from the Governor’s room. And I know that I had a call that day from DP and everything else wanting to know, because it’d, you know, been on record many times that I had all the fragments and then turned them over. And there was—at that time, there was one of the TV guys, news guys, living in our apartment complex down there, and he called me first about it. 
Q: This man—person that your describing, was this possibly the same year that the House Committee spoke to you?
A: I don’t know. I—It could have been. It was along in about that time, I think. 
Q: Do you remember the name of that trooper involved in that incident? Was it this man, Bobby Nolan? Or was it a different—
A: It could have been Bobby Nolan. I don’t know if it was him, or whether it was someone else. But there was a big play in Dallas for at least 24 hours about somebody else having those fragments. 
Q: And the media interviewed you?
A: The media—I think it was Channel 4.
Q: Did that other individual who said he had fragments call you?
A: No. We had no contact. 
Q: Okay. Mr. Freeman, when he wrote this, I think he’s basing his account on—he cited this receipt. He’s no longer with the staff. (Unintelligible) He was basically assigned this receipt. He was trying to piece this together. Did you ever meet any State Troopers who were not in uniform the whole time at the hospital?
A: Not that I’m aware of. I think even Colonel Garrison always wore a uniform. 
Q: Do you remember talking to Mr. Alexander at all about any fragments or having any conversations with him?
A: Our crime lab Alexander?
Q: Yes.
A: I’m just trying to recall. That could have been the other person. Because I wanted—I was going to give them to him, and he said it was okay to go ahead and give them. He could have have been the second individual that was in the room. But basically, no. This is the first time I’ve ever thought about talking to Lieutenant Alexander about the fragments. Because they never got down to him. Normally I would have taken them down to him. 
Q: Do you remember any other documents or memoranda about the fragments, or describing the transfer of them in a handwritten memorandum about the transfer of them—anything else about the envelope that you’ve already—
A: (unintelligible) the envelope. And the individual signed. I wrote on there something about the foreign body envelope containing the fragments were being given to—
Q: And you’re talking about the receipt now. There was an envelope, and there was a separate receipt.
A: Yes. They had to sign for them. It was on Dallas County Hospital Memorandum. I remember it was one of the red ones, the red memos that we had.
Q: Okay.
A: And it was about half of a 8 1/2 by 11 page, standard. And he signed it for me, and then that wen to Administration that afternoon. 
Q: You sent it down to Administration?
A: I took it down.
Q: You took it down. Okay.
Q; And that was in your handwriting?
A: It was in my handwriting, yes. 


So Audrey Bell was aware of this receipt. She was also aware of newspaper account in the Dallas Times Herald that mentioned "someone else" having this bullet, and the name "Nolan" might have been associated with that story. She seemed confused about the memo being discussed (whether it was actually shown to her is unclear.) She was trying to reconcile the name "Lt. Alexander" as possibly one of the two men who were at her office (I suspect she may have spoken with him over the telephone and being told it was "okay" to give her fragments over to the plainclothes agents). She seems to have forgotten the name "Sorrels" that she mentioned in her HSCA interview (it had been by the time of her ARRB interview some 30 years since the assassination), but she never wavered in her belief about two "plainclothes" agents.

Some researchers have suggested that Bobby Nolan was wearing plainclothes that day. He was not. In his account, he was uniformed, and that aided in his ability to escort Connally's sister around and being asked to assist in the Governor's security. It was his uniform that probably suggested to the nurse that it was okay to give the bullet to him, since he was law-enforcement. To repeat a quote from his interview above:

...this one lady nurse said that she gave me the bullet, and I turned it over to the FBI, but that’s not true. I didn’t turn it over to the FBI. I gave it to Will Fritz. And she says she gave it to a plainclothes officer. Well, I was in uniform all the time I was there. These things have come out, and either she’s confused or something, I don’t know. I don’t know who she was. I don’t re—I didn’t get the lady’s name that gave it to me.

I think he's misremembering something that was said in the Dallas Times Herald article or Channel 4 segment that was part of the 24-hour long "big play" Audrey Bell mentioned in her ARRB interview. If someone can dig up that article or find a video of the "Channel 4" segment and post it on YouTube, I would appreciate it.

A Speculation about the Unnamed Nurse

 I am going to offer a speculation as to the identity of the nurse who picked up the Connally bullet: Diana Bowron. Nurse Bowron was recently come to Parkland Hospital from England, and had only been working at Parkland for 3 months of her 1-year contract,  and planned to return to England at the end of her contract. She was also only 22 years old at the time of her Warren Commission testimony. She was young, inexperienced, and unfamiliar with U.S. laws. Henry Wade also suggested the name “Bowman” during his Mark Oakes interview. He could easily have confused his interactions with “Head Nurse” Elizabeth Wright with his earlier “some nurse” and “Bowman” to mean Diana Bowron, given that he had surely interacted with Elizabeth Wright (who was working to ensure the comfort of the Connally entourage) during his time visiting with Governor and Mrs. Connally. 


And while she was apparently not involved in Connally’s care after he was taken to Trauma Room 2, Nurse Bowron did help get Governor Connally onto the gurney! 


From Her Warren Commission Testimony:


Mr. SPECTER. And, where did you take your stretcher?

Miss BOWRON. To the left-hand side of the car as you are facing it, and we had to move Governor Connally out first because he was in the front. We couldn’t get to the back seat. While all the Secret Service men were moving Governor Connally I went around to the other side of the car to try to help with the President and then we got him onto the second cart and then took him straight over to trauma room 1. 
Mr. SPECTER. Trauma Room Number 1?

Miss BOWRON. Yes. 

Mr. SPECTER. And describe in a general way Governor Connally’s condition when you first saw him? 

Miss BOWRON. He was very pale, he was leaning forward and onto Mrs. Connally but apparently—I didn’t notice very much—I was more concerned with the person in the back of the car—the President. 

Mr. SPECTER. And what, in a general way, did you observe with respect to President Kennedy’s condition? 

Miss BOWRON. He was moribund—he was lying across Mrs. Kennedy’s knee and there seemed to be blood everywhere. When I went around to the other side of the car I saw the condition of his head. 

Mr. SPECTER. You saw the condition of his what?

Miss BOWRON. The back of his head.

Mr. SPECTER. And what was that condition? 

Miss BOWRON. Well, it was very bad—you know. 

(I included some of the bit about Kennedy to show her observation of the back of the head blow-out.)

Vol. XI:X of the Warren Commission’s Hearings (https://history-matters.com/archive/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh19/html/WH_Vol19_0093a.htm) contains Bowron Exhibits 2, 3, and 4, which were articles published in British newspapers. Bowron Exhibits 3 and 4 were stamped “Top Secret.” One wonders why, since they seem fairly innocuous, although all three do mention her helping to get Connally onto the stretcher. One also wonders why there is no Bowron Exhibit "#1"? It was not mentioned in her testimony. Why would they start with “2”? Is there a “#1” buried somewhere? Removed because it mentioned the stretcher bullet? Who knows.
So Miss Bowron wasn’t paying a whole lot of attention to Connally, and had a habit of putting stuff into her pocket. She had some interaction with Connally and the gurney when Connally was being taken out of the limousine. Henry Wade recalled the name “Bowman” (albeit erroneously attributing it to the “head nurse”).
So I’m thinking that maybe, just maybe, the bullet fell out of Connally’s leg as he was being placed on the first gurney as he was taken out of the car and before he was wheeled into Trauma Room 2, rather than when he was being moved onto the surgical gurney, perhaps hitting the edge of the gurney in the process to create the clink sound Connally recalled. The Governor was in a semi-conscious state and may have confused exactly which time he was being transferred onto a stretcher that the bullet fell out—although I do think he was correct about a “bullet” (and not a “cuff link,” as some researchers have suggested), especially given the Nolan and Wade accounts.
One of the reasons the Connally nurse has been so hard to track down is because she left Parkland Hospital at the end of her contract and returned to England, where she would be that much harder for researchers to track down (although Harrison Edward Livingstone managed to do it an interviewed her over the telephone and mail for one of his “High Treason” books, specifically to ask her about Kennedy’s back wound). Other Parkland workers, specifically Elizabeth Wright and Phyllis Hall (in her interview with me) made vague references to a nurse whom they declined to name—perhaps because they didn’t want to get the very young Diana Bowron into further trouble than she might already have been for not following standard procedure? And perhaps she never came forward publicly because she knew she had made a mistake and didn’t want to jeopardize her future career options, or had been warned not to say anything about it because of chain-of-custody issues?
Again, this is all speculation, but it has the merit of Henry Wade mentioning the name “Bowman” in his Mark Oakes interview, the inexperience of a young nurse who was likely unaware of proper chain-of-evidence procedures, and a known association of this nurse with the Connally stretcher. There’s also the very interesting missing “#1” in her exhibits, and the very interesting “Top Secret” stamp on two of the British newspaper articles that mention her helping get Connally onto his gurney. 
So my candidate for the unnamed nurse is: Diana Bowron. 

(Posting this update to my article.)
--Denise

[Michael Griffith]

On 2/2/2024 at 6:53 PM, Denise Hazelwood said:

 

(I also posted this in the "Research" and "Discussion" threads, but since this seems to be the one with all the action, I'm posting it here, as well.)

In light of the recent Paul Landis revelations, I thought I should finally write the article I've been meaning to do. It's rather long, but worth the read--everything you ever wanted to know about the two "stretcher" bullets: 1) the "pointed" Tomlinson/Wright bullet, and 2) the Wade/Nolan bullet--as well as 3) the small bullet fragments removed from Connally's wrist. Spoiler alert: the "pointed" Tomlinson/Wright bullet was the AR-15 bullet, which was disappeared. The Wade/Nolan bullet was the actual Connally bullet. Whether CE 399 was the original Wade/Nolan (Connally) bullet, l can't say. But I've scoured for every scrap of information I can find on these mutually exclusive chain-of-custody histories. Everything you want to know about the "stretcher bullet/s" is right here, with links to the original sources.

Read all about it at https://www.a-benign-conspiracy.com/multiple-stretcher-bullets-aka-the-connally-bullet-revisited.html.

Please read the article before commenting. Thank you.

Are you aware of the considerable evidence that Oswald was not even on the sixth floor of the TSBD during the shooting? Have you seen Oliver Stone's recent documentary JFK Revisited? It contains an excellent segment on this evidence.

Also, are you aware of the James Young deformed bullet, the Aldredge curb bullet mark, and the bullet that burrowed into the grass near the manhole cover farther down Elm Street near the triple underpass?

Extra Bullets and Missed Shots in Dealey Plaza

An expanded version of this article is included in my new book A Comforting Lie: The Myth that a Lone Gunman Killed President Kennedy.

[Denise Hazelwood]

In response to Michael Griffin:

1. My work really doesn't much address the question of whether Oswald was the actual shooter in the window, but is rather an accounting of the shots and motive for the cover-up. That said, if you could post here or point me to the thread enumerating the evidence that Oswald was not even on the sixth floor at the time of the shooting, I would appreciate that and will. certainly take a look at it.

2. James Young was the Kennedy White House physician who was present during at least part of the autopsy. He describes a bullet being brought into the autopsy by two Navy corpsmen. See https://www.med.navy.mil/Media/News/Article/2608993/what-price-a-rose-a-navy-physician-remembers-nov-22-1963/ As I note in Part 8 of my documentary series, I believe this to have been the bullet that caused the windshield hole, and was also the bullet noted by Capt./Admiral Osborne which Lifton describes in Best Evidence. I doubt he "deformed" the bullet himself. Instead, I think it was slightly bent, thus accounting for the slightly differeing descriptions by Young and Osborne, (one saying "intact, not deformed" (going from memory) and the other saying "bent." I don't think two intact bullets were brought into the autopsy, although I suppose it's possible that either the Nolan/Wade bullet or the Tomlinson/Wright bullet were brought into the morgue briefly to show the doctors before ultimately ending up at the FBI Lab. (No evidence of this, just a speculation to account for the slightly differing descriptions by Young and Osbourne, though, really, I think the Young/Osbourne bullets were the same one, brought in from the limo by the navy corpsmen Humes sent to search it and just remembered slightly differently by the two men.) The letter to Ford that Young apparently wrote seems to reiterate the account given in the Navy medical journal, though I would love to see the original letter. Do you know if it is posted anywhere on this forum?

3. Is the "Aldredge curb mark" the Main Street curb mark from the missed shot that slightly wounded James Tague? I also believe there is a testimony (Foster, I think) that the bullet "buried in the grass" had actually "ricocheted on out." Unless there is other evidence beyond the Blond Agent looking at and touching the grass actually picked up a bullet (I believe the Walthers and Foster accounts that no bullet had actually been found there, but admit the possibility that one had struck there and "ricocheted on out" presumably to then hit the Main Street curb and cause Tague's minor wounding.

4. Regarding the 30.06 shell casing on the roof of the County Records Building, I read somewhere that the Dealey Plaza groundskeepers were finding such things over the years planted in Dealey Plaza by individuals trying to "prove" some theory or another. If there are any contemporaneous ear witnesses to a shot from there, I. haven't found them, and I am pretty sure I've read all the witness accounts. However, the Griffin account of a 30.06 rifle (matching the shell casing? is certainly very interesting. I wonder if you or Griffin can post an image of the (HSCA 180-10107-10443) document or point to the thread where it is posted, I will certainly take a look at it. If not, I will contact the Archives again and see if just the HSCA number is enough to get a scan of it. 

I did get from NARA the FBI "302" of Audrey Bell, and will post it below, with my comments.

[Denise Hazelwood]

I did receive a reply back from one Gene Morris at the Archives (email dated 2/6/24 Re: [24-19976] Agency File Number 000919) to my request to Audrey Bell FBI "302" mentioned in Nurse Bell's ARRB interview in the respect of it saying "fragment" (singular) and it saying she turned this over to a "Texas State Trooper" whereas she recalled turning it over to two plainclothes federal agents (https://history-matters.com/archive/jfk/arrb/master_med_set/md184/html/md184_0002a.htm). In the audio version of her interview, it is apparent that Audrey Bell was in her office when the two plainclothes agents came to collect the Connally wrist fragments.

Meanwhile, Bobby Nolan never mentioned signing any receipt for the fragments, and stated that he was "in uniform" on that day and on all subsequent days while at Parkland, and that he was standing in the hallway, when a nurse came up to him and gave him an envelope containing a "bullet" she said had come off Connally's gurney.

The FBI "302" report, on the other hand, says that she turned the "fragment" (singular) over to Nolan. The report is anonymous, being unsigned. My belief is that it is fraudulent. I think that in her interview the day after the assassination, in which Audrey Bell tells the ARRB interviewers that she was given a hard time during her 11/23/63 FBI interview (per the audio recording of the ARRB interview), they could not get her to say that she had been the one who turned either the Wade/Nolan bullet or the wrist fragments over to Bobby Nolan, so they just fraudulently said it for her. I think they were under orders to track the chain of custody for the Wade/Nolan bullet, and they couldn't the right nurse (my nurse candidate is Diana Bowman), so they claimed it was Audrey Bell. In Bell's HSCA interview, she (unprompted) mentioned the name of "Sorrels" as the one she gave the fragment to.

So either Audrey Bell are both "lying" or "mistaken," or the "302" is a fraudulent report. Given that it is unsigned (and aren't 302's required to give the name/s of the agent/s conducting the interview?) I suspect that it is a fraudulent report. I tried to upload here but even breaking it up into individual .jpgs it would not upload. So I will try doing it in separate posts below.

 

[Denise Hazelwood]

I tried to post the Audrey Bell "302" but file size is limited. You can see it at the bottom of my original article on my website at https://www.a-benign-conspiracy.com/multiple-stretcher-bullets-aka-the-connally-bullet-revisited.html

 

Edited February 12 by Denise Hazelwood
File size detracts from ability to post other more important images. Cover sheet not as important as the actual image, which I show in the linked article.

[Denise Hazelwood]

You know what, never mind. I can't seem to get it uploaded. I'll post it at the bottom of my original article on my website at https://www.a-benign-conspiracy.com/multiple-stretcher-bullets-aka-the-connally-bullet-revisited.html