The new examination of CE 567
(January 2000)
(First draft, 23 January 2000)

    On Friday 21 January 2000, the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) released the report of its reexamination of the tip (nose) of a military-style bullet found on the front seat of the presidential limousine shortly after JFK was assassinated. Until now, this fragment has nearly universally been considered as part of the bullet that hit JFK's head and disintegrated. About five years ago, however, a John T. Orr, Chief of the Justice Department's Antitrust Division's office in Atlanta and a conspiracy theorist about the JFK assassination, sent an "extensive analysis" of some parts of the evidence to the Attorney General, essentially proposing that the government had twice gotten it all wrong, and that JFK had been hit by two different types of ammunition from two different rifles. Shot #1 had indeed been a full-metal-jacketed bullet that passed through Kennedy's body. But shot #3, to JFK's head, had used a soft-nosed bullet that had presumably disintegrated. Orr proposed that the two large fragments (the tip and base of one or two FMJ bullets) had come from the first shot (through JFK's body) rather than from the head shot. To test this idea, he proposed, among other things, that minute fibers present on the tip fragment (CE 567) should be tested. If they were consistent with Kennedy's shirt collar, tie, or tie liner, that would prove that the bullet had passed through his body rather than through his head.
    The Justice Department bought the idea at least partly, and requested that the FBI test the fibers and some human debris in a limited way to see what it could find. If the results were sufficiently promising, they would consider further tests. (See the DOJ's letter of request to the FBI, which explains Orr's ideas.) The report of 21 January gives those first results.

The coming tests were first announced on 14 August 1998 and were described in the following Associated Press (AP) article by Joseph Schuman:

"FBI to Test JFK Bullet Fragments," by Joseph Schuman, AP 14 August 1998 (http://jfklancer.com/fragtest.html)

A very brief intermediate report was issued by NARA, who was overseeing the tests, on 19 February 1999:

"Lab Test on JFK Evidence," U.S. Newswire, 19 February 1999 (http://jfklancer.com/fragtest.html)

Two months later, Joseph Backes described these tests and their background in more detail in an article released by JFK Lancer:

Joseph Backes's "A New Look At CE 567," 20 April 1999 (http://jfklancer.com/fragtest.html)

A month later, Backes followed up with a second article for JFK Lancer:

Joseph Backes's "Mystery Conclusions," 19 May 1999 (http://jfklancer.com/fragtest.html)

NARA's final report was issued on 21 January 2000. It adds little to the previous reports, and basically states that the fibrous material was cellulose that did not come from the clothing of either Kennedy or Connally, and that the human tissue was too and too damaged old to try to trace to either man. These results did not yield any support for Orr's radical new conspiracy theory and, in fact, were consistent with the conventional view of the bullets, although weakly. 

NARA's internal notice of impending report (21 January 2000)

NARA Report (21 January2000)

NARA's results were described in an AP article by Karen Gullo:

AP article of 21 January 2000 (by Karen Gullo)

This should have been the end of it. But in an open letter that was remarkable for its degree of intemperance, Joe Backes jumped in and lashed out at NARA for allegedly botching the tests and at reporter Gullo for allegedly joining them in lying about the results so as to continue to prop up the untenable lone-gunman theory. In other words, Backes saw yet another conspiracy of the authorities against the conspiracy theorists. Unfortunately, Backes seems to have misunderstood that the goal of NARA/FBI's testing was to respond to Orr's specific theory and suggested tests rather than to Backes's view of the assassination. His letter does, though provide a revealing look into the mind of one of the harder-core JFK conspiracists, and in this sense can be educational. 

All in all, this little episode of conspiracy theory, testing, reporting, and reacting provides a nice illustration of the current state of much JFK research: little or nothing of consequence left to be learned and frustration and irritability on the part of conspiracists when their long-held beliefs still cannot receive support.

Backes letter of 21 January 2000 in response to AP article (JFK News)

JFK LINE is a small news agency operated by JFK Lancer in Dallas. When Joe Backes was upbraided for the excessive tone of his his letter of 21 January (see times just above this), JFK Lancer turned to Mark Sobel for more-moderate criticism. The result was this brief press release, which basically says that the tests on CE 567 changed nothing, which of course is not true. The tests failed to confirm the theory of Warren Commission critic and conspiracist John Orr. In a broader sense, the tests also represent the latest of many failures to confirm all sorts of ideas about conspiracy in the JFK assassination. While they certainly do not establish nonconspiracy (because nothing can), their negative result makes nonconspiracy a bit more probable (Bayes theorem).

JFK LINE Media Alert--Article by Mark Sobel, 22 January 2000