Subject: The Shifting Sands of the Single-Bullet Theory Date: 07 Mar 1999 13:30:45 GMT From: mtgriffith@aol.com (MTGriffith) Organization: AOL http://www.aol.com Newsgroups: alt.conspiracy.jfk THE SHIFTING SANDS OF THE SINGLE-BULLET THEORY Michael T. Griffith 1999 @All Rights Reserved The single-bullet theory (SBT) has been forced to undergo a number of changes over the years. What is the SBT? Basically, it is that a bullet allegedly struck Kennedy in the back and then exited his throat, then struck Gov. Connally near the right armpit, coursed through his chest, smashing a rib in the process, exited Connally's chest, struck his right wrist, breaking a hard radius bone, and then zipped over to Connally's left thigh, with half the bullet penetrating the thigh and the other half sticking out. According to the SBT, this bullet, which is allegedly the bullet labeled CE 399, did all this damage yet somehow emerged with all of its lands and grooves intact, with no damage to its nose, and with less than 4 grains of substance lost from its mass. The bullet is somewhat deformed at its base, but this damage is not even noticeable from certain angles. The SBT is an absurd theory that was cooked up late in the game to avoid a conspiracy conclusion. Why was the theory conceived? Because the Warren Commission had two sets of non-fatal wounds to explain but only one shot with which to do so because the Commission would not allow that more than three shots were fired. To put it another way, if the SBT is false, then there must have been more than one gunman. Or, if Kennedy and Connally's non-fatal wounds were not caused by the same bullet, then there was more than one shooter, and hence a conspiracy. The SBT was later rejected by two members of the WC itself. It's a theory that defies common sense, that ignores Gov. Connally's own clear testimony, that ignores the Zapruder testimony, and that is in conflict with the vast majority of the eyewitness descriptions of the shooting. As mentioned, it is also a theory that has been forced to undergo drastic changes: * At first the back wound was *above* the throat wound, now it's below it. * At first the alleged magic-bullet hit came at right around frame 210 of the Zapruder film (Z210), then it was at Z188, but now it's "positively" at Z224. * At first the alleged magic-bullet hit was the first shot, now it's "positively" the second shot. * At first the theory required that Connally was rotated 20-30 degrees to the right when the missile struck, but now we're assured the theory can still work even though Connally's torso was rotated only 10-15 degrees. * At first the theory assumed Kennedy was sitting normally in his seat when the missile struck, but now the theory must assume he was leaning so far forward that most of his back was off the seat (a notion clearly refuted by the photographic evidence). * At first the conflict between the holes in the back of the coat and shirt and the official locations for the back wound were explained by speculating that the coat and shirt "bunched up" up to or beyond the collar, but now, in response to photographic evidence, we're told that the coat and shirt bunched by forming a hump below the collar. This bizarre theory assumes the shirt--which was tailor-made and on whose tails Kennedy was sitting--bunched in nearly perfect, millimeter-for-millimeter correspondence with the coat. However, photos and footage show that Kennedy's coat was fairly flat, and certainly not bunched into some hump near the collar, shortly before Kennedy was first hit with a bullet. Willis slide 5, which was taken moments before the first hit, shows Kennedy's coat was lying flat or nearly flat on his back when the slide was taken. Professor Josiah Thompson, author of the highly acclaimed book SIX SECONDS IN DALLAS, confirmed this fact by studying the original color slide under a microscope. Even assuming the coat was significantly bunched, the odds that the shirt would bunch in nearly perfect correspondence with the coat are astronomically remote, so remote that they are effectively zero. And let's consider a few other relevant facts: * No halfway realistic wound ballistics test has produced a bullet as undamaged as CE 399. The two most realistic tests, the All-American Television test and Dr. Lattimer's test, produced bullets that were far more deformed than CE 399. * In the WC's own ballistics tests, bullets that were merely fired into cotton wadding emerged with the same amount of deformation as CE 399, and in one case with slightly **more** deformation. * In those same tests, bullets fired into dead wrists emerged with significant distortion. * No trajectory reconstruction has ever shown the SBT trajectories to be possible without assuming degrees of lean that are nowhere to be seen in the photographic evidence. For example, to get the new SBT's vertical trajectory to work, lone-gunman trajectory reconstructions have had to assume that Kennedy was leaning markedly forward when the missile struck. * As mentioned, the SBT has undergone drastic changes as new evidence has emerged. At first we were told the bullet traveled **downward** through the neck, that the wound in the rear was **above** the wound in the throat. For years we were told there was no evidence of damage to any of the cervical or thoracic vertebra--this was even "confirmed" by the prestigious Clark Panel. Now we know the bullet would have had to travel slightly upward from the back wound to the throat wound, and that there is a noticeable fracture to T1 (some say C7, but that's another issue). * The narrow slits in the front of the shirt have no fabric missing from them, yet bullets remove fabric when they tear through clothing and create holes. Finally, Dr. Robert Piziali, an expert on injuries, admitted under cross examination at the 1992 ABA mock Oswald trial that if Kennedy began to react to a wound at Z225, this would mean the bullet could have struck him no later than Z221; he explained there would have been a delay of 4 frames between the bullet's impact and Kennedy's reaction to it with his right hand (Livingstone, KILLING THE TRUTH, p. 224; cf. pp. 235-236). The creates a problem because the current SBT requires that Kennedy was struck at Z223-224. Dr. Piziali attempted to solve this problem by denying that Z225 shows Kennedy reacting to a wound with his right hand. In fact, Dr. Piziali seemed to deny that Kennedy is reacting to a wound at all, in any way, in Z225. This is a good example of how SBT defenders will perform an amazing shift in position when confronted with troublesome facts. It is obvious that in Z225 Kennedy is reacting to a wound by the action and position of his right hand, by his left hand, and by the expression on his face, and until recently there was wide agreement on both sides about this fact: * Itek concluded Kennedy "is CLEARLY reacting to a wound by frame 225." * The photographic evidence panel of the House Select Committee on Assassinations concluded Kennedy is reacting to a wound in Z225. * Richard Trask, a respected researcher and longtime student of the Zapruder film, observes that Kennedy "emerges from the behind the sign at Z225 CLEARLY HAVING BEEN SHOT." * Dr. John Lattimer, a supporter of the lone-gunman scenario, concluded Kennedy shows a "reflex reaction" to a wound in Z225 and opined the wound occurred at about Z220. * Ardent lone-gunman theorist Gerald Posner opines that at Z225 Kennedy "appears to be reacting to a bullet." What do we see in Z225? JFK is clearly in distress. His face is contorted and his hands are in front of chest, right hand above left. Both his forearms are bent inward and his hands are moving up toward his throat or mouth--they are definitely moving upward. It is obvious Kennedy's face and hands--especially his right hand--are reacting to a wound in Z225. This means the bullet could not have struck him later than Z221. However, the current SBT says the bullet struck at Z223-224 (because of the seeming flip of Connally's lapel in Z224). Failure Analysis expert Dr. Roger McCarthy commented on the problem: EC: Now, what I'd like to do is, is move to the very next frame, 225. How much time elapsed on that day between time frame 224 was filmed and the time that frame 225 was filmed? DR. ROGER MCCARTHY: About 56 milliseconds. This camera is running at a shade more than 18 frames/second, so between any 2 frames there's about an 18th of a second or 56 thousandth of a second. . . . EC: Now, Dr., based upon that, do you have a conclusion or an opinion as to when the President was hit with the bullet--how much before this point? RM: Yes, as I think Dr. Piziali accurately indicated, there is a latency or a delay of about 200 milliseconds between the time that a message is delivered by either traumatic shock to the spine or by your mind to a muscle before you can get movement. You've experienced that every time you've ever grabbed something hot. You've known it was hot and were burned because of the delay, because you couldn't get--let go or move fast enough to avoid the damage. You knew it, and you just couldn't make your body move fast enough. There's nothing wrong with you; it takes about a fifth of a second to get all the hardware up to full power--to get the muscles to move. EC: Now, Dr., if, then, the President was hit 200 milliseconds before the movement on [frame] 225, how many frames back in the film would that be? RM: That would be at 221 at a minimum. EC: And at 221 he's behind the sign, is that correct? RM: Yes. EC: Alright. If he was hit at 221 and the Governor was hit at 224 according to the prosecution, then could they have been hit by the same bullet? RM: No. (KILLING THE TRUTH, pp. 235-236) The SBT is impossible. There was more than one gunman firing at President Kennedy. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------- MICHAEL T. GRIFFITH is a two-time graduate of the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California, and of the U.S. Air Force Technical Training School in San Angelo, Texas, and has attended Ricks College, Brigham Young University, Austin Peay State University, Mount Wachusett Community College, and Haifa University, where he earned 123 semester hours with his studies centering on history and foreign languages. He is the author of four books on Mormonism and ancient texts and a former research assistant at the Society for Early Historic Archaeology at Brigham Young University. His articles on the assassination have appeared in several assassination research journals, including the JFK/DEEP POLITICS QUARTERLY and THE ASSASSINATION CHRONICLES. He is also the author of the book COMPELLING EVIDENCE: A NEW LOOK AT THE ASSASSINATION OF PRESIDENT KENNEDY (Grand Prairie, Texas: JFK-Lancer Productions and Publications, 1996). MICHAEL T. GRIFFITH. Check out my Real Issues Home Page at http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/MGriffith_2