Types of evidence
• Ideas versus objects (testimonial versus demonstrative (real) evidence).
• Direct vs. indirect.
• Mathematical vs. moral.
• Strong vs. weak.
—Strong = testable, falsifiable (objectively falsifiable).
—Two parts to strong evidence: object plus informed interpretation.
Strong evidence
1. Ballistics
2. Wound-ballistic analysis
3. Chemical analysis
4. Analysis of motion by physics
5. Forensic pathology
6. Hair and fiber analysis
7. Fingerprint analysis
8. Handwriting analysis
9. Analysis of documents
Weak evidence
1. Eyewitnesses at the scene
2. Marina’s testimony (some undeterminable fraction)
3. Recollections of the medical personnel in the emergency room at Parkland Hospital
4. Recollections of the staff at Parkland.
5. Recollections of the ambulance personnel
6. Recollections of the autopsy technicians at Bethesda
7. Speculations about who else might have wanted Kennedy killed and why
8. Views stated by members of the Kennedy family and others close to the assassination
9. Reports of seeing Oswald in various places (Clinton, LA)
10. Reports of seeing Oswald in places like the Carousel Club
11. Reports of Oswald’s having an office at 544 Camp Street
12. Reports of Oswald meeting with “Maurice Bishop”
13. Reports of Oswald test-driving a car in Dallas
14. Entire books written by people confessing to be conspirators or in league with the actual conspirators (Robert Morrow’s “Betrayal”)