Annotated Compendium, 1978-1980

A major theme of Evica’s book is spectroscopic analysis. Evica claims that the FBI’s spectroscopic analysis of bullets and fragments proves that (1) the Walker bullet did not match the Kennedy bullets and fragments (i.e., Oswald didn’t fire the Kennedy bullets), (2) the lead fragments of JFK’s head, the rear floorboard, Connally’s wrist wound, and one front-seat fragment appear to be identical (this invalidates the single-bullet theory), and (3) the copper jacket of CE399 and one of the front-seat fragments differ (also invalidating the SBT).

Evica’s fundamental assumption (stated near the end of the section) is that fragments with the same composition came from the same bullet. While he does not discuss the converse proposition (that fragments with different compositions came from different bullets), he appears to have accepted it and acted upon it. (Unfortunately, the converse proposition does not follow from the original.) Evica consulted a spectroscopist, who told him which fragments had the same composition and which differed. Fragments within a group were attributed to a single bullet. (At the very end, he relaxed his criterion, and derived the maximum number of possible shots.)

Although Evica discusses only spectroscopic analysis, his approach is important because it tries use spectroscopy in the same way as later done with NAA. The shortcomings of the spectroscopic data and Evica’s interpretation of the them illustrate vividly why NAA and careful interpretation are so desperately needed to resolve the SBT. Evica deserves to be commended for trying—his failings point up where we must be careful in using NAA.

Page 58: Oswald was supposed to have attempted to kill retired General Edwin Walker. In December [1963], Dallas [FBI] Special Agent in Charge Gordon Shanklin had the alleged Walker bullet (Q 188) sent to the F.B.I. lab in Washington; he asked for a spectrographic analysis. The report came back: the Walker bullet did not match the alleged Kennedy/Connally ballistic materials. Since the Dallas police had initially reported the Walker slug to be a steal-jacketed [sic] “30.06,” since it was ballistically impossible to match the Walker bullet (mangled and fragmented) to the alleged assassin’s weapon, and since the December F.B.I spectrographic report dissociated the Walker bullet from the Kennedy/Connally ballistic evidence, the publicizing of the Walker evidence would have tended to establish Oswald’s innocence; the release of the S.I.F.A.R. materials in December [report from the Italian Armed Forces Intelligence Service alleging that the Mannlicher-Carcano found in the TSBD appeared to be of 7.35-mm caliber, not 6.5 mm as claimed by the Dallas police and as purchased by Oswald] would have added to that presumption of innocence, at least in the alleged Walker attack. An American 30.06 is an approximate match for a European 7.35 or 7.65 mm round. The Walker-S.I.F.A.R. materials, as of December 1963, would have suggested that some unknown person or persons fired a 7.35-mm or 7.65-mm rifle at General Edwin Walker in April, 1963. Either Lee Harvey Oswald had something to do with that attack, or but another rifle was used, and several possible shooters might have been involved (as eyewitnesses indeed reported), or Lee Harvey Oswald had nothing to do with the Walker attack, which could be traced to an American 30.06/or European 7.35 - [sic] or 7.65-mm. caliber rifle. Neither the Walker spectrographic report nor the Italian rifle material saw the light of day in December, 1963. The F.B.I.’s case against Oswald would have been severely damaged. Whether for the latter reason, or another, the F.B.I. spectrographic report was suppressed until 1975, the S.I.F.A.R. report until 1976.

In 1976 a former C.I.A. operative published material which suggested possibly stronger reasons for the suppression of the Walker spectrographic report and the S.I.F.A.R. rifle analysis, though he did not refer to either. Robert D. Morrow, in a book called Betrayal, argued that a conspiracy group centered primarily in New Orleans, consisting of C.I.A.- and F.B.I.-associated individuals (as well as Syndicate, mercenary, and anti-Castro Cuban figures), conspired to kill John F. Kennedy, and did so on November 22nd, 1963. The charges, of course, were not new. Not only did Jim Garrison present the scenario years earlier; Morrow’s material seemed to borrow heavily both from published and unpublished Garrison sources. Only the greater emphasis on crime figures really distinguished Morrow’s revelations from Garrison’s. But the one important “Mafia” figure in Morrow’s book is Jack Ruby, who was supposed to be an employee of the C.I.A., according to Morrow. Morrow’s cast of characters played their Betrayal parts largely under fictional names supplied by Morrow (nearly all the characters discussed by Morrow are identified by their actual names in the end notes). What is important in the Morrow book material to the discussion are two passages. Morrow alleged that Guy Banister transmitted information to Clay Shaw about Lee Harvey Oswald’s “6.5 Mannlicher.” Morrow contended that Banister suggested the Banister-Shaw assassination “teams” be equipped with the “more accurate 7.35,” using fragmentation rounds so that the actual caliber would be less easy to identify, and that a pre-fired 6.5-mm. round from the “Oswald” rifle be planted. According to Morrow, Claw Shaw liked the Banister proposal, and was to ask his C.I.A. contact for 7.35-mm. Carcanos, giving as his reason Shaw’s planned assassination of Juan Bosch by a group of “exiles.” The second relevant Morrow passage followed closely on the first. “Ross Allen” (whose real identity I have not yet been able to uncover) and Robert Morrow were together when, according to Morrow, C.I.A. officer Tracy Barnes called him, saying that Clay Shaw had requested 7.35-mm. Carcanos be sent to him. Morrow agreed to purchase the Carcanos and to cause a delivery to be made to Banister and Shaw. Morrow allegedly found the Carcanos available at “Sunny’s Surplus Store” in Towson, Maryland, near Morrow’s home in Roseland, and in two trips he bought four of the “sniper” rifles. Finding one of the rifles had a minor defect, according to Morrow, the former Agency employee allegedly gave the other three to a “courier” who was supposed to deliver them to Banister and Shaw in New Orleans. According to Morrow, it was Jack Ruby who uncovered the “fact” that Lee Harvey Oswald had bought a 6.5-mm. rifle through the mail, using his C.I.A. cover name, “Hidell.”

On November 25th, 1975, F.B.I. Director Clarence M. Kelley released to me the twelve-year suppressed F.B.I. spectrographic analyses of the bullet and bullet fragments allegedly recovered in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Called inconclusive by J. Edgar Hoover when he reported on the Bureau’s investigation to Commission counsel J. Lee Rankin on July 8th, 1964, the F.B.I. reports in fact cast serious doubt on the single-assassin theory of the Warren Commission.

1. the fragments in John Connally’s right wrist are spectrographically identical to fragments from John F. Kennedy’s head wound[1]—disproving the one-bullet theory of the Warren Commission;

2. CE 399—the basis for Arlen Specter’s single-bullet theory—cannot be linked to any wounds suffered by either Kennedy or Connally;

3. the bullet recovered in the assassination attempt on General Walker does not match either CE 399 or two fragments recovered from President Kennedy’s limousine; the Warren Commission’s linking of Lee Harvey Oswald to the General Walker assassination attempt is seriously weakened.[2]

In October, 1975, I requested the spectrographic documents, withheld for twelve years, under the provisions of the Federal Freedom of Information Act; Director Kelley responded to my request and released the F.B.I. reports. The documents, six pages long, include analysis of the famous “magic bullet” (called “CE 399” in Warren Commission exhibit listings), bullet fragments recovered from the President’s limousine, fragments from President Kennedy’s fatal head wound, and fragments from Governor Connally’s right wrist wound. Two reports, in fact, were released to me, the first dated November 23rd, 1963, a spectrographic analysis by Agent John Gallagher, and a second dated December 4th, 1963. This second report is a spectrographic analysis of some of the J.F.K. materials, but it also includes a comparison between selected J.F.K. ballistics evidence, in particular the crucial “magic bullet,” and the bullet recovered in the assassination attempt on General Edwin Walker. The source of the request for this analysis is listed as “SAC-Dallas (157-218)”; since “SAC” means “Special Agent in Charge,” the notation indicates Gordon Shanklin, Special Agent in Charge of the F.B.I. Dallas office, requested the examination. Why? This second request for a laboratory analysis was received by the F.B.I. in Washington just five days before the Bureau submitted its final report on the assassination of the President to the Warren Commission. But Marina Oswald and the Dallas group around her had charged that Lee Harvey Oswald had attempted to murder General Walker. The results were not at all in the interest of either the F.B.I. or the Warren Commission.

Upon receiving the F.B.I. documents, I immediately brought them to a private spectroscopist, whose analysis has led me to conclusions which seriously damage the Warren Commission’s single-rifle and single-assassin theory. The F.B.I. spectrographic evidence establishes a major difference between CE 399 (the virtually whole and unmarked bullet allegedly recovered from a stretcher at Parkland Memorial Hospital on November 22nd, 1963) and two bullet fragments (called “CE 843” by the Warren Commission) recovered from John F. Kennedy’s fatal head wound. For the first time, spectrographic evidence disproves the argument that only one rifle—and therefore only one assassin—was involved in the J.F.K. assassination.[3] Conservatively, the results also indicate that the front and rear limousine bullet fragments, the President’s head wound fragments (CE 843) and Connally’s right wrist wound fragments (CE 842) are all from one bullet which hit the President’s head: they are all chemically identical.[4] And at least one of those fragments does not match CE 399. Conservatively, the fragments are from one bullet: the bullet that struck the President’s head; but the five fragments can be from fragments of two or more bullets manufactured and boxed at the same time—and this equally plausible conclusion means a fourth, and possibly a fifth, bullet fired in the assassination.[5] This new evidence destroys the single-bullet theory of the Warren Commission. At least two rifles firing different kinds of bullets is the inevitable conclusion to be drawn from an analysis of the F.B.I. reports.[6]

For convenience, I have combined the notations of the F.B.I. analysis with Warren Commission designations and identifications. (“Q” refers to an artifact to be analyzed by the F.B.I. laboratories; “CE” stands for a Warren Commission Hearings exhibit.)

Q1 = CE 399: the so-called “stretcher bullet” from Parkland Memorial Hospital; 158.6 grains, copper-jacketed, lead core; the virtually whole bullet, nearly undeformed, unmarked, and clean, which was the basis for the “single-bullet” theory—seven non-fatal wounds inflicted on Kennedy and Connally by a single bullet.

Q2 = CE 567: on November 22nd. evening, found by the Secret Service on the front seat of the Presidential limousine next to driver Greer’s seat; 44.6 grains; “nose” fragment; copper-jacketing and lead core. Q2 was the “control” fragment, since it contained both copper alloy and lead alloy.

Q3 = CE 569: on November 22nd, evening, found by the Secret Service to the right side of the front seat of the Presidential limousine (next to Kellerman’s seat): 21.0 grains; base fragment; copper-jacketing only; no lead.

Q4, Q5 = CE 843: on November 22nd, early afternoon, extracted from President Kennedy’s head wound(s) at Parkland Memorial Hospital; two lead fragments; no copper.

Q9 = CE 842: on November 22nd, early afternoon, extracted from John Connally’s right wrist wound at Parkland Memorial Hospital; the ‘more than three grains” referred to by Dr. Robert Shaw, one of the attending physicians; lead fragments; no copper.

Q14 = CE 840: on November 23rd, found by the F.B.I. on the rug underneath the left jump seat occupied by Mrs. John Connally; three small fragments between 7/10 and 9/10 of a grain each; lead fragments; no copper.

Q14 = CE 841: presidential limousine windshield (inner surface) metallic “smear”; lead; no copper.

…bullet fragments Q4,Q5 [CE 843: President’s head wound fragments], Q14 [CE 840: rear floorboard fragments], Q9 [CE 841: Connally’s wrist wound fragments]. and Q2 [CE 567: a front-seat fragment] appear to be identical in chemical composition.[7]

Q1 [CE 399: the so-called “magic bullet”] shows chemical differences from Q2 [CE 567: a front seat fragment] in composition of copper jacket. (italics added)

With these results, the single assassin-theory in the murder of President John F. Kennedy is invalidated. Q1 (CE 399) does not match Q2 (CE 567). Q2 is identical with Q4 and Q5 (CE 843), with Q14 (CE 840), and most importantly with Q9 (CE 842)—Connally’s wrist wound fragments. Additionally, Q3 (CE 569), a fragment of copper jacketing, may be from still another and separate bullet. Q1 (CE 399), the virtually whole bullet upon which is based the single-bullet theory, could not have caused Connally’s wrist wound (and therefore not his thigh wound); the single-bullet theory is indefensible.[8] And if CE 399 did not penetrate either Kennedy’s back or Connally’s body, how did it get to Parkland Memorial Hospital?

J. Edgar Hoover was less than candid in glossing over the implications of his Bureau’s own scientific analysis. The Warren Commission did not see the actual F.B.I. spectrographic analysis, and finally called John Gallagher, the Bureau’s spectroscopist, as its last witness. Gallagher was not asked to testify and did not voluntarily testify on the results of his own spectrographic tests. Gallagher’s testimony was an historic occasion: Norman Redlich, assistant counsel of the President’s Commission, took Gallagher’s deposition—with a stenographer present and recording the questions and answers. The date was September 15th, 1964; in nine days the Report of the President’s Commission on the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy would be given to President Johnson. Nowhere in the Report is Gallagher’s name even mentioned.

The Dallas Police Department submitted its 209-page “file on investigation of the assassination of the President” which the Warren Commission designated as Commission Document 81b (which in turn became Commission Exhibit 2003), pp. 195–404 in 24 H. J. Edgar Hoover’s report to Jesse E. Curry, Chief of Police, Dallas, Texas, is reproduced on pp. 262–264, summarizing the F.B.I. spectrographic analysis originally requested by Chief Curry. Hoover’s report is buried inside a 209-page Dallas police report which was photo-reduced and printed without comment in the third-last volume of the Commission’s twenty-six volumes of testimony, deposition, document, and exhibit, and it is the only “spectrographic” evidence the Commission or its staff might have used (though there is no sign that it was even read).

Nothing of the recently-released material appears in this Hoover-to-Curry report; only the following vague sentence hints at the actual content of the analysis:

The lead metal of Q4 and Q5, Q9, Q14 and Q15 is similar to the lead of the core of the bullet fragment, Q2.

Q2 (CE 567), the front seat fragment, was used by the F.B.I. laboratory as well as by the spectrographer I consulted as a comparison control, since it was the only fragment with both copper jacketing and lead core. Hoover was careful not to give the difference between Q1 (CE 399: the “magic bullet”) and Q2 (CE 567: the copper and lead control fragment) and what that difference could mean; instead of identity (which the F.B.I. data clearly indicate), Hoover speaks of similarity, avoiding the crucial chemical identity between Q4, Q5, and Q9 which invalidates the Commission’s single-bullet theory.[9]

A second F.B.I. man, Agent Heiberger, seems to have done the second analysis (requested by Gordon Shanklin). Again, Q2 (CE 567), the copper and lead fragment, was used as a comparison control. The result: Q188, the Walker assassination attempt bullet, was established as different from both Q1 (CE 399) and Q2 (CE 567). Lacking this suppressed spectrographic information as well as the actual results of the earlier F.B.I. analysis either by design, accident, or ineptness, the Warren Commission was able to accept inconclusive ballistics testimony to buttress its case against Lee Harvey Oswald. Had the Commission used the suppressed F.B.I. report, its conclusions would have been quite different from what they were.[10]

The F.B.I. spectrographic analyses negate the single-bullet theory of the Warren Commission, since the Commission asserted that one bullet (Q1: CE 399) entered the President’s neck, exited his throat, penetrated Connally’s back, exited the Governor’s chest, and wounded both his right wrist and his left thigh, imbedding itself in the femur bone.[11] The Commission further argued that the one bullet—virtually whole—dropped out of Connally’s thigh onto a stretcher at Parkland Memorial Hospital. But the F.B.I. report shows that Q9 (CE 842), the metal removed from Connally’s shattered wrist, rather than matching CE 399, the so-called “stretcher bullet,” in fact matches fragments from Kennedy’s fatal head wound.[12] Since analysis of the Zapruder film shows that Connally was hit at frame 227 (conservatively, no later than 235), and that as late as frame 276 his right wrist was not hit, the logical and inescapable conclusion is that another bullet or bullet fragment—not CE 399—caused his wrist wound (and probably his thigh wound).[13] And since the wrist fragments do not match CE 399, but rather match the Kennedy head fragments (CE 843), CE 399 did not penetrate his wrist and imbed itself in his thigh, obviously making it incapable of falling out of his thigh at Parkland Memorial Hospital.

This evidence suggests that both the wrist and thigh wounds of the Governor were caused by at least one fragmenting bullet striking the President’s head. Again we are left with the virtually unmutilated, undeformed bullet found at the Hospital. Did it, as several doctors thought at the Bethesda Naval Hospital autopsy, fall out of Kennedy’s “shallow” back wound—if it was shallow? But if it did fall out of Kennedy, it could not have penetrated Connally’s back and chest: another bullet must have been fired at Dealey Plaza. And a fourth bullet disproves the Warren Commission’s findings that only three shots were fired at the President on November 22nd, 1963.

Almost as important as the Dealey Plaza revelations are the data supplied to me by F.B.I. Director Kelley on the F.B.I. analysis of the bullet recovered in the assassination attempt on General Walker, an attack the Warren Commission argued was committed by Oswald. F.B.I. ballistics expert Frazier testified about his attempt to match the bullet recovered at the site of the Walker shooting with the Mannlicher-Carcano, and gave his specialist’s judgment: “I was unable to reach a conclusion as to whether or not it [Q188] had been fired from this rifle [the Mannlicher-Carcano].” The December, 1963, F.B.I. analysis supplied to me in fact establishes absolute differences between the Walker bullet and the J.F.K. evidence, weakening still further the Warren Commission’s argument that linked Oswald to both the Walker incident and the J.F.K. murder. According to the spectroscopist I consulted:

Some analyses and comparisons in the F.B.I. report were curiously omitted. Though the F.B.I. report lists lead scraping from the inside of the President’s limousine windshield (Q15: CE 841), either no attempt was made to see if that metal matched CE 399 and the other recovered fragments, or that part of the F.B.I. report is still suppressed. A copper fragment found beside the front seat (Q3: CE 569) was not fully analyzed. And spectrographic analysis of the metallic residue on the bullet holes in Kennedy’s coat and shirt was not included. The November 23rd report submitted to Dallas Police Chief Jesse E. Curry does refer to the windshield scraping:

The lead metal of Q4 and Q5, Q9, Q14 and Q15 is similar to the lead of the core of the bullet fragment, Q2. (italics added)

Since the spectroscopist I consulted found that Q4, Q5, Q14, Q9 and Q2 appeared “to be identical in chemical composition,” I assume that Q15 (the windshield smear) was also found by the F.B.I. laboratory to be identical—“similar” as the Hoover report to Curry says. Why, then, not release that information?[15]

Parts of the new F.B.I. documents are incomplete: no “Result of Examination” is given on either laboratory work sheet, for example, though the F.B.I. may have “whited-out” those parts of the documents and several others, constituting continued suppression of evidence. One provocative section seems to be a comparison between fragments and two other items (possible three), which might be test bullets not associated with the assassination: “Std. A 101” and “Std. A 104.” The analysis shows clear differences between these objects and the J.F.K.-Connally fragments, but no comment on conclusion is given in the F.B.I. report as to the significance of these spectrographic dissimilarities.[16]

Several puzzling items may make a pattern so destructive to the already shaky case against Lee Harvey Oswald that they may have been the primary reason for the twelve-year suppression of the F.B.I. report. On one of the pages of the report are these three lines:

Neither the November 23rd nor the December 4th F.B.I. spectrographic work sheets seems to list these items; but three notations can be found on the December 4th work sheet, one in the “Copper jacket” analysis group and two in the “Lead alloy” analysis group. The handwriting is nearly illegible and could be read as either “K from red shelf” or “K from rifle shell.” Could “K” stand for cartridge case? If so, the F.B.I lab analysis seems to establish that the cartridge cases do not match the ballistics evidence from the assassination. Could the cases have been planted? Note: F.B.I. practice is to label items in question with “Q,” and items not in question “K” “Known). Such standard F.B.I. procedure might have been followed here.

My governing assumption in this review of the newest J.F.K. assassination evidence has been that spectroscopic identity means that all fragments found to be chemically identical are therefore fragments from one bullet.[17] But this constraint is a very narrow one; a further possibility is even more damaging to the Warren Report. Chemical identity between bullet fragments might indicate that such fragments are from the same manufacturing “run”—that the bullets were produced and boxed at the same time. If this possibility is in fact the truth, then the number of possible shots are:

CE 399, of course, does not match the identical manufacturing run of items 2 through 7, casting further doubt on its authenticity. And items 2 through 8, excluding the suspect “stretcher bullet,” could represent at least seven bullets fired in Dealey Plaza.[18] Neither the F.B.I. nor the Warren Commission offered any evidence to invalidate this possibility.[19] In fact, Hoover’s vague word “similar” might be taken as confirmation the F.B.I. laboratory came to these same conclusions, destroying the Bureau’s own hypothesis of three shots and three separate hits (with no hint of a missed shot). Ignoring the chemical differences between Q1 (CE 399) and Q2 (CE 567) would be a way of protecting the F.B.I. while offering the Warren Commission room to move around in, and given the suppressed spectrographic evidence and the vague reports that eventually reached the Warren Commission (through the Dallas Police file submission), move around the Warren Commission most certainly did.

Still another way of using the chemical identity of the fragments to establish more than three shots is to list the hits, since CE 399 cannot be associated with any of them, and all the fragments can be from either one bullet or as many as eight bullets:

1. Kennedy’s back hit (copper traces on clothing);
2. Kennedy’s throat hit (lead fragments in the throat);
3. Connally’s thorax hit;
4. Kennedy’s head wound(s);

5. the “missed shot”: the James Tague wounding;
6. Connally’s wrist wound;
7. Connally’s thigh wound;
8. the windshield smear;
9. the chrome defect above the windshield.[21]

Finally, the most economical hypothesis based upon the recently-released F.B.I. documents for the number of shots would be:

1.Kennedy’s back hit;
2.Kennedy’s throat hit;
3.Connally’s thorax hit;
4.Kennedy’s head hit, including

In these passages, Groden and Livingstone display a contempt for Vincent Guinn, NAA, and most attempts to inject scientific analysis into understanding the JFK assassination. Their reasons for rejecting the science are, however, unscientific. They are shallow and superficial, tending to avoid central questions and focusing instead on minor issues such as changed weights of bullet fragments. Even in these cases, they do not take advantage of existing explanations, seeming to prefer continued speculation over answers.

Page 69: The House Assassinations Committee in 1979 admitted that there was a gunman on the Grassy Knoll to the right front of the President. Why are they sticking with the single bullet theory? The answer is that there were two gunmen behind the President, not just one, in addition to the gunman the Committee found on the Grassy Knoll. They can’t admit it because that would indicate an official cover-up, fabricated evidence, and a much larger conspiracy. The only recourse was to use more phoney [sic] drawings, doubletalk, and magic code words to delude us like “scientific,” “medical,” and “neutron activation analysis.”

“In addition to the conclusions reached by the committee’s forensic pathology panel, the single bullet theory was substantiated by the findings of a neutron activation analysis performed for the committee. The bullet alleged to have caused the injuries to the Governor and the President was found on a stretcher at Parkland Hospital...Neutron activation analysis, however, established that it was highly likely that the injuries to the Governor’s wrist were caused by the bullet found on the stretcher in Parkland Hospital.”[24] Not very likely. The main problem with this test was that Dr. Guinn stated afterwards that none of the fragments he tested weighed the same as any listed as evidence by the Warren Commission.[25] That is, along with the many missing fragments, it would appear that his evidence had been switched before he got it.[26] (Certainly, many bullets could have come from the same lot of lead.)[27] Guinn couldn’t validate the genuineness of the specimens given to him, assuming they were genuine.[28]

Page 71: “The forensic pathology panel concluded that there was no evidence that the President or Governor was hit by a bullet fired from the Grassy Knoll and that only two bullets, each fired from behind, struck them.”[29]

The Committee never seriously questioned this evidence, nor did they properly question the neutron activation analysis data: “Further, neutron activation indicated that the bullet fragments removed from Governor Connally’s wrist during surgery, those removed from the President’s brain during the autopsy, and those found in the limousine were all very likely fragments from Mannlicher-Carcano bullets.” There is no such thing as Mannlicher-Carcano bullets; Mannlicher-Carcano was a rifle manufacturer.[30] Secondly, this test is precise: The molecular structure of the metal either matches or it doesn’t. There is no “very likely.”[31] Third, the above sentence intends to leave the loophole that the fragments came from some bullet, but not necessarily the ones the Warren Commission indicated: “It was also found that there was evidence of only two bullets among all the specimens tested—” (much of the evidence was found to be missing) “the fragments removed from Governor Connally’s wrist during surgery were very likely from the almost whole bullet found on the stretcher at Parkland Hospital, and the fragments removed from the President’s brain during the autopsy very likely matched bullet fragments found in the limousine.” Not very likely. The fragments from the Governor’s wrist exceeded in weight the amount lost by the “pristine bullet” found on the stretcher. CE 399, or the “pristine bullet,” lost only about 1.4 to 2.4 grains, and none of this was from being fired. That amount was removed by the FBI for the original test. For a bullet to emerge in such perfect condition, it would have to have been test fired into water. The fact that it was in such perfect condition would not be related to its military jacket. The Committee claimed, without foundation, that such a jacketed bullet could smash bone and flesh and emerge undamaged. This does not explain how a similar bullet to the President’s skull broke up into small bits. And thereby, both the Warren Commission’s and the House Committee’s theories collapse, because there can be no such fragmentation from that type of military bullet, nor can there be fragments weighing more than the weight missing from the bullet.

The point is that there were more than three grains of metal in Connally’s wrist wounds alone, which exceeded what CE 399 lost, and there was also a portion of bullet which remains lodged in his thigh.

What the Committee had to say here was simply untrue. Further, the writer of the Report is trying to draw our attention to the “almost whole bullet” in each sentence: “The neutron activation analysis findings, when combined with the finding of the committee that the almost whole bullet found on the stretcher at Parkland Hospital as well as the larger fragment found in the limousine were fired from Oswald’s Mannlicher-Carcano rifle.”[32] The aim of the investigation was not to seek out the truth but to “establish that only two bullets struck the President and the Governor, and each was fired from the rifle found on the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository and owned by Oswald.” Oswald may have owned the rifle, but no-one ever established that he fired it, or was the assassin. The above sentence states simply that Oswald owned the rifle. The bullets may have been fired from the rifle, but not necessarily by Oswald. It is far more likely that the bullets came from other guns, in particular Mausers. Originally, the police found only a Mauser in the building, but this was covered up.[33] It is unlikely that any sniper would have used such a poor weapon as the Mannlicher-Carcano.[34] The rifle, like so much other evidence, appears to have been planted and the evidence linking it to Oswald fabricated.

What the public is getting here is an extraordinary amount of double-talk. The Committee was all but trapped, and they knew it. The supervising operating room nurse at Parkland Hospital, Audrey Bell, stated she had looked at and handled “four or five bullet fragments” taken from Governor Connally’s wrist. She put them in an envelope and gave it to government agents. She said that “the smallest was the size of the striking end of a match and the largest at least twice that big. I have seen the picture of the magic (pristine) bullet, and I can’t see how it could be the bullet from which the fragments I saw came.”[35]

Dr. Guinn, who conducted the neutron activation analysis, found that one of the fragments recovered from the floor of the limousine was gone. He found that a can which had contained fragments that had apparently struck the windshield of the limousine was empty.[36]

One fragment specimen, CE 569, could not be tested because it was only the “copper bullet jacket with no lead inside.” The Committee believed that it had been fired from the Oswald rifle, but couldn’t prove it.[37]

The Warren Commission indicated that two or three bullet fragments they had could have come from the magic bullet, but this was unlikely because of their weight.[38] All of this is indicative of the destruction of evidence over the years.[39] A secret letter to the Warren Commission from J. Edgar Hoover on July 8, 1964, concerning the spectrographic analysis, said that there were “minor variations” between the fragments. Any variation indicates that different bullets were involved.[40] Again, we must ask why these results have been kept secret.[41]

There is no significance to the neutron activation tests that were conducted in this case, because some of the known fragments have disappeared and Guinn was unable to test one of the fragments he had.[42] For him to say that it was “highly probable” that the fragments and missile he had represented only two bullets is ridiculous in view of the other evidence that the fragments weighed more than was lost from the pristine bullet, but of course, in an intelligence operation, the idea is to keep each operative compartmentalized away from the next guy with his conflicting information or evidence.

If you take one lump of lead and make 50 bullets from it, they will all have the same atomic structure.[43] The bullets cannot be distinguished from any other bullet made from the same lot.[44] Therefore, more than one rifle using bullets from the same batch would not necessarily be distinguished.[45] Weisberg writes: “Unless the metal from Connally has the same composition as Bullet 399, poof! and the Report goes up in smoke. If there is any variation in the lead composition of everything else—the erroneously accounted for fragments removed from the President’s head, the fragments found in the car, the scrapings from the windshield, the traces from the curbstone—all other lead of which there is any relic—then this Report is revealed as a lie. All this lead must be of exactly the same composition or it cannot be claimed that the fatal bullet was fired from ‘Oswald’s rifle’ “[46] Dr. Charles Wilber wrote that “The precise characterization of a given bullet is still not feasible...It is doubtful that significant information can come from the analytical work done on the Kennedy-Connally bullets and fragments.”[47]

Page 233: Anthony Summers wrote in Conspiracy, “The Committee was further convinced by sophisticated modern tests which had not been made sixteen years ago. Dr. Vincent Guinn, a chemist and forensic scientist, broke new ground with his ‘neutron activation’ tests—a process in which the bullet specimens were bombarded with neutrons in a nuclear reactor. The results were impressive, and appear to resolve fundamental areas of controversy.” Neutron activation tests had been conducted years ago in the case, but the results were kept secret.[48]

“…concluded that these represented only two bullets and that it was ‘highly probable’ that both were of Mannlicher-Carcano manufacture—the ammunition designed for the rifle found in the Book Depository. The phrase ‘highly probable’ is the cautious formal language of the scientist going on the record, but a personal interview with Guinn confirms that he is highly confident of his conclusion.”[49]

Gary Shaw writes, “While it is not mentioned in the report or the 26 volumes (of the Warren Report), CE 399 and other bullet fragments were also subjected to Neutron Activation Analysis (NAA), a test even more definitive than spectrographic analysis. In simple terms, NAA is a highly sophisticated technique in which differences in the composition of objects is [sic] measured by bombarding the objects with radiation down to parts per billion.” Summers does not tell us any of this, let alone that the test was run 16 years before. Harold Weisberg battled in court for years to get those results, as the dead President’s brother, Senator Edward Kennedy, well knows.

“In another letter from Hoover to Rankin (not released from the Archives until 1973), the FBI Director reports: ‘While minor variations in composition were found by this method, these were not considered to be sufficient to permit positively differentiating among the larger bullet fragments and thus positively determining from which of the larger bullet fragments any given small lead fragment may have come.’” This means that the tests were inconclusive.[50] Gary Shaw goes on to say that “this letter emerges as one of the most damaging pieces of evidence against the single-bullet theory, for what Hoover does not mention is that with NAA the amount of difference between particles is virtually meaningless; any difference, no matter how small, is both sufficient and irrefutable. These tests were conclusive, and they prove that JFK and the Governor were indeed struck by separate bullets.”[51]

Page 383: The [House Select] Committee had even more intricate “expert testimony,” including the results of neutron activation analysis of the bullet fragments found in Kennedy’s head, in the car, and in John Connally, compared with the “pristine” bullet. The results of the original tests performed for the Warren Commission were suppressed.

Dr. Vincent Guinn testified before the Committee, giving the results of the tests he made of the fragments given him. But immediately afterward, he said that none of the fragments he tested weighed the same (and therefore could not have been from the same bullet) as those tested by the Warren Commission. The evidence was once again distorted.[52]

Lattimer’s brief references to NAA are not up to the high standards of the rest of his book. He accepts the NAA data a bit too uncritically, in my opinion.

Page 217 (caption to Figure 90, two diagrams of damage to head): I. Bullet Fragments in Front of Brain. The second largest metallic fragment (7 mm by 3 mm, but crescentic) had come to rest in the front margin of the brain just above the top of the frontal sinus in the right. Neutron activation analysis revealed that this fragment came from the same bullet that struck the inside of the car’s windshield and fell into the front seat.[53]

Page 219 (caption to Figure 91, skull bullets): The two largest fragments of the bullet that struck Kennedy in the head and separated into an empty copper jacket, left, and the lead core, right. Both fragments bore markings from the rifling of Oswald’s rifle, showing that they were fired from the rifle, to the exclusion of all other rifles. Both fragments were found in the front-seat area of the presidential automobile, apparently having struck the inside of the windshield and its frame at greatly reduced velocities before dropping. Other tiny fragments were found in the President’s brain case and on the floor under the jump seats of the automobile. Neutron activation tests showed that these all came from this same bullet that struck the President’s head.[54]

Lifton is one of the few Kennedy-writers who understands NAA and its uncertainties. Unfortunately, much of his critique of the NAA results focuses on anecdotal evidence for the invalidity of the fragments as evidence. Lifton accepts these stories too easily and as a result, dismisses NAA too quickly. Lifton’s technical knowledge could have allowed him to write one of the better summaries of the NAA, but it was displaced by his attention to unreliable witness evidence.

Page 556: Finally, on Friday afternoon, came the Committee’s most potent scientific witness—Dr. Vincent Guinn, a nuclear chemist from the University of California at Irvine.

The three pieces of ammunition which linked the rifle to the assassination were found outside anyone’s body—bullet 399 on the stretcher, and Commission Exhibits 567 and 569, the two large fragments found in the car on Friday night, November 22, at the White House garage.

But also in evidence were pieces of metal too tiny to be compared under the ballistic microscope, pieces allegedly found inside the bodies of the victims. They were Warren Commission Exhibit 843, two metal fragments removed from the brain (and the only metal removed from Kennedy’s body at the autopsy), and Warren Commission Exhibit 842, the fragments removed from Connally’s wrist.

The fragments were too small for ballistics tests, and the FBI, within twenty-four hours of the shooting, had done the routine spectrographic examination. Flame spectrography was used: a destructive test in which a tiny sample is burned and the color of the flame compared with known standards to reveal chemical composition. The results reported on November 23, 1963 were inconclusive. All the FBI could report was that the lead in the different samples was “similar,” which is something like saying the “2” in “102” is “similar” to the “2” in “42”—not very enlightening. Several months later, at the request of the Warren Commission, the FBI attempted neutron activation analysis: a non-destructive test in which two samples to be compared are bombarded by neutrons and their radioactive characteristics compared. That can reveal what trace elements—minor impurities—exist, and in what concentrations; and that, in turn, permits a conclusion about the probability of common origin.[55]

The FBI found the results inconclusive. It was not possible to tell, said their expert, from which of the larger bullets any of the smaller fragments might have come.

The critics were suspicious because the existence of those tests was not revealed until the 1970s, and the actual data themselves—FBI Laboratory worksheets—were not released until 1975, after a series of lawsuits under the Freedom of Information Act.

Critics believed that if the work was done properly it would immediately become apparent that Warren Commission Exhibits 399 and 842 (the metal from Connally’s wrist) were different, and that would disprove the single-bullet theory.

Vincent Guinn was hired to do such tests. The Archives sent a courier to his laboratory at UC, Irvine where he had a nuclear reactor. Guinn made measurements of the lead and antimony content of the bullets and found that 399 and the metal in the sample box labelled “CE 842” were statistically indistinguishable—which, in the language of the chemist, meant that they were identical.[56]

In early 1978, word leaked that the Committee had done this work, and Blakey was repeatedly citing it as proof of the validity of the single-bullet theory.

But meanwhile, information of another sort became available. Audrey Bell, the operating-room nurse who had actually handled the metal from Connally’s wrist on November 22 and given the fragments to a Texas Highway Patrolman, was interviewed by Dallas Morning News reporter Earl Golz. “She said she recalled seeing four or five bullet fragments being placed in a glass,” wrote Golz, who pointed out that only three fragments were supposedly in evidence, according to the Commission. The issue, or course, was whether more metal had been removed from Connally than could have come from the base of bullet 399. Upon hearing this, I asked Golz to reinterview her and ask her about the sizes, because it was often claimed they were no bigger than dust particles. Nurse Bell said: “No, they weren’t dust particles because we wouldn’t have been able to have taken those out…They were larger than dust particles. They were small fragments. . . anywhere from 3 to 4 mm in length by a couple of mm wide…They were identifiable fragments.” Audrey Bell’s description was quite inconsistent with the three grains, at most, missing from the base of 399.[57]

With respect to the other fragments in evidence, there was also a problem. In 1969, the Secret Service sent documents to the National Archives that hadn’t been released to the Warren Commission, One was an FBI receipt for “a missile removed…by Commander James J. Humes…on this date.” The receipt, dated November 22, 1963, was issued to Capt. John Stover, Humes’ superior, and signed by FBI agents Sibert and O’Neill.

In May 1970, shortly after the release of the receipt, I wrote a letter to the FBI requesting an explanation. Back came a reply which didn’t answer the question. I sent a follow-up letter. Several days later, I returned to my apartment and was surprised to find a note on the door from an FBI agent: “Please call John Morrison at FBI, Los Angeles…“ I called, and had a lengthy conversation noting that this receipt didn’t seem to be for anything in the evidence. Morrison told me that according to headquarters officials, the receipt for “a missile” was actually for the two tiny fragments removed from the brain. After that phone call, the FBI sent me a letter stating that in plain English.

Thus, in the case of the brain fragments, there were irregularities associated with the documentation which recorded how they originally became evidence[58], and Nurse Bell’s recollections raised similar questions about the Connally wrist fragments[59].

Guinn testified his tests showed that the brain fragments came from one of the two missiles found in the car, and that Commission Exhibit 842 came from the bottom of bullet 399, where some lead was missing.

I cornered Guinn in the hallway afterward to question him further. He had testified that the fragments he measured didn’t match in weight the ones the FBI had tested in 1964.[60] He also testified that although the FBI had been unable to draw a conclusion from their 1964 data, his analysis demonstrated that those samples, too supported his conclusion.[61] Guinn said he assumed the 1964 samples were from bullet 399, but he didn’t know what had become of them.

I asked Guinn about the legitimacy of the fragments as evidence, and whether he could have been fooled. He admitted: “Possibly they could take a bullet, take out a few little pieces and put it in the containers, and say: ‘This came out of Connally’s wrist.’ And naturally, if you compare that will bullet 399, they’ll look alike. I have no control over those things. I have to believe that these are honest people.”[62]

Guinn talked about another matter bearing on the legitimacy of the fragments in the sample boxes. He told how he opened one box—Q-15, supposedly metal from the windshield—to find it completely empty. “What did you do?” I asked. He said that he carefully examined the interior of the sample box with a magnifying glass, but nothing was there.

Guinn’s work played a major role in convincing the Committee that bullet 399 had struck Connally’s wrist—hence, that Kennedy and Connally were struck by the same bullet.

If this were an ordinary murder case, I could accept that.[63] But in light of the evidence that the body had been altered[64], and the numerous irregularities concerning the chain of possession on the fragments[65], what Guinn’s testimony showed me was the naiveté of the critics—myself included—in believing that plotters would plant bullets, but leave genuine fragments in the FBI sample boxes, thereby leaving their scheme at the mercy of spectrographic tests.[66]

It was another instance of the Committee’s less-than-thorough investigation. They never called Audrey Bell as a witness.[67]

Anthony Summers is a master of innuendo. He is a wizard at using a suggestive word or phrase to raise an issue in the reader’s mind, but then drop the subject without offering justification or proof. Of all the conspiracy writers, Summers must be read the most carefully in order not to be taken in by his repeated and powerful use of this technique. He truly “says everything and says nothing.” I think future editions of Conspiracy should be retitled Innuendo. The section below shows Summers dealing with the neutron-activation evidence by innuendo—Conspiracy reveals that he uses the same approach for every aspect of the assassination. Who else would entitle a book Conspiracy but not explicitly reach that conclusion in the text? Readers of Summers’s works must constantly be on their guard.

Page 33: The [House Select] Committee was further convinced [that the head shot came from the rear] by sophisticated modern tests which had not been made sixteen years ago. Dr. Vincent Guinn, a chemist and forensic scientist, broke new ground with his “neutron activation” tests—a process in which the bullet specimens were bombarded with neutrons in a nuclear reactor. The results were impressive, and appear to resolve fundamental areas of controversy.[68]

Dr. Guinn was supplied with all the surviving bullet specimens, the several pieces from the car, tiny fragments removed from the wounds of both the President and Governor Connally, and the full-sized bullet found on the stretcher at Parkland Hospital. He concluded that these represented only two bullets[69] and that it was “highly probable” that both were of Mannlicher-Carcano manufacture—the ammunition designed for the rifle found in the Book Depository. The phrase “highly probable” is the cautious formal language of the scientist going on the record, but a personal interview with Guinn confirms that he is highly confident of his conclusion.[70] He is equally certain[71] about a third conclusion, one that—in conjunction with the ballistics evidence—supports the thesis that the fatal head shot was fired from behind. Guinn’s tests show that fragments from the President’s brain match the three testable fragments found in the car and that they in turn come from the same bullet.[72] Since ballistics experts conclude that the fragments in the car were fired by the gun in the Book Depository[73], it seems certain[74] that a shot from the Depository did hit the President in the head. The Committee decided this was the fourth shot and that it was fatal.

While Dr. Guinn’s work is in itself most impressive, his conclusions must be weighed in the context of the data he had to work with. Assassinations Committee Staff were horrified to discover the slipshod way in which the material evidence—including the bullet fragments—had been handled over the years. Some feel this taints any objective analytical conclusions about the evidence.[75] Others have objected that, because several tiny fragments have disappeared since 1963 and because Guinn was unable to test one copper fragment, his identification of only two bullets is meaningless.[76] The Committee, however, found nothing sinister about the fragments vanishing and accepted Guinn’s findings.[77]

Page 37: Finally, for the first time, the controversial [magic] bullet was linked firmly to the wound in Governor Connally’s wrist. Dr. Guinn’s neutron activation tests revealed that the make-up of the bullet was indistinguishable from fragments found in the Governor’s wrist.[78] Guinn says it is “extremely unlikely” that they come from different bullets. It was in the light of all this that the Assassinations Committee decided to restore the “magic bullet” theory to respectability.[79] It retains its place in today’s official conclusion, that the President was hit twice from behind and that the first of the hits, not necessarily lethal, passed though both him and the Governor. The second hit struck him in the head and killed him.

[1]The critical term “spectroscopically identical” is not defined in Evica’s book.

[2]This conclusion does not follow from its premises.

[3]According to Evica’s assumptions that different compositions of fragments mean different bullets and (unstated) different types of bullets, therefore different rifles.

[4]Evica’s spectroscopist was wrong—the same ranges of concentration were reported for each of the four fragments, but the ranges were so broad as to admit variations of up to an order of magnitude or more between the fragments. See footnote to Cutler (1975).

[5]I get three or four bullets, not four or five: the hospital bullet plus two or three other bullets gives three or four bullets.

[6]False conclusion, because WCC/MC bullets are known to differ chemically from one another. Evica’s basic assumption is therefore false, and his chain of reasoning is nullified. But Evica could not have known about the differences between WCC/MC bullets, because Guinn had measured them during 1973–1975 and published the results only in his HSCA report of September 1978. Thus, Evica’s principal assumption was invalidated after the fact.

[7]False. See earlier note and footnote under Cutler (1975). The fragments could have varied in composition by an order of magnitude or more.

[8]This entire paragraph is invalidated by the Evica’s spectroscopist’s misinterpretation of the FBI’s data.

[9]Hoover spoke correctly—the broad ranges of the FBI’s spectrographic results rendered the fragments no more than “broadly similar in composition.”

[10]No. The Commission’s conclusions were completely in accord with the FBI’s broad results.

[11]False. The FBI’s spectrographic analyses neither confirm nor deny the single-bullet theory.

[12]False. The FBI report allows fragments from Connally’s wrist and Kennedy’s head to be the same or different.

[13]False deduction because of false chemical premise.

[14]But these differences are compatible with WCC/MC bullets, which Guinn showed later to differ greatly, even when from the same lot or box.

[15]This paragraph is also invalidated by Evica’s spectroscopist’s error.

[16]Standards A 101 and A 104 are synthetic laboratory reference standards for use in analyzing other samples. They are supposed to be different from most samples being analyzed. The reported differences are thus of no significance.

[17]False assumption. See earlier notes. WCC/MC bullets differ greatly from one another.

[18]This conclusion of seven bullets is invalidated by the observed variations among WCC/MC bullets.

[19]But Guinn did, in 1978.

[20]This paragraph is rendered meaningless by Guinn’s later NAA analyses.

[21]Meaningless paragraph.

[22]Meaningless paragraph.

[23]Conclusion invalidated by flawed premises.

[24]Reference to page 45 of HSCA report.

[25]False Only the brain fragments differed in weight from those analyzed previously by the FBI.

[26]Unsubstantiated conclusion—other explanation possible, such as normal loss in weight when portions of fragments were removed for previous analyses.

[27]Groden and Livingstone ignore Guinn’s major finding that WCC/MC bullets from the same lot of lead differ greatly in composition.

[28]Strictly speaking, this is true, and Guinn admitted the hypothetical possibility that fragments could have been switched. But he believed that they were genuine, and GL offer no evidence to support their suspicion.

[29]Reference to page 80 of the HSCA report.

[30]Irrelevant argument.

[31]False view of neutron activation as being without experimental uncertainty.

[32]This citation isn’t a sentence.

[33]False rumor. The rifle resembled a Mauser, but was immediately identified as a Mannlicher-Carcano when removed from behind the boxes.

[34]But all three large fragments were traced ballistically to this weapon to the exclusion of all other weapons. In fact, the use of the cheap Mannlicher-Carcano is one of the best pieces of evidence against conspiracy, for serious conspirators would have used superior rifles.

[35]Anecdotal evidence like this carries little weight against the powerful evidence from NAA.

[36]So what? Benign alternative explanation are possible, such as tiny fragments being completely consumed by the previous spectrographic or NA analyses.

[37]The lack of proof for this fragment did not affect the weight of the conclusions for the other fragments, for lack of evidence proves nothing.

[38]The second part of this sentence represents Groden and Livingstone’s view, not the Warren Commission’s.

[39]Unsubstantiated assertion.

[40]False view of NAA.

[41]Legitimate question, but not for the reasons given here.

[42]Repetitious claims that were addressed above.

[43]False. Only if the lead has no impurities. Impurities will always be distributed heterogeneously within the lead.

[44]False. Guinn produced abundant contrary evidence for WCC/MC bullets.

[45]False deduction from false premise of previous sentence.

[46]Weisberg is wrong, again because of the same false view of NAA as absolute.

[47]Wilber’s conclusion is false because his premise is false.

[48]The original NAA results were, however, released well before Summers wrote his book. He could have included them but chose not even to acknowledge their existence.

[49]No essential difference between “highly probable” and ‘highly confident.” Summers is just confusing the issue.

[50]The FBI may have thought so, but Guinn later showed that Hoover was wrong.

[51]False conclusion; based on false premise that NAA’s results are absolute.

[52]False statement. Guinn noted that some of the fragment had different weights than previously, but never concluded that they must have come from different bullets. Otherwise, why would he have continued to support the single-bullet theory?

[53]Overstatement . High probability, not proof. Problem with chain of possession is real.

[54]Overstatement , with “showed” (i.e., proved) instead of a probabilistic statement.

[55]At last, results expressed properly—in terms of probabilities!

[56]False. It means that they may be different, but can’t be told apart.

[57]Not true. 3.5 mm x 2 mm x 2 mm x 11 (density of lead) x 4 frags x 10-3 = 0.616 g Pb = 9.5 grains of lead. Considering the large uncertainties of distant memory, 9.5 grains is well within range of 3 grains.

[58]No! Just an unfortunate choice of words.

[59]No! The weights can be reconciled. See previous footnote.

[60]False. Only brain fragments differed in weight.

[61]That re solves the problem of the brain fragments, because there is no chain-of-custody concern for the 1964 fragments.

[62]Occam’s razor interpretation of fragment-switching: Weights disagreeing implies nothing by itself about fragments being switched—could be other explanations. Two equivalent scenarios exist: (1) fragments are legitimate; (2) fragments switched conspiracy that reached at least to the National Archives. Without documentation for the more-complex Scenario 2, Scenario 1 must be chosen because it explains the observations equally well—it’s as simple as that.

[63]Sliding standards of proof.

[64]Evidence too weak to corroborate anything.

[65]Debunked above.

[66]In other words, once you believe (without proof) that the stretcher bullet was planted, you must also believe (without proof) that the conspirators switched brain fragments to match it. Some farsighted conspirators! Call in Occam’s razor again.

[67]Moot point, for her weights are consistent with 3 grains removed from CE 399. Also note Lifton’s double standard for evidence: a difference in weights of brain fragments is enough for him to dismiss them totally and invoke high-order conspiracy, and yet he accepts Nurse Bell’s memory about details of tiny fragments without even checking it with a simple calculation.

[68]Considering that the same tests had been done in 1964, it’s not clear what new ground Guinn broke.

[69]False. Guinn concluded that there was evidence for only two bullets—not the same as concluding that there were only two bullets. Careless writing by Summers.

[70]Same thing! No essential differences between “highly probable” and “highly confident” of the conclusion.

[71]Self-contradictory phrase.

[72]False statements. Guinn’s results show high probabilities of a match and a common origin, but are not absolute.

[73]Wrong on two points. First, the ballistics experts proved, not concluded. (Summers is overstating Guinn’s chemical results and understating the FBI’s ballistic results.) Second, only two of the five fragments from the car were large enough to be traced ballistically—the fragments from the front of the car.

[74]“Seems certain” is a self-contradictory phrase. It allows Summers to appear to be making a very strong statement while giving him an out by actually saying very little.

[75]Some people may feel this way, but that doesn’t make it true. Summers is giving only his side of the story. “Some,” “feel,” and “taints” are all weak terms which sound good but collectively mean little.

[76]Same comment as previous footnote. Feelings without objective support mean nothing.

[77]With this third sentence in a row in which Summers injects the seeds of doubt via suggestive words, his technique becomes clear. He suggests something strong with words like “sinister” and “taints,” but never follows up with anything concrete. He thus gets it both ways—he sways many people without having to prove a thing.

[78]Only one fragment from Connally’s wrist was analyzed—not “fragments.”

[79]Summers never shows us that the theory ever lost its official respectability.