37. The unification of physical evidence provided by these calculations

    The physical evidence in the JFK case now speaks with one voice. It provides an extremely strong framework inside which the assassination must be interpreted. Here is its essence.

The movements

• The quick forward snap came from a shot from the rear.
• The initial rapid rearward lurch also came from a shot from the rear.
• Neither the forward snap nor the bulk of the lurch could have come from a frontal shot.
• The forward-moving diffuse cloud and large fragments also came from that shot from the rear.
• Thus the Zapruder film provides no positive evidence for a second shooter, and all but disallows one. One bullet from the rear created all the motions.

The fragments

• One bullet also explains all the fragments from the head shot (in head, on rear carpet, and in front seat).
• That bullet differed chemically from the bullet of the body shot (Connally's wrist; Parkland stretcher).
• The two large fragments from the head shot came from Oswald's rifle to the exclusion of all other rifles.
• The stretcher bullet (CE 399) also came from Oswald's rifle to the exclusion of all other rifles.
• Thus every fragment and every motion came solely from two bullets from Oswald's rifle.

The rifle

• Oswald owned and possessed that rifle at the time of the assassination.
• He was earlier photographed holding the same rifle.
• His fingerprints were found on the rifle and the shipping cartons that were used as a gun rest.
• No one else has been linked to the rifle or the shooting in any physical way.

The wounds

• There were two sets of wounds in Kennedy's body and one set in Connally.
• No bullet was found in either man's body.
• Only two bullets were found externally, both shot from Oswald's rifle at the rear.
• Only two chemical compositions of the fragments were found, which grouped with the two bullets.
• Thus the two bullets explain all the wounds to both men, and indicate that they had been properly aligned for a double-body hit.

The link to Oswald

• Both the bullets found had come from Oswald's rifle.
• Oswald was in the building at the time (by his own admission to a reporter, as documented in The Men Who Killed Kennedy, Reel 4, "The Patsy"). 
• Empty shells from his rifle were found at the window through which the rifle was shot.
• Oswald left the building abruptly after the shooting, returned to his rooming house, got his pistol, and shortly thereafter used it to kill Officer J. D. Tippit in cold blood.
• He fled the scene, hid in the Texas Theater, and tried to kill again as he was being arrested.

    All this evidence sums up to two bullets from Oswald's rifle explaining everything. Two questions remain, whether he was the shooter and whether he had help. The first can only be answered probabilistically, for there is no direct hard evidence that he was the shooter. But the tight web of circumstantial evidence provides a probability of >99%, and probably more like 99.9%. It is not certain, however, and will probably never be certain. The second question, concerning help, has been debated for nearly 40 years. It has been investigated endlessly, without yielding anything definitive. Right now we can say that the shooter did not need help and appears not to have received any. Three shots. One missed everything, one hit the back instead of the head, and the last came within an inch or so of missing the head. But they did the job, and then the guy tried to run away.

The critical sequence of events
    The evidence listed above produces the fir following series of events:

•  A shot from Oswald's rifle passed though both men's bodies, probably around Z-224. It left fragments in Connally's wrist and was later retrieved as CE 399.
• A second shot from Oswald's rifle hit in the right rear of Kennedy's head. It took about 0.4 milliseconds to pass through. During this time the bullet snapped the head forward, probably by at least 2 inches or so.
• The bullet first drilled a small hole in the rear of the skull. At that point it deformed, and may have broken into two or three large fragments.
• As the bullet was passing through the brain and depositing energy there, brain matter briefly passed rearward out the entrance wound (backspatter).
• The bullet or major fragments then broke though the right front side of the skull, creating an exit wound and possibly further fragmenting.
• The act of creating the exit wound weakened or fractured the nearby skull and prepared it for the coming explosion.
• The momentum of the exiting fragments forced brain matter through the exit wound right after the fragments.
• The two large fragments exited with nearly the same trajectories and went on to hit the windshield and chrome strip and bounce back into the front seat.
• Meanwhile, the brain matter pushed radially outward by the tunneling bullet continued toward the walls of the cranium. A "temporary cavity" formed and oscillated in size for several milliseconds. At some point, probably the first maximum, the high pressure exploded the cranium and formed the large wound at the right side and top of the head.
• The explosion hurled large pieces of skull upward and forward. They were followed by large amounts of brain matter in the same general direction. The largest such piece, the Harper fragment, exited rapidly (313), slowed down as it rose (313), reached an apex (314), and then began to fall (315). A second shower of fragments exited at a lower angle, but also forward. A broad, diffuse cloud of smaller fragments existed from at least 313 to 315.
• The exiting brain matter covered the limousine and passengers in front of Kennedy. The forward momentum given to it by the explosion was balanced by rearward momentum given to the body. This momentum accelerated the body rearward to a speed of about 0.8 feet per second (at the top of the head). This ended the mechanical phase of the head shot.
• The body continued to accelerate rearward during the next few frames, but at a much smaller rate. The cause could not have been a continuing recoil from the rear shot or any effect of a frontal shot. The only reasonable remaining possibility is a reflexive stiffening of the back muscles.
• Kennedy then bounced off the rear seat and fell forward toward his wife.
• Oswald hurriedly left the building, went to his rooming house and picked up his pistol, killed Officer J.D. Tippit in cold blood, and then tried to kill again in the Texas Theater.

    This simple scenario is now complete for all practical purposes. Two shots from Oswald's rifle did everything at Dealey Plaza; four shots from Oswald's pistol on the street in Oak Cliff. No help was needed or allowed by the physical evidence. There is no any physical evidence that any was given. This is now the documented story of the Dallas assassinations. Anything more has remained speculation for nearly 40 years.

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