PSC482G, Spring 2000
Assignment 12, for Wednesday 16 February 2000
Warren Commission Report 3
(N.B. This assignment is for your guidance only. It need not be turned in.)
Read: Warren Commission Report Chapter III (pp. 61–117).
Answer these questions (briefly):
1. Name the persons who saw the rifle being fired from the sixth-floor window or being withdrawn after the shooting. Who saw the most?
2. Who was on the fifth floor of the TSBD during the shooting, and what did they hear?
3. Describe the bullet fragments found in the presidential limousine. Which ones were traced ballistically to C2766? Were any traced to another weapon?
4. How was the windshield of the presidential limousine damaged, and what does the nature of the damage imply about the direction of the shot?
5. Describe how the nearly whole bullet was found in Parkland Hospital. What did the Commission conclude about its origin, and why?
6. What was the condition of this bullet? Was it “pristine”? (See "Was the pristine bullet really pristine?")
7. Why did the autopsy physicians conclude that the tiny rear wound in JFK’s head was one of entrance, and that the large wound on the right side was one of exit?
8. Describe Connally’s wounds. Could they have been produced by a single bullet?
9. Consider the locations of the bullet wound in the president’s back and the hole through his jacket. What do you notice about their vertical placements? What might these locations mean?
10. Using the appropriate diagram (with timings derived from the Zapruder film), show why the Warren Commission felt that the body wounds to Kennedy and Connally had to have been produced by the same bullet (the single-bullet theory). Can you think of any other evidence pro or con?