The Wounding of James Tague Refutes the Lone-Gunman Theory

[Tim Nickerson]

Sorry, but the claim that bullet fragments from the head shot caused the dent in the chrome and the windshield damage, and that therefore another headshot fragment could have cleared the roll bar and the windshield to streak toward Tague, just doesn't work.

Dr. Tom Canning, the trajectory expert for the House Select Committee on Assassinations, told the committee that the windshield damage appeared to be too high to have been caused by a fragment from the headshot missile. So there's no way that a headshot fragment could have cleared the windshield to fly toward Tague.

If you accept the autopsy x-rays and photos and the Zapruder film as pristine and authentic, where in the world do you see an exit point in the skull that would even come close to allowing a fragment to fly at the necessary horizontal angle from the skull to fly toward Tague? Where? Where is it? And how can anyone posit such a theory given the position of JFK's head in the milliseconds during and just after the headshot? How?

If Canning did indeed say that, then , like you, he was working under the false assumption that the bullet would have traveled in a straight ine trajectory through the head.

[Brian Roselle]

I’ll let others argue if the chrome dent was really there or not from Love field to Dealey Plaza, but I’ve never seen any signs of it on all the photos I have reviewed along the motorcade route.

If the chrome dent was from a fragment that struck it, then a large missing fragment that was never recovered would only need to have been a couple of inches higher than that to exit the limo.

As to the possibility of bone deflecting bullet fragments upwards, this is from Haag’s testing I mentioned earlier, figure 8 from his report shows the results of the Carcano testing with the witness panel catching the fragments at 3 feet.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1kaW8iIpsRZ3azKTMsrnCVrK0yCupP7KX/view?usp=sharing
Figure 8: Witness panel displaying fragment impacts from bullets fired through bone
"Figure 8 shows the witness panel following these shots. It is interesting to note that the majority of the bullet fragments were dispersed upward relative to these bullets’ pre-impact flight paths. This strongly suggests that this upward deflection was initiated very early during these bullets’ interaction with the first layer of bone. The importance of this will become apparent later in this article during an inventory of the bullet fragments recovered from the presidential limousine."

I apologize that the pictures I attach are not showing but rather appear linked. I put the jpg location from google drive in the Insert Image operator but it come up as a link. 

[John Mytton]

If Canning did indeed say that, then , like you, he was working under the false assumption that the bullet would have traveled in a straight ine trajectory through the head.

 



JohnM

[Thomas Graves]

Sorry, but the claim that bullet fragments from the head shot caused the dent in the chrome and the windshield damage, and that therefore another headshot fragment could have cleared the roll bar and the windshield to streak toward Tague, just doesn't work.

Dr. Tom Canning, the trajectory expert for the House Select Committee on Assassinations, told the committee that the windshield damage appeared to be too high to have been caused by a fragment from the headshot missile. So there's no way that a headshot fragment could have cleared the windshield to fly toward Tague.

If you accept the autopsy x-rays and photos and the Zapruder film as pristine and authentic, where in the world do you see an exit point in the skull that would even come close to allowing a fragment to fly at the necessary horizontal angle from the skull to fly toward Tague? Where? Where is it? And how can anyone posit such a theory given the position of JFK's head in the milliseconds during and just after the headshot? How?

And, for Pete's sake, if your headshot bullet came from the sixth-floor window, it entered the skull at a downward angle of about 20 degrees. So how would a fragment from that bullet exit the skull at an upward angle and with enough velocity to reach Tague with sufficient force to cut Tague or chip the curb? Again, as Dr. Canning noted, the windshield damage was too high to have been caused by a headshot fragment, and that damage was below the windshield chrome.

Three other points:

* Tague could not have been wounded by a fragment from the headshot because he had already ducked under the triple underpass before the headshot occurred. Dr. Thomas notes that photos taken in Dealey Plaza during the shooting confirm Tague's recollection that he took refuge under the triple underpass. Tague also recalled that he heard a shot after he got under the underpass. As Dr. Thomas notes, "Quite obviously, if he heard a shot after he ducked under the bridge, then he could not have been wounded by the last shot" (Hear No Evil, p. 378).

* As part of the research for his book Reasonable Doubt, Rockefeller Foundation scholar Henry Hurt contracted an engineering firm to study the curb mark, and the firm confirmed Harold Weisberg's earlier finding that the mark had been patched (Reasonable Doubt, pp. 136-138). (Weisberg had determined this by getting access to the high-quality color photographs that the FBI's Shaneyfelt took of the curb section in May 1964, and then by gaining access to the curb section itself.)

* The FBI destroyed the small spectrographic plate that contained a scraping from the curb mark in the face of repeated FOIA attempts by Harold Weisberg to have the plate tested by independent experts. The plate was subjected to spectrographic testing by FBI crime lab chemist John Gallagher in 1964, but the FBI withheld the lab report from the WC. Instead, Hoover sent a letter to the commission that--supposedly--summarized the lab findings.

Hoover said the smearing contained lead with a trace of antimony, which at the very least suggested the curb was struck by a bullet fragment. Weisberg sued to get a copy of the FBI lab report. When Weisberg finally received a copy of the lab report, he noticed it was suspiciously incomplete. So Weisberg then sued to be allowed to have the spectrographic plate analyzed by independent experts. After several Weisberg FOIA suits, the FBI announced that in "routine house-keeping" it had destroyed the plate.

Look, it's so simple: The obvious conclusion is that a fourth shot was responsible for Tague's wounding.

LOL

That's why Max Holland's theory makes the most sense, guys: The sniper in the sixth floor window took a shot at JFK when the limo had just come out of the Elm Street turn and was about even with the clustered black-and-white highway signs on the "island," as reported by Amos Euins and as intimated by Patricia Ann Donaldson-Lawrence in the National Geographic special "The Lost Bullet".

The bullet lost its copper jacket when it struck, at a shallow angle, the mast arm of the traffic light over the limo (from the sniper's POV) and ended up striking a curb about 20 feet from James Tague, who was standing down by The Triple Underpass, leaving a lead and antimony (but copper-less) smear on the curb.

D'oh

--  MWT 

[Gerry Down]

Its difficult to see how the bullet could have deflected this much going through JFKs head.

Could he have been hit higher up in the head like the HSCA suggested? This would make it easier for the bullet fragments to exit the head at the front.

[Joe Elliott]

Its difficult to see how the bullet could have deflected this much going through JFKs head.

Could he have been hit higher up in the head like the HSCA suggested? This would make it easier for the bullet fragments to exit the head at the front.

It doesn’t matter where the bullet enters. The fragment is coming down at an angle, relative to the limousine, of about 13 degrees.

The highest fragment will travel about 80 inches forward, and need to climb about 9 inches, to clear the windshield frame and visor. Trigonometry says its upward angle, relative to the limousine is 6 degrees. So, the bullet fragment needs to be deflected upward by 19 degrees. This is true of both an EOP entrance and a cowlick entrance.

A lower, EOP, entry wound gives more length, through the head, to deflect upward, meaning the curve would not have to be to abrupt. It could be curving gently upward throughout the entire 6-inch passage.

A higher, cowlick, entry is harder to see. The fragment would have to hold a straight line, then, once it reaches near the level of the exit point, curve abruptly upward, by 19 degrees within a couple of inches.

Seems easier to by deflected by 19 degrees within 6 inches then it does to do so within 2 inches. Larry Sturdivan favored the EOP entry partly, I believe, because from his experience with ballistics, the amount of curvature required is more in line with the curvature he observed in ballistic gel caused by bullet fragments in the various tests he witnessed.


By the way, the bullet fragments being deflected by up to 19 degrees is no great surprise to any ballistic expert I ever heard of. When a bullet fragments, the irregularly shaped fragments will curve a lot more than an intact bullet. Which is why the fragments from the headshot at z312 curved a good deal more abruptly then the largely intact bullet that passed through JFK’s neck and Connally’s torso.

[John Tonkovich]

LOL

That's why Max Holland's theory makes the most sense, guys: The sniper in the sixth floor window took a shot at JFK when the limo had just come out of the Elm Street turn and was about even with the clustered black-and-white highway signs on the "island," as reported by Amos Euins and as intimated by Patricia Ann Donaldson-Lawrence in the National Geographic special "The Lost Bullet".

The bullet lost its copper jacket when it struck, at a shallow angle, the mast arm of the traffic light over the limo (from the sniper's POV) and ended up striking a curb about 20 feet from James Tague, who was standing down by The Triple Underpass, leaving a lead and antimony (but copper-less) smear on the curb.

D'oh

--  MWT 

Odd, that the West survey shows three points where JFK was hit.
Odd, that this survey remained sealed during WC hearings.
Odd, that the FBI misrepresented the West Survey in testimony to WC.

[Joe Elliott]

Dear Joe,

A bullet fragment, or a bone fragment?

Regardless, how did it loop over the windshield (or penetrate it!) and manage to hit the curb with sufficient force to chip the concrete?

--  MWT 

Much of this has been gone over before.

A bullet fragment, 60% of the mass of the bullet, cleared the windshield, the frame and visor and nicked Mr. Tague. The head would have to deflect upward the fragment upward, relative to the limousine about 6 degrees, requiring about a 19-degree deflection.

The concrete curb was not chipped. It only had a lead smear. A lead smear that was directly on the corner of the curb (what a coincidence), had curved scratches on the face of the curb, one of which pointed directly at the lead smear. These curve scratches would not be caused by a bullet or a bullet fragment but point to another cause of the lead smear, a car’s lead tire balancing weight.

So, an irregularly sharped metal fragment, spinning wildly, cleared the limousine with a 3-degrees upward protectory, relative to the horizon, and in the next 240 feet curved gently downward to nick Mr. Tague’s check, without ever hitting the curb.

All the estimates of the angles are my own rough estimates based on maps of Dealey Plaza and diagrams of the limousine and its occupants.