The Wounding of James Tague Refutes the Lone-Gunman Theory

[Joe Elliott]

The people who saw the curb mark first, including Deputy Sheriff Walthers, said it clearly, "obviously" looked like a bullet strike.

It does not look “obviously” like a bullet strike to me.

There are two ways that lead smear on the curb could have gotten there:

1.   From a bullet or a bullet fragment.

2.   From an automobile. A vehicle drifted out of its lane and bumped into the curb. And let’s say the vehicle had a tire and a rim and a lead balancing weight attached to the rim. If this happened there is a fair chance the lead weight would be smeared on the vertical face somewhere, but an even greater chance it would be smeared preciously on the edge of the curb, because the rim of the tire scraping along the curb would guide the lead weight preciously there.

There are thousands of cars that pass by this curb every day. The vast majority did not contact the curb. But neither would most of the bullets fired that day. Indeed, most likely, none. But drivers can be tired and even intoxicated, so one would expect there to be lead smears in Dealey Plaza formed by cars.

If made by a bullet, the mark could have been made anywhere on the curb. As luck would have it, the lead smear was right on the edge, as seen in the following photo:



Let’s be generous and say the lead smear was off the edge by a quarter of an inch. I think it was really a good deal less than a quarter of an inch. With the width and height of the curb estimated at 6 inches, the odds of a bullet hitting within a quarter of an inch from the edge varies from 4 to 6 percent, depending on the angle the bullet was travelling relative to the horizon, from 0 to 90 degrees. A fairly remarkable coincidence. And coincidences make a skeptic suspicious. Most likely the lead smear would be on the vertical face or the horizontal face. Not so likely it would be right on the edge.

In contrast, a car which leaves a lead smear has a much greater chance of leaving a lead smear right on the edge. By chance the lead weight might be near its lowest point and leave a lead smear on the vertical face of the curb. But more likely it wouldn’t, and the rim of the tire would guide the lead weight right to the edge.


However, probability arguments are not all we have. Below is a picture of this same curb kept at the National Archives:



I have been told that in this picture, the curb is held “upside-down”, so to speak. The vertical face was really the horizontal face and the horizontal face is really the vertical. This makes sense because we can see curved scratches on the ‘top’ of the curb that were really on the side of the curb. One would only expect curved scratches to be on the side of the curb, because the rim of the tire would leave scratches along the side of the curb, not the top.

What made these curb scratches? What else, except a vehicle? A bullet would not leave curved scratches but a vehicle would.

Also note, one of these curved scratches points directly to the lead smear. Likely made by the same rim of the tire that left the lead smear itself.

A rim can have multiple high sections, separated from each other by a fraction of an inch, hence, the parallel curved arcs.


Questions:

1.   Would a bullet leave curved scratches on a curb, just like a rim of a tire would?

2.   If we insist on the bullet strike hypothesis. It would be just a big coincidence that the lead smear happened smack on the edge of the curb. It would be a further coincidence that there would be curved scratches on the curb, which must be unrelated to the bullet strike. And yet a further coincidence that one of these curved scratches should just happen to point directly at the lead smear in question.


The arguments that lead smear was from a bullet strike are not compelling. The people who looked for it reported as a bullet strike, not a tire rim strike. But they were looking for bullet strikes, and likely to report any lead smear that was found as a bullet strike. If they were looking for tire rim strikes, they likely would report any lead smear on the curb as a tire rim strike.

The fanciful trajectory that has a bullet fragment exiting the skull at a high enough angle to clear the windshield and the roll bar makes it impossible for that fragment to then magically nosedive and somehow still have enough energy to chip the curb or to cut Tague's face.

Not at all. As I recall, the dented frame, and the damaged windshield, deviate from a horizontal straight line from the sniper’s nest through JFK’s head would be deflected by 5 and 9 degrees to the left. A fragment heading toward Mr. Tague would only need to be deflected by 7 degrees to the right.

But I suppose, Mt. Griffith would just regard this near horizontal alignment of a path from the sniper’s nest, through the head of JFK, and onto Mr. Tague, as just another coincidence.

Also, as I recall from reading “The JFK Myths”, over the course of the next 94 yards onto Mr. Tague, a fragment that just cleared the windshield frame and visor would only have to curve downward 16 feet to strike the curb, and considerably less to strike Mr. Tague’s cheek. If the fragment was averaging a speed of 564 feet per second, it would curve downward 4 feet from gravity alone.

While we think of bullets travelling in a pretty straight line, which they certainly do, we forget that they are carefully engineered to do so, with a symmetrical shape designed to cut straight through the air. It rotates about its axis of travel, like a football, to keep it straight. In contrast, a bullet fragment is a highly irregularly shaped, jagged piece of metal, rapidly rotating around a random axis not likely aligned with the path of travel. Such a fragment would curve a significant amount.

Think of a major league pitcher. He can put spin on the ball to make it curve. And it can curve several inches over the course of just 20 yards. And this with a pretty symmetrical sphere. And he can get it to curve even more, with Vaseline, or sandpaper or even just spit, to distort the baseball slightly from being close to a perfect sphere. Now imagine the great ‘curveballs’ he could get throwing a jagged piece of metal, that weight the same as a baseball, and similar size, all without cutting himself. Those would be really awesome curveballs.

A bullet fragment from JFK’s head, just clearing the limousine, could easily reach Mr. Tague’s cheek.


Any article on the wounding of Mt. Tague, that does not state that it is highly likely that the so called “curb strike” was unrelated to the assassination, gets discounted by me.

[John Tonkovich]

Mr. Elliott: Thank you. Well stated. 

[Brian Roselle]

I agree that a mark on the edge is coincidental, but in this case I don’t discount anything

Here is link that shows photos including one with the proper orientation of the curb.
https://emuseum.jfk.org/search/curb

What I noticed in the pictures that show the mark before any “word done” like patching or cutting etc, do not appear to show the associated scratches. Later pictures do show scratches.

One other point suggesting a bullet is that I recall hearing the curb mark analysis mentioned lead with only a trace of antimony (but I have never seen a copy of an official analysis report).  I was thinking lead wheel balancers used hardened lead with at least a few percent of antimony as a hardening agent.

[Gary Craig]

If Tague was hit at all, it was by a fragment from the head shot. One fragment struck the windshield. One struck the chrome piece above the windshield. Another exited the limo over the top of the windshield and went on to strike Tague.

Mr. LIEBELER. Did you hear any more shots after you felt yourself get hit in the face?
Mr. TAGUE. I believe I did.
Mr. LIEBELER. You think you did?
Mr. TAGUE. I believe I did.
Mr. LIEBELER. How many?
Mr. TAGUE. I believe that it was the second shot, so I heard the third shot afterwards.

--------------------

ASSASSINATION Or PRESIDENT KENNEDY
Officer Buddy Walther_ Deputy Sheriff Dallas County Sheriff's Office

Date Nov 22, 1963

-snip-

"...I immediately went to the triple underpass
on Elm Street in an effort to locate possible marks left by stray bullets.
While I was looking for possible marks, some unknown person stated to
me that something had hit his face while he was parked on Main Street,
the next lane south from Elm, as the traffic had been stopped for the
parade. Upon examining the curb and pavement in this vicinity I found
where a bullet had splattered on the top edge of the curb on Main Street
which would place the direction of firing, high and behind the position
the Presidents car was in when he was shot..."

-snip-

[John Iacoletti]

With the width and height of the curb estimated at 6 inches, the odds of a bullet hitting within a quarter of an inch from the edge varies from 4 to 6 percent, depending on the angle the bullet was travelling relative to the horizon, from 0 to 90 degrees. A fairly remarkable coincidence. And coincidences make a skeptic suspicious.

This remains Joe Elliott’s favorite logical fallacy.

You could pick any spot that a bullet or fragment happened to strike and say that this particular spot has a much smaller chance of being hit than all the other spots. That doesn’t make it a “coincidence”.

[Joe Elliott]

A few remarks on Mr. Griffith’s article.

It implies the cut on Mr. Tague’s face was caused by a concrete chip dislodged and sent flying. The curb does not have a gouge in it, only a lead smear. Even if the curb did have a gouge in it, caused by a bullet, we would have no way of knowing if Mr. Tague’s cheek was cut by a concrete chip or the bullet fragment.

Neither Mr. Tague nor Deputy Sheriff Buddy Walters, nor any other observer, were experts on what a bullet strike on concrete looks like and what a tire rim strike looks like. All were looking for bullet strikes. None were looking for tire rim strikes. And so likely to report a any lead smear as a bullet strike.

None were experts on how much time could pass and still have a lead smear look fresh.

You say “In a 1966 filmed interview, Tague unequivocally said the curb mark was the result of a bullet striking the curb. Well, that’s enough for me. It must have been a bullet strike. What greater expert in the world on bullet strikes and tire rim strikes onto concrete is there than Mr. Tague? Right.

Yes. All these people said the mark on the curb was caused by a bullet strike. But they also say a chip was missing from the curb and there is no chip missing from the curb, unless it is a chip too small to be seen in photographs.



Using Don Roberdeau’s map, the curb was 260 feet from the limousine at z313, but Mr. Tague himself was 280 feet away and a good deal higher.

How could a fragment go on to strike Mr. Tague? While only 40 % of the mass of the bullet was recovered in the two fragments found in the car, so the third fragment could have weighed up to 60% of the bullet mass. Even with only half or a third of the speed left, it could easily reach Mr. Tague.

In addition, if the missile had been fired from the sixth-floor window, the bullet would have
approached from the right rear and would have struck the head at a downward angle of around
20 degrees. How would a fragment from such a bullet have traveled upward so as to clear both
the roll bar and the windshield?

Not 20 degrees. 16 degrees relative to the horizon. 13 degrees relative to the limousine.

How could the fragment be deflected at least 13 degrees upwards? Well, the fragment that struck the window was deflected upwards about 10 degrees. The fragment that struck the windshield frame was deflected upwards about 14 degrees. Just a little higher deflection would clear the windshield frame and visor, while still passing under the roll bar. And the windshield frame is lower in the direction of Mr. Tague than it is where the other fragment struck the windshield frame. And in the direction of Mr. Tague, the visor does not stick so high above the windshield frame either.

there is still the fact that the curb was visibly marked and that some concrete had been blasted out of the curb mark by the object that caused it

There is no missing chip of concrete on the curb. Only a lead smear. That is a false fact. No missing chip in the curb in the photograph taken the next day. No missing chip in the curb stored at the National Archives. The people who report this was a bullet strike also report that the curb had a gouge in it from the chip that was sent flying. Both “facts” are wrong.

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.

This is correct. The fragment strikes on the windshield and windshield fragment are too high to be caused by fragments from the headshot. Or fragments which caused by any of the wounds to the President and Governor (how else would fragments be formed?). Assuming the fragments were not deflected by the body of the person they wounded. Unless, of course, the bullets came from the following Secret Service car and were fired through the windshield of that car. But this is all based on the assumption that bullets and bullet fragments do not deviate from a straight line.

Tom Canning was not a ballistic expert but a NASA engineer. He had not observed the paths of bullets and bullet fragments fired through ballistic gel. Real world ballistic experts report that bullet and bullet fragment do follow curved paths through ballistic gel. Asking a NASA engineer if bullet fragments can deviate from a straight-line path is like asking a professor of Psychology if a neuromuscular spasm can happen in a human.

Do not rely on a ballistic expert to blast you into space. Or a NASA engineer to tell you the path of bullet through bodies. Follow these simple rules and you may live to a ripe old age.

[Gary Craig]

I agree that a mark on the edge is coincidental, but in this case I don’t discount anything

Here is link that shows photos including one with the proper orientation of the curb.
https://emuseum.jfk.org/search/curb

What I noticed in the pictures that show the mark before any “word done” like patching or cutting etc, do not appear to show the associated scratches. Later pictures do show scratches.

One other point suggesting a bullet is that I recall hearing the curb mark analysis mentioned lead with only a trace of antimony (but I have never seen a copy of an official analysis report).  I was thinking lead wheel balancers used hardened lead with at least a few percent of antimony as a hardening agent.

The FBI, according to Harold Weisberg, tossed out the official chemical analysis of the mark on the curb when they moved into their current building in DC. They said it took up too much space. 1/16th of an inch thick???

[John Iacoletti]

Neither Mr. Tague nor Deputy Sheriff Buddy Walters, nor any other observer, were experts on what a bullet strike on concrete looks like and what a tire rim strike looks like.

Neither are you, but that doesn’t prevent you from just decreeing that scratches look exactly like they were caused by an unknown tire rim.

How could a fragment go on to strike Mr. Tague? While only 40 % of the mass of the bullet was recovered in the two fragments found in the car, so the third fragment could have weighed up to 60% of the bullet mass. Even with only half or a third of the speed left, it could easily reach Mr. Tague.

Uh, you’re kinda forgetting about the fragments left in Kennedy’s head.