Ok here are my 3 picks for Hickey's AR15 burst of 3 shots. (1) Firstly the JFK headshot is a no-brainer. That shot is shown by the star near Connally's ear, because that is approx where JFK's head was.
Where did the main fragment of the 223 slug end up?
Did it end up outside the limo (unlikely)?
Did it end up in the limo & was found & secretted away (probable)?
Did it crack the windshield (see the star on the left of the mirror)? Could it have enough veer inside JFK's head to give the needed upwards & leftwards exit angle to hit that star.
Did it cause the dent in the chrome strip (see the star above the mirror)? This would need more upwards angle than the crack, but less leftwards angle.
(2) Nextly the shot hitting the chrome trim above the mirror is a no-brainer (see star), koz we all know it happened. Hickey's 55grain lightly-jacketed hollow point 223 fits the bill because it couldn’t punch a hole in a stainless steel trim fixed over a say 3" by 1-1/2" steel tube. A 160grain fully jacketed semi-pointed Carcano might be capable of making a hole.
Hickey's (2) had to squeeze past over the central roll bar, difficult but possible.
Where did the main fragment of the 223 slug end up? Did it bounce back out of the limo (probable), or did it end up in the limo (& later found & secretted away)(possible). Did any of the fragments found in the limo belong to this bullet (probable)(possibly later secretted away)?
The distance tween the stars in (1) & (2) shows how far the AR15 had to swing tween shots (1) & (2). However that view in the pix shows what we see, it doesnt show what the AR15 saw, the AR15 was lower, & the angular distance seen by the AR15 was say a 1/3rd of what we see here.
A star shows where a slug or fragment hit the glass say 3" left of the 9" mirror. A direct hit from a 55grain lightly-jacketed hollow point 223 slug would have done more than just create a spider of radial cracks in the laminated glass, even tho the attack angle was near 45 deg. I think that the culprit was a fragment. It is unlikely to have been a direct hit because the star is far left of the other two stars. And a ricocheting direct hit would have made a mess in the limo. It could have been a fragment of the slug that dented the chrome trim, but i don’t think that it was, there is nothing nearby to provide the needed ricochet. The mirror support rod is in the wrong location to provide the ricochet. The mirror had impact damage on the back, but there is no obvious way that the chrome trim slug could have done that damage. The damage on the mirror might have been done by whatever hit the glass after it hit the glass (unlikely).
Looking at Youtube footage of AR15 & other kinds of soft point & hollow point shots throo laminated windshields & throo ballistic gel & throo a combination of windshield/gel i now reckon that the 223 slug remnant from the JFK headshot did indeed keep going & cracked the windshield. A fully jacketed 223 can veer 30 deg in gel, but a hollow point veers perhaps 5 deg in the end but only say 1 deg at the 6" mark. But if a hollow point goes throo a windshield (or say skull) & then into gel it can veer a lot more at the say 6" mark.
Hence i reckon that Hickey's shot-1 hit JFK's head & then the remnant slug cracked the windshield. Mystery solved.(3) One AR15 slug hit the tarmac of Elm St (yellow star) or Main St (white star) or the curb of Main St, or the tarmac of Main St & the ricochet hitting the curb. Any of these could explain the sting on Tague's face, standing near the underpass on the south side of Main St.
In the pix below the above two yellow & white stars in (3) are shown to the right of stars (1) & (2), however in the pix the limo is drawn partly in the left lane, if it were drawn in the center lane then the 3 stars would line up nicely. The 3 shots need to form a line or at least a smooth arc, any drastic zig or zag would be a problem for a burst scenario. I have numbered the shots (1)(2)(3), but that is not necessarily the order of the burst, the burst could have been (3)(2)(1). But (1)(2)(3) is more likely i reckon.
Mystery. What happened to the 3 empty 223 casings?
