https://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/Lattimer.txtOne of the central assertions of the conspirati is that it would be
impossible for a single bullet to make as many wounds, hit as much
bone, and emerge as unscathed as CE399, the "magic bullet," is alleged
to have done. Harold Weisberg stated this view for the umpteenth time in
a letter to the Washington Post, January 11, 1992:
It [is] a physical impossibility for this magic bullet [CE399]
to have the imagined career indispensable to the lone-assassin
"solution"...there is nothing like this career in science or
mythology.
In "Conspiracy" (pp. 69-70), Anthony Summers repeats the assertion using
dissident pathologist Cyril Wecht for support:
Above all, [Cyril Wecht] refuses to believe that a bullet could
emerge almost intact after causing as much bone damage as was done
to the Governor. To demonstrate this, Wecht points to the condition
of Mannlicher-Carcano ammunition after firing into cotton wadding,
a goat carcass--which sustained a broken rib--and through the wrist
of a corpse. All the test bullets are visibly more damaged than the
bullet alleged to have caused the wounds to the President and the
Governor. Wecht deplores the fact that the Assassinations
Committee did not try to reproduce the "magic bullet" by performing
similar tests and has challenged his colleagues to produce even
*one* bullet that had emerged similarly undamaged.
Wecht's challenge has now been met by Dr. Lattimer. It has been proven
that a single bullet could make all the wounds and break all the bone
and emerge as relatively unscathed as CE399. Therefore, the long-held
assertion of the conspirati must now be completely discarded as evidence
of conspiracy. Lattimer's experiment is described in the following article:
[Excerpted from "Experimental Duplication of the Important Physical
Evidence of the Lapel Bulge of the Jacket Worn by Governor Connally
When Bullet 399 Went Through Him" by John K. Lattimer, M.D., et al,
in the Journal of the American College of Surgeons, May 1994. The
article describes an experiment which supplies the most complete
verification of the Single Bullet Theory yet performed.]
The most important new piece of physical evidence in the
analysis of the shooting of President Kennedy and Governor
Connally has been the reaffirmation of the precise moment when
bullet 399 [the so-called Magic Bullet] passed through the
body of Governor Connally. This is graphically demonstrated
in frame 224 of the Zapruder movie by the sudden forward
bulge of the right lapel of the suit jacket of Governor
Connally. This was clearly demonstrated by enhancement of
the motion picture in the laboratories of Failure Analysis
Inc., by Jeffrey Lotz in 1992.
...
Even running the Zapruder movie at an ordinary "slow motion,"
rate, one does not appreciate the sudden forward "bulge" of
the lapel. It is necessary to run the movie very slowly,
"freezing" each frame for a moment, before the flap of the
lapel and the bulging of the jacket become obvious. Photo
enhancement makes it easier to see, once you know when and
where it occurs. Having established this fact, it then becomes
apparent that the right arms of both men react immediately and
simultaneously to the stimulus of the bullet having passed
through them. The arms of Kennedy start an upward jerk into
Thorburn's reflex position and the right hand of Connally,
containing his big white Stetson hat, begins to snap up into
view as his biceps contract and he jerks his painful forearm
up into the view of Zapruder's camera.
...
REENACTMENT OF THE WOUNDING OF GOVERNOR CONNALLY (FRAME 224). As
with any study of small photographs (movie frames), it is desirable
to try to verify the findings by duplicating the situation as
closely as possible, using the exact same type of rifle,
cartridges, clothing, necks, ribs and radiuses, as at Dallas. In an
attempt to verify and study this phenomenon further, a duplication
of President Kennedy's size 16 neck and of Governor Connally's
chest and jacket were tested to see exactly what would happen. A
size 16 neck simulation was created, using fresh pork muscle, with
the bone removed and the skin still in place. A rack was prepared
to hold a rib cage at a distance of 24 inches from the Kennedy
neck. A white dress shirt and tropical worsted jacket were placed
over the rib cage on a special rack. A necktie was tied in place to
simulate the clothing Governor Connally wore at the time of the
shooting in Dallas. An array of radiuses (arm bones), encased in
simulated forearms, was arranged in front of the right lapel of
Governor Connally and a bullet trap was mounted beyond this array.
Bullets of the Western Cartridge Company 6.5 millimeter ammunition
of the same lots used by Lee Harvey Oswald were fired from a
Carcano carbine exactly like the one used by Oswald. We knew from
our previous experiments [as described in Lattimer's book "Kennedy
and Lincoln"] that our test bullets would almost certainly "tumble"
and would strike our "Governor Connally back" at about the point
where he was actually struck. Our test bullet also struck a rib
(just as in Governor Connally), removing 4.5 centimeters of the rib
and exited in the area that would have been under his right nipple.
The flying fragments of rib, marrow and soft tissue, accompanying
the exiting, tumbling bullet, caused a large ragged hole in the
shirt and the jacket lining and plastered them with fragments of
rib and soft tissue, just as in the Governor's instance. The bullet
exited under the right lapel, still tumbling, making a 3 centimeter
transverse bullet wound in the cloth. It then struck one of the
forearms arrayed in front of the jacket. The bullet was captured in
a bullet trap beyond this point. A videotape of the motion of the
jacket was obtained, along with frames from a rapid-firing 35
millimeter camera. These revealed that the jacket bulged out about
6 inches and then snapped back. The lapel flipped over against the
neck area. The forward motion of the bulging jacket was completed
in 3/30th of a second, whereupon the backward snap began on our
static model.
This was completed by 16/30th of a second from the
shot. After this, the jacket and lapel were again back in normal
position. While the rib and soft tissue fragments caused a large
ragged wound in the shirt, just as described in Governor Connally's
shirt, the exit hole of the bullet in the front of the jacket was
elongated to a length of 3 centimeters (almost exactly the length
of the tumbling bullet). The large shirt wound and the bulge of the
jacket were more related to the hail of fragments of rib and soft
tissue. The bullet then struck one of the radiuses mounted in front
of the jacket. The bullet from this experiment was flattened on one
side and bent from hitting the rib and radius while traveling
sideways, just as bullet 399 was flattened and bent for the same
reasons (399 is definitely not "pristine"). Lead extruded from the
rear of our bullet as with bullet 399. The radius was fractured and
tiny fragments of lead were left adherent to the periosteum,
exactly as in Governor Connally. One of the most dependable
features of this Kennedy and Connally mockup was the characteristic
manner in which these Carcano bullets turned sideways (tumbled)
after exiting the neck of Kennedy.
THE BULLET MUST TRAVERSE THE NECK OF JOHN F. KENNEDY FIRST OR NO
JACKET BULGE OCCURS. In an effort to determine what would happen if
the bullet did *not* go through the neck of Kennedy first, but hit
Connally primarily, we fired a bullet through our Connally jacket
and thorax preparation without running it through the model of
Kennedy's neck first, so it did not tumble. The jacket did *not*
bulge out and the lapel did *not* turn over. The shirt collar
flipped briefly. With the bullet going straight ahead, wounds to
the rib, shirt and jacket were punctate and the rib fragments
were not enough to bulge out the front of the jacket. This made
it seem even more likely that bullet 399 had gone through the
neck of President Kennedy first, turned sideways and caused the
very obvious jacket and lapel distortions, which we have
recorded herein and which occur in frame 224. If the bullet did
*not* go through the neck of Kennedy first, the jacket bulge and
lapel flap did *not* occur.
SUMMARY
By duplicating the wound to the neck of President Kennedy, which
caused bullet 399 to turn sideways, and having it *then* hit a
Connally-type rib cage with shirt and jacket, we reproduced the
right-sided bulge of the jacket worn by Connally, with lapel
eversion, which is so significant in frame 224. The extensive
damage to his shirtfront was from the hail of rib fragments and
soft tissue, exactly as described with his own shirt. Our tumbling
bullet then went on to fracture a radius and be recovered intact
except that it was somewhat flattened and bent and had lead
extruded from the rear, as did bullet 399. Fragments of this lead
were scraped off on the ragged bone-ends of some of our fractured
radiuses, just as with Governor Connally's radius. It is believed
that this duplication of the jacket and lapel bulge of Governor
Connally, which occurred dependably, when we reproduced the
circumstances at Dallas, confirmed this very important detail in
this technical demonstration of the findings in the shooting of
President Kennedy and Governor Connally.
The bulge and the lapel eversion of the jacket worn by Governor
Connally, starting in Zapruder frame 224, does indeed establish,
beyond any shadow of a doubt, the exact moment when bullet 399 went
through him. The right arms of both men were seen to react
simultaneously, immediately thereafter. It also permits us to
establish that there was plenty of time (three and one-half
seconds) between the first two shots (frames 160 to 224) and even
more time (five seconds) between the last two shots (frames 224 to
313), for Oswald to reload, reacquire the target (the head of
President Kennedy) plus two full seconds to lock onto it. If the
bullet does not traverse the neck of President Kennedy, it does not
cause Governor Connally's jacket and lapel to bulge. The lapel
bulge is a very important bit of actual physical evidence in
establishing the fact that one bullet hit both men and that Oswald
had plenty of time to hit the President, first in the neck and then
in the head. These experiments confirm the mechanism of the lapel
bulge and the behavior of the bullet.
