In this thread I have highlighted a mystery surrounding the origins of Q9, that the documentation appears to consist of two different narratives - one about a single fragment and one about multiple fragments. The more information I came across regarding this aspect of the case the more confusing it appeared to become.
I have recently come across this article by Robert Harris which has resolved this mystery to a very large extent:
https://www.kennedysandking.com/john-f-kennedy-articles/the-connally-bulletIt reveals that three separate events relating to bullet/bullet fragments took place in Parkland on the day of the assassination:
1) 12:30pm to 1:00pm
A bullet, or large fragment of a bullet, falls from Connally's stretcher as he is moved onto the operating table.
This is the relevant passage from Harris' article:
But there is an even better reason why we can be quite certain that CE399 was not the bullet that wounded Governor Connally. The real bullet was found on the second floor and recovered by a nurse, who then passed it on to officer Bobby Nolan, who then delivered it to the Dallas Police department. The confirmation of this begins with Governor Connally. This is from his autobiography entitled, "In History's shadow".
"..the most curious discovery of all took place when they rolled me off the stretcher, and onto the examining table. A metal object fell to the floor, with a click no louder than a wedding band. The nurse picked it up and slipped it into her pocket. It was the bullet from my body, the one that passed though my back, chest and wrist and worked itself loose from my thigh.
There was enormous significance to that scrap of metal, but I can't be certain how many years later I understood the importance of it. I have always believed that three bullets found their mark. What happened in the hospital demonstrated how easily a bullet could have been swept aside and lost..
What the governor obviously didn't realize however, is that the bullet was not "swept aside". Certainly, the nurse who recovered it would not have just discarded the most important piece of forensic evidence she had ever handled. As it turned out, the Dallas District attorney arrived at the hospital, eager to find out how his old friend, Governor Connally was doing. It seems that he arrived at about the same time that the surgery on the governor was completed, when he ran into that same nurse who found the bullet. This is from an interview of Dallas District attorney, Henry Wade, by the Dallas Morning News.
I also went out to see (Gov. John) Connally, but he was in the operating room. Some nurse had a bullet in her hand, and said this was on the gurney that Connally was on. I talked with Nellie Connally a while and then went on home.
Q: What did you do with the bullet? Is this the famous pristine bullet people have talked about?
A: I told her to give it to the police, which she said she would. I assume that's the pristine bullet.
The nurse promptly carried out the district attorney's instructions, passing the bullet to the nearest uniformed officer in sight, who happened to be Dallas Hwy Patrolman, Bobby Nolan, who was standing in the hallway talking to Connally aide, Bill Stinson. This is from my interview of Nolan in 2010.
I was talking to a man who was one of governor Connally's aides. His name was - I think it was either Stinton or Stimmons (Bill Stinson). And he was an aide to the Governor. And she came up and told him that she had the bullet that came off of the gurney. Now I don't know what gurney. I think they meant Governor Connally's gurney. And she said, "What do you want me to do with it?" He and I were just sitting there in the hallway talking to me and said, "Give it to him"
Q. Was it a bullet fragment or a complete bullet?
Nolan: I don't know. It was a - they told me that it was a bullet. And I don't know if it was a fragment of a bullet or a whole bullet because it was in a little, small brown envelope. And it was sealed and it was about, I'd say 2 by 3 inches. And it was in that envelope when I got it and I never did look at it or anything."
Q. Now when the nurse gave it to you, did she describe it as a bullet fragment or as a bullet.
Nolan: Uh no. She just said it was a bullet. That's all.
Nolan delivered the bullet to the Dallas Police department that evening, and the next morning, was interviewed by the FBI, who reported (emphasis is mine), Bobby M. Nolan, Texas highway patrolman, Tyler district, was interviewed relative to a bullet fragment removed from the left thigh of Governor Connally, which was turned over to him at Parkland Hospital in Dallas for delivery to the FBI.Nolan leaves the bullet fragment on Fritz's desk which is taken by Vince Drain to the FBI lab in Washington. Frazier assigns the Q-number for this single fragment, Q9, but records it as having come from Connally's arm and not his thigh.
2) 1:00pm - 1:30pm
Darrell Tomlinson discovers a bullet on a stretcher, he alerts O P Wright about it who then passes it on to SA Johnsen. Wright describes it as a "hunting slug" with a pointed tip. When testifying, Tomlinson is adamant he found the bullet on a stretcher that could not have been used by Connally. As Harris notes:
"The only logical conclusion which can be drawn from this evidence is that the bullet Tomlinson found on the stretcher in front of the rest room door had nothing to do with the assassination. Parkland was (and is) the largest hospital in Dallas and processes hundreds of gunshot victims every year. Doctor McClelland testified that Parkland,
"receives all of the indigent patients of this county, many of whom are involved frequently in shooting altercations, so that we do see a large number of that type patient almost daily".
But it appears that the FBI didn't think about that when they received the stretcher bullet at their labs on Friday night."This bullet had nothing to do with the assassination. The evidence and arguments outlining this can be found in the "A time to receive and give (CE399)" thread. The upshot is that the hunting slug with the pointed tip was substituted at the FBI lab for what we now know as CE399.
3) 16:00pm to 17:00pm
Dr Gregory operates on Connally's wrist. He removes four small fragments of metal from the wrist during the operation. These fragments are processed by the Supervising Nurse, Audrey Bell. The fragments are placed in a transparent plastic container which is then placed in an envelope and marked "Bullet Fragments". This envelope is handed to two plain-clothed federal agents, most probably the two FBI agents who stopped Nolan in the basement car-park of the DPD and tried to obtain the large bullet fragment he had been given by the nurse in Parkland while he talked to Bill Stinson.
At some point during the day Trooper Nolan has the bullet (or large fragment of a bullet} from Connally's thigh in his pocket.
SA Johnsen has the hunting slug with the pointed tip in his pocket.
An unknown FBI agent has the four fragments from Connally's wrist in his pocket.
The key point to understanding what happened in the FBI lab in Washington is that the bullet (fragment) that came from Connally's thigh and fell off his stretcher as he was being moved,
cannot have come from the Mannlicher Carcano.If it had it would have been trumpeted as most important piece of evidence connecting Oswald to the assassination. As it was, it disappeared and was replaced with the four small fragments taken from Connally's wrist by Gregory.
The hunting slug was replaced by CE399.
Documentation is created to give the impression of some kind of misunderstanding regarding the bullet from Connally's thigh.
Tomlinson reports that he was warned by the FBI to keep his mouth shut about the bullet he found.
Wright mysteriously forgets to mention the bullet he gave to SA Johnsen in a report for Jack Price, the hospital administrator.
