The SBT tends to be countered by erroneous assertions that Kennedy?s back and throat wounds were cuased by seperate missiles. Author, Josiah Thompson popularised the hypothesis that JFK?s upper back wound was caused by a bullet travelling at less than normal muzzle velocity. (Thompson, 1976, p. 67) However, this claim rejects more principles of wound ballistics than the Commission?s SBT as even if the impact velocity missile was half that of its muzzle velocity, it still would have neatly traversed the President?s body?the greater the velocity, the greater the chance of bullet fragmentation and deformity. (Thomas, 2013, p. 299)
The upper back wound was beyond question, an entrance wound. Located at approximately the level of the first thoracic vertebra (T-1), the 7x4 mm puncture wound was accompanied by an abrasion collar?burned and contused skin/hair around an entrance wound indicative of its angle of approach to the inshoot. (Orr, 1995, p. 9) Ergo, Kennedy?s torso wounds were caused by a perforating bullet fired from one of the buildings behind him.
The damage this bullet cuased in its passage through Kennedy?s body is especially relevant when criticising the ecological validity of the ?single-bullet? theory.
It has been customarily asserted that the traversing shot did not strike bone in its passage, however this is not completely true. Insomuch as it is the case that the bullet did not directly strike bone, it did graze the spinal column.
X-ray films of the President?s neck (see below) show damage to the right transverse process of T-1. Ballistics expert Howard Donahue declared that films show ?massive destruction? to the right transverse process of T-1, concluding further that,
?This wound would have severely damaged the spinal cord and very likely proved fatal.?
(Menninger, 1992, p. 14 of photo section)
The HSCA Forensic Pathology Panel also asserted that the x-rays exhibited an,
?? interruption in the continuity of the right transverse process of the 1st thoracic vertebra??
(7 HSCA 98)
Dr. G. M. McDonnel, one of the panel?s consultant radiologists wrote in his report,
?There is an undisplaced fracture of the proximal portion of the right trancerse process of T1 (or the region of the constovertebral junction).?
(7 HSCA 219)
Another such consultant radiologist, Dr. Norman Chase, observed,
?The first rib appeared to be separated from the sternum??
(7 HSCA 283)
From the expert testimony and films they themselves analysed, the panel concluded that a bullet had grazed JFK?s spine. (7 HSCA 175)
The evidence for a bullet graze against the spinal column may also help substantiate claims about visual bullet or bone fragments on the films. However, such claims of radiopaque oddities have since been dismissed as artifactual, a conclusion reached by the supposed fragments failure to appear in all films or appearance in areas not in the body. (7 HSCA 225)
Author, Donald Byron Thomas wrote what is the most likely explanation,
?What might be supposed is that crushed muscle tissues, compressed by cavitation during passage of the bullet, caused fracture and displacement of the vertebral processes allowing the bullet to pass through them.?
(Thomas, 2013, p. 238)
What is being suggested, therefore, is that the fracture and displacement of T-1 and C-7 (seventh cervical vertebra) cuased by the temporary cavity generated by the missile permitted the bullet to pass through the processes whilst only slightly grazing them.
As inferred earlier but concluded here, this minutely deflected bullet exited Kennedy?s throat. The following is a list of the Parkland ER staff?s opinions as to the nature of the throat wound:
Dr. Carrico - entry (6H5-6)
Dr. Perry - unknown (6H14)
Dr. Clark - unknown (6H22)
Dr. McClelland - probable entry (6H33, 35)
Dr. Baxter - probable entry (6H42)
Dr. Jenkins - exit (6H48, 51)
Dr. Jones - entry (6H55-56)
Dr. Akin - probable entry (6H65-67)
Dr. Peters - entry (6H71)
Nurse Henchcliffe - entry (6H143)
Despite the fact only four out of ten of the doctors asserted that the bullet wound in Kennedy?s throat was unequivocally an entrance wound, many authors persist in telling their readers that all medically trained personnel at Parkland Memorial Hospital was of the opinion that Kennedy had been shot through the neck from the front.
However, even if this had been the case, such opinions would still be of scant value considering the fact that the Parkland doctors had likely never even seen a gunshot wound caused by a Mannlicher-Carcano. Consider the text Gunshot Injuries, which describes exit wounds caused by fully-metal jacketed (FMJ) bullets fired from early twentieth-century rifles,
?Provided no bone lesion is present, the exit aperture is often difficult to discriminate from the entrance wound. The two wounds [may be] equal in size, the entrance wound may show inverted edges, while in the exit wound the edges are generally everted. When the bullet has passed through soft parts alone, the exit wound is apt to be circular in shape.?
(La Garde, 1916, p. 54)
Yet another reason for why the exit perforation could have been smaller than the entrance wound is that the President?s necktie provided appreciable buttressing of the skin, which would have resulted in a ?shored exit wound.? (Thomas, 2013, p. 235) Empircal corroboration for this hypothesis comes from urologist John K. Lattimer, who fired M-C bullets at meat and pig skin, which wore a shirt and tie. (Lattimer, 1980, p. 206)
Furthermore, an examination of the President?s shirt and jacket by FBI firearms expert Robert A. Frazier demonstrated that the fibres surrounding the back wound were pressed inward, (5H60) supporting the hypothesis that the bullet entered the back.
Lattimer, the Warren Commission and the HSCA all iterated the same erroneous factoid that the slits in the of front the President?s necktie were cuased by the passage of the bullet, when there exists ample evidence from Dr. Carrico that such slits were cuased when the necktie was cut by ER personnel to gain access to the throat wound. (Weisberg, 1975, pp. 375-376) Moreover, Robert Frazier?s analysis of both the slits in the front of the shirt and the necktie disclosed no metallic residue of any sort. (5H59-60)
The location of the anterior neck wound was never measured however Drs. Perry and Carrico both stated that it was in the lower third of the throat below the larynx. (Thomas, 2013, p. 440) The wound was extended into a tracheostomy, an incision which the autopsy report describes as being between the third and fourth tracheal cartilages. (WCR, p. 540) This is the best evidence we have of the area of in which bullet impacted, so an exit in this region is the most logical. Using the entrance location of T-1 and the exit at between the third and fourth tracheal rings, there exists an ever so slightly upward, but almost straight trajectory. However, this is hardly problematic considering the fact that (a) bullets rarely actually complete straight line trajectories and (b) the slight grazing of the spinal column referenced earlier would be sufficient enough to direct the bullet to the supposed outshoot between tracheal cartilages three and four.
IN CONCLUSION: THE ONLY POSSIBLE SCENARIO INVOLVES A REARWARD SHOT THROUGH THE BACK AND OUT THE THROAT. END OF.References (no order)
Thompson, J. (1976) Six Seconds in Dallas
Thomas, D. B. (2013) Hear No Evil
Weisberg, H. (1975) Post Mortem
La Garde, L. A. (1916) Gunshot Injuries
Latimer, J. (1980) Kennedy and Lincoln
Orr, J. T. (1995) Analysis of Gunshots in Dealey Plaza on November 22, 1963
