Oswald's Motive

[Martin Weidmann]

That Robert Oswald can disagree with significant aspects of the WC’s work and still conclude that his own brother is guilty speaks volumes about the strengths of their work. Enough said…

Exactly what a die hard fanatical LN would say.... Enough said

[Jon Banks]

That Robert Oswald can disagree with significant aspects of the WC’s work and still conclude that his own brother is guilty speaks volumes about the strengths of their work. Enough said…

LHO’s potential guilt doesn’t preclude the possibility that there was a conspiracy.

I don’t know whether he was framed or not but I can see a plausible conspiracy with Oswald as a witting participant. Which would mean he was ‘guilty’ even if others were involved and got away with it.

Hence why I don’t think Robert’s opinions about his brother matter in the broader debate over the question of conspiracy…

[Bill Chapman]

Howard Willens, “History Will Prove Us Right”, page 462:

After reviewing the medical and other testimony pertaining to the single-bullet theory, the Select Committee confirmed that both men were hit by a single bullet. As Liebeler said in 1996: “In spite of all the criticism the single-bullet theory is stronger today than it was at birth. On the basis of analytical techniques not available in 1964 and using approaches quite different from those used by the Warren Commission, the House Committee has unequivocally reaffirmed the single-bullet theory.”79

I kind of like the term “born” …

How about (FMJ ammo) 'is designed to pass through-and-through human flesh while remaining as intact as possible'

[Jon Banks]

How about (FMJ ammo) 'designed to pass through-and-through human flesh while remaining as intact as possible'

In theory maybe.

In reality, bullets, even FMJ, typically get deformed after hitting human or animal bones as the Edgewood Arsenal tests for the Warren Commission found…

[Bill Chapman]

In theory maybe.

In reality, bullets, even FMJ, typically get deformed after hitting human or animal bones as the Edgewood Arsenal tests for the Warren Commission found…

In reality Kennedy was not sitting in a barrel of cotton, nor fitted with animal bones. Nor was he born needing a precise load of gunpowder.

Nor was FMJ ammo designed to pass through-and-through a barrel of cotton, nor crunch a bag of goat bones

[Charles Collins]

The WC bullets tests were meant to show what happens to a Carcano bullet at full-speed and striking hard tissue (bone) nose-on. The result was mushroomed and deformed bullets, quite unlike the CE399 "pristine" bullet.

This was supposed to demonstrate that CE399 didn't strike bone at full-speed nose-on but rather was a bullet consistent with having been slowed passing through soft-tissue (Kennedy's neck), no longer nose-on when glancing along Connally's thin fifth rib (further slowing and more off-axis) to arrive at the radius no longer at full-speed nor nose-on. Thus no mushrooming or major deformity of the bullet.

The Warren Commission probably figured the public was sensible enough to understand and appreciate such tests. Instead, the critics saw an opportunity and claimed the test bullets showed what CE399 should have looked like.

There was a 2004 program called "Beyond the Magic Bullet" that did a more direct replication of CE399, using torso-sized casts and firing a Carcano rifle from a distance and height comparable to the SN in Dealey Plaza. The crane holding the "sniper's nest" was swaying in the wind. Thus the shot arrived a little low into "Kennedy" than they hoped. The "Kennedy" torso had no simulated bones so passing low and exiting the chest on the model was just more soft tissue compared to the real Kennedy's neck. The "Connally" torso did have "bones" that the test bullet struck. They found the bullet on the ground and it was in one piece with a squeezed appearance, similar to CE399.

The SBT shot in 1963 was one-in-a-million. If the gunman had waited a second or aimed a micro-degree different, it would have been a different set of wounds being discussed. Replicating it means the odds are heavily stacked against it. The 2004 test came close.

 



The WC bullets tests were meant to show what happens to a Carcano bullet at full-speed and striking hard tissue (bone) nose-on. The result was mushroomed and deformed bullets, quite unlike the CE399 "pristine" bullet.



As I believe it is Belin who explains, that they also show that Connally’s wrist would have been significantly more damaged if it had been hit with a Carcano bullet at full speed. He probably would have required amputation. Therefore, the WC tests do show that the bullet that hit Connaly’s wrist had been slowed. The 2004 Beyond the Magic Bullet tests demonstrate that the bullet does begin tumbling as it exits the JFK model.

[Steve M. Galbraith]

That Robert Oswald can disagree with significant aspects of the WC’s work and still conclude that his own brother is guilty speaks volumes about the strengths of their work. Enough said…

Touche.

That's because - as you noted that others erroneously do - he didn't look at the totality of evidence and strip out or separate one piece from the rest and conclude from there that the entirety of the evidence can also be dismissed. If one wants to be a Mark Lane, a defender of Oswald, then that is what you do. It's a legal tactic, a strategy to persuade one gullible juror that his client was innocent. It's not about the truth. Lane wasn't interested in finding out what happened (he blamed the CIA of course); he was only interested in trying to clear Oswald.

But again, as you said, enough said.....

[Jon Banks]

In reality Kennedy was not sitting in a barrel of cotton, nor fitted with animal bones. Nor was he born needing a precise load of gunpowder.

Nor was FMJ ammo designed to pass through-and-through a barrel of cotton, nor crunch a bag of goat bones

That's not the only reason to doubt that CE399 struck both JFK and Connally of course but I don't find the explanations for the lack of damage to 399 to be convincing. It doesn't add up.