Single Bullet THEORY

The Connally Bullet

Government defenders countered with the argument that tests have proven that it was not impossible for a bullet to remain in good condition under such circumstances and that it was also possible that there would be no evidence of blood or tissue. As such, the debate has remained in stalemate for nearly half a century. But in more recent times, a far stronger case against the legitimacy of CE399 has emerged. As we shall see, it also happens to be a conclusive indictment of the integrity of J. Edgar Hoover's FBI.

Our study begins at Parkland hospital with the discovery of a bullet by orderly, Daryl Tomlinson. Tomlinson told the Warren Commission that he returned Governor Connally's stretcher from the second floor back to the ground floor, and then parked it behind another stretcher that was in front of the door to a rest room. During his testimony, he illustrated the positions of the two stretchers, producing the following diagram:

Tomlinson labelled the two stretchers, "A" and "B", in response to Specter's request:

Mr. SPECTER. Will you mark with a "B" the stretcher which was present at the time you pushed stretcher "A" off of the elevator?

Specter also asked him to label the rest room in the diagram as "C" and explain how he acquired the bullet,

Mr. SPECTER. Where is the men's room located on this diagram?
Mr. TOMLINSON. It would be right there (indicating) beside the "B" stretcher.
Mr. SPECTER. Would you draw in ink there the outline of that room in a general way?
Mr. TOMLINSON. Well, I really don't know.
Mr. SPECTER. And would you mark that with the letter "C"?
Mr. SPECTER. That's fine. What happened when that gentleman came to use the men's room?
Mr. TOMLINSON. Well, he pushed the stretcher out from the wall to get in, and then when he came out he just walked off and didn't push the stretcher back up against the wall, so I pushed it out of the way where we would have clear area in front of the elevator.
Mr. SPECTER. And where did you push it to?
Mr. TOMLINSON. I pushed it back up against the wall.
Mr. SPECTER. What, if anything, happened then?
Mr. TOMLINSON. I bumped the wall and a spent cartridge or bullet rolled out that apparently had been lodged under the edge of the mat.
Mr. SPECTER. And that was from which stretcher?
Mr. TOMLINSON. I believe that it was "B".

Clearly, Tomlinson was stating that the bullet was on a different stretcher than the one he brought down on the elevator. Nonetheless, Specter repeatedly badgered him to change his story, but could only manage to get his inconvenient witness to say that he wasn't sure. But Tomlinson further confirmed what happened, in this CBS documentary, narrated by Walter Cronkite. (move the timeline to 30:10)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvqCtaBkyyE

Tomlinson passed the bullet to his supervisor, Mr. O.P. Wright who also examined it and in an interview with Josiah Thompson, was adamant that it was shaped much differently than CE-399. This is from Josiah Thompson's classic book, Six Seconds in Dallas,

Before any photos were shown or he was asked for any description of #399 (Wright) said:
'That bullet had a pointed tip.' I said, 'Pointed tip?' He said, 'Yeah, I'll show you.
It was like this one here,' he said, reaching into his desk and pulling out the .30 caliber
bullet pictured in Six Seconds. After Thompson showed Wright the various bullet photos
and finally #399, Wright asked, "Is that the bullet I was supposed to have had?".

Wright's and Tomlinson's unanimous rejection of CE-399 was further confirmed by this top secret FBI airtel, which was never shown to the Warren Commission.

WFO (FBI Washington Field Office), neither DARRELL C. TOMLINSON,
who found bullet at Parkland Hospital, Dallas, nor O. P. WRIGHT, Personnel
Officer, Parkland Hospital, who obtained bullet from TOMLINSON and gave
to Special Service, at Dallas 11/22/63, can identify bullet.

Instead, the FBI told the commission that the two civilians had been interviewed by special agent Bardwell Odum, who was told by the men, that the stretcher bullet "appears to be the same one". But when Josiah Thompson and Dr. Gary Aguilar contacted the National Archives, they found no record of such an interview, in spite of the fact that the FBI was required to document interviews like that. And when they contacted Bardwell Odum in person, he denied ever conducting such an interview and stated that he had never even seen CE399.

According to FBI chief examiner Robert Frazier's notes, the FBI received large bullet fragments that were found in the front of the limousine at 11:50 PM on the night of the assassination. They were labelled Q2 and Q3. Of course, the lab was on duty and working all night.

Notes of FBI lead investigator, Robert Frazier which
demonstrate that they received bullet fragments from the limo
at 11:50 PM. (discovered by John Hunt)

These fragments were deemed by the FBI to be substantial enough to confirm that they were consistent with Oswald's rifle and forensics experts who testified before the Warren Commission confirmed that. Of course, considering the FBI's track record, it's hard to say whether they provided the actual fragments or not, but one thing seems quite certain - the fragments they received did not match the bullet that Tomlinson found.

Considering the time zones, it was between 90 minutes and 2 hours after the arrival of those fragments at the FBI labs, that Tomlinson was awakened by someone from the FBI, demanding that he "keep his mouth shut" about the bullet he found at Parkland hospital. This is from the recorded 1967 interview of Tomlinson by Ray Marcus. The interview is also documented in the HSCA records.

Tomlinson: On Friday morning about 12:30 to 1 o'clock - uh, excuse me, that's Saturday morning - after the assassination, the FBI woke me up on the phone and told me to to keep my mouth shut.

Marcus: About the circumstances of your finding the bullet?

Tomlinson: That is (one short word, unintelligible) what I found…

Marcus: I understand exactly what you mean, when they call you, it's pretty authoritative. But the thing is this, did they say - was there any particular thing about what they said or they just didn't want you to talk about it period?

Tomlinson: Just don't talk about it period.

As we will see, the FBI found a better solution to their problem making lemonade out of this nasty lemon. Instead of threatening a key witness, they seem to have simply decided to replace the inconvenient bullet with one that did indeed come from Oswald's rifle. And as is often the case, one lie requires a multitude of other lies to support it.

Wright gave the bullet to Secret Service agent, Richard Johnson, who in turn, passed it on to his supervisor, James Rowley. Not surprisingly, both of those men also refused to corroborate CE399, a fact which even the FBI had to admit, stating in Commission exhibit 2011, that the two agents "could not identify" it. It is interesting that the FBI never reported the reason why the two agents refused to corroborate this dubious piece of evidence. Like FBI agents, Secret Service agents were required to initial forensic evidence, and it is hard to imagine them being negligent in such an important case. By far, the best explanation for their denial is that not only did the stretcher bullet look much different than the original, but their initials were nowhere to be found on CE-399. And they were not the only ones whose initials were missing.

The next step in the chain of possession took place when Rowley passed the bullet to FBI agent, Elmer Todd. Todd was adamant that he initialed the stretcher bullet, as he was required to do. But when researcher, John Hunt examined extreme closeup photos of CE-399, he was able to identify initials that were written in later, but could find no trace of Todd's. This is from his article on the subject:

There is no question but that only three sets of initials appear on CE-399. There is likewise no question that they have all been positively identified: RF was Robert Frazier, CK was Charles Killion, and JH was Cortland Cunningham. (See Figure 5.) It can be stated as a fact that SA Elmer Lee Todd's mark is not on the historical CE-399 bullet.

The entire article can be found here:

http://www.jfklancer.com/hunt/phantom.htm

After looking around the web a bit, I was able to find a considerably better copy of the CE399 photos and after sharpening the image a bit, and blowing it up, managed to produce a much clearer image. Not surprisingly, there was no trace of Todd's initials.

Blowup
of ce399 photos

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. And when they discovered that the bullet didn't match Oswald's rifle, they panicked. It was quite simple to fire a round from the alleged murder weapon into water or cotton wading and use that bullet to replace the one that Tomlinson found. That would explain the near pristine condition of the bullet, the absence of blood and tissue, the missing initials of SA Todd, and those of the two Secret Service agents, as well as the adamant rejection of that bullet by Tomlinson and Wright.

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 Patrolman, Bobby Nolan, who was working security for Governor Connally and standing in the hallway talking to Connally aide, Bill Stinson. This is from my interview of Nolan in 2010.

Nolan: 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 is 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 stated his instructions were apparently not clear at the outset and that following
contact with his superior officers while at the Dallas Police Department, he turned the
bullet fragment over to Captain Will Fritz [Dallas Police Department.] at approximately
7:50 p.m. He stated he had no further information concerning the matter and that his
only participation in this series of events was the acceptance of the fragment and delivery
of same to Captain Fritz.

Obviously, Nolan told the FBI, exactly what the nurse told him - that the envelope contained a bullet from Governor Connally's gurney, which as the Governor himself stated, had fallen out from the wound in his "thigh".

Bill Stinson further corroborated the other witnesses, when he was interviewed by the now defunct, Ramparts magazine.

"Before the Commission discredited Connally's testimony they should at least have heard all the important witnesses. Ramparts found one the Commission never talked to; they never even asked him for an affidavit. He is William Stinson, an aide to Governor Connally at the time of the assassination. Today, although officially employed by the Veterans Administraton, he has an office in the White House. Stinson told us he was in the operating room, wearing a sterile uniform, when the doctors operated on Connally at Parkland Hospital. 'The last thing they did,' said Stinson, 'was to remove the bullet from the governor's thigh---because that was the least thing that was wrong with him.'".

The entire article can be seen here,

http://www.acorn.net/jfkplace/09/fp.back_issues/09th_Issue/ramparts.html

Stinson was mistaken about the bullet being removed during surgery. He had been permitted to stand in the operating room then, but it is unlikely that they would have let him get close enough to examine the fragments as they were being removed. However, it makes perfect sense that he would assume that it came from surgery, when shortly afterward, the nurse came out, in scrubs, and told him and Nolan that she had an envelope containing a bullet from Connally's thigh.

So, by Saturday, the FBI had already received the bullet that Tomlinson found and had plenty of time to analyze it and confirm that it was not from Oswald's rifle. A second Connally bullet would provide indisputable proof of multiple snipers.

At roughly the same time that this nurse was passing the bullet from Connally's leg to Nolan, nursing supervisor, Audrey M. Bell was processing four tiny fragments that were removed from the governor's wrist by Dr. Gregory. She told the HSCA and later, the ARRB that she removed the fragments from a container on the scrub nurse's desk and placed them into an envelope, which she filled out and then gave to two plain clothed agents who came into her office. She was unsure whether they were from the Secret Service or the FBI, but was certain they were not in uniform. She said that both she and one of the agents, initialed the envelope and that the two of them then signed a receipt. All of this was standard operating procedure at Parkland, which Bell had carried out hundreds of times in the past.

Audrey Bell was interviewed the next day (11/23/63) by the FBI, as she herself confirmed in her ARRB interview. But when she was shown a copy of the associated FBI report, she was adamant that the FBI was wrong. This is from ARRB document MD184, which summarized her interview,

When shown an FBI FD-302 dated November 23,1963 (Agency File Number 000919, Record
# 180-l 0090-10270), she felt it was inaccurate in two respects: it quotes her as turning over
“the metal fragment (singular),” whereas she is positive it was multiple fragments - it says she
turned over the fragment to a Texas State Trooper, whereas she recalls turning it over to
plainclothes Federal agents who were either FBI or Secret Service.

To corroborate her denial, Bell suggested that they look at the receipt she was required to fill out, which she had passed on to Parkland administrator, Jack Price. Of course, that receipt had to have been confiscated by the FBI, since it was critical to confirming the chain of custody. This is more from MD184,

She independently recalled filling out a receipt on 1l/22/63 for the fragments, on half-page
sized paper with red lettering in the letterhead, which was signed for by one of two men in civilian
clothes (whom she thought were Federal agents) who accepted the fragments. She said she personally
delivered the original of this receipt to Parkland Hospital Administrator Jack Price. (ARRB staff
promised to try to locate this document, and promised that if located, we would mail her a photocopy
for verification purposes.)

But according to the National Archives, there is no record of the ARRB ever finding that receipt and the Archives were not able to find it either. So Bell's receipt, which would have confirmed the name of at least one of the men she gave the envelope to, and which had to have been taken by the FBI, seems to have evaporated.

This is the FBI report, allegedly from their interview dated, 11/23/63 with Audrey Bell.

One thing that is beyond dispute is that the FBI's references to a single fragment, could not be true. It makes no sense that Bell told them that. Even if we speculate that she was hopelessly confused, the envelope which the FBI tells us was filled out by Bell, clearly states that it contained "Bullet fragments" from Connally's "Right arm". And we can easily see that the clear plastic container that was in the envelope, contained four tiny particles.

The only logical explanation for why the FBI would have deliberately misrepresented Bell by claiming she reported only a single fragment is that the interviewer was not really concerned about the envelope that she actually handled. They were much more concerned about another envelope which did indeed, contain a single bullet or fragment (very likely, a badly mangled bullet) from Governor Connally's thigh. In order to make that inconvenient bullet and envelope go away, they only needed to claim that the envelope Bell gave to one of their agents, was the one that Nolan received. All that was missing was the three capital letters from Nolan's initials, which could be easily forged and copied onto CE-842.

The other FBI claim that Bell denied, was that she passed the envelope to the fully uniformed officer Nolan. If we believe the FBI, then we must believe that Bell not only forgot that she gave her envelope to Nolan on 11/22, but that she also forgot that she told the FBI that, the next day. She also would have to have suffered the delusion that she gave the envelope to plain clothed officers who came into her office.

All of these discrepancies have to have been the result of either deliberate deception by the FBI or a hopelessly incompetent and forgetful Audrey Bell. If Bell was the problem, then she not only forgot virtually every aspect of how she processed those bullet fragments on 11/22/63, but during the minutes between filling out that envelope and her encounters with DA Wade and officer Nolan, she forgot that she had just written "bullet fragments" from the "Right arm" and told both of those men that it contained a single bullet from Governor Connally's gurney, that originated in his left thigh. And then Nolan somehow didn't notice that the envelope he carried around the rest of the day and turned in to the DPD, was clearly labelled as containing multiple fragments from the right arm.

As we ponder the possibility that this was a scam on the part of the FBI, we might think that the people who worked with nurse Bell would provide an answer for us. Surely, if she had really told the FBI that she gave the fragments to Nolan, others would have known about it. But as I looked at the statements by those who should have known, I found absolutely no one who claimed either first hand knowledge, one way or the other, or even a second hand claim that Bell told them who she gave them too. This is what Dr. Charles Gregory told the Warren Commission,

Mr. SPECTER - What did you do, Dr. Gregory, with the missile fragments which
you removed from his wrists?

Dr. GREGORY - Those were turned over to the operating room nurse in attendance
with instructions that they should be presented to the appropriate authorities present,
probably a member of the Texas Rangers, but that is as far as I went with it myself.

And this is the HSCA's report of what Dr. Gregory told them,

He (Doctor Gregory) stated he did not on his own knowledge know, however, but he
had been advised [that] Miss Bell obtained a receipt from State Trooper Bob Nolan
[a State of Texas highway patrol officer] and transferred the metal fragment to him in
accordance with instructions from the Governor's office at Parkland Hospital.

As a full time emergency room physician, at Parkland, it seems strange that he could never provide a straight answer, regarding this nurse who worked with him every day. Why is it that he could only answer that he "had been advised"? And why was the source of his advice, unnamed?

At the request of Dr. Burkley, the President's physician, Parkland Doctor, Kemp Clark researched and prepared a report on 11/23/1963, describing events at the hospital related to the treatment of Connally and President Kennedy. For many years, it was filed away as "Top Secret". In this section, he describes what Drs. Shires and Duke, who assisted Gregory, told him. In the first sentence of the cited segment, "he" refers to Shires.

It seems that Shires' initial statement, which was later altered, was that officer Nolan was given a single fragment from the "thigh", since the word was later crossed out and replaced by "wrist". But look at the oblique description of how Dr. Clark and Dr. Duke, came to the politically correct conclusion that Nolan was given wrist fragments,

"I called Dr. Duke, the resident who was present when I talked with Dr.
Shires. He had heard our conversation, and had assisted Dr. Shires with
this part of the surgery. Two of us conferred, and together agreed to release
to Mrs. Wright the information that according to Dr. Shires, only one bullet
was involved in Governor Connally's injury and that the fragment of this
bullet which was removed by Dr. Gregory from the wrist was in the possession
of Ranger Nolan."

The wording here is fascinating and much more informative for what it doesn't say than what it does. Notice that there is no straightforward declaration that Bell passed the wrist fragments to Nolan - only that the doctors, "agreed to release to Mrs. Wright the information that..". And why was there, just one day after the assassination, this concern that "only one bullet was involved in Governor Connally's injury"? That sounds much more like something the FBI would be worried about than the doctors.

And why were they parroting the FBI's mistaken claim that this was just a single fragment, rather that multiple fragments, as was clearly written on the envelope Bell was supposed to have filled out?

And why is there no mention anywhere in the report about what supervisor, Audrey Bell had to say? She was on duty that day and just a buzz on the intercom, away. Why wasn't she asked? Had she actually said what the FBI claimed she said, she would have been eager to confirm that she gave the wrist fragments to Nolan.

It would not have been possible for the FBI to have pulled this scam, without the help of a least a doctor or two and probably, the nurse who actually recovered the Connally bullet. Of course, the notion that Parkland doctors or nurses were involved in a sinister coverup, is absurd. What is not so absurd however, is that like many others, they were told that if the investigation proved that there was a conspiracy, it would point to Fidel Castro and lead us into a crisis that could incite a nuclear, world war. In 1963, nuclear war was a fear that we all had to live with, every day of our lives. It was powerful enough to make even the most honest person, tell a little white lie if he was convinced that it was for the benefit of humanity.

The notion that Bell handed over an envelope containing Connally's wrist fragments to officer Nolan, fails in pretty much every conceivable way. Not only does that contradict what both Bell and Nolan told us, but there is no statement on record by any of her coworkers that she did such a thing, and no record of any of them even claiming that she said she did such a thing. But perhaps, what is stranger yet, is that no one claims to have even asked her.

What is easily proven however, is that the FBI falsely claimed that Bell was processing only a single fragment. It is preposterous to think that she told them such a thing. What makes infinitely more sense is, that they needed to make an envelope go away, which really DID contain a single, large fragment or bullet. But they could not do that if her envelope only contained tiny, almost microscopic particles. And so they falsely quoted her, saying that she dealt with a single, metal fragment. And of course, their claim that she stated that she turned her single fragment over to officer Nolan, is equally preposterous.

Nolan's envelope was turned in at approximately 8:30PM on 11/22/63. From then on, the FBI had unrestricted access to the evidence and the right to open and inspect it. Whatever was really in Nolan's envelope, had to have been known to the FBI, prior to their interviews of Nolan and Bell. If it had really contained tiny particles, they certainly would have said so, instead of referring to what could only have been, the singular content of the envelope Nolan delivered.

The nurse who spoke to district attorney Wade and gave an envelope to Nolan could not have been Audrey Bell. Three men, Governor Connally, DA Henry Wade, and officer Bobby Nolan, all confirmed that this nurse recovered a bullet from Connally's gurney and then showed it to Wade, before turning it over to officer Nolan. The envelope Bell processed, was given to an FBI agent, which is why it was never delivered to the Dallas police department, or at least, why there is no surviving record that it was.

In contrast to all of these very solid corroborations, we have 100% denial by the four men who examined the bullet that Tomlinson found, that it was CE399. Unlike many other issues related to the case, this one is not a tough call. It seems that J. Edgar Hoover agreed, because in recordings of telephone conversations between him and LBJ, he suggested that Connally was wounded because he came between the President and an assassin, and that if Connally had not come between them, JFK would have taken his bullet.

LBJ: How did it happen they hit Connally?

JEH: Connally turned to the President, when the first shot was fired
and I think that in turning.. it was where he got hit.

LBJ: If he hadn't turned he probably wouldn't have gotten hit?

JEH: I think that is very likely.

LBJ: Would the President've gotten hit by the second one?

JEH: No, the President wasn't hit with the second one.

LBJ: I say, if Connally hadn't been in his way?

JEH: Oh, yes, yes. The President would no doubt have been hit!

Today, we know that that scenario was not correct, but it is hard to imagine Hoover believing that Connally was hit by a different assassin, unless he had seen evidence for such a thing. The bullet or large fragment that Nolan turned in, was obviously, not from Oswald's rifle. If it was, the FBI would have flaunted it as absolute proof of the accused assassin's guilt. Instead, it provided absolute proof that Connally was hit by a bullet from a different assassin. Until recently, only Hoover and a handful of others, were aware of that.

Robert Harris

Multiple problems with the descriptions of the injuries suffered by Governor Connally and the mislabeling of the presented X-rays strongly suggest that the Parkland physicians doctored their reports to hide an uncomplimentary posture of the victim when shot.

Two Descriptions of the Back Wound

The clinical report by Dr. Shaw on the preoperative treatment of Governor Connally described a sucking chest wound partially relieved by a pressure dressing. A tube was inserted into the chest cavity and the free ended connected to a waterseal bottle. These emergency measures relaxed the respiratory distress. Once in the operating room anesthesia was induced and the wounds were more carefully examined. Shaw found a wound of entrance just to the left of the right scapula. He reported that this wound was "approximately three cm in its longest diameter." The surrounding area was cleansed with Phisohex and Iodine then draped for the initial operation upon the far more serious frontal chest wound.

Perhaps someone from the ballistics community informed Shaw that a wound with a longer dimension equal to the length of the three-centimeter MC bullet indicates a strike by a missile traveling sideways. Under this condition the bullet had insufficient kinetic energy to exit the chest.

Dr. Shaw revised his description of the back wound for his Warren Commission testimonies. On March 23, 1964, Shaw testified in Dallas. He told the commission that Connally had a 1.5-cm roughly elliptical wound of the right posterior shoulder to the left of the right armpit. During his testimony in Washington, D.C. on April 21, 1964, he repeated the earlier description of the wound and added that the bullet did not penetrate the shoulder blade.

Doctor Gregory reported details of the back wound which partially disputed and partially corroborated the description of an elliptical wound by Shaw. In particular, Gregory noted a linear wound with a rounded central portion. This rounding of the central portion of the back wound was not noted on the linear wound of the wrist. By contrast the shape of a simple wound made by a bullet with a considerable yaw angle resembles a rectangle with rounded corners.

Wrist Wounds and the Fractured Radius

Left click image to display native size.

Figure 1 - Commission Exhibit 691

Connally suffered two wounds of his right wrist. The larger wound of entry was on the back or the dorsal side of the wrist with the smaller wound of exit on the palm or the volar side of the wrist. Doctor Gregory noted that a larger wound of entry was not at all characteristic.

During his testimony in Dallas on March 23, 1964, Gregory reported the dimensions of the wounds on the opposing sides of the wrist. He gave the longer dimension of the dorsal wound as 2 cm and the longer dimension of the volar wound as 1.5 cm. On April 21, 1964, Gregory more fully described both wounds of the wrist. He reported that the transverse exit wound on the volar side of the wrist resembled a small laceration with dimensions of 1.5 cm by 0.5 cm. The wound of entry on the dorsal side of the wrist was rather linear with dimensions of 2.5 cm by 0.5 cm. He did not mention any rounding of the central portion of the dorsal wound as he did when describing the linear back wound. The disagreement of the longer dimensions of the dorsal wound suggests that Gregory related the wound sizes from memory rather than notes.

Gregory described the wrist fracture as comminuted. He explained that comminuted means shattered into more than two pieces and counted seven or eight bone fragments on the presented X-rays. During his Warren Commission testimony of March 23, 1964, Shaw partially disputed and partially corroborated Gregory by describing acompound comminuted fracture of the radius. The description of the comminuted fracture as compound meant that the sharp edge of a recently fractured bone broke the skin and created a wound. On April 21, 1964, Shaw cited themotion of the wrist as evidence of the compound fracture.

Initially Gregory observed metallic fragments on the preoperative X-rays of the wrist. During debridement, he removed a few small fragments of lead found throughout the wrist and the fractured the radius. Gregory volunteered no opinion on whether the bullet deposited or irrigation carried the metal fragments to various positions within the wrist.

Superficial Wound of the Thigh

Dr. Shires in his operative report of November 22, 1963 described a 1-cm punctate wound and debriding the wound track into the muscle. He interpreted an X-ray as showing a small fragment imbedded in the femur. Shires repeated these descriptions during his testimony in Dallas and added his speculations on whether a tangential entry by a whole bullet or a fragment caused the observed peculiarities of this wound.

The description of the wound as punctate means that the abrasion surrounding the bullet hole was spotted. This punctate appearance implied entry by a spent missile with insufficient kinetic energy to produce the solid area of discoloration surrounding a typical bullet hole.

Shaw explicitly attributed the wound in the thigh being considerably longer than the size of the missile to a tangential entry by the bullet.

Prior to surgery, Dr. Gregory carefully observed the bullet hole in the thigh. He noted that the hole was almost round and could see penetration from the skin to the underlying fascia. During his testimony in Washington, D.C., Gregory described a puncture wound on the inner aspect of the thigh and a little toward the front. The wound appeared rounded with a diameter of about 6 mm. This size excluded the surrounding abrasion reported by Shires.

The preoperative X-rays produced by Gregory revealed a shallow fragment inline with the femur and just beneath the skin. These observations contradicted Shires who asserted that the fragment deeply penetrated the thigh and was imbedded in the bone.

The Forensic Pathology Panel dismissed the presumed fragments on the X-rays as artifacts.

Cynics have suggested that the Parkland doctors concocted the story of a fragment in the thigh to reduce the embarrassment of Doctor Shaw who during the Friday afternoon press conference told the World that the bullet is in the leg and will be removed during surgery. This statement is made just beyond five minutes from the start of the linked recording.

Clothing Evidence

Figure 2 - Front View of Coat

Connally's coat had regular defects that conveyed to the analyst valuable information not obtainable from the irregular defects of the shirt. This fortuitous situation made the defects of the coat the preferred garment for comparison with the wounds of the torso.

On the back side of the coat, SA Robert A. Frazier of the FBI Laboratory described a defect that measured approximately five-eights of an inch horizontally by one-quarter of an inch. The one-quarter inch dimension coincided with the diameter of a 6.5-mm bullet and the five-eights inch measurement agreed with the 15-mm dimension of the back wound described by Dr. Shaw in his testimonies. The failure of Frazier to describe the shape of the defect on the rear of the coat as either rectangular or oval allows entry by a bullet with a 30-degree yaw angle or a bullet with negligible yaw angle and an approximate 66-degree incidence angle.

Frazier described a defect on the front of the coat as approximately round with a diameter of three-eights of an inch. The smallness of this hole shown on Figure 2 ensures that only a bullet with negligible yaw could have made this defect.

Frazier measured the angles made by a straight line joining the defect on the rear of Connally's coat with the defect on the front. He found a line sloping leftward from the rear to the front. This line made a 20-degreeangle with the sagittal plane of the coat.

The FBI also used these defect on the rear and the front of the coat to calculate the angle made by a straight line joining the entry and the exit wounds with the transverse body plane. A disagreement between the transverse angle for the coat with the transverse angle though the torso shows that the posture of Connally was not relaxed when shot. The straight line joining the defect on the rear of the coat sloped downward toward the defect on the front of the coat. This line made a 35-degree angle with the transverse plane of the coat. The line joining the corresponding defects of the shirt made a lesser 30-degree angle with the same plane. These measurements show that Connally had a strained posture when or immediately before being shot.

Frazier examined the trousers worn by Connally. He found a small circular defect with a diameter of about one quarter inch. This quarter inch defect of the trousers stands with the small 6-mm bullet hole described by Gregory and disputes the suggestion by Shires that a tangential entry caused the 10-mm punctate abrasion which surrounded the bullet hole in the thigh.

Composite Wounding

The Parkland doctors in the operating room collectively developed the idea that one missile inflicted all the wounds suffered by Connally. Dr. Shires discussed this idea with his assistants, Drs. Baxter, McClelland and Patman. Shires had direct knowledge of similar discussions among Drs. Shaw, Boland and Duke. He surmised that Dr. Gregory, Osbourne and Parker also discussed the wounding. These groups concluded that one bullet inflicted the five wounds suffered by Connally.

Gregory cited progressively less damage from the chest, through the wrist and into the thigh as evidence of wounding by a single bullet. The bullet inflicted considerable damage upon the torso in shattering ten centimeters of the fifth rib and punching a 5-centimeter roughly circular hole in the chest. These injuries consumed a considerable portion of the kinetic energy of the transiting bullet. This less energetic bullet inflicted lesser injury upon the wrist. The wounds of entry and exit were elongated slits and cleaved a few pieces of bone from the radius. These lesser injuries consumed more kinetic energy. The bullet upon striking the thigh had insufficient kinetic energy to produce a solid abrasion and perforate the leg. Instead this spent missile produced a punctate abrasion surrounding the wound track which extended to but not through the muscle.

The report of an initially small tunneling wound by Shaw is evidence of entry and initial transit of the torso by a bullet with negligible angles of yaw and pitch. Coupling these observations of the back wound with the report by Frazier of a round 3/8-inch hole in the front of the coat shows exit by a bullet with negligible angles of yaw and pitch. These observations argue for overall transit of the torso by a properly aligned bullet and explain the absence of metallic fragments in the chest.

Problems arose when the doctors provided further details of the injuries.

Figure 3 - 60° Incidence Angle

The elliptical wound twice described by Shaw and corroborated by Gregory required that the bullet entered the back with an approximate 60° incidence angle as shown on Figure 3. The locations of the back and the chest wounds required that this tangentially entering bullet deflected by an incredible angle of between forty and sixty degrees during transit of the torso. So both the original and the revised descriptions of the back wound are entangled in insoluble problems.

Following the testimony of Shaw on March 23, 1964, Specter and Shaw had a conversation off the record then went back on the record and discussed whether a tumbling bullet struck Governor Connally in the back. Shaw mistakenly associated an elliptical wound with a bullet which had struck something else. This testimony strongly suggests that Doctor Shaw and the authorities reached a compromise. In particular the authorities would forgive doctoring his medical reports in exchange for capitulation to tolerate the SBT.

The locations and dimensions of both wrist wounds and especially the linear shape of the volar wound imply transit by a bullet with a considerable though decreasing angle of yaw. For the dorsal wound the given dimensions imply striking by a bullet with a yaw angle between arcsin ( 2 / 3 ) or forty two degrees and arcsin ( 2.5 / 3 ) or fifty six degrees. Upon exit from the volar side of the dimensions of the wound yield a lesser yaw angle of arcsin ( 1.5 / 3 ) or thirty degrees. The modifications of these calculations to account for the elongation of the wounds by a few tenths of a centimeter due to tangential entry and exit by the yawed bullet would be inconsequential.

However, the ante posterior X-rays of the wrist, CE 691 and CE 692 show no evidence of a yawed bullet having punched a slot with dimensions ranging from 1/4 inch by 1 inch nearer the dorsal side of the wrist to 1/4 inch by 4/5 inch nearer the volar side. Given the locations of these wounds, a slot punched by a yawed bullet would have been seen on the ante posterior X-rays as a through and through gap in the radius. So the failure to see this large void of bone stands in contradiction with the description of the surface wounds.

By contrast, a properly aligned bullet with negligible yaw angle could have tangentially perforated the wrist and tunneled a track with a 1/4 inch diameter through the bone. This bullet track would appear as a narrow strip of lesser opacity on the X-rays.

Apparently Gregory learned by experience that a yawed bullet could produce linear surface wounds and another bullet could tunnel a small cylindrical track through a bone. However, his role as a medical doctor did not require him to analyze whether one wound could embody the special characteristics of two other unrelated wounds. Probably these gaps in his knowledge account for the contradictions in the presented descriptions of wrist wounds.

The X-rays presented by Gregory showing the tiny fragment inline with the femur on some views and just beneath the skin on orthogonal views effectively disproves Shires' claim of a fragment imbedded in the bone. Further the report by Gregory of a 6-millimeter "almost round" thigh wound discredits the speculation by Shires of a tangential entry by the bullet. The implications of these two reports by Gregory consistently point to an unexpected posture for the leg when wounded.

If Connally's left leg were crossed with its calf resting near his right knee then a bullet on an earlier course from below the right nipple and straight through the wrist would strike the inner surface of the left thigh at a small angle of incidence. This trajectory would carry the bullet and any shed fragment closer to the knee while not penetrating toward the bone by a comparable distance.

Perhaps the authorities interpreted this implied posture of Connally as feminine and moved the left leg to a normal masculine position when shot. The problems with Shires' testimony in Dallas and his latter absence from testifying in Washington, D.C. are consistent with this possibility.

When Doctors Shaw, Gregory and Shires testified in Dallas during March 1964 they referenced and did not present easily accessible X-rays to document the injuries suffered by Governor Connally. The following month when Shaw and Gregory packed their evidence and traveled to Washington, D.C. to testify they brought nine X-rays with them.

Figure 4 - X-ray of the Repaired Wrist

Source: Warren Commission testimony of Dr. Robert Roeder Shaw on April 21, 1964 - 4H, 106

Mr. SPECTER. Would it be useful - As to that X-ray, Dr. Shaw, will you tell us what identifying data, if any, it has in the records of Parkland Hospital, for the record?

Dr. SHAW. On this X-ray it has in pencil John G. Connally.

Mr. SPECTER. Is that G or C?

Dr. SHAW. They have a "G" November 22, 1963, and it has a number 218-922.

Despite the confirmation of a "G" by Dr. Shaw, Specter persists to place into the record his reaffirmation of "C" as the middle initial on the X-rays.

Source: WC testimony of Doctor Charles Francis Gregory on April 21, 1964 - 4H, 124

Mr. SPECTER. Have you brought the X-ray with you?

Dr. GREGORY. Yes; I have.

Mr. SPECTER. On what date was that X-ray taken?

Dr. GREGORY. This X-ray is marked as having been taken on November 22, 1963. It indicates that it was made of the left thigh, and it belongs to John Connally, John G. Connally.

Mr. SPECTER. That says "G" instead of "C"?

Dr. GREGORY. Yes. It appears to me to be a "G." The number again is 219-922.

At this point, Specter had manipulated the record to allow him to plead confusion if the credibility of the X-rays were to be challenged.

Skipping ahead a witness to Mrs. Connally shows that Arlen was intent upon expanding his protection.

Source: WC Testimony of Mrs. John Bowden Connally, Jr. on April 21, 1964 - 4H, 146

Mr. SPECTER. Are you the wife of Governor John C. Connally?

Mrs. CONNALLY. No, I am the wife of Governor John B. Connally.

The answer to the first question of the previous witness discredits ignorance as an excuse for Arlen Specter not knowing the middle initial of Governor Connally.

Source: WC Testimony of Gov. John Bowden Connally, Jr. on April 21, 1964 - 4H, 129

Mr. SPECTER. Will you state your full name for the record, please?

Governor CONNALLY. John Bowden Connally.

Four pages earlier in the testimony of Dr. Shaw, Arlen Specter disclosed knowledge of the middle initial of John Connally.

Source: Warren Commission Testimony of Dr. Robert Roeder Shaw on April 21, 1964 - 4H, 102

Mr. SPECTER. Were you called upon to render medical aid to Gov. John B. Connally on that day?

Dr. SHAW. Yes.

I wonder when Arlen Specter stop knowing the middle initial of John Connally?

Forcing Governor Connally's wounds to fit a sitting posture had an embarrassing consequence for Dr. Gregory. He was asked by Specter whether a bullet with a declination angle of forty five degrees could have inflicted Connally's wounds. Gregory had no choice and answered the question affirmatively.

Source: Warren Commission Testimony of Doctor Charles Francis Gregory on April 21, 1964 - 4H, 127

Mr. SPECTER - Dr. Gregory, could all of the wounds which were inflicted on the Governor, that is those described by Dr. Shaw and those which you have described during your testimony, have been inflicted from one missile if that missile were a 6.5 millimeter bullet fired from a weapon having a muzzle velocity of approximately 2,000 feet per second at a distance of approximately 160 to 250 feet, if you assumed a trajectory with an angle of decline approximately 45 degrees?

Dr. GREGORY - I believe that the three wounds could have occurred from a single missile under these specifications.

Dr. Gregory was no dummy. Without doubt, he could have solved the eleventh-grade problem of the isosceles right triangle and mentally calculated the height of the muzzle above Connally as between 160 sin ( 45 ) or 112 foot and 250 sin ( 45 ) or 175 foot. By contrast the sniper in their nest on the sixth floor of the TSBD was less than 70 foot above their victim.

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Last Updated on March 25, 2014 by Herbert Blenner