37

The “Magic Bullet” Theory Has Been Proven False

And now we come to The Granddaddy of ’em all on the subject of conflicting evidence.

Ladies and gentlemen, introducing Arlen Specter and his world-famous “Single Bullet Theory,” also known (mockingly) as the “magic bullet.”

He should have called it the “Single Bullshit Theory.” It almost defies description, but that didn’t stop Mr. Specter. And by the way, it totally cracks me up that they refer to people like me and our crazy “theories” about conspiracy and then they have the nerve to come up with something as ridiculous as that “magic bullet.”

Since the government clung to their official version of one gunman and three bullets after it was verified that a separate shot had hit bystander James Tague, the government effectively “ran out of bullets.” There was a bullet hole in the back of the President’s jacket—that’s one. There was obviously a shot to his head—that’s two. That only left one bullet to account for all the other damage.

So Arlen Specter, an attorney working at that time with the Warren Commission, devised a scenario where one bullet passed through President Kennedy, then changed course in mid-air and entered Governor Connally, went through-and-through Connally, then re-entered Connally again and lodged itself in his body. And the fact that it was impossible didn’t stop Specter either.

To do true justice to this “theory”—and what a theory it is—you really need to see it as well as hear it. That’s done well in Oliver Stone’s film, JFK.³⁷⁴ In two-and-a-half minutes, they totally demolish the entire thing. Here’s the clip: youtube.com/watch?v=sBXjf8Jce10.

I pointed out a lot of these “long stretches” in American Conspiracies: the so-called “magic bullet” would have had to have caused seven separate wounds in President Kennedy and Governor Connally. Plus, when this bullet just happened to turn up on a stretcher at Dallas’ Parkland Hospital, there weren’t even any bloodstains on it. And how could that bullet be undamaged when the one that hit Connally left behind some permanent lead in his wrist?³⁷⁵

Take a good look at the almost total lack of damage to that bullet; it’s ridiculous. There’s a good photo of it online, with a good article, “The Magic Bullet: Even More Magical Than We Knew?” at: historymatters.com/essays/frameup/EvenMoreMagical/EvenMoreMagical.htm.

If that crazy theory had ever been subjected to the actual legal proceedings of a courtroom, it would have been rejected by a jury as laughably implausible.

That theory was also totally demolished from a scientific standpoint by respected forensic expert Dr. Cyril Wecht. He has investigated the assassination of President Kennedy in minute detail, and he is diametrically opposed to the findings of the Warren Commission. Many of his excellent works are available at his archives: cyrilwecht.com/journal/archives/jfk/index.php.

In his book, Cause of Death, Dr. Wecht rejects the single bullet theory as “an asinine pseudoscientific sham at best” that is “absolute nonsense.”³⁷⁶ I’d say that’s pretty clear.

One important question was whether or not a bullet could indeed strike a rib and a radius bone of a human being and emerge as a pristine bullet. Considering that this same bullet had supposedly gone through both the president and the governor, Wecht claims that no bullet could have caused all the wounds of these two men and emerged pristine.³⁷⁷

Also recall that Governor Connally—who, lest we forget, was even a victim—always maintained that he and JFK were hit by separate bullets. ³⁷⁸

When FBI Special Agent James Sibert—who was present at the autopsy of President Kennedy—reflected on what he had seen, studied, and knew; here is his opinion:

I don’t buy the single-bullet theory. I’m adamant in that statement.³⁷⁹

The phone transcripts of President Johnson reveal that the Warren Commission’s invention of the premise that a single bullet was responsible for all the combined wounds was dismissed outright by many leaders, including members of the Commission itself.

In conversations with Senator Richard Russell (Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman and also a member of the Warren Commission), Senator Russell informs President Johnson of the utter unbelievability of the Warren Commission’s “single bullet theory” and President Johnson immediately agrees with its absolute lack of plausibility.

SENATOR RUSSELL: They was tryin’ to prove that the same bullet that hit Kennedy first, was the one that hit Connally and went through him and went through his hand and his bone and into his leg and everything else . . . But they said that . . . the Commission believe that the same bullet that hit Kennedy hit Connally. Well, I don’t believe it!

PRESIDENT JOHNSON: I don’t either.³⁸⁰

And I don’t either.

Just watch the angles that magic bullet would have had to take in mid-air to do all that damage to Kennedy and Connally. Then they find it on a stretcher at the hospital, and guess what? It’s like a new bullet! They called it a “pristine” bullet, because even after supposedly wreaking all that horrendous damage, the bullet still looks new. That’s impossible!

In fact, that “pristine” bullet they found literally could not have done all that damage, for one simple reason: There was more bullet fragment recovered from Connally than was missing from that bullet.³⁸¹ Not possible, period.

³⁷⁴ JFK, directed by Oliver Stone (Warner Home Video: 1991), youtube.com/watch?v=sBXjf8Jce10

³⁷⁵ Ventura & Russell, American Conspiracies.

³⁷⁶ Cyril Wecht, M.D., J.D., Mark Curriden & Ben Wecht, Cause of Death (Onyx: 1995).

³⁷⁷ Antoinette Giancana, John R. Hughes, DM OXON, MD, Ph.D.& Thomas H. Jobe,

MD, JFK and Sam: The Connection Between the Giancana and Kennedy Assassinations, (Cumberland House: 2005).

³⁷⁸ Russell Kent, “The Best Evidence Against the SBT,” Fair Play Magazine, May–June 1998: acorn.net/jfkplace/09/fp.back_issues/22nd_Issue/sbt.html

³⁷⁹ William Matson Law & Allan Eaglesham, In the Eye of History: Disclosures in the JFK Assassination Medical Evidence (JFK Lancer: 2004).

³⁸⁰ White House tapes of September 18, 1964 at 7:54 P.M., cited in Donald E. Wilkes, Jr., Professor of Law, “JFK Killer Not Alone, UGA Professor Says,” December 8, 1994, The Athens Observer, 1A: law.uga.edu/dwilkes_more/jfk_11alone.html

³⁸¹ Kent, “The Best Evidence Against the SBT.”