Experts Now Say JFK Bullet Analysis Was Wrong

Spy Handler writes "Researchers analyzing bullet fragments from the 1963 Kennedy assassination using new techniques say that the government's 1976 conclusion that the bullets came from only one gun (Oswald's) is wrong. 'Using new guidelines set forth by the National Academy of Sciences for proper bullet analysis, Tobin and his colleagues at Texas A&M re-analyzed the bullet evidence used by the 1976 House Select Committee on Assassinations, which concluded that only one shooter, Oswald, fired the shots that killed Kennedy in Dallas. The committee's finding was based in part on the research of now-deceased University of California at Irvine chemist Vincent P. Guinn. He used bullet lead analysis to conclude that the five bullet fragments recovered from the Kennedy assassination scene came from just two bullets, which were traced to the same batch of bullets Oswald owned.'"

Zapruder film

[morgan_greywolf]

Uhh..I thought that the Zapruder film, the fact that bullet took an upward, not a downward trajectory, and eyewitness testimony have already trounced on the Warren Commission's findings that Oswald was the lone gunman in Dallas that shot Kennedy.

But I guess this just adds one more piece of evidence for the federal government to completely ignore.

Re:seriously

[Obyron]

I saw a very fascinating Discovery documentary entitled "Beyond the Magic Bullet" wherein they replicated as closely as possible conditions of the day, and a shooter was able to fire a shot nearly perfectly recreating the wounds from the magic bullet, and resulting in a round that had equal deformity (which was very little) to that of the "Magic" bullet. It was very very startling to me, as a doubter of the probability of the theory, and forced me to reevaluate things. I'm still not sure if I believe that it's what happened, but those decrying the single shooter "magic bullet" theory as scientifically impossible are wrong.

Cmon Seriously?

[otacon]

Obviously there was another shooter that the Gov didn't want you to know. If you look at Oswald's history he was all over the place...defecting to the Soviet Union when he was 19, just 3 days after being discharged from the Marines...that has CIA written all over it.

This casts doubt how?

[Flababo]

This story makes it seem as though this new revelation casts doubt on the whole story. Simply because the lead analysis is wrong doesn't invalidate the highly compelling ballistics evidence and reliable eyewitness testimony. While the lead analysis may not preclude a second shooter, the other evidence certainly does. I would suggest reading Case Closed: Lee Harvey Oswald and the Assassination of JFK by Gerald Posner. It does a very convincing job of examining and supporting Oswald as the sole shooter. This new analysis is not a smoking gun and shame on the media for slanting it that way.

Re:"Experts", huh?

[swillden]

So, unnamed, so-called "Experts" are here to stoke conspiracy theory bullshit and maybe sell a book. What else is new?

From the article, the main guy is William A. Tobin "the FBI lab's chief metallurgy expert for more than two decades". Sounds like an expert to me. He could be wrong, of course, but I would think his say-so would be enough to warrant another review of the evidence, with the improved techniques that he already got the FBI to adopt.

E Howard Hunt

[Anonymous Coward]

On his deathbed recently confessed to the conspiracy..
http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/april2007/300 407deathbedconfession.htm [prisonplanet.com]

The motives were there in spades too.

Yeah Yeah, knock the messenger (prisonplanet), but read it first.

Re:Finally

[Notquitecajun]

Popular Mechanics, of all mags, came out with a dang good debunking as well.

Re:Every been to Dealey Plaza? In person?

[t0rkm3]

Guess they've never fired a rifle whilst being battle-trained eh?

My dad was a international level shooter and you wouldn't believe how fast he could reload a bolt-action rifle.

One of those thing's that make me laugh. Like saying that taking an assault rifle away is going to lower the body count when someone walks into a classroom and starts shooting. With a little practice you can fire a clip empty and reload before someone can get out of their seat.

Just shows how ignorant people become when they have zero experience in a field.

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:What a surprise!...NOT

[Richthofen80]

I can't understand your arguement at all.

#1: you say the evidence isn't good enough to know? What kind of proof do you require? Videotape? eyewitness? Since there's no such thing as a time machine, the best evidence in criminal cases comes down to either eyewitness accounts, circumstantial accounts, or evidentary. There were people who identified Oswald as eyewitnesses. There was plenty of circumstances that led one to believe Oswald committed the crime.

#2 You come to the 'one in a million' account through no known reasoning. Explain where that number comes from.

#3 This is just incorrect. There were THREE seperate investigations. The reason why the police didn't pursue heavily a full criminal investigation? They had a suspect in custody, who had been murdered. Did you view the records from the investigation at all? Do you know what processes the police, FBI, and federal agents went through?

#4 Even if this were true, motive does not prove guilt. The same statement you made could apply to Kruschev, Castro, etc. You also state that he was opposed to any investigation. If that's the case, why were there investigations during his presidency? He was the one that declared the Warren Comission.

You wrote that anyone who takes enough time looking at the evidence against Oswald. He's evidence. He worked at the schoolbook depository, a fellow employee DROVE HIM INTO WORK THAT DAY WITH A LARGE LONG PACKAGE WRAPPED IN BROWN PAPER. He was in the vicinity at the time of the shooting, Eyewitnesses identified him as the shooter in the window, Eyewitnesses identified him as the shooter of the cop afterwards. Also, Oswald attempted to assassinate General Walker a few months before he killed Kennedy.

People take comfort in comspiracy theories because it makes them think a larger force is at work (same principle religion offers), and therefore that people can't just 'snap' and kill a lot of people, like what happened in 9/11 or the Virginia Tech massacres. But people can just snap, and kill people. This victim just happened to be the president. Its not hard to believe, Regan was shot, Lincoln was shot. No Conspiracy there.

Re:What a surprise!...NOT

[geekoid]

What?
That is an easy shot for any trained marksman. Easy.
Yes, some people look at that and think "Wow, Nobody could do that at the paintball range."
That's about their experience.

This new analysis needs to be done by others before it's creditable.
If it is creditable, it only means the bullet lead didn't come from the same place. Nothing more. Not that they came from different guns.

The grassy knoll would be a horrible place for second shooter, far worse then the book repository.If there is a conspiracy, it was probably to cover up an accidental discharge of an agent.

So LJ went to the SS and sais "Psst, see that the president gets killed, here's a fiver?"

Re:seriously

[Josuah]

Wrong episode/movie. You want the one where they go into cancer man's background, since he's the one that killed JFK. None of the JFK stuff is mentioned in the movie. :p

Re:Case Closed

[Anonymous Coward]

Why is slashdot delving into conspiracy theories now? I hope they don't start getting Moon hoaxes or 9/11 conspiracy stories.

Heck, why not? Slashduh have now been featuring "humans did global warming lol" and "oswald didn't do jfk lol".
"Jews did wtc lol" and "nasa didn't fly to the moon lol" are the natural next steps to take.

Oh yeah, sorry, I forgot: Bush = Hitler!!!!1
(I understand I'm supposed to do that, as I'm from Europe. Give me 5+, Informative, please.)

Re:Finally

[Anonymous Coward]

When you start with "737", there's no point in even going further. Please kill yourself.

The best evidence of a second shooter...

[NotPeteMcCabe]

I read all the conspiracy books about 20 years ago, and the piece of evidence that most rules out the Oswald-only theory is that Kennedy was shot in the neck from the front. The emergency room doctor at the hospital reported that kennedy had an entrance wound in his neck, which the Dr. then cut through to perform a tracheotemy. This doctor, I recall, is the only person to examine Kennedy's body who had any real world experience dealing with gunshot wounds. [p]No evidence stronger than this, on either side, was presented at any point in the entire investigation.

Re:Oh good grief

[Gospodin]

Good point, but I wouldn't say this is the same thing, for several reasons. First, it was only highly significant until 1945, and considering the intelligence wasn't usable until after 1940, the highly significant secret was only kept for at most 5 years, not "decades". Second, the secret was being kept during a time of total war. Third, while official disclosure of Ultra didn't come about until the 1970s, some disclosures about it were made public earlier. The fact that this didn't generate a mass of conspiracy theories only supports my point #1: that it was no longer highly significant.

OTOH, if it were true that the US government (or a foreign government, for that matter - let's thrown in the conspiracy theory that Castro backed Oswald just for fun) assassinated JFK, that would still be highly significant today.

JFK killed for signing Executive Order 11110

[nbritton]

I heard he was assassinated for signing Executive Order 11110 into law...

Wikipedia excerpt:
"This executive order allowed the US Secretary of the Treasury, as per delegated authority given to the President by the Thomas Amendment to the Agricultural Adjustment Act, to issue silver certificates against silver bullion. The major change affected by this order was that the printing of paper money could again be carried out without any reliance on the Federal Reserve System, which by this time had become the sole entity responsible for currency distribution and valuation in the United States. Very little of this silver-backed money was ever issued, with the project largely being abandoned after Kennedy's assassination only a few months later. No President since JFK has ever availed himself of what this order allowed"

You can learn more about the Federal Reserve here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYZM58dulPE [youtube.com]

Re:Huey Long shot by own body guard

[iainmcphersn]

The book is "Mortal Error" by Bonar Menninger. He also concluded that the shots he attributed to Oswald were unsurvivable though not as graphically destructive as the one he attributed to the Secret Service AR-15, ergo, any accident by the Secret Service did not change the ultimate outcome.

Re:Finally

[Plutonite]

The best debunking I ever saw was Maddox's usual black satire:
http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=91 1_morons [thebestpag...iverse.net]

Liberty

[nickmalthus]

The sailors who were there [wikipedia.org] tell of a coverup.