The assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963 sparked years of speculation and investigation. The Warren Commission concluded that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone, firing three shots from a book depository building. The “single bullet theory” suggested that one bullet caused multiple wounds to both Kennedy and Governor Connally. Critics have questioned the theory, but it remains the official explanation for the non-fatal injuries.
The assassination of President John F. Kennedy in Dallas, Texas was truly a national tragedy. but it has also sparked years of speculation and investigation into what really happened that November day in 1963 and who may have been involved. An official investigation led by Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren attempted to gather enough eyewitness testimony and forensic evidence to piece together the events surrounding the president’s assassination. A controversial theory that supported the lone gunslinger premise was considered the “single bullet theory,” although those who believe there was a conspiracy called it the “magic bullet” theory.
According to most eyewitnesses to the shooting, there were three bullets fired at the president’s open-air limousine. Under the premise of the lone killer, the shooter, a man named Lee Harvey Oswald, fired all three of those shots from the sixth floor of a book depository building. The first shot is believed to have missed the president’s car completely, hitting the curb instead. However, some occupants of the vehicle testified that all three bullets hit at least one person. The Warren commission ultimately concluded that the first shot caused no significant damage or injury.
To understand the single bullet theory, it may be helpful to discuss the third bullet later. As President Kennedy and Texas Governor John Connally lay on the ground with their injuries, a third shot struck Kennedy in the head and essentially exploded. The third shot was the fatal one, causing severe brain damage and blood loss. Despite the best efforts of Parkland Hospital doctors, President Kennedy died within an hour of the shooting. Governor Connally recovered from his wounds and was a key eyewitness for the Warren Commission.
It was the second shot, however, that formed the basis of the “single bullet” or “magic bullet” theory. When Governor Connally was rushed into emergency surgery, an orderly discovered a bullet on the gurney. It was widely speculated that this bullet fell from Connally’s thigh when he was transferred to the operating table. This fully jacketed rifle bullet, in relatively pristine condition, was believed to be the second shot fired at the President’s vehicle. If Oswald had been acting alone and there were only three shots fired from a single rifle, then this single bullet was responsible for a large number of wounds to both Kennedy and Connally.
According to the single bullet theory, Oswald’s second shot must have pierced several layers of Kennedy’s jacket, which was known to be bunched around his neck moments before the shooting. This bullet went through the back of Kennedy’s neck and exited near his windpipe. In Zapruder’s famous footage of the assassination, Kennedy can be seen clutching both hands to his throat. The bullet began rolling and entered Connally’s back from a side angle.
Continuing with the single bullet theory, this bullet struck the tip of one of Connally’s ribs, virtually shattering it. It still had enough energy to break out of Connally’s chest and break through the bones and skin of Connally’s wrist.
Finally, this second shot penetrated Connally’s left thigh superficially, where it remained lodged until he fell onto his gurney at Parkland. When the bullet was examined by experts, it had no signs of human blood, tissue or bone. The bullet was only slightly deformed at the butt end, but the bullet tip was noticeably intact and the rifling marks were undamaged.
Because many people found it unlikely that a single bullet could do all that much damage to skin, tissue, and bone and still remain relatively intact, the Warren Commission’s single bullet theory generated a significant amount of debate. Some have dubbed it a “magic bullet,” as it would have to perform a series of direction changes to cause all injuries. Only by recreating the relative positions of Kennedy and Connally could the single bullet theory be proven plausible. In fact, experts conducted scientific recreations that showed that a bullet fired from above and behind the president’s limousine could have passed through Kennedy’s soft tissue with enough force to cause all of Connally’s wounds.
There are critics who say the bullet found under Connally’s body could have come from an entirely different incident that same day. The nurse who found the bullet could not be certain that the stretcher had been thoroughly inspected and cleaned prior to Connally’s arrival. Connally testified that he saw a nurse put the bullet in her pocket shortly before surgery. It is possible that the bullet received by the FBI was not the one recovered by the nurse in the emergency room. The total weight of the intact bullet combined with the weight of the fragments discovered in the bodies of Kennedy and Connally has also been questioned. The “magic bullet” would have been significantly heavier than the other bullets found in Oswald’s sniper nest.
The single bullet theory has been investigated many times in the years since President Kennedy’s assassination. Some studies showed that the single bullet theory was plausible under the right circumstances, while others suggested that at least one more shot would be needed to cause all injuries. If Oswald had been able to fire only three shots in the estimated 5.6 seconds of the attack, a fourth bullet would at least suggest a conspiracy if not the presence of an unknown second assassin. For the single bullet theory to remain viable, there could only have been three shots fired by a lone gunman positioned above and behind the motorcade.
The debate about “magic bullets” and other gunmen may continue for the foreseeable future, but the single bullet theory continues to be the official explanation for the non-fatal injuries sustained by Kennedy and Connally on that fateful day in November 1963.
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