New Tests Question JFK Lone Gunman Theory

Examination Of Bullets Has Researchers Saying Single-Shooter Theory No "Slam Dunk"

(AP)  New testing on the type of ammunition used in the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy raises questions about whether Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone, according to a study by researchers at Texas A&M University.

Lead research Cliff Spiegelman stressed, however, that the research doesn't necessarily support conspiracy theorists who for decades have doubted Oswald was the lone gunman.

"We're not saying there was a conspiracy. All we're saying is the evidence that was presented as a slam dunk for a single shooter is not a slam dunk," said Spiegelman, a Texas A&M statistics professor and an expert in bullet-lead analysis.

The Warren Commission concluded in 1964 that Oswald fired three shots at Kennedy's motorcade from the Texas School Book Depository in Dallas. The U.S. House Select Committee on Assassinations agreed in 1979 and found that the two bullets that hit Kennedy came from Oswald's rifle.

The committee's findings were based in part on the testimony of the late forensic chemist Vincent Guinn, who said recovered fragments came from only two bullets. Guinn testified that the bullets Oswald used, Western-Winchester Cartridge Co. Mannlicher-Carcano bullets, were unique and that it would be possible to distinguish one from another even if they both came from the same box.

But Spiegelman and his fellow researchers, who tested 30 of the same type of bullets, found that fragments were not nearly so rare and that bullets within the same box could match one another. One of the test bullets also matched one or more of the assassination fragments.

"This finding means that the bullet fragments from the assassination that match could have come from three or more separate bullets," the researchers wrote in a paper detailing their study, set to be published later this year by the journal "Annals of Applied Statistics." The study is available on the journal's Web site.

"If the assassination fragments are derived from three or more separate bullets, then a second assassin is likely, as the additional bullet would not be attributable to the main suspect, Mr. Oswald," they wrote.

The bullets Spiegelman's team used were from two of only four lots ever produced of the ammunition. The researchers were able to test for more elements than Guinn and used better quality control techniques, Spiegelman said.

Gary Mack, curator of the Sixth Floor Museum in Dallas, which focuses on Kennedy's life and assassination, questioned the study's methods.

"Their study can't answer anything about the assassination," he said. "That's my understanding of it because they didn't test the actual fragments. They tested similar fragments and found that the test itself is flawed."

Conspiracy supporters believe it helps prove that Oswald didn't act alone.

"Is this going to solve the case, create further investigation or change anybody's mind? Probably not, but it supports the contentions of conspiracy researchers all through the years," said Jim Marrs, whose book, "Crossfire: The Plot That Killed Kennedy" was one of two used as the basis for Oliver Stone's conspiracy film "JFK."

Spiegelman advocates for the bullet fragments from the assassination to undergo more rigorous analysis. Further testing of the fragments would be up to the National Archives and Records Administration, the legal custodian of the projectiles and other evidence used by the Warren Commission.

The last time the fragments were tested was in 1999. The examination was inconclusive.

[jetranger7]

LETS NOT FORGET THIS, MARYLIN MONROE WAS ACTUALLY MURDERED, SHE WAS HAVING AFFAIRS WITH SAM GIACANA THE MOB BOSS FROM CHICAGO, AND ALSO WITH BOTH KENNEDYS AND FRANK SINTRA AND OFTEN VISITED THE "CAL-NEVA LODGE" IN STATE LINE NEVADA, WHICH SINTRA OWNED,, SHE MOST LIKELY OVERHEARD THE ASSASSINATION PLOT TO GET JFK,, AND THEY SILENCED HER BY ADMINSTRATING AN *** OF BARBITUTES, THAT NIGHT IN 1962, ACCORDING TO SAM GIACANA THE MOB BOSS OF CHICAGO, HE HAD SANTOS TRAFFICANTE , THE MOB BOSS OF NEW ORLEANS, GET SOME CONTRACT KILLERS TO SNEAK INTO MONROES HOUSE THAT NIGHT AND HOLD HER DOWN, AND THEY PAID OFF THE MAID TO CALL THEM AFTER, MONROE WENT TO SLEEP FROM THE SLEEPING PILLS, SO THEY COULD SNEAK IN,, AND SILENCE HER, THAT IS FROM MOB BOSS , SAM GIACANA WHILE HE LAY ON HIS DEATH BED DYING AND CONFESSING TO THESE CRIMES,WHY DID HE DO IT, AS HE CLAIMS, IT WAS BECAUSE OF THE PROMISE THAT JOE KENNEDY MADE TO HIM, THAT IF HE HELPED JFK GET INTO OFFICE, HE'D SEE TO IT THE MOB WAS LEFT ALONE, BUT, THAT TURNED OUT TO BE A LIE, WHEN BOBBY BECAME ATTORNEY GENERAL, AND THAT GOT SAM GIACANA VERY UPSET, THE MAN GIACANA SAYS ACTUALLY KILLED JFK, WAS A HIRED HIT MAN SHARP SHOOTER NAMED NEEDLES,FROM ISRAEL, HE HAD HIRED,, TO HELP ASSISANATE THE PRESIDENT, THE BOOK IS CALLED SAM GIACANA / DOUBLE CROSSED. YOU SHOULD BE ABLE TO GET IT IN THE CRIME SECTION OF ANY BOOK STORE LIKE BARNES AND NOBLE OR BORDERS,

[sweetgal_deb]

I always felt that the mob put the Ki-bosh on JFK. Joe Kennedy use to run liquer during proabition & had numerous under world contacts. Years later when JFK ran for President the mob were given assurances that if JFK made it to the White House the presure would be off the mob & their bussinesses.

When JFK was elected, soon after his brother Bobby was made Attorney General. Bobby made it his mission to go after the mob in ways that had not been done before. Bobby put such heat under the mob that eventually it was decided Bobby had to go.

So your asking what has that got to do with JFK's assasination? Talk was, if you cut off the head......the tail dies!

[sweetgal_deb]

I always felt that the mob put the Ki-bosh on JFK. Joe Kennedy use to run liquer during proabition & had numerous under world contacts. Years later when JFK ran for President the mob were given assurances that if JFK made it to the White House the presure would be off the mob & their bussinesses.

When JFK was elected, soon after his brother Bobby was made Attorney General. Bobby made it his mission to go after the mob in ways that had not been done before. Bobby put such heat under the mob that eventually it was decided Bobby had to go.

So your asking what has that got to do with JFK's assasination? Talk was, if you cut off the head......the tail dies!

[sanfelz]

The Heisenberg Principle applies to behavior at the atomic level and does not seem to have any bearing on the physics discussed in this study.

[cmp271]

To all of you who responded to my comments.

I am well aware of the money machine subsidized by the war going on in Vietnam. It was the CIA who took out Deng and it was just after JFK was killed. The mafia are another good organization to suspect, however I don't feel they were behind it. They could make money off their own business and didn't need the money made off the war. Narrowing it down a bit.

Oswald was shot by Ruby on purpose, so we would never know he could never have orchestrated this.

It is time for this to be made open to the public. This was done at a time that caused our troops to be kept in Vietnam and caused the 60's to happen the way they did. Kennedy would have got us out of there, instead he was killed. Not hard to figure out by who!!! Who made the most money off this war? Follow the money!!!

[rafterman1]

===JFK Murder Plot "Deathbed Confession" Aired On National Radio===

Unfortunately, like some of the great conspiracy theories (e.g., Roswell), you have lots of "witnesses", lots of stories and confessions, but little or no actual, physical proof.

I'm not saying there wasn't a conspiracy, but the "proof" people claim to have usually just "poofs" into the wind.

[co6aka75]

Blacked-out by the American mass media...

JFK Murder Plot "Deathbed Confession" Aired On National Radio:
http://www.infowars.com/articles/us/jfk_hunt_deathbed_confession_aired_on_national_radio.htm

Website of Saint John Hunt, the eldest son of "super-spy" E. Howard Hunt:
http://www.saintjohnhunt.com/

JFK-II Documentary:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2928756561478705121

[rafterman1]

(cont)

Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle says that you can know what any given particle is doing or where it is, but you can't know both. That creates a whole range of interactions in physics in which seemingly "impossbile" things are really possible, but we just haven't considered all the outcomes yet.

That's getting a little bit deep ther maybe, but it re-inforces the idea that just because all the numbers don't add up, doesn't mean you have all the numbers to begin with. Once history passes, it is hard to go back and reconstruct it. You end up with missing pieces. But these pieces are merely missing, not necessarily suspicious.

[rafterman1]

===That doesn't alter the fact that the official story of his assassination is flatly impossible due to simple laws of physics===

A little story here. My brother is a cop. There was a shooting and it was caught on video. They saw the gunman and victim, the gun fire multiple rounds, everything. Despite the fact that the police were able to map out every single action that happened, one round was found in the ceiling directly above the victim. It was at an impossible angle, but it was from the gun. It wasn't a richochet, based on the visual evidence, and it seemed against the laws of physics for it to be where it was. Yet it was there and people saw it with their own eyes and to this day, there was no explanation. NFL Replay officials certainlky know about this :)

The moral of the story is, sometimes things happen and you could be looking right at it and you think you've gone over all the possibilities and explanations, yet it still seems impossble. That's because sometimes bizarre things happen and we simply don't know or consider all the possible explanations. Whether it's Kennedy getting shot in a weird way or buildings falling in an unexpected way on 9-11, all that means is, there's an explanation that we haven't considered yet, maybe one so completely out there, so it seems suspicious to us.

(cont)

[jimibear]

"But sometimes, *** just happens and you can't always explain every aspect of it. That doesn't make it a grand plot though.

Posted by Rafterman1 at 12:24 PM : May 25, 2007
+ report abuse"

I see your point; I think many people turn to religion to feel they have control as well.

In dealing with the government, though, my distrust runs so deeply (and repeatedly justifiably so) that when we are told something, my assumption is that it is a lie until proven true.

I am fully aware that JFK (or any of us, at any time) can be taken down by some dink or killed randomly. That doesn't alter the fact that the official story of his assassination is flatly impossible due to simple laws of physics.

I'm not saying the gov't bumped him off, but I do suspect that the lone gunman theory, etc. was put together to cover incompetence in protecting the President's life and a serious failure in security. "It was some loony - no way we could have stopped him" is a lot easier to defend than the simple fact that at least two people in different locations would have had to shoot at the limo in order for the wounds sustained by Kennedy and Connolly to have happened as they did. It is just not possible for one bullet to hit someone from the front and from the back at the same time, while at the same time hitting someone else and denting the outside of the car door.