Drew Phipps Wrote:Some material from "Presumed Guilty" by Howard Roffman (1975)

Chapter 4:

"The nature of the bullet fragmentation within the President's head actually disassociates military bullets from the head wounds, and strongly suggests that some type of sporting ammunition struck the head.
One essential fact about the entrance wound in the head was omitted from both the autopsy report and the pathologists' testimonies. It came to light in the following passage from a report released by Attorney General Ramsey Clark in January 1969. (In February 1968, Clark secretly convened a panel of three forensic pathologists and a radiologist to study and report on the photographs and X rays taken of the President's body during the autopsy. [This photographic material has been withheld from the public for a variety of reasons.] Clark kept the report of his panel secret until January 1969, when he released it as part of the Justice Department's legal argument against New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison's attempt to have the pictures and X rays produced at the conspiracy trial of Clay Shaw.) The passage reads:

Also there is, embedded in the outer table of the skull close to the lower edge of the [entrance] hole, a large metallic fragment which . . . lies 25 mm. to the right of the midline. This fragment . . . is round and measures 6.5 mm. in diameter.[SIZE=-1][6] [/SIZE]

The "Clark Panel" is describing a 6.5 mm. piece of metal that separated from the bullet upon entering the skull and became embedded in the skull at the bottom portion of the entrance wound. This, the key to the type of ammunition causing the wound, vitiates Dr. Humes's previously cited testimony that a "jacketed bullet" probably caused this entrance wound.
The bullet from which was shaved this substantial fragment upon entrance could not have been covered with a hard metal jacket such as copper alloy. Such a fragment is, in fact, a not infrequent occurrence from a lead bullet. Rowland Long, in his book The Physician and the Law, speaks of the penetration of lead bullets into the skull and asserts: "Not infrequently a collar shaped fragment of lead is shaved off around the wound of entrance and is found embedded in the surrounding scalp tissues."[7] Criminologist LeMoyne Snyder describes a similar phenomenon in his book Homicide Investigation[8] Forensic pathologist Halpert Fillinger explained to me the principles that rule out full-jacketed ammunition and suggest a lead bullet:

You can appreciate the fact that a jacketed projectile is going to leave very little on the [bone] margins because it's basically a hardened jacket, and it's designed so that it will not scrape off when it goes through a steel barrel. One can appreciate the fact that going through bone, which is not as hard as steel, may etch or scratch it, but it's not going to peel off much metal. In contrast to this a softer projectile might very well leave little metallic residues around the margins.[SIZE=-1][9] [/SIZE]

The Commission's case against Oswald requires full-jacketed ammunition to have been used to inflict the wounds of President Kennedy. The presence of the 6.5 mm. metallic fragment in the margin of the skull entrance wound eliminates the possibility that a full-jacketed bullet entered through this hole. Such a fragment located at that site is indicative of a lead or soft-nosed bullet."

Later in Chapter 4:

" The loss of a substantial quantity of brain tissue becomes significant when we consider Dr. Humes's testimony that the X rays showed "30 or 40 tiny dustlike particle fragments" of metal in the President's head (2H353). Humes cautioned that the fragments that appeared to be "the size of dust particles" (2H359) on the X rays would actually have been smaller because "X ray pictures . . . have a tendency to magnify these minute fragments somewhat in size" (2H353). Secret Service Agent Roy Kellerman saw the X rays during the autopsy and provided a similar description: " . . . the whole head looked like a little mass of stars, there must have been 30, 40 lights where these little pieces were so minute that they couldn't be reached" (2H100).
The Clark Panel adds some details about the head fragments. It reports that the majority of these fragments were located "anteriorly and superiorly" (toward the front and top of the head), and that none were visible on the left side of the brain or below a horizontal plane through the anterior floor of the skull.[10] With such minute fragments scattered through the brain, we can infer that an indeterminable amount of metal was evacuated from the head as brain tissue oozed out subsequent to the President's head being struck. From this it follows that (a) there were originally more fragments in the head than are shown in the X rays and, (b) the pattern of distribution of these fragments as illustrated by the X rays may not precisely represent the original distribution except to indicate that the majority were situated toward the front of the head.
The only solid observation that can be made on the basis of fragmentation depicted in the head X rays is that a bullet striking the head fragmented extensively, leaving pieces of metal, for the most part "the size of dust particles," concentrated toward the frontal portion of the brain. This type of fragmentation is not consistent with the type of full-jacketed military ammunition that the Commission says was used. The construction and composition of full-jacketed bullets obviates any such massive break-up. As noted previously, when military ammunition fragments, it is usually in such a manner that the core separates from the jacket. The core may undergo further break-up, although its metallic composition does not permit the creation of numerous dustlike particles.[11] Dr. Fillinger tells me that the fragments described in the President's brain were not characteristic of a military round, and, while he makes no absolute statement, he has expressed his skepticism that they actually came from such a round. He feels that the break-up of the bullet is more consistent with a hunting round.[12] "

Later:

" Because there was great damage to the head and extensive bullet fragmentation in the brain, Dr. Fillinger was doubtful that the Mannlicher-Carcano could have produced these wounds. "To produce this kind of effect," he told me, "you have to have a very high-velocity projectile, and the Carcano will not stand very high bolt pressures."[19] The massive defect corresponds perfectly to the characteristics that Humes described in reference to bullets that "have a common characteristic of fragmenting extensively upon striking," and that would have "extensively disrupted" the skull at the point of impact (2H356). Such a bullet would most likely be that which is used for "varminting." Bullets used in varmint hunting must be fired at very high velocities ranging upward from 2,700 f.p.s., and are designed so that they will smash apart immediately on impact. They commonly leave pinhead-sized fragments scattered throughout the tissues.[20] "

Drew Phipps Wrote:Was this frangible bullet widely commercially available in 1963? We have all assumed that Oswald didn't make his own ammo, since he lacked tools and a workshop, and nobody in Dallas that dealt in MC ammo was willing to ID Oswald as a customer.