Mistakes in PBS Nova "Cold Case JFK"

[Tony Fratini]

Going over this picture from the animation in Cold Case JFK, I noticed a mistake made by the animator. This mistake highlights what is, to me, the primary reason the SBT is not feasible, and why Connally's wrist had to be struck by a bullet all its own.



In this picture, we see the bullet entering the palm side of Connally's wrist and exiting the back side of his wrist; passing between the radius and ulna bones of his forearm. In fact, medical records from Parkland Hospital show the bullet ENTERING the back of the wrist, and EXITING the palm side of the wrist; exactly the opposite of what you see above.

As well, the animator has depicted the bullet travelling at far too steep of an angle, almost appearing to be 45°. As you all know, the angle from the 6th floor was only 18-20° to begin with. Connally was struck by a bullet under the right armpit and that bullet exited just under his right nipple. In the cartoon above, it appears to be entering at the top of his shoulder, and exiting at the level of his navel; a gross exaggeration if I have ever seen one.

The importance of the wrist wound to debunking the entire SBT should not be underestimated. According to medical records, Connally was struck by a bullet in the "dorsal-lateral section" of his right forearm, just above his wrist. The bullet struck the radius bone full on, fracturing the radius into several pieces without deforming the bullet (see CE 399). It is suspected, from the long bullet hole in JBC's shirt cuff and the nature of the wound, that the bullet had been tumbling when it struck JBC and that it hit his forearm side on instead of nose first.

Dorsal-lateral means that the bullet hit the back or dorsal aspect of JBC's wrist towards the radius side or "lateral". In order for it to have hit this spot so squarely after exiting JBC's thorax at a 20-25° angle, it would be necessary for the back of his wrist to be facing his chest and perpendicular to the path of the bullet. Unless JBC was severely double jointed in his right elbow, and there is no evidence to support this, it was physically impossible for him to be holding his forearm in this fashion. Try this your self. In a sitting position, try holding your right wrist at the level of your right nipple and rotating your forearm back enough to present the back of your wrist to the path CE 399 would have taken. Unless you are India Rubber Man, it can't be done.

What is even more remarkable is that CE 399 was supposed to have struck the radius bone square on, and yet somehow have backed up and then passed neatly between the radius and the ulna, without leaving a mark on the ulna bone.



Radius bone and thumb seen on right. X-ray taken from palm side of wrist. Note small flakes of lead that were shed from the base of a FMJ bullet as it compressed after striking radius bone.

P.S. I just noticed, in the cartoon above, CE 399 exiting JFK at about the level of his right nipple.

Hi Bob,

Your last comment is extremely important and very observant. if you have a look at JFK Beyond the magic bullet (on youtube), which I am sure you have, the "researchers" from Adelaide, South Australia, set up two anatomically correct torsos in a mock up limo and fired FMJ rounds from the appropriate weapon, height, etc. They were very cautious about lining up the torsos correctly, etc. When they obtained their results, the bullet didn't penetrate the "thigh" of JC and the bullet was much more distorted than CE399. This surprised the researchers. The researchers claimed they had reproduced the SBT by their test firing. The wound to JC was more or less in the correct location, so it initially looked great. However, what was unbelievably dishonest was when they showed the bullet path through JFK from the side on view without mentioning it that the bullet had in fact exited the CHEST of the JFK torso and was no where near the throat wound as seen at Parkland by several of the Doctors and medical staff. Also they gave the analysis of the wounds to a Dr on the show to come up with a conclusion to what caused the wounds without telling him it was from the JFK assassination. He concluded that it was the result of TWO separate gun shots, not one. You can also quickly see the use of a metal probe on a skeleton to map the trajectory, again it was nowhere near the throat. It matched the diagram above, providing further evidence that the SBT is nothing but a made up concoction initially dreamed up by Mr Belin and then advanced by Mr Specter.
To make matters worse, they very quickly showed a wound sheet of the torsos, and you guessed it, the out shoot of the bullet to JFK was in the chest, not in the throat. Now, if the WC are stating that CE399 never went through a bony structure, how did it change course to exit through the throat?
The only way that CE399 was going to work was if JFK was crouched over touching his chest with his chin and for JC to have swivelled all the way to JFKs left hand side. None of this happened.
Further, despite their best efforts, Humes et al at Bethesda were never able to show that JFK had sustained a through and through back wound, despite using chrome metal probes. What ever hit JFK in the upper back was a non exiting bullet. The bullet was defective. Of course, this meant that there was at least one additional shot fired from above and behind and it couldn't have been from "LHOs" weapon.
If the viewers were not aware of this, you would have been left with the false impression that the researchers had reproduced the SBT. It didn't happen on the 22/11/1963 and it hasn't happened since.