Incredible Wounds of Governor Connally

[Bob Prudhomme]

Excellent article, Herbert. I would like to add to the information you presented about the wrist wound, as I believe it alone presents enough impossibilities by itself to completely discredit the Single Bullet Theory.

As you pointed out, the FBI's Robert Frazier measured the entry and exit wounds on Connally's coat, finding the entrance wound to be 5/8"x1/4" and the exit wound to be a round wound 3/8" in diameter. Clearly, as is characteristic of a very long bullet of this calibre, this bullet was not deflected by striking Connally's thorax and was continuing straight and true with minimal yaw. It most definitely was not tumbling at this point. Yet, within the space of a few inches, it had tumbled sufficiently that it hit the dorsal aspect of Connally's right wrist side on, leaving a 2.5x.5 cm. entrance wound on Connally's wrist. How did this 6.5mm bullet, dubbed by some as a "flying drill", exit Connally's coat straight and true and immediately begin to tumble?

Unless a person was severely double jointed in the elbows, and there is no evidence Connally was, it is impossible to rotate the wrist back far enough that the dorsal (back) aspect of the wrist is facing the thorax. This can be proven at home by anyone reading this. Hold your right wrist at a point level with an area on your chest, just below the right nipple, and try turning your wrist so that the back of the wrist faces the chest. As you will quickly learn, it not only cannot be done, even getting close to this position is extremely uncomfortable and not a natural position.

As presented to us by the WC, the intact, unscathed bullet known as CE399, or more fondly as the "Magic Bullet", passed through a narrow gap between the radius and ulna bones of Connally's right distal forearm. While I have pointed out, in the last paragraph, the impossibility of this, due to the unavoidable fact Connally could not have rotated his forearm far enough to line up this gap between the two bones with the path of the bullet, the matter is further complicated by studying the x-rays of Connally's forearm.





In the top x-ray, we are looking at the underside or "palm" side of Connally's right wrist, with the right thumb clearly distinguishable on the right side of the x-ray. The long bone on the right is the "radius", clearly broken by the bullet, and the bone on the left is the "ulna". The small white specks are flakes of lead, likely shed from the open base of a full metal jacket bullet. This "shedding" of flakes would have occurred as the FMJ bullet struck bone and began to deform and compress, making the space inside the FMJ smaller and squeezing flakes of malleable lead out the base like toothpaste from a tube. Special note should be made that the flakes and the majority of impact damage to the radius bone appear to be quite some distance from the gap between the radius and ulna bones.

The bottom x-rays show, on the left, a side view of Connally's right forearm with the radius bone closest to the viewer. The last x-ray, on the bottom right, presents a dorsal view of the back side of Connally's right forearm, with the right thumb visible on the right side of the x-ray. This is the best view of the bone damage and one can actually see the impact crater left by the bullet. As you recall, the entrance wound made by this bullet was 2.5 cm. x .5 cm., meaning the bullet was travelling through the air sideways when it struck the radius bone. Looking at this x-ray, we can see the base of the bullet would have hit at the lower right end of the fracture, depositing lead there, and the nose would have struck further up the crack made by the bullet. A closer inspection shows us that the cratering of the radius bone stops well before the gap between the radius and the ulna bones.

The question that should be on everyone's mind at this point is, if the bullet did not pass through the radius bone, and Connally's surgeon stated it did not, why was the bullet not stopped at the radius bone? It clearly hit the radius bone square on, without penetrating it. As there is next to no meat over the radius bone at this point, an intact bullet striking the radius bone here and stopping should have fallen to the ground a few seconds later.

If CE 399 passed between radius and ulna, as the WC would have us believe, how did it negotiate itself away from the smashed radius bone, slide laterally an inch to the gap, and re-launch itself to pass through the gap between radius and ulna?

The only logical conclusion a thinking person can draw, from the available evidence, is that Connally's right forearm and thorax were struck by separate bullets. However, this conclusion leads us into another conundrum that also involves the back wound and the throat wound, and is a puzzle that has bothered me for years.

One of the things noted by Connally's surgeon was the relatively small amount of damage inflicted by CE 399 on the radius bone of Connally's forearm, considering the bullet was supposedly propelled by a rifle at close range. He noted that rifle bullet wounds of this nature usually inflict so much damage to a bone, amputation of the limb is often the only recourse. The WC lawyers immediately seized upon this observation and interpreted it to mean CE 399 had slowed considerably as it passed through JFK and Connally's ribs. However, if we couple this observation with the fact that the bullet struck side on and was likely a de-stabilized bullet that had begun to tumble, an entirely new yet very puzzling possibility presents itself. This is, of course, assuming the bullet that struck Connally's right forearm did not contact anything else on its way from the muzzle.

Also, if we assume JFK's back wound and throat wound to have been caused by separate bullets, we now have three bullets with very similar and very puzzling records.

First, a FMJ bullet with a muzzle velocity of 2200 fps carries a great amount of energy and penetrating power. If this bullet travelled less than 100 yards and struck JFK in the back 5.75" below the collar line, it would not be unreasonable to assume this bullet would have passed completely through JFK's thorax. Considering the angle this bullet was travelling at, it would not be unreasonable to further assume this bullet would have passed through the base of the limo driver's seat.

Second, the throat wound, if inflicted by another FMJ rifle bullet, should have passed completely through JFK's neck vertebrae, shattering these vertebrae on the way through and completely severing JFK's spinal cord.

There seem to be three bullets that were not performing anywhere near to what would be expected of a rifle bullet. Were they from defective cartridges? Were they purposely underloaded with gunpowder, to minimize collateral damage?

I don't have the answers to these questions but I would be interested to hear everyone's opinion on this matter.