Inexplicable Wounds made by Special Bullets

[Bob Prudhomme]

My question stems here from my layman's understanding of how "pressure" works; it is normally going to rupture the weakest area of the container. If you watch those available videos of bullets, passing from rear to front, thru gelatin filled skulls (only an analogy for brain tissue), you will see that inevitably, it is the fragile spots of the skull, namely the nasal areas and eye sockets, that rupture under the pressure wave. Both parts of the skull, occipital or parietal, which might have been location of the blowout (depending on who you believe) are much more robust areas in adults. It doesn't appear that edge of either of the alleged blowout areas corresponds with the natural seams in the skill.

The lack of mention of such injuries to the nasal/eye area, as a part of the autopsy, leads me to believe that, in addition to whatever else happened, the part of the skull that was the site of the blowout had been dramatically weakened, presumably from the passage of the first (or only) bullet, to be less robust even than the nasal/eye socket area.

If the bullet, or a fragment thereof, had entered the skull and exited the skull at a glancing angle, those entry/exit points might have created a "seam" in the skull which weakened it.

Hi Drew

Yes, this was pretty much what I was saying, that the first bullet entering the rear weakened that part of the skull and set it up as the site of a blowout. However, you are also correct in saying there should have been a blowout in the facial area. I cannot say with any certainty why this did not occur.

It is interesting you mention damage to the nasal passages and eye socket areas. Although I have read nothing from the autopsy doctors that mentions any damage there (not saying it isn't there, though), it is the mortician Thomas Robinson that provides us with information on this. In the HSCA interview he did with Andy Purdy (hidden away until the ARRB forced its release, as were other ARRB medical interviews), he relates that every bone in JFK's face was broken, as seen from the interior of the skull. He also stated there were several "leaks" in JFK's face made by shrapnel that required filling with wax. In light of this revelation, it is often difficult to see how JFK's handsome facial features looked so intact in the autopsy photos. I have also looked very closely at these photos, and have never been able to see any shrapnel "leaks" in JFK's face.