Inexplicable Wounds made by Special Bullets

[Herbert Blenner]

Okay, now that you've had time to digest all of that, here is a real humdinger for you.

We had an entrance wound that was 1.5 cm. on its longest dimension on Connally's back, a narrow tunnelling wound indicative of a non-tumbling bullet and a whopping 5 cm. (2 inch) exit wound just below and to the left of Connally's right nipple.

Guess what size and shape the bullet hole in the front of Connally's coat was?

Remember our friend from the FBI, SA Robert A. Frazier, the one who couldn't do math very well and told all the fibs about CE 399 to the WC? Well, it seems that Connally's suit coat, after being dry cleaned to remove any real evidence, was given to Frazier for examination. He reported to the WC he found a ROUND hole 3/8 inch or .95 cm. in diameter in the front of this coat. .95 cm.?!?! For those who don't know Metric, that is 9.5 mm, only 2.7 mm bigger than a Carcano bullet. (for those unfamiliar with Metric, the bullet hole in the coat was about 1/10th inch larger than the diameter of a Carcano 6.5mm bullet)

I'd sure like to know just when and where this bullet was actually tumbling.

And how, coming through the coat straight and true, it managed to hit Connally's wrist travelling sideways, leaving a 2.5 x .5 cm. entrance wound.

Source: Warren Commission Testimony of Robert A. Frazier on May 13, 1964 - 5H, 63

Mr. SPECTER. What did your examination reveal with respect to the back side of the coat?
Mr. FRAZIER. There was found on the coat by me when I first examined it, near the right sleeve l l /8 inches from the seam where the sleeve attaches to the coat, and 7 1/4 inches to the right of the midline when you view the back of the coat, a hole which is elongated in a horizontal direction to the length of approximately five-eights of an inch and which had an approximate one-quarter inch height.

[Drew Phipps]

Do we need new pictures and measurements of the size of the holes in coat and shirt?

[Bob Prudhomme]

Okay, now that you've had time to digest all of that, here is a real humdinger for you.

We had an entrance wound that was 1.5 cm. on its longest dimension on Connally's back, a narrow tunnelling wound indicative of a non-tumbling bullet and a whopping 5 cm. (2 inch) exit wound just below and to the left of Connally's right nipple.

Guess what size and shape the bullet hole in the front of Connally's coat was?

Remember our friend from the FBI, SA Robert A. Frazier, the one who couldn't do math very well and told all the fibs about CE 399 to the WC? Well, it seems that Connally's suit coat, after being dry cleaned to remove any real evidence, was given to Frazier for examination. He reported to the WC he found a ROUND hole 3/8 inch or .95 cm. in diameter in the front of this coat. .95 cm.?!?! For those who don't know Metric, that is 9.5 mm, only 2.7 mm bigger than a Carcano bullet. (for those unfamiliar with Metric, the bullet hole in the coat was about 1/10th inch larger than the diameter of a Carcano 6.5mm bullet)

I'd sure like to know just when and where this bullet was actually tumbling.

And how, coming through the coat straight and true, it managed to hit Connally's wrist travelling sideways, leaving a 2.5 x .5 cm. entrance wound.

Source: Warren Commission Testimony of Robert A. Frazier on May 13, 1964 - 5H, 63

Mr. SPECTER. What did your examination reveal with respect to the back side of the coat?
Mr. FRAZIER. There was found on the coat by me when I first examined it, near the right sleeve l l /8 inches from the seam where the sleeve attaches to the coat, and 7 1/4 inches to the right of the midline when you view the back of the coat, a hole which is elongated in a horizontal direction to the length of approximately five-eights of an inch and which had an approximate one-quarter inch height.

Interesting, isn't it. Dr. Shaw describes an elliptical wound that is 1.5 cm. on its longest diameter, which happens to be the vertical diameter, and Frazier describes an elongated hole in the suit coat which is 5/8 inch on its longest diameter, which happens to be the horizontal diameter.

And 5/8 inch just happens to convert to 1.59 cm.

I wonder who is lying here.

[Bob Prudhomme]

Do we need new pictures and measurements of the size of the holes in coat and shirt?

Are you allowed close to them?

[Drew Phipps]

I can always ask. If they won't let me examine it myself I can ask for pictures with a ruler in it.

[Drew Phipps]

Do you guys think that it's worth it for me to get new measurements? Frazier wasn't that great at measurements the first time around, but are new digital pictures and measurements going to answer any questions?

[Bob Prudhomme]

Do you guys think that it's worth it for me to get new measurements? Frazier wasn't that great at measurements the first time around, but are new digital pictures and measurements going to answer any questions?

Yes, Drew, every bit of new knowledge is valuable, in that we may further educate ourselves.

[Bob Prudhomme]

I know I promised, quite a while back, to continue explaining all of the wounds in terms of how they might relate to frangible bullets. However, I have become mired in the wounds of Governor John B. Connally, and what I thought of one time as a simple matter has become anything but simple.

Therefore, the next phase of this thread will be devoted to strictly exploring those wounds and their relationship, or lack of, to the Single Bullet Theory. Once those have been discussed, I may have a deep enough understanding of the wounds to attempt to determine he type of bullet(s) they were caused by.

[Bob Prudhomme]

One of the interesting things about Dr. Robert R. Shaw's testimony to the WC, regarding his surgery on Connally's back wound, is that although he goes into great detail about his treatment of the wound, its size (1.5x.5 cm.) and its location, not once does he say whether the elliptical wound was orientated with the long axis of the wound vertical or horizontal. The vertical orientation accepted by the WC is shown below:



However, when FBI SA Robert A. Frazier testified to the WC about his examination of Connally's suit coat and shirt, he reported finding an elliptical hole in the armpit of the coat, at the rear, that had a long axis orientated on the horizontal; 90° out from the orientation of the wound, as presented to the WC. The matter was further complicated, years later, when Dr. Baden was allowed to view the scar on Connally's back, and reported seeing a horizontal scar 3 cm. in length, the length Shaw reported opening the entry wound up to during the operation.

As a vertical wound cannot be reconciled with a horizontal hole in a coat, we have to ask if the diagram above, supposedly approved by Dr. Shaw, is the one that was actually shown to Shaw while he was testifying. We also have to ask if the entry wound could have been that close to the shoulder blade and still allowed the bullet to follow the course it did across the right front corner of Connally's chest. Finally, we have to ask why anyone would take the trouble of moving the location of the entry wound, and how this would affect the vertical/horizontal orientation of this wound.

Let us quickly go over Connally's back wound again. As seen in the diagram, Connally was struck by a bullet in the back that entered and penetrated the latissimus dorsi muscle. It then struck the 5th rib a tangential or "slapping" blow at the mid axillary line and followed the course of the 5th rib downwards for 10 cm. (4 inches), stripping out much of the rib along the way, and sending shards of broken rib into Connally's pleural cavity and right lung. The bullet, travelling a right to left course along the outside of the rib, then left the rib and exited just below and medial to (to the left of) Connally's right nipple, leaving a 5 cm. (2 inch) exit wound.

As there is no question the wound track was from right to left at 20-40°, I am going to show that it was necessary for Connally to be turned a good distance to his right, in order for a bullet fired from behind the limo to have made this wound. I am also going to show that the location of the entrance wound, as shown in the WC diagram, would have made the wound track on the outside of the 5th rib impossible, and that, if the bullet had entered here, it would have gone directly into Connally's right lung.

Here is the basic problem:



The 5th rib can be seen as marked with a "5" and, coincidentally, where the "5" is situated is also where the bullet left Connally's 5th rib, on its way to exiting just to the left of the right nipple. Just to the right of the "5", in the diagram, the end of the rib can be seen joining onto a rib-like section drawn in blue. The rib bone actually ends at this joint, and the blue section is called the "costal cartilage".

Now, if we follow the 5th rib towards the back, we find a point, at the side of the ribcage, where the curve of the rib changes direction, and starts heading towards the backbone. This point is known as the "mid axillary line"



and it is here, at the mid axillary line, that Dr. Shaw testified the bullet first contacted the 5th rib. So, if we look again at the WC diagram, with the bullet entering the back and just missing the right shoulder blade, and then look again at the frontal view of the rib cage, showing the scapula (shoulder blade) behind the rib cage, it becomes apparent that a bullet striking Connally's back at the point claimed by the WC would have hit the 5th rib much further back than reported by Dr. Shaw, and also stood a very good chance of going right through the 5th rib, and entering the lung beneath it.

If it did just miss the shoulder blade, and it did strike the 5th rib at the mid axillary line, it would not be going the right direction to be able to follow the course of the 5th rib and exit just to the left of the right nipple, without making a severe turn to the left.

Should Connally have been turned to his right when hit in the back, the problem becomes worse if the entry wound remains just outside the scapula. With the rib cage rotated to the right, the 5th rib would now be presented squarely to the path of the bullet, and the bullet would go directly into the right lung.

I have to run and do some chores. I'll let you mull this over, and I'll continue tonight.

[Bob Prudhomme]

Just as a refresher, here are the diagrams again:





As can be seen, amd as I stated earlier, the location of the entrance wound in the WC diagram would have the bullet impacting the posterior segment of Connally's 5th rib, contrary to Dr. Shaw's testimony, which tells us the bullet first contacted the 5th rib at the mid axillary line, or extreme outside edge of the ribcage.

This diagram will explain things a bit better:


This diagram shows the ribs on the left side but the argument remains the same. Now, imagine, on this diagram, the entrance wound as stated by the WC, and then move the entrance wound over to where the arm meets the chest. Raise the arm slightly, and try to picture the bullet the bullet coming to the rib from out to the left (in Connally's case, the right). This angle could be achieved in two ways. 1) Connally could have been turned well to his right and been struck by a bullet coming from behind the limo or 2) The bullet could have come from a point further west than the SE corner of the 6th floor of the TSBD. Either way, the bullet could only have done the things Dr. Shaw claimed it did if it had entered Connally's latissimus dorsi muscle at its extreme outside margin.

At this point of Connally's chest (mid axillary line), the contour of the thorax has begun to curve towards the front of the chest. A bullet from the rear striking the thorax here would almost be travelling parallel to the surface of the skin, and would leave an elliptical entry wound, as claimed by Dr. Shaw. Nowhere in Shaw's testimony does he ever state whether the entry wound was vertical or horizontal. However, there is evidence telling us the entrance wound was likely horizontal. The FBI's SA Robert A. Frazier examined Connally's suit coat, and testified to the WC that there was a horizontally elliptical hole in the armpit of the coat. Dr. Michael Baden, who headed the HSCA's medical panel, actually had Gov. Connally remove his shirt, that he might view the scar on Connally's back himself. To no one's surprise, Dr. Baden reported a 3 cm. elliptical scar that was on the horizontal; slightly tilted downwards to the front of Connally's chest. As Dr. Shaw stated to the WC, the wound he found was 1.5 x .5 cm., and he opened that wound up to 3 cm. during surgery.

How does this relate to the SBT? Quite simply put, I believe Connally could only have been hit by a bullet passing through JFK's neck if Connally had been turned to his extreme right at the time JFK was shot. Strangely enough, newsman Dan Rather tells us this is what he observed, when he viewed the Zapruder film on 25/11/63.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LuHdK-4M1Wc