Gov. Connaly Bullet Fragments

[Ty Carpenter]

Hi everyone,

This is my first post. I have been keeping up on the site for some time but was struck by something yesterday.

Is there any truth in the fact/theory that there is/was more metal in Conallys wrist than is missing from the "magic bullet"? I happen to believe this to be true which if proven would prove conspiracy or at least WC falsification. If we could obtain the wrist shrapnel and compare missing parts or compare metallurgy vs the "magic bullet" that would pretty much either close the case "if things matched up" or blow it wide open in the public spectrum. I realize this evidence has proven hard to obtain but would a try 20 years later be worth it?

Thoughts?

[Tracy Riddle]

If I recall, when Connally died in 1993 there was an effort to remove the remaining fragments from his wrist (and his thigh also?) before burial, but the family said no.

It's been years since I wallowed in all of this minutiae, but I remember Harold Weisberg saying that the only metal missing from CE 399 was removed by the FBI (from the base and the nose) for their testing.

[Michael Cross]

David Josephs has (I believe) a photo of the fragments recovered from Conally.

There is clearly more metal that is missing from CE399.

[Ty Carpenter]

Yes, if we could only prove that the supposed bullet did not leave the fragments we would have proof positive of misgivings. To me it is less about matching up the pieces and more about determining if the metals are even a match. Why wouldn't the lone nutters get behind this? If they are so certain that things went down as the official story claims they should have no problem pursuing this route. I think they would love to shut us all up once and for all. The problem is when real evidence or a chance of there being real evidence is involved, they shy away because they are not 100% confident in their thesis.

[Ty Carpenter]

There is an xray photo of fragments in his arm after he had healed (not certain of when xrays were taken). It is said that the fragments were never removed. There is more shrapnel shown in the xray then could be missing from CE 399.

[Drew Phipps]

My recollection is, the actual doctors that operated on Connally and actually removed metal from his body were always very skeptical of the "pristine bullet." The fact is, there was metal removed from Connally during surgery, there was metal remaining in his body after the surgery. The actual bits and pieces (that survived the WC evidence gathering process) did not add up to enough metal to rule out CE399. However, no one actually weighed the fragments that remained in his body.

The other problem is of course that no one knows exactly how much CE399 might have weighed before firing. The Warren Commission used an estimate at the high end of the spectrum IIRC. Your guess is as good as anyone else's.

Of course, Connally himself didn't believe the origin story of CE399, and in fact, recollected that a bullet fragment large enough to make an audible noise fell from his body, in the process of him getting on the examination table, which fragment was allegedly put into an envelope by a nurse and turned over to the FBI...except the FBI doesn't seem to have the fragment, although the envelope itself seems to have left a partial evidentiary trail.

The problem with comparing the fragments to CE399 now, of course, is that nobody really believes that CE 399 AND the fragments in evidence are actually authentic, in fact there is an FBI lab guy (Guinn?) that testified that lab fragments were missing or had been switched; and also, neutron activation analysis is no longer considered a reliable way to match bullet metals.

Search this site (or Google) for "stretcher bullet" to see some of the stretcher bullet lore. You also could attempt to measure the 2D "area" of the metal bits in the x-rays, take a guess at the "third dimension" thickness, and then calculate their weight...

[Albert Doyle]

Of course, Connally himself didn't believe the origin story of CE399, and in fact, recollected that a bullet fragment large enough to make an audible noise fell from his body, in the process of him getting on the examination table, which fragment was allegedly put into an envelope by a nurse and turned over to the FBI...except the FBI doesn't seem to have the fragment, although the envelope itself seems to have left a partial evidentiary trail.

Bob Harris's video leaves no doubt it was an entire bullet.

[Drew Phipps]

The problem with the "entire bullet" idea is the same problem with the "pristine bullet" idea...how do you leave so much lead behind and still get a whole bullet?

[Albert Doyle]

Robert Harris: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKwqhf0MYio