Simulations & Tests Questions

[Bill Fite]

Hi

I've become interested in the area of the simulations and tests that have been performed of the assassination.

I was aware some of the simulations:

• test firing MC rounds at goat bones and the resulting misshapen bullets
  
• FBI testing whether or not 3 shots could be fired in 5.6 seconds
  
• audio simulations to confirm the open-mike recording of the shot sequence
  
• some simulations where 1 possible successful shot was shown (the Australian one) without regard to wound location.
  

I recently read Head Shot: The Science Behind the JFK Assassination and was very surprised to read about the paraffin / neutron activation analysis (NAA) simulation done by the FBI.

"Following up on the paraffin results, long-time assassination researcher Harold Weisberg and his attorney, James Lesar, obtained the raw data from Oswald's paraffin wax test through the Freedom of Information Act.53 After their analysis in Dallas, the paraffin casts had been sent to the FBI Laboratory for a more sensitive spectroscopic analysis. The FBI found the same negative result for the cast of Oswald's cheek as that obtained in Dallas. The cast was then submitted to a third analysis at the Atomic Energy Commission at Oak Ridge National Laboratories in Tennessee, where they performed neutron activation analysis using a nuclear reactor. In this extremely sensitive technique, a sample is irradiated, and the resulting radioisotopes identified through spectroscopy of the radiation, typically gamma rays, that they subsequently emit. The precise energy of this radiation is characteristic of a given isotope and therefore of the element that produced it. These scientists reported that Oswald's cheek casting "could not be specifically associated with rifle, nor could the hand samples be chemically linked to revolver cartridges."54 Concomitant with these tests, the FBI had also conducted a control study where seven different men fired the Mannlicher-Carcano rifle and subsequently had paraffin casts taken of their cheeks. Analysis of these casts using neutron activation analysis showed that, unlike Oswald, all of the men who had fired shots in the control study exhibited the presence of nitrates on their cheeks.55 Therefore, this controlled experimental analysis demonstrated that Oswald had not fired a rifle on November 22, 1963, the day of the assassination and his arrest."

Chambers, G. Paul. Head Shot: The Science Behind the JFK Assassination (p. 172). Prometheus Books. Kindle Edition.

This, by itself, would indicate Oswald wasn't one of the shooters as a positive NAA test indicates membership in the set of possible suspects while a negative one excludes the subject as a member.

My questions are:

1. Are there any other simulations / tests that have been done that are this interesting and not generally known?
   
2. Why when a recreation is done for a television special don't those setting it up get 30 to 100 people with roughly the same marksmanship as Oswald was measured at and have them shoot at a simulated target following the path of the limo? The same could be done for a Grassy Knoll or other location ( DalTex, sewer and other locations) to assess the likelihood of successful shots from those locations. I realize that one answer here is the assumption that the media does not want to take the chance on what this might reveal.