Those who demand that everyone "just ACCEPT that Oswald did it"...

[stopbush]

269. So, let's discuss:

Let's take the second bullet shot first.

It was full metal jacket bullet, a bullet specifically designed to pass through the human body, rather than disintegrating and causing major internal injury. The bullet that struck JFK and Connally acted exactly as it was designed to act. It passed through tissue entering JFK and never hit bone while passing through him. Exiting JFK, the bullet began to yaw and entered Connally creating a elliptical entry wound. It struck Connally's rib in a glancing - not a head-on - fashion, exited his torso, glanced off his wrist (fracturing the bone in the process) and ended up barely entering his thigh as its energy had pretty much dissipated at that point. The bullet never "passed through bone." Most of its journey was through soft tissue. The bullet fragments that were left in Connally's body consisted of lead that was extruding from the back of the bullet as it passed through him.

BTW - characterizing the bullet's path as "an epic trip" simply ignores the design of this particular bullet, and of the design of the Carcano rifle, not to mention that the "trip" itself lasted about 1/18th of a second. The bullet itself was not tapered along its length as are other bullets. Tests show that the rifling in the Carcano barrel was able to grab onto the sides of this particular bullet and keep it from wavering as it exited the barrel. That alone helped to increase both the velocity and the trueness of the bullet's flight before it struck JFK. Muzzle velocity of the rifle was 2200-2400fps.

The Carcano rifle earned a reputation for inaccuracy due to the poor design and manufacture of Italian-made cartridges. Seals were not tight, and the smokeless powder used in them was often compromised by moisture breaching the seals. Chemicals used in the primers were corrosive, which led to firing pins piercing the primers, which caused blowback in the chamber.

But the cartridges used by Oswald were American-made by the Western Cartridge Company (which acquired the Winchester Repeating Arms Co. in 1931). These cartridges had no such defects and performed to a high level of accuracy and penetrating power.

I have seen numerous tests on TV using the same model rifle and ammo as Oswald used that come up with the exact same results, and with a bullet in the same relatively "pristine" shape as CE399. The recent NOVA program on this very issue had this bullet fired from a Carcano rifle penetrating almost 3 feet of pine boards without veering off course and with no visible damage to the bullet. The same bullet fired through ballistic jelly on that same program yawed as it exited the target that was set up to simulate JFK's body, entering the next surface (representing Connally) and leaving an elliptical entry wound.

On the Discovery Channel's program filmed in Australia, these same bullets acted remarkably as they did the day of the assassination, even down to one of the test bullets following the exact same path through the dummies set up to represent JFK AND Connally and bouncing off Connally's thigh. The dummies were filled with ballistic jelly and hard surfaces to simulate bone in these tests.

In short, there is nothing about the Western CC bullets fired from a Carcano rifle that defies any law of physics. I have seen the tests with my own eyes (filmed at 20,000 fps), and they prove beyond any reasonable doubt that the single bullet theory is, indeed, a single bullet fact.

As far your citing Newton, I'd ask you to check out this link: http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/headwnd.htm, which compiles testimony about JFK's head wound given by ballistic experts who appeared before the HSCA and the Rockefeller Commission. Here's an excerpt from that link of testimony given to the RC:

"Before we move on to the HSCA and others, let's look at those portions of the Rockefeller Commission Medical Panel's reports which deal directly with the relationship between JFK's movements following z-313 and what it tells us about the source of the bullet.

"This panel is a fertile source of expert opinion because, instead of collaborating on one report, each of the five doctors filed their own report. The basic outline of each report consisted of addressing fourteen specific questions. Question number seven was: "Is the motion of the President's head and body following the fatal head shot consistent with the shot striking him from the rear? from the front? from the right front? from the right side?"

What follows are those portions of the medical reports which deal with this question.

1. Dr. Fred Hodges, Professor of Radiology (Neuroradiology), The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine: "7) The motion of the President's head as shown in the Zapruder film does not indicate the direction of the shot in my opinion, but the visible blow-out of tissue and bony fragments in frame 313 and subsequent frames do conclusively indicate the bullet came from behind. The head motion subsequently is interpreted as due to involuntary muscle extension and not due to the direction of the injury."

2. Alfred G. Oliver, DVM, Chief, Biophysics Division, Edgewood Arsenal: "7. The movement of the President's body would bear no relationship to the direction of the shot. As for the motion of the President's head, I would have to see precise measurements taken from the motion picture film, to make a final judgment here."

3. Robert R. McMeekin, MD, forensic pathologist, Chief, Division of Aerospace Pathology, AFIP: "7. The motion of the President's head is inconsistent with the shot striking him from any direction other than the rear."

4. Werner U. Spitz, M.D., forensic pathologist, Chief Medical Examiner, Wayne County, Michigan: "7. It is impossible to conclude from the motion of the President's head and body following the head shot, from which direction the shots came. There is no doubt that as soon as the President was struck in the head, death occurred. The President's body was thus limp, devoid of control and stability normally exerted by the cerebral centers. Nothing would keep the body up at this stage and a forward drop is likely to occur. The subsequent backward movement of the President's head can be explained by sudden decerebration. This position is well known as "decerebrate posture" and is characterized by opisthotonos, a tetanic spasm -- or seizure-like condition."

5. Richard Lindenberg, M.D., Director of Neuropathology and Legal Medicine, State of Maryland: "Immediately after the shot through the head the President took rather abruptly an almost erect position before slumping over to the left. This straightening is to be considered a sudden opisthotonic reflex movement due to decerebration."

As far as the WCC bullet that struck JFK in the head, it suffered great damage, even breaking apart, as it DID encounter the skull upon both entering and exiting JFK. Fragments of this bullet were found in the limo - they came from the same Western Cartridge lot of bullets as did CE399 (the WCC was able to trace Oswald's purchase of ammunition from them back to the exact lots from which the inventory was pulled).

I hope you find this helpful in pursuing a meaningful discussion.

Finally, I would ask one question: you say that you "aren't so quick to accept everything the government feeds us at face value." Well, aren't ALL investigations of murder in this country performed by the government at one level or another? Are you actually saying that you have no faith in any murder investigation conducted in the country, as they are all undertaken by government agencies?