An ongoing research into the JFK assassination

© 2006 Dave Conklin

After reading a copy of the Warren Report back in 1994, I became interested in the subject of the JFK assassination. After studying the subject for a short while, I came up with a theory that attempted to explain some of the discrepancies concerning the magic bullet. Armed with a 1991 NOVA documentary that asserted that JFK's neck wound did not line up with the sixth floor and a photo journal with some severely cropped and backwards autopsy photos, I formulated a plausible sounding theory to account for the missing bullet that involved a second rifleman and a bullet ricocheting off hardware (the jumpseat grab-bars) located in the interior of the limo. From the start, my focus has almost exclusively been on the physical evidence and the question as to what exactly happened ballistically at Dealey Plaza. After a fruitless search for the hardware; which, of course, had been destroyed in the "quick fix," I pretty much abandoned the subject until the spring of 2001 when I decided to put my ideas on a web page for other researchers. At the time, I was skeptical of the whole magic bullet concept. After four more years of studying the subject with the aid of the Internet, I have come to the conclusion that the Warren Commission very likely got it right, and the head shot was also from Oswald's rifle to the exclusion of anything else. The magic bullet may be a hard pill to swallow even for those of us that are less inclined to point fingers, and there are a lot of "could have beens," but, in my opinion, no other theory or evidence to the contrary has stood up including my own. Anyone's research can be picked apart and criticized, but I believe the information is out there--however scattered in bits & bytes, books, volumes of testimony, tests, and studies--that, all taken together, explains how the magic bullet might have been something close to magic, but not outside the realm of possibility.

It still leaves some unanswered questions to be sure--there is still the corroborating witness testimony that suggests the possibility of additional explosions going off in Dealey at the time of the shooting. But I do believe, all things considered, that the stretcher bullet was most likely the same bullet that past through both John F. Kennedy and Governor John Connally. And that the fatal head shot was very likely fired from Oswald's rifle to the exclusion of any other firearm. Perhaps to echo the Warren Commission's conclusion back in 1964; there is just no good evidence, in my opinion, that a shot struck anyone in the vehicle from anywhere except the traditional sniper's nest.

I have devoted this page to presenting some of what I think is the best evidence that supports the conclusion that only two shots from the rear were responsible for all the wounds to JFK and Governor Connally.

A montage I put together that is partially based on the diagrams of Dr. Robert Artwohl.

Note: 18 degrees is the approximate angle reported by the Warren Commission as being "consistent" with the single bullet theory. It represents an average between frames 210 and 225 of the Zapruder film (the period while the limo was behind the Stemmons freeway sign). 18 and 3 are the rounded off figures of 17* 43' 30" and 3* 9'.

A comparison between the fourth run of Neutron Activation Analysis tests conducted by the FBI on the bullet fragments in May 1964 and the test performed by Dr. Vince Quinn for the HSCA. It was created by Kennith Rahn. Used by permission.

Q1 = stretcher bullet. Q9 = tiny fragment from Connally's wrist. Q2 = nose of bullet found on front seat. Q4&5 = tiny fragments from JFK's head. Q14 = tiny fragment found under left jump seat.

A skull moving backwards from the direction of bullet travel. The test was performed by Dr. John Lattimer.

The link below is a series of events that I put together in an attempt to explain the magic bullet in a very concise manner with all references included in the text. However, it may explain the magic bullet and fatal shot, but certainly does not explain some eyewitness accounts of extra shots, smoke clouds etc. Just to clarify; the references are general references and not necessarily references to any information on any of my other JFK pages.
JFKquickref.doc

The next link includes the highlights of my JFK study in mainly pictograph form. Hold your shift key while clicking to open the page in a new window.
highlights