4. How many shots were fired?
A long and contentious issue among conspiracy theorists, skeptics, academics and independent researchers alike, the three officially recognized shots fired from Ozwald’s 6.5×52mm Carcano Model 91/3 infantry rifle with a telescopic sight arguably left more than three holes.
Of the three bullets that would come from the Texas School Book Depository, the first would miss, ricocheting off the sidewalk sending fragments into bystander James Tague and the third would be the fatal head shot. It would be the second shot, with its physics defying trajectory and its apparent lack of damage, that would remain controversial to this day.
Although known as the ‘Single Bullet Theory’ it would be more commonly referred to as the ‘Magic Bullet Theory’ due to the much mocked and maligned claims made by the Warren Commission as to the properties and power of this singular projectile.
The commission theorized that from the 6th floor window the bullet entered from the back of JFK’s neck, exiting downward, then entered through the right side of Governor Connally’s back, exited below his right nipple then entered and exited through his right wrist, finally embedding itself in his left thigh.
Then even concluded that the nearly pristine bullet found on Connally’s gurney in the corridor at Parkland Memorial Hospital was the very same bullet that had passed through two human bodies, causing seven devastating wounds. This was despite the fact that its copper jacket was completely intact. While the bullet’s nose appeared normal, the tail was compressed laterally on one side.
The witness testimony would both compliment and contradict the commissions findings as although the vast majority of people claimed to have heard just three shots, a few witnesses thought there were four or more.
The Zapruder film would cast a shadow on the three shots fired from behind Kennedy as his footage appears to show the president falling back and to the left after being struck. This would support the idea put forward that another shooter was targeting the limousine from the front, also accounting for the extra shots heard.
In 1976, the House of Representatives formed a special committee to re-investigate the Kennedy assassination. Using an audiotape from a radio transmission from a Dallas policeman who’d been escorting JFK’s motorcade, an acoustical analysis of the tape claimed that four to six gunshots can be heard.
Although the findings of the special committee has been widely discredited and many today are still content to go along with the Warren Commissions assertions, both Governor Connally and his wife Nellie never accepted the theory. While they agreed with the conclusion that Oswald acted alone, they insisted that all three shots struck occupants of the limousine.
