DID A SECRET SERVICE AGENT ACCIDENTALLY KILL KENNEDY? A REVIEW OF HOWARD DONAHUE'S RESEARCH Michael T. Griffith 1996 @All Rights Reserved Second Edition (Revised and Expanded on 9/19/96) Ballistics expert Howard Donahue believes that one of the Secret Service (SS) agents in the follow-up car accidentally shot President Kennedy. Donahue's theory and his supporting arguments are the subject of Bonar Menninger's book MORTAL ERROR (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1992). The book includes an excellent publisher's note that summarizes the findings of a St. Martin's Press research team regarding the flawed trajectory analysis done for the House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) by NASA scientist Thomas Canning. According to Donahue, Oswald did indeed fire at Kennedy, but only got off two shots. Oswald's first shot, says Donahue, hit the road near the back of the limousine and showered the car with fragments, at least one of which lightly injured Kennedy in the head. Oswald's second shot, according to Donahue, struck the President in the back of the neck, and then went on to cause all of Governor John Connally's wounds. (Donahue accepts the single-bullet theory.) Moments later, claims Donahue, the fatal shot was fired, accidentally, from the follow-up car by SS agent George Hickey. Donahue makes the following arguments in favor of his theory: -- The trajectory given for the alleged rear entrance head wound to the supposed exit point is incompatible with a shot from the alleged sniper's nest, i.e., from the location from which Oswald supposedly fired, the southeast corner window on the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository Building. -- The bullet that mortally wounded Kennedy in the head behaved like a high-velocity, frangible missile, whereas Oswald supposedly used medium-velocity, non-frangible ammunition. In connection with this, Donahue notes that SSA Hickey was seen with an AR-15 rifle at around the same time the head shot was fired, and that the AR-15 fires high-velocity, frangible ammo. -- The 6.5 mm fragment that appears on the x-rays of the skull almost certainly could not have come from the kind of ammunition supposedly used by Oswald. -- The purported location of the 6.5 mm fragment, namely, BELOW the revised rear head entry point suggested by the HSCA's medical panel, strongly indicates that the missile from which the fragment allegedly "sheared off" could not have struck the skull if it had been fired from the sixth-floor sniper's nest. -- The reported width of the rear entry wound on the head was 6.0 mm, but Oswald allegedly used 6.5 mm Carcano bullets. -- The damage to the limousine's windshield was too high to have been caused by a bullet coming down into the car from the sixth-floor sniper's nest. Even Canning told the HSCA that this seemed to be the case. -- Several witnesses in Dealey Plaza said two of the shots came in very rapid succession, nearly simultaneously, much too quickly to have been fired from the bolt-action Italian rifle that Oswald supposedly used. -- Connally's wife and one of the SS agents in the limousine both heard Kennedy cry out that he had been hit well BEFORE Gov. Connally was wounded. -- When Donahue examined the bullet fragments that were reportedly found in the limousine, he found no traces of blood or human tissue on them, yet the Warren Commission (WC) said these fragments came from the bullet that plowed through the President's head. -- Several witnesses in Dealey Plaza smelled gunpowder on or near Elm Street (actually, to be a little more exact, with only one exception, they smelled it on or near the grassy knoll). This smell could not have come from the sixth-floor window identified by the WC as the sniper's nest. (In fact, none of the police officers who inspected the sniper's nest reported smelling gunpowder there.) These arguments are all perfectly valid and relevant. However, they also lend themselves to more than one conclusion. Each of them could be viewed, quite logically and plausibly, as strong evidence of conspiracy. There are several problems with Donahue's assassination scenario, in my opinion. For one thing, it fails to explain the many indications that President Kennedy was killed by a conspiracy. For instance, it does not account for the phony SS agents who were encountered in Dealey Plaza, the disturbing and suspicious Oswald impersonations (which occurred BEFORE the assassination), the phony backyard rifle photos (in fact, Donahue accepts the photos as genuine), or the Joseph Milteer case (in which a wealthy, militant right-wing leader connected to the anti-Castro movement was recorded on tape by a Miami police informant, shortly BEFORE the shooting, saying that a hit on Kennedy was already "in the working"). Donahue relies heavily on the single-bullet theory (SBT). The only way Donahue can explain Connally's wounds is to accept the SBT. However, when physicist and radiologist Dr. David Mantik was recently permitted to examine the original autopsy materials at the National Archives, he discovered that the theory is very probably a physical impossibility. Dr. Mantik, by making simple but crucial measurements that should have been made years ago, found that no bullet could have gone straight from the back wound to the throat wound without smashing "right through" the spine. Dr. Mantik's historic discovery is discussed in detail in my file "Why The SBT Is Impossible," which is available for downloading from the JFK Debate library in CompuServe's Politics Forum (file name: nosbt.txt). The discovery is also discussed in Harrison Livingstone's recent book KILLING KENNEDY AND THE HOAX OF THE CENTURY (New York: Carroll and Graf Publishers, 1995), pp. 93-94. Donahue attempts to salvage the SBT from the results of the WC's own ballistics tests. In those tests the exit wounds in simulated human necks were torn-out wounds that were at least 10 mm in diameter. To deal with this problem, Donahue cites Dr. John Lattimer's specious theory that Kennedy's collar band "restrained" the neck and thus prevented the alleged exiting bullet from markedly pushing out the skin and from breaking through in a tearing fashion (MORTAL ERROR, p. 35). This theory, according to Donahue, could explain why Kennedy's neck wound was small (about 4-5 mm in diameter), neat, and circular, even though it was supposedly the exit point for a 6.5 mm missile. But, as Donahue should have realized, the slits in the front of JFK's shirt are visibly BELOW the collar band. According to the SBT, the "magic bullet" made those slits as it exited the throat. However, if those slits were made by a bullet, there would have been nothing to restrain the skin of the neck from stretching, since the slits are undeniably below the collar band (see the photos in Harold Weisberg, NEVER AGAIN, New York: Carroll and Graf, 1995, pp. 244-245), and thus there would have been nothing to prevent the bullet from breaking through the skin in a tearing fashion. Again, in the Commission's own ballistics tests, every single bullet fired into the simulated human necks created a torn-out, gaping exit wound of at least 10 mm in diameter, whereas Kennedy's throat wound was small, neat, and not punched out. What's more, according to Dr. Charles Carrico, who was the only doctor to see the throat wound before the shirt was removed, the throat wound was ABOVE the collar (specifically, he said it was ABOVE the knot of the tie). Furthermore, Dr. Carrico told the HSCA that the damage he saw beneath the wound indicated the bullet must have been traveling from front to back (7 HSCA 270). Donahue's theory is foundationally dependent on the assumption that the alleged autopsy photos and x-rays are genuine and that the interpretations of them given by the Clark Panel and by the HSCA's medical panel are accurate. Thus, Donahue accepts the placement of Kennedy's back wound near the base of the neck, yet evidence from the recently released HSCA files makes it clearer than ever that the wound was actually farther down on the back, about five to six inches below the neck. Donahue believes there was only one head shot and that it came from behind, and rejects the massive eyewitness testimony that there was a large, exit-type defect in the right rear part of Kennedy's head, primarily because the x-rays reportedly do not show such a defect and because the photos of the back of the head show that region to be intact. However, two private experts who have examined the x-rays at the National Archives, have found that one of the radiographs does in fact indicate a sizable defect in that area of the skull. Furthermore, several private experts have concluded the skull x-rays show clear, undeniable evidence that TWO bullets struck the President in the head. As for the photos of the back of the head, these pictures have been labeled as fraudulent by medical technicians who attended the autopsy, as well as by medical personnel who saw the President's body at Parkland Hospital in Dallas right after the shooting. Additionally, we now know from the released files that one of the autopsy pathologists, Dr. Pierre Finck, during an interview with the HSCA, went so far as to question how one of the photos of the head had been established as having been taken at the autopsy! We also have the previously sealed testimony of the mortician who reassembled Kennedy's skull after the autopsy, Tom Robinson. Robinson reported that there was still a visible defect in the back of the head EVEN AFTER THE INCLUSION OF THE SKULL FRAGMENTS THAT ARRIVED LATE THAT NIGHT FROM DALLAS. And Dr. J. Boswell, another one of the autopsists, told the HSCA that half of the rear entry wound in the back of the head was contained in a piece of MISSING skull fragment, and that this fragment did not arrive to Bethesda Naval Hospital until very late that night, whereas the alleged autopsy photos were supposedly taken hours earlier. Dr. Finck confirmed that part of the rear entry wound was contained in a skull fragment. This rules out the revised entry point suggested by the Select Committee's medical panel. Since Donahue accepts the findings of the Clark Panel and the HSCA's medical panel, he also believes there was a large, 6.5 mm bullet fragment in the outer table of Kennedy's skull, just beneath the "revised" rear entrance wound in the back of the head. (More will be said about the revised wound in a moment.) Donahue believes this fragment resulted from a ricochet. He suggests that the first shot was fired from the sniper's nest at around frame 189 of the Zapruder film, that it struck the pavement 15-20 feet behind and to the right of the car, and that it then showered the car with lead fragments, one of which was the 6.5 mm fragment, which became embedded in the outer table of Kennedy's skull. Two of the difficulties associated with this speculation are that it would require us to believe that the sixth-floor gunman fired at a time when his view of the target was obscured by the intervening oak tree, and that the bullet missed the entire limousine. The leaves and branches of the oak tree would have presented the gunman with a very obscured view of the limousine, but he still would have been able to make out some of its general outline and would have been able to aim more or less at the center of the huge car. Thus, it's somewhat hard to understand how he could have missed the entire limousine. On the other hand, it is true that if the gunman in the sniper's nest had fired at this time, at around Z189, the bullet might have been deflected by a tree branch, which could have caused it to miss the limousine. Again, though, why would the gunman have taken such a foolish, ill-advised shot when he was about to have a clear view of the limousine in less than two seconds? Even the WC rejected the idea that its lone gunman would have fired while the car was beneath the oak tree (WCR, p. 98). In any event, there is considerable doubt that the 6.5 mm fragment was present at the autopsy. Not one of the doctors or med-techs at the autopsy mentioned seeing any such fragment, neither on the skull nor in the skull x-rays that were developed and examined that evening. Nor is any such fragment mentioned in the autopsy report. Nor did the autopsy pathologists say a word about it in their testimony, even though the chief pathologist indicated they recovered all the sizable fragments from the head that were visible on the x-rays (the 6.5 mm fragment would have been plainly visible). Many researchers believe the fragment's appearance in the skull x-rays is another indication of fraud in these materials. Certainly it is hard to believe that the autopsy pathologists, along with the radiologist, could have failed to notice the fragment on the radiographs. If there was a fragment at or near the revised entry point, it probably did not look the way it now appears in the skull x-rays, according to Dr. Mantik. Based on optical density measurements on the fragment, Dr. Mantik has found that it "certainly does not behave like an object which was physically present on the body during the original x-rays" (Livingstone, KILLING KENNEDY AND THE HOAX OF THE CENTURY, p. 88). Dr. Mantik and other researchers maintain that the fragment on the anterior- posterior skull x-ray does not correspond to the fragment on the lateral skull x-ray. Mathematician Daryll Weatherly argues that on the lateral skull x-ray the fragment "is located in the defect area, and so cannot be embedded in the back of the head" (KILLING KENNEDY, p. 103). Furthermore, Dr. Mantik believes the fragment might be located INSIDE the skull and against it, which would indicate the fragment resulted from a shot from the front. If this is the case, it could explain why the autopsy doctors and the radiologist said nothing about it. Donahue is entirely correct, however, to point out that the 6.5 mm fragment almost certainly could not have come from a fully metal-jacketed bullet, which is the kind of ammunition that Oswald supposedly used. His analysis and findings on this issue are worthy of consideration: Some years later, J. K. Lattimer, the New York urologist, would suggest in his book KENNEDY AND LINCOLN: MEDICAL AND BALLISTIC COMPARISONS OF THEIR ASSASSINATIONS, that the [6.5 mm] fragment found by Fisher's panel [i.e., the Clark Panel]--by virtue of its close proximity to the entrance wound--was actually a piece of the fatal bullet that sheared off as the slug impacted the skull. Donahue considered this in 1968. But never in his experience had he heard of a hard metal- jacketed military bullet "shearing" on impact; a soft lead bullet, yet. But not the type of military round Oswald fired. Furthermore, even if the bullet could have performed in such an unlikely manner, physics would seem to require that the fragment be deposited above the entrance wound, not below it: The top side of the entrance hole would have acted like a chisel, scraping off a piece of the jacket as the bullet came down at an angle and in. Much later, Donahue called Fisher to get his opinion about whether a shearing effect could have created the fragment. The two had only briefly touched on the possibility when they met at B. T. Smith's house. Fisher wasn't available, but Donahue did speak with another pathologist and associate of Dr. Fisher's, Dr. Thomas Smith. Like Donahue, Smith said he had never seen a fragment shear off a hard military jacketed bullet and deposit itself on the outer table of the skull. Donahue would repeat his question about the likelihood of a hard metal-jacketed bullet shearing to every forensic pathologist he came in contact with in the years that followed. The answer was always the same: The experts had never seen or heard of such a phenomenon and considered it highly unlikely. (MORTAL ERROR, p. 69) Somewhat surprisingly, Donahue accepts the "revised" location for the rear head entry wound put forth by the Clark Panel and by the HSCA's medical panel, which is a staggering FOUR INCHES higher than were the autopsy doctors located it. Donahue speculates that the autopsy pathologists simply mislocated the wound. But this would require us to believe that all three of the autopsists "erred" by a whopping four inches in describing and diagramming the wound's location. This seems extremely unlikely and hard to believe, especially since they carefully measured the wound's location, and since Dr. Boswell prepared a medical diagram in which he, in effect, triangulated the wound to the external occipital protuberance. (Why was the wound "moved"? Because the entry wound described by the autopsy doctors could not have been caused by a bullet fired from the alleged sniper's nest. Actually, the revised location doesn't fit all that well either, but it lines much better than the location described in the autopsy report.) Do the x-rays in fact show an entry wound in the location proposed by the HSCA's medical panel? Private experts who have examined the radiographs dispute the panel's claims about the wound and question whether the image identified as the wound is really an entrance wound at all. There are other problems with Donahue's assassination theory. Donahue allows for no more than three shots, but credible reports of additional bullets striking in Dealey Plaza, and a substantial amount of eyewitness testimony, indicate at least four shots were fired, and quite possibly as many as six or eight. I believe reactions to five shots can be seen in the Zapruder film, as I discuss in my article "Reactions to Five Shots in the Zapruder Film," and I consider the reports of extra bullets striking in Dealey Plaza in "Extra Bullets and Missed Shots in Dealey Plaza," both of which are available in the JFK Debate library in CompuServe's Politics Forum (file names: 5shots.txt and extras.txt). Donahue assumes that Oswald fired two shots from the alleged sniper's nest, but there is good evidence that Oswald was on the second floor at the time of the shooting. I discuss this evidence in detail in my file "Proof That Oswald Did Not Shoot JFK," which can be downloaded from the JFK Debate library in CompuServe's Politics Forum (file name: proof.txt). Donahue cites journalist Jim Bishop's claim that SSA Clint Hill phoned Robert Kennedy from Parkland Hospital and told him there had been an "accident." (MORTAL ERROR, p. 110). But Hill did not say "accident"; he said there had been an "incident," and then went on to explain that the President and Gov. Connally had been shot. (Even if he had said "accident," how much weight could be placed on a single statement made at a time of great stress and emotion?) In order to explain the violent rearward movement of Kennedy's head and upper body in response to the head shot, Donahue accepts the neuro-spasm and jet-effect theories. Both theories, however, are of doubtful credibility. Ballistics expert and physicist Dr. Larry Sturdivan tacitly rejected the jet-effect theory when he testified before the HSCA. The theory is based on disputed, improbable assumptions anyway, and it is in fact contradicted by a substantial amount of evidence. As for the neuromuscular-reaction theory, the neuromuscular reaction posited in this hypothesis seems to be much too fast given the speed of the backward snap and the mass involved, as Josiah Thompson observed years ago (SIX SECONDS IN DALLAS, New York: Bernard Geis Associates, 1967, pp. 93-95; see also Livingstone, KILLING THE TRUTH, New York: Carroll and Graf, 1993, pp. 151-152). I am certain Howard Donahue is a decent, honorable man, and he has done a great deal of valuable, credible research. Nor do I doubt that he genuinely believes his theory. Unfortunately, his theory rests on a number of untenable arguments and is incompatible with, or simply fails to explain, much of the evidence. --------------------------------------------------------------- About the Author: Michael T. Griffith is a two-time graduate of the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California, and the author of four books on Mormonism and ancient texts. His articles on the assassination have appeared in THE ASSASSINATION CHRONICLES, in DALLAS '63, in DATELINE: DALLAS, and in THE DEALEY PLAZA ECHO. He is also the author of the book COMPELLING EVIDENCE: A NEW LOOK AT THE ASSASSINATION OF PRESIDENT KENNEDY (Grand Prairie, TX: JFK Lancer Productions and Publications, 1996). ---------------------------------------------------------------- Michael T. Griffith. Check out my JFK web page at the following URL: http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/MGriffith_2 . "Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters." -- Benjamin Franklin "Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other." -- John Adams ---------------------------------------------------------------