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The theory states that a single bullet, of the three fired by the murderer is responsible for all the wounds in the President and Texas Governor John Connally who was riding along with the President in front of him in the President motorcade. The theory also states that this bullet was not responsible for killing the President but the fatal bullet was a head shot fired after the magical bullet. This bullet came to be known as Warren Commission Exhibit 399" (also known as "CE399"). The bullet in subject is rifle bullet with a lead core of 6.5 millimeters and is one inch long. This bullet was not found on Connally’s stretcher but on a stretcher next to his in the hospital in which the Governor was rushed to after the incident.
The interesting thing about this bullet is its path of traverse. After extensive research the Commission came to the conclusion that the magical bullet traversed an extra-ordinary path. The bullet shot from the 6th floor, ruptured into President Kennedy’s neck, passed through and hit Governor Connally’s chest and wrist and lodged itself in the Governor’s thigh. During this long traverse, the bullet passed through almost, 15 folds of cloth, 7 layers of skin, about 15 inches of tissues, a tie-knot, struck 4 inches of rib and broke a radius bone. Even after all this, the bullet was completely intact, itsjacket was not damaged, its nose had no dents in it, just its tail was a bit dented on the side.
Conspiracy theorists attacked this point that how could a bullet traverse such an extra-ordinary path and on top of that, how can it be totally intact after shattering bones too.
These theorists thus claimed that if the bullet in question actually traveled the said path, then it cannot be in such a pristine shape. Hence the bullet also came to known as the ‘Pristine Bullet’. Theorists propose that there was some conspiracy involved and some other shooter was also involved in the killing.
At the same time, the timing of the hits taken by the President and the Governor as stated by the Single Bullet Theory is also under fire by critics. If the same bullet hit both of them, then it should travel in about 100th of a second and it is not possible to see the bullet in different frames of the Zapruder Film as shown by Zapruder Film analysts. However, Connally himself on seeing the tape later, identified his hit at frame Z230 where as JFK was definitely hit at Z224.
Hence, conspiracy theorists became sure that some conspiracy was involved and things were not as stated by the Warren Commission.
To rest the speculation, Discovery channel took up the JFK single bullet case. In a special edition "Unsolved History: JFK — Beyond the Magic Bullet". A team of Discovery scientists set up a prop to replicate as much as possible the scene of the shootings. Substances similar to human bone, tissue were used in the human replicas which even had their skin of same composition as our human skin. Then a sharp shooter, fired the same type of bullet from the same rifle from an altitude and angle exactly equal to that of the assassination. Interestingly, the bullet traveled across exactly the same path as it had on November 22 except that it did not lodge in the Governors thigh as it did not have sufficient energy. This was because it hit two ribs in the Connally model instead of one rib. Also the shape was more deformed, possible due to the same above reason.
Thus, the Discovery research put to rest speculations about the magic path of the magic bullet; however it could not satisfy all the conspiracy theories. As a result, theorists are even today NOT satisfied with the Warren Commissions Single Bullet Theory.
