A History of the Single-Bullet Theory Follies

[Andrew Mason]

It is worth repeating that the HSCA FPP determined that the back wound was below the throat wound, that the bullet struck the back at an upward trajectory, and that the tunneling inside the wound indicated that the bullet traveled upward after it entered the back. The HSCA FPP noted that "the wound beneath the skin appears to be tunneled from below upward" (7 HSCA 87). HSCA FPP Figure 12 shows the back wound slightly below the throat wound (7 HSCA 100).

The upward-trajectory finding confirmed the 1975 finding of Dr. Werner Spitz of the Rockefeller Commission’s medical panel:

There is no doubt that the bullet which struck the President’s back penetrated the skin in a sharply upward direction, as is evident from the width of the abrasion at the lower half of the bullet wound of entrance. The term "sharply upward direction" is used because it is evident from this injury that the missile traveled upwards within the body. (Report of Werner Spitz, 4/24/75, p. 1, Rockefeller Commission papers, see https://websites.umich.edu/~ahaq/correspondence.pdf)

Or it travelled downward at 18 degrees below horizontal and JFK's torso was not vertical because he was leaning forward a bit less than 1 o'clock (ie. <30 degrees) and the car was going down a 3 degree slope: