The Lone-Gunman Theory: An Extremely Fragile House of Cards

[Michael T. Griffith]

The lone-gunman theory of the JFK assassination is an extremely fragile house of cards. If just one of the hundreds of credible accounts that lone-gunman theorists refuse to accept is true, the theory collapses. If just one of the items of evidence that lone-gunman theorists dismiss is true, the theory collapses. Here are just a few examples:

-- If the accounts of a bullet striking the grass near a manhole cover on the south side of Elm Street are valid, the lone-gunman theory collapses.

-- If the accounts and the photographic evidence that an unidentified federal agent recovered a bullet from the grass near the manhole cover are valid, the lone-gunman theory collapses.

The evidence that a bullet did indeed strike the grass near the manhole cover and was recovered is credible and convincing by any reasonable standard. See "Extra Bullets and Missed Shots in Dealey Plaza," https://drive.google.com/file/d/1WRwhDQ9HMydf5pICsHwgtkoNKw0YSO8T/view.

-- If Dr. James Young was correct when he reported that a misshapen bullet was recovered from JFK's limousine in DC and that he saw and handled the bullet, the lone-gunman theory collapses.

Dr. Young's account is credible and convincing by any reasonable standard. In fact, Dr. Young simply assumed the misshapen bullet was one of Oswald's alleged shots, and he assumed the bullet was discussed in the Warren Commission's (WC's) report. He only came forward with his account when he learned that the WC did not address the bullet. See "Extra Bullets and Missed Shots in Dealey Plaza," https://drive.google.com/file/d/1WRwhDQ9HMydf5pICsHwgtkoNKw0YSO8T/view. See also Milicent Cranor's article, “Navy Doctor: Bullet Found in JFK’s Limousine, and Never Reported,” https://whowhatwhy.org/politics/government-integrity/navy-doctor-bullet-found-jfks-limousine-never-reported/.

-- If the several eyewitness accounts that prove Oswald could not have been on the sixth floor during the shooting are valid, the lone-gunman theory collapses.

If this were virtually any other case, the eyewitness evidence that prohibits Oswald from being on the sixth floor during the shooting would be viewed as compelling. I recommend Barry Ernest's book The Girl on the Stairs. See also Joseph Green and James DiEugenio's extensive review of Ernest's book: https://www.kennedysandking.com/john-f-kennedy-reviews/ernst-barry-the-girl-on-the-stairs. See also https://www.pennlive.com/entertainment/2016/11/harrisburg_man_appears_in_docu.html. And see also "Faulty Evidence: Problems with the Case Against Lee Harvey Oswald," https://drive.google.com/file/d/1R1CZaCZfLA5QFjTCHNINcKxTH4cBiPfw/view (pp. 27-30).

-- If the dozens of witnesses who reported seeing a large wound in the right-rear part of JFK's head were correct, the lone-gunman theory collapses. These witnesses included two of the Parkland nurses who cleaned JFK's head and packed the large wound with gauze after he was declared dead, a Secret Service agent who got a prolonged close-up look at JFK's head wound twice in the space of 10 hours on the day of the shooting, the three morticians who reassembled JFK's skull after the autopsy, a Dallas funeral home worker who held JFK's head in his hands while he helped place the body in the casket, the Parkland neurosurgeon who examined JFK's head when he entered the ER, several of the medical technicians at the autopsy, and the two FBI agents at the autopsy. One of the morticians and the FBI agents drew diagrams of JFK's wounds and placed the large head wound in the back of the head, several inches farther back on the head than the wound seen in the JFK autopsy photos.

-- If Dr. James Humes, the lead autopsy doctor at JFK's autopsy, was correct when he told JAMA that 2/3 of the right cerebrum were blasted out, the lone-gunman theory collapses.

Dr. Humes's statement has been confirmed by hard scientific evidence: multiple optical-density (OD) measurements of the JFK autopsy skull x-rays have established that the x-rays show about 2/3 of the right brain to be missing. Dr. Fred Hodges, one of the nation's leading radiologists in the 1970s, reported to the Rockefeller Commission that the AP autopsy x-ray shows "a goodly portion" of the right brain to be missing. We know that bits of JFK's brain were blown or fell onto 16 surfaces. We also know that Jackie Kennedy brought "a large chunk of brain" into the Parkland ER and handed it to Dr. Jenkins. Yet, the alleged autopsy brain photos show "less than" 1-2 ounces of brain tissue missing.

-- If the Zapruder film does in fact show reactions to at least six shots, the lone-gunman theory collapses.

See "Reactions to Six Shots in the Zapruder Film," https://drive.google.com/file/d/1nnp3Vch_KMOB_qufAhlQOCLTTS9jqNV0/view.

-- If Governor John Connally was correct when he insisted he was certain he was not hit before Z229, the lone-gunman theory collapses.

He most certainly was correct. See "Reactions to Six Shots in the Zapruder Film," https://drive.google.com/file/d/1nnp3Vch_KMOB_qufAhlQOCLTTS9jqNV0/view.

-- If, as gun experts claim, the dented shell found in the sixth-floor sniper's nest could not have been used to fire a bullet during the assassination, the lone-gunman theory collapses.

The fact that the dented shell could not have fired a bullet during the assassination is undeniable. See "The Dented Bullet Shell: Hard Evidence of Conspiracy in the JFK Assassination," https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Ihue8a0GmN_Ptl38bPjpu1F99nqU0Z6f/view.

[Lance Payette]

-- If, as gun experts claim, the dented shell found in the sixth-floor sniper's nest could not have been used to fire a bullet during the assassination, the lone-gunman theory collapses.

The fact that the dented shell could not have fired a bullet during the assassination is undeniable. See "The Dented Bullet Shell: Hard Evidence of Conspiracy in the JFK Assassination," https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Ihue8a0GmN_Ptl38bPjpu1F99nqU0Z6f/view.

Not at all, laddie. The two-shot scenario is not only plausible but makes the LN scenario stronger. Think.  Your linked article, not unsurprisingly, misses the salient point.

[Michael T. Griffith]

Here are more examples:

-- If the Aldredge curb scar was caused by a bullet, the lone-gunman theory collapse.

See "Extra Bullets and Missed Shots in Dealey Plaza," https://drive.google.com/file/d/1WRwhDQ9HMydf5pICsHwgtkoNKw0YSO8T/view.

-- If a bullet to the back is the reason JFK is suddenly jolted forward and his hands and elbows are flung upward from Z226-232, the lone-gunman theory collapse.

-- If the two Parkland doctors and the Parkland nurse who said the throat wound was above the collar when JFK was brought into the ER, the lone-gunman theory collapses.

Their accounts are strongly supported by the fact that the slits in the front of JFK's shirt could not have been made by an exiting bullet.

-- If the shirt slits were not made by a bullet, the lone-gunman theory collapses.

The FBI lab experts initially did not identify the slits as the exit point for a bullet but said a fragment could have caused the slits. No metallic traces were found around the slits. No fabric was missing from the slits. There was no hole through JFK's tie.

See "JFK's Clothing Proves the Single-Bullet Theory Is Impossible," https://drive.google.com/file/d/1MAgWA0frOLVeWY6ok9nzdrgpRN4Wv1AL/view.

-- If the ammo that hit JFK's head was not FMJ ammo, the lone-gunman theory collapses.

The JFK autopsy skull x-rays and the skull x-rays from the WC's wound ballistics test clearly prove that the ammo was not FMJ ammo. No FMJ bullet would have left dozens of tiny fragments in the skull.

See "Forensic Science and President Kennedy's Head Wound," https://drive.google.com/file/d/1jYMrT9P4ab2BtENAqI_0dQSEY6IJWczi/view.

-- If the Lee Harvey Oswald who called the Soviet Embassy in Mexico City was an imposter, the lone-gunman theory collapses.

The call was recorded. FBI agents listed to the tape of the call. They confirmed that the voice on the tape was not Oswald's voice, a fact that we now know J. Edgar Hoover revealed to LBJ. Also, the caller spoke horrible Russian, but Oswald spoke fluent Russian.

-- If JFK's back wound had no exit point, the lone-gunman theory collapses.

We now have abundant evidence that the back wound had no exit point, and that on the night of the autopsy the autopsy doctors determined positively, beyond any possible doubt, through extensive probing with the chest organs removed, that the back wound was shallow and had no exit point. We now know that people near the autopsy table could see the end of the probe pushing up against the lining of the chest cavity, proving the back wound had no exit point. We also now know that the first two drafts of the autopsy report said nothing about the throat wound being an exit point for the back wound.

See "Debunking the 'Shoring' Theory as an Explanation for JFK's Throat Wound," https://educationforum.ipbhost.com/topic/31929-debunking-the-shoring-theory-as-an-explanation-for-jfks-throat-wound/page/2/#findComment-587591.

See also "JFK's Clothing Proves the Single-Bullet Theory Is Impossible," https://drive.google.com/file/d/1MAgWA0frOLVeWY6ok9nzdrgpRN4Wv1AL/view.



 

[Michael T. Griffith]

And here a few more examples:

-- If Arnold Rowland was telling the truth when he insisted he saw two men with rifles on the TSBD’s sixth floor 5-15 minutes before the shooting, the lone-gunman theory collapses.

The WC bent over backward to accept Howard Brennan’s problematic, contradictory testimony, but they looked for any excuse, no matter how lame or petty, to reject Rowland’s testimony, even though Rowland’s wife confirmed that he had immediately told her about seeing a man holding a rifle on the west end of the sixth floor (i.e., the opposite end of the building from the sniper’s nest). In a display of glaring bias, the WC not only rejected Rowland’s testimony but went to great lengths to discredit him as a witness and as a person.

By any reasonable standard, Rowland was a credible witness who had no reason to lie about seeing two men with rifles on the sixth floor shortly before the shooting. See chapter 4, pp. 19-21, in Hasty Judgment: Why the JFK Case Is Not Closed, https://drive.google.com/file/d/1JuHmh8_AXyoKFyCt0RPXEUoHDPy-qakz/view.

Several men who were in the county jail in the Criminal Courts Building also saw two men on the TSBD’s sixth floor shortly before the shooting. One of them was Johnny Powell. He said the men were handling a scope on a rifle. Powell logically assumed the men were security officers.

Ruby Henderson was another person in the plaza who saw two men on the Depository’s sixth floor shortly before the shooting. In agreement with Rowland, she said one of the men had a dark complexion.

Carolyn Walthers was another witness who saw two men on the TSBD’s sixth floor shortly before the shooting. She said one of the men had a rifle. In agreement with four other witnesses, she said one of the men was wearing a light-colored shirt (but Oswald wore a brown, rust-colored shirt to work that day, and was seen wearing that shirt in the second-floor lunchroom less than 90 seconds after the shooting). It is instructive to note that Walthers reported that FBI agents tried to get her to change her story.

Powell’s, Henderson’s, and Walthers’ accounts are discussed in “Overlooked Witnesses,” https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth339748/.

-- If Secret Service agent Paul Landis was telling the truth when he reported, shortly before he died, that he found a virtually undamaged bullet in the back seat of JFK’s limo and placed it on a stretcher at Parkland Hospital, the lone-gunman theory collapses.

Dr. James Robenalt, a historian who worked with Landis to prepare him for the publication of his disclosure, believes the disclosure “is really the most significant news in the assassination since 1963.”

When Landis came forward with his disclosure, he knew he was dying. He had no reason to fabricate such an account.

-- If the three pathologists at Methodist Hospital in Dallas who actually handled and examined the Harper Fragment were correct in identifying it as occipital bone, the lone-gunman theory collapses. Occipital bone is located only in the back of the skull.

One of those pathologists, Dr. A. B. Cairns, was the chief of pathology at Methodist Hospital. The two other pathologists were Dr. Jack Harper and Dr. Gerard Noteboom. All three identified the fragment as occipital bone. Their identification confirms the dozens of eyewitness accounts of a large hole in the right-rear part of JFK’s skull.

When Dr. David Mantik interviewed Dr. Noteboom in a recorded interview in November 1992, Dr. Noteboom confirmed that the Harper Fragment was occipital bone and that he actually held the fragment in his hands as he examined it.

Predictably, the Harper Fragment disappeared after the FBI gave it to Dr. George Burkley. We have the two FBI photos of the fragment, but not the fragment itself. Drs. Cairns, Harper, and Noteboom were the only pathologists who actually held the fragment in their hands and examined it, and all three said it was occipital bone.

Dr. David Mantik has confirmed that the fragment was occipital bone. See his detailed analyses of the Harper Fragment in his book JFK Assassination Paradoxes and The Final Analysis. See also the segments on the Harper Fragment in Dr. Mantik’s online articles “The JFK Autopsy Materials,” https://themantikview.org/pdf/The_JFK_Autopsy_Materials.pdf, and “The Medical Evidence Decoded,” https://themantikview.org/pdf/The_Medical_Evidence_Decoded.pdf.

By the way, Dr. John Ebersole, the radiologist at the autopsy, told the HSCA that one of the skull fragments that arrived late at the autopsy was “a large fragment of the occipital bone” (Testimony of John H. Ebersole, Medical Panel Meeting, HSCA, 3/11/78, p. 5).

[David Von Pein]

-- If Secret Service agent Paul Landis was telling the truth when he reported, shortly before he died...

Where (and when) did you get the information that Paul Landis had died?

I haven't heard any news at all about Mr. Landis passing away, and I can't find anything about it on the Internet either (as of January 17-18, 2026).

[Michael T. Griffith]

Here is a fourth set of examples:

-- The problem of Oswald’s documented presence in the Depository’s second-floor lunchroom, with or without a Coke, within 90 seconds after the shooting is compounded by accounts that someone was in the sixth-floor window long after Oswald could not have been there.

Lillian Mooneyham, a clerk of the 95th District Court, watched the motorcade from windows in the Dallas Criminal Courts Building. She told the FBI that about four to five minutes after the shooting, “she looked up towards the sixth floor of the TSBD and observed the figure of a man standing in the sixth-floor window behind some cardboard boxes. This man appeared to Mrs. Mooneyham to be looking out of the window; however, the man was not close up to the window but was standing slightly back from it, so that Mrs. Mooneyham could not make out his features.”

Obviously, this man could not have been Oswald, and no policeman was in the sniper’s nest until at least 30 minutes later.

If Lillian Mooneyham wasn’t seeing things or wildly mistaken about when she saw the man in the sixth-floor window, the lone-gunman theory collapses.

The HSCA Photographic Evidence Panel (PEP) confirmed from the Dillard and Powell photos that boxes were being rearranged in the sixth-floor window “within two minutes after the last shot was fired” (6 HSCA 109-115; 4 HSCA 422-423). This is key photographic evidence that someone other than Oswald was in the sixth-floor window within two minutes after the shooting.

The few WC apologists who have addressed this crucial HSCA finding have floated the amateurish argument that the apparent movement of boxes is an optical illusion caused by a difference in perspective and sunlight in the two photos, specifically, that because the line of sight and sunlight are different in the photos, we are seeing different boxes in one photo than are visible in the other photo. However, the HSCA photographic experts specifically considered this explanation and rejected it (4 HSCA 422-423).

The most detailed analysis of the HSCA PEP’s historic finding on the post-assassination movement of boxes in the sniper’s nest is Barry Krusch’s 55-page analysis in his book Impossible: The Case Against Lee Harvey Oswald, Volume 3, pp. 25-70. Krusch shows beyond any doubt that the HSCA PEP experts were correct. He also shows that WC counsel David Belin recognized that the boxes in CE 482 (the Dillard photo) were not in the same position as the boxes in the police evidence photo of the sniper’s nest taken after 1:12 PM (CE 715).

-- If all the experts, including the HSCA PEP experts, who’ve concluded that the Zapruder film shows JFK reacting to a wound starting at right around Z200 and that this shot was fired at around Z186-190, the lone-gunman theory collapses.

Anyone who knows the basics of the JFK case knows that a gunman in the sixth-floor window would have had his view of JFK obstructed from Z166-207 by the intervening oak tree on the north side of Elm Street. This is one reason that the fiercest debate among the HSCA PEP members was over the conclusion that a shot was fired at Z186-190, but a solid majority of the PEP experts supported the finding, to their great credit.

Another indication that JFK was hit at around Z190 and began to react at around Z200 is that Jackie Kennedy, starting at about Z202, clearly notices that something is wrong with JFK. By Z202-204, Jackie has made a sudden sharp turn to the right, toward
her husband. When she reemerges into view at Z223, she is looking intently at
JFK. Obviously, her attention was drawn to him because the reaction that
he had begun at around Z200 had become more noticeable while the car was
behind the freeway sign.

Also, the HSCA PEP experts noted that a strong blur episode begins at around Z189.

Some Oswald-was-the-shooter researchers, recognizing the validity of the Z186-190 shot and JFK’s Z200-207 reaction to it, have suggested that the sixth-floor gunman fired this shot at Z186, during the split-second break in the oak tree's foliage. However, the gunman would have had only 1/18th of a second to aim and fire this shot, but the human eye requires 1/6th of a second to register and react to data. Even the WC admitted it was unlikely the alleged single assassin would have fired during the 56-millisecond break in the foliage at Z186.

For more information on the Z186-190 shot, see “Reactions to Six Shots in the Zapruder Film,” https://drive.google.com/file/d/1nnp3Vch_KMOB_qufAhlQOCLTTS9jqNV0/view.

See also Don Olson and Ralph Turner, “Photographic Evidence and the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy,” Journal of Forensic Sciences, 16:4, October 1971, pp. 399-419, http://jfk.hood.edu/Collection/Weisberg%20Subject%20Index%20Files/J%20Disk/Journal%20of%20Forensic%20Science/Item%2001.pdf

[Tom Graves]

[...]

Dear Comrade Griffith,

How many evil, evil "Deep State" bad guys and bad gals do you figure were involved, altogether, in the planning, the "patsy-ing," the planting of false evidence, the shooting, the getting-away, the altering of all of the Dealey Plaza films and photos / Bethesda photos and X-rays, and the all-important (and continuing!!!) cover up?

Thirty?

-- Tom

[Mitch Todd]

And here a few more examples:

-- If Arnold Rowland was telling the truth when he insisted he saw two men with rifles on the TSBD’s sixth floor 5-15 minutes before the shooting, the lone-gunman theory collapses.

The WC bent over backward to accept Howard Brennan’s problematic, contradictory testimony, but they looked for any excuse, no matter how lame or petty, to reject Rowland’s testimony, even though Rowland’s wife confirmed that he had immediately told her about seeing a man holding a rifle on the west end of the sixth floor (i.e., the opposite end of the building from the sniper’s nest). In a display of glaring bias, the WC not only rejected Rowland’s testimony but went to great lengths to discredit him as a witness and as a person.

By any reasonable standard, Rowland was a credible witness who had no reason to lie about seeing two men with rifles on the sixth floor shortly before the shooting. See chapter 4, pp. 19-21, in Hasty Judgment: Why the JFK Case Is Not Closed, https://drive.google.com/file/d/1JuHmh8_AXyoKFyCt0RPXEUoHDPy-qakz/view.

Several men who were in the county jail in the Criminal Courts Building also saw two men on the TSBD’s sixth floor shortly before the shooting. One of them was Johnny Powell. He said the men were handling a scope on a rifle. Powell logically assumed the men were security officers.

Ruby Henderson was another person in the plaza who saw two men on the Depository’s sixth floor shortly before the shooting. In agreement with Rowland, she said one of the men had a dark complexion.

Carolyn Walthers was another witness who saw two men on the TSBD’s sixth floor shortly before the shooting. She said one of the men had a rifle. In agreement with four other witnesses, she said one of the men was wearing a light-colored shirt (but Oswald wore a brown, rust-colored shirt to work that day, and was seen wearing that shirt in the second-floor lunchroom less than 90 seconds after the shooting). It is instructive to note that Walthers reported that FBI agents tried to get her to change her story.

Powell’s, Henderson’s, and Walthers’ accounts are discussed in “Overlooked Witnesses,” https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth339748/.

-- If Secret Service agent Paul Landis was telling the truth when he reported, shortly before he died, that he found a virtually undamaged bullet in the back seat of JFK’s limo and placed it on a stretcher at Parkland Hospital, the lone-gunman theory collapses.

Dr. James Robenalt, a historian who worked with Landis to prepare him for the publication of his disclosure, believes the disclosure “is really the most significant news in the assassination since 1963.”

When Landis came forward with his disclosure, he knew he was dying. He had no reason to fabricate such an account.

-- If the three pathologists at Methodist Hospital in Dallas who actually handled and examined the Harper Fragment were correct in identifying it as occipital bone, the lone-gunman theory collapses. Occipital bone is located only in the back of the skull.

One of those pathologists, Dr. A. B. Cairns, was the chief of pathology at Methodist Hospital. The two other pathologists were Dr. Jack Harper and Dr. Gerard Noteboom. All three identified the fragment as occipital bone. Their identification confirms the dozens of eyewitness accounts of a large hole in the right-rear part of JFK’s skull.

When Dr. David Mantik interviewed Dr. Noteboom in a recorded interview in November 1992, Dr. Noteboom confirmed that the Harper Fragment was occipital bone and that he actually held the fragment in his hands as he examined it.

Predictably, the Harper Fragment disappeared after the FBI gave it to Dr. George Burkley. We have the two FBI photos of the fragment, but not the fragment itself. Drs. Cairns, Harper, and Noteboom were the only pathologists who actually held the fragment in their hands and examined it, and all three said it was occipital bone.

Dr. David Mantik has confirmed that the fragment was occipital bone. See his detailed analyses of the Harper Fragment in his book JFK Assassination Paradoxes and The Final Analysis. See also the segments on the Harper Fragment in Dr. Mantik’s online articles “The JFK Autopsy Materials,” https://themantikview.org/pdf/The_JFK_Autopsy_Materials.pdf, and “The Medical Evidence Decoded,” https://themantikview.org/pdf/The_Medical_Evidence_Decoded.pdf.

By the way, Dr. John Ebersole, the radiologist at the autopsy, told the HSCA that one of the skull fragments that arrived late at the autopsy was “a large fragment of the occipital bone” (Testimony of John H. Ebersole, Medical Panel Meeting, HSCA, 3/11/78, p. 5).

MG: If Arnold Rowland was telling the truth when he insisted he saw two men with rifles on the TSBD’s sixth floor 5-15 minutes before the shooting, the lone-gunman theory collapses.[...]By any reasonable standard, Rowland was a credible witness

In his testimony, Rowland makes a number of claims about himself that are, shall we say...interesting. These claims were interesting enough that it triggered a Secret Service background check. The Secret Service found that Rowland's extraordinary claims about himself were BS, and that he had a reputation as being habitually untruthful.


MG: Ruby Henderson was another person in the plaza who saw two men on the Depository’s sixth floor shortly before the shooting

Ruby Henderson said "she saw two men on one of the upper floors of the building." IIRC she never said exactly what floor.


MG: Carolyn Walthers was another witness who saw two men on the TSBD’s sixth floor shortly before the shooting.

She said that the two men she saw were on the fourth or fifth floor. She was "positive this window was not as high as the sixth floor."


If the three pathologists at Methodist Hospital in Dallas who actually handled and examined the Harper Fragment were correct in identifying it as occipital bone, the lone-gunman theory collapses. Occipital bone is located only in the back of the skull.

If the Harper fragment were part of the occipital bone, then we should see a substantial portion of the cruciform eminence on its inner surface. But there is no trace of cruciform eminence to be found on the Harper fragment. Further, the inner surface of the Harper fragment features two prominent vascular grooves. The Parietal and Temporal bone have such grooves, but the  Occipital bone does not. Dr Joseph Riley, a neuroanatomist, summed it up this way: "simply put, occipital bone doesn't look like the [Harper Fragment], but parietal bone does."