Dr. E. Forrest Chapman

[Charles Collins]

A couple of snips from “Phantom Shot” by Mike Majerus and Jack Nessan:


Dr. E. Forrest Chapman was a Deputy Medical Examiner in the State of Michigan who had a background in forensic pathology. In 1973, he was allowed to examine some of the Kennedy assassination evidence in the National Archives.

The Warren Commission firearms experts who examined CE 543 failed to mention one other curious thing about the shell casing, something Dr. Chapman referred to as the "dishing effect." When the trigger is pulled and the firing pin strikes the primer at the base of the shell casing, the firing pin makes a small indentation in the soft metal of the primer. Dr. Chapman noticed that the indentation on the CE 543 primer was larger than the indentations on the other shell casings found in the sniper's nest. This indicated that the firing pin had struck CE 543 more than once. The second time the pin struck, the indentation became larger. This was another indication that the shell casing had been used for dry firing. Chapman also noticed that the primer on CE 543 was pushed inward in a concave fashion, and was curved like a bowl or a contact lens. His tests showed that this effect only occurred when the firing pin struck the primer of an empty shell casing. The absence of an explosion meant that it had much less resistance than it did when it was a live shell. As a result, the firing pin pushed deeper into the soft metal of the primer when the shell was empty, causing the concave indentation.

Here is an image from the above referenced book:




And here is an image of CE 543 that (to my eyes) doesn’t show any evidence of dishing or anything else I might associate with dry-firing:




I have been reading the expert WC testimony of FBI agent Robert Frazier and looking at the related images. I cannot imagine that Frazier and his team would have missed any dishing effect and other disfiguring to the primer caused by LHO dry firing the rifle with CE 543 in the chamber as Chapman claims.

Has anyone here researched this subject or know of any evidence that might shed more light on this claim?

[Charles Collins]

Here are two highly magnified photographs (taken through a microscope) by the FBI firearms experts. On the left side of each image is the primer of the test cartridge, and on the right side of each image is the primer of CE 543.








The FBI experts identified CE 543 as being fired in the Carcano rifle found on the sixth floor of the TSBD on 11/22/63 by viewing the magnified cartridge primers through the microscope and comparing them. I do not see how CE 543’s primer would not be deformed by subsequent dry-firing with the rifle. I believe that this deformation would be obvious and would make CE 543 so different that the FBI would not be able to identify it as being fired in the rifle. Just look at the first image in the original post above that shows two cartridges that were dry-fired once and twice respectively. The primers in both cartridges look quite different than the one that was only fired once and never dry-fired.

[Lance Payette]

Chapman died at age 60 (nothing mysterious) in 1991. I see that much of the conspiracy literature describes him as a "forensic scientist," perhaps to disguise that his expertise was medical (he was a medical examiner and pathologist). However, I did find one newspaper article describing him as an expert in ballistics. He was not a fan of the Magic Bullet, referring to it as "utter rubbish" (https://www.archives.gov/files/research/rfk/releases/2025/0612/00419462_newspaper_articles_concer_104-10068-10053.pdf).

There seems to be remarkably little discussion of his claims regarding CE 543. Michael Kurtz, in Crime of the Century, claimed that CE 557, an FBI test shell, confirmed Chapman's claims: "The F.B.I. also reproduced the effect. Commission Exhibit 557 is a test cartridge case, fired empty from Oswald's rifle by the F.B.I. for ballistics comparison purposes. It, too, contains the dent in the lip and deep primer impression similar to Case 543." (557 can't be right. He must be referring to 559, which is what Charles has posted. https://www.history-matters.com/archive/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh17/html/WH_Vol17_0138b.htm.)

[Charles Collins]

Chapman died at age 60 (nothing mysterious) in 1991. I see that much of the conspiracy literature describes him as a "forensic scientist," perhaps to disguise that his expertise was medical (he was a medical examiner and pathologist). However, I did find one newspaper article describing him as an expert in ballistics. He was not a fan of the Magic Bullet, referring to it as "utter rubbish" (https://www.archives.gov/files/research/rfk/releases/2025/0612/00419462_newspaper_articles_concer_104-10068-10053.pdf).

There seems to be remarkably little discussion of his claims regarding CE 543. Michael Kurtz, in Crime of the Century, claimed that CE 557, an FBI test shell, confirmed Chapman's claims: "The F.B.I. also reproduced the effect. Commission Exhibit 557 is a test cartridge case, fired empty from Oswald's rifle by the F.B.I. for ballistics comparison purposes. It, too, contains the dent in the lip and deep primer impression similar to Case 543." (557 can't be right. He must be referring to 559, which is what Charles has posted. https://www.history-matters.com/archive/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh17/html/WH_Vol17_0138b.htm.)

Thanks for the reply. Maybe I need to do some research on CE 557 and/or CE 559.

[Charles Collins]

Chapman died at age 60 (nothing mysterious) in 1991. I see that much of the conspiracy literature describes him as a "forensic scientist," perhaps to disguise that his expertise was medical (he was a medical examiner and pathologist). However, I did find one newspaper article describing him as an expert in ballistics. He was not a fan of the Magic Bullet, referring to it as "utter rubbish" (https://www.archives.gov/files/research/rfk/releases/2025/0612/00419462_newspaper_articles_concer_104-10068-10053.pdf).

There seems to be remarkably little discussion of his claims regarding CE 543. Michael Kurtz, in Crime of the Century, claimed that CE 557, an FBI test shell, confirmed Chapman's claims: "The F.B.I. also reproduced the effect. Commission Exhibit 557 is a test cartridge case, fired empty from Oswald's rifle by the F.B.I. for ballistics comparison purposes. It, too, contains the dent in the lip and deep primer impression similar to Case 543." (557 can't be right. He must be referring to 559, which is what Charles has posted. https://www.history-matters.com/archive/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh17/html/WH_Vol17_0138b.htm.)

Here’s a snippet from Robert Frazuer’s WC testimony. CE 557 is a photograph of the only two test cartridges used for identification comparison purposes. So far, Frazier doesn’t say anything about dry-firing one of them. And I cannot imagine that they would want to dry-fire one of them. My guess is than one was intended to be a backup for the other one in case something bad happened to one of them.


Mr. EISENBERG - After receiving the cartridge cases, did you examine them to determine whether they had been fired in Commission Exhibit 139?
Mr. FRAZIER - Yes, sir.
Mr. EISENBERG - When did you make the examinations?
Mr. FRAZIER - On the dates I mentioned, that is, November 23, 1963, and November 27, 1963.
Mr. EISENBERG - And what were your conclusions, Mr. Frazier?
Mr. FRAZIER - I found all three of the cartridge cases had been fired in this particular weapon.
Mr. EISENBERG - Can you describe the examination which you conducted to reach these conclusions?
Mr. FRAZIER - The first step was to fire test cartridge cases in this rifle to pick up the microscopic marks which are left on all cartridge cases fired in this weapon by the face of the bolt. Then those, test cartridge cases were mounted on a comparison microscope, on the right-hand side, and on the left-hand side of the comparison microscope was mounted one of the three submitted cartridge cases, so that you could magnify the surfaces of the test and the evidence and compare the marks left on the cartridge cases by the belt face and the firing pin of the rifle.

(At this point, Mr. McCloy left the hearing room.)

Mr. EISENBERG - I now hand you two cartridge cases, and ask you whether you can identify these cartridge cases?
Mr. FRAZIER - Yes, sir; these are the two cartridge cases we fired for test purposes in Exhibit 139.
Mr. EISENBERG - Do they have your mark on them?
Mr. FRAZIER - Yes, they do.
Mr. EISENBERG - Commissioner Boggs, may I introduce these as 557?
Representative BOGGS - They may be admitted.

(The items referred to were marked Commission Exhibit No. 557 for identification and received in evidence.)

Mr. EISENBERG - These were the only two cartridge cases fired as tests in Exhibit 139--as tests for the purpose of identification of the cartridge cases which you examined before, 543, 544, and 545?
Mr. FRAZIER - Yes, sir; these two were used in those tests. There were many other cartridge cases fired, but not for that purpose.

[Lance Payette]

It looks like this is destined to be yet another JFKA loose end. You would think that Chapman's claim would have been a bombshell that would have generated more discussion than it did and led to further examination of CE 543. It seems like the basic issue is simply "Does CE 543 show evidence of having been struck with a firing pin more than once?"

The newspaper article I linked said Chapman was "recently interviewed" by the HSCA, but I didn't find anything relating to that. The HSCA firearms panel report deals with the "dent" issue but not really the "firing pin" issue.

[Charles Collins]

It looks like this is destined to be yet another JFKA loose end. You would think that Chapman's claim would have been a bombshell that would have generated more discussion than it did and led to further examination of CE 543. It seems like the basic issue is simply "Does CE 543 show evidence of having been struck with a firing pin more than once?"

The newspaper article I linked said Chapman was "recently interviewed" by the HSCA, but I didn't find anything relating to that. The HSCA firearms panel report deals with the "dent" issue but not really the "firing pin" issue.

Agreed, also there were other firearms experts that verified the FBI’s conclusions, etc. As far as I know, none of them indicated anything either.