Dr. Donald Thomas's analysis of the bullet that hit the grass near the manhole cover is worth quoting at length:
Without asking Foster what spurred him to look for a bullet, or why he searched where he did, Counsel Joseph Ball queried in an offhanded aside, "Find anything?" To which Foster responded,
"Yes, sir. Found where one shot had hit the turf there at the location."
There then followed a somewhat convoluted account in which Foster variously declared that the bullet had hit a manhole cover, that it had ricocheted off the pavement surrounding the manhole cover, or that directly or indirectly, it had wound up in the turf. Foster allowed that he had not actually found a bullet but he did call the crime scene unit's attention to the spot. Predictably, the Warren Commission took no further interest in Foster's testimony. That is to say, neither the crime scene unit, or Foster's partner J.C. White, who was with Foster on the Triple Underpass, were asked about the incident.
As it happens, Dallas Times Herald reporters interviewed crime scene detective Carl Day about the incident on the day after the assassination. In these early days before gag orders had been issued, Day told reporters that he had measured the distance from the sixth floor window to the spot where the bullet had been recovered in the turf at 100 yards!
The Saturday edition of the Fort Worth Star Telegram published a photograph of the turf next to the manhole cover with the caption,
"Assassin's Bullet - One of the rifle bullets fired by the murderer of President Kennedy lies in the grass across Elm Street from the building in which the killer was hiding and from where he launched his assault."
Harry Cabluck, the news photographer who took the picture, told researcher Jim Marrs that he did not actually see the bullet but was told by someone that a bullet had struck the grass at this spot.
There were other contemporary reports. St. Louis Dispatch journalist Richard Dudman was among the witnesses in Dealey Plaza. His firsthand report states,
"A group of police officers were examining the area at the side of the street where the President was hit, and a police inspector told me they had just found another bullet in the grass."
The FBI also learned of the incident. Witness Jean Lois Hill was interviewed by agents at the Sheriffs headquarters that afternoon. Learning that she had been standing on the Dealey Plaza lawn, they asked her if she had seen a bullet hit the grass (she had not). Another witness, Hugh Betzner, told Dallas agents that he had seen police digging for a bullet in the lawn.
Researcher Jim Marrs located and interviewed two other witnesses mentioned in the FBI report: Wayne and Edna Hartman told the FBI that they had seen the ground mounded up and asked the policemen if it was the work of moles. They were told that bullets had struck the ground. Nor was Foster the only person to see the initial strike. Richard Randolph Carr testified that one shot "knocked a bunch of grass up."
Now this is very interesting, and telling: so two other people noticed that the spot of grass near the manhole cover was "mounded up," and one other person saw a bullet knock "a bunch of grass up" near the manhole cover, just as Officer Foster saw and immediately reported.
Let's continue with Dr. Thomas's analysis:
The factor which lends weight to these accounts is that the whole incident was recorded in photographs taken by Black Star photographer, Jim Murray. With the Texas School Book Depository as a backdrop, and the Hertz clock on the roof reading 12:40, patrolman Foster can be seen with other officers hovering over the manhole cover on the south side of Elm Street (Fig. 11.4). In the series of photographs a sandy-haired man with a side-wall hair cut and a dark gray suit is seen bent over and probing the turf with his left hand. He rises with his left hand making a fist--seeming to clutch something--then in the next picture his hand is stuffed deep into his left side pants pocket.
The man in the pictures was later identified by police chief Jesse Curry as an FBI agent. Yet, he has never been officially identified. Prominent in the photographs, wearing a black suit, is Deputy Sheriff Ed "Buddy" Walthers. Just before testifying to the Warren Commission, the Commission's counsel exchanged an internal memorandum containing a statement concerning Walthers and the incident.
"At one time Walthers was quoted as having found a bullet, but he seems to have backed away from this position."
This memorandum suggests that the Commission was in receipt of a report or document quoting Walthers as having found a bullet and/or subsequently retracting. No such reports or documents are now present in the Archives. In subsequent years Walthers' wife Dorothy told researcher Mark Oakes (who told this writer) that her late husband had told her they had indeed found a bullet in the grass. (Hear No Evil, Mary Ferrell Foundation Press, 2010, pp. 400-401)[/font][/size]
