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ME: How much of the bullet that struck JFK in the head was never found?Perplexity AI: Most of the head‑shot bullet was never recovered; only a few small fragments were found, so the majority of the original 6.5 mm Carcano bullet mass is missing.
Official fragment recoveryParkland and the limousine yielded only a handful of metal pieces clearly associated with the fatal head shot. Contemporary descriptions and later ballistics work describe:
Two larger jacket/lead fragments on the front seat floor of the limousine.
Several much smaller lead specks seen on the autopsy skull X‑rays and removed as tiny fragments.
One documented fragment weighed about 2.89 g and included part of the lead core, while another weighed about 1.36 g, together still far short of a complete bullet.
How much is “missing” in mass termsA full 6.5×52 mm Carcano military round typically uses a bullet weighing about 10.4 grams (160 grains). The documented larger recovered fragments from the head shot add up to roughly 4.25 g combined, plus only minute specks beyond that. This means on the order of 6 g or more of bullet mass—well over half, and probably closer to two‑thirds—was never recovered in identifiable form.
Modern finite‑element ballistic reconstructions use these fragment masses and locations, along with skull damage patterns, specifically because most of the bullet’s mass is unaccounted for and must be modeled rather than directly measured.
Context within the broader evidenceFor the fatal head shot, the record thus consists of two moderate‑sized fragments plus numerous tiny metallic particles, not anything approaching an intact or nearly intact bullet.