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One of the biggest problems with the single-bullet theory (SBT) is that there were far too many bullet fragments in Governor John Connally's body to have come from CE 399.
Although Dr. Charles Gregory later said the fragments removed from Connally's wrist were merely "flakes of metal" and that they weighed less than a postage stamp, there didn't seem to be any question about the wrist fragments in the first hours and days after the shooting. Dr. Gregory's own 11/22/63 Parkland Hospital operative record states that "small bits of metal were encountered at various levels" of the wrist wound, and that "wherever they were identified and could be picked up were picked up and have been submitted to the pathology department for identification and examination" (CE 392; 2 H 375).
This squares with Nurse Audrey Bell's account of the wrist fragments. Nurse Bell was the nurse who handled the bullet fragments that were removed from the governor's wrist. She insisted the fragments were not merely flakes but were identifiable pieces of metal anywhere from 3 to 4 mm in length and about 2 mm wide. 3-4 mm x 2 mm fragments are not large fragments, but they are certainly not flakes either. She said there were four or five fragments of this size removed from the wrist.
This, in turn, squares with the recollection of one of Connally's other surgeons, Dr. Robert Shaw. Interviewed for the award-winning 1988 documentary Reasonable Doubt: The Single-Bullet Theory, Shaw said,
I am sure that the bullet that inflicted these wounds on Governor Connally was fragmented much more than this bullet [CE 399] shows.
Dr. Pierre Finck, the only forensic pathologist at the autopsy, told the WC that CE 399 could not have been the bullet that hit Connally's wrist because there were many fragments described as being in the wrist:
Mr. SPECTER. Dr. Finck, have you had an opportunity to examine Commission’s Exhibit 399? . . . And could it have been the bullet which inflicted the wound on Governor Connally’s right wrist?
Colonel FINCK. No; for the reason that there are too many fragments described in that wrist. (2 H 382)
Similarly, Dr. James Humes, the chief pathologist at the autopsy, understood the clear implications of Dr. Gregory's 11/22/63 operative record. Dr. Humes was asked if CE 399 could have been either the missile that struck the head or the one that hit Connally's wrist. He replied in the negative in both cases and cited the operative record as the basis for his conclusion about the wrist bullet, saying he thought it was "most unlikely" that CE 399 could be the bullet that hit the wrist:
Mr. SPECTER. Doctor Humes, I show you a bullet which we have marked as Commission Exhibit No. 399. . . . Now looking at that bullet, Exhibit 399, Doctor Humes, could that bullet have gone through or been any part of the fragment passing through President Kennedy's head in Exhibit No. 388?
Commander HUMES. I do not believe so, sir.
Mr. SPECTER. And could that missile have made the wound on Governor Connally's right wrist?
Commander HUMES. I think that that is most unlikely. May I expand on those two answers?
Mr. SPECTER. Yes, please do.
Commander HUMES. The X-rays made of the wound in the head of the late President showed fragmentations of the missile. Some fragments we recovered and turned over, as has been previously noted. Also we have X-rays of the fragment of skull which was in the region of our opinion exit wound showing metallic fragments.
Also going to Exhibit 392, the report from Parkland Hospital, the following sentence referring to the examination of the wound of the wrist is found: "Small bits of metal were encountered at various levels throughout the wound, and these were, wherever they were identified and could be picked up, picked up and submitted to the pathology department for identification and examination."
The reason I believe it most unlikely that this missile could have inflicted either of these wounds is that this missile is basically intact; its jacket appears to me to be intact, and I do not understand how it could possibly have left fragments in either of these locations. (2 H 374-375)
Also, we should keep in mind that there were at least two other fragments left in Connally's body: one was left in his chest and another was left in his thigh. Where in the devil could those fragments have come from CE 399?
Remember, too, that the FBI's Robert Frazier told the WC that CE 399 may not have lost any of its substance, and that at the most it lost less than 4 grains of its substance. To give you some idea of what a microscopic amount of material we're talking about, 4 grains is less than 83/10,000ths of a troy ounce or less than 0.0083 troy ounces.
Finally, notice that Humes acknowledged that CE 399 is "basically intact," and that its jacket "appears to me to be intact." Recall that Frazier told the WC that CE 399 is only "slightly flattened or twisted" and that this slight damage "is hardly visible unless you look at the base of the bullet and notice it is not round" (3 H 429). Yet this bullet supposedly tore through seven layers of skin, shattered a rib bone, and shattered a distal radius bone.
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