JFK Assassination Forum

I have reasonable doubts about the LNT-SBT.

If you have your mobile phone handy, call somebody who gives a shit.

JFK wanted to appear forward-looking, the new frontier and so on.

Fedoras, nearly required in the 1950s, suddenly dropped out of fashion in the 1960s.

To wear a fedora in 1963 would have signaled fuddi-duddiness.

JFK declined, even for a moment, to wear a Stetson, while in Dallas.

Having lived in Texas for a couple of years, I think a photo of JFK in a Stetson would have been a smart PR move.

I don't know why JFK did not doff the Stetson, at least for a photo shoot, in deference to Texas customs. JFK usually knew instinctively what was good PR. But perhaps Texas was terra incognita to JFK.

That has always been an interesting aspect of Gov. John Connally's wounds: His two surgeons thought the SBT did not hold water.

Dr. Robert Shaw and Dr. Charles Gregory were not activists or leftists, and Shaw had military experience of working on hundreds of wartime gunshot victims. Shaw, without dispute, is an authority on the topic.

My take is Shaw and Gregory gave their earnest opinions and had no axes to grind.

Gregory found that a projectile had entered JBC's wrist on the dorsal side...almost an anatomical impossibility for a slug that first entered JBC's chest from the rear.

Shaw thought it most likely JBC had been hit by a separate shot, that shot had not been impeded before hitting JBC.

The small round hole in the rear of JBC's assassination day shirt strongly suggests a direct shot, and not a slug that hit JBC "sideways" after tumbling.

There are a lot of reasons to have reasonable doubts about SBT, including that it was fabricated by Arlen Specter based on the premise that only two shots had struck JFK and JBC. Specter's job was to present the SBT-LNT narrative, not to investigate the truth. The WC concluded that one shot struck near Tague.

That CE-399 was not found in Trauma Room 2 adds another layer of perplexity. Even then hospital procedures were to retain bullets and report bullet wounds to police. JBC recalls the bullet fell from his leg on clicked on the floor of Trauma Room 2.

Yet somehow a slug is found in the Parkland hospital corridor, described as a "pointy-head" slug by OP Wright, hospital administrator and former police chief, and then that slug is purported to be CE-399.

I have reasonable doubts about the LNT-SBT.

FWIW, the firing pin impression issue was addressed by Donald Champagne at page 455 of the HSCA firearms panel's testimony.

https://aarclibrary.org/publib/jfk/hsca/reportvols/vol1/pdf/HSCA_Vol1_0908_6_Firearms.pdf

This is HSCA Figure 21A, "Photomicrograph showing the correspondence between the individual identifying characteristics on the CE 543 cartridge case (L) and on panel Kennedy T-1 (R), produced by the firing pin of the CE 139 rifle." Hmm ... does the indentation on CE 543 (L portion) not look somewhat different, along the lines of what Chapman was talking about?

CE 543  FBI  FRAZIER

The article about Dr Chapman came from this magazine. I believe this is the predecessor of The New American Magazine

They Killed the President, by Alan Stang (American Opinion, February 1976).pdf (archive.org)

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Military primers in military rounds are different in makeup than the civilian market primers. Much harder and designed different. Comparing the row of pictures to CE 543 is really an apples to oranges scenario. At the time we did not have any Western Cartridge cartridges and only used what was available to make the point. The reason for the second row or additional row of pictures was to show individual carcano rifles were not the same as far as how hard the firing pin struck the shell casing primer. The second row is far less dented in. 

The best we could do was to use two Terni 1940 M38 rifles but the way these rifles were prepared for the American market was to just put them together and make sure they fired the round and ejected it.

Personally, I can’t believe the FBI missed so much about these shells. Not only did they miss the dished in primer but the Chamber Mark on just 5 of the 6 shells. They had six shells in their possession and noted the chamber mark in the analysis of some of them but not all. It would have been easy to look and see what was in the chamber causing the indentation and maybe did look but did not note it other than to state it about some of them in the analysis. I have wondered if they realized to declare that only two of the shells showed to have been fired would that information have fueled a conspiracy belief with Merriman Smith’s/ Walter Cronkite’s three shot News Bulletin. 

A conspiracy is exactly how Dr Chapman and Josiah Thompson viewed the information.

Thanks Jack, I don’t remember seeing a second row of images in the Kindle version of the book that I purchased recently. I have been researching further trying to understand more about the action of the Carcano rifle. Below please find a Q&A that I think might be pertinent.


For what it is worth:

Question to Google AI:

if the bolt handle of a Carcano model 91-38 rifle is slightly not completely down in the closed position can the trigger still be pulled and the rifle fire and if so, can this cause a variation in the depth of the firing pin depression in the primer of the cartridge?


Google AI answer:

Yes, a Carcano Model 91/38 can be fired with the bolt handle slightly unlatched. Because of the design of the cocking cams, pulling the trigger releases the firing pin even if the bolt is not fully locked down.

The Mechanics:

Trigger Pull and Firing:  Most bolt-action rifles are designed with an "out of battery" safety that disconnects the sear or physically blocks the firing pin if the bolt is not fully closed. However, the historic Carcano M91 design lacks this modern feature. When the bolt handle is slightly raised:The trigger can still be pulled, releasing the cocking piece and firing pin. As the firing pin drives forward, its energy is often spent camming the bolt handle downward into the locked position before the pin hits the primer. Alternatively, if the bolt is held firmly in place so it cannot self-close, the firing pin will release and strike the primer while the bolt remains partially out of battery.

Effect on Firing Pin Depth (Primer Indentation):

If the bolt fails to fully lock down, it fundamentally alters the headspacing of the firearm. When the trigger is pulled:Inconsistent Depth: You will likely notice a variation in the depth of the firing pin depression. If the firing pin's forward energy is robbed by the effort of forcing the bolt to cam into battery, the indent will often be shallow, light, or off-center.

Safety Risks: Firing a rifle "out of battery" (when the bolt lugs are not fully seated and locked into the receiver) is extremely dangerous. It exposes the unsupported or partially supported cartridge case to high pressures, which can cause ruptured brass, blown primers, and escaping gas that could damage the firearm or injure the shooter.

For more context on how these components function, you can view the Carcano Bolt Disassembly and Reassembly guide.