The WC never showed that CE 399 was relevant or that it was discovered in the way that they claimed. Here are more details regarding the alleged discovery of the "magic bullet."
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There are actually several key points that make or break the Warren Commission?s (WC) claim of a lone assassin, but perhaps none shows it more clearly and concisely than the Single Bullet Theory (SBT). The whole need for a SBT came about because the WC was limited to three shots by the assassin due to the time constraints offered by the Zapruder film. Using this film it was concluded that the assassin would have had roughly 5.6 seconds to fire at the motorcade and the cycling time of the Mannlicher-Carcano (M-C) was 2.3 seconds by the most experienced shooters, thus, the maximum number of shots that could be fired were three.
This is what both the FBI and Secret Service (SS) reported in their reports, and continue to report as they even scoff at the SBT as happening. Initially there were no problems with three shots though as the FBI and SS said the first shot hit President John F. Kennedy (JFK) in the back, the second hit Governor John B
Connally (JBC) in the back and the third hit JFK in the head. This was neat and concise and worked for both of these organizations. The fly in the ointment arose when a man by the name of James Tague came along however, and said he was wounded on the cheek by debris from a bullet hitting the concrete pavement/curb near him a the Triple Underpass area. He was standing there watching the motorcade. Hoover initially did what he did with a lot of evidence in this case -- he IGNORED him!!! He would not recognize him for many months, but finally this bullet had to be addressed. Which one could have struck JFK or JBC and still traveled that far and struck the pavement/curb near Tague? The WC came to the scary conclusion none could, thus they had a problem. NOW they had to address 7 wounds in two men with just two bullets!!
Enter the SBT scenario. This theory lacks any evidence and proof of its validity, yet the official government stance for 54 years has been this is what happened. In a nutshell the WC said the following:
1) The first shot hit JFK in the back AND then exited JFK's throat and went on to enter JBC's back on the right side and exit his chest near the right nipple (in the meantime it broke the fifth rib and deflated his right lung) and then went on to smash his radius bone in his right wrist and then exit there and land in his left thigh leaving a superficial wound.
2) The second shot missed completely and landed near Tague and caused his wound.
3) The third shot hit JFK in the head while his head was in a position NOT one witness could be found to say it was in at the time of impact (they claimed his head was completely down to the point of his chin nearly touching his chest). IN fact, there is NOT one picture or film that shows JFK's head in this position at the time of impact that I am aware of.
This post is NOT about the SBT though, but rather the bullet that was claimed to be the one that allowed the SBT to occur ? CE-399, a.k.a. ?The Magic Bullet.? We can look at the SBT in full in other posts in this series.
The claimed ?magic bullet? was discovered by the senior engineer, Darrell Tomlinson, of Parkland Hospital. He had been asked to manually operate the elevator that connected the ground-floor emergency rooms with the second-floor operating rooms. On one of these trips he would notice the bullet as it rolled out from under the edge of the mat it apparently had been under.
Who?s stretcher was this? For some time folks thought that it could have been JFK's, but evidence (via Nurse Bowron) shows that JFK?s stretcher was put in trauma room two at the same time it was discovered by Tomlinson, thus, it pretty much eliminates this possibility. Most now accept the likelihood of it being found on the one that had contained two-year old Ronald Fuller. He had entered Parkland Hospital (PH) at 12:54 p.m. with a bad cut on his chin.
Let?s look at Darrell Tomlinson?s story.
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The magical bullet (CE-399) is the key to the whole official conclusion that Lee Harvey Oswald (LHO), acting alone, shot three times at the JFK and killed him and severely hurt JBC. Without this bullet they have no case, period (not much of one with it either). So let's see how this bullet came into evidence. Was it retrieved from either JFK or JBCs' bodies? No. Was it found within the mobile "crime scene", a.k.a. JFK's limousine? No. Was it found by one of the doctors or nurses treating either the JFK or JBC? No. How was it then found you ask? This is how the most vital piece of evidence in the government's case (minus the true nature of the wounds to the JFK's body) was "found".
JBC is rushed into Parkland Hospital and taken to trauma room 2, it is quickly assessed he needs surgery to save his life and treat the wounds he has received. He is placed on a stretcher and then wheeled to an elevator for a ride to the second floor of the hospital. Once JBC arrived on the second floor he is taken to an operating room, where he is transferred from the stretcher to the operating table. You may ask, did they find CE-399 now? No. The stretcher is then placed in the hallway for use at a later time.
Darrell C. Tomlinson, the hospital's senior engineer, enters the elevator and then sees the stretcher and takes it to the ground floor via an elevator. Tomlinson says he places the stretcher (the one presumably used for JBC by the WC, but NEVER shown to be) alongside another stretcher, which is against the wall. Did Tomlinson see the bullet during the trip down to the ground floor? No. After he puts the stretcher back against the wall following it being moved by an intern or doctor using the restroom he bumps the stretcher and then notices the bullet roll out from the mat. This is the magic bullet. Tomlinson will state he is not certain from which stretcher (really neither one was shown to have had anything to do with JBC) the bullet came from, but the WC will decide for him and say it was the one JBC had been on. How do they know this when the man who was right there didn't? How do you think this "chain of custody" would have held up in court?
They then go on to make matters more confusing and open to conjecture by stating the bullet was not from JFK's stretcher, but from JBC's. How did we get there? Who said it was from the JFK's? It would make sense though based on Dr. Humes and the two FBI agents (O'Neill and Sibert) who learned that JFK had a non-penetrating wound and received cardiac massage on his stretcher. It makes more sense to think the bullet fell out of the President than from JBC who was just transferred from the stretcher to the operating table (Hoover thought so in a call with LBJ). But, as we have seen it is even more likely it came from Ronald Fuller?s stretcher. The KEY point here is Tomlinson NEVER said it was from JBC?s stretcher and that was the WC?s conjecture.
Here is his testimony concerning this issue.
Mr. SPECTER. Will you mark with a "B" the stretcher which was present at the time you pushed stretcher "A" off of the elevator?
Mr. TOMLINSON. (Witness complied with the request of Counsel Specter.) I believe that's it.
Here Specter is saying the stretcher he brought down is marked ?A? (allegedly JBC?s), and the stretcher that was present before is marked ?B?. Remember these designations for later.
Mr. TOMLINSON. Well, sir; I don't recall how long it had been exactly, but an intern or doctor, I didn't know which, came to use the men's room there in the elevator lobby.
Mr. SPECTER. Where is the men's room located on this diagram?
Mr. TOMLINSON. It would be right there (indicating) beside the "B" stretcher.
Mr. SPECTER. Would you draw in ink there the outline of that room in a general way?
Mr. TOMLINSON. Well, I really don't know.
Mr. SPECTER. And would you mark that with the letter "C"?
(Witness complied with request of Counsel Specter.)
Mr. SPECTER. That's fine. What happened when that gentleman came to use the men's room?
Mr. TOMLINSON. Well, he pushed the stretcher out from the wall to get in, and then when he came out he just walked off and didn't push the stretcher back up against the wall, so I pushed it out of the way where we would have clear area in front of the elevator.
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Mr. SPECTER. And where did you push it to?
Mr. TOMLINSON. I pushed it back up against the wall.
Mr. SPECTER. What, if anything, happened then?
Mr. TOMLINSON. I bumped the wall and a spent cartridge or bullet rolled out that apparently had been lodged under the edge of the mat.
Mr. SPECTER.And that was from which stretcher?
Mr. TOMLINSON. I believe that it was "B".
So we see Tomlinson is saying the cartridge was found on stretcher B, and this was the one that was already present when he was called to operate the elevator. It was NOT the stretcher JBC had been on. He will now describe stretcher ?B?s? appearance for us.
Of course Specter did NOT like this answer and quickly tried to confuse Tomlinson.
Mr. SPECTER. Now, Mr. Tomlinson, are you sure that it was stretcher "A" that you took out of the elevator and not stretcher "B"?
Mr. TOMLINSON. Well, really, I can't be positive, just to be perfectly honest about it, I can't be positive, because I really didn't pay that much attention to it. The stretcher was on the elevator and I pushed it off of there and I believe we made one or two calls up before I straightened out the stretcher up against the wall.
As we will see shortly, Tomlinson could NOT even say stretcher "A" was from JBC as it was there when he arrived on the elevator.
Satisfied with this answer Specter went for the Coup de Grace, but FAILED!
Mr. SPECTER. And at the time we started our discussion, it was your recollection at that point that the bullet came off of stretcher A, was it not?
Mr. TOMLINSON. B.
Mr. SPECTER. Pardon me, stretcher B, but it was stretcher A that you took off of the elevator.
Mr. TOMLINSON. I believe that's right.
Sneaky, sneaky! See the sneaky trick Specter tried to play? Again though, stretcher "A" could NOT be tied to JBC at all.
However, Tomlinson stuck to his guns and said it was ?B? the bullet came off of, NOT ?A? that allegedly had JBC on it a little while earlier. Here is how Tomlinson described ?B? for us:
Mr. SPECTER. And what was on "B", if you recall; if anything?
Mr. TOMLINSON. Well, at one end they had one or two sheets rolled up; I didn't examine them. They were bloody. They were rolled up on the east end of it and there were a few surgical instruments on, the opposite end and a sterile pack or so.
Mr. SPECTER. A sterile what?
Mr. TOMLINSON. A sterile pack.
Mr. SPECTER. What do you mean by that?
Mr. TOMLINSON. Like gauze or something like that.
Mr. SPECTER. Was there an alcohol sponge?
Mr. TOMLINSON. There could have been.
Mr. SPECTER. Was there a roll of 1-inch tape?
Mr. TOMLINSON. No; I don't think so.
This description matches the injury suffered by Ronald Fuller much better as the young boy had cut his chin on a piece of broken soda pop bottle and had his chin sutured. Gauze packets were also used on him.
Despite Tomlinson?s firmness in saying the bullet was found on stretcher ?B? Specter kept on trying to confuse him. They went over how Tomlinson had been interviewed once by both the FBI and the SS in the latter part of November and early December of 1963. Specter made him say numerous times that he had said to the FBI and SS that he could NOT be sure which stretcher was ?A? and which was ?B?. Again, Specter tries to bully Tomlinson into saying it was stretcher ?A? the bullet came from.
Mr. SPECTER. Now, before I started to ask you questions under oath, which have been taken down here, I told you, did I not, that the Secret Service man wrote a report where he said that the bullet was found on the stretcher which you took off of the elevator---I called that to your attention, didn't I?
Mr. TOMLINSON. Yes; you told me that.
Mr. SPECTER. Now, after I tell you that, does that have any effect on refreshing your recollection of what you told the Secret Service man?
Mr. TOMLINSON. No it really doesn't---it really doesn't.
Mr. SPECTER. So, would it be a fair summary to say that when I first started to talk to you about it, your first view was that the stretcher you took off of the elevator was stretcher A, and then I told you that the Secret Service man said it was---that you had said the stretcher you took off of the elevator was the one that you found the bullet off, and when we talked about the whole matter and talked over the entire situation, you really can't be completely sure about which stretcher you took off of the elevator, because you didn't push the stretcher that you took off of the elevator right against the wall at first?
Mr. TOMLINSON. That's right.
As I have said many times, a defense attorney would have interjected here. This is clearly badgering the witness. Despite LHO?s Constitutional rights being denied this witness still held his ground. Also, since they could NOT show stretcher "A" was connected to JBC in anyway this is all meaningless anyway!
Mr. SPECTER. And, there was a lot of confusion that day, which is what you told me before?
Mr. TOMLINSON. Absolutely. And now, honestly, I don't remember telling him definitely-I know we talked about it, and I told him that it could have been. Now, he might have drawed his own conclusion on that.
Mr. SPECTER. You told the Secret Service agent that you didn't know where---
Mr. TOMLINSON. (interrupting). He asked me if it could have been brought down from the second floor.
Mr. SPECTER. You got the stretcher from where the bullet came from, whether it was brought down from the second floor?
Mr. TOMLINSON. It could have been--I'm not sure whether it was A I took off.
Mr. SPECTER. But did you tell the Secret Service man which one you thought it was you took off of the elevator?
Mr. TOMLINSON. I'm not clear on that---whether I absolutely made a positive statement to that effect.
Mr. SPECTER. You told him that it could have been B you took off of the elevator?
Mr. TOMLINSON. That's right.
Mr. SPECTER. But, you don't remember whether you told him it was A you took off of the elevator?
Mr. TOMLINSON. I think it was A---I'm not really sure.
Mr. SPECTER. Which did you tell the Secret Service agent--that you thought it was A that you took off of the elevator?
Mr. TOMLINSON. Really, I couldn't be real truthful in saying I told him this or that.
Mr. SPECTER. You just don't remember for sure whether you told him you thought it was A or not?
Mr. TOMLINSON. No, sir; I really don't remember. I'm not accustomed to being questioned by the Secret Service and the FBI and by you and they are writing down everything, I mean.
Since "A" was NOT tied to JBC as you will see shortly all this is akin to running around after your own tail!
And then Tomlinson gets his Coup de Grace in! Successfully too!
Mr. SPECTER. That's all right. I understand exactly what you are saying and I appreciate it and I really just want to get your best recollection.
We understand it isn't easy to remember all that went on, on a day like November 22d, and that a man's recollection is not perfect like every other part of a man, but I want you to tell me just what you remember, and that's the best you can do today, and I appreciate that, and so does the President's Commission, and that's all we can ask a man.
Mr. TOMLINSON. Yes, I'm going to tell you all I can, and I'm not going to tell you something I can't lay down and sleep at night with either.
I.E. he was NOT going to LIE to benefit the WC?s conclusion! As he said before the stretcher on the elevator may NOT have even been JBC?s as the WC kept claiming!
Mr. SPECTER. Do you know where the stretcher came from that you found on the elevator?
Mr. TOMLINSON. No, sir; I do not. It could have come from two, it could have come from three, it could have come from some other place.
Mr. SPECTER. You didn't see anybody put it there?
Mr. TOMLINSON. No, sir--it was on the elevator when I got there. There wasn't anyone on the elevator at the time when I keyed it off.
Again, for the umpteenth time we see the WC made a connection ?stretcher ?A? was JBC?s?when there was NO way to show this was true as the man who found it on the elevator had NO way of knowing where it came from! This was the WC's typical strategy and shows LHO was the patsy as he claimed to me.
We also have some other intriguing things to consider. Like these:
* At 1:25 p.m. the SS are trying to remove the body from Parkland for the journey to D.C. and when Kellerman asks the judge present to sign-off he is told by the judge that he must get permission from D.A. Wade. Henry Wade and Chief Curry give the following advice: "Do not release the body until the missile is taken into custody." This comment has given researchers much dilemma over the years, as they are not sure what "missile" they could be talking about as the CE-399 bullet is NOT found until 1:45 p.m. How did Wade know a bullet would be found?
* In addition to the one Tomlinson found, which he stated repeatedly was NOT the one the WC presented as CE-399 (he said a POINTY-NOSE bullet had been found), TWO other bullets were found as well. Elizabeth Goode Wright, director of nursing at Parkland, told researcher Wallace Millam in 1993 that her husband, O.P. Wright (director of security) found TWO bullets on 11/22/63. He handled the "magic bullet" before the Secret Service received it, but he also found a unfired, "whole" .38 with manufacturer's case markings ".38 SP WCC" -- the very same markings as 2 of the 4 shell casings allegedly retrieved from the Tippit scene and supposedly matched to the pistol found on LHO at the time of his arrest.
This was found on a hospital gurney and Wright did NOT turn it over to the authorities, and he showed it to Millam during the interview. To me, this is further proof of the frame being placed on LHO, as they planted a bullet matching the pistol he would allegedly be found with as well. Can the WC defenders explain this?
* SS Agent Richard Johnsen was given the bullet by O.P. Wright. He was NEVER called before the WC. Why? Well, in later interviews with researchers he too said CE-399 was NOT the bullet he was given and that he sent on to Washington! Johnsen, NEVER initialed CE-399 (or more likely, he initialed the actual one found), thus, this broke the chain of custody! (CE-2011/ 24H412)
* Chief James J. Rowley of the SS failed to ID CE-399 as the bullet he saw on 11/22/63. CE-399 and it also lacks his initials on it. (CE-2011/ 24H412)
* Although the bullet was "officially" found on a stretcher in a corridor of Parkland Hospital, the FBI (Sibert and O'Neil) reported that it was found in the emergency room! (CD-7)
All this shows us is that there is NO connection between any stretcher and JBC as claimed by the WC. It also shows us the bullet found, and touched and seen by quite a few people, is NOT the one in evidence to this day. IF Ruby did plant a bullet (could he have been the intern or doctor seen by Tomlinson?) it was NOT a 6.5 mm round as NO one could be found to say CE-399 was the bullet found at PH. This means the bullet was CHANGED while in CUSTODY OF THE AUTHORITIES. Furthermore, there is NO chain of custody for the bullet in evidence as it lacks the initials of those who sent it in.
I also did not get into it, but both the WC and HSCA ignored those that were involved to again interview a man who was NOT involved (Behn)! Does this make any sense? ONLY if you are trying to hide something. The single most important piece of evidence for the WC has NO link to LHO as the rifle in question is NOT tied to him by evidence, it has NO link to the victims NOR any link to the PH discovery! IT is basically worthless.
Once again we see that the claims of the WC are not supported by the actual evidence, thus, their conclusion is sunk again.
