This thread is a good example of the refusal of lone-gunman theorists to deal credibly and factually with hard physical evidence that refutes their theory.
One of the things that led firearms expert Howard Donahue to doubt the Warren Commission's version of the shooting was that he realized there was no way CE 543 could have been used to fire a bullet during the assassination. He also realized that the HSCA's firearms experts were blowing smoke when they falsely claimed they had produced shells that were as dented as CE 543 in their test firings (as I've mentioned, anyone can look at the HSCA's shells and see that not of them is dented as severely as CE 543).
A number of other firearms experts have studied the matter and have agreed with Donahue that CE 543 simply could not have been used to fire a bullet during the shooting. I discuss this fact in my article "The Dented Bullet Shell: Hard Evidence of Conspiracy in the JFK Assassination" (
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Ihue8a0GmN_Ptl38bPjpu1F99nqU0Z6f/view).
The evidence that CE 543 could not have fired a bullet on 11/22/63 is so strong that some anti-conspiracy researchers have actually acknowledged it and have proposed the theory that the alleged lone gunman only fired two shots. (However, this theory is rejected even by the vast majority of lone-gunman theorists.)
A few of these commentators have also theorized that the supposed single assassin did not fire the ammo that hit JFK's head but that Secret Service agent George Hickey, riding in the follow-up car, accidentally shot JFK in the head. This is the mortal error theory. It has few adherents, but it is partly based on sound forensic science.
Donahue was the first one to propose the mortal error theory. He did so because he knew there was no way that JFK's head was hit by the kind of ammo that Oswald allegedly used, i.e., FMJ ammo. He knew that the forensic evidence clearly showed that JFK's head was hit by high-velocity frangible ammo, not by low-/medium-velocity full-metal-jacketed (FMJ) ammo. This fact was confirmed by one of the world's leading forensic pathologists, Dr. Vincent DiMaio, in his highly acclaimed book
Gunshot Wounds.
The ammo that hit JFK's head left dozens of tiny fragments in the right-frontal region of the skull, along with a few small fragments near the entry point in the back of the head. An FMJ bullet would have never behaved in this manner. Here's what DiMaio said about FMJ bullets leaving numerous fragments (a "snowstorm") inside a skull (which is what we see in the right front on JFK's lateral autopsy x-ray):
In x-rays of through-and-through gunshot wounds, the presence of small fragments of metal along the wound track virtually rules out full metal-jacketed ammunition.... In rare instances, involving full metal-jacketed centerfire rifle bullets, a few small, dust-like fragments of lead may be seen on x-ray if the bullet perforates bone. One of the most characteristic x-rays and one that will indicate the type of weapon and ammunition used is that seen from centerfire rifles firing hunting ammunition. In such a case, one will see a “lead snowstorm” [Figure 11.4]. In high-quality x-rays, the majority of the fragments visualized have a fine “dust-like” quality. Such a picture rules out full metal-jacketed rifle ammunition or a shotgun slug. (Gunshot Wounds, CRC Press, Boca Raton, 1999, p. 318, emphasis added).For more information on the evidence that JFK's head must have been hit by high-velocity frangible ammo, see
https://www.jfkassassinationforum.com/index.php/topic,3641.0.html.
The mortal error theory has been debunked. Hickey never fired a shot during the assassination. All of his ammo was accounted for almost immediately after the shooting. No one in the follow-up car saw or heard him fire a shot. However, the mortal error theory at least acknowledges that JFK's head must have been bit by high-velocity frangible ammo.
