Conspiracy authors often challenge the Single Bullet Theory by claiming that the fragments left in the body of John Connally contained too much mass to have come from Commission Exhibit 399, and still leave the bullet as intact as it is. This claim was debunked 30 years ago. The following is from Josiah Thompson, SIX SECONDS IN DALLAS, pages 147-151. ----------------------------------------------------- A Perfect Bullet According to the Commission's "single-bullet" theory, the missile that wounded the Governor had first transited the President's neck. Following this transit, it entered the Governor's back, making a 1.5 centimeter hole before shattering his fifth rib and blowing out an exit hole 5 centimeters wide. The bullet continued on to smash Connally's forearm and wrist, splintering the radius bone at its largest point and leaving along its path a trail of bone and metal fragments. This bullet finally embedded itself in the Governor's thigh, leaving behind two small fragments before falling out on the stretcher. According to the Commission, the bullet that accomplished all this--that shattered two bones and caused seven separate wounds in two people-- was Commission Exhibit 399 (R95). Critics of the Report have argued against this conclusion on two grounds. First, they point to the minuscule loss of CE 399's substance and to the conviction of two of the autopsy surgeons that 399 could not have caused the Governor's wounds for the simple reason that more metal was found in his wrist than was missing from 399. Second, they point to 399's undeformed state as evidence that it could not have caused the damage ascribed to it. The second argument is much stronger than the first. FBI firearms expert Robert Frazier weighed CE 399 on the evening of November 22 and found it to weigh 158.6 grains (3H430). He weighed three other 6.5-millimeter bullets chosen at random and found them to weigh 160.85, 161.5, and 161.1 grains (3H430). Asked by Assistant Counsel Specter if this meant that there was a weight loss to CE 399, he replied "there did not necessarily have to be any weight loss to the bullet" (3H430). A number of metal fragments were left scattered through Connally's body. Two small fragments were removed from his wrist and are preserved as CE 842. Postoperative X-rays show additional fragments remaining in his wrist as well as a small fragment embedded in his thigh (see X-rays). Dr. Charles Gregory mentions a small fragment removed from the thigh wound that apparently has been lost. Finally, Dr. George T. Shires, Chief of Surgery at Parkland, said that postoperative chest X-rays showed "a small fragment remaining" (6H111). Given this distribution of bullet fragments through the Governor's body, the question arises whether more metal resided in his body than was missing from CE 399. In pursuing this question Assistant Counsel Specter asked Lieutenant Colonel Pierre Finck of the Army's wound ballistics section if CE 399 "could have been the bullet that inflicted the wound on Governor Connally's right wrist" (2H382). The Army doctor replied, "No, for the reason that there are too many fragments described in the wrist" (2H382). Earlier, Specter had addressed a similar question to another autopsy surgeon, Commander James J. Humes: Specter: And could that missile [CE 399] have made the wound on Governor Connally's right wrist? Humes: I think that is most unlikely . . . Going to Exhibit 392, the report from Parkland Hospital, the following sentence referring to the examination of the wound in the wrist is found: "Some small bits of metal were encountered at various levels throughout the wound, and these were, wherever they could be identified and picked up, picked up and submitted to the pathology department for identification and examination." The reason I believe it is most unlikely that this missile could have inflicted either of these wounds [referring also to the President's head wound] 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 (2H374-375). Continuing his examination, Specter asked Commander Humes if CE 399 could have caused the Governor's thigh wound. Humes replied: I think that extremely unlikely. The report, again Exhibit 392 from Parkland tells of an entrance wound on the lower mid-thigh of the Governor, and X-rays taken there are described as showing metallic fragments in the bone,* which apparently by this report were not removed and are still present in Governor Connally's thigh. I can't conceive of where they came from this missile. (2H376) Dr. Robert Shaw was just as positive in replying to a similar question by Assistant Counsel Specter: As far as the wounds of the chest are concerned, I feel that this bullet could have inflicted those wounds. ut the examination of the wrist both by X-rays and at the time of surgery showed some fragments of metal that make it difficult to believe that the same missile could have caused these two wounds. There seems to be more than three grains of metal missing as far as the--I mean in the wrist. (4H113) ----------------------------------------------------- [Thompson Footnote] * The existence of a metal fragment embedded in the Governor's thigh casts further suspicion on the hypothesis that CE 399 lodged in his thigh. For how could a spent bullet with only sufficient velocity to break the skin throw off a fragment of such higher velocity that it penetrated several layers of fascia and muscle before embedding itself in the femur? Dr. George T. Shires, the Parkland surgeon who operated on Connally's thigh, was also puzzled by this (6H106). In a conversation on May 31, 1967, he confirmed to the author that the fragment was indeed embedded in the bone. ---------------------------------------------------- Dr. Shaw was then asked by Specter to state his opinion as to "whether bullet 399 could have inflicted all of the wounds on the Governor." His reply could well stand as a summary of medical testimony on CE 399: I feel that there would be some difficulty explaining all of the wounds as being inflicted by bullet Exhibit 399 without causing more in the way of loss of substance to the bullet or deformation of the bullet (4H114). This medical testimony is more imposing on first glance than after analysis. Drs. Finck, Humes, and Shaw felt confident that the weight of the fragments found in the Governor's body was too much for them to have come from CE 399. But what was the total weight of the metal scattered through the Governor's chest, wrist, and thigh? Of the two fragments recovered from the Governor's wrist, the larger was found to weigh 0.5 grain (5H72). The smaller one plus the flakes of metal remaining in his wrist might account for a like weight. This gives us a total of about one grain for the wrist. What about the chest and thigh fragments? Dr. Shires, who noticed the chest fragment on X-ray, never estimated its weight, but he spoke of it as being the same general size as the fragment embedded in the femur. The weight of this fragment was estimated as "a fraction of a grain, maybe, a tenth of a grain" (6H106, 111). If we add to these two fragments the flake observed just under the skin in the thigh wound, we have a total weight of perhaps 0.5 grain in the thigh and chest. Adding this to the wrist fragments yields a total weight for all observed fragments of 1.5 grains. Clearly then, Dr. Shaw was mistaken when he testified that "there seems to be more than three grains of metal missing...in the wrist" (4H113). The upshot of all this medical testimony with respect to weight loss is inconclusive. About 1.5 grains of metal were found in Governor Connally's wounds. An unfired projectile like 399 might be expected to weigh about 161 grains (3H430). Subtracting the weight of CE 399 (158.6 grains) from this figure yields a possible weight loss of up to 2.5 grains. Hence, simply from the point of view of total weight, the various fragments in Connally's body could have come from CE 399. The critics have been wrong in contending that weight loss alone precludes CE 399 from being the bullet that wounded Governor Connally.