[SystemSafety] The Third Bullet

[C. Michael Holloway]

Anyone interested in this topic should read Larry Sabato's new book /The 
Kennedy Half Century/ and visit the associated website 
http://www.thekennedyhalfcentury.com/

On 11/4/13 5:43 PM, Heath Raftery wrote:
> FWIW, this is similar to the theory in a book I read when I studied the 
> event in high school. Our task was to offer an explanation, I had no idea, 
> so my father handed me a book called "Mortal Error: The Shot That Killed 
> JFK" by Bonar Menninger. Certainly made my essay easier to write!
>
> Heh, now that I read the Wikipedia page I see it was based on the same 
> guy's theory - ballistics expert Howard Donahue - as the documentary you 
> refer to.
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mortal_Error:_The_Shot_That_Killed_JFK
>
> Heath
>
> On 4/11/2013 6:55 PM, Les Chambers wrote:
>> A television show on the JFK assassination  aired in Australia last night.
>>
>> Synopsis:
>>
>> JFK: The Smoking Gun is a two-hour docudrama based on the book of the
>> same name by former Australian police detective Colin McLaren. He claims
>> to have spent years on "the forensic cold-case investigation of JFK's
>> assassination" and says he believes he has found "the smoking gun" that
>> killed the president. His conclusion is that a Secret Service agent
>> George Hickey accidentally shot and killed Kennedy. Lee Harvey Oswald
>> did indeed shoot, but only one bullet hit Kennedy.
>>
>> McLaren's candidate scenario is as follows:
>>
>> Three shots are fired at JFK.
>>
>> The first one (fired by Oswald) misses, ricochets off the road and some
>> shrapnel strikes the president. He is heard to say "God I've been hit."
>>
>> The second one (fired by Oswald) hits JFK in the back of the neck and
>> passes through also striking Connolly, the governor of Texas.
>>
>> George Hickey in an open top  secret service escort car directly behind
>> the president's vehicle unlatches the safety catch on his AR 15 assault
>> rifle and stands up accidentally discharging his weapon and killing the
>> president. He then falls back into his seat. This third round is a
>> "frangible" round exploding inside the president's head. It is the fatal
>> shot.
>>
>> At least four witnesses at street level claimed they smelt gun powder.
>> Others testified that they saw Hickey stand up and sit down in the
>> following vehicle. McLaren concludes that the third round could not have
>> come from Oswald's weapon as he was too far away, too high up in the
>> book depository and downwind of the witnesses (a gunpowder smell from
>> his weapon would not have reached the crowd). He also deems it
>> incredible that Oswald would be firing both frangible and nonfrangible
>> rounds.
>>
>>   The rest of McLaren's supporting evidence is based on the alleged
>> bizarre behaviour of the Secret Service after the assassination.
>> According to McLaren they actively prevented an autopsy being carried
>> out on the president and spirited his body back to Washington. The
>> photographs taken both on the street and at the initial examination in
>> the hospital were confiscated by the Secret Service. The president's
>> brain went missing and has never been found.
>>
>> Is this all old news? I had not heard it before. How could it be that no
>> one in the crowd saw Hickey actually discharge the weapon (one witness
>> said she thinks she saw a flash "... and men firing back" - the enquiry
>> did not pursue this line of investigation). It also seems incredible
>> that the Secret Service would protect one of their own (as claimed by
>> McLaren) after he committed such a blunder.
>>
>> Any comments.
>>
>> Cheers
>>
>> Les
>
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>


-- 

C. Michael Holloway

Disclaimer: My opinions are mine alone. Give neither blame nor credit to my 
employer for them.

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