The evidence

CE 399 and the Landis bullet

Where the “magic bullet” was found, and a Secret Service agent’s account 60 years later

RECORD / AT A GLANCE

Chain of custody disputed; Landis account unverified

Disputed. The official placement of CE 399 on Connally’s stretcher rests on inference, and Landis’s new account conflicts with it. Landis gave no such account in 1963, and his late memory cannot be tested. Neither version proves a second gunman.

THE EVENTS / THE INVESTIGATION / THE STORY

The chronology.

READ THE FILE

Evidence & assessment.

Open an article for its evidence, labeled AI assessment and numbered sources. Read the complete static edition ↗

WHAT PEOPLE SAY ABOUT THIS FILE

The claims, rated.

2 claims people make about this file, each rated documented, partly true, disputed, unproven or false. Think a rating is wrong? Use Dispute or Support, or join the Discussion.

All 155 rated claims ↗

OPEN THE RECORD

Sources & limits.

Numbered citations in each article identify the relevant sources. These records have different purposes and evidentiary weight.

  1. Warren Commission report, chapter 3: the shots from the Texas School Book Depository ↗

    Witnesses, the rifle and cartridge cases, the wounds, the Zapruder timing (18.3 frames a second), the 2.3-second bolt minimum and the “approximately 4.8 to in excess of 7 seconds” estimate.

  2. Darrell Tomlinson: Warren Commission testimony, volume VI (AARC mirror) ↗

    The Parkland engineer who found the bullet later called CE 399 and could not be sure which stretcher it came from.

  3. BBC News: Secret Service agent’s account of the bullet, September 2023 ↗

    Landis says he took a bullet from the car and left it on the president’s stretcher.

  4. GBH News: Paul Landis interview and transcript, 22 November 2023 ↗

    Landis in his own words, including that he still believed in one shooter.

  5. Paul Landis: Secret Service statement, November 1963 (transcript) ↗

    His contemporaneous written account, which does not mention picking up a bullet.

  6. New York Times: “A Witness to the Kennedy Assassination Breaks His Silence,” 9 September 2023 ↗

    The first report of Landis’s bullet account, in Peter Baker’s article. Blocks scripted fetches; confirmed by search.

  7. Smithsonian Magazine: ex-agent’s account “casts doubt on lone-gunman theory,” 2 October 2023 ↗

    Summary of reactions to Landis’s claim.

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