The single-bullet theory

The Zapruder film ran at 18.3 frames a second, which turns it into a clock. FBI tests showed Oswald’s bolt-action Carcano needed at least 2.3 seconds, about 42 frames, between aimed shots. The Commission placed the shot through Kennedy’s neck between frames 210 and 225, when a road sign blocked Zapruder’s view, and the fatal head shot at frame 313. [1]

Connally appears to react later than Kennedy. The House committee’s photographic panel put his visible reaction about a second after the president’s. If he had been hit by a separate bullet that soon, the rifle could not have fired both. Either one bullet hit both men, or a second rifle fired. [2][3]

The House committee also found a blur pattern in the film around frames 189 to 197 and placed the first hit on Kennedy near frame 190, earlier than the Commission had. That still left Connally’s reaction too close behind for two shots from one rifle. [2]

The Warren report said there was “very persuasive evidence from the experts” that the same bullet that went through Kennedy’s neck caused Connally’s wounds. It also said Connally’s own testimony and other factors had produced a “difference of opinion” among members, and that the question was “not necessary to any essential findings.” The report’s conclusions, including that the shots came from the sixth-floor window, were presented as the judgment of all members. [1][2]

Connally testified that he heard the first shot, turned right and then left, and only then felt the blow. “It is not conceivable to me that I could have been hit by the first bullet,” he said. He thought he was hit by the second shot, which he never heard, and that the third hit Kennedy’s head. [3]

On 18 September 1964, days before the report went to Johnson, Senator Richard Russell told the president by phone he did not believe it. Johnson replied, “I don’t either.” [4]

In 1997 papers released by the Review Board showed that Gerald Ford had edited a staff draft that said a bullet had entered Kennedy’s “back at a point slightly below the shoulder.” The final report said “the base of the back of his neck.” Critics said this moved the wound up to fit the theory. Ford said the change was for clarity and did not alter any evidence. The autopsy photographs, not the report’s words, fix the wound’s location. [5][6]

The House committee’s forensic panel found that Connally’s wounds were caused by one bullet entering from the rear. The entry wound in his back was elongated, which showed the bullet was already tumbling, as it would after passing through another body. The panel found that consistent with the single-bullet theory and found only two bullets struck the men, both from behind. [1][2]

Its experts said CE 399 could have caused Connally’s wounds without being more deformed than it is. It was a fully jacketed military bullet built not to break up, and it lost little weight: a whole bullet of that type weighs 160 to 161 grains. The fragments left in Connally’s wrist were tiny. His wrist surgeon, Dr. Charles Gregory, told the Commission the wrist wound looked like it was made by a bullet that had already lost speed. [1][4][5]

Neutron activation testing for the committee found that the wrist fragments very likely came from CE 399. That test is now disputed; see the bullet-lead file. [1]

The panel voted 8 to 1. Dr. Cyril Wecht, the Allegheny County coroner, dissented, arguing that one bullet could not have done all that damage and stayed so intact. [3]