Easy Shot: A Review of the Shots

              PENN JONES T H E
CONTINUING
INQUIRY
VOLUMEVI, NUMBER 10 ^y 22; 1982
- E A S Y S H O T copyright 1982 Ity Frank 0, Bennett
I have been taken to task for making the statement that Dealey Plaza is a shooter's
nightmare and no ordinary shooting gallery into which one can walk and get 3 chances at a
Kewpie Doll for 50 0. It seems that a number of researchers regard the assassination of
President i^ennedy in Dealey Plaza on November 22, 1963, as an 'easy shot'. The statement
IS not supported by the facts which can be presented logically and mathematically. It is
not a matter of hitting a stationary taxget but the question is? "Can a gunman of Oswald's
ability , firing a cheap Italian carbine equipped with a telescopic sight which may not be
properly aligned, consistently hit a human target moving slowly down Elm Street toward the
triple underpass? The answer is NO! The degree of difficulty is far more real than ap­parent
and the definition of 'easy' has not been properly established.
A Review of The Shots
The Warren Commission concluded that Oswald acted alone in the assassination and fired
three shots, two of which struck Kennedy and the other missed, iiither the first or second
shot, probably the second, hit Kennedy in the lower part of the neck or the upper back and
after emerging from just below the Adam's Apple, turned sharply to strike Connally immed­iately
below the right armpit. The third and fatal shot struck Kennedy in the back of the
head and removed a large portion of his skull at frame 313 of the Eapruder film. Oswald's
gcore; 2 hits out of 3 tries which would not appear to be too shabby, perhaps, but one was
^a total miss.
Where Did the Bullets Go?
With two exceptions, examination of the car afterward in Washington by the FBI revealed
that there was no damage caused by a bullet striking any part of the car but peirticularly
the interior, passenger area. The windshield was cracked at a spot about 8 inches to the
left of the rear view mirror with the focal point level with the top of the mirror. There
was also a dent in the chrome across the top of the windshield to the left of the rear
view mirror. Although the dent in the chrome may have been present prior to the assassi­nation,
Robert A, Frazier, FBI firearms expert, testified that the dent "had been caused
by some projectile which struck the chrome on the inside surface." The windshield had al­so
been struck from the inside and the FBI determined that neither point of damage could
have been caused by a bullet traveling at full velocity or even at 1,772 to 1,779 feet per
second, the exit velocity from the President's neck.
At a high velocity the bullet would have easily penetrated the windshield and, in the
case of the chrome framing, a bullet would have torn a hole in the chrome. Frazier was
thus able to conclude that each damaged area had been caused by a bullet fragment travel­ing
at "fairly high velocity"; perhaps a fragment such as found in the car. The WC claim­ed
that the 'Miracle Bullet', found in almost pristine condition at Parkland Hospital, was
the bullet which passed through both Kennedy's and Connally's bodies. This bullet had no
place to go and in order to get to the hospital it had to lodge in the cuff of Connally's
trousers, if he was wearing cuffed pants. Fantastic.'
The. Fourth Shot. The acoustics analysis showed that a fourth shot was fired by a gun-i(
ian''on~the Grassy Knoll, to the right and front of the car, between the second and third
t fired from the Book Depository Building. This shot missed and ran the tally to 2
M+ ut of ^ attempts, with two complete misses. How does an ordinary gunman firing
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