Posted on 11/22/2019 9:52:46 AM PST by Hot Tabasco
early 1989, I was working as a business reporter in Washington, D.C., and interviewing a private investigator for a story about his company. At the end of our conversation, he casually mentioned he’d done some research into the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
“Oh yeah?” I said, in an ironic, indifferent way. “So who killed him?” He said: “Well, I think this gunsmith in Baltimore, a guy named Howard Donahue, figured it out.” The private eye showed me a magazine article from 1977 and as I read it, my skepticism began to fade. Within a week, I was heading to nearby Towson, Maryland, to meet Donahue in person.
Donahue’s Dealey Plaza odyssey began 21 years earlier. The World War II veteran was a firearms specialist who’d testified as an expert witness in multiple shooting cases. He was also a well-known marksman. That’s why he’d been recruited to take part in a CBS News reenactment of the shooting in the spring of 1967.
The network wanted to know if Lee Harvey Oswald’s Italian military-surplus, bolt-action rifle really could have been fired three times with two hits on a moving target in less than six seconds. Donahue proved that it could. Of the 11 shooters participating in the experiment, only Donahue exceeded Oswald’s performance by scoring three hits in 4.8 seconds, well under the 5.6-second maximum....
(Excerpt) Read more at medium.com ...
Here's what the article says, toward the end:
As far as we know, Hickey was the only agent carrying a long gun that day, and at the hospital he was later instructed to return the weapon to the trunk of the follow-up car, according to his Warren Commission statement.
The article also quotes hospital staff as saying two Secret Service agents burst into the hospital, and one was holding a "machine gun." When an FBI agent ran in, the Secret Service agent with the gun knocked him out cold. Then the article raises the question: Were the agents trying to keep the FBI from taking possession of the gun? (Interesting theory, if the story is true.)
I thought about that too. If there was a cover up and the agent did accidentally fire his rifle, then the returned ammunition and rifle would have been part of the cover up.
It wouldn't have been if there were truly a cover up to protect the SS agent.
This is a fairly new “theory”, but was admitted to be being an outlandish bit of fiction soon after the book came out.
"Outlandish" is an exaggeration of what actually happened. The book was preceded by the release of Oliver Stone's JFK and so the focus was still on the movie.
The book got some bad review by unskilled skeptics who chose to believe the Stone narrative rather than the undisputed ballistic evidence gathered by Donahue.
Against the backdrop of Stone’s garish melodrama, the idea that President Kennedy may have actually died as the result of a freak accident seemed by turns ludicrous, inconvenient and banal. Shoved under by a few derisive reviews in mainstream publications like the Washington Post and Time, Mortal Error soon slipped beneath the waves of popular culture and all but vanished from the American consciousness.
One could equate the treatment "Mortal Error" received from a skeptic media to that of President Trump when he first claimed that he was being spied on by the FBI......
The ArmaLite AR-15 is a selective fire, air-cooled, gas-operated, magazine-fed rifle manufactured in the United States between 1959 and 1964. Its military version was adopted by the United States Armed Forces as the M16 rifle.
I'm not an expert on these matters, but it sounds like there's a common misconception that the AR-15 only dates back to 1964. I believe that was actually the date when ArmaLite sold the design to Colt.
Oops — you beat me to it. LOL.
Interesting theory. Thank you for posting.
The book also got bad reviews by highly skilled skeptics. I have read almost all the books written about the assassination and in my own personal, correct opinion, this theory is just silly.
There were perhaps five other people in the car with the Secret Service agent carrying the AR-15. If that weapon fired and they said nothing, they are also part of the coverup.
I was always puzzled by the explosive fragmentation of the Carcano bullet in the head shot. Seemed unlike with a FMJ military round.
I'm not going to dispute that. If I'm not mistaken, there is an even greater cover up going on in Washington right now that is trying to be unraveled.
As a side note, there were numerous attempts by Menninger and Donahue to interview the agent but were refused.........Is that significant? I don't know, I'm sure the agent had his reasons not to talk to them.
The theory may have gotten bad reviews but there has been no one that has been able to dispute Donahue's ballistic analysis of the carcano bullet that pierced two men and ended up intact and the unexplained fragments found in Kennedy's skull.........
This is the premise of Donahue's theory. It makes sense based on the evidence: (1) 3 spent 6.5mm Mann Carcano cases, with one primer exhibiting multiple strikes (a dry-fire case perhaps). (2) the diameter of the skull entry is too small for 6.5mm, but matches that of a 5.56mm projectile. (Skull tissue doesn't "snap back" -- it's bone).
The grassy knoll theory's major weakness is that this not a shooting position a marksman would choose. The target is would be moving laterally left->right which is hard track. Before or behind present a relatively stationary target to the shooter. A shooter positioned in front would have to deal with the windshield. It was intact, so that position is ruled out. That leaves the rear -- the book repository.
I was convinced when I first read this theory 28 years ago. Oswald fired two shots: the first missed, but the second struck Kennedy in the back and the 160gr FMJ bullet easily passed through him into Connelly. The leaves the dramatic third shot which struck Kennedy in the head to explain. A 5.56 NATO round fills the bill. Who has them? The secret service agent standing in the rear seat of the follow-on limo was sporting one. Donahue's experience investigating shootings positioned him perfectly to address what is or is not possible.
Oh, Donahue beat Oswald's supposed feat demonstrating that it was not beyond the skills of most marksmen. If we assume that Oswald fired three shots, then Donahue and another shooter in that CBS reenactment bettered Oswalds time. (But then Oswald only fired twice according to Donahue.)
Well, Donahue mentions the errant shot that missed and hit the road, then the shot that hit Kennedy in the back.
His evidence of the third shot being from the SS agent and the subsequent bullet fragments in the skull have not been disputed (the fragments in the skull).
I'm not privy to any information relevant to a third shot supposedly fired by Oswald..or what was the evidence that supported it.
Very long but interesting read.
Not quite...But I would say it’s a good bet Oswald got the Epstein solution.
I’ll put it in the queue. Right now I’m reading “Rush to Judgement.” Mark Lane
No he didnt. JFK was shot from the front.
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