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Have you ever been involved in the procedure to remove a bullet from a human body? Especially one that has struck bone? Or one that hit or grazed more than one bone?

No, but Dr. Martin Fackler, president of the International Wound Ballistics Association has -- and most likely far more than you'll ever see -- so I'll defer to his expertise on this matter.

After much study on the matter, he declares to condition of the Parkland hospital bullet to be "entirely consistent" the bullet that caused the wounds of JFK and Gov. Connally. "It is a long bullet and I would expect it to be flattened on the side, just like you had squeezed it in a vice."

There is almost nothing left of those bullets original shape. Nothing! A penny ran over by a train has more form than a bullet striking bone.

Uh huh... Bullet fired through thick layers of wet newspaper (22 inches of penetration):

Bullet fired through a cow-knuckle bone (at 1140 fps) under 4 inches of wet newspaper:

Doesn't look like a penny-on-a-railroad-track to me.

More to the point, Dr. Fackler and Failure Analaysis did tests to determine the actual amount of deformation on Carcano rounds under conditions similar to the JFK shooting.

Results of these and other actual firing tests: A Carcano bullet passing through Kennedy's neck at full velocity (it hit no bone passing through JFK) was not deformed at all after passing through an appropriate amount of goat skin and meat. Another shot at full velocity (which exceeded the case for Connally, the bullet would have lost velocity passing through JFK) at an anesthetized goat striking the rib of the goat had only a slight flattening, similar to CE 399, the not-so-pristine bullet. Wait, I thought you said that any bullet striking or even grazing bone would have "nothing left" of its original shape"... Hmm.

After passing through JFK's neck and Connally's chest and grazing his rib, the bullet would have a lowered remaining velocity. Tests using a Carcano bullet at a reduced 1100 feet per second (consistent with the expedted velocity loss -- actually best estimates are 900fps) into the wrist of a cadaver resulted in a bullet that was *non-deformed* and was *not flattened in the least*, and had nowhere near the level of damage of CE 399.

The 6.5mm Carcano round is a big, heavy bullet, and it had traversed the thicknesses of *two* bodies before it struck any bone. I don't doubt that you see a lot of fragmented bullets, but I doubt that you see many which have had as much chance to be decelerated before they first contact any.

The "deformed" bullet in your picture looks like it was dug out of a dirt and straw backstop at a firing range. Come to my ER and I'll show you bullets from a body.

I accept your invitation. In which ER do you practice?

All the talk of recoil and melons misses the bigger point.

While it's true that the simple momentum of a bullet will tend to push the target in the direction of its motion (although nowhere near as much as most people -- or Hollywood -- imagine, since the bullet may be fast, but it's quite light in comparison to the body it strikes), and while it's true that matter ejected from the site of the exit wound can also propel the body *backwards* towards the direction of the shot, both of these are minor compared to the larger issue.

The larger issue is that when the brain gets destroyed by massive trauma, the body will jerk in a *completely unpredictable* manner due to the effect of the trauma on the remaining brain/spinal/nerve tissues. The direction of JFK's motion after the head shot is almost surely determined primarily by reflexive spasmodic jerking of the body due to the destruction of much of the brain, and as such nothing can be drawn about the angle of the shot from the subsequent motion of the body.

Also note that when you watch the Zapruder film, there seems to be a short but noticeable delay between the moment of the "blood spray" and the moment the head/body begins to actually move backwards, constent with a reflex action and not consistent with imparted momentum (which is imparted instantaneously).

Heartland Medical...come anytime.

Besides, cow-knuckle, mostly cartilage, is not the same as rib, scapula, ulna, and radius. Decreased velocity or not - there would be much more significant deformation and fragmentation even with modern jacketed 'cop killers.' Furthermore, Fackler himself has said of using one or two simulated shots that, "A series of shots through a 14 or 15 cm block of tissue simulant or the leg of a 25 kg animal can give enough variation so that, by selective choice of exit wound photographs, one can "prove" any point one wishes." He focused on military jacket rounds and even so, has written much about how bullets "commonly break up after 7 inches" of travel through a body - without hitting bone. Once bone, especially a long bone or high density bone, is struck, with a force to break that bone, the bullet deforms and fragments .

Do not depend too much on Dr. Fackler. He has made a name for himself as a government and defense witness expert. He also has stated under interview, to Chistopher Ruddy, (NewsMax, I believe)that "he is not a pathologist." He is however a prolific publisher for Army ballistic.

Impressive as his credentials are - he has his critics. His Ruby Ridge testimony has been described as "inaccurate, sometimes wild, conclusions, and [he] failed to adequately research the issues involved in the case before he testified. He proposed one scenario that was patently absurd." (Jess Walter in covering Ruby Ridge)In the ABA mock trial of Oswald in 1992, he stated that the bullet that supposedly caused the multiple injuries of Kennedy and Connely with lands and grooves intact, little nose damage, nose, little body buldge, and base deformation visible only at certain angles was "typical" for that type of bullet, trajectory, and damage. Yet, the other experts refuted him with the simple fact that no other bullet of similar path and damage result ever emerged with so little deformity.

I'll go with the bullets I've seen.