CHRISTOPH MESSNER SAID:
How could the single bullet remain that pristine after smashing all these bones?
DAVID VON PEIN SAID:
This snippet from Prof. McAdams' website should be required reading for all anti-SBT conspiracy theorists:
"When a bullet just like Commission Exhibit 399 is fired through a human wrist bone at 2,000 [feet] per second, it is almost certain to be badly mangled. But when CE 399 hit Connally's wrist it had been slowed by transiting Kennedy's torso and tumbling through Connally's chest. When it finally hit the hard radius bone, it was traveling about 1,000 feet per second. Dr. Martin Fackler, President of the International Wound Ballistics Association, fired a round identical to Oswald's bullet through a human wrist at 1,100 feet per second. Here is the resulting bullet [pictured below]."
[End McAdams Quote.]
As can be seen, the test bullet in the picture above looks absolutely perfect and pristine, and this is AFTER the bullet had been fired through a human wrist bone at a velocity of 1,100 fps.
Another good visual demonstration of how tough a Mannlicher-Carcano/Western Cartridge bullet is (like the ones Oswald fired into Kennedy and Connally on 11/22/63) can be seen in the 2004 Discovery Channel documentary "JFK: BEYOND THE MAGIC BULLET", when a MC/WCC bullet is fired into a large wooden log. The bullet penetrated several feet of the log before it stopped. The missile was then dug out of the log, and it looked perfect. It looked like it hadn't even been fired at all. As mentioned by someone else in this thread, Dr. John Lattimer performed a similar "wood" test using Carcano ammunition as well.
Now, when conspiracy theorists then come back with their usual kneejerk response to that test with this inquiry -- If CE399 could remain so undamaged, then why did the head-shot bullet act so differently? -- that question might be puzzling to some people, but regardless of the fact that is has some theorists scratching their heads, that question was answered years ago via tests that had MC/WCC bullets being fired into actual human skulls to find out how such a bullet will behave.
Dr. Alfred Olivier did such a "skull" test in 1964 for the Warren Commission, and Dr. Lattimer performed similar independent tests of his own in the 1970s. And the results were strikingly similar to what happened in Dallas in 1963:
David Von Pein
July 10, 2009
