Here are some excellent remarks made by Warren Commission counsel member Wesley J. Liebeler concerning the Single-Bullet Theory, which, of course, is one of the most controversial aspects of the investigation into President Kennedy's assassination.
The audio clips presented below come from a debate between Mr. Liebeler and well-known conspiracy advocate Mark Lane. The debate took place at UCLA on January 25, 1967. The complete two-hour debate can be heard HERE.
RELATED QUOTES BY VARIOUS PEOPLE
CONCERNING THE SINGLE-BULLET THEORY:
"The SBT [Single-Bullet Theory], in addition to being grounded in the known evidence surrounding the case, is also based on a whole lot of regular, ordinary common sense as well. No "Anti-SBT" scenario has ever come close to matching the Warren Commission's Single-Bullet Conclusion in the "Evidence" department. Nor has any alternate theory come close to equalling the SBT in the "Reasonable", "Workable", "Believable", and "Common Sense" categories as well. The Single-Bullet Theory FITS. The Single-Bullet Theory WORKS. The Single-Bullet Theory is RIGHT." -- David Von Pein; March 2007
"To my knowledge, [nobody] has ever explained how moving the back wound up to THE NECK supports the SBT. Nobody CAN support it, because moving the entry to the neck would destroy the Warren Commission's SBT trajectory, not strengthen it. .... I'll refer you to CE 903. Although [Arlen] Specter didn't drill a hole in the stand-in's body and drive the rod through it, had he done so, the entry would be in the upper back, not in the neck. There's a string on the wall above his hand that shows an angle of about 18 degrees -- that's the approximate angle measured by a surveyor during the re-enactment and the one the WC used for its SBT. If the rod is moved up to the neck, the bullet will exit well above the exit wound under JFK's Adam's apple. .... The claim that [Gerald] Ford's change "strengthens" the WC's SBT is simply not true." -- Jean Davison; January 2, 2007
"The Warren Commission was NOT boxing itself in to accepting the Single-Bullet Theory at all costs (due to James Tague's injury). How do we know they weren't boxed in? Because of Page #117 [of the Warren Commission Report], where it states in black-and-white that the WC was readily acknowledging the possibility that Tague's injury could have very well been caused by a fragment from the HEAD SHOT. Therefore...the SBT is not a MANDATORY conclusion to reach to still arrive at the "LHO Alone" final conclusion. .... I, myself, DO think that the SBT is mandatory in order for Lee Oswald to be the lone assassin of JFK. But the Warren Commission's collective opinion was NOT as strict and restrictive as my own on the SBT matter, and Page 117 of the Warren Report proves that fact." -- David Von Pein; December 26, 2007
"It's a straight line....it [the Single-Bullet Theory] is the only way it COULD have happened." -- Dale Myers; 2004
"The "single-bullet THEORY" is an obvious misnomer. Though in its incipient stages it was but a theory, the indisputable evidence is that it is now a proven FACT, a wholly supported conclusion. .... And no sensible mind that is also informed can plausibly make the case that the bullet that struck President Kennedy in the upper right part of his back did not go on to hit Governor Connally." -- Vincent Bugliosi; Pages 489-490 of "Reclaiming History: The Assassination Of President John F. Kennedy"
"The conspiracy-happy Mega-Kooks of this world will choose ANY silly option to account for JFK's and John Connally's wounds, just so long as they don't ever have to face the Occam's-like solution called the "Single-Bullet Theory". The kooks would rather starve themselves to skeletons and sleep on the benches in Dealey Plaza for the rest of their days before admitting that the SBT is the correct shooting scenario." -- David Von Pein; December 7, 2007
"You call it the theory; I call it the conclusion; it was a theory until we found the facts; that's why I refer to it as the Single-Bullet Conclusion." -- Arlen Specter; 1967
"Coming up with a believable and reasonable conspiracy-endorsing alternative to the Warren Commission's single-bullet conclusion is something that simply cannot be done. And that's mainly because the SBT is obviously the truth. And when you try to dismantle the truth and replace it with some kind of half-baked, incoherent "alternative theory" (such as the "TWO BULLETS WENT INTO JFK AND NEVER EXITED AND THEN DISAPPEARED" claptrap), you're not likely to find the alternative to be nearly as compelling (or reasonable) as the truth." -- David Von Pein; September 1, 2010
"Our own view on the evidence is that it is difficult to believe the Single-Bullet Theory. But, to believe the other theories is even MORE difficult. If the Governor's wounds were caused by a separate bullet, then we must believe that a bullet passed through the President's neck, emerged at high velocity on a course that was taking it directly into the middle of the automobile, and then vanished without a trace. Or, we can complicate matters even further--as some do--by adding a second assassin, who fires almost simultaneously with Oswald and whose bullet travels miraculously a trajectory identical with Oswald's and that second assassin, too, vanishes without a trace. Difficult to believe as the Single-Bullet Theory may be, it seems to be the LEAST difficult of all those that are available. In the end, like the Commission, we are persuaded that a single bullet wounded both President Kennedy and Governor Connally." -- Walter Cronkite of CBS News; June 1967; "A CBS News Inquiry: The Warren Report"
"Isn't it rather remarkable that the person sitting in front of JFK also had a bullet wound in his upper back? Plus the added facts of JFK having a bullet hole in his throat and JFK having no bullets in his body. Conspiracy theorists who hate the Single-Bullet Theory never seem bothered in the least by those last observations I just mentioned. They'll simply add yet another bullet to the mix to account for John Connally's back wound. The SBT will never be defeated by conspiracists. And that's because the SBT will always make more sense than any anti-SBT theory. The truth usually does make the most sense, of course." -- David Von Pein; December 14, 2013
"When the [test] bullet [simulating CE399 and the SBT] traversed an experimental neck, it was slowed down, tumbled, and did not shatter the leg bone [of a simulation of Governor John Connally]. Since Connally's leg bone was NOT shattered [during the actual shooting event on 11/22/63], the bullet that hit him must have hit something else first, such as Kennedy's neck, to slow it down." -- Dr. John K. Lattimer; Page 273 of "Kennedy And Lincoln: Medical And Ballistic Comparisons Of Their Assassinations"
"I've yet to hear EVEN ONE conspiracy theorist explain the likelihood of THREE DIFFERENT GUNMEN AND THREE SEPARATE BULLETS causing the wounds in JFK and John Connally and miraculously having ALL of these wounds LINE UP to perfection in order to "fool" Specter and the Warren Commission into just THINKING that maybe these THREE separate shots by THREE gunmen (2 rear; 1 in front) were actually caused by just a single missile. The odds of the above occurring if three riflemen had performed this amazing connect-the-wounds feat is so low as to be totally dismissed after one second of thought time." -- David Von Pein; April 6, 2005
"As more and more time goes by, and as more and more convincing tests are produced that verify the factual nature of the Single-Bullet Theory (e.g., Dale Myers' excellent computer animation work and the 2004 Discovery Channel SBT re-creation in "JFK: Beyond The Magic Bullet"), it's my personal opinion that conspiracy theorists totally ignore the validity of the SBT merely because they think it's expected of them. They wouldn't be good "CTers" if they dared put any faith in anything Mr. Specter or Mr. Redlich or Mr. Belin said. So they are forced to discount the SBT as pure junk out of sheer habit. But it certainly isn't out of necessity that the conspiracists scoff at the SBT. Not at all. For, the CTers can still pretend they see J.D. Tippit or some other "Badge Man" firing a shot from the Grassy Knoll...even WITH the Single-Bullet Theory intact." -- David Von Pein; August 19, 2009
"The "bracketing" of when the SBT bullet struck the two victims in the limousine, in fact, only further makes me think more highly of the Warren Commission and its detailed study of the assassination. The WC and FBI did very detailed angle measurements in May '64, via a surveyor and "thru-the-Oswald-rifle-scope" determinations from the Sniper's Nest. And it was determined (as best as could be determined, circa 1964) that both victims were generally lined up in the limo to receive the "SBT" bullet from approx. Z210 through approx. Z225. Conspiracy theorists scoff at this "bracketing", saying it can't be right. But those CTers are attempting to place an EXACTITUDE on the event that can't really be placed there. Some things MUST be estimated to a degree, and the WC did that. And did a damn good job at it too. Because "Z210-Z225" certainly encompasses the now-widely-accepted SBT Z-Frame of Z224 (a frame I fully endorse for many, many reasons). In other words, the WC got it perfectly correct DECADES prior to the digital Zapruder Film copies fully backing up their findings of a SBT hit somewhere between Z210 and Z225. .... Conspiracists just don't wish to accept the Occam's-like SBT scenario of one bullet transitting both victims. Instead, conspiracy advocates would rather rely on pure guesswork, involving multiple disappearing bullets and an SBT-like alignment of wounds on two men (created by two or three gunmen!) that would make David Copperfield proud." -- David Von Pein; April 8, 2007
LANE VS. LIEBELER
1967 DEBATE:
