Introducing...The Magic Bullet

Six Seconds in Dallas



Interview with O.P. Wright | November 1966

OP Wright described a pointed tip bulled found on the stretcher at Parkland Hospital.
Before any photos were shown or he was asked for any description of #399, Wright said:

“That bullet had a pointed tip.”
“Pointed tip?” Thompson asked.

“Yeah, I’ll show you. It was like this one here,” he said, reaching into his desk and pulling out the .30 caliber bullet pictured in Six Seconds.”

As [author Josiah] Thompson described it in 1967, “I then showed him photographs of CE’s 399,
572 (the two ballistics comparison rounds from Oswald’s rifle) and 606 (revolver bullets),
and he rejected all of these as resembling the bullet Tomlinson found on the stretcher.

Half an hour later in the presence of two witnesses, he once again rejected the picture of 399 as resembling the bullet found on the stretcher.”

FBI Memo | June 20, 1964

On May 20, 1964, the Commission requested the FBI issue instructions to gather
all the chain of custody evidence regarding certain items for review.

On June 2^nd, being concerned regarding chain of custody on the matter,
the staff requested the FBI gather certain individuals to identify CE 399 (stretcher bullet) for the record.
Darrell Tomlinson >> OP Wright >> SA Johnson >> James Rowley >> Elmer Todd, to Robert Frazier.
Killion and Cunningham made their marks later.

A June 12^th report says SA Bardwell Odum showed CE 399 to Tomlinson and Wright and that both men
more or less said it looked like the bullet they had found on 11/22/63. But that is in direct conflict with what Tomlinson
told author Raymond Marcus, that he had only seen CE 399 once in Nov. 1963, by FBI Dallas in charge, Gordon Shanklin.

In 2002, Authors Josiah Thompson and Gary Aguilar asked Bardwell Odum directly.
Odum didn't recall having handled the bullet, and told the authors he had never even seen it.
He was sure he would have turned in a "302" report on a matter of such importance.

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The Magic Bullet: Even More Magical Than We Knew?
Gary Aguilar and Josiah Thompson

Mr. Odum told Aguilar, “I didn’t show it [CE 399] to anybody at Parkland.
I didn’t have any bullet..I don’t think I ever saw it even.”

Unwilling to leave it at that, both authors paid Mr. Odum a visit in his Dallas home on November 21, 2002.
The same alert, friendly man on the phone greeted us warmly and led us to a comfortable family room.
To ensure no misunderstanding, we laid out before Mr. Odum all the relevant documents and read aloud from them.

Again, Mr. Odum said that he had never had any bullet related to the Kennedy assassination in his possession,
whether during the FBI’s investigation in 1964 or at any other time. Asked whether he might have forgotten the episode,
Mr. Odum remarked that he doubted he would have ever forgotten investigating so important a piece of evidence.

But even if he had done the work, and later forgotten about it, he said he would certainly have turned in
a “302” report covering something that important. Odum’s sensible comment had the ring of truth.
For not only was Odum’s name absent from the FBI’s once secret files, it was also it difficult to imagine a motive for
him to besmirch the reputation of the agency he had worked for and admired."

www.history-matters.com/essays/frameup/EvenMoreMagical/EvenMoreMagical.htm

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Never Break the Chain

By June 20^th it was clear that neither Tomlinson nor Wright could identify CE 399.
A memo on that day from Gordon Shanklin is explicit that if neither witness, nor SA Johnson, or James Rowley can,
then Elmer Todd had initialed the bullet and can identify it. But a close examination by John Hunt in 2006 realizes he hadn't.
The chain according to the memo is Johnson >> Rowley >> Todd >> Frazier. Others had subsequently marked out the bullet.

Now on June 11, 2022:

A recent article by Steve Roe, "The Unfounded Attack on CE 399’s Chain of Custody" is still not able to resolve the chain of custody issue of CE 399.
The chain of custody according to the memo of June 20 was Johnson >> Rowley >> Todd >> Frazier.

A high resolution photograph of "ET" provided by Roe is no further proof the bullet came from that stretcher, or even Parkland Hospital, Dallas TX.
It needs to be understood the two men Todd & Frazier put their initials on the bullet at the same time in Washington.
That was as late as 8:50pm EST, yet, Frazier's own inventory list the bullet having been received at 7:30pm.

Like Every Grain of Sand



Minute measurements of metal is done in grains. 15.42 grains to a gram, and 28 grams to an ounce.
According to the report (page 75) a whole 6.5 full metal jacket bullet weighs between 160 and 161 grains.
When received by FBI agent Robert Frazier said it weighed 158.6 grains. 2.6 grains less then the highest average.

Less than 3 grains.
Mr. FRAZIER. "I would say that based on weight it would be highly improbable that that much weight could
have come from the base of that bullet since its present weight is--its weight when I first received it was 158.6 grains."

yet according to Dr. Shaw there was more than 3 grains in the wrist:
Dr. SHAW "...But the examination of the wrist both by X-ray and at the time of surgery showed some
fragments of metal that make it difficult to believe that the same missile could have caused these two wounds.
There seems to be more than three grains of metal missing as far as the I mean in the wrist."

Fragments were also left in the thigh. Dr Shires was in charge of the Governor.
He was not called back to present his x-rays as the others were to clarify the exact amount of
lead left in the thigh according to the x-rays.

Researcher Harold Weisberg found an FBI Report describing a fragment left in the thigh @ 3mm long.
Its estimated weight based on his independent examination was 3.25 grains.
These estimates do not take into account the amount left in the wrist, or the amount Frazier scraped out for testing.
Frazier never did say how much he took.

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Harold Weisberg | Grand Jury Testimony
Shaw Trial - April 28, 1967

I have an FBI report of Nov. 29 and I have in this report the exact size of the fragment
of metal in Governor Connally's leg, and when I say exact I mean fraction of a mm, its 3mm long,
looking at it edgewise its 2mm and the other is 1^1/3, and its oval in shape.

Now I have a friend who is a chemist for the Government so I gave him this size and I said
I would like for you to compute the weight for me, and he said I would say not less than 3^1/4 grains.
Now the maximum they can even allege could have been missing from this magical bullet which is exhibit 399,
all of these 7 injuries, it was perfect and there is a picture of it there - I mean there is not even a scratch even
on the rifling marks of that bullet and I've held it in my hand and believe me that bullet was never fired.

Now the weight. The original weight of this bullet was not known - theoretically - because theoretically it was fired
so they got a whole bunch of samples and I just learned from one of my fans in a fan letter, that you can get modern
Swedish ammunition that will fit that 6.5 Mannlicher-Carcano rifle.

They weighed them, they weighed from 160 to 161 grains They weighed this bullet and this bullet, it weighs 158.4 grains
if you look at it the way a reasonable man would, this says that if it is more than 1.6 grains missing we got
to be suspicious. But they don't look at it that way. They give themselves the benefit and they say 2.6 grains.
Dr. Robert Roeder Shaw, who said this bullet could not possibly have done all these things and I always have believed that
a fragment went into his thigh.

Robert Shaw says there were more than 3 grains of metal that he saw alone, in the wrist.
That is enough evidence right there to disqualify this bullet. Dr. Shires who was the only doctor in charge of Governor Connally's
case so he is the one doctor in the case who has never been presented to the members of the Commission and I've got my own belief why.
Dr. Shires said he read the x-rays of the Governor's chest and there is metal in it.

So fragments. you've got more fragments. Now we have this one. Governor Connally was a witness, the doctors were witnesses and
nobody asked how much metal was in the Governor's leg. I got the size - its the FBI report from the Commission's files and I got a
Government chemist to tell me 3.25 grains. Any one of these things is enough to destroy the entire Report.

Maybe they don't believe the opinion of Dr. Shaw, and of course they didn't, Because if they did they would have no report.
I can't see anything consistent with an honorable intention that kept this out of the evidence.
And I think eventually we will be able to get a copy of this fragment made in several different shapes and sizes.