Tippit Bullets and Shells

Automatic Remington | Winchester Special



There are discrepancies on the type of bullet, number of bullets, and number of shells,
The first reports were an automatic weapon, fired only 3 shots, then later a 4th shell was found.
It was later concluded that five shots were fired, although only one witness gave that quantity at a later date.

If the gun was a Remington automatic, it required a much different bullet than is alleged in this case.
It would load from a magazine clip pushed thru the bottom of the handle. The bullets are extracted automatically.
An automatic bullet is clearly marked "AUTO" on the base of the missile. SGT Gerald Hill described one as early as 1:40p.

In his description he said, "the shell at the scene indicates..." words that demonstrate it was marked on the casing.
Then in deposition with Attorney Belin he denied it was him, and said it was probably Officer RD Stringer.
Regardless, Hill was at the scene and gave further instructions on the shells, someone called in automatic markings.

(DPD Radio Dispatch Tapes 1:34pm)
Last seen running on the north side of the street from Patton, on Jefferson, on East Jefferson.
And he was apparently armed with a 32 dark-finish automatic pistol which he had in his right hand.”

550/02 [Sgt GL Hill] | (DPD Radio Logs Vol 17 page 417 1:40pm)
The shell at the scene indicates that the suspect is armed with an automatic 38 rather than a pistol.

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SGT Gerald Hill | WC Testimony
Member, Dallas Police Department.

Mr. BELIN. Now, also turning to Sawyer Deposition Exhibit A,
I notice that there is another call on car No. 550-2.
Was that you at that time, or not, at 1:40 p.m.? Would that have been someone else?

Mr. HILL. That probably is R. D. Stringer.

Mr. BELIN. That is not you, then, even though it has a number 550-2?

Mr. HILL. Yes; because Stringer quite probably would have been using the same call number,
because it is more his than it was mine, really, but I didn't have an assigned call number, so I was using a number
I didn't think anybody would be using, which is call 550-2, instead of the Westbrook to Batchelor as it indicates here.

from JFKfacts.org
"Twenty-two years later, in 1986, Hill admitted to researcher Dale Myers that he made the call.
When he was asked how he determined that the hulls were 38 caliber, Hill said,
“Thirty-eight’s stamped on the bottom of it. I looked on the bottom.”

Hill’s problem is that the bottom of the hull will spell out for you what type of 38 it is!"
(See Dale Myers, With Malice, p. 261).

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What's the Difference?

The gun and bullets from this shooting are supposed to be from a .38 snub nose Smith and Wesson.
That is a revolver, with a rotating cylinder that loads one bullet at a time from the side.
It requires the shooter to empty out the spent cartridges and reload manually. It was not an automatic.

The discrepancy this causes is remarkable and actually quite unbelievable.
According to The Report, the officer was hit 4 times, once in the head, and 3 times to the body.
Three of the bullets from Tippit's body were manufactured by Winchester-Western, the other by Remington-Peters.

Four shells were recovered at the scene. Two are made by Winchester-Western, the other two by, Remington-Peters.
It doesn't add up, and it has been a problem since 1964. There is no reasonable explanation for the mis-match.
Two witnesses not recorded by the Warren Commission saw two men at the scene, one of those saw a man stand
over the officer and take one shot to his head. Could that be the different gun, a Remington automatic?

Dallas Police withheld the bullets from the FBI until ordered by the Commission to retrieve them, 114 days later.
Tippit's autopsy was delayed until Dec 10th, although the examination is dated as Nov 22nd., and no reason was given.
All of this and more raises doubts of the bullets recovered and the casings found at the scene.
The Commission Report takes the side of speculation, ignoring closer witness testimony that agrees in contradiction.

[WCR page 172]
"...and though only one bullet of Remington-Peters manufacture was recovered,
two empty cartridge cases of that make were retrieved. Therefore, either one bullet of Remington-Peters
manufacture is missing or one used Remington-Peters cartridge case, which may have been in the revolver before
the shooting, was discarded along with the others as Oswald left the scene.

If a bullet is missing, five were fired. This corresponds with the observation and memory of Ted Callaway,
and possibly Warren Reynolds, but not with the other eyewitnesses who claim to have heard from two to four shots."

The Button Bullet


In Dealey Plaza there was a "Magic Bullet". Out in Oak Cliff there was something called the "Button Bullet".
Like a trick bullet from "Ricochet Rabbit", one shot fired at Tippit, at approx. 600 ft per sec., was stopped by a button.
That button absorbed the energy of the bullet from only about 12 feet, and caused only a superficial non-penetrating wound.

The bullet and the button were recovered at Methodist Hospital when the officer was being unloaded from the ambulance.
Driver, Eddie Kensley told Dallas reporter Earl Golz in 1978, “And this one that they missed hit him in the button.
And it fell off the ambulance still in this button. And I would give a million dollars if I had never kicked that thing out.”
Lt. Day (DPD) handed this bullet over to the FBI on 11/22, and told them this was the only bullet recovered from the scene.
It took a request from the Warren Commission to the FBI to retrieve the other bullets from the police, 114 days after the murder.

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Contradiction in Recovery

Dr Earl Rose was the Dallas Pathologist that performed the autopsy on Officer Tippit.
In his report he stated that the bullet that caused the No. 4 wound was not recovered by him.
It was described as, “superficial and no penetration of the rib cage is noted”

Yet, according to 2 Homicide Reports, only 3 wounds are noted,
“…striking deceased in the right temple,
on the right side of the chest, once in the center of the stomach.”
Another report from Detective James Leavelle, states,
"Oswald pulled a .38 pistol and shot Officer Tippit three times:
one time each in the head, chest and stomach."

A fourth bullet, not officially accounted for by any wound and not acknowledged by the autopsy doctor.
The ambulance driver said to a Dallas reporter, "...I kicked one of the bullets out of the ambulance that went into his button….
onto the parking lot of Methodist Hospital. It didn't go in the body…it fall off the ambulance still in his button."
Then there are some affidavits and further reports of Dr. Moellenhoff removing a bullet from the body.
But then, no other bullets were turned over to the FBI for over 3 months.

In FBI SA Warner’s report dated Dec. 01, 1963
He states that a statement was obtained from Officer R. A. Davenport, Dallas Police Department,
concerning the recovery of a .38 caliber projectile from the stomach of Officer Tippit after
Officer Tippit was pronounced DOA at Methodist Hospital.’

Interview of Dr. Paul C. Moellenhoff / March 4, 1983
“There was a bullet, I believe it was in his — I can’t remember — right or left chest, under a rib. The bullet was right there.
You could feel it as well as you could feel a rib at least — and it wasn’t any trick to get it out. I just reached in there with
the hemostats and dug it out. It had carried his uniform button in with it, and I pulled this bullet out, with the uniform button
still around it, and handed it to the police officer.”

The fact that this is the only bullet pushed forward, and specifically stated as the only one found is suspicious.
The denial of a driver seeing the bullet fall out is disturbing enough without considering a missile being stopped by
a button 12 feet away as ridiculous and cartoon like. It is completely absurd.
Add to that, no explanation where this button came from while a jacket hung in the back of the patrol car.

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Hear No Evil | D. B. Thomas

"...The episode demonstrates the willingness of the FBI and Dallas Police to fabricate evidence, in this case a false affidavit,
to cover-up the failings in their investigation. The button bullet is also relevant to the issue of a second assailant.
A man's jacket was found hanging inside the patrol car. The Dallas Police assumed that this jacket belonged to Tippit.
The button bullet proves that Tippit died wearing his jacket."

Affidavit Go 'round



The discrepancy has nothing to do with whether Eddie Kinsley saw a bullet fall out and hit the ground.
It is the reported wounds that raises questions about the authenticity of the ballistic evidence in this case.
On Nov. 30th and Dec 03rd 1963, The Dallas Police handed over ballistic evidence and told the FBI only one bullet was recovered.
While the autopsy doctor declared no wound for the one bullet, the other three were withheld from the FBI for reasons not given,

The ambulance drivers were not called. Eddie Kinsley was never asked about what he saw.
Regardless, the authorities pushed forward a particular bullet before a full examination of other evidence or chain of custody.
Like the stretcher bullet at Parkland, it was found under mysterious circumstances in questionable conditions.

Once these disputes were discovered, FBI SA Bartwell Odem was dispatched to gather a series of affidavits as explanations.
These documents do nothing to resolve the matter, and raise serious doubts and questions re: stark contrasts from professional doctors.

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CE 2011

Dr. Paul Moellenhoff
On June 11, 1964, Doctor Paul Moellenhoff, Methodist Hospital, Dallas, Texas, was shown the slug identified as Exhibit
C13 by Special Agent Bardwell Odum, Federal Bureau of Investigation. He advised this looks like the slug which he removed from the
body of Officer J . D . Tippit at Methodist Hospital on November 22, 1963, but stated he cannot identify the slug positively. He
stated Officer Davenport of the Dallas Police Department was with him when he removed this slug and he believes Davenport identified it.

Patrolman RA Davenport
On June 12, 1964, a slug identified as Exhibit C13 was Shown by Special Agent Bardwell D . Odum to Patrolman R . A . Davenport
of the Dallas Police Department. Officer Davenport identified his mark on this slug and stated St is the same slug which he obtained
from Doctor Paul Moellenhoff on November 22, 1963, at Methodist Hospital, Dallas, Texas . He stated he was present and observed
Doctor Moellenhoff remove this slug from the body of Officer JD Tippit.

Dr. Earl Forrest Rose
On June 11, 1964, three slugs identified as Exhibits C251, C252, and C253 were exhibited by Special Agent Bardwell D .
Odom to Doctor Earl Forrest Rose, Medical Examiner, Parkland Hospital, Dallas, Texas He identified his mark on each of these
slugs and stated these were the same slugs which he removed from the body of officer JD Tippit at Parkland Hospital on November
22, 1963.

Sidetracked: A Wallet at the Scene



This is a thread about the bullets and shells, but there is something else.
An important pretext against Oswald recovered at the Tippit scene was a wallet.

Dallas Reserve Officer Kevin Croy arrived at the scene just as the ambulance was loading the deceased.
An unidentified witness walked up to Croy handed him a wallet, and said it was left on the ground.
No identification of this person or place the wallet was left, no other witness ever described a wallet being dropped.

Croy testified to the Warren Commission on March 26, 1964. Asst Council Burt Griffin was the questioning attorney.
There were no questions about any wallet, Croy said he spoke to a hysterical woman, a cab driver, and some other witness on foot.
Original television footage from WFAA-TV shows officers fingering thru a wallet that looks very much the one in the archives.

FBI Agent Bob Barrett was at the Tippit scene when Capt W. R. Westbrook asked him, "You ever heard of a Lee Harvey Oswald?’ I said,
‘No, I never have.’ He said ‘How about an Alek Hidell?’ I said, ‘No. I never have heard of him either,'”.
The agent said Westbrook was flipping thru this mysterious wallet while asking these names he didn't know.

When Barrett retired, fellow officers, agents and even a witness signed a photograph from the scene in his honor.
One accolade on that frame contains the only documented evidence that a wallet was found at the Tippit scene.

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Kenneth Croy | WC Testimony

Mr. GRIFFIN. Now, who was the third eyewitness that you say you talked with there?
Mr. CROY. I believe it was a man that was standing there in the yard. He said he saw Oswald just walk up the street.

Mr. GRIFFIN. What direction did he say?
Mr. CROY. He didn't say.

Mr. GRIFFIN. But he saw Oswald walking some blocks to where he got to before he got to Tippit's car? .
Mr. CROY. Yes.

Mr. GRIFFIN. Do you recall this man's name?
Mr. CROY. No; I found the witness and took him to the other officers.

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JFKFacts.org

"A local TV newscast showed footage taken by the local ABC affiliate WFAA on that date more than 50 years ago.
In the film Dallas police captain Pinky Westbrook can be seen handling a wallet at the scene of Tippit’s murder.
It appears to be the wallet of the accused assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald.

What makes the film footage remarkable is that for 50 years, authorities have said that the wallet was not found until
about an hour later when Dallas police detective Paul Bentley removed the wallet from Oswald’s back pocket shortly after
taking him into custody at the Texas Theatre, several blocks away from where Tippit was gunned down.

FBI agent Bob Barrett, who was at the scene of Tippit’s murder and is still alive, now calls Paul Bentley’s story “hogwash”.
The wallet wound up in the hands of Captain Pinky Westbrook. FBI agent Bob Barrett recalled that Westbrook turned to him at
the scene and asked, ‘You ever heard of a Lee Harvey Oswald?’ I said, ‘No, I never have.’ He said ‘How about an Alek Hidell?’
I said, ‘No. I never have heard of him either,'” Barrett explained.

“Why would they be asking me questions about Oswald and Hidell if it wasn’t in that wallet?”

It was not public knowledge that Oswald’s wallet was found at the Tippit murder scene until 1996.
FBI agent Jim Hosty, who had responsibility for watching Oswald, wrote that a wallet containing identification for both Oswald and
“Alek Hidell” was found near a pool of blood. Again, no witness ever saw the wallet on the ground.
A second witness, patrolman Leonard Jez, told a conference in 1999 that the wallet was identified at the murder
scene as belonging to Oswald.

Yet the Dallas authorities never wrote a report about any wallet found at the Tippit murder scene.
Perhaps that was oversight. Perhaps not."