November 29/article

Today, in 1963, American President Lyndon B. Johnson established the President's Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy, known unofficially as the Warren Commission, to try and get to the bottom of just what had happened one week earlier in Dallas. The most famous product of the commission would be what later became known as the "magic bullet theory." As actor Kevin Costner, portraying New Orleans D.A. Jim Garrison in the 1991 film "JFK," summed it up succinctly:    "Never in the history of gunfire has there been a bullet this ridiculous." Ever since the assassination of John F. Kennedy the question has lingered: how could just one bullet possibly traverse 15 layers of clothing, 7 layers of skin, approximately 15 inches of tissue and a necktie knot, remove 4 inches of rib, and shatter a radius bone? Simply preposterous, right? A 2004 Discovery Channel special, "Unsolved History: JFK — Beyond the Magic Bullet", attempted to replicate the conditions of that day. The participants set up blocks of ballistics gel with a substance similar to human bone inside. Next, two mannequin figures made of ballistic anatomical substances (animal skin, gelatin, and interior bone-analog cast) were set up in the exact relative position of JFK and Connally. A marksman, from a distance equal to that of the sixth floor of the Book Depository building, fired the same rifle model found in the Book Depository, using a round from the same batch of "Western Case Cartridge Company" 6.5x52 mm ammunition purchased with the surplus Carcano weapon in early 1963. The results were astounding. (Click here to find out just how astounding)