After Test-Firing, 0°

4. • Kennt. tiet, :40 After Test-Firing, 0°.

By RALPH REPPERT (First of a Two-Port Swnes)

ON A MAY morning In 1961 the tele- phone rang in the Tolima home of How- ard Donahue It was Bill Filched. A hat- ing buddy, with a strange request. Some- nee WAS conducting rifle tests, with hunt- ers and target WICKA977 of varied back- grounds, in an effort to prove something. Could he take the day off and help out? Mr. Donahue, suspecting results of the testi might be used Later as evidence in a court ease, agreed to participate, Mr. Donahue is a guasonith. He owns and operates Donahue's Gun Specisttio on Dulaney Valley road la Towson. He has • developed patentable additions 41114 modi- ficatlom for firearms, principally with Remington and Winchester. He has worked on guns for Mined States Olympic two members. He is called into coort oc- casionally to testify as a certified firearm expert. Half an hour later au] Pitched, with his brother. T. Somerset iSet) Filched, air other hooting buddy, stopped by. The three drove to the Maryland Lava Company, near Bel Air. There they picked up John Dinning, the Pitchetts' brother-in-law. had lunch and beaded for the H. P. While Bal- listics Laboratory not far away. This Installation bas laboratories for Incredibly rum testing, plus nearly a hundred mores of partially wooded land with firing ranges. It is the biggest independent balltstim research center in the

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6 THE SUN MAC...UDR. MAY 1. 1977 Assassination: A Different View Maryland Man Has Doubts about Oswald

country It conduce performance tests tioe similar to that of the .30-caliber 1903 The FBI marksmen also had filed from gm. As a varmint hunter, be is tboronghly with arms and ammunition for cheets Springfield used by meet American draft- an elevation of only about 30 feet. CBS familiar with the scope sight ranging from inventors and arms manu- ees In basic training in both World Wars was later to explain in Ste broadcasts— "His brother BID Wells facturers to insurance companies and po- But its ban action In mach stiffer, even about half the height of the sixth floor of Michell] In an excellent shot with rifle or llee department.. awkward. After a spent shell is ejected by the school book depository from which Os- shotgun, not only a good target marksman Laboratory techeleians took the four the drawn back holt, the bolt most be wald allegedly fired. but also one of the finest field shots men to a basement range where the Fitch- thrust forward with considerable force by At the Nee of the higher tower CBS Mow. ett brothers and Mr. Donahue fired three the keel of the hand to insert a new shell had built. Mr. Donahue was banded anoth- "As for my own background. I have sets of three shots each tram a 6.5nirn into the breech. er MannneberCarreno. been a pretty decent marksman since I Mannlicher-Carcano rifle Nooe had ever The offhand approach to the test firing, 1 was giving my full attention to the have teen big enough to lift a rifle. Lang fired a Mamie:her, but Mr. Donahue rec- Mr. Donahue learned, was deliberate. CBS business at hand. It didn't tilt me until lat- ago I took the NRA target sleeting course ognised it as a cheaply produced weapon had given Done of its test marksmen any er—like a dash of cold water —that I had in Towson Armory and became an expert tensed out for the Italian army in World more advance notice than necessary, ap- noticed the serial number on that rifle Be- small bore rifleman My principal sports War II He also recognized it as the rifle parently feeling that If any of them had came most military firearms have at targets Ice some years have been clay pi-- make and model Lee Harvey therald is time to practice with the Mannlicher. the least six- or seven-digit serial numbers, geom. My NRA rating with the scattergun said to have fired at President Kennedy m teat mans would have been meaninglest. thin one caught my attention I remember is expert. Dallas on November 21. 1063. The marksman also learned they were not it as C 9760. "However, Omani the end of World Like that rifle, the weapon seed was to be paid for their time and tremble, re- "In all honesty, I must admit my imag- War 13 I bought a .257 Roberta Ballwin, a equipped with a four-power scope sight gardless of what kind of scores they shot, nudion could play tricks on me as readily Large rifle made by Wthcbeter. It is Bit by bit, Mr. Donahue and his friends another CBS measure in the interests of as with the next man, and II is swathe equipped with an eight-power scope, and were filled In 00 the tee. Many had criti- Impartiality. that my subconscious mind is still welling fires a high-velocity shell similar in many cised the Warren Report for its one-asses- After firing, the men left the basement overtime on this incident. But In my heart respects to throe fired in the type of rifle sie theory, claiming It was impossible to range and moved to a hilly, heavily wood- I still feel 100 per cent sore I remember Oswald had. In long-range varmint lemt- fire the Mannilcher-Careen three times ed spot on the laboratory grounds. Here that number correctly. The serial number ing, I became proficient enough with the in the 6.5 seconds the aciaasein is thought they found a partial reconstruction of the on the rifle Oswald used, I later ewer. rifle and the special ammnnition to ell to have had to fire at the President. The Deity Feu site in Dallas where Presi- Lathed by checking the Warren Report. COM and woodchucks, sometimes more Columbia Broadcasting System, in a tele- dent Kennedy had been shot. Workmen was C 3766. That weapon is supposed to than 306 yards away." vised testing program later In be narrated had constructed a 60-toot wooden tower have been locked up, along with other LI- Atop the tower, Mr. Donahue foaled the Ar- principally by Walter Greene, was trying Running past, in a route which bad been samtnatIon evidence. in the National small area crowded with seven other men either to prove or disprove the claim. surveyed and staked out to duplicate Kim chives" plus banks of CBS photographic and re- Like the Dewed rifle, the tee weapon street in Dallas, was a miniature railroad The day had tweed windy and cloudy, cording equipment Be was surprised to and Mr. Donahue felt the tower shudder as was equipped with a makeshift sling. track. Oo It was an electrically powered note the windowsill, built as a copy of that At the top level were other The three men were told to fire three vehicle which cede be made to travel at wind hit IL In the Texas School Book Depoittory. was members of the tent group, three state po- series of three shots each at a target about about 11 tuiles an boar, the speed of the only 1 er inches from the floor. A few licemen in uniform. two wearing pistol ex- 150 feet away, each series as close as pm presidential precession as It moved along packing cases were scattered around, as Wile to floe seconds. Mr: Donahue noticed pert medals, the third with a sharpshooter Elm street on that fateful day. Mounted they had been at the Meth floor of the Tex- that the cartridges handed him. although on the vehicle was a standard FBI rapid- rating. as School Book Deposita,. of the same type Oswald had fired, were fire training target. the Incase silhouette "'The three of in who comprised the ci- Mr Donahue had taken off the coat of vilian half of the li1-113Al2 test team repre- not new ammunition, bet reloads. of a man's head and thealdere nu tosines suit and put on a light woolen sented a varied background Set Fitchett He also noticed that some of the "I could see a lot of planning had gone hunting shirt which allowed freedom of range's terminal lights weree't wetting, Into the CBS test." Mr. Donahue recalls. is an excellent all-around marksman. leaving the target less visible than be "FBI and military marksmen had test- highly skilled with pistol, rifle and shot. Continued on Page 9 would have liked. And the target Itself was fired Oswald' rifle for the Warren Corn- already well peppered with bullet holes. 11:Linkes fact finding oa the rifle's cepa- which would mike It Impossible to deter- bilthea The questions at band had dealt mine his accuracy. with how the rifle would perform against No matter, the three marksmen were a moving target But the FBI had done its told; this phase of the bet firing wasn't test-firing at stationary targets It did being made to prove accuracy, bat merely oot explain why" to let them familiarise themselves with the Mannlictier-Carcaoo. It required familiarization. It is a six- shot rifle wkkh operates with a bolt ac-

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7 Kennedy Assassination ConNnsed from Paqe

movement. Along with the other marks- any man in that pattern to operate a bolt tech circle m the central bead area_ I Walter Cronkite, the principal com- men, he was told be could fire in any pote- properly for accurate and rapid (Ding. beard a technician at the base of the tower mentator. stated as the opinion of CBS nce be chose, and could rig op any kind of The IVA-Web height of the windowsill call out 'We've got a good one' Four- News that "the role of the FBI as well as s rifle rest he liked with the scattered car- ruled out firing from the prone or sitting point-eight mermen from first to lad the Secret Service, both in the bons. poorness—Oswald wasn't tall enough—so tine and in aftermath- has been less than "The police officers fired first, from Mr. Donahue clime his own variancn of A second timing device clocked the & none" and said performances of the various positions. Some moved the bows the kneeling poet lino. three shots at 5.3 second*. But at eves the two agencies had weakened the credibility around to me as rifle reset Everybody Actually, tt was more of a squat, with slower reading. Mr. Dosialine bad support- of the Warren Report had a lot of trouble stabLliztng the rifle his left leg beat under him, his right knee ed the Warren Report's indication that one CBS had concluded. Mr Cronkite said. The bolt action was so clumsy that after a bent, his buttock resting on the heel of hie assassin could have fired three slob from that Los Harvey Oswald shot Proudest man squeezed off a shot, ejected the emp- right foot. It is a patinae be bad earlier a Miumlicher-Careano within 6.5 seems& Remedy, but in the following sentence he ty cartridge, and rammed in a new one found comfortable and effective in field He was not Informed nee] several days pointed out "... we drew the line between with that stiff bolt mechanism,. his mine shooting later that, out of amen of test filings Oswald am a killer, and Oswald as the kill- remained nowhere near co-target, and be He twined the rifle sling around his le/ which had teem made in the three previous er." had to find the target in his scope sight arm in an arrangement known an the years by CBS, his performance with the The commentator also noted that "al- and aim all over again.- hasty sling. 6Lmolicher-Cucano was the only one though the Warren Commission had fall Firing was further complicated be- Doe to a stuck bolt. Mr. Donahue got which equaled or excelled that attribmed power to conduct its own independent io- cause time wag such an important factor. off only one shot in his first series. ("It s to Lee Harvey Oswald. vestigatioe. it permitted the FBI and CIA Pia the silhouette Urged moved at 11 nines hard for me to believe Oswald was a pro- CBS televised its test findings the lot- to Investigate thernsetves—and so cast a an hoer II pawed two stakes. The first rep- fessional hit man, as many people say he lowing month during a widely heralded permanent shadow on the answers." resented the hid Meant and spot in which was. I can't imagine a real pro trying to newsinquiry, "The Warren Report," It was his sense of having contributed a Oswald would have had a pemible shot at do a job with a weapon an cheap, shoddy which began with an new of commentary service that whetted Mr. Donahue's Inter- the Presideet. The second marked the pe- and unreliable as that Mannlicber."1 Mr from 10 to II PAL urn Sunday. June 25, est in the assassination. He bought and nnon of the presidential when the Za- Donahue sass be was still working the bolt and =tinned with additional hour-long read a condernation of the Warren Report, pruder films and other evidence bad imperfectly in his second series and be got segments on Monday, Tuesday and shown that the last shot was fired off only two shots. Both, however, were Wednesday. Continued on Pope II Test marksmen were riot allowed to hite. They were recorded by a motion pic- fire well the vehicle passed the first stake. ture camera mounted on the carriage of and shots squeezed off after it passed the the moving target. second stake were not recorded in the in my third series of three, I fired the elaborate set up of cameras, timing de- split-second the target passed the first vices and other measuring instnonents. stake With my nett hand I till the bolt As the ten proceeded rain began to handle to eject It was stuck math. Realiz- fall, the wind rose and the lower swayed ing how little time I had. 1 hit the bolt with with earn gust all the facet possible, ejecting the empty. I "When it came my turn to fire, I decid- felt more than half my time had passed ed on the poetess Oswald might have cho- when I slammed the bolt forward to Insert ral: Mr. Donahue recalls, "because we the second round, picked up the target in were about the same size. Oswald was 5-9 the cross hairs. and fired. and weighed 169 pounds. I am an sib "Eves while the rifle was in its slight shorter aced, at the time of the test, 5 recall, 1 brnight up my right band he the pounds heavier." bolt to eject, slammed it forward to load. Mr. Donahoe didn't consider firing picked up the target, and squeezed off my from a standing position. Oswald cosichet final shot bane, for only the lower part of the win- By the time I ejected the last shell, dow from which be in said to have fired took off the sling and stood op, the target had been open. Mr. Donahoe felt It would had been returned and was being exam- have been nearly impossible, anyhow, for ined. My three shots were hits, within a 3-

The force needed to path a cartridge into a MannlichenCareano, the type gun Mr. Donahue. holding a Mannlicher-egreano, demonstrates the position he used to prove or disprove the Oswald is said to /1411., used. snmeriID. dente the cartridge AS it did dal one (attached during • meat-firing conducted in Maryland in an effort to a disengaged bolt) in point indicated by lloward Donshur's thumb. This rareridge Warren Report contention that three shots could be fired from a weapon of earn, from the am- lot aa the Dawald cartrief ea this type in 6.5 errand, or lea. 9

Kennedy Assassination Conitimerffrom Poor II

and later began reading different book■ to show haw be had fired the rifle, and be Another irritation was the widely cir- critical of the report. was being very wrong about IL He had a culated description of the 6.5mni Mann- He read "Whitewash," written by a for- box for a rifle rest and was not using a licher-Carca.00 cartridge, which hit both mer OSS intelligence analyst turned chick- sling. These two factors alone would role President Kennedy and Governor Connal- en farmer, "Flush La Judgment" by Mark him ant as a competent rapid-fire and ac- ly. as a low-te-medium-powered military Lane, an attorney and former New York curate marksman. cartridge which could not possibly have state assemblyman; "Six Seconds in Out- "Bat the most glaring error was the penetrated two men_ let." by Josiah Thompson. a professor of way Mr. Frazier was shown manipulating 'The fact Is," Mr. Donahoe says, "that philosophy; books by newspapmmen, law the bolt. Aa I mentioned, the Mannllcher- the cartridge is extremely powerful. Its enforcement agents and others. Carmelo bolt is a stiff, awkward affair. caliber is 264. Its long, heavy, 160-grain He found nothing to change his opinion Moving it back and forth to eject an emp- bullet leaves the rifle Munk at 2,234 feet of the Warren Report, but be did conclude ty shell and reload requires effort acs per second. It was designed for deep peoe- that most of the authors criticizing it had much so that with the palm of his hand the tration. fm fact Koran* Bell an African little knowledge of ballistics and capabili- marksman moat hit the bolt forcibly, In big game banter, has used a 6.5mm Mann- ties of weapons both the forward and backward strokes. licher — with ammunition ballistics simi- Too many, Mr. Donahoe felt had acs There isn't enough time between shots for lar to that of Onirald's rifle—to kill scores cepted careless broad and generalized de- the most competent marksman to dose of elephants with single bead shots And scriptive terms, and based their argu- his hand no be leaves it open_ still there are so-called etperts who claim ments on them. He resented seeing the "I examined the picture with disbelief. the cartridge fired by Oswald hadn't the term "pin-paint accuracy" mentioned In Frasier was grasping the bolt with his power to penetrate two living men." connection with Lee Harvey Oswald. "Out thumb and lingers, as you would bold the in his nine-year study Mr. Donahue has of the two or three or however many Mots handle of a teacup." sought not to discredit the Warren Report, but to support It. He still believes the re- he is summed to have gotten off [the War- Later Mr. Donahoe read in Thomas G. ren Report indicates there were three] one port to have been put together honestly — Buchanan's book "Who Killed Kennedy?": on the basis of the information Oven to mimed the presidential limousine "It is doubtful If a single man exists "Another fallacy, widely accepted once the commission. He believes, however, who could have fired this weapon with the that as members did not have evidence it was reported. was that the !Hinnlicher- skill required [in the time required} But 11 Careenu requires a minimum of 2.3 sec- which would have changed the report the feat is partible, It Is, in the opinion of Mr. Donahoe believes today that no onds for bolt action between Mote to my the erpens, a superlative performance best series of three in the CBS lest, 1 got premeditated murder wan committed In which requires one of the world's best Deady Plaza in Dallas on November 22, off my last two shots in less than two seconds. 1063. Although be would have enjoyed being He believes that but for a freakish, "Proper technique is the answer. Rob- Labeled "one of the world', best marks. oncein-a-million turn of events, John F. ert Frazier. of the FBI, had claimed the men,- Mr. Donahue wrote off that incor- Kennedy might be alive today, with Lee 2.3-second limitationa of the Manolleber. rect phase of Mr. Buchanan's explanation. Harvey Oswald serving a prison sentence careen° after firing the weapon Oswald and ethers Me It, as hogwash. The irrita- for his attempted murder. had used. tion whetted his curiosity further, and be And he believes he knows how Presi- "Later, in a magazine article, I saw a began accumulating more assassination dent Kennedy was killed. ❑ hatW6- -1 picture of Mr. Frazier presumably posing records. To be continued next week

an inatant Two Secret Service men. and • few people in the crowd, forts their attention from the motorcade and look marehingly after one shot was fired during the assassination of Prealdent Kennedy. who was in the ear in the foreground. Left the newednetion a. recorded on motion picture film, with the President lurching forward in frame three. 11

it Kennedy Assassination: A Different View Gun Expert Reasons Oswald Didn't Fire Fatal Shot

In IOC CBS investigated the Warren lag passed through the President, thee Report of the 1963 amassination of twice shattering boom, breaking Governor President John F Kennedy, and tele- Connally's rib and wrist, it remained In- tact. It still held its clean shape, remain- vised its findinph shortly afterward in Howard Donahue, of Towson, Says four-part series. ing close enough to its original form that ft had several gunning experts Guarded Spectrographic Tapes it bee often been referred to in official re- make test-firings with the same make ports as 'the pristine bullet.' and model of the Manniicher-Carcano "Now let's compare the 'twin bullet' Italian rifle Lee Harvey Oswald it said Could Prove His Theory is Correct which seconds later inflicted the Presi- to have used. Dunne these teats, How- dent's fatal head wound, IL is accepted by and Donahue became the only man on the Warren Report that this was fired by record to equal and teepees Oswald's Oswald, and wee an identical piece of am- alleged ability with that type firearm munition fired from the same rifle- Under condirions nearly Identical to "Rut how drastically different can two those of the assassination. Mr. Dona- When Mr. Donahue had read the news the assassination. Mr. Kellerman, who had pieces of supposedly identical ammunition hue scored three accurate shots well storks of the assassination be bad noted been riding in the right front seat of the perform' This second one did non Come within a -much-disputed h5-second pe- ballistic inconsielencies, but attributed prezidential limousine, testified that as chew to passing cleanly through. Upon riod, the time the assassin is thought to them to either careless mooning or well the firing began, he bad heard the Presi- penetration, it bless the President's skull have had to fire. meaning but incorrect statements by dent exclaim: "My God, I am hie" The apart in an explosion of fragments, leav- This involvement intrigued Mr. spokesmen who weren't familiar with agent was positive in this assertion. log a huge Celt portal If performed not as Donahue, a gunsmith, and led him into firearms Alter he saw that many incere "The Zapnider film." Mr. Donahue a bullet encased In a rigid metal jacket a personal study of bathetic aspects of selectee were Included in widely accept- says, 'indicates the President's first vio- would boon performed, but more as a frangible, soft or hallow-nosed missile, the assaesinnolon After 10 years of ed reports, he began Scrutinizing them_ lent reaction to having twee hit was from frying to disprove his own reluctant In his re-study, eve the basic ballistics the bullet which entered his back, passed with a thin metal jacket I if any at all} conclusion, lee is now Convinced he reported and accepted looked wrong through his throat. nicked his necktie and traveling at a high velocity which might knows who fired the that that killed the "To oversimplify an maniple of baths- went through Governor Connally's upper measure at around 3,000 feet per second. President. He svgs it was not Lee tics performance," Mr. Denahue explains- body and wrist and lodged in his thigh. Among other metal fragments. 30 to 40 Harvey Oswald. "fasten a tin can to a fence post and shoot "That eighvelocity bullet moved fast- dustlike particles of the dialntegrated bul- This is the second of a deco-dart series. a hole through it with a .22 rifle. Ran a so- er than the speed cal sound. It would have let are said to have been visible on head da straw through the holes in the can and been impossible for anybody in the X-rays taken after the President's death By RALPH REPPERT (with the can in its original position). the presidential car to have heard the shot be- "Had this type of bullet entered the straw will define the line of tire. fore the bullet hit," Mr. Donahue says. President's hack, It would have killed him "A bullet fired from a window an the -With his larynx shattered by the bullet, instantly." SA HE read aU evidence and 'pecula- Birth floor of the Tete. School Book Tie- how could the President have exclaimed Mr. Donahue studied pictures of shell tion he could find about the assasainatien. positery, the one which the Warren Report anything?" jacket zed other bullet fragments re Howard Donahue realised he might accepts as the fatal bullet, should have en- Incrmelsteecies in the comparative be- moved from the President's skull during be lured into the trap which had ensnared tered the rear, right, upper side of the havior of the two bullets that bit the Presi- an autopsy performed at the National Na- the more vitriolic critics of the Warren President's head, and exited at the left, dent also bothered Mr. Donahue. val Medical Center at Bethesda, Md., un- Report, Me, be felt, had perpetuated oft- front, lower part of the skull. But accord- The Mittel that entered the President's der the direction of Cmdr. -fatties I. repeated crilktierns of the report, empha- ing to the evidence given to the Warren back and more through his throat passed }11.1111 Be 'Mr. Donahue) was convinced sising certain aspects while playing dawn Conthession the bullet entered the right, through Governor Oonnalty's right side, that two of the fragments were from two or Ignoring evidence which didn't lit their rear part of the skull, somehow made a near the armpit, shattering a portion of different types of ammunition- He wrote to the National Archives and Records theories. right two after it pentirated, and blew his right filth rib. It came out of the Gov- lie reorganized the Information he out a right, front section of the skull, an ernor's right chest, just below the nipple, Service of the United States General Ser- had assembled. then went carefully area almost as large as a saucer, fractured a bone as it passed on through vices Administration, asking for more in- through it again, considering each Item for "I realize bullets can take strange his wrist, and moved on to lodge in his formation Its pasathileties or impossibilities &la rifle courses after they enter a body. Forensic thigh .. The two bullet fragments to welds expert and marks-man would one them. medical mreeigatione report many of 'This performance,' Mr. Donahue you refer are Commission Eahtbll 042," He decided not to concern himself with them. But to accept this balliatical bit of says, "was normal for this particular type answered Miss Jane Smith, director of the be many and often bizarre theories of as- evidence, we most accept it blindly as a el bullet. It is a long. heavy, metal-Peket- Civil Archives Division. "We shall be ses:moque conspiracies_ highly unusual, completely unexplained ed, higleveiocity bullet designed to pene- pleased la show you this exhibit to the Na- " Perhaps there was a conspiracy to factor " trate and pass threugh cleanly, no matter tional Archives." murder the President," he !Aye "Perhaps Other evidence Mr. Doriahlie round what part of a body It strikes. Raw well But in the following paragraph Miss there wasn't I haven't given that emerge hard to accept was a statement Roy Kell- that bullet performed as it was designed Smith wrote: thought Lo even form an opinion." erman. a Secret Service agent, made after to can be gem by the fact that after hay- Continued ere Paw 9 6 714 SUN MAGAZINE, MAY a, 1977 SA /- ,e7 tt1 ..--: -• ••••■ .40 do* % ■,,,i' ,,, ' _,,,,,i,,, ttl •.°•% ;-,-!."'-f, .1 •.1.1, ------4, -.-,

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Legend ;1.1

Dashes indicate path of bullets, according to Warren Report.

Dots show bullets paths., according to Donahue theory.

•

- 49r.■ in, of Deo', P!... ,ti Nile, wnh the Ter. School Boo4 DrpaRitory. uppes lefe. aml the u,erpess. foreground, yrbere S. M. Hollenchlaki he ors§ steekling. 7 Kennedy Assassination Continued from Poo 7-

"Enclosed L9 a copy of our regulations let fired by Oswald, for example, although al the University of Maryland and chief by the 1968 Panel's new medical report concerning acmes to security classified a good choice for a sniper, would never be medical examiner Re the stele of Mary. drawings. documents. We ore not aware of any earned by bodyguards or anybody else land, and Dr. Russell H. Morgan. professor 'The path of the bullet, indicated in Use researchers who have been given ac- who might have to fire at somebody in a of radiology at the School of Medicine and second itinopey reporL ' Mr. Donahue cede in classified documents in the rec. crowd. That type of bullet could pass prnIUSOr of radiological science at the says. "was from left-rear to right-front It arch of the Commission by the agencies through three or lour people and possibly School of Hygiene and Public Health at is beyond my comprehension how anybody that prepared the documents, through the hill the fifth. the Johns Hopkins University. The other could deduce iram that drawing that the procedures listed to these regulations." "For use in a crowd a bodyguard's two were Dr. William H. Carnes, professor bullet had moved from right-rear to left- I Italics added,' weapons could sensibly be loaded only of pathology at the University of Utah at Iroot. Mr. Donahoe replied. trying to learn tf with frangible. elf-destructive bullets_ A a member of that slate's Medical Fame in- "This left me with the 'peeling conclu- there were some reason he shouldn't be high-velocity automatic or semi-automat- er's Commission, and Dr. Alan R. Marti; sion that, considering the President's posti- given permitsion to look at the evidence ie .22, sorb as the M-16. would be an ideal profiteer of pathology at Case Western lion in the car. and the position of his head but he never heard Irons the agency. weapon. Loaded with hollow-paint or thin- Reserve University and former professor al the time he received the fatal wound, He wrote to the Secret Service, risking jacketed bullets, soft-nosed missiles like of Forensic medicine at Harvard. the that that killed him could not possibly for the name of the agents riding io the the Hornady super explosive would satisfy None of these physician,' had any have come from the Texas School Bonk car behind the President. He asked U they two most important requirements—they connection with prior investigations of the Depository, which was located behind and were still agents and, If so, in what capaci- would immobilize an enemy instantly by assassination. to the right. ty, what weapons they had, their caliber, creating shock and a massive wound, and "The President's head at the instant of "1 was periled to reed in their report," and LI any changes had been made at the the fatal wound was tilted slightly for- they would disintegrate in whatever they Mr. Donahue says, "that the four doctors agency's weapons since the assassination. Mt, moving no larther to harm anybody ward, and inclined very slightly to the left. found the point of entry to be 'approxi- He received a copy of a letter the Chief The lapneter films bear this out, and so else" mately WOrnm above the external oc- do the Muchmore films and various still of Secret Service had written in answering Mr. Donahue's continuing study of the cipital protuberance" That would put it similar questions I from the President's pictures takes, by news photogrephere Fe/melees head woeful turned up a pus- about leamm away from the point of en- Commission an the Assassination of PreS1. sang inconsistency. The Warren Report "The President's body position at that try accepted by the Warren Report. I dine is an ironic thing. Had his chronic dent John F. Kennedy) four years earlier_ had accepted the idea that the bullet that smiled a forgiving smile and concluded The President's follow-up car had been Inflicted the fatal wound had entered the back trouble not mese:seated his wearing that obviously the report of the 1968 Panel driven by Samuel Kinney. and also had right, rear area of the skull at a point a brace, which held his body in an inflexi- doctors had contained a typographical en been occupied by Emory Roberts, Chown somewhat below the outermost protuber- ble position. he might have slumped after ror. obviously meaning a distance of that first shot passed through him and into Hill, William McIntyre, John Ready, Paul ance at about the same level, for exam- lOmm. That would be less than hall an Landis, Glee Bennett and George Rickey, ple, as the upper part 01 the ear. Appar- Governor Connally. Had he slumped in a inch, and would be all understandable and all Secret Service apecial agents. Also in natural manner. the fatal bullet probably ently, be Sayre the accepted diagram of the admissible error, even in the medical re- the car were Dave Powers and Kenneth sexed Was drawn freehand during or af- would have Inflicted only a shallow port turned in by the original autopsy ter autopsy proe,edings, wound, or 'crease, In his scalp. One-hall O'Dlieriell, Mutants to President Kenne- team. dy, who were not armed. The gunsmith had accepted this dia• inch would have made the difference Ns- Le answer to a subsequent letter to the gramme' evidence. toe. until be read a re- "But later I learned that the report tween a hit and a nem." agency. In which he repeated his gees. port prepared by a panel of four physi- meant exactly what it stated. The differ- Something else Mr. Donahue hadn't no- lions. Mr. Donahue was informed that the cians who met in 1988. at the requael of ence in point-of-entry locations indicated ticed earlier turned up in the 1968 Panel Secret Service did not elselnee the types of Ramsey Clark. the Attorney General, "to by the two autopsy teams actually nee- report: "... Also there in, embedded In the weapons it used, other than in issue of 36- examine various photographs, X•rays. mired about reamm. I was astounded. A outer table of the skull close to the lower eeliber revolvers, and that no shots were films, documents and other evidence per- discrepency of ]Omar I could understand. edge of the I point of entry' hole. a large fired by the Secret Service at the time of taining to the death of President Kennedy, Lela than half an loch. But a difference of metallic !ragmen which on the Inter. the alsassinaithe. and 10 evaluate their significance in rela- 1.00mne That's about 4 inches! A new dia- posterior film 111 Lies 2Smm to the right "Al a gunsmith." Mr. Donahue recalls, tion to medical conclusions recorded in gram of the head wound, executed by of the midline. This fragment as seen In "I bad a natural curiosity about the differ- the Autopsy Report on the body of Presi- careful measurements from pictures and the latter film is round and measures ent kinds of firearms and ammunition dent /comedy... ," the report which had X.-rays, put the bullet's point of entry at fetes to diameter_ . - known to have been In and around Dealy been signed by Commander (now Admi- the top of the skull." "I looked Into that aspect of the re- Plaza on the day of the asaassinatiote The ral) Humes and Illa associates at the au- Mt. Donahue ran into another startling port." Mr Donahue says. "What It difference between the legal and the ille- topsy. discovery when he obtained two plaster amounts to, with no disrespect intended gal ammunition known to have hewn there The team of investigating pliyaleiens casts of a harem skull and marked on one for the doctors' medical terminology, is would be as different as black and white. Included two from Baltimore Dr. Russell the path of the bullet the Commission had that the metal fragment broke the skin but —The type of penetrating military led- S. Fisher. professor of forensic pathology accepted. on the other the path indicated ma the bone. imbedding itself in, but not piercing, the skull." Mr_ Donahue was also vaguely aware of some irritating Inconsistencies which - he couldn't immediately identify. Finally he recalled an eyeritnese's account of the assassination, that of Ralph Yarborough, the Tema senator who had been riding with Vice President Johnson two cars behind the President's limousine_ Speaking later of the tragedy and of the terrible minute which followed, In which the pro- cession sped to the emergency entrance of Parkland Memorial Hospital Mn. Yarbor- ough said again and again: "I smelled the gunpowder . . It clung to the car nearly all the way to the hospital." The smell of gunpowder! Some 99 yards from Oswald's position on the sixth floor of the Texas School. Book Depository, even farther away from the mach discussed grassy knoll and the bridge atop the triple imderpaes, from which porno assassination theorists believe at least part of the gunfire originated. Senator Yarborough had smelled gunpowder) Plaster slid& were drifted and painted by Howard Donahue. The one an riehreham the night of the leak' an described in Seth Kantor. a Scripps-Howard eves- the anginal •nennws. Skull. left. is Mt. Donahue's interpretation of the path of the bullet es redefined by four investigating paperrnan riding In the press bus farther phssicians. It indicates the hullo roared from the left rear ma the right front. which Mr. Donahue Crab ...old role nut • slim 'nom the boob I:bps:atm., Continued an Page 12 9 Kennedy Assassination Continued from Page 9

back in the precession, also bad smelled Ham Manchester did not mention an inter- hypothesis which had leaped out at me think the President could have, too, al- gunpowder. view with S. be Holland, but he did refer from that magazine picture. In the months though pounibty his voles might have been Mr. Donahue returned to his growing li- to the Preskient's follow-up car in which since 1989 I hive tried, point by paint to Impaired. brary of 337,734ina doh books and articles Secret Service men were riding. lie spoke dlecredlt It. I haven't been able to disprove "As to the source of the fatal shot, we and read the testimony of S. hi Holland, of two agents In the hack seat "... and on or even Make a single tarter of it must go back to the part of Mr. Holland's an elderly man who wears eyeglasses, the mat between t lay an AR-lb .223 testimony which deals with his having "Here, in my sad Judgment, to what who bad viewed the assastnatien from automatic rifle, with a male velocity so seen a Secret Service man standleg cep happened: the bridge. Mr. Holland had drawn consid- powerful that shouts' a bullet strike 4 with a machine gun, and stumbling. "I accept the evidence that Lee Harvey erable attention by claiming to bare seen man's chest it would blow his head off ..." "I realize Mr. Holland sale he saw that Oswald wee toeing to kill the PomidmIt the now much discussed puff of smoke A few pages later, describing the mo- man in the presidential car, and that later Deeet ask me why. Who know. what goes nearby. tnente of panic winch followed the shots, it was determined that nobody actually on in the mind of a man like that? In "The Scavengers and Critics of the Manchester Includes the observation of an had Mood up in the presidential car. But I Worrell Report," a book written by Rich- agent so be "... raises the barrel of the "I think Oswald's first shot mimed the think it certainly within the realm of un- ard Warren Lewis based on an iovestiga- AR- IS and points it about aimlessly . presidential car, hit the pavement, and deretandable human error that what Hol- tion by Lawrence greeter, the (avestiga- :Mr. Donahue believes Secret Service broke up, spraying fragments of metal It land See was not 111 the presidential, but In tar destroyed some of the credibility of agents actually are armed with another is a matter of record that five metal frag- the follow-up car. God knows that moat of Mr. Holland's remarks, After describing automatic weapon, the hi-la, quite similar ments were picked up later in the car. the score% of Viliefinais who saw what hap- the puff of smoke he claimed to have seen, In appearance and performance to the There is pictorial evidence of their hitting pened during the minutes of panic during Mr. Holland said he had also nen a Secret AR-lb. The two, he says, could eaally he the windshield and also denting a piece of the tragedy came sip with different stories Service man stand up in the presidential cooltued.l chrornewort near the rearview mirror. of it later. In my mind I am satisfied that car, The 7Aprader film die credited this, On November 21. 1961. almost four Me Holland saw what he said he saw. He "Such a fragment. hitting the President showing only two Secret Service men in years to the day after the assassination, Just had the ran mixed up. the presidential car—William Greer, who Life msgarine published Cant John Con- In the back of the head, was that 6,5mIn "Why didn't the hundreds of spectators was driving and had both hands on the nallya version of the tragedy. It was well piece of metal the 1$65 Panel doctors In Deety Plata that day see the Secret wheel, and Roy giellerman, who remained Lllustratal with photographs. Mr. Donahue fouod lodged between skin and bone. It would sting, as a shot from Service man with the automatic weapon? seated. had glanced through the magaithe, but a Rh gun theft find It hard to accept- There were However, Mr. Holland had asserted: hadn't reed It carefully. would sting, and after having been hit by It the President could have made the ex- ten men in and on the follow-up car—two . . Just about the same time the Penn- "It wasn't until mien Wee" be recalls, standing on the left running board. two dent was shot the second time. He [the Se- "In loge, that I was brooding over the pie- clematice Rey Kellerman said he made, 'Wading on the right, two In the froist test, cret Service man! lumped op In the seat turee In that magazine one evening when 'My God. I am bit!' two In the lump seats, and two in the back and was standing up in the. ism the seat. all parts of the parzie which bad been bug- "Oswald'a second shot was the m- .ear- The Secret Service men in the back Now I actually thought when they started ging me auldenly fell Into place. etalled miracle bullet which pierced the seat were shielded from view, much as a up, I actually thought he was shot. too, be- "My perplexed curiosity was at last President's back axed threat and pawed quarterback Is shielded by his blotters came he fell backwards lust like be was satisfied. I would have bet my last dollar through Governor' Connally. Unlikely as It when he drops back to pass. shot, but It perked him down when they then. and I would bet It now, that at last I may seem, that high-velocity bullet would "Did Oswald get off a third shot? If he started off ." had 'tumbled upon the source of the bullet be easily capable of doing erectly what did, it mild have gone wild, and the sound When asked what the Secret Service which killed President Kennet,. the Warren Report accepted as actuality. of It could have blended with the sound of man had done when he stood up, Mr. Hol- "In front of one was a photograph, and "I think that was the fall extent of the the oboe (the fatal one) fired accidentally land replied: "He pointed this machine gun amine other individuals in the photograph damage Oswald lafllcted upon the Presi- by a Secret Service man from the follow- right towards that grassy knoll behind were two men, one of whom must have dent, and for it alone he could have been up car. It is a ballistically unshakable fact that picket fence." fired the fatal abet_ booked only for attempted murder. Gover- In his "The Death of e President," Wil- "I didn't want to accept the working nor Connally recovered from his wound., I Continued on Pape 14

'warms after Prrairlartr K..tens-dy war fatally rounded sad was rushed to the An pile! in the liarourrse, farerszwwl, a Sacrrt afar man rides with rsded roaellirwcarri is fallobp-op car.

THE SUN mAGADNE. Awe O. 1777 Kennedy Assassination Continued frorn Pape 12

that the fatal shot came from a position three spent cartridge cases on the sixth the President's death was known within a stop the car, and an agent came hurrying behind and to the left of the President. floor of the building, but site of them was few minutes, and that an important deci- forward to ask meat the trouble was. "Several witnesses standing within the to badly bent it couldn't have have been sion from one or more high-ranking gov- "Dammit," the President snapped al Texas School Book Deprisitory at the time inserted Into a rifle breech, not to the con- ernment officials dictated the events that him, "I don't went you tailgate'. me! Now of the assassination have said they beard dition In which it was found." followed you keep that wagon back outta sight or only two shots. Policemen later found Mr. Donahue believes the true cause of I'm gonna shoot out your tires!" 'The President's brother, the late Rob- President Jotueson, Mr. Cormier contin- ert Kennedy, was the take-charge sort of man who might have made the decision to ued, demonstrated genuine, if somewhat withhold the fact that our country's Chief sporadic, affection for some agents, but Executive had been killed accidentally by could also be perversely cruel towards his one of his own bodyguards. bodyguards. "Perhaps it wasn't so much a deliber- "In an off -the-record talk at the White `Over their protests, the President's ate decision to cover up, but merely a House, a few weeks earlier," Mr. Cormier numbed, heartbroken acceptance to con- wrote, "Johnson bad shocked me by ex- body was moved into an ambulance tinue a cover-up that had already net in ploding: 'If I ever get killed, it won't be be- "Many incidents that transpired in the cause of an assaccin It'll be some Secret and taken to wake of the assassination fall neatly into Service agent who trips himself up and his the airport' place to support my conclusions_ gun goes off_ They're worse than trigger- "A glaring inconsistency is the way in ha ppy Te1271shertffse " which the President's body was removed, But reports such as these, and reports firmly, quickly and illegally, from Dallas, of destroyed notes, destroyed pathological and flown across the country to a military examination pictures of President Kenne- hospital where all phases of the palhologi- dy's wounds, and pictures, X-rays and oth- eel examination were conducted under er bits of evidence still kept From public strict government supervision. view in the National Archives, would have "By Texas law, an autopsy of the de- to be classified, Mr. Donahue tepee, as ceased should have been made in Dallas. vague bits of evidence which could be used Two Dallas officials told members of the to support many different assassination President's staff the body could not be re theories. moved from the city until an autopsy was "Since 1969," he says, "l have been un- performed Over their protests, the Presi- able to turn up evidence that shakes any dent's body was moved Into an ambulance part of my conclusion. and taken to the airport. There, concerned "But one such possible piece of evi- that local officials might try to keep the dence does exist. In the pathological en' plane from leaving, one Secret Service animation and the first autopsy performed man asked the pilot to take off immediate- on President Kennedy. metal particles— ly. (He was told the take-off would be de- fragments of cores and/or jackets of bul- layed until Vice President Johnson was lets— were removed from his brain. A test sworn in.> sample was also cat out of the 'miracle "A statement attributed to Chief Jue bullet' which had passed through both tire Earl Warren has plagued me since the Kennedy and Connally. All these particles early days of the assassination investiga. were later subjected by the FBI to spec- thew. I heard it in a radio newscast. Oth- trographic analysts, a high-precision pre ers Interested in the assassination have cedure in which the chemical make-up of told me they, too, heard it, and some of an unknown element or compound of ele- them tell me they saw the remark repeat• ments can be determined. The results of ed in the newspapers, although they can't such analyses come out on spectrographic remember where. tapes, and on such tapes the colored, fine- "I rennet quote the remark verbatim. ly lined pattern of each element or com- but I remember the substance of it. After pound analyzed is as distinctive as a fin- being briefed on various aspects of the as- gerprint. sasainatien. Justice Warren was quoted as "The spectrographic tapes are guard- having said, as closely as I can recall his ed, hidden from public view, and even phrasing: The initial (or did he use the their whereabouts kept secret. As far as I word cursory?) findings of this case are have been able to learn, the man or men So eertheshaking that it will be decades be- who made these spectographie tests were fore the American people can be take' The not asked to contribute their knowledge of item was not repealed in subsequent them to the Warren Report. Certainly I newscasts," can find no record of such testimony, in Mr Donahue ran across an intriguing the Warren Report or elsewhere. post-assassination Item in "LBJ The Way "If an investigator could view those He Was," a book written about the late tapes. he could determine in an instant an Vice President and President by Frank important part of the story which really Cormier, of the Associated Press, a long- unfolded at Dealy Plaza in Dallas in 1963. time White House correspondent "U all the bullet fragments recovered In the book, Mr. Cormier recounted a were analyzed, and if the spectrngraphic visit LBJ bad made to Texas shortly after tapes of all match up perfectly, then the he had become President, a trip which in- evidence becomes overwhelming that Lee cluded a Christmas Eve visit with his old Harvey Oswald's rifle WEE the only weap- Mend A. W. Moursund, a Johnson City on Involved in the a...eairsation. lawyer, at Raved Mountain Ranch, for "But if any one of those tapes dif ters sense deer hunting A group of reporters from the others, then a second type of bul- Lagged along. let, fired by somebody else, from a differ- With Mr. Moursund driving and LBJ ent position and with a different type of happily pointing out white-tailed deer in firearm, was without a doubt one of the rough growth along the trail, the Presi- bullets which killed President Kennedy Horns/ Donahue Woriw in his gun Ahoy in Tannin. gunsmith," he sap, "I had dent became annoyed by the close-follow- "I think the American people have a nation! CUI10.1y about the different kinds of firearm. sad Ammunition Eno.n to ing vehicle in which his guard of Secret right to know whatever story the tapes hare been in and around Deafy Playa on the day of the. ■seassin,tion." 14 Service men rode. He had Mr. Moursund have to tell" THE SUN MAGAENE, MAY 2 1977