Report of the President's Commission on the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy

The Governor’s Wounds

While riding in the right jump seat of the presidential limousine on November 22, 1963, Governor John Connally sustained wounds to his back, chest, right wrist, and left thigh. Dr. Robert Shaw concluded the small, clean-edged wound on Connally’s back was an entry wound; the bullet traveled downward through his chest, shattered his fifth rib, and exited below his right nipple via a 2-inch ragged opening confirmed as the exit point. During Connally’s April 21, 1964 Commission testimony, Dr. Shaw measured a 25° declination angle between the back entry and front chest exit wounds. At the time of the shooting, Connally was unaware of any injuries beyond his chest wounds. Dr. Charles F. Gregory observed a linear perforating wound on the back of Connally’s right wrist, ~2 inches above the wrist joint on the thumb side, ~1/5 inch wide and 1 inch long; thread and cloth were carried into the wound, and X-rays revealed small metal fragments, leading Gregory to conclude it was an entry wound, with a matching ~1/5 inch long exit wound on the palm side of the wrist ~3/4 inch above the wrist crease. Dr. Shaw initially believed the wrist wound was palm entry and back exit, but deferred to Gregory’s more detailed surgical examination of the injury. Connally also had a ~2/5 inch diameter puncture wound on his left thigh, ~5–6 inches above his knee, with minimal soft tissue damage indicating a tangential or low-velocity impact from a larger missile; X-rays found a tiny metallic fragment embedded in the thigh, and surgeons concluded the thigh wound was not caused by this small fragment but by a larger missile.

Examination of Governor Connally’s Clothing

Examination of Governor Connally’s November 22, 1963 clothing found holes matching his wounds, though many garments had been cleaned and pressed prior to testing, limiting the ability to confirm bullet cause or direction definitively. The back of his coat had a horizontal ~5/8 inch long, 1/4 inch high hole 1 1/8 inches from the right sleeve seam and 7 1/4 inches right of the midline. The front of the coat had a 3/8 inch diameter circular hole 5 inches right of the front right edge, slightly above the top button, and the end of the right sleeve had a rough ~5/8 inch long, 3/8 inch wide hole; all three could have been caused by a bullet, but direction could not be confirmed. The back of his shirt had a ragged horizontal ~5/8 inch long, 1/2 inch high tear near the right sleeve attachment, plus a smaller ~3/16 inch tear adjacent to it, matching the coat’s back hole. The front of the shirt had an irregular H-shaped tear ~1.5 inches high with a 1-inch wide crossbar, located 5 inches from the right seam and 9 inches from the top of the right sleeve; laundering left insufficient characteristics to confirm direction or cause, but the rear hole could be a 6.5mm entry wound and the front hole the corresponding exit. The right sleeve French cuff had a ragged hole 1.5 inches from the sleeve end and 5.5 inches from the outer cuff-link hole; post-laundering characteristics were insufficient for positive conclusions, but the hole could have been caused by a bullet passing through the wrist from back to front. His trousers had a ~1/4 inch diameter roughly circular hole near the left knee, with slight edge tearing giving it a general bullet hole appearance, but the missile’s direction could not be determined.

Governor Connally’s Bullet Trajectory

Ballistics experiments and medical findings established that the missile that passed through Governor Connally’s wrist and thigh first traversed his chest. Army Wound Ballistics experts confirmed the wrist wound was not caused by a pristine (straight-flying, unmarked) bullet: a pristine bullet exits a rifle muzzle in a straight, spinning line with minimal surface striking air, while deflection causes yaw (wobbling, irregular flight) that exposes more surface to impact material. Researchers fired the C2766 Mannlicher-Carcano rifle (the type found in the Depository, using the same ammunition as the bullet recovered from Connally’s stretcher and limousine fragments) from 70 yards at flesh and bone protected by material similar to Connally’s clothing, replicating his wrist wound virtually identically; the test bullet had a substantially flattened nose from striking material, with an average entrance velocity of 1,858 feet per second and average exit velocity of 1,776 feet per second. Six factors confirmed the wrist was not struck by a pristine bullet: (1) test material sustained greater damage than Connally’s wrist; (2) test material had a smaller entry and larger exit wound (a pristine bullet trait) while Connally’s wrist had a larger entry and smaller exit, indicating a tumbling bullet; (3) cloth was carried into the wrist wound, characteristic of an irregular missile; (4) partial cutting of a radial nerve and tendon suggested a tumbling bullet, as a pristine bullet would push aside soft tissue rather than tear it; (5) the stretcher bullet’s nose was not flattened like the test pristine bullet that struck the simulated wrist; (6) the thigh wound bullet had very low velocity, unlike the high exit velocity of pristine test bullets. All evidence indicated the 158.6 grain bullet found on Connally’s stretcher (original pre-firing weight 160–161 grains) caused all his wounds: X-rays showed tiny metallic fragments in his wrist, consistent with the nearly whole bullet depositing small pieces as it tumbled through the tissue. The three Parkland Hospital doctors who treated Connally independently opined a single bullet passed through his chest, tumbled through his wrist with little exit velocity leaving small metallic fragments, punctured his thigh after losing nearly all velocity, and fell out of the thigh wound. Connally testified he believed all his wounds came from a single bullet, reconstructing his seated position (right palm resting on his left thigh) to explain how one missile could strike all three injury sites. Wound ballistics experts and Connally’s Parkland doctors (who recreated his posture with his arm slightly higher but in the same alignment) concurred a single bullet caused all of Connally’s wounds.