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

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.