Arlen Specter and the Single Bullet Theory

by Mark Tracy

THE MAGIC BULLET

The Warren Commission concluded that a lone assassin (Oswald) fired three shots at President Kennedy.  One bullet missed the limousine entirely, striking the curbstone by the side of the street; another bullet hit the President in the head; and still another bullet struck Kennedy in the back, continuing on to strike Governor John Connally—a single bullet accounting for a total of seven wounds in both men.  The Commission's conclusion that a single bullet caused seven wounds would come to be known as the Single Bullet Theory.  However, given the location of Kennedy's and Connally's wounds, for the Single Bullet Theory to be correct, the bullet would have had to change course several times, behaving in the manner shown in the diagram (below left).

The chief architect of the Single Bullet Theory was the Warren Commission's ambitious junior counsel, Arlen Specter, who would later become a U.S. senator.  In the reenactment photo (below right) Specter, with his pointer in hand, attempts to make his theory appear plausible by deceptively indicating a straight line trajectory for the bullet.  

While Specter managed to sell his theory to a majority of the 7 member Warren Commission (4 members concurred, 3 members dissented), he had trouble selling it to a majority of the public.  A 2001 Gallup poll found that 81 percent of Americans reject the Warren Commission's conclusions.

For a list of Arlen Specter's other deceptions regarding the assassination click here: Fetzer (compiled by researcher, James Fetzer).

TESTIMONY OF AN EYEWITNESS

"The FBI took me to Parkland Hospital.  I had no idea what I was doing there.  They escorted me through a labyrinth of corridors and up to one of the top floors of Parkland.  I didn't know where we were.  They took me into this little room where I met Arlen Specter.  He talked to me for a few minutes, trying to act real friendly, then this woman, a stenographer, came in and sat behind me.  He had told me that this interview would be confidential, then I looked around and this woman was taking notes.  I reminded him that the discussion was to be private and he told the woman to put down her notebook, which she did.  But when I looked around again she was writing.  I got mad and told Specter, 'You lied to me.  I want this over.'  He asked me why I wouldn't come to Washington, and I said, 'Because I want to stay alive.'  He asked why I would think that I was in danger and I replied, 'Well, if they can kill the President, they can certainly get me!'  He replied that they already had the man that did it and I told him, 'No, you don't!'  

He kept trying to get me to change my story, particularly regarding the number of shots.  He said I had been told how many shots there were and I figured he was talking about what the Secret Service told me right after the assassination.  His inflection and attitude was that I knew what I was supposed to be saying, why wouldn't I just say it.  I asked him, 'Look, do you want the truth or just what you want me to say?'  He said he wanted the truth, so I said, 'The truth is that I heard between four and six shots.'  I told him, 'I'm not going to lie for you.'  So he starts talking off the record.  He told me about my life, my family, and even mentioned that my marriage was in trouble.  I said, 'What's the point of interviewing me if you already know everything about me?'  He got angrier and finally told me, 'Look, we can even make you look as crazy as Marguerite Oswald [Lee Oswald's mother] and everybody knows how crazy she is.  We could have you put in a mental institution if you don't cooperate with us.'  I knew he was trying to intimidate me.... 

He finally gave me his word that the interview would not be published unless I approved what was written.  But they never gave me the chance to read it or approve it.  When I finally read my testimony as published by the Warren Commission, I knew it was a fabrication from the first line.  After that ordeal at Parkland Hospital, they wrote that my deposition was taken at the U.S. attorney's office in the Post Office Building."