Thanks so much for writing this. As soon as I saw the NYT article, I wondered what you would say.
I especially appreciate that you addressed this:
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Although the Times article notes that Landis was “never interviewed by the Warren Commission,” he did put on the record the details of what he witnessed that day in a 2-page, single-spaced, typewritten statement, made only 4 days after Dallas, and a more detailed 7-page statement made a week after the assassination. It was when his memory was fresh. No mention was made of finding a whole bullet.
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Is it true the Warren Commission didn't interview him? I would have thought they would interview all of the Secret Service agents who were present that day. (Disclosure for others reading this comment: my father David Belin was one of the Warren Commission attorneys.)
Hi Laura, I was thinking about your dad and how utterly horrified he would have been to think that a Secret Service agent might have found a bullet in the presidential limo, and that instead of immediately notifying his superiors, he put it in his pocket and then later left in on an empty gurney at Parkland
Texas has a new law as of Sept 1 that eliminates the statute of limitations for tampering with evidence in a murder case. It’s meant to help resolve decades old cold cases. I don’t think Landis is aware of that law.
As for the WC and interviews with agents, only 3 were called to testify in person. All agents were required to write statements. WC chose the agents to testify based on what they wrote . Landis did not mention the bullet.
I don't know much about the evidence surrounding the assassination but I don't believe an 88 year old man's new statements on what he saw and did 60 years earlier. Especially when his new recollections are not supported with his contemporaneous statements.
Posner scores again. Posner points out that Landis initially described the bullet he foound on the top of the car seat as a "fragment"--now it's a nearly intact bullet matching CE 399. Not credible
It appears that the bullet wound in Connall's thigh would have been consistent with a mostly intact bullet. How it got onto the stretcher we'll never know for sure, but Landis's attempt 60 years later to insert himsrlf in the story, as Posner says, should be greeted with utmost skepticism.
Finally, re Landis "terrible" decision to place, as he clsims, the bullet on the stretcher -- what kind of supposedly competent, trained law enforcement officer would do that?!
The photos I have seen of the Magic Bullet are quite pristine, with a mild bend to the bullet. He stated that the bullet he picked up was 'mushroomed' that is a far cry from the condition of the Magic Bullet.
Where would the additional bullets fired go? The trajectory was down and into the Limo. Why weren’t they found. Weren’t the bullet and fragments all from Oswald’s Mannlicher-Carcano?
I wonder about how damaged Connelly’s shoulder, rib, and wrist were damaged. Did it hit bone in his shoulder? Was the rib a graze or through bone hit? And same with wrist? This would indicate how damaged a bullet would be? I wonder about the bullet holes in clothing? Was there two bullet holes in the jacket shoulder (in and out) then two in the jacket and two in his shirt (in and out)? **Then finally one on his pants where the bullet hit his leg? Did it penetrate into and under his skin or not? If not would it not be in the pants or do you think it just pressed into his leg and pants without making a hole and come to rest in the stretcher?
After reading your book, Case Closed, it seems obvious to me that all these conspiracy theories can only persist in a context of willful ignorance. Faced with the facts your conclusion doesn’t feel at all controversial. Yet I routinely find people whose opinions I otherwise respect on other topics enthusiastically promote JFK assassination conspiracies. It’s disappointing and I truly don’t understand. The best I can do (and what I do often): beg them to please read your book with some semblance of an open mind.
One also has to question the motivations of people who cultivate conspiracy theories. Most are just looking for attention, and perhaps some income, and that requires creating the impression that there's an open question where there really isn't. You don't make money by answering the question; you make money by asking it.
Help me out here. It seems Mr. Posner agrees that Agent Landis could have found the “magic” bullet in the limousine’s rear seat. But how is this possible if this was the same bullet that hit Connolly who was riding in a seat forward of JFK?
Btw, after many years of reading about the assassination (including Mr. Posner’s book), I came to accept both WC findings about Oswald as the lone shooter and that a single bullet struck both JFK and Connolly.
I have a commentary this evening on a news program with Elizabeth Vargas about that very issue. The scene at the limo was chaotic. Secret Service agents, hospital doctors and orderlies with stretchers and gurneys, no one certain who was hit or how badly until they got to the limo. Then, taking Connally out was not an easy task, they were not that gentle, he got moved up and around, to the side, and then out of the car. Could the bullet that had broken just under the skin on his thigh have come out then? Possibly. How it got into the back seat in all that chaos, I don't know. Either that is the single bullet, which Landis somehow found and later deposited on an empty gurney on his way out of Parkland, or his story comes from whole cloth. What it is not, is what he speculates, a partially reduced gunpowder bullet that popped into Kennedy's back and then plopped out in the car. That is one no one has suggested in 60 years!
So Gerald, why could Bethesda Autopsy doctors not find an exit would for the shallow upper right back wound? Why did Gerald Ford "move" that wound up to the neck with his revision of the drawing? Asking for a friend.
Mr. Posner, I have read your book and many others on the assassination. The interesting thing about this new revelation is it does add credibility to the back wound on JFK which is much lower on his back than some allege could have exited through his throat. I believe that wound was probed during the autopsy but not fully explored. It seems possible that this so called magic bullet was a defective round that only penetrated a few inches and then may have worked itself loose when JFK was being removed from the limousine. Also, Josiah Thompson has a new book, Last Second in Dallas offers a compelling revisit of the audio and ballistic evidence. After 60 years this case still remains fascinating and it seems the full story has never been told. Sealed files after 60 years? Why? I have never heard a credible explanation of why all those files remain sealed.
It is disgraceful that any files are still sealed. They should have been released many years ago. All the government has done by keeping them secret is fuel the public's distrust over the case.
I probably should have asked this when you posted on the Landis book in September, but have you written anything definitive, or know of anyone who has, on the Secret Service’s slow response to the shots in Dallas? Clint Hill has always said that he responded immediately after the first shot, but the photographic evidence seems conclusive that he did not. That would be Ike Altgens’s famous head-on photograph on the president’s car after the president had clearly been hit and before the secret service had moved in response. If it’s true that the first shot missed, then at the instant that photo was taken two shots had been fired and a few additional seconds had passed, and yet the Secret Service men are still in place on their running boards. At the very least this seems to belie Hill’s assertion. At the most, it would seem to question the competence, or preparedness, of Kennedy’s detail. Has anyone ever explored this question in detail? Would it be worth questioning Hill while he’s still around?
Falsely claiming some role in (or attendance at) famous events is incredibly common. Dozens of claimed "last survivors" of Custer's Last Stand came out of the woodwork in the 1910's. Most weren't there, but even some who were there told gross lies about their roles. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodore_W._Goldin. Google "Stolen Valor" for recent examples.
Most of the Custer claimers weren't at the battle, but even some who were there told gross lies about their roles. The timing is similar to Landis. The long lag time makes it hard to rebut.
Do not believe the descriptions of old men as "sharp as a tack", whose "memories of that day are clear as a bell." They may tell their stories vividly and repeatedly...but that is no guarantee of accuracy. If historians believe 88 year old men telling odd tales of 50 year old events for the first time, we should burn our history books, as they will be mostly fiction, fantasy and delusion.
Yes, all the fragments and bullet from Oswald’s rifle
Thanks so much for writing this. As soon as I saw the NYT article, I wondered what you would say.
I especially appreciate that you addressed this:
______
Although the Times article notes that Landis was “never interviewed by the Warren Commission,” he did put on the record the details of what he witnessed that day in a 2-page, single-spaced, typewritten statement, made only 4 days after Dallas, and a more detailed 7-page statement made a week after the assassination. It was when his memory was fresh. No mention was made of finding a whole bullet.
______
Is it true the Warren Commission didn't interview him? I would have thought they would interview all of the Secret Service agents who were present that day. (Disclosure for others reading this comment: my father David Belin was one of the Warren Commission attorneys.)
Hi Laura, I was thinking about your dad and how utterly horrified he would have been to think that a Secret Service agent might have found a bullet in the presidential limo, and that instead of immediately notifying his superiors, he put it in his pocket and then later left in on an empty gurney at Parkland
Texas has a new law as of Sept 1 that eliminates the statute of limitations for tampering with evidence in a murder case. It’s meant to help resolve decades old cold cases. I don’t think Landis is aware of that law.
As for the WC and interviews with agents, only 3 were called to testify in person. All agents were required to write statements. WC chose the agents to testify based on what they wrote . Landis did not mention the bullet.
I don't know much about the evidence surrounding the assassination but I don't believe an 88 year old man's new statements on what he saw and did 60 years earlier. Especially when his new recollections are not supported with his contemporaneous statements.
Posner scores again. Posner points out that Landis initially described the bullet he foound on the top of the car seat as a "fragment"--now it's a nearly intact bullet matching CE 399. Not credible
It appears that the bullet wound in Connall's thigh would have been consistent with a mostly intact bullet. How it got onto the stretcher we'll never know for sure, but Landis's attempt 60 years later to insert himsrlf in the story, as Posner says, should be greeted with utmost skepticism.
Finally, re Landis "terrible" decision to place, as he clsims, the bullet on the stretcher -- what kind of supposedly competent, trained law enforcement officer would do that?!
The photos I have seen of the Magic Bullet are quite pristine, with a mild bend to the bullet. He stated that the bullet he picked up was 'mushroomed' that is a far cry from the condition of the Magic Bullet.
NBC tonight called it the "magic bullet theory," rather than "single bullet theory." 😡
I saw that. This is the problem when producers and reporters cover the story who have little familiarity with it.
Where would the additional bullets fired go? The trajectory was down and into the Limo. Why weren’t they found. Weren’t the bullet and fragments all from Oswald’s Mannlicher-Carcano?
Excellent.
Thank you
I wonder about how damaged Connelly’s shoulder, rib, and wrist were damaged. Did it hit bone in his shoulder? Was the rib a graze or through bone hit? And same with wrist? This would indicate how damaged a bullet would be? I wonder about the bullet holes in clothing? Was there two bullet holes in the jacket shoulder (in and out) then two in the jacket and two in his shirt (in and out)? **Then finally one on his pants where the bullet hit his leg? Did it penetrate into and under his skin or not? If not would it not be in the pants or do you think it just pressed into his leg and pants without making a hole and come to rest in the stretcher?
All covered in detail in Case Closed
After reading your book, Case Closed, it seems obvious to me that all these conspiracy theories can only persist in a context of willful ignorance. Faced with the facts your conclusion doesn’t feel at all controversial. Yet I routinely find people whose opinions I otherwise respect on other topics enthusiastically promote JFK assassination conspiracies. It’s disappointing and I truly don’t understand. The best I can do (and what I do often): beg them to please read your book with some semblance of an open mind.
"some semblance of an open mind" is the key. Many are resistant to any contrary evidence or analysis.
One also has to question the motivations of people who cultivate conspiracy theories. Most are just looking for attention, and perhaps some income, and that requires creating the impression that there's an open question where there really isn't. You don't make money by answering the question; you make money by asking it.
Help me out here. It seems Mr. Posner agrees that Agent Landis could have found the “magic” bullet in the limousine’s rear seat. But how is this possible if this was the same bullet that hit Connolly who was riding in a seat forward of JFK?
Btw, after many years of reading about the assassination (including Mr. Posner’s book), I came to accept both WC findings about Oswald as the lone shooter and that a single bullet struck both JFK and Connolly.
Joe Gorton
Professor Emeritus of Criminology
University of Northern Iowa
I have a commentary this evening on a news program with Elizabeth Vargas about that very issue. The scene at the limo was chaotic. Secret Service agents, hospital doctors and orderlies with stretchers and gurneys, no one certain who was hit or how badly until they got to the limo. Then, taking Connally out was not an easy task, they were not that gentle, he got moved up and around, to the side, and then out of the car. Could the bullet that had broken just under the skin on his thigh have come out then? Possibly. How it got into the back seat in all that chaos, I don't know. Either that is the single bullet, which Landis somehow found and later deposited on an empty gurney on his way out of Parkland, or his story comes from whole cloth. What it is not, is what he speculates, a partially reduced gunpowder bullet that popped into Kennedy's back and then plopped out in the car. That is one no one has suggested in 60 years!
So Gerald, why could Bethesda Autopsy doctors not find an exit would for the shallow upper right back wound? Why did Gerald Ford "move" that wound up to the neck with his revision of the drawing? Asking for a friend.
Mr. Posner, I have read your book and many others on the assassination. The interesting thing about this new revelation is it does add credibility to the back wound on JFK which is much lower on his back than some allege could have exited through his throat. I believe that wound was probed during the autopsy but not fully explored. It seems possible that this so called magic bullet was a defective round that only penetrated a few inches and then may have worked itself loose when JFK was being removed from the limousine. Also, Josiah Thompson has a new book, Last Second in Dallas offers a compelling revisit of the audio and ballistic evidence. After 60 years this case still remains fascinating and it seems the full story has never been told. Sealed files after 60 years? Why? I have never heard a credible explanation of why all those files remain sealed.
It is disgraceful that any files are still sealed. They should have been released many years ago. All the government has done by keeping them secret is fuel the public's distrust over the case.
Lol! A mushroom shaped golden nugget bullet, now where have I heard that before?
No one?
Great job Gerald. Keep up the strong, factual reporting.
I probably should have asked this when you posted on the Landis book in September, but have you written anything definitive, or know of anyone who has, on the Secret Service’s slow response to the shots in Dallas? Clint Hill has always said that he responded immediately after the first shot, but the photographic evidence seems conclusive that he did not. That would be Ike Altgens’s famous head-on photograph on the president’s car after the president had clearly been hit and before the secret service had moved in response. If it’s true that the first shot missed, then at the instant that photo was taken two shots had been fired and a few additional seconds had passed, and yet the Secret Service men are still in place on their running boards. At the very least this seems to belie Hill’s assertion. At the most, it would seem to question the competence, or preparedness, of Kennedy’s detail. Has anyone ever explored this question in detail? Would it be worth questioning Hill while he’s still around?
Falsely claiming some role in (or attendance at) famous events is incredibly common. Dozens of claimed "last survivors" of Custer's Last Stand came out of the woodwork in the 1910's. Most weren't there, but even some who were there told gross lies about their roles. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodore_W._Goldin. Google "Stolen Valor" for recent examples.
Most of the Custer claimers weren't at the battle, but even some who were there told gross lies about their roles. The timing is similar to Landis. The long lag time makes it hard to rebut.
Do not believe the descriptions of old men as "sharp as a tack", whose "memories of that day are clear as a bell." They may tell their stories vividly and repeatedly...but that is no guarantee of accuracy. If historians believe 88 year old men telling odd tales of 50 year old events for the first time, we should burn our history books, as they will be mostly fiction, fantasy and delusion.