Editing Single-bullet theory (section)

==Location of back wound==
{{main|John F. Kennedy autopsy}}
[[File:HSCA-JFK-neck2-6-43.jpg|Diagram of bullet's path from [[United States House Select Committee on Assassinations|HSCA]] report.|thumb]]
[[Image:JFK posterior back wound.jpg|thumb|200px|right|Drawing depicting the back wound of President Kennedy. Made from an autopsy photograph.]]
President Kennedy's death certificate places the bullet wound to Kennedy's back at about the third [[Thoracic vertebrae|thoracic vertebra]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://history-matters.com/archive/jfk/arrb/master_med_set/md6/html/Image0.htm |title=History Matters Archive - MD 6 - White House Death Certificate (Burkley - 11/23/63), pg |publisher=History-matters.com |access-date=August 3, 2010}}</ref> The death certificate was signed by Dr. George Burkley, the President's personal physician. As interpreted by the House Select Committee on Assassinations Forensic Pathology Panel, the autopsy photos and autopsy X-rays show a bullet hole at the first thoracic vertebra.{{Citation needed|date=April 2009}} The bullet hole in the shirt worn by Kennedy<ref>{{Cite web| url=http://www.jfklancer.com/photos/Evidence/Shirt.jpg | title=Evidence Shirt | access-date=June 10, 2006 | archive-date=June 25, 2006 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060625044732/http://www.jfklancer.com/photos/Evidence/Shirt.jpg | url-status=dead}}</ref> and the bullet hole in the suit jacket worn by Kennedy<ref>{{Cite web| url=http://www.jfklancer.com/photos/Evidence/jfkjacket.GIF | title=Evidence Jacket | access-date=June 10, 2006 | archive-date=September 10, 2008 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080910040726/http://www.jfklancer.com/photos/Evidence/jfkjacket.GIF | url-status=dead}}</ref> both show bullet holes between {{convert|5|and|6|in|cm}} below the top of Kennedy's collar.<ref>{{Cite web| url=http://www.jfklancer.com/docs.maps/skeleton.GIF | title=Skeleton | access-date=June 10, 2006 | archive-date=September 10, 2008 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080910040727/http://www.jfklancer.com/docs.maps/skeleton.GIF | url-status=dead}}</ref> 

These do not necessarily correspond with bullet wounds, since Kennedy was struck with his arm raised in the air, and multiple photos taken of the President during the motorcade show that his jacket was bunched in the rear below his collar.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/bunched2.htm |title=Was Kennedy's Jacket Bunched When He Was Hit in the Back? - 2 |publisher=Mcadams.posc.mu.edu |access-date=August 3, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080720031126/http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/bunched2.htm |archive-date=July 20, 2008 |url-status=dead }}</ref> On February 19, 2007, the film shot by George Jefferies<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.jfk.org/go/collections/item-detail?fedoraid=sfm:2006.039.0001 |title=Collections Item Detail &#124; The Sixth Floor Museum |publisher=Jfk.org |access-date=September 18, 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090212124137/http://www.jfk.org/go/collections/item-detail?fedoraid=sfm%3A2006.039.0001 |archive-date=February 12, 2009 }}</ref> was released. This [[8 mm film]], which was taken approximately 90 seconds before the shooting, clearly shows that President Kennedy's suit coat was bunched up around the neckline around the time of the assassination.

The theory of a "single bullet" places a bullet wound as shown in the autopsy photos and X-rays, at the first thoracic vertebra of the [[vertebral column]]. The official autopsy report on the President, Warren Exhibit CE 386,<ref>{{Cite web| title=Autopsy Protocol | url=http://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh16/pdf/WH16_CE_387.pdf | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060625044716/http://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh16/pdf/WH16_CE_387.pdf | archive-date=2006-06-25}}</ref> described the back wound as being oval-shaped, 6 x 4&nbsp;mm, and located "above the upper border of the scapula" [shoulder blade] at a location {{convert|14|cm|in|abbr=on}} from the tip of the right [[acromion process]], and {{convert|14|cm|in|abbr=on}} below the right [[mastoid process]] (the boney prominence behind the ear). The report reported contusion (bruise) of the apex (top tip) of the right [[lung]] in the region where it rises above the [[clavicle]], and noted that although the apex of the right lung and the [[parietal pleura]]l membrane over it had been bruised, they were not penetrated. The report noted that the thoracic cavity was not penetrated.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh16/pdf/WH16_CE_387.pdf |title=Warren Exhibit CE 386 |access-date=August 3, 2010}}</ref>

The concluding page of the Bethesda autopsy report<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh16/pdf/WH16_CE_387.pdf |title=Warren Commission Hearings |access-date=August 3, 2010}}</ref> states: "The other missile [referring to the body-penetrating bullet] entered the right superior posterior thorax above the scapula, and traversed the soft tissues of the supra-scapular and the supra-clavicular portions of the base of the right side of the neck. This missile produced contusions of the right apical parietal pleura and of the apical portion of the right upper lobe of the lung. The missile contused the strap muscles of the right side of the neck, damaged the trachea, and made its exit through the anterior surface of the neck."

The conclusion of bullet entry specifically at the first thoracic vertebra was made in a 1979 report on the Kennedy assassination by the HSCA Forensic Pathology Panel, which created Figure [24]<ref>{{cite web|url=http://historymatters.com/archive/jfk/hsca/reportvols/vol7/html/HSCA_Vol7_0064a.htm |title=History Matters Archive - HSCA Appendix to Hearings - Volume VII, pg |publisher=Historymatters.com |access-date=August 3, 2010}}</ref> for their report to demonstrate this entrance location. This position is consistent with the back wound location in Figure 4<ref>{{cite web|url=http://historymatters.com/archive/jfk/hsca/reportvols/vol7/html/HSCA_Vol7_0048a.htm |title=History Matters Archive - HSCA Appendix to Hearings - Volume VII, pg |publisher=Historymatters.com |access-date=August 3, 2010}}</ref> of their report, a drawing made from one of the still-unreleased autopsy photos. It is also consistent with the unofficial versions of this photo available on the internet.<ref>{{Cite web| url=http://www.jfklancer.com/photos/Autopsy_photos/BE5_HI.JPG | title=The back of a man with wounds | access-date=June 22, 2006 | archive-date=June 25, 2006 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060625044719/http://www.jfklancer.com/photos/Autopsy_photos/BE5_HI.JPG | url-status=dead}}</ref> The HSCA examined these photographs and X-rays before rendering its opinions as to bullet entry and exit locations, and obtained testimony from autopsy physicians that these were the correct photographs and X-rays taken during the autopsy.

===Importance of bullet entry level to theory===
[[File:HSCA-Croft-bunched-jacket-6-44.jpg|200px|thumb|Croft photo taken at about Zapruder frame 162, shortly before the first bullet strike to the president, shows his jacket significantly bunched just before he is hit.]]
The importance of how low or high the bullet struck the President in the back is a matter of possible geometry. The Sibert/O'Neill FBI autopsy report original<ref>{{cite web |url=http://karws.gso.uri.edu/jfk/History/The_deed/Sibert-O'Neill.html |title=The FBI's "Sibert and O'Neill Report" |publisher=Karws.gso.uri.edu |date=November 22, 1963 |access-date=September 18, 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://archive.today/20121215114729/http://karws.gso.uri.edu/jfk/History/The_deed/Sibert-O'Neill.html |archive-date=December 15, 2012 }}</ref> made by two FBI agents (Special Agents James W. Sibert and Francis X. O'Neill) present at the autopsy preserves genuine confusion among the medical doctors present during the autopsy, caused by apparent lack of an exit wound, which was cleared up later in the official report after new and more complete information became available (the exit had been hidden by a tracheotomy incision). This report does note that the doctor (Commander Humes) at the time said that he was unable to locate an "outlet" for the wound in Kennedy's ''shoulder'' (not his back).

At the time of the autopsy, toward the end of the procedure, initial probing of the shoulder wound suggested the bullet entered the base of Kennedy's neck at a 45 to 60 degree angle.{{Citation needed|date=May 2019}} At least two shell casings were found near the window at the southeast corner side of the [[Texas School Book Depository|TSBD]] on the sixth floor, and with the fact that movement was seen in the same corner window from bystanders below, just previous to when the cars arrived, and also because of the proximity of the initial investigations' shell casing evidence collected to that of the nearest window.<ref>"The First Bullet That Hit,"  [http://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/jfk/wc/wr/html/WCReport_0065b.htm Warren Commission Report, p. 106]</ref> 

A window that was said by some to have been partly opened at the moment of the shots, all leading the Warren Commission to focus solely on this location in their investigation as the source of gunfire and so decided to have a team of surveyors measure the angles from that said window to the locations of the street, which, would roughly correspond to the location of Kennedy seated in his limousine, when seen in the [[Zapruder Film]], riding along Elm Street at frames 210, and 225. During so, it was found that the downward angle from the horizontal, was 21.57 degrees at frame 210, and 20.18 degrees at frame 225.<ref>"The First Bullet That Hit,"  [http://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/jfk/wc/wr/html/WCReport_0065b.htm Warren Commission Report, p. 106]</ref> 

The street sloped at 3.15 degrees (3° 9') away from the depository building.<ref>"The First Bullet That Hit," [http://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/jfk/wc/wr/html/WCReport_0065b.htm Warren Commission Report, p. 106]. This figure was incorrectly reported by author Vincent Bugliosi, in ''Reclaiming History'' (p. 460) as 3.9 degrees; as a decimal number it is actually 3.15 degrees.</ref> This would have made the angle through the president between 17 and 18.5 degrees, assuming that Kennedy was sitting upright, in his seat. The Commission concluded that this angle was consistent with the bullet making the observed paths through the President's upper body and striking [[Governor Connally]] in the right armpit.<ref>"The First Bullet That Hit," [http://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/jfk/wc/wr/html/WCReport_0065b.htm Warren Commission Report, p. 106].</ref>

The weight of bullet CE 399 was reported in the Warren Commission Report as 158.6 [[grain (mass)|grains]] (10.28 [[gram]]s). It was found that the weight of a single, unfired bullet ranged from 159.8 to 161.5 grains with an average weight of 160.844 grains.<ref>Lattimer, John K. ''Kennedy and Lincoln, Medical & Ballistic Comparisons of Their Assassinations'', Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1980, p. 285–288.</ref> The lead fragments retrieved from Connally's wounds in the wrist (there were no fragments in the chest)<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.history-matters.com/archive/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh4/html/WC_Vol4_0057a.htm |title=Dr. Shaw: WC 4 H 105 |publisher=History-matters.com |access-date=August 3, 2010}}</ref> weighed about 2 grains (130 milligrams).

Dr. Robert Shaw described the wound on Connally's back as "a small wound of entrance, roughly elliptical in shape, and approximately a cm. and a half in its longest diameter, in the right posterior shoulder, which is medial to the fold of the axilla".<ref>Warren Commission Hearings, Dr. Shaw's testimony, 6 H 85.</ref>

The bullet entered just at the edge of the scapula and followed the fifth rib, shattering the last 10&nbsp;cm of the rib before exiting on the right side of his chest just below the right nipple.<ref>Warren Commission Hearings, Dr. Shaw's testimony, 4 H 104.</ref> According to the theory, the bullet then went through the Governor's jacket cuff about 0.5&nbsp;cm from the end, the shirt's French cuff about 1.5&nbsp;cm from the end, struck and shattered his radius leaving many dark fibers and small fragments of metal in the wound, and exited on the palm side of his wrist above the cuff. There was a hole about 0.5&nbsp;cm from the end of the jacket sleeve<ref>Shaw: 4 H 109.</ref> and a hole through the back of the doubled French cuff but no exit hole on the palm side.<ref>[http://jfkassassination.net/russ/infojfk/jfk1/f74.htm Governor Connally's shirt: WC exhibit CE 685-686].</ref><ref>[http://www.history-matters.com/archive/jfk/hsca/reportvols/vol1/html/HSCA_Vol1_0146a.htm testimony of Dr. Baden, 1 HSCA 287].</ref>

According to the theory, the bullet emerged from the palm side of the wrist and entered the left thigh. This bullet is thought to be CE 399, which was later recovered from [[Parkland Hospital]] after it was heard falling onto a hallway floor as a hospital employee adjusted one of two patient stretchers, partially obstructing his maneuvers as he performed his routine. Using ballistics CE 399 was matched to the rifle found in the [[Texas School Book Depository]], to the exclusion of all other rifles.{{sfn|Report of the President's Commission on the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy, Chapter 3|1964|p=85}}