JFK: Analysis of a Shooting by Orlando Martin is a monumental contribution to the JFK literature. I think most people have serious doubts that Oswald killed Kennedy, but after reading this book, you will know beyond any doubt that it was physically impossible for Oswald to have done it.

Mr. Martin, a retired military officer of 20 years service, was a Drill Instructor and Sharpshooter, with a rating of “Expert” (the highest). He specialized in long-range sniper and combat assault rifles.

The gist of the book is that by examining the Zapruder film, the ballistics evidence, and the medical evidence, it can be determined, beyond all doubt, that 3 gunmen fired a total of 5 shots at the motorcade in Dealey Plaza. The first shot, which missed completely and grazed a bystander, can be traced back to a low elevation in the Dallas Tex Building. The second and fourth shots were taken from high atop the Dallas Criminal Court Building, while the third and fifth shots were taken from the Grassy Knoll. Different weapons and caliber of bullets were used in these shootings. No shots were taken from the Texas School Book Depository, where Oswald allegedly was.

Delving deeper, the first shot zipped over Kennedy’s head, missing him completely, and struck a curb 400 feet away. Martin reasons that the shooter may have missed because the road (Elm Street) dipped down. And, he points out that J. Edgar Hoover admitted afterwards, in writing, that the first bullet was not copper-jacketed, which means that it could not have been a standard 6.5 mm Carcano bullet, like those allegedly used by Oswald. Also, the low impact point of the first bullet (the curb) proves that it was shot from a low vantage point, not from a 6th floor. If Oswald had taken the shot from his angle, it would have meant that he mis-aimed by a distance greater than that of a football field. It’s preposterous!

Martin also notes that Oswald’s best opportunity to shoot Kennedy was when the limo was on Houston Street before it turned onto Elm. He would have had a straight approaching head shot, with the vehicle slowing down and Kennedy getting closer to him and with no visual obstructions. Towards Elm Street, there was a big oak tree obstructing his view. So, why did he wait? Of course, Martin does not think Oswald shot at Kennedy at all.

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Shots 2 and 3 struck almost simultaneously, within a time frame of less than 1/10 of a second. Martin insists that could only have happened with assistance from a “Spotter” who was on the street and in radio communication with the shooters. Somebody had to have said, “Now.” And both shots missed their intended target: Kennedy’s head. Shot 2 went through his back and out his chest before entering Connally. Shot 3 went through his neck (as attested to by Parkland Hospital doctors who described an entrance wound in his neck). Of course, the Warren Commission claimed afterwards that a single “magic bullet” from the rear inflicted all 7 wounds in the two men before falling out, practically unmarred, from Connally’s thigh at Parkland Hospital. (The bullet was found intact even though large fragments of it were left behind in Connally. I guess in this case, the whole was greater than the sum of its parts.)

Note that it was future-Senator Arlen Specter who came up with the single bullet theory. However, Martin points out that the bullet had a downward trajectory of 45 degrees, and it would have had to travel upward in Kennedy’s body to reach the supposed exit point in his neck. In other words, before getting to any of the incredible “zags” that followed, the very first “zig” of the magic bullet was utterly impossible. In reality, that bullet went straight through Kennedy without deflecting. So, how did it go up when it was angling down? And did you know that, inadvertently, the magic bullet got “cleaned” before it could be examined for microscopic tissue traces from Kennedy or Connally? How convenient.

The third shot arose from the Grassy Knoll, and it was definitely not a Carcano bullet because it didn’t exit. The Parkland doctors who found the entry wound in his neck searched for an exit wound but did not find one. Martin says it must have been a small caliber bullet. One of the Parkland doctors performed a tracheotomy on Kennedy which obliterated the small round bullet hole, converting it into a long surgical gash. The fourth shot struck Connally in his right wrist and then fragments of it entered his left thigh in multiple places. But, it was the fifth bullet that definitively killed Kennedy.

The fifth bullet exploded upon impacting the right side of Kennedy’s head forward of his temple. Ballistics prove that it was taken from the Grassy Knoll. Not only did Kennedy’s head explode, but the bullet itself exploded and disintegrated right on the surface of his head. In the Zapruder film, you can clearly see this highly localized and concentrated explosion. The bullet did not bore through his head as a solid projectile. The blowout of Kennedy’s head in back was caused by a vast number of minute fragments  not an intact bullet. Why didn’t the fifth bullet travel through Kennedy’s head intact? Martin says it’s because it was not a high-powered, large caliber, copper-jacketed bullet. Martin is convinced that it was a medium caliber, soft-core bullet that was deliberately modified: center-tapped and drilled out at its base to remove some of the lead. This made the bullet faster and more prone to disintegration upon impact, which is what they wanted. A large caliber, copper-jacketed bullet, like a Carcano, would have gone right through Kennedy’s head and straight into Jackie. And apparently, the order had been given not to harm a hair on Jackie’s head.

Martin emphasizes that Bullet Trajectory Analysis was never performed after Kennedy’s assassination, not by the Secret Service which did the first investigation, and not by the FBI, which did the second. Finally, in May 1964, a bullet trajectory test was done by order of the Warren Commission, but Martin explains why it was terribly flawed: it addressed only the second bullet; it addressed only the point of impact, not the angle of entry or the trajectory through the bodies of Kennedy and Connally. When you look at the complete trajectory, you realize that the bullet had a left-to-right orientation. Oswald was to the right of Kennedy, so any bullet he might have fired would have, by necessity, had a right-to-left orientation. But, the investigators concluded that Oswald did it simply because it was possible to see the impact point through the scope of Oswald’s rifle from the 6th-floor window of the Book Depository  except when the oak tree obstructed the view. In other words, their bullet trajectory test was a complete farce.

Martin delves extensively into the mishandling of the medical evidence, including the apparent kidnapping of Kennedy’s body. When his body was removed from Parkland Hospital, Kennedy was in an ornate bronze casket and he had on all of his clothes. But when he arrived Bethesda, Maryland for the autopsy, he was in a cheap casket, a body bag, and he was naked. Martin speculates at length about how Kennedy’s body was likely altered. He reveals that the mortician’s craft was perfected by the Military. They’ve developed artful and adroit methods to hide and camouflage even the most grotesque battle wounds so that the loved ones of combat soldiers won’t be appalled upon seeing the body. And Martin says these techniques are good enough to fool even the best autopsy doctors. Ultimately, Kennedy’s whole brain was stolen, and it is still missing to this day.

Orlando Martin thinks it is important, for the integrity of the country, that the truth come out about what really happened to President Kennedy, but he is not interested in seeing any criminal prosecutions take place. I strongly disagree. Although most of the perpetrators, and perhaps all the major ones, are dead, some of the culprits may still be living. And for the dead ones, even if they can’t be prosecuted, they can be forever scorned and vilified, the many honors and tributes paid to them retracted. Let them go down in history for being the monstrous criminals that they were.

When I speak to people in my personal life about the Kennedy assassination and this book, I find that many of them have the attitude: “it was a long time ago; there is nothing that can be done now; it doesn’t matter any more; it won’t change anything, so just drop it." I say the Kennedy assassination still matters, and not just for the sake of bringing the perpetrators to justice. It matters because the process by which the truth was debased, the lies concocted, the history fabricated, the fable sewn, the official story forced down our throats, amounts to one of the greatest mindwashings and indoctrinations to ever take place. Orlando Martin shows us that the official story about JFK isn’t just wrong; it’s fanciful, ludicrous, ridiculous, and absurd. That it continues to be accepted as fact in all the institutions of polite society demonstrates that America has sunk into a never-ending Twilight Zone where up is down, black is white, and truth is whatever the official organs of information say it is. When are Americans going to wake up and start doing some critical thinking? I say let them start with the Kennedy assassination. It’s as good a place as any to snap out of the trance we’ve been in.

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