Scientists cast doubt on Kennedy bullet analysis
SuzannePjam
Posts: 411
My husband has always been fascinated by the Kennedy assination and always felt there was more than one shooter. What do you all think?
Scientists cast doubt on Kennedy bullet analysis
Multiple shooters possible, study says
By John Solomon
In a collision of 21st-century science and decades-old conspiracy theories, a research team that includes a former top FBI scientist is challenging the bullet analysis used by the government to conclude that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone in assassinating President John F. Kennedy in 1963.
The "evidence used to rule out a second assassin is fundamentally flawed," concludes a new article in the Annals of Applied Statistics written by former FBI lab metallurgist William A. Tobin and Texas A&M University researchers Cliff Spiegelman and William D. James.
The researchers' re-analysis involved new statistical calculations and a modern chemical analysis of bullets from the same batch Oswald is purported to have used. They reached no conclusion about whether more than one gunman was involved, but urged that authorities conduct a new and complete forensic re-analysis of the five bullet fragments left from the assassination 44 years ago.
"Given the significance and impact of the JFK assassination, it is scientifically desirable for the evidentiary fragments to be re-analyzed," the researchers said.
Tobin was the FBI lab's chief metallurgy expert for more than two decades. He analyzed metal evidence in major cases that included the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing and the 1996 explosion of TWA Flight 800 off Long Island.
After retiring, he attracted national attention by questioning the FBI science used in prosecutions for decades to match bullets to crime suspects through their lead content. The questions he and others raised prompted a National Academy of Sciences review that in 2003 concluded that the FBI's bullet lead analysis was flawed. The FBI agreed and generally ended the use of that type of analysis.
Using new guidelines set forth by the National Academy of Sciences for proper bullet analysis, Tobin and his colleagues at Texas A&M re-analyzed the bullet evidence used by the 1976 House Select Committee on Assassinations, which concluded that only one shooter, Oswald, fired the shots that killed Kennedy in Dallas.
The committee's finding was based in part on the research of now-deceased University of California at Irvine chemist Vincent P. Guinn. He used bullet lead analysis to conclude that the five bullet fragments recovered from the Kennedy assassination scene came from just two bullets, which were traced to the same batch of bullets Oswald owned.
To do their research, Tobin, Spiegelman and James said they bought the same brand and lot of bullets used by Oswald and analyzed their lead using the new standards. The bullets from that batch are still on the market as collectors' items.
They found that the scientific and statistical assumptions Guinn used -- and the government accepted at the time -- to conclude that the fragments came from just two bullets fired from Oswald's gun were wrong.
"This finding means that the bullet fragments from the assassination that match could have come from three or more separate bullets," the researchers said.
"If the assassination fragments are derived from three or more separate bullets, then a second assassin is likely, as the additional bullet would not be attributable to the main suspect, Mr. Oswald."
© 2007 The Washington Post Company
Scientists cast doubt on Kennedy bullet analysis
Multiple shooters possible, study says
By John Solomon
In a collision of 21st-century science and decades-old conspiracy theories, a research team that includes a former top FBI scientist is challenging the bullet analysis used by the government to conclude that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone in assassinating President John F. Kennedy in 1963.
The "evidence used to rule out a second assassin is fundamentally flawed," concludes a new article in the Annals of Applied Statistics written by former FBI lab metallurgist William A. Tobin and Texas A&M University researchers Cliff Spiegelman and William D. James.
The researchers' re-analysis involved new statistical calculations and a modern chemical analysis of bullets from the same batch Oswald is purported to have used. They reached no conclusion about whether more than one gunman was involved, but urged that authorities conduct a new and complete forensic re-analysis of the five bullet fragments left from the assassination 44 years ago.
"Given the significance and impact of the JFK assassination, it is scientifically desirable for the evidentiary fragments to be re-analyzed," the researchers said.
Tobin was the FBI lab's chief metallurgy expert for more than two decades. He analyzed metal evidence in major cases that included the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing and the 1996 explosion of TWA Flight 800 off Long Island.
After retiring, he attracted national attention by questioning the FBI science used in prosecutions for decades to match bullets to crime suspects through their lead content. The questions he and others raised prompted a National Academy of Sciences review that in 2003 concluded that the FBI's bullet lead analysis was flawed. The FBI agreed and generally ended the use of that type of analysis.
Using new guidelines set forth by the National Academy of Sciences for proper bullet analysis, Tobin and his colleagues at Texas A&M re-analyzed the bullet evidence used by the 1976 House Select Committee on Assassinations, which concluded that only one shooter, Oswald, fired the shots that killed Kennedy in Dallas.
The committee's finding was based in part on the research of now-deceased University of California at Irvine chemist Vincent P. Guinn. He used bullet lead analysis to conclude that the five bullet fragments recovered from the Kennedy assassination scene came from just two bullets, which were traced to the same batch of bullets Oswald owned.
To do their research, Tobin, Spiegelman and James said they bought the same brand and lot of bullets used by Oswald and analyzed their lead using the new standards. The bullets from that batch are still on the market as collectors' items.
They found that the scientific and statistical assumptions Guinn used -- and the government accepted at the time -- to conclude that the fragments came from just two bullets fired from Oswald's gun were wrong.
"This finding means that the bullet fragments from the assassination that match could have come from three or more separate bullets," the researchers said.
"If the assassination fragments are derived from three or more separate bullets, then a second assassin is likely, as the additional bullet would not be attributable to the main suspect, Mr. Oswald."
© 2007 The Washington Post Company
"Where there is sacrifice there is someone collecting the sacrificial offerings."-- Ayn Rand
"Some of my friends sit around every evening and they worry about the times ahead,
But everybody else is overwhelmed by indifference and the promise of an early bed..."-- Elvis Costello
"Some of my friends sit around every evening and they worry about the times ahead,
But everybody else is overwhelmed by indifference and the promise of an early bed..."-- Elvis Costello
Post edited by Unknown User on
0
Comments
Obsessing about this event is quite bizarre, on a par with thinking the Queen ordered the car-crash assasination of Princess Di, and thinknig that Elvis is still alive, looking the same as he did in 1978.
Get over it, tell your husband to get over it, get a life !!!!!!!!
what do you mean elvis isn't alive? :(
take a good look
this could be the day
hold my hand
lie beside me
i just need to say
He was starting to whiff a bit, by 1978. In fact, his music was starting to whiff a bit, by 1958.
personally I always thought the mob was involved in this hit. hopefully we can see these docs in our lifetime.
When did he die, I mean...leave the building ?? I was having guess. I just remember a guy coming to school one day and saying that Elvis was dead, but didn't even know who Elvis was at 14 or so at the time, so didn't really mena squat to me.
As for ahnimus casting doubt on teh JFK assisnation, relax dude, it was determined, no-one had free will, so does it matter what any document says. The guy who rote the docs had no free will either, apparently !!
hmm i dont remember elvis but i remember the day john lennon died.
i just sat on my bed and cried and cried.
*check that out i'm a poet.
who would want to kill a president of the united states anyway?
take a good look
this could be the day
hold my hand
lie beside me
i just need to say
It stands to reason that if one lowly man can take out Kennedy, and Bush has the approval ratings he does, that someone would take a gun to him. But that hasn't happened....
1977. I was five. I was a good reader, too. I saw the newspaper headline, saying The King is Dead, and was fookin' confused, it being the Queen's silver jubilee and everything.
because ordinary joe public was a lot more evil back then?
and reveling in it's loyalty. It's made by forming coalitions
over specific principles, goals, and policies.
http://i36.tinypic.com/66j31x.jpg
(\__/)
( o.O)
(")_(")
december 1980 luce.
take a good look
this could be the day
hold my hand
lie beside me
i just need to say
He considers himself a queen after all....
and reveling in it's loyalty. It's made by forming coalitions
over specific principles, goals, and policies.
http://i36.tinypic.com/66j31x.jpg
(\__/)
( o.O)
(")_(")
We are making some wicked progress then.
oh yeah. it's called D-E-V-O lution.
take a good look
this could be the day
hold my hand
lie beside me
i just need to say
we're waiting for a wingnut with a middle name to come along and do it.
i hear john walker linde isn't doing much these days.
take a good look
this could be the day
hold my hand
lie beside me
i just need to say
p.s. hey NSA here's a scooby snack >>> Assassinate Bush! <<< .. derka derka der...
Bush get's popped:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kyDIv-9csKw
and reveling in it's loyalty. It's made by forming coalitions
over specific principles, goals, and policies.
http://i36.tinypic.com/66j31x.jpg
(\__/)
( o.O)
(")_(")
That made me laugh out loud. I must have been 13, can still remember the other kid who told me the King is dead, meant nothing to me.
reboot my router? what? i can't do that on an open forum. sounds like something one should have a little privacy for.:D
take a good look
this could be the day
hold my hand
lie beside me
i just need to say