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Replication data for: Chemical and forensic analysis of JFK assassination bullet lots: Is a second shooter possible?

Harvard Dataverse (Africa Rice Center, Bioversity International, CCAFS, CIAT, IFPRI, IRRI and WorldFish)

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Title Replication data for: Chemical and forensic analysis of JFK assassination bullet lots: Is a second shooter possible?
 
Identifier https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/6B4CXH
 
Creator Clifford Spiegelman
William A. Tobin
William D. James
Simon J. Sheather
Stuart Wexler
and D. Max Roundhill
 
Publisher Harvard Dataverse
 
Description The assassination of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy (JFK) traumatized the
nation. In this paper we show that evidence used to rule out a second assassin is
fundamentally flawed. This paper discusses new compositional analyses of bullets
reportedly to have been derived from the same batch as those used in the assassination.
The new analyses show that the bullet fragments involved in the assassination are not
nearly as rare as previously reported. In particular, the new test results are compared to
key bullet composition testimony presented before the House Selec
t Committee on
Assassinations (HCSA). Matches of bullets within the same box of bullets are shown to
be much more likely than indicated in the House Select Committee on Assassinations’
testimony. Additionally, we show that one of the ten test bullets is considered a match to
one or more assassination fragments. This finding means that the bullet fragments from
the assassination that match could have come from three or more separate bullets.
Finally, this paper presents a case for reanalyzi
ng the assassination bullet fragments and
conducting the necessary supporting scientific studies. These analyses will shed light on
whether the five bullet fragments constitute three or more separate bullets. 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.