# Think there's anything to this? JFK assassination witness speaks
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/think-theres-anything-to-this-jfk-assassination-witness-speaks/989965
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [September 12, 2023, 6:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/think-theres-anything-to-this-jfk-assassination-witness-speaks/989965 "2023-09-12T06:34:55Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)
#### Post date: [September 12, 2023, 6:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/think-theres-anything-to-this-jfk-assassination-witness-speaks/989965/1 "2023-09-12T06:34:55Z")
[Link to Seattle Times; not sure where the story originated.](https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/jfk-assassination-witness-breaks-his-silence-and-raises-new-questions/) Okay, a Secret Service agent found a bullet in the limo, put it somewhere and it got shuffled around at Parkland.
> Landis theorizes the bullet struck Kennedy in the back, popping back out before the president’s body was removed from the limousine.
>
> Landis has been reluctant to speculate on the larger implications. He always believed Lee Harvey Oswald was the lone gunman. But now? “Now I begin to wonder,” he said.
I dunno. I’m most in favor of Oswald having acted alone, _but aiming at Connally_. And the guy is 88 years old. What do y’all think?
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### Author:  [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)
#### Post date: [September 12, 2023, 7:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/think-theres-anything-to-this-jfk-assassination-witness-speaks/989965/2 "2023-09-12T07:39:16Z")
What do I think? Oswald acted alone and he aimed for the president.
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### Author:  [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)
#### Post date: [September 12, 2023, 7:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/think-theres-anything-to-this-jfk-assassination-witness-speaks/989965/3 "2023-09-12T07:55:47Z")
You’d think the conspirators who pinned everything on Oswald would’ve been able to tie up a loose end like this.
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### Author:  [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)
#### Post date: [September 12, 2023, 9:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/think-theres-anything-to-this-jfk-assassination-witness-speaks/989965/4 "2023-09-12T09:27:30Z")
I’m sticking with the [no-bullet theory](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Vy-UpI5l82o).
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### Author:  [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)
#### Post date: [September 12, 2023, 10:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/think-theres-anything-to-this-jfk-assassination-witness-speaks/989965/5 "2023-09-12T10:16:51Z")
That lonely old man needs some attention. He didn’t sit on some secret for 60 years, he made it up a few days ago because he was lonely.
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### Author:  [@Keith1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Keith1)
#### Post date: [September 12, 2023, 12:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/think-theres-anything-to-this-jfk-assassination-witness-speaks/989965/6 "2023-09-12T12:15:12Z")
Don’t know one way or the other about the accuracy of the guy’s account, but I understand he has a book coming out so obviously he’s looking to sell a few copies.
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### Author:  [@Quondam\_Mechanic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quondam_Mechanic)
#### Post date: [September 12, 2023, 12:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/think-theres-anything-to-this-jfk-assassination-witness-speaks/989965/7 "2023-09-12T12:22:14Z")
Could the culprit have been an ex-Marine trained in using a rifle, with a military-style rifle that he calibrated, sitting in a room with boxes of books to use as a gun rest and an open window with a view of the parade? Or was that guy just a stooge taking the fall for some guy standing upright in plain sight with a handgun?
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### Author:  [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)
#### Post date: [September 12, 2023, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/think-theres-anything-to-this-jfk-assassination-witness-speaks/989965/8 "2023-09-12T12:36:26Z")
Perhaps, but I think it’s a matter of memory degradation. People really think they’re remembering things accurately, but it’s been shown beyond doubt that what we think are accurate memories are often degraded by time and wishful thinking.
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### Author:  [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)
#### Post date: [September 12, 2023, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/think-theres-anything-to-this-jfk-assassination-witness-speaks/989965/9 "2023-09-12T12:41:05Z")
> [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](#):
>
> I’m sticking with the [no-bullet theory](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Vy-UpI5l82o).
[A tiger got him](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXRslcMsGlQ).
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### Author:  [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)
#### Post date: [September 12, 2023, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/think-theres-anything-to-this-jfk-assassination-witness-speaks/989965/10 "2023-09-12T12:46:04Z")
His memory degraded about an illegal act he kept secret for the past 60 years? Maybe off his rocker, but sounds like he knows how to make money to get a new rocker.
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### Author:  [@Cheesesteak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheesesteak)
#### Post date: [September 12, 2023, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/think-theres-anything-to-this-jfk-assassination-witness-speaks/989965/11 "2023-09-12T12:49:02Z")
I assume this secret service agent mentioned this bullet discovery during the massive investigation into the assassination of the man he was charged with protecting.
No?
I think we can safely assume there is nothing to this but trying to sell books.
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### Author:  [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)
#### Post date: [September 12, 2023, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/think-theres-anything-to-this-jfk-assassination-witness-speaks/989965/12 "2023-09-12T13:22:32Z")
> [@TriPolar](#):
>
> That lonely old man needs some attention. He didn’t sit on some secret for 60 years, he made it up a few days ago because he was lonely.
He didn’t have to make it up – the idea that Kennedy was hit in the back by a bullet that didn’t penetrate very far and subsequently fell out has been circulating for a long time.
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### Author:  [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)
#### Post date: [September 12, 2023, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/think-theres-anything-to-this-jfk-assassination-witness-speaks/989965/13 "2023-09-12T13:58:57Z")
So even less reason to believe him. I remember how the bullet was found on the stretcher but I don’t recall an explanation for why that bullet didn’t penetrate very far. Was it supposed to be that it hit his back brace and nobody noticed? Doesn’t matter much, whenever the phrase ‘magic bullet’ comes up someone is trying cloud the facts.
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### Author:  [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)
#### Post date: [September 12, 2023, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/think-theres-anything-to-this-jfk-assassination-witness-speaks/989965/14 "2023-09-12T14:10:40Z")
> [@TriPolar](#):
>
> he made it up a few days ago because he was lonely.
He may be lonely, but he didn’t make this one up. I remember being presented with this “fact” by my CT teacher back in the 70s. (ninja’d):
> [@CalMeacham](#):
>
> the idea that Kennedy was hit in the back by a bullet that didn’t penetrate very far and subsequently fell out has been circulating for a long time.
I also remember the theory that one of the secret service agents riding on the back accidentally (really, it was an accident, not an “accident” 🙂 ) shot Kennedy, and _this_ is what has been covered up all these years. Maybe this dude was the shooter, and 60 years of guilt finally made him believe he didn’t do it.
Makes more sense than any magic bullet.
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### Author:  [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)
#### Post date: [September 12, 2023, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/think-theres-anything-to-this-jfk-assassination-witness-speaks/989965/15 "2023-09-12T14:26:05Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#):
>
> Makes more sense than any magic bullet.
There was nothing magic about the bullet. That phrase was made up by celebrity coroner Cyril Wecht without ever seeing the bullet.
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### Author:  [@dirtball](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dirtball)
#### Post date: [September 12, 2023, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/think-theres-anything-to-this-jfk-assassination-witness-speaks/989965/16 "2023-09-12T14:44:47Z")
> [@Cheesesteak](#):
>
> I assume this secret service agent mentioned this bullet discovery during the massive investigation into the assassination of the man he was charged with protecting.
>
> No?
>
> I think we can safely assume there is nothing to this but trying to sell books.
I can’t argue with the with the last part of this.
But I’ve thought for many years that there would have undoubtedly been a fair amount of covering up stuff and people omitting details and/or putting a certain “nonobjective” spin on portions of the story while they’re answering investigators’ questions. It’s certainly well within the realm of possibility that people who were involved in security for the visit (at least some of them) would feel motivated to give the most blameless-to-themselves version of the story they could come up with. After all, this would have been the single most important event of their careers, and to be blunt about it, they failed. I don’t think it’s stretching things very far to imagine them thinking “The hammer’s going to come down on somebody. I need to make sure they don’t think there’s any reason to aim it at me.” Even if these security people don’t fear criminal charges, they might fear that the failure would screw up their career. “Promotion? For one of guys who let Kennedy get his head blown apart? Excuse me for a half hour while I have a hearty laugh.” I don’t claim to know how the promotion-giver would think, but if I imagine myself in the place of one of the question-answerers, I’m pretty sure it would be on my mind.
Sixty years later? Dude sees the end of his time on earth up there on the horizon. Now there’s nothing at stake for him. Why not come clean if he thinks he knows something?
And to be clear, I don’t want to suggest that any of this means that there was anyone other than Oswald shooting. Just people trying to cover their own asses in the aftermath and probably not being sure what they needed to do or to what lengths they needed to go to do the ass covering.
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### Author:  [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)
#### Post date: [September 12, 2023, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/think-theres-anything-to-this-jfk-assassination-witness-speaks/989965/17 "2023-09-12T14:57:16Z")
Supposedly, he put the bullet on the stretcher because he thought it important to keep it with the body, to ensure a thorough and accurate analysis of what transpired. Yet he _didn’t_ think it important to _tell anybody_ what he found, or even to memorialize it in some form of record, because apparently that isn’t important stuff.
I feel sorry for him concocting a story that paints him as so shoddy and unprofessional during his term of service.
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### Author:  [@Jasmine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jasmine)
#### Post date: [September 12, 2023, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/think-theres-anything-to-this-jfk-assassination-witness-speaks/989965/18 "2023-09-12T15:01:19Z")
> [@Rilchiam](#):
>
> And the guy is 88 years old. What do y’all think?
Yes, I’m afraid his age makes his statement suspect but, just as importantly, is the amount of time that has gone by since the event, which is in the neighborhood of 60 years.
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### Author:  [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)
#### Post date: [September 12, 2023, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/think-theres-anything-to-this-jfk-assassination-witness-speaks/989965/19 "2023-09-12T15:41:01Z")
> [@Moriarty](#):
>
> Supposedly, he put the bullet on the stretcher because he thought it important to keep it with the body, to ensure a thorough and accurate analysis of what transpired. Yet he _didn’t_ think it important to _tell anybody_ what he found, or even to memorialize it in some form of record, because apparently that isn’t important stuff.
Didn’t he file a report of his actions that day? Let’s see what it said.
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### Author:  [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)
#### Post date: [September 12, 2023, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/think-theres-anything-to-this-jfk-assassination-witness-speaks/989965/20 "2023-09-12T16:01:42Z")
> [@Chefguy](#):
>
> Perhaps, but I think it’s a matter of memory degradation. People really think they’re remembering things accurately, but it’s been shown beyond doubt that what we think are accurate memories are often degraded by time and wishful thinking.
Yeah, that was my reaction when my friend was telling me about this. “So this guy is about 97 years old now? Did the retirement home recently show ‘In the Line of Fire’ for movie night?”
But also, what **dirtball** said.
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