Last weekend Discovery Channel aired a documentary which they claim debunked most of the JFK conspiracy theories (those that dispute Oswald as being the ‘lone gunman’), through the use of modern forensics – most especially in this case, blood spatter analysis:
A mock-up of the Dallas, Texas crime scene was set up, including the depository, the “grassy knoll,” and other nearby landmarks. Artificial surrogates of Kennedy were placed in a car. Sharpshooters then shot the surrogates from the model depository, the grassy knoll, and four other plausible locations.
Schliebe, along with Tom Bevel, an independent expert forensic investigator, were brought in to examine the simulated crime scene. Both scientists had no idea what the experiment was for or that it was a reenactment of the JFK assassination.
The two experts found a simulated gunshot would to the head that closely matched the wound Kennedy suffered. Most of the simulated body material had spattered forward into the car, consistent with a shot that entered the back of the head and exited toward the front. There was some back-spatter — material that flew back in the opposite direction of the bullet’s trajectory — but not much.
I didn’t see the documentary, so I may be missing something crucial that’s not in the story, but I’m finding it hard to understand why the experts picked the ‘book depository’ shot over the others – were they matching blood spatter patterns to those of the original assassination scene, or matching the wound to Kennedy’s, or something else? In any case, sounds like an interesting documentary.
There’s a lot more detail about the documentary at the Discovery Channel blog devoted to the program – videos, interviews with analysts, behind the scenes discussion and more.
