Claim by Paul Landis: he found JFK assassination bullet in limo and placed it on stretcher

[SuppaCoup]

More detail:

Article:

That's when he said he noticed the intact bullet in the seam of the tufted dark leather cushioning.

Investigators determined that the bullet, designated Commission Exhibit 399, was fired by the same C2766 Mannlicher-Carcano rifle found in the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository.

Source: https://www.irishtimes.com/world/us/2023/09/10/jfk-assassination-witness-breaks-his-silence-and-raises-new-questions/

Does he by any chance give a more specific location in any of his statements?

 

[Mendel]

Does he by any chance give a more specific location in any of his statements?

I only looked at the NYT article (via the Irish Times), since that seems to be the primary source.

 

[SuppaCoup]

Okay, we do have evidence he started claiming he had moved the bullet as of about 9 years ago

Indeed, his partner, Clint Hill, the legendary Secret Service agent who clambered on to the back of the speeding limousine in a futile effort to save Kennedy, discouraged Landis from speaking out. "Many ramifications," Hill warned in a 2014 email that Landis saved and shared last month.

That moves the timeline back a little, but it still leaves us with a 50 year period without any auditable acknowledgement, public or private, of this bullet moving story.

 

[Jackson]

In 1983 Paul Landis claimed he found a bullet fragment on top of the back seat of the limousine that he gave to somebody. It doesn't seem far fetched that this sort of thing could get mixed up in his mind.

Full context:

 

[tobigtofool]

What IS similar, is that he did pick (at least enough of a bullet that he could identify it as one) from the back of the limo, and transported it. Which means his overall story hasn't changed.

 

[Mendel]

What IS similar, is that he did pick (at least enough of a bullet that he could identify it as one) from the back of the limo, and transported it. Which means his overall story hasn't changed.

Landis's story evolved, which supports the idea that his memory of the event is changing.

Written statement, 1963, https://www.history-matters.com/archive/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh18/html/WH_Vol18_0385b.htm :

Agent Hill helped Mrs. Kennedy out of the car, and I followed. Mrs. Kennedy's purse and hat and a cigarette lighter were on the back seat. I picked these three items up as I walked through the car and followed Mrs. Kennedy into the hospital.

The Coshocton Tribune, 1983:

Landis said that when he got to the Kennedy limousine outside the hospital, the president had already been taken inside, but he helped Mrs. Kennedy out. He said there was a bullet fragment on the top of the back seat that he picked up and gave somebody.

NYT, 2023:

In fact, he said, he was the one who found the bullet – and he found it not in the hospital near Connally but in the presidential limousine lodged in the back of the seat behind where Kennedy was sitting.

Once they reached the hospital, Hill and Landis coaxed the distraught first lady to let go of her husband so he could be taken inside. After they exited the car, Landis noticed two bullet fragments in a pool of bright red blood. He fingered one of them but put it back.

That's when he said he noticed the intact bullet in the seam of the tufted dark leather cushioning. He said he slipped it into his coat pocket and headed into the hospital, where he planned to give it to a supervisor but in the confusion instinctively put it on Kennedy's stretcher instead.

Note these elements:
• Where was JFK's body when Landis arrived at the car?
• Who helped Mrs. Kennedy step out of the car?
• Was there a bullet fragment? What happened to it?
• Was there an intact bullet? What happened to it?

The 3 tellings of the event differ in these respects. Landis's "overall story" shows considerable change. His narrative is in flux, it is not stable over time.

 

[Mendel]

The truth is 2 out of 3 bullets are missing, this could be one of those 3. One of those bullets did strike the president and was never recovered. That's certainly more believable than him creating a false memory to me.

I don't think there was a third shot.

(What do you want me to do here, what I just stated is a fact, but it comes from my memory, should I go find in the warren commission where it says this?)

Yes. (But see below.)

One of the missing bullets struck the presidents head, and only fragments were found, I am sure if we did ballistic tests we'd find that a cranium is a great place to reverse a bullets direction after impact.

So, we have one intact bullet, that dropped from Governor Connally's leg wound; and two fragments from the bullet that killed JFK.

Article:

Clockwise from top left: the stretcher bullet (CE 399 FBI C1); a fragment of the bullet that fatally wounded the president (CE 567 FBI C2); a second fragment of that bullet (CE 569 FBI C3); and a different perspective of that same fragment.

Source: https://www.nist.gov/news-events/news/2019/12/kennedy-assassination-bullets-preserved-digital-form

Article:

The 1977 INAA analysis commissioned by the House Select Committee on Assassinations yielded more definitive results. The bullet samples were all found to be in the concentration ranges of WCC/MC bullet lead, and the specimens show clear evidence for the presence of only two WCC/MC bullets. These findings support, although they do not prove, the Warren Commission theory that the bullet found on Governor Connally's stretcher at the hospital is the one that caused the President's back wound and all of Governor Connally's wounds.

Source: https://www.ojp.gov/ncjrs/virtual-library/abstracts/jfk-john-f-kennedy-assassination-bullet-analyses

If you assume that there were 3 shots, and that Landis 2023 is correct, then the bullet that entered (but not exited) Governor Connally's leg is missing, as it should've been found during the autopsy.

 

[Mendel]

There was a bit of a bruhaha at the time over Secret Service agents staying up late the night before, and it may help explain Landis's statements.

Article:

Source: https://www.history-matters.com/archive/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh18/html/WH_Vol18_0351a.htm

Article:

Source: https://www.history-matters.com/archive/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh18/html/WH_Vol18_0347a.htm