Features: The Warren Commission, The Truth, and Arlen Specter: Part 2


The Commission eventually came to disregard almost all evidence that was based on auditory perception, mostly because most of it did not corroborate the conclusions it eventually reached. But Secret Service agent Clinton Hill, whose perceptions and quick reactions probably saved Mrs. Kennedy’s life as she dazedly tried to climb out the rear of the car, also noted something special about that fatal head hit: " … it had a different sound, first of all, than the first sound that I heard. The second one had almost a double sound …"

Agent Roy Kellerman described the second sound he heard as "a flurry," definitely more than the sound of one shot. He was in the front seat of the Presidential car, directly in front of Governor Connally.

This is what Governor Connally said: ". . . I heard the shot very clearly. I heard it hit him. I heard the shot hit something, and I assumed again — it never entered my mind that it ever hit anybody but the President. I heard it hit. It was a very loud noise, just that audible, very clear."

Kennedy was shot, according to the Commission, with a 6.5-mm copper jacketed bullet. The entrance hole in the back of his suit jacket had traces of copper around it, there were no traces of copper in his head wound.