JFK's ER Nurse Has Backed Up the Secret Service Agent Claim That the Warren Commission's 'Magic Bullet' Theory is a Lie

Bettmann. Getty Images.

I believe that one of the most admirable traits a person can possess is the ability to change a belief - even a deeply held one - in the face of contrary evidence. It's the sign of a true intellect to be able to accept that which they didn't believe before. As George Bernard Shaw put it, "Those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything." 

Personally, the biggest intellectual 180 I've done has been over the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Back in the 90s, I read a book by Gerald Posner called "Case Closed," and watched an accompanying PBS documentary about it. Both made convincing cases that, while The Warren Commission Report got a few facts wrong, their underlying conclusion that Lee Harvey Oswald was the lone shooter. An unhinged crackpot who just happened to be lucky enough to have the President of the United States driving in a slow moving open vehicle under lax security and was able to change the world with three shots from a rifle he had purchased through the mail months earlier. 

But over the summer, I fell down the rabbit hole of a podcast series called "Solving JFK." Which inspired me to watch Oliver Stone's four part docuseries "JFK: Destiny Betrayed." Now, like everyone else, I'd seen Stone's movie "JFK," and think it's an incredible piece of filmmaking. But also plays fast and loose with the truth, is filled with wild speculation and made up facts, and was successfully debunked by the book and documentary I consumed three decades ago. 

Now, I no longer do. There are too many utterly implausible, even physically impossible, pieces of evidence the world was forcefed 60 years ago. None more blatant than the Magic Bullet. 

The one that supposedly caused seven wounds total in JFK and Governor Connolly, before being found on a stretcher in Parkland Hospital in pristine condition. 

Chief wrote about how the Secret Service agent who has just come clean about how he found the bullet in the presidential limo, but had to keep quiet about it because it didn't fit the narrative the government was pushing:

And just in case someone wants to doubt his story, or claim he's just trying to cash in because he's selling a book or whatever, good luck with that. Because now the Parkland nurse whose name always comes up in the coverage of this horrific scandal is corroborating his story:

Source - The prior eyewitness testimony of a nurse present in the emergency room after President John F. Kennedy was fatally shot in 1963 seems to corroborate a former Secret Service agent's bombshell new claim.

Multiple interviews given by nurse Phyllis J. Hall a decade ago appear to back up former Secret Service agent Paul Landis' claim, after she described seeing a bullet sitting on the mortally wounded president's stretcher next to his head. 

Landis, 88, broke his silence in an interview on Saturday, nearly six decades after Kennedy's assassination in Dallas, to share a claim that upends the infamous 'magic bullet' theory and raises the possibility of multiple shooters. …

Several interviews given by nurse Hall in 2013 seem to corroborate Landis' fresh claim. 

'On the cart, halfway between the earlobe and the shoulder, there was a bullet laying almost perpendicular there, but I have not seen a picture of that bullet ever,' she told The Telegraph almost 10 years ago. 

Separately, she told the Sunday Mirror: 'I could see a bullet lodged between his ear and his shoulder. It was pointed at its tip and showed no signs of damage. I remember looking at it – there was no blunting of the bullet or scarring around the shell from where it had been fired.

'I'd had a great deal of experience working with gunshot wounds but I had never seen anything like this before.

'It was about one-and-a-half inches long – nothing like the bullets that were later produced.

'It was taken away but never have I seen it presented in evidence or heard what happened to it. It remains a mystery.'

In any investigation, criminal or otherwise, credible eyewitness testimony like Agent Landis' is valuable. Credible eyewitness testimony like Landis' that is substantiated by credible eyewitness testimony like Nurse Hall's is priceless. Stack enough of these supporting claims on top of each other and eventually you get irrefutable proof. 

Unfortunately in this case, that's no longer possible. Too much time has passed. Too many people who knew the truth took it to their graves. But fortunately there are plenty of investigators like Stone who will never stop digging until they're in the grave themselves. Which hopefully won't happen for a long time because there is still so much to unearth. 

I won't even attempt to dive into all the factors that changed my mind on the whole thing. But if I had to pick a couple, I'd say it's the fact that over 40 on duty at Parkland that day described seeing the back of the President's head blown completely off. The back. Which is consistent only with an exit wound. With massive loss of brain tissue. And they reported an entry wound on his trachea, and another on his right front temple. Most of those were doctors and nurses, but that group also included two FBI agents who were personally sent their by J. Edgar Hoover and reported to him directly about seeing the gaping hole in the back of the skull and the missing brain tissue. 

Another is that virtually every witness reported hearing a shot, a three or so second pause, then two more shots in rapid succession. The gap between Shot 1 and Shot 2 is completely consistent with a bolt action rifle that has to be cocked before firing it again. But Shot 2 and Shot 3 being less than a second apart is physically impossible. 

And while it's less provable but still highly suspicious, consider the story of Ralph Yates, a Texas father of five who days before the assassination, picked up a hitchhiker who wanted to be dropped off at the Texas School Book Depository and who made small talk on the way about whether anyone could shoot JFK from a tall building. Once Oswald was shown on TV days later, Yates realized he looked just like the guy he'd given a ride to, and went to the authorities. The problem was, the day Yates gave the hitchhiker a ride, Oswald was at work. Which was provable, from his time card. Yates passed several lie detector tests. Including one personally requested by Hoover. But because the authorities declared he couldn't be right, he was declared legally insane and put in an institution against his will. Where he eventually died.

So if you're wondering why people like Agent Landis or Nurse Hall waiting 60 and 50 years respectively to discredit the Magic Bullet theory, there's your answer. 

And if you're wondering why the government still hasn't released the classified files despite the fact they were supposed to be made public in 2017, that's as good an explanation as any.

Popular in the Community