ARLEN SPECTER AND THE JFK ASSASSINATION

The Single Bullet Theory

To support the scenario that a lone assassin (Oswald) could fire the purported number of shots within an allotted time frame, the Warren Commission concluded that one of the bullets fired that fateful day hit both President Kennedy and Texas Governor John Connally. This conclusion came to be known as the "single bullet theory." However, given the location of Kennedy's and Connally's wounds, for the "single bullet theory" to be correct, the bullet would have had to change course several times, behaving in the manner shown in the diagram (below left).

The chief architect of the "single bullet theory" was the Warren Commission's ambitious junior counsel, Arlen Specter, now U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania. In the reenactment photo (below right) Specter, with his pointer in hand, attempts to make the "single bullet theory" appear plausible by deceptively indicating a straight line trajectory for the bullet.

While Specter managed to sell his "single bullet theory" to a majority of the 7 member Warren Commission (4 members concurred, 3 members dissented), he had trouble selling it to a majority of the public. A 2001 Gallup poll found that 81 percent of Americans reject the Warren Commission's conclusions.