From Martin Hay's review of Beyond Reasonable Doubt by Mel Ayton and David Von Pein:
Quote:
It goes without saying that the authors believe the only bullet to strike JFK's skull came from the rear. In support of this contention they write that the Zapruder film "clearly shows the President's head bursting open in the front and the right...a large flap of scalp hangs down from the large exit wound...And, as HSCA pathologists testified, the particulate matter (brain tissue) from the President's head, after the head shot, is spraying forwards, as can be seen from a high-contrast photo of frame 313 of the Zapruder film." (pgs. 98-99) From this it appears that Ayton and Von Pein are under the impression that the massive wound on the right side of JFK's head was an exit wound and the cloud of matter seen in Z-313 is exit spray. Neither of these things is true.
As ballistics expert, and Warren Commission apologist, Larry Sturdivan, stated in his 2005 book, The JFK Myths; a book Ayton and Von Pein cite but either did not read or failed to comprehend; "the explosive rupture of the side of the president's head over his ear was not caused by an exiting bullet fragment." (Sturdivan, p. 186) In actual fact, the explosion, which occurred after the bullet had already exited the skull, was a typical "Kronlein Schuss," named for the German ballistics expert who first demonstrated the effect with clay-filled skulls. The energy deposited as the bullet passed through the brain imparted a momentum so great that a temporary cavity was formed. Consequently, a violent wave of hydraulic pressure was applied to the cranium at which point fractures radiating from the point of entrance gave way to the brain fluid and tissue which burst upwards through the cracks. As Sturdivan explained, "the center of the blown-out area of the president's skull was at the midpoint of the trajectory; not at the exit point." (Ibid, p. 171) Sturdivan noted that the blood and matter seen in Z-313 "appears to be directed upward and only slightly forward...Since the tears [in the scalp] were so extensive, the spray went in all directions, just like the skull fragments did." (Ibid, p. 175) A "similar explosion would have taken place" whichever direction the bullet was travelling. (Ibid, p. 171) As Dr. Donald Thomas put it in his book on the Kennedy assassination forensic evidence, Hear No Evil, "While the Kronlein Schuss effect explains why the brain matter and bony fragments flew upward, it does not reveal the direction of the bullet." (Thomas, p. 351) As medical expert Milicent Cranor, based upon her reading of authority Dr. Vincent DiMaio, has written, another term for this is cavitation.
The cloud of matter in Z-313 was not exit spray, and the hole which encompassed most of the right side of Kennedy's head was not an exit wound. In actual fact, JFK's lead pathologist, Dr. James J. Humes, testified to the Commission that after a "careful examination of the margins of the large bone defect" the doctors were unable to find a point of exit on the skull. He attributed this failure to the fact that there was a large amount of missing bone. (2H353)
