Photograph of FBI agents reenacting the Kennedy assassination

Object number2004.037.0089

Date1964

ClassificationsPhotographs

ObjectPhotograph (b&w)

Credit LineLyndal L. Shaneyfelt Collection/The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza

MediumPaper

Dimensions8 x 10 in. (20.3 x 25.4 cm)

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DescriptionBlack and white undated photograph of FBI agents demonstrating how President Kennedy and Governor Connally may have been struck by a single bullet. The car in the photograph was the Secret Service vehicle following directly behind President Kennedy during the shooting. The two agents are sitting in approximately the same positions President Kennedy and Governor Connally had occupied in the presidential limousine. The third man, Warren Commission staff member Arlen Specter, stands beside the car with a metal rod to show the possible trajectory of the bullet through the two men based on measurements made during the May 1964 reenactment in Dallas. This copy of a photograph was part of FBI Special Agent Lyndal Shaneyfelt's Kennedy assassination file; Shaneyfelt assisted in the FBI investigations of the assassination conducted on behalf of the Warren Commission in 1964.

Curatorial Commentary

The Single Bullet Theory, or Magic Bullet Theory, as it came to be known following release of the Warren Report in September 1964, remains the most controversial finding of the Warren Commission. The theory holds that one bullet struck Kennedy in his upper back, exited his throat below his Adam's apple, struck Connally in his back, exited his chest below his right nipple, struck the top of his right wrist, exited the bottom of his wrist, embedded itself in his left thigh, and was later found on a stretcher at Parkland Hospital. Investigators observed that one bullet could have caused all those wounds and, absent any evidence of bullets from other locations, concluded that it did. - Gary Mack, Curator