Oswald in the doorway: the blog of the Oswald Innocence Campaign, by Ralph Cinque

Unfortunately, it is impossible to represent the Single Bullet Theory in a diagram- even theoretically. The previous article by Michael T. Griffith showed that the level of the back wound was a good 5 inches below the collar. One doctor who saw it at the autopsy, Dr. John Ebersole, pegged it not at T3 but at T4. Imagine that. 

But how far over was it, meaning, how far lateral to the spine? 

Well, here's the autopsy photo, and I have placed an X where I think the spine is. 

As you can see it's not that far lateral, at least not in this picture. And that is why in the cross-section diagram, I didn't go out too far.

Even though the above is just a theoretical image that I do not endorse and never did, the fact is that it can't be right even theoretically. Can you see why? Take a few seconds.

It's because that trajectory is smashing through the body of the vertebra, and we know that didn't happen. Kennedy didn't have ANY proven fractures except for his skull being blown out- no spinal fractures at all. 

However, leave it to Dr. John Lattimer, the starter of the Thorburn nonsense, to suggest that Kennedy had a mild fracture of the transverse process. Lattimer, who was a urologist who should have stuck to roto-rootering prostates and left the forensic pathology to forensic pathologists, said the following in reference to JFK's medical x-rays:

   

"No gross fractures were visible, although a 'graze' of the tip of the transverse process of the seventh cervical vertebra could not be excluded." 

A graze at the tip of the transverse process of C7? From the Magic Bullet? Wow. That is really out there. 

But, let's consider what we have to do here. We need a bullet trajectory, and we know it's straight; there was no deflection. It's got to bypass the body of the vertebra completely, but we'll leave open the possibility of grazing the tip of the transverse process- even though I don't accept it.

OK, so now we're lined up with the tip of the transverse process, which it, theoretically, just grazed, but it's bypassing the body of the vertebra, and it still reaches the midline in front. Great. 

But, there are multiple problems with this, the biggest being: how do you get the bullet into Connally from there? That's a sharp angle. Wasn't Connally sitting mostly in front of Kennedy? Look at them here:

I know they like to say that Connally was inward to Kennedy, but he wasn't that inward. Plus, Connally got hit below his right arm pit, which is opposite to where that trajectory was headed. 

I am left with no choice but to agree with Harrison Livingstone and Dr. David Mantik:

"There was no direct path from the back wound to the throat wound that could have avoided smashing into the spine. Dr. David Mantik, a radiation oncologist and physicist, studied the autopsy materials at the National Archives and discovered that a bullet that went from the back wound to the throat wound could not have missed smashing through the spine (Livingstone, KILLING KENNEDY AND THE HOAX OF THE CENTURY, pp. 93-94)."