Retrieval of Bullet From Connally’s Body Urged

A research center that has studied the John F. Kennedy assassination on Wednesday urged the Justice Department to retrieve bullet fragments from the body of former Texas Gov. John B. Connally, contending that they may resolve the controversy over whether President Kennedy and Connally were hit by one bullet.

James H. Lesar, president of the Assassination Archive and Research Center based here, noted that the commission headed by then Chief Justice Earl Warren that investigated the killing, concluded that a single bullet had penetrated Kennedy’s neck, then passed through Connally’s chest and smashed his wrist “before embedding, in virtually pristine condition, in his thigh.”

“It is conceded on all sides of the assassination debate that if this single bullet did not cause these seven wounds in both men, then more than one assassin must have fired on the President,” Lesar wrote in his request to Atty. Gen. Janet Reno.

He noted that Connally, who died in Texas on Tuesday, had testified to the Warren Commission that he did not believe he and Kennedy were struck by the same bullet.

Carl Stern, a spokesman for Reno, said that the matter had been referred to the FBI’s Dallas office, which retains investigative responsibility for the assassination nearly 30 years ago.

“They are being asked to determine if this intrusion is warranted,” Stern said. “The first question is whether this is so important that it would justify such an intrusion.”

Joining Lesar in the request were Cyril Wecht, a forensic pathologist and critic of the Warren Commission, and five other doctors.

The so-called “single bullet” theory is key to the Warren Commission’s conclusion that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone, because a lone gunman could not have hit both men with separate shots so quickly.

“Subjected to neutron activation analysis and other scientific procedures, these fragments may be able to resolve the controversy as to whether President Kennedy was assassinated as the result of a conspiracy,” Lesar wrote.

“Unlike many other items of evidence in the assassination, including the so-called ‘magic bullet’ itself, the bona fides of these (bullet) fragments are beyond question,” he said.