In April 1995, when I was a senior official with the Department of Justice, Antitrust Division, I submitted to Attorney General Janet Reno's office the above-titled report. To my knowledge, it was and still is the only complete visual reconstruction of all of the gunshots in Dealey Plaza during the assassination of President Kennedy, supported by evidence beyond a reasonable doubt from the official records. That report led to the reopening of the investigation for further scientific testing by the FBI of certain evidence. Below is a link to that report, exactly as I submitted it, except that my personal contact information has been deleted, one photograph has been replaced with a similar one for copyright reasons, and a couple of my later handwritten editorial notes have been included at the end.
"Analysis of Gunshots in Dealey Plaza on November 22, 1963"
The report contained hundreds of facts and highly detailed descriptions of the evidence. No report is perfect, and over the more than 28 years since I completed it, I have discovered a few errors in it that I consider to be minor and that do not change the overall analysis. Here they are:
1. On page 45, I wrote that JFK's limousine was 25 feet long by 8 feet wide. Official blueprints show that it was actually, rounded off, about 21 1/4 feet long by 6 1/2 feet wide.
2. On page 11, I wrote that, when the first shot exited JFK's neck, it nicked the right side of his tie knot from his perspective. After studying the record more since then, I now believe that it nicked the left side of the knot. This change is due to confusing Warren Commission testimony about whether it was left or right based on JFK's or the viewer's perspective and the fact that none of the photos clearly show the perspective with the tie still knotted. This does not change the bullet path, since photos show that the knot was well off-center to JFK's right at the time, probably due to the fact that his head was turned to the right and his right hand was raised in a wave.
3. On page 31, I wrote that, when the third shot exited the under side of Governor Connally's wrist, it penetrated the French cuff of his shirt. I knew at the time that the shot did not strike any of the Governor's clothing on the exit side of the wrist. This error was due to my temporarily confusing the exit with what happened on the entry side of the wrist, where it did penetrate the French cuff.
4. Figure 26 on page 12 shows a trajectory line for the first shot entering JFK's back. I allowed for some wrinkling of his coat and raised the entry hole a little above the measured distance of the hole in the coat. I now believe I did not allow enough for the wrinkling and that the bullet entered about an inch higher on the back than shown.
John T. Orr
Here is my April 17, 1995, accompanying cover letter to Attorney General Reno:
Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5
I highly recommend the 2013 Fox News Channel 50th anniversary documentary. It is available on YouTube in six parts. Here is the link to Part 1:
"50 Years of Questions: The JFK Assassination"
To contact me, John Orr, for further information about my project or any other
assistance regarding the JFK assassination please email me at trayo1@mindspring.com.