Computational ballistic analysis of the cranial shot to John F. Kennedy

Abstract

Almost 60 years after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963, the majority of Americans are still reluctant to believe official reports presented by the commissions gathered in 1964 and again in 1976 that determined the direction of the shot resulting in the fatal head injury. Long-withheld, confidential government files released in 2017 reignited the controversy. The present investigation computationally simulated projectile-skull-impacts from the direction specified in official reports and from three other directions. Detailed geometric models of the human head and ammunition, as well as known parameters from the assassination site served as the supportive base for analysis. Constitutive mathematical models for the impact of projectile material with skull tissues at supersonic speed were employed to analyze bone and bullet fragmentation mechanics. Simulated fracture characteristics of bone and bullet were compared with photographic and X-ray evidence. The most likely origin of the fatal shot was determined based on the degree of corresponding deformation and fragmentation between simulation and documented evidence. Computational corroboration could be established as physically consistent with high-speed impact from the rear, as established by the official commissions. Simulations of three other speculative shot origins did not correspond with the documented evidence.

Keywords: Ballistics; Bone fracture mechanics; Bullet fracture mechanics; Cranial gunshot; Finite element simulation.