THE PUBLIC MIND: STILL QUESTIONS ON PHYSICAL EVIDENCE OF JFK SHOOTING

To the Editor:

The Jan. 13, 1992, issue of the Missourian carried a letter from Harley Rutledge describing the results of experiments carried out by Dr. Luis Alvarez, an eminent American physicist. W~~e don't take issue with the results or the description of them by Dr. Rutledge. ~We do, however, take issue with the simulation of a taped watermelon with a human head as being a good model. In the first place, the simulated head has a "skull" of much softer material than human skull bone. ~A bullet entering and then exiting imparts less momentum to the "head" in the forward direction allowing the momentum in the rearward direction (toward the shooter) to exceed the former and resulting in a net motion of the melon to the rear. As explained by ~Dr. Rutledge, the momentum toward the shooter is caused by the jetting of fluid and pulp matter forward through the much larger exit hole in the rind.

In the second place, the watermelons were not attached to a simulated body of a man who weighed about ~200 pounds. The Zapruder film shows Kennedy slumping forward and to his left and then a rapid, violent motion backwards, not just his head, but his entire body slamming into the seat backing. This raises a serious question of how much and of what velocity of blood and tissue would have to be expelled to the front through a large front exit hole to produce as much force backward as is shown on the film.

No witness reported seeing such a jet. Witnesses, including Mrs. Kennedy, reported the opposite. They reported seeing the back of the head exploding, ~with blood, tissue and bone bein~g expelled to the rear. The doctors who treated Kennedy at Parkland Hospital said at a news conference on the evening of No~v. ~~22 that there was a large hole in the back of Kennedy's head on the right side, the hole extending upwards into the right occipital region of the skull. Other medical personnel present reported the same thing, including the nurse who wrapped the head in a sheet prior to the body being put in the bronze casket. In all probability Kennedy~ was struck by at least one bullet being fired ~from his front. Dr. Alv~arez~'s watermelon experiments prove nothing.~

Robert L. Smith

Cape Girardeau