THE PRESIDENTIAL AUTOMOBILE
After the Presidential car was returned to Washington on November 22, 1963, Secret Service agents found two bullet fragments in the front seat. One fragment, found on the seat beside the driver, weighed 44.6 grains and consisted of the nose portion of a bullet.[C3-92] The other fragment, found along the right side of the front seat, weighed 21.0 grains and consisted of the base portion of a bullet.[C3-93] During the course of an examination on November 23, agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation found three small lead particles, weighing between seven-tenths and nine-tenths of a grain each, on the rug underneath the left jump seat which had been occupied by Mrs. Connally.[C3-94] During this examination, the Bureau agents noted a small residue of lead on the inside surface of the laminated windshield and a very small pattern of cracks on the outer layer of the windshield immediately behind the lead residue.[C3-95] There was a minute particle of glass missing from the outside surface, but no penetration. The inside layer of glass was not broken.[C3-96] The agents also observed a dent in the strip of chrome across the top of the windshield, located to the left of the rear view mirror support.[C3-97]
The lead residue on the inside of the windshield was compared under spectrographic analysis by FBI experts with the bullet fragments found on and alongside the front seat and with the fragments under the left jump seat. It was also compared with bullet fragments found at Parkland Hospital. All these bullet fragments were found to be similar in metallic composition, but it was not possible to determine whether two or more of the fragments came from the same bullet.[C3-98] It is possible for the fragments from the front seat to have been a part of the same bullet as the three fragments found near the left jump seat,[C3-99] since a whole bullet of this type weighs 160-161 grains.[C3-100] (See app. X, [pp. 555-558].)
The physical characteristics of the windshield after the assassination demonstrate that the windshield was struck on the inside surface. The windshield is composed of two layers of glass with a very thin layer of plastic in the middle “which bonds them together in the form of safety glass.”[C3-101] The windshield was extracted from the automobile and was examined during a Commission hearing.[C3-102] (See Commission Exhibit No. 350, [p. 78].) According to Robert A. Frazier, FBI firearms expert, the fact that cracks were present on the outer layer of glass showed that the glass had been struck from the inside. He testified that the windshield
could not have been struck on the outside surface because of the manner in which the glass broke and further because of the lead residue on the inside surface. The cracks appear in the outer layer of the glass because the glass is bent outward at the time of impact which stretches the outer layer of the glass to the point where these small radial or wagon spoke, wagon wheel spoke-type cracks appear on the outer surface.[C3-103]
Although there is some uncertainty whether the dent in the chrome on the windshield was present prior to the assassination,[C3-104] Frazier testified that the dent “had been caused by some projectile which struck the chrome on the inside surface.”[C3-105] If it was caused by a shot during the assassination, Frazier stated that it would not have been caused by a bullet traveling at full velocity, but rather by a fragment traveling at “fairly high velocity.”[C3-106] It could have been caused by either fragment found in the front seat of the limousine.[C3-107]
Commission Exhibit No. 350
Windshield of Presidential limousine.