"They were considerably more sophisticated than anything I've seen before." "The heads they used were quite interesting," said Bevel. The head was even custom-fitted, based on Kennedy's hat size.
JFK RELOADED SHOOTER LOCATIONS SKIN
The artificial skin uses a polyurethane and plasticizers to mimic human skin's physical properties. The skull surrogate is made from a special vinyl ester resin filled with calcium and proprietary fibers. The simulated brain material was made from a pig-skin-derived gelatin, dyed green. There was some back-spatter - material that flew back in the opposite direction of the bullet's trajectory - but not much. Most of the simulated body material had spattered forward into the car, consistent with a shot that entered the back of the head and exited toward the front. The two experts found a simulated gunshot would to the head that closely matched the wound Kennedy suffered. Both scientists had no idea what the experiment was for or that it was a reenactment of the JFK assassination.
Schliebe, along with Tom Bevel, an independent expert forensic investigator, were brought in to examine the simulated crime scene. Sharpshooters then shot the surrogates from the model depository, the grassy knoll, and four other plausible locations. Artificial surrogates of Kennedy were placed in a car. 16th special, "JFK: Inside the Target Car," was to explore the theories and determine where the shots most likely came from using modern forensic science.Ī mock-up of the Dallas, Texas crime scene was set up, including the depository, the "grassy knoll," and other nearby landmarks. Widely believed to have fired the shots that killed Kennedy, Oswald was shot and killed by Jack Ruby before he could be brought to trial.Ĭonspiracy theories abound on the number of shots fired, the number of shooters, and the location and identity of the shooter(s). Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested an hour and twenty minutes after the shooting. A second shot entered the left side of Kennedy's head and exited out the right side, spraying a nearby officer agent and the car's interior with bodily material. The first shot entered Kennedy's back and exited out of his throat. Kennedy was shot twice while traveling in his limousine through Dallas, Texas. "Before that we thought we knew what was going on, but because of innovations like high-speed photography we have a much better appreciation of what is actually taking place." "A lot of this is still fairly new, from the last 10 to 15 years," said Bevel. While blood spatter analysis existed in the 1960s, modern innovations have greatly improved its accuracy and the amount of information that can be gleaned from drops of blood.