5/9/2015 Mysterious Bullet Found on Infield in Dealey Plaza?

Evidence of a Cover-up?

Mysterious Bullet Found on the Infield in Dealey

Plaza?

Conspiracists thrive on stories of damning evidence of conspiracy that somehow mysteriously

"disappeared."

One such story involves a "bullet" that was supposedly found on the grass of the infield of Dealey Plaza
the area between Elm Street and Main Street. The account, touted by New Orleans District Attorney
Jim Garrison and repeated in numerous conspiracy books since the late 60s, was based on a series of
photos shot by Jim Murray and William Allen. The photos show several men examining the grass and the
curb. One of the photos (shown at right, below) shows three men of particular importance. One,
Patrolman J. W. Foster, is in a police uniform. Deputy Sheriff Buddy Walthers (standing) is in a business
suit, and there is a third man in a business suit (examining the turf) sometimes referred to as "Agent"
since he is assumed to be a government agent of some sort.

Apparently, they are looking for evidence such as a

bullet, a fragment, or evidence of a bullet strike. Did they
in fact find any such evidence?

Conspiracists say they did, and claim support from the

photos. One photo, for example, shows Walthers with his
hand on the ground, and conspiracy author J. Gary Shaw
claims that this shows "Walthers stoops to retrieve
something from the turf" (Cover-up, p. 73). No object is
visible on the ground. When he straightens up, Walthers'
hand is cupped, and Shaw interprets this to show that
Walthers is "clutching something in his right hand" (ibid).
But it is Agent who is explicitly claimed to have picked
up a bullet. In this Shaw follows Jim Garrison, who in On
The Trail of the Assassins said:

[In] another group of pictures taken at Dealey Plaza

shortly after the assassination by Jim Murray of
Blackstar Photo Service and William Allen of the
Dallas Times-Herald . . . Deputy Sheriff Buddy
Walthers is shown looking down at a bullet while a
neatly dressed blond man is reaching down to pick
it up. . . . The bullet was never seen again. The
Warren Commission did not ask Walthers about the
bullet or the blond man . . . and he did not
volunteer anything about them. Walthers
subsequently was murdered, so it is safe to
conclude that this bullet will remain on the long list
of missing or destroyed evidence. (p. 209)
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The Garrison investigation released, and a generation of conspiracy books has published, an extreme
blow-up of the Allen photo. On the ground near Agent's hand is a poorly defined object that is supposedly
a bullet (see below).

Unfortunately for the conspiracists who repeat this story, the object doesn't particularly look like a bullet.
In the second place, it isn't likely that an intact bullet from the assassination would be just laying around
in the Dealey Plaza infield as opposed to being embedded in one of the victims, or embedded in the
limo, or badly fragmented. Finally, if this is really a bullet, why is Agent ignoring it and carefully
examining the ground eight inches from the object?

Conspiracists insist that Agent picked the bullet up, and as evidence they offer a photo that shows the
man with his back to the camera, and his left hand cupped (at right below). The assumption is that the
man is holding the bullet that he has just picked up. Deputy Buddy Walthers continues to look at the
ground.

But if a bullet was found, where is the witness testimony? There is witness testimony of sorts supporting
the "bullet" claim. Author Richard Dudman, writing in the December 21, 1963 New Republic (p. 18),
reported:

On the day the President was shot, I happened to learn of a possible fifth [bullet]. A group of
police officers were examining the area at the side of the street where the President was hit,
and a police inspector told me they had just found another bullet in the grass.

While there is no reason to believe that Dudman lied about this, and no reason to believe that some police
inspector lied to him, there is also no reason to think that this was more than a rumor perhaps a hasty
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inference from the fact that several men were

examining the turf. Yet it seems to have been the
genesis of this whole business.

What about witness testimony that isn't second-hand

rumor? Contrary to what Garrison claimed, the
Warren Commission did question Walthers about
the supposed "bullet:"

Mr.LIEBELER.Therehasalsobeenastory,some
sortofstorythatyouweresupposedtohavefound
aspentbullet.

Mr.WALTHERS.Yesthat'swhatthestorywasin
thisbook,andman,I'venevermadeastatement
aboutfindingaspentbullet.

Mr.LIEBELER.Andyouneverfoundanyspent
bullet?

Mr.WALTHERS.NomeandAllanSweatt2or3
daysaftertheassassinationdidgobackdownthere
andmakeaprettydiligentsearchinthereallup
wherethatbulletmighthavehit,thinkingthatmaybe
thebullethitthecementandlaiddownonsomeof
thembeamsbutwelookedallupthereand
everywhereandIneverdidfindone.Ineverdidin
allofmylifetellanybodyIfoundabulletotherthan
whereithit.(7H550)

And indeed when Garrison, in December 1967,

repeated the claim that Walthers had picked up a bullet he denied it to the press.

Patrolman Foster told the Warren Commission that the men "found where one shot had hit the turf there
at that location" (6H252). He went on to say that the bullet hit the turf at the corner of the concrete
surrounding the manhole cover, and ricocheted out. Years later, researcher Mark Oakes asked Foster
point-blank whether he had seen anyone ". . . picking up a bullet and putting it in his pocket or anything
like that." Foster's response was "No sir" (Mark Oakes, Eyewitness Video Tape, Foster interview, 7/9/91).

The two photographers who photographed the scene likewise give no support to the "bullet" story. As
Richard Trask explains:

The Murray and Allen series of pictures indicates interest on the part of the officers at a spot
about three feet to the west of the rectangular concrete frame surrounding the manhole. An
examination of first generation prints from the original Murray negatives show an area in the
turf darker than the surrounding grass. When the question of a "slug in the grass" became a
point touted by New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison . . . Murray was curious enough
to make blow-up prints from some of his negatives. The Murray photo shows no identifiable
bullet. When asked 22 years later about his thoughts as to what he was seeing while taking
this group of photos, Murray stated, "At the time I was photographing, my honest opinion
was that it looked like there had been heel marks, and something like a spiked heel had come
out of the dirt and created a little mound of damp earth. I certainly didn't see any bullets or
anything". . . . The photos themselves are too inconclusive to be able to tell us what, if
anything, was picked up off the ground. (Pictures of the Pain, pp. 497-498)

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Like Murray, Allen is certain that no bullet was found. Allen told Trask:

It was my understanding that they were looking for either bullets or something like that,
fragments of bullets or fragments of something. I didn't see them hold up a bullet and say,
"Hey, here's a bullet," because I'm sure I would have photographed it if they picked up
something like that. I do recall them talking about a chip in the curb, but don't recall, in fact I
know I didn't see a bullet. I know I would have photographed it if they picked a bullet up.
But I don't recall them picking up and holding anything up and saying, "We got to keep this
for evidence," because I was standing right there with them the whole time. (Pictures of the
Pain, p. 543)

Thus, none of the people who were in the area around the manhole cover supports the claim of a bullet
being recovered. Of course, photographic evidence trumps witness testimony. But unfortunately, there is
no photographic evidence of a bullet being recovered. Seeing the Murray and Allen photos this way is at
best a classic example of seeing what you want to see in photos, and at worst pretty close to an outright
hallucination.

But note that conspiracy authors, having "established" the existence of the bullet, can parlay this factoid
into a grand scheme of evidence tampering and suppression. Witnesses must have lied. Documents must
have been faked. Evidence must have been thrown away. Shaw, for example, lists this "bullet" under the
heading "Material Evidence Suppressed," and uses it and other similarly bogus examples to claim:

The [Warren] Commission deliberately disregarded the obvious fact that material evidence
given it by its investigative agencies had been altered, suppressed and destroyed. In more
than one instance the Commission itself assisted in concealing important evidence harmful to
the lone assassin thesis. (Shaw, Cover-up, p. 60)

Then later, along the same lines:

Clearly there was an attempt by Federal and local authorities to conceal the facts as contained
in the evidence. The cover-up is all too obvious. (Shaw, Cover-up, p. 79)

Rhetoric like this sounds a lot more impressive if one doesn't know that it's based on a bunch of factoids.

You may wish to see:

Main Dealey Plaza Page

The "Bethesda Bullet:" another of Shaw's examples of "suppressed material evidence" that wasn't
supressed because it never existed
The "missing license plate" in a photo of the house of Gen. Edwin Walker that supposedly shows
evidence tampering
The "mysterious death" of Sheriff's Deputy Buddy Walthers
Further supposed evidence tampering: a photo that shows two spent cartridges in the Sniper's Nest
rather than the three the Dallas Police claimed to have found

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