EXTRA BULLETS AND MISSED SHOTS IN DEALEY PLAZA,
by Michael T. Griffith, 1996

With the discovery that the single-bullet theory (SBT) is
very probably a physical impossibility, it is perhaps
appropriate to review the evidence of extra bullets and
missed shots in Dealey Plaza.  Since the SBT has now
been proven to be almost certainly impossible, we can be
virtually certain that more than one gunman fired at
President Kennedy.  We can also be quite confident
that, contrary to the Warren Commission's lone-gunman
theory, more than were fired during the assassination.
This being the case, researchers need to take another
look at the accounts of extra bullets striking in Dealey
Plaza, and to reconsider the implications of the subsequent
finding of additional missiles and weapons in the plaza.

Extra Bullets and Weapons
---------------------------

* Among the files released by the Assassination Records
Review Board (ARRB) was an FBI evidence envelope
(FBI Field Office Dallas 89-43-1A-122).  Although the
envelope was empty, the cover indicated it had contained
a 7.65 mm rifle shell that had been found in Dealey Plaza
after the shooting.  The envelope is dated 2 December
1963, so the shell was found sometime between 11/22/63
and 12/2/63.  Nothing was known about the discovery of
this shell until the FBI evidence envelope was released along
with other assassination-related files.

* Also released by the ARRB was an FBI report on the
discovery of a snub-nosed .38 caliber Smith and Wesson
revolver in Dealey Plaza.  The weapon was found the
morning after the assassination in the "immediate vicinity"
of the Texas School Book Depository Building.  The
revolver was found hidden in a small brown paper bag.
The FBI has not revealed how its investigation of the gun
was concluded, despite repeated Freedom of Information
requests.

* Other documents released by the ARRB discuss a Johnson
semi-automatic 30.06 rifle that was apparently found in
Dealey Plaza soon after the shooting.  The documents
strongly link this rifle to two men who have long been
suspected of having been involved in the assassination
plot, Loran Hall and Jerry Patrick Hemming.  The files also
reveal that the FBI took an intense interest in the history
and ownership of this rifle within hours of the shooting.
A man named Richard Hathcock, who lived in California
at the time, had kept the rifle in his office for a time.  The
day after the assassination, an FBI agent questioned him
about the weapon.  Among other things, the agent wanted
to know if Hathcock had an employee named Roy Payne,
who apparently knew a great deal about the rifle.  In one
of the released files, we read that Hathcock said the
following:

     It's my opinion that the reason he [the FBI agent]
     wanted to see Mr. Payne was that Payne's
     fingerprints undoubtedly were all over that rifle
     from his having handled it many times.  It's also
     my opinion that unless that particular rifle had been
     found [near the scene of the assassination] or some
     way involved in this whole thing, that the FBI would
     have no interest in it. (HSCA 180-10107-10443)

This rifle had quite a history.  It was used in CIA-connected
anti-Castro raids in Cuba.  Roy Payne said the weapon could
"put a hole in a dime at 500 yards" (HSCA 180-10107-10440).
Loran Hall and an unidentified Hispanic man took the weapon
from Payne about a week before the assassination.  Hall's
associate, Jerry Hemming, is known to have been in Dallas
on the day of the shooting, and Hall himself told Hathcock
five days prior to the assassination that he had to catch a
flight to Dallas (HSCA 180-10107-10440).

* In 1975 a maintenance man 




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