This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 12/4/2016
Very Rare Collection of 50 original first generation photographs used by Dr. John K. Lattimer to prove the “Single Bullet” theory and that Lee Harvey Oswald killed President Kennedy – 16 are illustrated in Lattimer’s book “Kennedy and Lincoln: Medical and Ballistic Comparisons of Their Assassinations”
50 black & white photographs, each 5” x 7”, owned and used by Dr. John K. Lattimer (1914-2007) to write his book “Kennedy and Lincoln: Medical and Ballistic Comparisons of Their Assassinations” (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1980), concluding that Oswald killed President Kennedy and that the bullet that penetrated Kennedy’s neck then passed through Texas Governor John Connally’s thorax and wrist, proving the “Single Bullet” theory. A copy of the book is present.
The following photographs from this collection are in Dr. Lattime`r’s book, quotes from book: (1) “Bullet Exit Holes in Shirt” Fig. 84, page 206, (2) “Bullet Nick of Necktie” Fig. 85 – “the actual necktie worn by Kennedy” – page 206, (3) “Test Apparatus for Reproducing and / Studying the Kennedy Neck Wound” Fig. 94, page 233, (4-9) “The Small Neck Wound” Fig. 95, page 235 – six different photos, (10-14) “Tumbling of Carcano Bullets After Striking Necks” Fig. 96 page 237 – “Five cardboard skins simulating Connally were placed the same distance from Kennedy’s neck, striking only soft tissue…” – five different photos, (15-16) “Effect of Bullets” Fig. 112 page 273 – “When the bullet traversed an experimental neck, it was slowed down, tumbled, and did not shatter the leg bone. Since Connally’s leg bone was not shattered, the bullet that hit him must have hit something else first, such as Kennedy’s neck, to slow it down.” – two different photos. Dr.Lattimer concludes “that both men were hit by one bullet (399), and Kennedy’s head was hit by a second bullet, and that no third bullet was involved.” Warren Commission Exhibit 399 is called the “Magic Bullet” by conspiracy theorists and other Warren Report critics.
In 1971, the family of President John F. Kennedy chose Dr. John K. Lattimer (1914-2007) to be the first nongovernmental medical specialist to review evidence in Kennedy's assassination. On January 7, 1972, at the National Archives, Dr. Lattimer made the first of several reviews of restricted forensic exhibits of X-rays, color transparencies, and black-and-white negatives taken during Kennedy's autopsy. He concluded, according to “The New York Times,” that “they ‘eliminate any doubt completely’ about the validity of the Warren Commission's conclusion that Lee Harvey Oswald fired all the shots that struck the President.” In his Introduction to “Kennedy and Lincoln,” Dr. Lattimer added, “My review of the restricted materials verified some gross differences with the Warren Commission findings, including the fact that the bullet hole in the back of President Kennedy’s head was four inches higher than on the diagrams in the official report…”
From the front dust jacket flap: “In a series of unique experiments, Dr. Lattimer packed skulls with simulated brains and fired more rounds of Oswald-type ammunition into Oswald-type mock-ups than anyone else, including Oswald. He fired hundreds of rounds into necks and bodies constructed of fresh pork to simulate human skin over human bones. Using the expertise gained as a military surgeon and as director of a vast medical research establishment [Chairman of the Department of Urology at the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University], he studied X-rays, photographs, and Kennedy’s restricted autopsy materials (he was the first nongovernmental-sponsored witness to see them) … He visited with the doctors who dealt with President Kennedy. He witnessed dozens of replays of the famed Zapruder film of the Kennedy shooting, at in the window of the Texas School Book depository that Oswald had occupied, and examined research materials from many sources, some never seen before…” This is the largest and most complete grouping of the 104 single photographs, including this set, we know to exist. This comes with a LOA from University Archives.