A former Secret Service agent's shocking disclosure about the John F. Kennedy assassination casts doubt on the Warren Commission's "single bullet" theory, long derided by conspiracy theorists.
Paul Landis, the 88-year-old former agent who witnessed the assassination in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963, says in a new book that he found a nearly pristine bullet on the back seat of Kennedy's limousine after the wounded president was rushed into Parkland Hospital's emergency room.
Landis, who had the duty of guarding first lady Jacqueline Kennedy, reveals the discovery in a new book, "The Final Witness," published by the Chicago Review Press in October.
The revelation adds fuel to claims that more than one gunman fired at Kennedy. The Warren Commission concluded that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone, based on the finding that a "magic bullet" passed through Kennedy's body, then severely wounded Texas Gov. John Connally, seated in the front seat of the Kennedy limousine.
The single bullet finding supports the disputed conclusion that Oswald had time to fire three shots at Kennedy within several seconds, and acted alone.
Vanity Fair writer James Robenalt, who reviewed Landis' book and conducted extensive interviews with him, wrote a detailed account of Landis' disclosure for the magazine. The New York Times' Peter Baker wrote a less comprehensive article, which has minor discrepancies with Robenalt's piece.
Landis stood on the running board of the limousine behind the Kennedy vehicle when the shooting occurred, ducking to avoid flying blood and brain matter.
After the limousines rushed to Parkland, he and Secret Service agent Clint Hill persuaded the first lady to release the stricken president's body, which she cradled while sitting in the convertible limousine's back seat.
When Mrs. Kennedy followed the president's stretcher into the hospital, Landis says he saw the nearly undamaged bullet sitting on the upper ledge of the back seat, near where it joined with the car's body leading to the trunk.
According to Landis, 60 years later, he took the bullet into the hospital and placed it on Kennedy's stretcher next to his body, thinking doctors would find it when conducting a local autopsy, required by state law. He claims he forgot about the bullet, and never mentioned it to the FBI or Warren Commission investigators.
The bullet was later discovered, but doctors conducting an autopsy in Washington, D.C., not in Texas, concluded it came from Connally's body, although it was undamaged.
Investigators mistakenly thought the bullet had been found on Connally's stretcher, which sat beside Kennedy's in a hallway after the president was declared dead, and Connally underwent surgery.
Landis theorizes that somehow the bullet he found superficially entered Kennedy's back, and was jostled loose, either by Mrs. Kennedy embracing the president after he was wounded, or the impact of a shot from in front of the vehicle. The Zapruder film of the assassination appears to show Kennedy recoiling backward.
As Robenalt cites, Parkland doctors performing a tracheotomy on Kennedy used what they assumed was an entrance wound on the front of his neck, indicating a shot from in front of him.
Hill in an interview with Baker casts doubt on Landis' recollections after the passage of so much time.
While some of Landis' recollections appear implausible, they display a specificity of detail that gives them credence.
After 60 years, Landis's questions about the dubious "magic bullet" theory will stir new controversy about the assassination.