Description:

Kennedy John A rectangular piece of plexi-glass, 7.75” x 6” x 0.25”, with a bullet hole, from the collection of Dr. John K. Lattimer who has initialed on the plexi-glass “J.K.L. 86-57” (probably his JFK Collection inventory number) with a black felt-tip pen. Fine condition.

A prominent urologist who was also a ballistics expert and collector of historical relics, Dr. John K. Lattimer (1914-2007), in the years following President Kennedy’s assassination, wrote several articles in medical journals describing experiments he had conducted with rifles, scopes and ammunition similar to those used by Kennedy’s assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald. In 1971, the family of President John F. Kennedy chose Dr. Lattimer 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.”

Ostensibly, Dr. Lattimer was experimenting to see if a similar bullet would have significantly slowed down when it penetrated the plexi-glass of JFK’s specially designed 1961 Lincoln Continental bubbletop limousine, had the bubbletop been used. The Warren Commission reported that Kennedy’s card “was outfitted with a clear plastic bubble top which was neither bulletproof nor bullet resistant.”

The quarter-inch-diameter bullet hole ‾ with resulting cracks ‾ is in the right of the plexi-glass. Penned in black marker at the left: “ ¼“ PLEXI- / SAME TYPE / MATERIAL AS / USED IN JFK / LIMOUSINE ROOF.” Also in black marker, at the upper right: “ FRONT SIDE / 1-1-85,” and “GOOKIN” at the lower left. Also present is Lattimer’s original 11.75” x 9” file folder labeled on the tab: “86/57 JFK BUBBLE TOP / PLASTIC WITH 30:06 BULLET / HOLE IN IT BY GOOKIN.”

The 6.5-millimeter caliber Mannlicher-Carcano rifle used by Oswald was chambered for a 6.5-millimeter caliber Mannlicher-Carcano cartridge. It was comparable to the U.S. model 1903 Springfield and 1917 Enfield rifles, then in use, chambered for the 30:06 Springfield caliber cartridge.

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