Unpublished Letter to the New York Times

Ms. Alessandra Stanley in her review of JFK TV films (Nov. 14) states that, “73 percent did not know that multiple tests have shown that Oswald’s rifle could have made the shots.”

Perhaps Ms. Stanley knows something the rest of the world doesn’t, but this is a false statement. No professional marksman in any simulated test has ever achieved the Warren Commission scenario with Oswald’s cheap Mannlicher-Carcano vintage WWII rifle; the trigger pull was too difficult, the scope was misaligned, and the firing pin was defective.  To my knowledge, there have been at least 4 attempts with professionals to simulate the shooting without that rifle. No person ever achieved what the Commission said Oswald did on the first try, i.e., attain 2 of 3 direct hits in the head and shoulder area to President Kennedy and Governor Connally in six seconds.  Carlos Hathcock, possibly the best sniper of the Vietnam era with 92 confirmed kills, tried it several times. He could never do it on the first try.  He gave up.

No person has claimed to have reproduced it in tests and its been done with superficial computer simulations i.e., see the Peter Jennings 2003 ballyhooed TV documentary, which supposedly justifies the single (“magic”) bullet theory that created 7 wounds in Kennedy and Connally with an illogical trajectory that defies gravity and common sense.

Further, when the FBI turned over results of their Neutron Activation Analysis tests on the paraffin cast of Oswald’s cheek, Commission counsel Norman Redlich wrote they could not conclude from it that Oswald fired a rifle that day.
Please let us be very exact about Oswald’s alleged guilt. He was never given a trial, either fair or staged. As such, he should always be identified as the alleged assassin.

Sincerely yours,

Oliver Stone
Co-writer and Director, JFK