Paul Landis, an 88-year-old former Secret Service agent who was present during the tragic assassination of President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963, has recently emerged with a fresh account of the events. In his statement, Landis emphasizes that his intentions are solely to encourage the American public to form their own judgments. His upcoming memoir is anticipated to challenge the widely-accepted “magic bullet theory,” originally put forth by the Warren Commission following their investigation into the assassination.
The findings of the Warren Commission indicated that a bullet fired at President Kennedy’s motorcade was believed to have hit him from behind, exited through the front of his throat, and subsequently struck Texas Governor John Connally, causing multiple injuries to Connally’s chest, back, wrist, and thigh, all purportedly inflicted by the same bullet. This led to the term “magic bullet” gaining prominence due to the remarkable path this single bullet was said to have taken.
JFK assassination witness breaks his silence and raises new questions https://t.co/2WZHN4zc9w
— The Boston Globe (@BostonGlobe) September 10, 2023
According to investigators, the bullet in question was reported to have been discovered on a stretcher that was believed to have held Governor Connally at Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas. However, Paul Landis, who was never interviewed by the Warren Commission, presents a different narrative.
Landis asserts that he actually found the so-called “magic bullet” not within the hospital but inside the presidential limousine. Upon spotting the bullet, he took hold of it and, for reasons that even he finds unclear, placed it on the stretcher with the hope that doctors could potentially utilize it to aid President Kennedy. Landis believes that at some point, the two stretchers were brought into close proximity, causing the bullet to shift from one stretcher to the other.
“There was nobody there to secure the scene, and that was a big, big bother to me. All the agents that were there were focused on the president. This was all going on so quickly. And I was just afraid that — it was a piece of evidence, that I realized right away. Very important. And I didn’t want it to disappear or get lost. So it was, ‘Paul, you’ve got to make a decision,’ and I grabbed it,” Landis said.
Landis posits a theory suggesting that the bullet did indeed hit President Kennedy but, for some unspecified reason, it lacked the necessary force and failed to penetrate deeply.
However, it’s important to note that Landis refrains from speculating on the broader implications of his narrative. Throughout his career, he firmly held the belief that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone as the gunman, though he has recently started to question this conviction.
