Subject: Connally Clips 3
Date:    18-Jun-93 at 13:34   
From:    M. Duke Lane, 76004,2356

To:  Anthony Marsh,72127,2301

This from The Dallas Morning News, Jun 18, 1993, page 1:
 
"Bullet fragments sought from Connally's body: JFK assassination researchers
want tests" by Stee McGonigle, Washinton Bureau of The Dallas Morning News.
 
WASHINGTON--Several long-time critics of the Warren Commission report asked
Wednesday to remove bullet fragments from the body of former Texas Gov. John
Connally.
       Mr. Connally was wounded in the Nov. 22, 193, assassination of
President John F. Kennedy in Dallas. The JFK researchers argue that
scientific tests on fragments still lodged in Mr. Connally's wrist and thigh
will prove that more than one assailant fired on the presidential limousine
in Dealey Plaza.
       In letters to Janet Reno and Texas Gov. Ann Richards, the researchers
asked for help in allowing the fragments to be removed from Mr. Connally's
body before its scheduled burial in Austin Thursday.
       Dr. Cyril Wecht, a Pittsburg pathologist who has long ridiculed the
government's single-bullet theory of the assassination, said the fragments
are crucial evidence in an unresolved murder case and should be preserved.
       "We're not talking about something that is ghoulish or gory or
disfiguring," Dr. Wecht Said. "Any skilled physician can go in, take a few
X-rays, locate the pieces, make small surgical cuts and remove them."
       Dr. Wecht said he hoped that the Dallas County District Attorney or
medical examiner in Houston--where Mr. Connally died Tuesday of pulmonary
fibrosis--would order that the surgical procedure be done as quickly as
possible.
       "I'm not real optimistic that this is going to happen, but I do want
you to know that this is not a ploy," Dr. Wecht said.
       Neither Dallas District Attorney John Vance nor Harris County medical
examiner Joseph Jachimczyk returned calls.
       Dr. Wecht was among eight physicians who joined in a letter from the
Assassination Archives and Research Center to M. Reno. He also cosigned a
letter from the Dallas-based JFK Information Center to Ms. Richards.
       Carl STern, the attorney general's chief spokesman, said Ms. Reno had
referred the letter through her deputy to the FBI, which sent it to the
Dallas field office "to make a judgement on the matter."
       Niether Buck Revell, special agent in charge of the Dallas FBI
office, nor his spokeswoman could be reached for comment Wednesday night.
       Bill Cryer, a spokesman for Ms. Richards, said the governor had not
seen the letter from the Dallas group and would not take any action if she
had.
       "That's something that the (Connally) family would have to deal
with," Mr. Cryer said. "Certainly we would not want to be involved with it."
       Julian Read, a spokesman for the Connally family in Austin, said he
was unaware of the researchers' rquests and would have "absolutely no
comment."
       Mr. Reed [sic] said Mr. Connally's funeral is scheduled for 2 p.m.
with burial in the state cemetery about an hour later.
       According to the Warren Commission report, one bullet passed through
the president and into Mr. Connally's back. The bullet exited through his
chest, passed through his right wrist and went into his left thigh.
       The same bullet was laterfound lying on a stretcher in the emergency
room at Parkland Hospital, the commission reported. The bullet was only
slightly damaged, a factor that has fueled criticism of the report.
       Mr. Connally said several times that he believed he and Mr. Kennedy
were struck by separate bullets. However, he shied away from saying that he
believed there had been multiple shooters or a conspiracy.
       Dr. Wecht and Jim Lesar, president of the Washington-based
assassination research center, said X-rays taken at Parkland of Mr.
Connally's wounds clearly showed that bullet fragments remained in his wrist
and thigh.
       Dr. Wecht contended that a neutron activation analysis, a scientific
procedure used in ballistics studies, would show whether the fragments left
in Mr. Connally were fired from the same weapon used to kill Mr. Kennedy.
       The procedure would take less than an hur, Dr. Wecht said, and would
not prevent the family from displaying the body in an open casket ceremony.
       Although Dr. Wecht offered sympathy for the Connally family, he said
the importance of the evidence should outweigh privacy concerns.
       "It has to do with criminal justice. It has to do with a very, very
important part of American history," he said. "And you cannot allow personal
feelings to enter into this."
 
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