Conspiracy theorists, rejoice: You’ll soon not have to leave your underground bunker to view the bullets that killed John F. Kennedy in 1963.
Fragments from the slugs used in the presidential assassination have been digitized for the web.
Usually preserved in a controlled vault at the National Archives and Records Administration in Washington, D.C., the artifacts were transported to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) for careful scanning.
The NIST team, including physical scientist Thomas Brian Renegar, produced digital replicas—true down to the microscopic details.
“It’s like they’re right there in front of you,” according to Renegar, who was not yet born when Kennedy died.
The National Archives plans to make the data available via its online catalog in “early 2020.”
The bullet that struck President John F. Kennedy and Texas Gov. John Connally, carefully preserved inside its glass vial prior to scanning (via J. Stoughton/NIST)
It’s been more than five decades since the young Commander in Chief was gunned down. Yet the nation still carries a morbid torch for the historic murder.
The National Archives regularly receives requests for access to the stored bullets—most (if not all) of which it denies. This project, however, will allow the agency to release 3D replicas to the public while keeping the originals safely preserved in their temperature and humidity-controlled vault.
“The virtual artifacts are as close as possible to the real things,” Martha Murphy, deputy director of government information services at the National Archives, said in a statement.
“In some respects,” she continued, “they are better than the originals in that you can zoom in to see microscopic details.”
The bullet is removed from the microscope and repositioned so it can be scanned at a new angle (via J. Stoughton/NIST)
As if two copper-and-lead fragments from the bullet that fatally wounded the president weren’t enough, the new collection includes the so-called “stretcher bullet,” which struck Kennedy and Texas Gov. John Connally and was found lying near the latter at the hospital.
You’ll also find models of two shots produced by test firing the assassin’s rifle, as well as a bullet recovered from an earlier, failed attempt on Army Maj. Gen. Edwin Walker’s life, thought to involve the same firearm.
The NIST ballistics team used the focus variation microscopy technique to image each artifact, charting the objects’ surface features and building a 3D map of their microscopic landscapes—like a satellite mapping a mountain range.
“It was like solving a super complicated 3D puzzle,” Renegar explained of the process, which required countless hours of rotating metal fragments beneath a lens, then stitching image segments together.
“I’ve stared at them so much I can draw them from memory,” he said.
A bright light evenly illuminates the bullet while the microscope captures a series of images (via J. Stoughton/NIST)
Zoom in to see the rifling grooves left by the barrel of the gun; move closer to see ridges and scratches too fine to feel with your fingertip.
Although an unusual project for NIST, the methods used to image these artifacts can prove useful in criminal cases involving what forensic firearms expert Robert Thompson described as “similarly challenging evidence.”
The scientists did not conduct any forensic analysis of the Kennedy assassination bullets; this exercise was strictly for historic preservation.
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- The John F. Kennedy Assassination: Lone Wolf Killer or Sinister Conspiracy?
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