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The kooky-as-all-get-out theory that has Secret Service Agent George
W. Hickey Jr. accidentally firing the fatal gunshot into President
John F. Kennedy's head in the midst of an assassination attempt being
carried out by Lee Harvey Oswald in Dallas' Dealey Plaza on November
22, 1963 is a preposterous and completely-untenable hunk of pure
speculation....and there are several reasons why.

To begin with, the very idea that Agent Hickey, via this crazy theory,
would have actually had the extreme misfortune of being able to "find"
John Kennedy's head just perfectly via his one "accidental shot" that
was discharged from his AR-15 rifle (and miraculously miss everything
else and everybody else in between himself and JFK) is just way too
far-fetched a notion for anyone to seriously consider as fact.

Giving credence to such a loony theory would mean literally ignoring
so many common-sense things (and ignoring so much evidence and
witnesses), it's pathetic. Such as.....

You'd have to believe that Agent Hickey just kept his mouth shut about
the "accident" with his AR-15 rifle. And you'd have to believe that
David Powers, a friend and personal aide of JFK's, who was sitting in
the very same car as Hickey, had somehow not even noticed this rifle
blast going off just inches behind where he was seated (or you'll have
to believe that Powers was "in" on the "cover-up" which would have
followed, which is nonsense of the first order; Powers would be the
very last person I'd suspect of covering up anything with respect to
JFK's death).

If Hickey had truly fired that fatal shot, you'd also have to swallow
that every one of the many other Secret Service agents in that follow-
up car in the motorcade (a total of seven additional agents) either
ALL didn't hear the loud rifle shot from right inside their own
vehicle...or that every single one of these men lied later on when
none of them corroborated such a shot from Hickey's weapon. Logical?
Hardly.

Kennedy aide Kenny O'Donnell was also one of the ten men riding in
that SS vehicle on November 22nd; and Mr. O'Donnell also failed to
back up such "Hickey Did It" nonsense.

Plus -- No witness that I am aware of claimed to have heard a shot
being fired from around the area of "Queen Mary" (the code name for
the Secret Service follow-up car), which is yet another annoying fly
in this theory's ointment.

And the biggie -- If a Hickey shot killed the President, then a
logical and reasonable explanation needs to be put forth to explain
away the two large bullet fragments that were conclusively proven to
have been fired from Lee Harvey Oswald's very own Mannlicher-Carcano
rifle that were found in the front-seat area of the Presidential
limousine.

And I've never seen such a logical or reasonable evidence-based answer
to that critical flaw within the "Hickey Shot Kennedy" theory.

Lee Harvey Oswald fired three shots from the southeast corner window
of the sixth floor of his workplace (the Texas School Book Depository
on Elm Street). The evidence supporting this fact is overwhelming.

And it's obvious that Oswald's second shot (aka the "Single-Bullet
Theory" shot) did NOT produce the badly-damaged bullet fragments that
were discovered in the limousine's front seat. And, IMO, Oswald's
first (missed) shot could obviously not have caused the limo fragments
either.

If a missed shot, moving at approx. 2,000 fps had struck the limo's
windshield and/or chrome strip (which were items within the car that
were slightly damaged during the shooting), that bullet would almost
certainly have penetrated the glass and/or chrome area of the car.
Such a full-velocity shot would not have simply dented the chrome,
broken up badly, and then scraped the windshield. The FBI's Robert
Frazier (who did extensive work for the Warren Commission after the
assassination) testified to this, in fact.

That leaves only the JFK head shot to account for the front-seat
bullet fragments. Oswald's third and fatal shot struck President
Kennedy in the back of the head, causing the now-severely-slowed-down
bullet fragments coming from JFK's skull to continue to move forward,
where the two fragments each struck one of the ultimately-damaged
areas at the front of the car (the windshield and the chrome strip/
frame).

A look at the front-seat bullet fragments (CE567 and CE569), linked
conclusively to CE139 (Oswald's bolt-action Carcano rifle):

http://history-matters.com/archive/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh17/html/WH_Vol17_0...

http://history-matters.com/archive/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh17/html/WH_Vol17_0...

Another thing that tends to debunk the Hickey theory is the fact that
out of the many still photographs and films taken in Dealey Plaza that
Friday in November of '63, not one of them can corroborate the theory
of Hickey shooting the President. There's not a photo in existence
that shows Agent Hickey with a rifle in his hands while riding through
Dealey Plaza.

There is also the official statement that was made by (and signed by)
Secret Service Agent George Hickey on 11/22/63, which includes the
following words:

"At the end of the last report {gunshot} I reached to the bottom of
the car and picked up the AR-15 rifle, cocked and loaded it, and
turned to the rear. At this point the cars were passing under the
overpass and as a result we had left the scene of the shooting. I kept
the AR-15 rifle ready as we proceeded at a high rate of speed to the
hospital." -- George W. Hickey, Jr.

So, Hickey says in that original signed report/statement that he
didn't even TOUCH the AR-15 rifle until AFTER the last gunshot had
already been fired in Dealey Plaza.

Agent Hickey's complete "Original Report" can be found here:

http://jfkassassination.net/russ/m_j_russ/Sa-hicke.htm

Therefore, in order to believe that President Kennedy was killed by an
accidental gunshot fired from the Secret Service follow-up car, it
becomes necessary to also believe that the above-referenced report
signed by George Hickey of the United States Secret Service is nothing
but a pack of lies.

Another of the errors associated with this Hickey theory (as put forth
in Bonar Menninger's 1992 book "MORTAL ERROR: THE SHOT THAT KILLED
JFK") is the notion that President Kennedy uttered the words "I am
hit" prior to being struck in the head by the fatal gunshot.

To be perfectly fair to author Menninger, that information about the
President allegedly saying "I am hit" isn't a fabricated piece of info
at all. It's in the official Warren Commission record, appearing
within the testimony of Secret Service agent Roy Kellerman (who was
riding next to driver Bill Greer in the front seat of the Presidential
limousine during the Dallas motorcade on November 22, 1963).

So Mr. Menninger does have one witness who claimed the President made
such a statement after the gunfire began in Dealey Plaza. Absolutely
no witnesses, however, have been unearthed who can support and/or
verify the main thesis put forth in "Mortal Error", i.e., the idea
that George Hickey accidentally ended the life of America's 35th
President.

Here's the relevant testimony given Mr. Kellerman:

ROY KELLERMAN -- "I turned my head to the right because whatever this
noise was I was sure that it came from the right and perhaps into the
rear; and as I turned my head to the right to view whatever it was or
see whatever it was, I heard a voice from the back seat and I firmly
believe it was the President's, 'My God, I am hit', and I turned
around and he has got his hands up here like this."

ARLEN SPECTER -- "With relationship to that first noise that you have
described, when did you hear the voice?"

MR. KELLERMAN -- "Okay. From the noise of which I was in the process
of turning to determine where it was or what it was, it carried on
right then. Why I am so positive, gentlemen, that it was his {JFK's}
voice, there is only one man in that back seat that was from Boston,
and the accents carried very clearly."

MR. SPECTER -- "Well, had you become familiar with the President's
voice prior to that day?"

MR. KELLERMAN -- "Yes; very much so."

http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/russ/testimony/kellerma.htm

Now, prior to accepting as fact the above scenario which has John F.
Kennedy actually speaking before the fatal shot hit him, I'd advise
reading some additional Warren Commission testimony, that being the
testimony given by the two women (Jacqueline Kennedy and Nellie
Connally) who were also riding in that limousine with the President
and Roy Kellerman.

The testimony of both Jackie and Nellie, who were each sitting closer
to President Kennedy in the car than was Mr. Kellerman, should leave
very little doubt about whether any audible words came out of JFK's
mouth throughout the entire shooting timeline. Let's have a look:

ARLEN SPECTER -- "Did President Kennedy say anything at all after the
shooting?"

NELLIE CONNALLY -- "He did not say anything."

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JACQUELINE KENNEDY -- "And my husband never made any sound."

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J. LEE RANKIN -- "Do you recall anyone saying anything else during the
time of the shooting?"

MRS. KENNEDY -- "No; there weren't any words. There was just Governor
Connally's."

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"Mortal Error" is just one more publication in the ever-expanding and
bulging library of JFK assassination books. And it's also one more
book, among many others, that can be filed in the category reserved
for "Groundless And Baseless Theories Regarding The Kennedy
Assassination".

In short, the 361-page book "Mortal Error" and the "Hickey Fired The
Fatal Shot" theory are nothing but "Monumental Errors" themselves.

David Von Pein
January 2006

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SOME "HICKEY"-RELATED DISCUSSIONS AND OTHER WEBLINKS:

http://groups.google.com/group/alt.conspiracy.jfk/msg/561b01e4cb153284

http://groups.google.com/group/alt.conspiracy.jfk/msg/9de16e9fe84813be

http://groups.google.com/group/alt.conspiracy.jfk/msg/5fe6fea277069438

http://groups.google.com/group/alt.conspiracy.jfk/msg/843ccb83cbe285ef

http://groups.google.com/group/alt.conspiracy.jfk/msg/9d1cc867b0b9646a

http://groups.google.com/group/alt.conspiracy.jfk/msg/b27f53eace64593f

http://groups.google.com/group/alt.conspiracy.jfk/msg/f717207e153620f4

http://groups.google.com/group/alt.conspiracy.jfk/msg/138855c20a6d5ba0

http://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-reviews/discussions/start-thread.ht...

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0312080743/ref=cm_rdp_product/002-20...