Knott Laboratory's digital reconstruction efforts
Knott Laboratory, an industry leader in forensic engineering and animation for more than 40 years, was commissioned to create the digital reconstruction of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy to test the "single bullet theory" from the historic Warren Commission report. They have released their findings in advance of the 60th anniversary of the assassination of President Kennedy.
Kennedy was famously assassinated on November 22, 1963 in Dealey Plaza in Dallas, TX. The Warren Commission was assembled to investigate the shooting and issued a report in 1964 finding that Lee Harvey Oswald was the lone gunman, firing a total of three shots in the incident. However, evidence suggests the potential of a fourth shot from another location indicating a second gunman and a wider conspiracy to kill the president.
Knott Laboratory was hired by John Orr, a former Justice Department attorney, who conducted his own investigation as a private citizen, making trips to the National Archives to review every document available, and even being permitted to examine original evidence such as the president’s shirt. In 1995, Orr sent his report to then Attorney General Janet Reno, which did achieve some reexamination of the evidence by the FBI, but ultimately didn’t lead to anything new or conclusive. Once Orr hired Knott in 2018, modern science was able to corroborate his theory.
The "single bullet theory" concluded that one of the three shots fired from the window by Oswald struck both President Kennedy and Governor Connally. The report stated that the bullet hit Kennedy in the back, exited his neck, entered Governor Connally in the right armpit, exited his chest, went through his right wrist and embedded in his left thigh.
To reconstruct the scene with modern technology, the Knott Laboratory experts conducted a high-definition laser scan of Dealey Plaza to generate a point cloud of up to two million points per second, to accurately measure point-to-point anywhere in the scene. Knott Laboratory also obtained historic photographic evidence from the plaza, the limousine, and the "Zapruder film," which is widely known as the best video footage of the incident in its entirety.
From this point cloud, the team of forensic engineers was able to match images from the scene and the Zapruder film using a process called photogrammetry. They modeled the presidential limousine using multiple photographs and established the correct dimensions of the vehicle. Through a process called match moving, they synced frames from the Zapruder film into the digital recreation of the scene. The match moving enabled the alignment of the digital models of Kennedy and Connally in the vehicle to establish their positions frame by frame throughout the incident.
“With the ability to measure distances, locations and angles from the point cloud, we could develop the exact trajectory between Oswald's shooting position and points on each body,” said Stanley Stoll, CEO & Principal Engineer of Knott Laboratory. “Our team tested bullet trajectories using the two frames from the Zapruder film where the first shots occurred and the known entry and exit points on Kennedy and Connally.”
Stoll continued, “The shooting position, bullet exit point on President Kennedy, and entry point on Governor Connally should all be reasonably in line. When drawing this line from the sixth floor perch of the Texas Book Depository to the positions of the two men and their entry/exit points, we found a significant angle difference. This case is ongoing, but evidence strongly suggests there is more to the story in this historic event. Modern science refutes the Warren Commission’s findings on the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.”
Press release from Knott Laboratory