R.I.P. James Tague, who was struck by debris from a ricocheted bullet that was fired during the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and the wounding of Texas Governor John Connally on November 22, 1963 in Dallas, Texas. Ironically, (or not as the case may be) Mr. Tague was banned from Dealey Plaza for the ceremonies commemorating observance of the 50th anniversary of the day when the 35th President of the United States was assassinated and he himself, James Tague, was wounded during the same attack. Mr. Tague was a part of that history. The fact that Mr. Tague was wounded by a shot that missed its target effected the outcome of the conclusions reached in the Warren Commission Report in no less than dramatic fashion. Because the FBI had already determined that the maximum number of shots that could have possibly been fired–by one man from a Mannlicher Carcano bolt action rifle within the time allotted–was no more that three (3), it became necessary for the authors of the official story to contrive an extraordinarily implausible “theory” in order to explain all of the wounds without conceding the possibility of more than one shooter. Since one bullet accounted for the fatal headshot to JFK, and one bullet accounted for the wound to Mr. Tague, that left only one bullet to account for the remaining wounds, seven (7) in all, to both President Kennedy and Governor John Connally. According to the Warren Report, the remaining wounds consisted of an entrance wound to JFK’s back (“neck” in the report), an exit wound from JFK’s throat, an entrance wound into Connally’s back, an exit wound out of Connally’s right chest (after its having broken two ribs), an entrance wound into Connally’s right wrist, shattering his dense radius bone on impact, an exit wound out of Connally’s wrist, and a final entrance wound into Connally’s left thigh. The bullet became Commission Exhibit 399 after turning up at Parkland Memorial Hospital where the Commission concluded that it must have rolled out of Connally’s thigh in near pristine condition and was later “found” on a stretcher. Had James Tague not been where he was that day–to account for one of the three bullets–the deception of the Official Fairy Tale might have been more difficult to expose. As it was, the Commission, stuck with the FBI’s three (3) bullet limit, was forced to an explanation that is demonstrably absurd on its face.
Greg Burnham meeting James Tague for the first time (November 22, 2010)
James posing with this author’s wife, Julie, in Dallas.
