Even though the show was an hour long the only thing they really concentrated on was the fatal head shot.
2008
This kind of computer analysis has only been available for about five years,
While blood spatter analysis existed in the 1960s, modern innovations have greatly improved its accuracy and the amount of information that can be gleaned from drops of blood.
A mock-up of the Dallas, Texas crime scene was set up, including the
depository, the "grassy knoll," and other nearby landmarks. Artificial
surrogates of Kennedy were placed in a car. Sharpshooters then shot the
surrogates from the model depository, the grassy knoll, and four other
plausible locations.
Schliebe, along with Tom Bevel, an independent
expert forensic investigator, were brought in to examine the simulated
crime scene. Both scientists had no idea what the experiment was for or
that it was a reenactment of the JFK assassination.
The two experts found a simulated gunshot would to the head that
closely matched the wound Kennedy suffered. Most of the simulated body
material had spattered forward into the car, consistent with a shot that
entered the back of the head and exited toward the front. There was
some back-spatter -- material that flew back in the opposite direction
of the bullet's trajectory -- but not much.
The general lack of back
spatter and the preponderance of spatter in another direction are two
of the clues, among others, that the investigators used to pinpoint the
origin of the shots.
"After Tom and I looked at the scene, we
pointed up and back away from the vehicle," said Schliebe. "Apparently
that lined up perfectly with where the sharpshooter had hit the model
head."
Along with advances in blood spatter analysis, another advantage modern forensic experts have is simulated body parts.
The
team used some of the most advanced artificial human heads in the world
for the ballistic tests. Made from a proprietary mixture by
Australia-based Adelaide T&E Systems, the heads have three different
materials which simulate the brain, skull and external soft tissue
(skin) -- that together respond to the trauma the same way a human head
would.
The simulated brain material was made from a pig-skin-derived
gelatin, dyed green. The skull surrogate is made from a special vinyl
ester resin filled with calcium and proprietary fibers. The artificial
skin uses a polyurethane and plasticizers to mimic human skin's physical
properties. The head was even custom-fitted, based on Kennedy's hat
size.
"The heads they used were quite interesting," said Bevel.
"They were considerably more sophisticated than anything I've seen
before."
In addition to the physical environment, a virtual
environment was also set up. A team from Los Angeles-based Creative
Differences went to the original Dallas crime scene and took precise
measurements of all the angles, distances, wind speed and directions,
etc., in the area to create a 3-D model of the crime scene.
To
animate it, the team looked at a video of the assassination filmed by
Abraham Zapruder. The Zapruder film, as it's called, is generally
believed to be the most complete video of the shooting because of its
clear view of the motorcade and the height it was shot from.
Only
two of the 486 Zapruder frames actually show Kennedy being shot.
Computer graphics expert Doug Martin highlighted the red parts of the
frames and the blood resulting from the wound, and plotted them onto the
computer simulation to see where the fatal shot came from.
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