Did Lee Harvey Oswald act alone in the killing of President John Kennedy 50 years ago next Friday?

For years, I seriously doubted the theory that a single bullet went through the President and then Texas Governor John Connolly, breaking the governor’s wrist before lodging in his leg and later finding its way nearly unscathed and virtually undeformed onto a hospital gurney. When I came into possession of a 6.5 mm Carcano in 1986, it became even harder to believe that someone could use the clunky bolt action to deliver three shots in rapid succession.

Probably the most investigated assassination of all times got a new look with modern science recently. Wednesday night on PBS, the show Nova aired “Cold Case: JFK.” A father-son team used modern forensics to take a closer look. The key to the single-bullet theory is the magic bullet, the one that appeared unscathed after passing through two people, causing seven wounds along the way.

Nova showed the Italian full-jacketed bullet was unlike most bullets. Most modern bullets that hunters use are designed to mushroom on contact with flesh. The bullet will deform and expand to cause the most damage and bring down the prey quickly. But the Carcano used an old design, there was no aerodynamic point, no modern boat tail, no hollow point. Instead, it was a long, cylindrical bullet covered completely by a tough copper casing. The ballistic experts on Nova fired the Carcano into a stack of pine boards. The bullet penetrated nearly three feet and emerged looking unscathed. The full copper jacket did its job. Suddenly, I doubt years of speculation.

Maybe the Warren Commission knew what they were doing. Wait! Did I just think that?

The same Carcano fired through ballistic gel and ballistic soap (which mimic the actions of human flesh) shows the bullet tumbling when it leaves the human analogs. The bullet is going sideways three feet later, much the way a bullet hit Connolly.

Suddenly, modern science -- the same one we see solving murders every week on prime time crime shows – is proving the possibility that Oswald did act alone. Not only that, they are proving the there is a good chance that Oswald was the only person firing in Dealy Plaza all those years ago.

There were three shell casings found in the Texas Book Depository. For years, the experts said the first one missed and the next two didn’t. Maybe they were right.

As for the ability to fire three more-or-less accurate shots with the unwieldy bolt action, the television show noted that Oswald was a dedicated Marine marksman. Practice, practice, practice would have worked out the kinks in the operation of the bolt action.

So maybe he did act alone.

And maybe Jack Ruby was just a lone guy seeking to right a wrong. The mob had nothing to do with the second assassination. Right?!

William Moore is the Senior Editor at Gulf Coast Newspapers. He can be reached at wmoore@gulfcoastnewspapers.com