Surveying And Mapping, Inc. was recently featured in a National Geographic television special that re-examined details of the 1962 John F. Kennedy assassination. The program entitled JFK: The Lost Bullet was produced for the 48th anniversary of that event. From the NGT press release for the documentary: “Most experts and skeptics agree that three shots were fired at JFK, but one bullet missed and was never recovered. The official investigations never pinpointed the time and location of all three shots and can only account for two of three bullets”.
The documentary “offers the exclusive first look at home videos from that fateful day, including the restored Zapruder film, remastered in crystal-clear high definition and combined for the first time together in one film.” The program attempts to sort through the known evidence, reconstruct the event as precisely as possible, and build a case to provide a clear explanation for the missing bullet fired by Lee Harvey Oswald. Shutting down the streets of Dealey Plaza, the team restaged the shooting using a replica of Kennedy’s car, an identical rifle and ammunition. Measuring the angle of the rifle with lasers, they match the approximate trajectory of each of the three bullets.
SAM, Inc.’s role in the production involved providing surveying support to measure the angles and trajectories of the known bullet strikes, along with other variables related to sniper’s position on the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository. Those measurements were then reconstructed on a film soundstage where further analysis of the mechanics of the trajectories could be tested.