The SABOT ASSASSIN

By J. L. Murchison

The Sabot Assassin is not a person it is a murder technique, a feasible method of committing homicide-
using sabots to mislead investigators of a crime. Nothing in this article is of my own creation from the
sabot to the reclamation of spent bullet’s can be traced back to a time in excess of one hundred years ago.
Even the use of sabots in brass cartridges was the creation of someone else. Although my research is based
in theory and practical laboratory experimentation these experiments are repeatable. No theory is viable
without experimentation and this is a summary of my first experiment of this theory.

First The Technique

The Sabot Assassin is incredibly easy to manufacture; Accelerator’s came in a variety of cartridges above
and to the left is a Remington 308 Winchester Accelerator. Next to it is a Remington 308 Winchester
Accelerator with the .243-inch 55-gr. bullet removed, beside the .243-inch bullet is a 40-gr. Winchester 22
long rifle target, the 22 target was fired into a 45-gallon barrel of water with a Cooy model 600. In the
pitcher above the rifling from the Cooy is visible on the spent bullet, another piece of forensic evidence
used by experts is the spent brass. Marks from the extractor, firing pin and microscopic groves in the bolt
face imprinted on the spent case can trace the bullet case to the rifle that fired it. The last step is to simply
insert the spent target 22 into the sabot on the Remington 308 Winchester Accelerator with a piece of led
weighing 15 grains and you have a Sabot Assassin. A person could use a 243 or a 22-250 with a 55-gr.
bullet for the sabot. For hi-powered rifle bullets you need a more complicated bullet trap than a 45-gallon
barrel, in my earlier experiments I used snow as my ballistic media. This method was effective however it
was also time consuming. Later I developed a water bullet trap infused with air to dissipate the surface
tension and the density of the water.

When fired the Sabot Assassin projectile travels down the barrel of the firearm, the rifling in the barrel of
the firearm cuts into sabot leaving the projectile in the sabot unmarred. After the sabot jacketed projectile
leaves the barrel the sabot separates from the bullet in flight, with the rifling from the 22-caliber intact. The
bullet continues on to the target as the sabot is lost to the environment, not recognized among other debris
at the scene or captured in a simple silencer. The brass from the spent 22 ammo is deposited at the
appropriate distance from the target. With a 22-caliber bullet in the target and brass from a 22-caliber
weapon at the scene experts would assume the weapon used is a 22-caliber. Should investigators acquire a
22-caliber rifle that matches the bullet and the brass, they would assume that it is the instrument that was
used to commit the crime.
 This method is not flawless, the marksman can fire the Sabot Assassin to close the target and leave the
sabot in or on the target. The 22 long rifle bullet will be traveling faster than a normal 22 long rifle and can
cause excessive damage to the target or vaporize in flight. In a clean environment the sabot can be easy to
locate, also is the potential of fingerprints on the spent brass or leaving the 308 spent brass at the scene.
Polymers if found on the projectile and unidentified can be assumed to be an inexpensive silencer, if they
are identified sabots could be recognized as the method of delivery. The most important is the type of bullet
used, target or full metal-jacketed bullets are the easiest to retrieve in pristine order this makes them ideal
for the sabot assassin.

All though flawed the flaws can be rectified, the 15 gr. piece of led can separate from the sabot and be
lodge in the target, in my experiment I used spent 22-caliber target bullet trimmed down to 15 gr. to
compensate for the difference in weight. If investigators of the incident were to find the extra led they
would assume it is bullet debris. The shot can be fired from an appropriate distance to compensate for the
greater or lesser velocity. The sabot can be captured in a plastic bottle used as a silencer, and gloves worn
to avoid fingerprints on the spent brass. Care can be taken so that 308 brass is not left at the scene or a
revolver cartridge and a revolver could be used to make the sabot assassin. With a revolver the brass
remains in the pistol and the chances of leaving the wrong brass at the scene is remote. If found with 308
rifle or the revolver and the sabot assassin ammunition prier to the murder as the law stands no charges
would be laid unless the firearms are illicit, and the attempt can be abandoned. After the murder if found
with the 308 rifle or the revolver, it does not match the murder weapon the investigator is looking for,
provided the inexpensive silencer with the sabots in it have been disposed of, and there are no left over
ammunition.

Illustrated above is an assortment of sabot assassin rounds made from variety of cartridges. Sabots vary
from 22/30-caliber to 45/58-caliber, a 22-caliber loaded into 30-caliber a 30-caliber loaded into 36-caliber,
(38, 357 magnum or 9 mm.), a 36-caliber can be loaded into a 45-caliber. The diversity of sabots in
standard American caliber can be purchased on the Internet and sporting goods stores. With odd caliber’s
as the 6. 5 mm. a custom sabot is easy to make from materials acquired at a hardware store. This increases
the number of various sabot assassin rounds that can be manufactured.
 How the Sabot Assassin is used
Police and investigators never give up today they are investigating murders that are seventy-five years old,
although not as actively as a recent murder cold cases are still investigated with the same determination as
if the murder occurred yesterday. This murder technique gives police and investigators a reason to stop
looking. Investigators start with the people closest to the victim, spouse, lover, family, friend, coworker or
an acquaintance, these people commit most murders. This can lead to tunnel vision and this technique takes
advantage of this weakness. To work there is a primary target and a secondary target. Woman are the most
likely victims of violent crime, if the wife of a couple is murdered apparently with the husband’s firearm or
a firearm the husband was in the possession of at the time of the murder, investigators would suspect the
husband.

In some circumstance the secondary target is the ideal target to shoot. If there is a grievance between a
person and the husband, and this person never met the wife, this makes the wife the secondary target and
the husband the primary target. By hook or by crook they acquire a firearm from the husband or a plant
firearm, then they make the sabot assassin using bullets fired from the acquired firearm. They return the
firearm to the husband with the unused ammunition or plant the plant firearm, so that the firearm and the
unused ammunition are in the husband’s possession at the time of the crime. Then they commit their
dastardly deed. With the assumed firearm used to commit the crime, matching ammunition in the
possession of the husband and the probability of people closest to the victim commit the crime. The
investigators would suspect the husband, the reason he would not commit the crime becomes the motive,
alibis unless they are ironclad have holes in them and the husband is in prison for life or sentenced to death.

It does not mater witch is the primary or the secondary target both are neutralized, one is dead and the
other is in prison for life or sentenced to death, and investigators are not looking for the real killer.
Investigators would not believe a suspect when they claim “I did not do It.”, “ I never saw that gun before.”
or “I was framed.” Innocent people do not know they need an ironclad alibi so they don’t always have one.
Investigators have heard all these claims before and do not believe them when they hear them, if the sabot
assassin is suspected unless they can figure out who was the primary or the secondary target, they do not
know wear to look for the real suspect.

A real Assassination and Clues to the Sabot Assassin

I was five years old when John F. Kennedy was assassinated on November 22nd 1963, in Dallas Texas. All
I know of the assassination of J.F.K. and the aftermath is from history books, transcripts of the Warren
Commission and The House Select Committee on Assassinations. Not wanting to write a book on the
assassination of J.F.K., I will keep to facts that relate to the sabot assassin.

Through the many committees, trials and other actions, the assassination of J.F.K. is determined to be a
conspiracy. For Oswald or anyone to assassinate J.F.K. they would need to know the rute of the presidential
motorcade. The forensic examination of photographs and film of the assassination, show John F. Kennedy
is shot from a minim of two directions. The testimony of Robert A. Frazier a firearms expert with the FBI,
demonstrated the 6.5 mm. Italian Mannlicher Carcano m91/38 bolt-action rifle owned by Lee Harvey
Oswald, was not in the finest of condition or a very accurate scope mounted rifle. Oswald’s rifle was found
on the sixth floor of the Schoolbook Depository with three spent rounds on the floor, one live round in the
chamber. All the bullet debris found was from Oswald’s rifle including the miracle bullet. In my experience
a bullet will travel through or into targets, they do not just fall out of the target on to a stretcher or a gurney.
Considering the political times Lea Harvey Oswald had a relationship with the USSR, military training and
was employed at the schoolbook depository. We will never know what Oswald had to say Jack Ruby
murdered Oswald before he could say much more then that he was a patsy. Witnesses that saw a man with
a rifle in the fifth or sixth floor window of the Schoolbook Depository could not identify the man as Lee
Harvey Oswald. Other witnesses claim the shots came from the grassy knoll. These are not all the facts
however they are related to the many pieces of conflicting evidence and questions asked throughout the
years. They are also the clues that point to the sabot assassin.
 The assassination of John F. Kennedy is not the best application of the sabot assassin, to many clues were
left behind. The public killing of the president is viewed by hundreds of witnesses and bystanders however
it did work so that any true resolution is never reached.

John F. Kennedy is the primary target and Lee Harvey Oswald is the secondary target. Lee Harvey Oswald
fits the ideal psychological profile for an assassin in the anti-Communist era in American at the time of
Kennedy’s assassination. Owning the firearm believed to be used by the assassin and a marksman in the
military gives investigators motive means and ability. Both Oswald and his firearm are at the Schoolbook
Depository, his place of employment at the time of the assassination gives investigators opportunity. With
motive, means, ability and opportunity supported by the bullet debris from Oswald’s rifle, who else would
investigators suspect.

The questionable accuracy of Oswald’s rifle becomes a moot point when considering the sabot assassin,
the rifle used to make the sabot projectile only needs to hit the bullet trap, only the firearm that fires the
sabot jacketed projectile needs to be accurate. The shots coming from more than one direction and leaving
bullet debris from one rifle is easily accounted for, when more than one firearm can be used to fire the
sabot projectile. The speed of firing three rounds in six seconds isn’t problematic, when three different
firearms can be used to fire the projectiles. A person can easily deposit the miracle bullet on to a stretcher
or a gurney in a crowd, when a bullet trap supplies the bullet. Oswald was never identified by witnesses as
the shooter. Depositing Oswald’s rifle, with spent ammunition as well as leftover live ammunition in a
common place for Oswald, is classic of the sabot assassin technique. Claims of innocents are common for a
wrongfully accused, Oswald said he was a patsy.

What convinced me that the sabot assassin method was used to assassinate John F. Kennedy is the miracle
bullet; I reproduced the same damage on a 22-caliber bullet fired into a bullet trap, during the experiments I
conducted for this article. Described as slightly bent and flattened at the backend as illustrated above,
convinced me they were made in the same manner. The chance of reproducing the same damage in two
different manners is remote, however to reproduce it in the same manner by accident is very likely.
Afterwards I looked closer at John F. Kennedy’s assassination and I was convinced the sabot assassin was
the method used to hide the truth.