Not All Exploding "Mics" are the Same: Jon Bray's Hypothesized Weapon Was Both--and It Likely Killed Charlie Kirk
I prefer the Bray Hypothesis overall to that of Schmitt's Skull-bone, Explosive Kill Switch. [Typos, stylistic alterations and correction of minor errors indicated.]
I have re-examined the hypothesis regarding the possibility of a[n] exploding microphone, clipped to the T-shirt of Charlie Kirk, as having been the instrument of assassination after listening to a conversation between Jon Bray, “Valhalla” and “TriggerSmart.” A later summary by Mr. Bray can be heard here, detailing what I prefer in full to call the The Bray Hypothesis of Shaped-charge, Exit- [and] Entrance-wound, Exploding Microphone that Killed Charlie Kirk, may be listened to here:
Jon Bray Explains the Exploding Microphone Hypothesis on the TriggerSmart Podcast
I recently supplied another hypothesis, let’s call it the Skull-bone Human Kill Switch, involving a conjectured explosive device implanted in the sphenoid sinus behind the nasal cavity. The reader can access that recent article here: The Skull-bone Human Kill Switch. There are points of agreement between these divergent hypotheses. Let me quickly assert that I believe that Mr. Bray’s hypothesis better explains the totality of disparate types of evidence. The presence in the transporting vehicle and elsewhere of fragments of what assuredly was the exploding portion of the microphone, initially confined to the inside of Mr. Kirk’s shirt and then later falling out, solidified my conviction that this hypothesis has great merit.
A photograph of particulate wounds on Mr. Kirk’s appendage strongly fits the expectation that an explosion—not a single gunshot wound to the neck—critically caused the death of the victim.
Of course, it is now clear to informed thinkers, that the claim that Mr. Kirk was killed by a shooter, reputedly Tyler Robinson according to the story promulated by the State of Utah, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the leviathan of the mainstream media, must be definitively and urgently rejected, as I argued elsewhere on Substack. This reality hardly need be argued except for the fact that Tyler Robinson is undergoing prosecution based on this claim with the possibility of capital punishment. You might consider, Charlie Kirk could not have been killed by Tyler Robinson with a .30-06 rifle.
Jon Bray’s persuasive hypothesis, if I may summarize it succinctly, is that a shaped charge from a clip-on, lavaliere microphone attached to Mr. Charlie Kirk’s shirt [was the lethal weapon employed]. It seems that there is much about shape charges that fails to be appreciated by many. In a shaped charge, the exploding gases are forced through a conical nozzle with destruction of the inner lining of the latter. This produces, initially upon exit from the originating device, a needle-thin jet of gas and micro-particles that travel at supersonic, even hypersonic, speeds. In the Bray hypothesis, the princip[al] explosive force is directed into the chest, thereby massively traumatizing the heart, lungs and great vessels of the thorax. Mr. Kirk’s heart could be expected to have been stopped instantly and most likely torn open, thus eliminating any significant arterial pressure and pulsations. This is consistent with the analysis that the hemorrhage from Mr. Kirk’s neck is venous ([therefore] dark, not significantly pulsatile and non-spraying) and—as far as I am aware from the initial [appearance of the] uprightly-posed victim—there was no frank, anterior (front-sided) hemorrhage. Mr. Bray and I agree about the identity of blood from the neck being principally venous blood, contrary to Candace Owen’s continued reference to a[n] “artery” (viz., the carotid artery) being severed. This latter point was frustrating to me and contributed to m[y] prematurely rejecting the “exploding mic” hypothesis. I should have better parsed the claims to separate out those distractions assigning her error to being [merely] incidental but, regrettably, I failed to do so. My error on this point is a good lesson in the practice of scientific method and demonstrates the ease with which emotional judgements [and associations]—great for quick, low- information decisions—can ruin the quality of long-term analyses when they diffuse beyond the precise point at hand.
The vaporization of watery fluids, and the expansion of pulmonary gases plus those vapors, can be expected to have been transmitted via the trachea and pharynx into the head region causing subsequent damage there as well. We do see a ballooning of Mr. Kirk’s neck consistent with this feature of the hypothesis.
There is [a] second aspect of Mr. Bray’s hypothesis that has also caused me to reconsider and to elevate my estimation of the notion of an exploding microphone in the commission of this crime. To make clear what is meant by this additional aspect of Mr. Bray’s hypothesis—this is the proposal, [now understood to be] well-supported by evidence, that a square piece of the microphone traveled outside of Mr. Kirk’s chest, under[neath] the shirt, and lacerated, and even shallowly penetrated, the neck region superficial to the left jugular veins. Mr. Bray has clearly identified [video evidence of] just such a rectangular object emerging, in front of the [momentarily delayed] flow of blood from Charlie Kirk’s neck wound.
The relationship of critical anatomical elements relevant to this second part of the Bray Hypothesis can be derived from an image used in a previous article where I discussed another prominent and contested case. In addition to an imagined jet from a shaped charge directed into the chest of the victim, here we have Mr. Bray’s accounting for the profusely-bleeding wound on the left side of Mr. Kirk’s neck.
This anatomical image [represented in Figure 1] first appeared here, The George Floyd-Derek Chauvin article, but is reproduced below for the reader’s convenience. Please set aside whatever opinions or emotions that you may have regarding that case and continuing situation to avail yourself of the information provided in Figure 1. Here is illustrated the relationship of the external and internal jugular veins (the vessels that return dark, relatively low-pressure, non-pulsatile, deoxygenated blood from the head to the heart). Hemorrhage from one or both of these veins (not the carotid artery) is fully consistent with the stream of slowly emerging blood from Mr. Kirk’s neck, in contradistinction from what would be expected had the carotid artery been severed.
Figure 1. This image shows an actual photograph of a cross-section of a cadaver’s neck roughly at the level of the Adam’s apple. The cut out of this photograph was sized and affixed to the head of a Styrofoam manikin. This image is being used here to illustrate the anatomical positions of the external jugular vein (EJV), the internal jugular veins (IJV) and the carotid arteries (CA). In the case of Mr. Kirk’s hemorrhagic wound, it is the left side of the neck with which we are concerned. Unfortunately, in this image, the left side of the neck is near the bottom and the vessels in question, except for the left IJV, are very small. The reader is asked to indulge the discussion and transform the relationship of structures better shown on the upper, right size in the cadaver’s neck. The airway (AW) is sectioned through the [l]arynx. Readers may be surprised to notice the small size of the carotid arteries, but it should be remembered that these vessels possess very elastic, thick walls compared to those of veins. In a lifeless, formalin-embalmed cadaver lacking the expanding pressure of pulsatile flow immediately from the heart, these arteries are contracted to a small diameter.
The purported laceration of one or both jugular veins on the left caused me [ ̷t̷h̷e̷ ] difficulty last year given that I had not fully assembled this aspect in tandem with the idea of the shaped charge penetrating the chest. I believed that those proposing the idea of the exploding microphone were suggesting that a piece of flying shrapnel was the intended and sole [cause of the neck] wound that Mr. Kirk suffered. The physics of that, were it not for the evidence of what is likely a square object emerging from the wound, are indeed unlikely—but obviously not impossible. Nonetheless, it would be nearly impossible for murderous planners—such as they may be—to rely on such a mechanism in order to kill Mr. Kirk. In actuality, it was most likely that the neck wound was not the principal factor that ended the life of Mr. Kirk. Instead, it was the shaped-charge chest wound that killed Mr. Kirk, perhaps along with trauma to the brain from the rising shock wave. The critical elements of the brainstem would have been immediately destroyed as a violent wave of gases proceeded up the airway, and through the tissues, into the upper and rearward portion called the nasopharynx along with the higher centers of the brain as well.
The shape-charge wound to the chest, assuming the role of the lavaliere microphone in producing this, was under this hypothesis most likely the planned action, [whereas] the wound to the neck—as Mr. Bray explains very convincingly—was merely an unexpected, accidental operational mishap. Assuming the correctness of this view, at the scene, perpetrators were likely faced with the dilemma presented by the existence of two disparately located wounds and one less gunshot to account for this reality.
Had the venous neck wound been the only wound, there is a chance—perhaps albeit remote—that immediate [compressive] pressure and hemostatic clamping might have saved Charlie Kirk’s life. I will let trauma surgeons and emergency medics weigh in on those prospects based upon a level of expertise which I lack.
The important point is that the apparent lack of such vigorous efforts to staunch the copious flow of blood from the neck by those immediately attending to Mr. Kirk suggests the disturbing possibility that some of these may have possessed privileged—and therefore criminal—knowledge of the existence of the fatal chest wound from a shaped-charge [device].
I have previously examined the curious facial expression of at least one individual, "A Grim Grin . . . may help to solve the murder of Charlie Kirk." Others have very keenly analyzed what appears to be the puzzling passing of some object[(s)] between those leaping to the side of the fallen Kirk, and then hurriedly (an inexplicably) leaving that very scene.
Mr. Bray has analyzed other aspects of this crime. Based on audio-recording evidence—as have others—of a “crack-thump” sound signature, Mr. Bray argues for an actual bullet flying into an intentionally “wasting” location. On this point, my suggestion that someone—perhaps Tyler Robinson in a patsy role—provided a camouflaging blank shot declines in persuasiveness. It is not, however, a foregone conclusion that a presumptive “cover,” “Red-Herring shot” was fired by Robinson, or even that it was fired from atop the Losee Center building.
A note that I might also point out is that the firing of a putative shape charge in the proximity of Charlie Kirk’s chest would not need to be triggered by the audible signal (analog-to-digital signaling) from the single, presumptive, cover gunshot. Both events could [have been] triggered by simultaneously-transmitted digital signals. The advantage, however, of the audible gating of the firing of the chest [directed explosion] [by] the cover [rifle] shot is that the firing of the former into the victim’s chest would only occur if the cover shot [had been] successfully fired. If the latter failed, but Mr. Kirk suddenly fell over following a perhaps-muffled sound, there would be immediate reason to suspect conspirators, most likely at least some of Mr. Kirk’s security team.
Last year, I was impressed with Mr. Bray’s use of software to dynamically map the movement of fiduciary points and vectors of motion on Mr. Kirk’s white T-shirt, though I was unconvinced at the time based upon the physics of equal and opposite force reactions and the videos that I had accessed. Even though Mr. Bray accounts for this in terms of a special situation presumptively-created by the hypersonic, needle-thin jet of a shape charge, I believe that this question of conservation of momentum [continues to] need further exploration.
Moreover, Mr. Bray argues that the exceedingly narrow, and perhaps self-cauterizing, entrance wound created by the shape charge could create a wound resulting in minimal bleeding, or even a grossly-undetectable entrance-wound (a known phenomenon even [involving] metal bullets). Instantaneous cessation of effective cardiac pumping could account for a lack of copious thoracic bleeding due to the loss of blood pressure. The hemorrhagic blood, sans a beating heart, would simply statically pool in the chest cavity filled with damaged organs and tissues. But, assuming that the perpetrators would need to plan for a wound commensurate with [a] gunshot involving a .30-06 round, entrance or exit, it would seem reasonable to think that they might desire for there to be a bloody wound on the front and, or, the back—and certainly the back. I have not fully worked out what [their] plan may have been and the odd occurrence that it was an accidental neck wound that provided the dramatic effects, even if these effects cannot be reasonably be associated with a .30-06 round, [especially given that it failed] to pass through the neck. It seems [therefore] that presumed conspirators failed to work through the physics of a .30-06 [wound] and the possibility that we would observe the motions and events as they did occur.
In the second of my Substack articles mentioned above, I explain the puzzle created by such a massive projectile presumptively not passing through the body and yet not violently thrusting the body backward due to the transfer of momentum in the line of flight were the bullet to remain lodged or deflected within the body. The sum total of putatively-deflecting structures must cumulatively respond (by vector summation) in that direction of that initial line of flight of the bullet. Since we are told that the .30-06 round did not leave Mr. Kirk’s body, we are at a loss to explain the picture with which we are left.
Regardless, Mr. Bray’s hypothesis is solid. We, the public, are deprived of essential forensic information. The duty of courts—judges and all attorneys making appearance—is first of all the truth. This should also hold true for police and governing civil authorities. It is [ ̷b̷o̷t̷h̷ ] legal, policing and scientific fraud to aim for, say, “preserving the state’s case,” if that effort involves violation of the truth, the spoliation of evidence or the thwarting of a proper investigation, [not to mention the egregious deprivation of the rights of a potentially innocent person]. Committing these latter-mentioned [acts] can rise to the level of a serious felony—even by courts or officers of the court. If engaged in by journalists or organs of the press, this is professional incompetence or even malfeasance also possibly deserving of civil or criminal prosecution, depending upon the circumstances.
Strictly speaking, the “Exploding, Skull-bone Kill-switch” hypothesis is not ruled out by the “Bray’s Shaped-charge” hypothesis, though I do believe that the former is not likely to have occurred in this case, nor is it necessary to account for the observed facts. The former hypothesis would require additional efforts on the part of conspirators or controllers which—though not beyond the capabilities of powerful actors and, or, those complicit post hoc in a cover up—it would seem unnecessary given more convenient options.
Provided this, it still is not completely unimaginable that a kill-switch in the sphenoid bone of the skull could persuade, and help secure long-term compliance from, actors entrusted with huge [ ̷a̷m̷o̷u̷n̷t̷s̷ ̷o̷f̷ ̷f̷i̷n̷a̷n̷c̷e̷s sums of money] or political power who were inadequately controllable through bribes or blackmail. The “kill switch” and the “shape charge,” the latter enabling the fingering of a patsy, could provide dual-term control of subjects of interest. We pray to God that such heinous activities will not come to pass in even a single instance [in a hoped-for brighter future].
Again. excellent work, Mr. Jon Bray!