Starter fails, battery acts dead...
 

New battery, no change. Turn the key to Start, starter slow, lights dim.

Bad battery? Starter?

No, both new. The STARTER BOLTS WERE NOT TIGHTENED PROPERLY.

Why this caused the battery to appear ' dead?' I dont know, but after loosening and retightening the bolts to the engine block, the starter cranks like new.

At first I was going to write that if the bolts were loose, then there would not have been a return path for the current that could handle the large amount of current that would need to flow to allow the starter motor to turn.

But then I realized that a more likely issue could be that the starter was misaligned so that the starter motor could not turn.