Explaining the Shooting of Governor John Connally

It’s fall, the temperature is falling, the leaves are turning and with November here, we have some repeats to watch on the cable networks.

The History Channel will show one of their favorites, ABC’s documentary “Beyond Conspiracy” featuring Peter Jennings and a computer animation which shows a bullet that hit President Kennedy’s back four inches below his collar but then the bullet allegedly exited his neck after nicking the upper part of the knot of his tie, and then it goes down at approximately a 25 degree down angle to hit Governor Connally in his back. It’s amazing what computers can show.

We’ll also most likely see the Discovery Channel’s explanation of the assassination in “Beyond the Magic Bullet.” This show also features Dale Meyers’ computer animation, the same one used in “Beyond Conspiracy.” The show goes beyond the previous documentary as the producers go to Australia to get an expert shooter to attempt to duplicate the magic bullet, the shot that hit both JFK and Governor Connally. The shots they fire are aimed at figures composed of material which act like human muscle and bone when a bullet is fired into them.

For over 40 years we’ve heard and seen documentaries which talk about strange details in the JFK assassination investigation and reports. We first had the Warren Commission appointed by President Johnson with the main purpose to show that a lone gunman fired three shots at the limousine and wounded JFK, Governor Connally and a bystander too. We then had the House Subcommittee on Assassinations investigation in 1978 which investigated additional evidence in part because the Zapruder film was first shown to the American public on night TV in 1975. One of the newer pieces of evidence was the finding that the Dallas Police radio channel recorded a stuck open microphone during the time of the assassination and may have actually recorded the actual gunshots.

In 1991 the movie “JFK” again ignited the public’s curiosity about the assassination with “back and to the right” along with witnesses saying they saw another gunman. The government again responded and gave us the Records Review Act which released even more information about the murder. In 1997, the Zapruder film was digitized and now we can see even more details in the film. And in 2001, a statistical analysis was published concerning the Dallas Police recording with the finding there were five shots captured by the recording. A gunshot and it’s reflections off objects is like a fingerprint in that it’s fairly unique and dependent on where the shooter is and where the microphone is that captured the sounds, and the objects such as buildings that the sounds reflect off of.

Although we’ve heard about “discrepancies” for years in documentaries such as the “Men Who Killed Kennedy,” we’ve also had some documentaries disappear from the airways as the History Channel found them not to be accurate such as the “Guilty Men”, a documentary that fingered Vice-President Johnson and other cronies in a Texas murder ring.

The story in my opinion will not die as so many of the “facts” don’t seem to fit reality. We need to see something that makes sense.

Last year I met with one of the best known critics of the Warren Commission. I showed Dr. Cyril Wecht that one assumption made in the killing had led virtually everyone to make incorrect conclusions in the case. That assumption is that all of Governor Connally’s wounds were caused by one bullet when in fact Governor Connally was wounded by two separate shots which were both fired from the Texas School Book Depository. Dr. Wecht’s questions and observations led me to do more research which I’m still working on.

But what I want to show you today is when Governor Connally was wounded, something that has never been shown correctly on any of the documentaries or in any of the books that I’ve reviewed. You see, experts such as Dr. Wecht have been arguing about what did not happen. Instead, let’s show you what actually did happen.

To briefly familiarize you with the Zapruder Film frame numbers, Z frame number 313 will be called Z313. The following are a few major frame numbers for familiarization.

Z=160 Some theorize the first shot from the Texas School Book Depository, we see Gov. Connally’s head movement to the right shortly afterwards

Z=220 We first see President Kennedy emerge from behind the sign, clutching his throat and obviously wounded

Z=220 to Z=324 Governor Connally turns to look over his shoulder toward what he thinks are gunshots

With the film speed of 18.3 frames/second, things happened quickly, too quick for 1960’s technology and the lack of accurate information they had to extract the truth. What we can see now in individual frames captured and edited was not possible even a few years ago when everything was analogue. And of course, nobody looked at Governor Connally closely after JFK's head shot at Z=313. Most everyone was sure all the serious action was over.

To those of you who remember the basic scenarios of the Warren Commission and the other numerous theories, the descriptions shown above concerning Connally’s wounds are new. And as I’ll show you, it isn’t a theory, it’s the only times Governor Connally could have been wounded in the eight seconds from the first shot until the last was fired.

With literally thousands of books and hour after hour of documentaries on what must surely be the most investigated murder in history, at this time let’s concentrate on Governor Connally’s wounds. Once you understand the only way possible that Governor Connally could have been wounded based on the facts we have, then not only can we understand how both men were wounded, it will once and for all reveal how the Guilty Men pulled this off.

The first question concerns the last shot shown above at Z=325. The Warren Commission concluded the last shot was the fatal head shot at Z=313 but was faced with testimony such as one of the best witnesses, Secret Service agent Roy Kellerman who sat in the Limo directly in front of Governor Connally. During his Warren Commission testimony, Kellerman spoke of the ending of the shooting as a “flurry” of shots. When pressed for how many, he said two. He described the spacing of the last two shots as bang-bang. When Arlen Specter pressed him again, he said it was like an airplane breaking the sound barrier (the front of the plane breaks the sound barrier before the rear of the plane, hence you hear bang-bang also).

When Arlen Specter asked the spacing between the first shot and the flurry of shots, Kellerman said three to five seconds.

When we look at the Zapruder film, we see at Z=325 the collapse forward and downward movement of Connally’s head. Looking at the sequence in real time, we see Connally driven quickly forward with his head snapping forward when he is shot. Further confirmation is given when you look at the analysis of the Dallas Police Recording. The difference between the Z=313 shot and the last shot is 0.7 seconds or approximately 12 frames.

We now have a credible witness, a recording, and the best motion picture of the assassination showing agreement that a shot was fired at Z=325.

But listen to a recent explanation of the Zapruder film factoring in the Dallas Police Recording. The reasons for Dr. Thomas' confusion and his trying to cling to the Warren Commission's are easily explained, but I'll leave that for later. Listen to the description of the last shot, "fired almost simultaneously" but they didn't even look to see what it might have done.

A Warren Commission supporter will tell you that Governor Connally could not have been shot after Kennedy was shot because his leg wound does not line up with the shot trajectory through his body and through his right wrist. And, of course, there were only three bullets fired from the TSBD.

The hole in their argument is that Connally was indeed wounded earlier by a bullet fragment which entered Governor Connally’s leg. And note the importance of the fact to this investigation that it was a bullet fragment, not an intact bullet. That Connally was hit by a bullet fragment to his left leg is well documented but many of today’s documentaries incorrectly describe that the left leg wound was caused by an intact bullet which then fell out of his leg later at the hospital.

Three bullet fragments were found under Nellie Connally’s seat (CE840), who sat directly to the left of Governor Connally. It’s therefore credible that the bullet fragment that John Connally’s left leg is from the CE840 shot.

To test this “theory” against the Warren Commission’s, I took some of the better known observations in the JFK assassination list and compared the Z=325 scenario against the Warren Commission scenario. This is a quick way to see how facts fit against both theories.

(1) If seriously wounded at approximately Z=220, this turn would be incredible for a man wounded so seriously.

(2) Connally’s right wrist is allegedly broken by the shot at Z=220, it’s not reasonable to believe he could hold his hat for over 5 seconds

(3) Both Nellie and John Connally were actually very sure he was not wounded by the same bullet that first struck JFK. At a showing of the Zapruder film, John Connally guessed that he was wounded closer to Z=238. If the Dallas Police recording is valid, there is no shot fired at that time. Roy Kellerman’s testimony also stated that it was 3-5 seconds before the last two shots after the first.

(4) The Single Bullet supporters such as Dr. Latimer use this as support that the bullet which hit Gov. Connally in the back struck something else first. Experimental shots show that a bullet passing through tissue like JFK’s upper body tends to roll over; hence the wider scar that was left in Gov. Connally’s back. This is not proof, however, that the bullet struck something else before it entered John Connally’s back.

(5) FBI agent O’Neal described the autopsy discovery of the bullet wound to Kennedy’s back and then said no point of exit was discovered by probing with both the doctor’s finger and instruments.

The above table indicates based on some of the information commonly discussed concerning the assassination that the Z=325 scenario has merit. When you look at the location of the shot to JFK’s back (four inches below the collar) and the fact that after exiting his neck, the bullet next has to be traveling at a 25 degree down angle; this is probably the major reason the single bullet theory has been so disbelieved.

Is that enough of an introduction? I’ll tell you later the rest of the story as for this to be credible, there had to be at least six shots with three different shooters according to one of the doctors involved in the Warren Commission investigation. But as I’ve shown so far, Governor Connally’s left leg wound was caused by a bullet which fragmented and hit both JFK and Governor Connally.

That reduces to five shots and three different shooters, three shots from the TSBD and two shots from the front of the limo, fired by two different shooters. And funny thing is, there were witnesses who saw them!

To give you a hint about the rest of the story, in Tip O’Neal’s book, “The Man of the House” he discusses a conversation with JFK aid Kenny O’Donnell who said he was quite sure there were two shot fired from the front. O’Donnell also tells why he did not tell the Warren Commission what he saw and heard when he testified.

The cover-up and the misinformation supplied by the government is as interesting as the shooting analysis itself. You see, for the government to get the investigation this wrong with testimony so clear, there had to be some interesting arm twisting going on. Arlen Specter, do you even today have a clue what you did? And Gerald Ford, the lone surviving member of the Warren Commission, you have to know something, don’t you? Or did both of you keep your heads buried in the sand as you were manipulated by the Guilty Men? The truth is buried in a Conspiracy of Silence, just like Dr. Crenshaw said in the first book I read on the subject.

And how could the major news media keep getting this so wrong? "We" will deal with you later.

If you check Tip O’Neal’s book, “The Man of the House”, you’ll see that he talks about Kenny O’Donnell’s description in the book of two shots that were fired from the front. Since O’Donnell was in one of the cars behind JFK’s, he had a unique position and describes later to Tip O’Neal why he did not tell what he saw correctly to the Warren Commission.

Now let’s look at the individual frames and see Connelly’s head snap downward immediately after the bullet hits him in the back. I drew a white line through the back of his head in each frame to make the rapid movement of his head clearer. This is the first time to my knowledge that this head movement has been documented. With 18.2 frames per second, it would be virtually impossible for Connally’s head to collapse without an external force.

Now that you see in just a couple of frames how Governor Connally's head rolled down as he was ducking forward from the Z=313 shot that hit JFK in the head, listen to his description of how he was thrown forward as he was shot in the back.

As you listen to Connally's description, the part about how he was hit in the back and thrown forward by the force of the bullet agrees with the Z=325 shot to Connally's back scenario very well, but then Govenor Connally goes on to describe how he then hears the fatal shot to JFK's head.

One of the reasons that this issue has been so confusing for so long is that many of the witnesses only got parts of what they said correct. Governor Connally, for example, did not see the head shot to President Kennedy as he was looking forward as he was turning to look over his left shoulder but he clearly says in his interview clip that JFK was shot after his back wound was received. Secret Service Agent Roy Kellerman says he heard one shot followed by 3-5 seconds then two shots, bang-bang. Kellerman argues with Specter later trying to reason there had to be more shots than three but Kellerman never says he heard more than three. The shots Kellerman identifies are number 3, 4 and 5. Shot 3 fragments and hits both JFK and wounds Connally in the left leg with a bullet fragment, shot 4 is the fatal head shot at Z=313, and shot 5 is the shot to Connally's back at Z=325.

And later when other details are explained, the actual killers will be exposed. No investigation could get this so wrong without some serious arm twisting.

"BILL_C, do you agree with the following two observations?

1) The bullet hole in the President's shirt is four inches below the collar (based on photographs and measurements of shirt). 2) The bullet hole in Pres. Kennedy's back is 14 cm below the right mastoid process (based on photographs and measurements of the President's back wound). Note: The mastoid process is that boney bump behind your ear, about level with the tip of your ear lobe.

I've thought about this reply for several days and, no, I can't agree. Both pieces of evidence are from an autopsy that with NO QUESTION been caught with lies and deceptions. ANYTHING they say has to be treated with caution by someone who wants to understand the truth.

The FBI agent (Frances O'Neill) said the bullet wound was below the shoulder and two inches to the right of the spinal column in his report, I think we can agree on that as it defines the location well enough to understand roughly the point the bullet entered.

O'Neille goes on to say that the investigators were mistaken from the beginning as he said "nothing about the bullet hitting him (JKF) in the back of the neck, I don't know where he got that from."

Remember, all I'm trying to do is COMPARE two possible scenarios, one where the bullet hit JFK below his shoulder, exited his neck about the top of the tie knot on his neck, and then went down at an approximate 25 degree down angle.

vs.

A scenario where Connally is hit in the back at Z=325 with a shot that was heard by witnesses and the effects can be clearly seen on the Zapruder Film and more importantly, it agrees with one of the major observations of two important witnesses in the car, John Connally was not struck by the first bullet that hit JFK (except for the minor wound to his left leg at around Z=222).

There's another constraint that is becoming obvious, If you want to validate the Warren Commission's single bullet theory, then you can use government supplied information. IF you want to validate Connally hit in the back at Z=325, then you have to regard ALL information with suspicion that COULD HAVE been tampered with, as we know some of it was altered.

We showed this character the photos of the wound in the back. It showed the bullet wound with a ruler next to it for clarification. We explained the measurement from an exact point which is the Mastoid Process to the bullet wound and measuring 14 centimeters.

Reading his post, you can now observes someone's brain explode. With that clear and concise measurement, everything he wrote on this thread becomes a lie.

If you saw him in person, he would be sticking his fingers in his ears and yelling, "I CAN'T HEAR YOU!!!!".

Here's mine, 50 people did it, they were standing right along the street. They were using cloaking devices from the mother ship.

What a load of crap. Here's the real story: Kennedy was killed by John Wilkes Booth. Booth, having faked his own death a century before, used a bio-stasis machine invented by Jules Verne to go into hibernation until his plot was ready to come to fruition (specifically, he was waiting for another southern Democrat named Johnson to become Vice-President). On January 20, 1961, he was thawed out by the great-grandchildren of his old co-conspirators, and he used his professional acting skills to recruit a number of helpers in the plot, including the scapegoat Oswald. I think it's pretty obvious to any honest observer that this is what happened. You can clearly see Booth standing in the crowd in frames 295 through 297 of the Zapruder film, with a receipt for a Carcano rifle protruding from his breast pocket.

--- Carlsens timeline, posted at 319, casts doubts on the Reports 'single bullet timeline' - as instead of eight seconds - there are less than six to account for the three shots:

1) Aim, fire first shot at frame 210, -- as frame 226 indisputedly shows JFK throat hit.

2) Cycle action, aim, fire second round. - Miss. -- Shot downrange that hit curb could not have been defelected earlier at frame 160.

3) Cycle action, aim, fire third round. -- Frame 313 indisputably shows head hit on JFK.

Maximum 103 frames, - 5.48 seconds, - to fire the last two shots with a rifle that indisputably takes a minimum of 2.3 seconds to cycle the action. - Leaving less than a second to twice recover aim on a moving target.

Show me an expert able to convincingly duplicate the feat. - None ever did so.

The case is far from 'closed'.

....that's when the shots occurred. I heard what I thought was a rifle shot. I immediately reacted. By turning to look over my right shoulder 'cause that's where the sound came from. I didn't see anything out of the ordinary and was in the process of looking over my left shoulder when I felt a blow in the middle of my back as if someone had hit me with a doubled up fist about like that[demonstrates a punch]. The blow was of such force it bent me over and I immediately saw I was covered with blood and I knew I was hit and I said, "oh, my God, they're going to kill us all.
And I heard another shot that was a loud shot almost like that and immediately I saw blood and brain tissue all over the back of the limousine.

John Connelly

The first shot, he didn't see anything out of the ordinary. The second shot, he was hit. The third shot hit the President in the head.

Sorry smoketree, but the head movement is exactly like a rear shot. On initial impact his head is quickly moved to the front by about two inches. It's only during the aftershock the head is moved to the rear and left which is the same movement away from the "red mist" Connelly and Mrs, Kennedy react to.

In following trajectories, the rule is for any gunshot that hits a significant amount of resistance, it's small hole in, large hole out since struck matter also becomes moving debris causing even more damage. The rear of the skull also exhibited the evidence of cratering. That's the damage a piece of glass has when it's shot with a BB or pellet gun. The outer surface has a small hole and widens toward the inner surface like a crater.

I notice you had no intention of explaining just where a forward shot may have originated. Since the windshield had but a small inner crack in it which was probably caused by the third shot, any shot from the front is impossible. The third shot's two large fragments which dented the windshield chrome and the cracking the windshield were found forward of Kennedy. One fragment on the driver's seat and the other on the front floor. There's also the witnesses who were standing on the railroad bridge making any "sniper's nest" impossible. The two officer were instructed to remove any personal who didn't belong such as reporters but they had no jurisdiction to remove railroad workers. That's why a small crowd, including two Dallas Police officers, were on the railroad bridge making the foward shot impossible.

Are you saying that the "red mist" is the force jerking his head back and to the left?
If the bullet came from the rear then his head would have moved forward and down.
why doesn't it do that?
And don't tell me that the material ejected was the force because all material would be gong in the same direction, forward and down.
I'm not saying where the shot came from only that the head shot cannot be from the upper rear right.
Sorry there is no amount of words that can dispute the movement of his head.

Nope and nope. Small hole in, Large hole out.
The only "force" that was evident on impact was the two inches forward when the bullet struck the back of his head. There's even the autopsy report of the spray of lead particles in a cone shape toward the front of his head.

The horrible truth is Kennedy was still alive even after being struck by the third shot. There's no way of judging what a body will do when the "electrical current" was short circuited.
The Zapruder film classically shows a shot from the rear but the huckers never bother to falsify the Zapruder film like they tried the backyard Oswald with rifle photo. It's because the hucksters don't understand bullet impacts. Oliver Stone did in his movie when he reversed the "red mist" showing spraying from the rear instead of the front as in reality.

I have visited Dealy Plaza on a number of occasions. I live just outside of Dallas. The trajectory doesn't match any of the theories except for the sixth floor. The next time you are at a parade, envision a person fifteen feet away from you behind a rickety old fence aiming a military rifle and firing it toward you. Imagine the muzzle blast and shock wave. The ear closest to the blast would continue to ring for about 24 hours. Then tell me you couldn't tell me an accurate account of what the man looked like, the type of rifle used and which way they walked or ran away.

The guy in the Railroad tower was watching a couple behind the picket fence. He reported they did nothing except watch the parade. The group on the sidewalk never mentioned a shooter behind the fence. The motorcycle cop ran his cycle to the bottom of the stairs and ran up to the picket fence and saw no one of interest. Zapruder filmed the corner of the fence and it didn't show anyone there.

But your mind is all made up. You can believe the fairytales from the carnival hucksters who make their weekend living with their stands on the grassy knoll every Sunday.

Sorry, wrong again.
My mind is not "made up" like you suggest.
I have a difficult time with your style of discussion.
You seem to jump to a conclusion that fits your theory.
I'll try it. Since noone saw a bazooka on the grassy knoll then there was noone there. Who mentioned bazooka? Nobody.
Who mentiioned an unsilenced rifle on the grassy knoll? Nobody.
I've been to Dealy Plaza too.
If you are going to quote Oliver Stone and a movie then I think I'll leave you to your own rattlings.

You have been watching too many movies. Repressed weapons aren't all that "silenced". Unless they are of a very minor caliber, they still make a significant amount of noise.

You also have been watching too many movies when the trajectory doesn't line up. The splatter was enough to make Connelly slam his head against the rear of the driver seat when the brain matter erupted. If it came from the knoll WHERE ZAPRUDER WAS FILMING why didn't the splatter go to the left side of Kennedy's head and not the front?

You ignored the evidence of the cratered hole at the rear of the skull.
You ignored the lead splash to the front of the brain.
You ignored the police officers on the railroad bridge who could easily see the grassy knoll and their location on the bridge.
If it was a "silenced" rifle, why did a few uneducated people on the subject of firearms, claim they heard a loud rifle shot from the Knoll and look in that direction and see no one with a rifle? Klingon cloaking device?
You ignored the motorcycle officer who immediately drove his cycle to the knoll and checked it out seeing no one with a firearm or suspicious.
You ignored Governor Connelly's statement in which the shots came from the rear.
You ignored the railroad tower employee who stated no one was shooting from the picket fence.
You ignored the two bullet fragments found in the front of the limousine.
You ignored the damage of the windshield and chrome trim.
You ignored any absence of bullets or their fragments to the left or rear of the limousine.
Try to deal with this with cold hard facts. Not the huckster's lines because they can fool the out of town rubes.

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Observation	Warren Commission Three Shots	Z=325 Shot to Connally’s back

Connally turns in his seat and looks back at JFK Z=230 to Z=324	No (1)	Yes
Connally holds hat in his hand until at least Z=325	No	Yes
Nellie and John Connally both said John Was shot after JFK’s first wound (3)	No	Yes
Connally falls forward as he describes in later Interviews when he is shot	No	Yes
Three shots were fired from the TSBD	Yes	Yes
Several Witnesses saw shooter(s) at the Grassy Knoll	No	Yes
Agrees with Dallas Police Recording	No	Yes
Kellerman Described “flurry of shots”	No	Yes
JFK and Connally both react to Z=222 shot	Yes	Yes
Connally bullet left wide scar to his back like the bullet was tumbling	Yes (4)	No
Bullet to JFK’s back did not have a point of exit (5).	No	Yes