Kennedy assassination solved!

[Az Joe]

Oswald did it, alone. Now give it up!

Link below.

[billhilly]

When they put those little sticks in the wounds and then sight along those sticks, you pretty well know where the bullet came from.

[Diva Betsy Ross]

Listen ,I do not have a dog in this fight. YOU do not want to accept the fact that my experience is different than your photos. I never even said that Oswald did not do it.. I said it was strange. I said somehting ws not right. I told you MY EXPERIENCE, standing at the actual window. I neve said you don't know anything, I said how can you discount what my experience is, esp. since you haven't been there. You can not say , for example, "I was there and the angle was not strange to me". So what are you arguing with me about. I never said anything about a conspiracy.. I don't know if I even believe there was one. I know the President was set up to be shot and killed, by WHOM.. I do not know.

You must be posting to someone else.. I said I don't even know what my experience means.. Hey dude, you got the wrong person here. I don't accept anything on face value.. I was at the window and I looked at the street myself. It is a strange angle and he would have to be hanging out the window. Perhaps he was I do not know.

[FreedomCalls]

I said somehting ws not right.

You said it was left.

[jwalsh07]

Wouldn't the momentum of the bullet carry his head forward?

Actually it did initially but when the Presidents head exploded the physics of the head and brain parts jetting forward would move the head backward.

The physics is complicated and above my pay grade but I'm sure you can search the net and find a good explanation.

[FreedomCalls]

Both said the impact threw them in the direction of the shot and that the impact felt like they had been hit by a major league slugger with a big bat.

Did 1/3 of their skull explode out through the wound?

You know, I think there might be a little bit of difference between a flesh wound and a slug through the skull.

[FreedomCalls]

"... I'm sure you can search the net ..."

That's assuming a lot for these guys.

[HighWheeler]

"I think there might be a little bit of difference between a flesh wound and a slug through the skull."

What would be the difference?

[FreedomCalls]

What would be the difference [between a flesh wound and a slug through the skull]?

One causes you a little pain and feels like you have been with a baseball bat and the other causes your skull to violently explode showering all around you with a jet of brain, blood, and bone fragments perhaps?

[Diva Betsy Ross]

following you line of logic , if something isn't right it would be ... left. Nice try though.

[HighWheeler]

"One causes you a little pain..."

A bullet or a baseball bat to the body is only going to cause a little pain? That's not what these two guys who were shot said. It was violent, full body excruciating pain and sent them reeling.

I had my leg instantly shattered in an accident at a relatively slow impact speed, and the pain was light-years beyond the capabilities of words to describe, almost what these two guys said. Huge doses of Lydocaine were needed to put a dent in my pain level. It took me over four years to walk almost normally again. So please don't lecture me on what pain is about.

So what causes the difference in reaction of soft body parts and a head? The head is full of soft openings, and on top of that, the skull is very weak in the outward direction, on the order of 20-40 times less pressure (psi) to break it open than to cave it in. If you want to try a demonstration, us a pencil eraser end on an eggshell. Try the internal pressure first, then the external pressure.

Now, at the moment when the bullet is nearly across the inside of his head, the internal pressure would be maximum since the most kinetic energy transfer from mv-momentum to the head would have occured. If that's the case, why wouldn't the head contents want to spray out the first hole already there if your jet theory is valid? And what energy would cause his head to go backwards so forcefully? I see the point you made that his head went forward first.

[FreedomCalls]

But if it's left then you don't have it anymore.

[FreedomCalls]

And that is just not right!

[FreedomCalls]

I had my leg instantly shattered in an accident at a relatively slow impact speed, and the pain was light-years beyond the capabilities of words to describe, almost what these two guys said. Huge doses of Lydocaine were needed to put a dent in my pain level. It took me over four years to walk almost normally again. So please don't lecture me on what pain is about.

And you still don't seem to comprehend the difference between that leg wound and having your skull explode. Incredible! Have you ever talked with someone whose skull exploded? Case closed.

[FreedomCalls]

Did you bother to read ANY of the links I gave earlier?

[FreedomCalls]

If you believe what the conspiracy books say the Warren Commission believed about the Single Bullet Theory, you would have to conclude the commissioners and staff of the commission were a bunch of fools. Conspiracy authors always show Connally seated directly in front of Kennedy, at the same height, and facing forward. You've seen Kevin Costner do this sort of thing. The graphic at right, taken from Groden and Livingstone's High Treason is an example of this.

But what does the evidence actually show?

James Altgen's photo of the limo rounding the corner of Main and Houston. Check out the relative heights of Kennedy and Connally.

Rarely seen before, below a photo of the limo after it was returned to Washington. The right-side door is wide open, and you can plainly see the relative heights of Kennedy's seat and Connally's seat. Uploaded by Bob Artwohl to Compuserve, and uploaded here by permission.

But what about the idea that Connally was sitting directly in front of Kennedy? Numerous photos of the motorcade show Connally well inboard of Kennedy in the limo. They include:

From the film by Dave Powers

• The picture on the right: a frame from a motion picture shot by presidential aide Dave Powers.
• A photo shot by a Paris Match photographer as the limo passed.
• Another photo by the same photographer a couple of seconds later.
• A frame from the Muchmore film, taken as the limo rounds the corner from Main to Houston Street. Courtesy of Joe Durnavich.

A film put together from amateur footage by Dallas Cinema Associates (the "DCA film") has some sequences that clearly show Connally well inboard of Kennedy. Here is one sequence, and here is another. A still from the film is below, right.
To view these video sequences you will need Real Player.

Thomas Canning was a NASA scientist who studied the Single Bullet trajectory for the House Select Committee on Assassinations. He used the Betzner photograph to establish a line to the right of which Connally could not have been. He also estimated the rotation of Connally's torso from the Zapruder film. The result was an alignment that showed the bullet leaving Kennedy's throat to strike Connally in the back hear the shoulder — which is where Connally was actually struck. Of course, you don't really have to be a rocket scientist to figure this out.

Trajectory of the single bullet

Canning used the House Select Committee scenario that had Kennedy and Connally being struck by the Single Bullet at Zapruder frame 190. More recent work has pinpointed the time of the hit to Zapruder frame 223. Various researchers have modelled the Single Bullet Theory at that frame. Failure Analysis Associates, in work done for a 1992 "mock trial" of Lee Harvey Oswald for the American Bar Association, used 3-D computer animation and modelling techniques to research the bullet trajectory, and concluded that the Single Bullet Trajectory works.

Click here to view computer animation.

Dale Myers, a specialist in computer animation, built a 3-D model of Dealey Plaza, the limo, Kennedy and Connally, and also concluded that the trajectory works. Click here to see his views from the Sniper's Nest and from the right front of the limo.

Click here for information on how to purchase Myers' video, and numerous additional frames. This informative page outlines Myers' technical approach to modeling the assassination sequence in Dealey Plaza.

The Back and Throat Wounds

Another thing conspiracy authors will do to attack the Single Bullet Theory is to move the entrance wound in Kennedy's back down below the Warren Commission location, and move the wound in the front of Kennedy's neck up in order to require an absurd trajectory though Kennedy's body. This drawing, again taken from Groden and Livingstone's High Treason, shows this assumption.

The facesheet

What is the evidence for the "low" back wound location? The piece of evidence that conspiracy books will most often show you is the facesheet from the autopsy. It seems to place the wound too low to be consistent with the exit wound in the front of the neck.

What will the conspiracy books not tell you about this? They won't tell you that the face sheet also has a measurement placing the wound. It places the wound 14 cm. below the tip of the right mastoid process. That's not consistent with the lower dot location, but it is consistent with other statements in the autopsy. They also won't tell you what the autopsy report says about the track of the bullet through the body.

The other missile entered the right superior posterior thorax above the scapula and traversed the soft tissues of the supra-scapular and the supra-clavicular portions of the base of the right side of the neck. This missile produced contusions of the right apical parietal pleura and of the apical portion of the right upper lobe of the lung. The missile contused the strap muscles of the right side of the neck, damaged the trachea and made its exit through the anterior surface of the neck. Warren Commission Report, p. 543.

But how could the facesheet show that dot in a lower location, yet describe the wound in a higher location, 14 cm. below the tip of the mastoid process, and above the scapula?

Commander J. Thornton Boswell, who drew the facesheet, was asked about this by The Baltimore Sun in 1966. He explained that he made no attempt to draw the facesheet exactly to scale, and insisted that the measurements he made were precise, and properly locate the wound. He made on "X" on a copy of the face sheet, to indicate where the wound actually was. See the November 25, 1966 issue of the Sun.

Of course, photos were made at the autopsy, including photos of Kennedy's back. You can see for yourself what they show.

Are Autopsy Face Sheets Supposed to be Drawn to Scale? That's the assumption of conspiracy theorists who point to Boswell's face sheet and claim that it shows the back wound "too low" to be consistent with the Single Bullet Theory. But Todd Wayne Vaughan decided to see whether this assumption is accurate.

The Throat Wound

If moving the back wound down is a way of attacking the Single Bullet Theory, moving the throat wound up is also. If the throat wound couldn't have been the exit for a bullet that entered the back, then it was probably an entrance would from a frontal shot, which implies a shooter in front of the limo which implies conspiracy.

Thus conspiracy books describe the Dallas doctors as being absolutely sure that the wound in Kennedy's throat was an entrance wound. What they usually omit is the fact that the doctors who actually saw the wound speculated that it was an exit wound from a fragment from the head shot. They also imply that ER personnel can easily tell whether a wound is an entrance wound or an exit would. This essay consists of two parts. The first documents the speculations of the Dallas doctors about the wound, and the second is a passage from the JAMA describing a careful study of the ability of ER personnel to make judgments about the forensic aspects of wounds.

Conspiracy authors have consistently claimed that the slits in the collar of Kennedy's shirt could not have been made by an exiting bullet. Here is a photograph of the shirt, showing the slits. Decide for yourself whether they could have been made by an exiting bullet.

One piece of evidence the conspiracy authors use for a "high" location for the throat wound is the testimony of Dr. Charles Carrico. Before the Warren Commission, supposedly said that the wound was "above the tie." In fact, his testimony isn't quite as the conspiracy authors represent it. This is his testimony, including the context. Another thing to remember here is that in his "Admission Note," written on November 22, 1963, Carrico said the wound was in the "lower 1/3" of the neck.

On this matter, as on the location of the back wound, the photographic evidence is decisive. The Left Profile shows the level of the wound quite clearly. Is it really possible, as the conspiracy authors claim, for a bullet exiting at the level of the trachestomy to have failed to penetrate Kennedy's shirt? Note that this photo has been rotated 90 degrees counter-clockwise, to emphasize the location of the throat wound.

Connally Holding His Hat Long after John Kennedy is seen in the Zapruder film moving his arms toward his throat in response to being hit, John Connally is seen holding his hat. Conspiracy writers insist that he could not possibly have held on to the hat after his wrist was shattered by a bullet. The implication is that yet another bullet hit Connally at some later point, contrary to the Single Bullet Theory. But Nellie Connally says that John held the hat on the way to Parkland Hospital. The late Governor Connally was a loyal son of Texas. He's probably still holding that hat.

Men with more severe injuries than Connally's can hold onto things. In the following passage, Hawaii Senator Daniel K. Inouye describes how he lost his arm in combat:

At last I was close enough to pull the pin on my last grenade. And as I drew my arm back, all in a flash of light and dark I saw him, that faceless German, like a strip of motion picture film running through a projector that's gone berserk. One instant he was standing waist-high in the bunker, and the next he was aiming a rifle grenade at my face from a range of 10 yards.

And even as I cocked my arm to throw, he fired and his rifle grenade smashed into my right elbow and exploded and all but tore my arm off. I looked at it, stunned and unbelieving. It dangled there by a few bloody shreds of tissue, my grenade still clenched in a fist that suddenly didn't belong to me anymore . . ."

Daniel K. Inouye with Lawrence Elliott, Journey to Washington, Prentice-Hall 1967.

Roger Byrum brought this passage to the author's attention.

Connally Hit "Too Late?"

Supposedly, Connally is obviously unhurt in Zapruder frame 230, but John Kennedy is obviously reacting to being his at this point. Thus, it is claimed, the same bullet could not have hit both men. But a careful study of the Zapruder film shows that Connally was hit at frame 223.

A Pristine Bullet?

To the right you will see the "magic bullet" picture shown in all the conspiracy books. CE 399 is the bullet viewed end-on. This is the picture the conspiracy books won't show you. See for yourself whether this bullet is really "pristine."

The Chain of Evidence

Conspiracy books will tell you that the "chain of evidence" on Commission Exhibit 399 was broken, and that the bullet would have been inadmissible as evidence in an Oswald murder trial. They will also tell you that two hospital employees that found the bullet (Tomlinson and Wright) failed to identify the bullet as the one they found when questioned by the FBI. What are the conspiracy books not telling you?

• The chain of evidence for CE 399 was in fact intact, and the Warren Commission traced its possession from discovery by Tomlinson to analysis by the FBI.
• Bullets and other physical evidence need not be marked to be admissible in trails. This brief submitted by the prosecution in the O.J. Simpson civil trial makes this clear.
• Tomlinson and Wright, although failing to positively identify the bullet, said it "looks like" and "appears to be" the bullet they had recovered.

Conflicting Testimony? Conspiracy-oriented author Vincent Palamara has produced a fascinating compilation of testimony that contradicts the Warren Commission's timeline on Commission Exhibit 339 — who had it, and when. Does all this show evidence being planted or tampered with, or just normal variation in witness accounts? Again, it's your call.

Why not Experiment? Conspiracy books make all kinds of assertions about the inability of the Single Bullet to have done the things the Warren Commission said it did. What happens if one actually experiments, shooting mock torsos with a Mannlicher-Carcano rifle using bullets like those Oswald supposedly used? John Lattimer did that. Click here for a report of his findings. Lattimer compared an experimental bullet that did the same damage to his mock bodies that CE 399 did to Kennedy and Connally. See how similar his experimental bullet is to CE 399.

When a bullet just like Commission Exhibit 399 is fired through a human wrist bone at 2,000 feed per second, it is almost certain to be badly mangled. But when CE 399 hit Connally's wrist it had been slowed by transiting Kennedy's torso and tumbling through Connally's chest. When it finally hit the hard radius bone, it was traveling about 1,000 feet per second. Dr. Martin Fackler, President of the International Wound Ballistics Association, fired a round identical to Oswald's bullet through a human wrist at 1,100 feet per second. Here is the resulting bullet.

Putting the Pieces Together

One controversial question about the medical evidence is the angle at which the shot that hit Kennedy in the back transited his torso. The HSCA posited a nearly flat transit, that would have required Kennedy to be slumped forward. Dr. Robert Artwohl's analysis of the issue differs from that of the HSCA. Artwohl believes the bullet transited at a downward angle, as demonstrated in this analysis.

Joe Durnavich has pointed out some possible sources of error in Artwohl's analysis. His computer model of the geometry of the bullet path and Kennedy's torso suggests a somewhat flatter — but still downward — angle.

We have already seen the Left Profile photo, which shows the level at which the bullet exited Kennedy's neck. NECKEXIT.JPG is Artwohl's analysis, using an autopsy photograph and a photograph of Kennedy in the motorcade to show that the bullet must have passed through the collar and the tie. Uploaded by permission.

Was JFK's Coat Bunched When He Was Hit in the Back?

A generation of conspiracy-oriented researchers has argued that the hole in the back of Kennedy's suit coat — which is 5.3 inches below the top of the collar — is "too low" to allow the Single Bullet Theory. Supposedly, a bullet hitting "this low" could not exit the throat at the collar where the single bullet would have to. Lone gunman theorists have argued that Kennedy's coat may have been "bunched up" at the back, allowing the hole to line up with the throat exit. Two researchers here present contrary views on this.

---

NO

Researcher by Nick Sylene suggests some "home tests" that he thinks prove that Kennedy's coat could not have been bunched up, and that the Single Bullet Theory can be ruled out. Stylene's essay is on Deanie Richard's JFK Place gopher server.

---

YES John Hunt, Jr. has taken a different tact, and done an extensive survey of photographic evidence of JFK in the motorcade. His essay "The Case for a Bunched Jacket" shows that Kennedy's jacket was bunched in the majority of pictures of the motorcade in Dallas, and that Kennedy's posture at the time of the Single Bullet hit makes it overwhelmingly likely that the jacket was bunched at that moment.

 

[HighWheeler]

Why do you insist on being so revolting to everyone on this thread?

Do you not see the similarities in momentum physics between a cylinder body part exploding and a sphere body part exploding? My questions were exclusively to that point on momentum physics, but you went off on a lecture about pain. Even after I brought my points on momentum back for a second time, you STILL can't seem to get it.

Did you miss the part where I only questioned about the head movement and internal pressure and momentum? I have a friend who was hit in the head in Vietnam and survived, so a head impact is not always fatal. You seem to have promoted yourself to the resident expert here, you must have been hit in both the body and head, so tell us about it.

Why don't you answer any of my questions? They are simple enough. Except that they involve pure physics, and your points involve something else.

[HighWheeler]

They didn't answer my questions either.

[Dajjal]

"Have you read 'CASE CLOSED' by Posner? The Left really hates the guy for that book so I figure he is on to something.
The Left Establishment loves Posner: Walter Cronkite, Dan Rather, Arlen Specter, etc.

Add Peter Jennings to that list of liberal FOPs (Friends of Posner).

Peter Jennings "JFK" Report: Oswald acted alone, go back to sleep...

[HighWheeler]

"A Pristine Bullet?

To the right you will see the "magic bullet" picture shown in all the conspiracy books. CE 399 is the bullet viewed end-on. This is the picture the conspiracy books won't show you. See for yourself whether this bullet is really "pristine."

This following image of the "magic bullet" from a conspiracy website doens't seem to claim "pristine". It claims only that the bullet is "relatively undamaged".

This type of exaggeration by anyone making a point, such as the website you posted, undermines their credibility.

[FreedomCalls]

This following image of the "magic bullet" from a conspiracy website doens't seem to claim "pristine". It claims only that the bullet is "relatively undamaged". This type of exaggeration by anyone making a point, such as the website you posted, undermines their credibility.

A quick search of Google turns up 19,600 references to a "pristine bullet" from you conspiracy nuts. Here are just a few:

From this conspiracy theorist's website:

Also, if the above bullet fragment proves to have caused any of the wounds that the Warren Report attributed to the nearly-pristine bullet found at Parkland Hospital, then the 'Parkland Bullet' ceases to be a 'Single Bullet'.

From Wikipedia:

This slug, other than being about 1.5% below average mass and with a small dent in the side towards the tail, was in perfect condition; in particular, its copper jacket was intact, despite leaving lead fragments in Connally's wrist.

During the Congressional Assassination hearings:

Mr. SPECTER. In your opinion, based on the tests which you have performed, was the damage inflicted on Governor Connally's wrist caused by a pristine bullet, a bullet fired from the Mannlicher-Carcano rifle 6.5 missile which did not hit anything before it struck the Governor's wrist?

From the same hearings, Dr. Olivier, a researcher at Edgewood Arsenal:

So I am pretty sure that the Governor's wrist was not hit by a pristine or a stable bullet.

From the same hearings, Dr. Wecht:

It is a near pristine bullet, again, with the only deformity being demonstrated at the base... .

From Bill Van Dyk's conspiracy page:

The pristine bullet cannot have been the same bullet that shattered Connally’s wrists and ribs. It simply can’t. It was planted on the stretcher in the Dallas hospital (the wrong one, apparently) to implicate Oswald.

From Rex Bradford at History Matters:

Lead autopsy prosector Dr. Humes said, referring to the fragments in Connally's body and the nearly pristine bullet, said "I can't conceive of where they came from this missile."

From Douglas Herman's web page:

Oswald chambered a second shot from the concealment of the sniper’s lair and wounded both Kennedy and Connelly with the pristine bullet ...

From "The John F. Kennedy Assassination Homepage":

The Magic Bullet ist the bullet what is claimed to have caused seven wounds on Kennedy and Conally. Initially this bullet had not been found. But mysteriously, it appeared later in the Parkland Memorial Hospital - you can see - in an almost pristine condition.

Russ Paielli in Case Closed?:

The bullet that supposedly caused those wounds was found on a stretcher in Parkland Hospital in virtually pristine condition.

Even a TV reviewer says it's a fact:

The same bullet was then found in pristine condition afterward on Connally's stretcher at Parkland Hospital in Dallas.

Vincent J. Salandria writing in Upfront:

Accepting as unchallenged evidence (Warren Commission Exhibit 399) an essentially pristine bullet that after flying in several directions through two bodies (Kennedy's and Connally's) and shattering several bones, left more metal in Connally's body than is missing from the bullet.

I see your credibility crumbling...