JFK and the corset that helped to kill a president

Houston Chronicle ^ | 11-23-2004 | By JAMES RESTON JR.

[weegee]

JFK and the corset that helped to kill a president

Back brace made Kennedy an almost stationary target

By JAMES RESTON JR.

Two years ago, historian Robert Dallek revealed new details about the extraordinary range of shots, stimulants and pills President Kennedy took to control his physical pain and present his youthful image to the world. Important and interesting as these details are, they should not distract us from the one medical remedy that probably killed the president: his corset.

Members of Kennedy's inner circle had often witnessed the painful ritual that Kennedy endured in his private quarters before he ventured in public, when his valet would literally winch a steel-rodded canvas back brace around the president's torso, pulling heavy straps and tightening the thongs loop by loop as if it was a bizarre scene out of Gone With the Wind.

Once in it, the president was planted upright, trapped and almost bolted into a ramrod posture. Many would wonder how JFK could ever move in such a contraption. And yet move he did, and, besides his painkillers, his corset contributed to the youthful, high-shouldered military bearing that he presented glamorously to the world.

But this simple device imparted a fate almost Mephistophelean in its horror to the sequence of events in Dallas 41 years ago.

In researching my biography of Gov. John Connally of Texas 15 years ago, I was put on to the critical importance of Kennedy's corset in the ghastly six seconds in November 1963 by a former Texas senator, the late Ralph Yarborough, who was in the motorcade that day.

Yarborough growled softly about that "damned girdle," and this led me to the remarks of two doctors, Charles James Carrico and Malcolm Oliver Perry, buried in Volume 3 of the 26-volume set of testimony that attended the Warren Commission report.

In November 1963, Carrico was the 28-year-old resident in the emergency room of Parkland Hospital who first received the injured president in the trauma room; Perry came quickly to the emergency room to supervise the case — and then to pronounce the president dead a half-hour later.

Before the Warren Commission, Carrico told of removing Kennedy's back brace in the first seconds after his arrival. He described the device as made of coarse white fiber, with stays and buckles.

Apart from the never-ending controversy over how many bullets Lee Harvey Oswald actually fired from the Texas School Book Depository, most experts agree with the Warren Commission that Oswald's first bullet passed cleanly through Kennedy's lower neck, missing any bone, then entered Connally's back, streaking through the governor's body and lodging in his thigh. This was the first so-called magic bullet.

When Connally was hit, he pivoted in pain to his left, his lithe body in motion as it swiveled downward, ending up in the lap of his wife, Nellie.

But because of the corset, Kennedy's body did not act as a normal body would when the bullet passed through his throat. Held by his back brace, Kennedy remained upright, according to the Warren Commission, for five more seconds. This provided Oswald the opportunity to reload and shoot again at an almost stationary target.

The frames of the Zapruder film confirm this ramrod posture: Kennedy's head turns only slightly in those eternal seconds, and his upper body almost not at all, from frame 225 (when the first shot entered his neck) to the fatal frame of 313.

Without the corset, the force of the first bullet, traveling at a speed of 2,000 feet a second, would surely have driven the president's body forward, making him writhe in pain like Connally, and probably down in the seat of his limousine, beyond the view of Oswald's cross hairs for a second or third shot.

With no bones struck and the spinal cord intact, the president almost certainly would have survived the wound from the first bullet. Both Carrico and Perry testified to this likelihood (and apropos of the decades-long controversy, both testified that the small, round, clean wound in the front of Kennedy's neck was an exit wound rather than an entry wound).

To Perry, under the questioning of then-assistant counsel — now senator from Pennsylvania — Arlen Specter, the injury was "tolerable"; the president would have recovered. Because the bullet had passed below the larynx, the wound would not even have impaired his speech later.

In the new focus on cortisone shots, codeine painkillers, barbiturates, stimulants such as Ritalin, and gamma globulin injections, the simple corset needs to be emphasized, tragically, in the context of those medical strategies Kennedy used to create the illusion of the vigorous leader.

--Reston's forthcoming book is on the Spain of Christopher Columbus and will be published by Doubleday next year.

[dangus]

>>I've always felt that Oswald didn't have time to fire the shots, working the bolt between each one.<<

Read "Case Closed." There were six blurrs in the Zapruder film, indicating a loud noise (in this case. gun shot). For some reason, conspiracists just latched on to the notion that the 3rd, 4th and 5th blurs were when the acknowledged gunshots occurred, and that the 1st, 2nd and 6th represented the grassy knoll shots. This false presumption led to a cascade of false conclusions including that Oswald had an obstructed line of vision, He didn't have time to reload, and the "magic bullet" made improbable deflections.

Realizing that the 1st, 3rd and 5th blurs were the actual shots, and the 2nd, 4th and 6th were echoes off the knoll, "Case Closed" shows how Oswald had plenty of time to rload, as well as clear shots to hit Kennedy. Moreover, if the magic bullet was at the 3rd blur, not the 4th, it didn't need to make any sharp deflections: Kennedy's torso, Connelly's arm, and Connelly's leg were nearly in line with each other.

[Bon mots]

I agree.
He's responsible for the calamity at the Bay of Pigs, and his father and his Irish Mob buddies stole the election for him (from Nixon) in the Northeast.

What was his great success besides martyrdom?

Okay, so he drilled Marylin. But that's it in my book.

[Paulus Invictus]

A recent book has a story about the corset. It became necessary when JFK reached for a nude, female swimmer in the WH pool and knocked his back out of kilter. Anyone else read that? Reaching for swimming nudes was not an unusual event for him and the WH pool was a common place for such antics.

[kennedy]

Arafat is dead

Still?

Generalissimo Francisco Franco is also still dead

[investigateworld]

Picked it up from a thread last night and freepmailed it to another. Hence I'm lacking outside documentation, but BS don't float here too long. The bottom line is that no one, that I know of, has ever duplicated using a scope equipped rifle on a moving target in that time frame. (But I could be wrong!)

[Paulus Invictus]

Yeah but, they actually proved that the rifle and a shooter was not only capable of firing and loading that fast, but the shooter in the test also hit the target at the same distance as JFK was from LHO. This test shooting was shown on TV last year.

[Major_Risktaker]

Kennedy's Excedrin Headache
# 111110.

John F. Kennedy vs The Federal Reserve

Executive Order 11110

Another overlooked aspect of Kennedy's attempt to reform American society involves money.

Kennedy apparently reasoned that by returning to the constitution, which states that only Congress shall coin and regulate money, the soaring national debt could be reduced by not paying (NOTE: TAX FREE) interest to the bankers of the Federal Reserve System, who print paper money then loan it to the government at interest.

He moved in this area on June 4, 1963, by signing Executive Order 11,110 which called for the issuance of $4,292,893,815 in United States Notes through the U.S. Treasury rather than the traditional Federal Reserve System.

That same day, Kennedy signed a bill changing the backing of one and two dollar bills from silver to gold, adding strength to the weakened U.S. currency.

Another Lancelot LINK

[BlueNgold]

Someone had to do it:

I'd apologize, but I'm not all that sorry...

[PRUE]

"most experts agree with the Warren Commission that Oswald's first bullet passed cleanly through Kennedy's lower neck"

Bunk. Neither remark is true.
The Warren Commission doesn't conclude what happened to the first bullet, and most experts certainly don't agree the first bullet hit Kennedy.

True. But if the first shot missed, why then did it hit the curb way down by the underpass, no where near in a line with JFK's limo at that point?

For us nonconspiracy people, the second and third shots hit Kennedy.
49 posted by The Good Doctor

Which leaves the first aimed shot hitting the curb, the second hitting JFK in the back, climbing to exit at the throat, then magically plunging to hit the Governor.
This leaves the hurried third shot to disintegrate in JFK's brain, a very dubious [& unduplicated] feat for the rifle and any marksman to date.

The magic bullet shoots down the non-conspiracy peoples theories every time the point is argued.

[Ditto]

True. But if the first shot missed, why then did it hit the curb way down by the underpass, no where near in a line with JFK's limo at that point?

It was speculated that it clipped the top of one of the trees in front of the depository which threw it's trajectory off.

Anyone who has hunted knows that even the smallest twig can deflect a shot considerably.

[LexBaird]

the second hitting JFK in the back, climbing to exit at the throat,

Uhh, no. JFK's arm is raised on the side of the car. In that position, the entry point on the back is elevated above the exit on the throat. Bullet did not "climb".

[Texas Songwriter]

I have always thought the fact we have the video taping and the Kennedy shooting and video of Oswald being shot, that it was interesting that Jack Ruby died several months later while awaiting trial. Who was Ruby. Did he collude with others. I have read that Ruby knew he was dying of cancer and stood to leave his heirs a substantial inheritance if he performed something spectacular. We still speculate about who killed Kennedy. I wonder where Kennedy's brain is located.

[PRUE]

Another magic bullet.
One that just happened to hit in the same spot that a hurried parting shot at the fleeing limo could have hit.
Arlen Spector would be proud of such reasoning.

[The Good Doctor]

True. But if the first shot missed, why then did it hit the curb way down by the underpass, no where near in a line with JFK's limo at that point?

The first shot nicked a branch of a tree between Oswald and Kennedy. As has been experimentally proven, when a metal jacketed bullet is damaged by grazing a hard object such as a branch, the extremely rapid spinning of the bullet essentially causes it to spin itself apart. The jacket is torn off and has no aerodynamic shape and travels as such. Several witness report seeing a puff of smoke and sparks from the road behing the limo at the time of the first shot. This is likely the damaged copper jacket hitting the road. Also, (as experimentally proven), the lead core remains shaped like bullet. After grazing the branch its course was altered but flew essentially inline with the orignal trajectory but high, over the limosine striking the curb by the underpass. Analysis of the curb showed lead compostion consistent with the other bullet fragements, but no copper.

the second hitting JFK in the back, climbing to exit at the throat, then magically plunging to hit the Governor.

Wrong again. With the limo driving downhill the exit wound is slightly lower than the entrance wound, as expected. It then hits Connally. No magic.

This leaves the hurried third shot

No hurry. There is a significantly longer pause between the 2nd and 3rd shots than the 1st and 2nd.

a very dubious [& unduplicated] feat for the rifle and any marksman to date.

Not true. The "feat" has not only been expermentlly duplicated, its been duplicated many times, with the marksmen usually remarking on how easy it was from 88 yards.

[The KG9 Kid]

"... I bought a Mannlicher Caranco 91/38, and neither I or any other trained marksmen have been able to duplicate Oswald's feat, shooting at a fixed target."

The Warren Report shows that three FBI marksmen easily accomplished the test.

[wideminded]

most experts agree with the Warren Commission that Oswald's first bullet passed cleanly through Kennedy's lower neck, missing any bone,

According to the book "Case Closed" by Gerald Posner, Kennedy's movements after the first shot, with his elbows raised and hands to his neck, are a classic sign of a spinal cord injury called "Thorburn's position". If he had a spinal cord injury, perhaps this would have limited his subsequent movements more than the corset.

[evets]

[Ditto]

If you insist there is some conspiracy, I guess anyone will do. From everything I have seen, Oswald acted alone. He had the means and the "motives", as twisted as they were, and all the circumstancial and physical evidence points squarely at him.

If there were some grand conspiracy with a cast of thousands, how the hell did they manage to keep it quite for 44 years? It completly defies logic for anyone not as kooked-out as Oliver Stone.

[PRUE]

the second hitting JFK in the back, climbing to exit at the throat,

Uhh, no. JFK's arm is raised on the side of the car. In that position, the entry point on the back is elevated above the exit on the throat. Bullet did not "climb".

Look closely at the picture in post #67. Line up a point 5 inches down the back of JFK's coat, exiting at his tie..
It does not line up with the 'gov' unless you're practically standing behind the limo. From high above in the 6th floor, the angle is all wrong.

Unless you believe in Spectors magic bullet.

[Ditto]

I bought a Mannlicher Caranco 91/38, and neither I or any other trained marksmen have been able to duplicate Oswald's feat, shooting at a fixed target.

All I can say is that if you can't hit a fixed target at less than 100 yards using a scoped 30 caliber rifle, you should give up shooting. You are likely hurt yourself or someone else and you are wasting good ammunition.

BTW. Plenty of "marksmen" have duplicated Oswald's feat because it was no feat at all. It was easy as hell.