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.

...I explained the 25 degree down angle that was required for one bullet to account for all of John Connally's wounds. This impossible down angle...

As you know, the wound to his left leg was a bullet fragment, not a bullet.

No, you don't know. Please show evidence that a fragment caused the wound in Gov. Connally's thigh. A description of the wound size and the size and trajectory of the fragment that caused it would be a good start.

No one can explain the mass deficit for the fragment in Connally's left leg from CE399...

False.

Conspiracy authors often challenge the Single Bullet Theory by claiming that the fragments left in the body of John Connally contained too much mass to have come from Commission Exhibit 399, and still leave the bullet as intact as it is.
This claim was debunked 30 years ago.

Link to debunking of claim.

Of course, FBI agent O'Neal's comments in his notes and in his interview on FOX a couple of years ago said that Dr. Hummes said during the autopsy, NO POINT OF EXIT.

And, of course, there is a simple explanation for why Dr. Humes was not able to find a point of exit:

Conspiracy books place great emphasis on the fact that the autopsists were unable to probe the wound in Kennedy’s back more than a inch or so into the body. They believe that this proves that the bullet didn’t penetrate more then an inch or so. Forensic pathologists don’t accept this idea. The following is a quote from the Forensic Pathology Panel of the House Select Committee on Assassinations:
(430) The panel believes that the difficulty which Drs. Humes, Finck, and Boswell experienced in trying to place a soft probe through the bullet pathway in President Kennedy’s neck probably resulted from their failure or inability to manipulate this portion of the body into the same position it was in when the missile penetrated. Rigor mortis may have hindered this manipulation. Such placement would have enabled reconstruction of the relationships of the neck and shoulder when the missile struck. It is customary, however, to dissect missile tracks to determine damage and pathway. Probing a track blindly may produce false tracks and misinformation.

Source

AS I pointed out before, either all of these UNRELIABLE witnesses got it wrong and embarrassed themselves...

FBI agent O'Neal was not unreliable. There is no reason to doubt his testimony about what Dr. Humes said. Dr. Humes's testimony about not being able to probe the wound very deeply is also not unreliable. No one claims Dr. Humes is lying or unreliable when he described what happened at the autopsy. There is a simple explanation for why he was not able to fully explore the wound, as described above. The only people embarrassing themselves are those who spin elaborate conspiracy theories postulating massive forgery of evidence when simple explanations are readily available.

You haven't answered whether you believe the photos below are forgeries or not:

The President's Neck Wounds
During the autopsy at Bethesda Naval Hospital another bullet wound was observed near the base of the back of President Kennedy's neck slightly to the right of his spine which provides further enlightenment as to the source of the shots. The hole was located approximately 5 1/2 inches (14 centimeters) from the tip of the right shoulder joint and approximately the same distance below the tip of the right mastoid process, the bony point immediately behind the ear. The wound was approximately one-fourth by one-seventh of an inch (7 by 4 millimeters), had clean edges, was sharply delineated, and had margins similar in all respects to those of the entry wound in the skull. Commanders Humes and Boswell agreed with Colonel Finck's testimony that this hole.
...is a wound of entrance... The basis for that conclusion is that this wound was relatively small with clean edges. It was not a jagged wound, and that is what we see in wound of entrance at a long range.

The autopsy examination further disclosed that, after entering the President, the bullet passed between two large muscles, produced a contusion on the upper part of the pleural cavity (without penetrating that cavity), bruised the top portion of the right lung and ripped the windpipe (trachea) in its path through the President's neck. The examining surgeons concluded that the wounds were caused by the bullet rather than the tracheotomy performed at Parkland Hospital. The nature of the bruises indicated that the President's heart and lungs were functioning when the bruises were caused, whereas there was very little circulation in the President's body when incisions on the President's chest were made to insert tubes during the tracheotomy. No bone was struck by the bullet which passed through the President's body. By projecting from a point of entry on the rear of the neck and proceeding at a slight downward angle through the bruised interior portions, the doctors concluded that the bullet exited from the front portion of the President's neck that had been cut away by the tracheotomy.

Concluding that a bullet passed through the President's neck, the doctors at Bethesda Naval Hospital rejected a theory that the bullet lodged in the large muscles in the back of his neck and fell out through the point of entry when external heart massage was applied at Parkland Hospital. In the earlier stages of the autopsy, the surgeons were unable to find a path into any large muscle in the back of the neck. At that time they did not know that there had been a bullet hole in the front of the President's neck when he arrived at Parkland Hospital because the tracheotomy incision had completely eliminated that evidence. While the autopsy was being performed, surgeons learned that a whole bullet had been found at Parkland Hospital on a stretcher which, at that time, was thought to be the stretcher occupied by the President. This led to speculation that the bullet might have penetrated a short distance into the back of the neck and then dropped out onto the stretcher as a result of the external heart massage.

Further exploration during the autopsy disproved that theory. The surgeons determined that the bullet had passed between two large strap muscles and bruised them without leaving any channel, since the bullet merely passed between them. Commander Humes, who believed that a tracheotomy had been performed from his observations at the autopsy, talked by telephone with Dr. Perry early on the morning of November 23, and learned that his assumption was correct and that Dr. Perry had used the missile wound in the neck as the point to make the incision. This confirmed the Bethesda surgeons' conclusion that the bullet had exited from the front part of the neck.

The findings of the doctors who conducted the autopsy were consistent with the observations of the doctors who treated the President at Parkland Hospital. Dr. Charles S. Carrico, a resident surgeon at Parkland, noted a small wound approximately one-fourth of an inch in diameter (5 to 8 millimeters) in the lower third of the neck below the Adam's apple. Dr. Malcolm O. Perry, who performed the tracheotomy, described the wound as approximately one-fifth of an inch in diameter (5 millimeters) and exuding blood which partially hid edges that were "neither cleancut, that is, punched out, nor were they very ragged." Dr. Carrico testified as follows:

Q.: Based on your observations on the neck wound alone did you have a sufficient basis to form an opinion as to whether it was entrance or an exit wound?
A.: No, sir; we did not. Not having completely evaluated all the wounds, traced out the course of the bullets, this wound would have been compatible with either entrance or exit wound depending upon the size, the velocity, the tissue structure and so forth.

The same response was made by Dr. Perry to a similar query:

Q.: Based on the appearance of the neck wound alone, could it have been either an entrance or an exit wound ?
A.: It could have been either.

Then each doctor was asked to take into account the other known facts, such as the autopsy findings, the approximate distance the bullet traveled and tested muzzle velocity of the assassination weapon. With these additional factors, the doctors commented on the wound on the front of the President's neck as follows:

Dr. CARRICO. With those facts and the fact as I understand it no other bullet was found this would be, this was, I believe, was an exit wound.
Dr. PERRY. A full jacketed bullet without deformation passing through skin would leave a similar wound for an exit and entrance wound and with the facts which yon have made available and with these assumptions, I believe that it was an exit wound.

Other doctors at Parkland Hospital who observed the wound prior to the tracheotomy agreed with the observations of Drs. Perry and Carrico. The bullet wound in the neck could be seen for only a short time, since Dr. Perry eliminated evidence of it when he performed the tracheotomy. He selected that spot since it was the point where such an operation was customarily performed, and it was one of the safest and easiest spots from which to reach the trachea. In addition, there was possibly an underlying wound to the muscles in the neck, the carotid artery or the jugular vein, and Dr. Perry concluded that the incision, therefore, had to be low in order to maintain respiration.

Considerable confusion has arisen because of comments attributed to Dr. Perry concerning the nature of the neck wound. Immediately after the assassination, many people reached erroneous conclusions about the source of the shots because of Dr. Perry's observations to the press. On the afternoon of November 22, a press conference was organized at Parkland Hospital by members of the White House press staff and a hospital administrator. Newsmen with microphones and cameras were crowded into a room to hear statements by Drs. Perry and William Kemp Clark, chief neurosurgeon at Parkland, who had attended to President Kennedy's head injury. Dr. Perry described the situation as "bedlam." The confusion was compounded by the fact that some questions were only partially answered before other questions were asked.

At the news conference, Dr. Perry answered a series of hypothetical questions and stated to the press that a variety of possibilities could account for the President's wounds. He stated that a single bullet could have caused the President's wounds by entering through the throat, striking the spine, and being deflected upward with the point of exit being through the head. This would have accounted for the two wounds he observed, the hole in the front of the neck and the large opening in the skull. At that time, Dr. Perry did not know about either the wound on the back of the President's neck or the small bullet-hole wound in the back of the head. As described in chapter II, the President was lying on his back during his entire time at Parkland. The small hole in the head was also hidden from view by the large quantity of blood which covered the President's head. Dr. Perry said his answers at the press conference were intended to convey his theory about what could have happened, based on his limited knowledge at the time, rather than his professional opinion about what did happen. Commenting on his answers at the press conference, Dr. Perry testified before the Commission:

I expressed it [his answers] as a matter of speculation that this was conceivable. But, again, Dr. Clark [who also answered questions at the conference] and I emphasized that we had no way of knowing.

Dr. Perry's recollection of his comments is corroborated by some of the news stories after the press conference. The New York Herald Tribune on November 23, 1963, reported as follows:

Dr. Malcolm Perry, 34, attendant surgeon at Parkland Hospital who attended the President, said he saw two woundsone below the Adam's apple, the other at the back of the head. He said he did not know if two bullets were involved. It is possible, he said, that the neck wound was the entrance and the other the exit of the missile.

According to this report, Dr. Perry stated merely that it was "possible" that the neck wound was a wound of entrance. This conforms with his testimony before the Commission, where he stated that by themselves the characteristics of the neck wound were consistent with being either a point of entry or exit.
Wound ballistics tests.Experiments performed by the Army Wound Ballistics experts at Edgewood Arsenal, Md. (discussed in app. X, p. 582) showed that under simulated conditions entry and exit wounds are very similar in appearance. After reviewing the path of the bullet through the President's neck, as disclosed in the autopsy report, the experts simulated the neck by using comparable material with a thickness of approximately 5 1/2 inches (13 1/2 to 14 1/2 centimeters), which was the distance traversed by the bullet. Animal skin was placed on each side, and Western Cartridge Co. 6.5 bullets were fired from the C2766 Mannlicher-Carcano rifle from a distance of 180 feet. The animal skin on the entry side showed holes which were regular and round. On the exit side two holes were only slightly elongated, indicating that the bullet had become only a little unstable at the point of exit. A third exit hole was round, although not quite as regular as the entry holes. The exit holes, especially the one most nearly round, appeared similar to the descriptions given by Drs. Perry and Carrico of the hole in the front of the President's neck.

The autopsy disclosed that the bullet which entered the back of the President's neck hit no bony structure and proceeded in a slightly downward angle. The markings on the President's clothing indicate that the bullet moved in a slight right to left lateral direction as it passed through the President's body. After the examining doctors expressed the thought that a bullet would have lost very little velocity in passing through the soft tissue of the neck, wound ballistics experts conducted tests to measure the exit velocity of the bullet. The tests were the same as those used to create entry and exit holes, supplemented by the use of break-type screens which measured the velocity of bullets. The entrance velocity of the bullet fired from the rifle averaged 1,904 feet per second after it traveled 180 feet. The exit velocity averaged 1,772 to 1,798 feet per second, depending upon the substance through which the bullet passed. A photograph of the path of the bullet traveling through the simulated neck showed that it proceeded in a straight line and was stable.

Examination of clothing.The clothing worn by President Kennedy on November 22 had holes and tears which showed that a missile entered the back of his clothing in the vicinity of his lower neck and exited through the front of his shirt immediately behind his tie, nicking the knot of his tie in its forward flight. Although the caliber of the bullet could not be determined and some of the clothing items precluded a positive determination that some tears were made by a bullet, all the defects could have been caused by a 6.5-millimeter bullet entering the back of the President's lower neck and exiting in the area of the knot of his tie.

An examination of the suit jacket worn by the President by FBI Agent Frazier revealed a roughly circular hole approximately one-fourth of an inch in diameter on the rear of the coat, 5 3/8 inches below the top of the collar and 1 3/4 inches to the right of the center back seam of the coat. The hole was visible on the upper rear of the coat slightly to the right of center. Traces of copper were found in the margins of the hole and the cloth fibers around the margins were pushed inward. Those characteristics established that the hole was caused by an entering bullet. Although the precise size of the bullet could not be determined from the hole, it was consistent with having been made by a 6.5- millimeter bullet.

The shirt worn by the President contained a hole on the back side 5 3/4 inches below the top of the collar and 1 1/8 inches to the right of the middle of the back of the shirt. The hole on the rear of the shirt was approximately circular in shape and about one-fourth of an inch in diameter, with the fibers pressed inward. These factors established it as a bullet entrance hole. The relative position of the hole in the back of the suit jacket to the hole in the back of the shirt indicated that both were caused by the same penetrating missile.

On the front of the shirt, examination revealed a hole seven-eighths of an inch below the collar button and a similar opening seven-eighths of an inch below the buttonhole. These two holes fell into alignment on overlapping positions when the shirt was buttoned. Each hole was a vertical, ragged slit approximately one-half of an inch in height, with the cloth fibers protruding outward. Although the characteristics of the slit established that the missile had exited to the front, the irregular nature of the slit precluded a positive determination that it was a bullet hole. However, the hole could have been caused by a round bullet although the characteristics were not sufficiently clear to enable the examining expert to render a conclusive opinion.

When the President's clothing was removed at Parkland Hospital, his tie was cut off by severing the loop immediately to the wearer's left of the knot, leaving the knot in its original condition. The tie had a nick on the left side of the The nick was elongated horizontally, indicating that the tear was made by some object moving horizontally, but the fibers were not affected in a manner which would shed light on the direction or the nature of the missile.

And, of course, there is a simple explanation for why Dr. Humes was not able to find a point of exit:

> (430) The panel believes that the difficulty which Drs. Humes, Finck, and Boswell experienced in trying to place a soft probe through the bullet pathway in President Kennedy’s neck probably resulted from their failure or inability to manipulate this portion of the body into the same position it was in when the missile penetrated. Rigor mortis may have hindered this manipulation. Such placement would have enabled reconstruction of the relationships of the neck and shoulder when the missile struck. It is customary, however, to dissect missile tracks to determine damage and pathway. Probing a track blindly may produce false tracks and misinformation.

REPLY:

Sorry I haven't replied but just got back home from a trip.

You'll notice that the words spoken at the autopsy was "No point of exit." Pretty clear, but we have a panel who says they BELIEVE and may have and probably ......

The defense of the single bullet theory has always been that "this is possible" and that there are no better explanations......

That was before the simple explanation was added in this post that John Connally was shot in the back 0.7 seconds AFTER the fatal head shot to JFK's head at Z=313. As you'll recall, this is entirely consistent with:

(1) John Connally's statements about how he was shot in the back: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3-lZNR_yAc

(2) Roy Kellerman's testimony in the Warren Commission hearings where he argued with Spectecter about how many shots there had to be to cause that many wounds. Kellerman said he only heard three, but when you look at the last three shots, he said there was 3-5 seconds pause and then there was flurry of shots, he defined the shots as BANG-BANG, like a jet breaking a sound barrier. When you look at the Zapruder film, you see Connally's head snap downward VIOLENTLY and Connally is slamed forward just like he described in the clip above.

(3)When you compare the above descriptions with the shot spacing, it is EXACTLY consistent with the spacing you see in the Dallas Police Radio acoustic analysis by D.B. Thomas and others.

= Connally at Z=324

= Connally at Z=326

At 18.2 frames/second, those two frames are about 0.1 seconds apart. IF you do the math, you'll find that a movement of 1 inch in one frame change about one mph. As you can see, Connally's head moved DOWNWARD several inches in between those frames. IF you look at the Z film, you'll see that Connally's head was not moving DOWN until Z=325 which is when the bullet fired from the TSBD hits him in the back. I say it's simple and OBVIOUS.

The Warren Commission explained the movement of Connally at this time as Nellie Connally pulling John over into her lap. I've heard it explained by one of the Warren Commission "fools" that this action by Nellie probably saved John's life. Anyone who has any grasp of physics knows that statement is about as silly as JFK's head snapping back and to the left as it does after Z=313. You see, with the scenario of John Connally shot in the back 0.7 seconds AFTER JFK's fatal head shot, you don't have to argue such silliness as it's obvious to the most casual observer that there was at least two shooters.

HBO, Playtone plan JFK miniseries
Hanks, Paxton set to produce ‘History’
By MICHAEL FLEMING

HBO is near a deal with Playtone that will turn Vincent Bugliosi’s 1,632-page book “Reclaiming History: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy” into a miniseries.

Ten-parter will debunk long-held conspiracy theories and establish that assassin Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone.

HBO is wrapping up a deal to finance and air the mini, which will depict Oswald’s journey to becoming an assassin and his subsequent murder on live TV by Jack Ruby.

Playtone’s Tom Hanks and Gary Goetzman will exec produce along with their “Big Love” star Bill Paxton.

The network will make a companion documentary special, with Bugliosi addressing myriad conspiracy theories, including those involving the Mafia, the KGB or Fidel Castro in JFK’s assassination.

Project was hatched after Hanks, Paxton and Goetzman had a conversation about the shooting. They decided to look at Bugliosi’s book, published last month by W.W. Norton, as the basis for a possible project.

“I totally believed there was a conspiracy, but after you read the book, you are almost embarrassed that you ever believed it,” Goetzman said. “To think that guys who grew up in the ‘60s would make a miniseries supporting the idea that Oswald acted alone is something I certainly wouldn’t have predicted. But time and evidence can change the way we view things.”

Bugliosi, who prosecuted Charles Manson and wrote the book “Helter Skelter,” was moved to write “Reclaiming History” after prosecuting a mock trial of Oswald for a British TV special. He walked away feeling the Warren Commission got it right and then spent the next two decades gathering evidence to prove it.

“Many more people will see the miniseries than will read the book,” Bugliosi told Daily Variety. “With the integrity that Tom, Gary and Bill bring, I think that we will finally be able to make a substantial dent in the 75% of people in this country who still believe the conspiracy theorists.”
More than one option

* (Co) Daily Variety
Filmography, Year, Role
* (Co) Daily Variety

Project comes along as Playtone nears a wrap on the seven-part HBO miniseries “John Adams” and preps for an Aug. 27 production start in Melbourne on “The Pacific,” the 10-part WWII mini for HBO that Hanks and Goetzman are exec producing with Steven Spielberg. The Playtone-produced series “Big Love” begins its second season on HBO this Monday.

Playtone is in the early stages of developing as a series the Jeffrey Eugenides’ “Middlesex,” the novel about a 41-year-old hermaphrodite that just became the latest choice of the Oprah Book Club.

Bugliosi’s deal was made by PMA Literary’s Peter Miller.

http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117966398.html?categoryid=1236&cs=1

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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