The JFK files

The Boston Globe ^ | May 28, 2007 | David Mehegan, Globe Staff

[Shooter 2.5]

A storied former prosecutor scrutinizes one of the most debated crimes in American history The murder of President John F. Kennedy has provoked by far more suspicion, argument, obsession, and especially book-publishing than any similar event in American history. Now famed lawyer and true-crime writer Vincent Bugliosi has produced what he hopes will be the book to exceed all others. "Reclaiming History: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy" may do that, in weight (5.3 pounds) as well as content, but it's clear that if his editor hadn't insisted he turn over the manuscript after 21 years of labor, the almost-superhuman effort might have wrecked his health.

[Shooter 2.5]

Second shot. See post 37.

The first hit a curb and a fragment of the bullet or concrete hit James Tague.

The second hit Kennedy and Connally.

The third hit Kennedy at the rear of his head.

[Pistolshot]

Bingo.

[Shooter 2.5]

I’m still looking for the bullet tests for the Carcano. They shot a round into some wooden beam and the bullet was relatively undamaged. Can’t seem to find it.

[tpaine]

Performance and capabilities do lend to the 'single bullet theory'

Specters theory threw out the 1st shot at an [early] frame in the 160's, as JFK disappeared [to Oswald] in the foliage at frame 166. - Unless it missed, which is contradicted by most all other evidence, namely that it would have had to ricochet over 100 yds downrange to hit the underpass curb.

At frame 166, - Oswald would have had to be standing, - or seated leaning far out of the window, - in order to achieve the steep downward angle to his target, - which was also moving away down the street to the right. Tough shot, which he probably did not take.

We are then left with this sequence:

First shot at frame 210, - 'neck' hit.
Cycle bolt [2.3 seconds] aim, fire, miss. [curb hit?]
Cycle bolt [2.3 seconds] aim, fire, head shot [frame 313].

The shot at frame 210 is still at a fairly steep down angle, with the limo going to Oswalds right, making it even more difficult to line up the single bullet with JFK's wounds - and Connelly's wounds.

Thus, the 3rd shot is the 'easy one' from Oswalds position, with the down angle decreased and the limo going fairly straight away.

All told, the sequence of shots that Specter dreamed up has major flaws. - And has never been duplicated convincingly .

Feel free to draft your own sequence of shots, showing when they were made and what they hit. No one to date can better Specters flawed version.

[rlmorel]

No thanks, tpaine.

There are two things I am going to do first.

First, I am going to finish the book. I am not really interested in hearing someone tear it down before I have had a chance to read it, especially not someone like Josiah Thompson, who apparently is heavily invested in one side of the story.

Second, I am going to follow Bugliosi’s advice (outlined in post #27) and actually get my hands on the Warren Commission Report, and read it.

That should put me ahead of 99% of the people who have an opinion about it one way or another.

But thanks anyway. Nothing personal.

[tpaine]

More from the Bugliosi book.

Address:http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/pp/07154/790575.stm

Bugliosi, the Warren Commission and the House committee claim Kennedy was shot in the head at Zapruder frame 313.

Bugliosi and the commission say Kennedy and Connally were hit simultaneously while the car is behind the sign, frames 207-224.

Bugliosi has a first shot fired at frame 160, which misses the limousine entirely. This reconstruction requires the putative gunman in the book depository to have fired blindly into a tree when he would have had a clean shot only a second and a half later.

Bugliosi's minor change to the commissions reconstruction makes less sense than the original.

One would expect the first shot from a sniper to be the most accurate. Why would a shooter miss the limousine entirely on his first shot when it was right below him and Kennedy was large in his sight, then hit Kennedy twice with his next two shots at greater ranges?

As the commission noted, most Dealey Plaza witnesses placed the first shot significantly later. Phil Willis, for example, said the first shot jarred his finger on the shutter of his camera and produced a photo taken at frame 202.

The real scandal of the aftermath of the Kennedy assassination is that no reconstruction of the event makes sense. We know the event happened in one way rather than another. But the evidence is discordant and irreconcilable at a primitive level. The meaning of this discordance is unclear, but the simplest explanation is that not all the evidence is really evidence.

What is crystal clear, however, is that more than 43 years after the event we don't know what happened.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Wise words. None of us know what happened, and its futile indeed to insist that Bugliosi or the Commission can declare case closed.

[Shooter 2.5]

The first bullet missed and hit a curb. The bullet fragments or concrete hit a man named James Tague who was standing near the underpass. That bullet or fragments were never found.

The second bullet traveled 2000 fps to hit the president 5 1/2inches [14 Centimeters]below the Mastoid Process and one inch to the right of the spine.

[The bullet wound also exhibited a Halo Effect which is a ring around a typical high speed bullet entrance wound], it hit no bones and exited out his neck[1772 to 1,779 feet per second] clipping his tie[photos of the tie]. It traveled 28 inches away[trajectory report]to hit Connelly near the right armpit[Doctor's report] clipping his rib[Doctor's report]and keyholed out his chest leaving a 2 inch by 1/2 inch wound [Doctor's report]. Connelly’s label moves outward at 223-224. [Zapruder film]

At this point it had only hit one bone and is now flying sideways when it hit the wrist [3/4 inch wound] and buries itself in a shallow wound[very little soft tissue damage,[Doctor's report] in the thigh leaving an amount of lead in the thigh. The amount of lead in the wrist and the bullet add up to the original weight of 161 grains which is the same amount of the bullets from the Western Ammunition Company. Connelly had a broken rib bone and wrist bone. {Doctor's report]. Cloth from his clothing was found in his wrist.

The third bullet hit Kennedy in the back of the head toward the right side forcing his head to move forward by approximately two inches. The bullet broke into two pieces at the bullet’s cannelure. One piece cracked the inside of the windshield near the mirror.

The second fragment hit the chrome strip at the top of the windshield. There are photographs in evidence of the crack and the dent. The two pieces were found at the front of the limousine, one on the floorboard and the other on the seat. The Zapruder film at 313-314 shows Kennedy’s head moving approximately two to three inches forward at the moment of impact.

The photographs of Kennedy’s head and skull show a small entrance hole and a large exit hole. Cratering of the hole at the back of the skull is typical of entrance holes. [Autopsy Report]

[Pistolshot]

Here's my analysis and what looks more to what the evidence suggests.

Frame 202

A few frames before the first shot is fired. Notice the girl in the pink sweater at the top of the picture. Keep her in mind. Also notice the clarity of the picture, steady and fairly focused. Remember Zapruder has a fear of heights and is being supported by his secratary on the pedastal in the park area.

The First Shot(My opinion) Frame 203

The picture is now a blur as Zapruder reacts to the shot and the camera jiggles.

Frame 205. The follow up car and the girl in the sweater.

Back in focus. The girl in the pink sweater is reacting to a sound from behind her. The follow up car is also starting to react and notice the proximity to the limo itself. Kennedy is disappearing behind the sign.

Frame 225.

Out from behind the sign Kennedy is still reacting to the first shot. His mouth is open in surprise and Connally is begining his turn to the right to look behind him.

The 2nd Shot(My opinion). Frame 227

Again the camera jiggles from the reaction to the sound of the gunshot. Kennedy is begining to react, Connaly looks as if he has turned completely to his right in the space of milliseconds, indicating he is also hit.

Frame 229. Both men react to the shot.

Both men are now reacting . Kennedy, shot through the neck has suffered a possibly fatal wound. This bullet has entered his back just below the collar line and exited out his throat. It has also damaged his neck causing the reaction seen here. Both arms are locked in place in reaction to the damage at this point.

Frame 228 Both men react.

Kennedy is clearly hit, Connaly his right shoulder slumping is about to react from a collaped lung. This is where CE399 went through both men. Connaly sitting lower and inboard in the jumpseat in front of the president is in a direct line to the TSBD.

Frame 235 The reaction continues.

Connaly is now slumped fully to his right as the lung collapses. Kennedy will be locked in this position until the fatal headshot. There is a medical term for this position after an injury to the spine. I will find the name if you'd like.

Frame 265 Connaly collapses, Kennedy is paralyzed.

This frame shows Connaly completely turned to his right and about to be pulled into his wife's arms. Kennedy has become paralyzed, fists clenched, arms upright and locked, and sitting upright due to the brace he wore for his back injury from WW2 and surgery to help alleviate the pain. This brace will hold him up to die.

Frame 311 Jackie leans in.

Jackie is leaning in trying to see what is wrong and pushing on Kennedy's arm to lower it. Connaly is in his wife Nellie's arms and out of the line of sight. Jackie is terribly close to the path of the last and final shot.

Frame 313 The Fatal Headshot.

John Patrick Kennedy receives the fatal wound.

Having visited Dealy Plaza on a number of occasions I have walked the entire length and area in the Zapruder film. We are talking maybe 30-40 yards of distance for all this to happen. There is a gentle slope aweay from the TSBD and accounts for much of the angles of fire into the limo carrying the entourage.

Frame 318 The head snap.

The reason Kennedy's head snaps back is the brace he is wearing. It was designed to keep his upper body rigid for extended periods such as a motorcade. When the fatal shot was fired all motor control ceased as his brain was pulverized and the motor areas disintegrated. Arms dropped and the body was snapped in place by the brace.

Three shots. All by Oswald. Acting alone.

[Pistolshot]

Should be John Fitzgerald Kennedy. Patrick is the sonm who died at childbirth.

[rlmorel]

"...“Jack, you SOB.” To me that sure sounded not only like someone who knew his killer, but who also it rang to me of betrayal..."

Just so you know, it was not Oswald who said that, it was one of the Dallas Police dectectives who knew Jack Ruby well who said it.

[Shooter 2.5]

Excellent. You did a great job. I often wondered where the little girl was standing and you answered that. You’re also correct about being paralyzed. The temporary wound channel of a gunshot would have caused that.

Thanks for answering so many questions.

[tpaine]

Pistolshot:
Here's my analysis and what looks more to what the evidence suggests.
Frame 202
A few frames before the first shot is fired. Notice the girl in the pink sweater at the top of the picture. Keep her in mind. Also notice the clarity of the picture, steady and fairly focused. Remember Zapruder has a fear of heights and is being supported by his secratary on the pedastal in the park area.
The First Shot(My opinion) Frame 203
The picture is now a blur as Zapruder reacts to the shot and the camera jiggles.

Fine. Start the clock on a 2.3 second cycle of the rifles action [the W.C. 'best speed'] correlated with the Z-film camera speed of 18.3 frames per second. Say 42 frames to cycle the action. The second shot could not occur before frame 245.

Frame 205. The follow up car and the girl in the sweater. Back in focus. The girl in the pink sweater is reacting to a sound from behind her. The follow up car is also starting to react and notice the proximity to the limo itself. Kennedy is disappearing behind the sign.
Frame 225.
Out from behind the sign Kennedy is still reacting to the first shot. His mouth is open in surprise and Connally is begining his turn to the right to look behind him.
The 2nd Shot(My opinion). Frame 227

Again, fine, - if this is when the second shot occurred, we would have to backtrack at least 42 frames, placing the first shot at frame 185, minimum. - And as, according to the Report, Oswalds view was blocked by the tree from frame 166 to 190, this presents a timeline problem.

Again the camera jiggles from the reaction to the sound of the gunshot. Kennedy is begining to react, Connaly looks as if he has turned completely to his right in the space of milliseconds, indicating he is also hit. Frame 229. Both men react to the shot.
Both men are now reacting . Kennedy, shot through the neck has suffered a possibly fatal wound. This bullet has entered his back just below the collar line and exited out his throat. It has also damaged his neck causing the reaction seen here. Both arms are locked in place in reaction to the damage at this point.
Frame 228 Both men react.
Kennedy is clearly hit, Connaly his right shoulder slumping is about to react from a collaped lung. This is where CE399 went through both men. Connaly sitting lower and inboard in the jumpseat in front of the president is in a direct line to the TSBD.
Frame 235 The reaction continues.
Connaly is now slumped fully to his right as the lung collapses. Kennedy will be locked in this position until the fatal headshot. There is a medical term for this position after an injury to the spine. I will find the name if you'd like.

No need, as [according to your own first shot at Frame 203 timeline] it is still a full 10 Frames before a shot could be made by even the fastest expert rifleman the Commission could find.

Frame 265 Connaly collapses, Kennedy is paralyzed. This frame shows Connaly completely turned to his right and about to be pulled into his wife's arms. Kennedy has become paralyzed, fists clenched, arms upright and locked, and sitting upright due to the brace he wore for his back injury from WW2 and surgery to help alleviate the pain. This brace will hold him up to die. Frame 311 Jackie leans in. Jackie is leaning in trying to see what is wrong and pushing on Kennedy's arm to lower it. Connaly is in his wife Nellie's arms and out of the line of sight. Jackie is terribly close to the path of the last and final shot.
Frame 313 The Fatal Headshot.
John Patrick Kennedy receives the fatal wound.
Having visited Dealy Plaza on a number of occasions I have walked the entire length and area in the Zapruder film. We are talking maybe 30-40 yards of distance for all this to happen. There is a gentle slope aweay from the TSBD and accounts for much of the angles of fire into the limo carrying the entourage.

I too have walked the area, and doubt that the angle of the first shot could ricochet [off a tree?] to strike the curb down by the underpass.

Frame 318 The head snap.
The reason Kennedy's head snaps back is the brace he is wearing. It was designed to keep his upper body rigid for extended periods such as a motorcade. When the fatal shot was fired all motor control ceased as his brain was pulverized and the motor areas disintegrated. Arms dropped and the body was snapped in place by the brace.
Three shots. All by Oswald. Acting alone.

Yep, three spaced and aimed shots [2.3 seconds apart, min.] are your problem. - Obviously, you can't correlate them to the Z-films timeline, so they remain the problem, as it is virtually impossible that Oswald, acting alone, pulled them off.

[Joe 6-pack]

"If you don’t think a 161 grain bullet traveling 2000 feet a second can’t go through six inches of flesh, take a ham out of the tin and hold it in front of you."

Your argument will be more convincing if you tell them to leave the ham in the tin.

[spanalot]

Jackie was indepedently wealthy - the analogy dont work.

Read some of the bios - she married Onnasis since he was one of the most powerful men in the world - and underworld - at that time.

[Shooter 2.5]

That might help them think they could get away with it, but since Kennedy didn't wear tin, I think it’s a close resemblance to the second shot.

[dfwgator]

What does Bugliosi accomplish that Posner already didn’t in “Case Closed?”

[1L]

>>no political axe to grind<<

Maybe not, but make no mistake, he went into this book like he did with all this cases (as all prosecutors would): as an advocate with a position to prove rather than a search for the truth. Anyone that believes otherwise is fooling themselves.

I haven’t his book, so I can’t give it a fair assessment. But unless he included something original or new in here, assassination researchers aren’t going to that this or him seriously.

[tpaine]

What does Bugliosi accomplish that Posner already didn't in 'Case Closed'?

Leading question, considering that Posner accomplished nothing, - and neither has Bugliosi.

Both of their books are perfect examples of the 'prosecutorial style'; thus, - both gloss over the factual errors in the Commissions Report.

Ignoring facts will never 'close' the case.

[1L]

You can’t prove that Oswald did it anymore than someone can prove that the mafia, or the Cubans or the CIA, or whoever did it. Besides, stating that the Warren Commission findings are flawed (which they are) doesn’t require someone to prove the alternative theory.

I have no idea what happened to Emilia Earheart (sp??). However, while I can say without question that I (or you) didn’t kill her, but I can’t prove that.

[The KG9 Kid]

"... Governor CONNALLY. A very, very brief span of time. Again my trend of thought just happened to be, I suppose along this line, I immediately thought that this—that I had been shot. I knew it when I just looked down and I was covered with blood, and the thought immediately passed through my mind that there were either two or three people involved or more in this or someone was shooting with an automatic rifle. These were just thoughts that went through my mind because of the rapidity of these two, of the first shot plus the blow that I took, and I knew I had been hit, and I immediately assumed, because of the amount of blood, and in fact, that it had obviously passed through my chest. that I had probably been fatally hit."

Conspiracists have exploited Gov. Connally's testimony here to further their mission that multiple shooters were at work in Dealey Plaza. Some even maintain that this response and perhaps one more interview similar to this one signals that Connally believed in a conspiracy until the day he died.

Well, not so fast. As we've already seen the unreliability of eyewitnesses and earwitnesses in the spectating crowd in Dealey Plaza, we should also attribute the same confusion, misidentification, and conflicting testimony to the victims of the shooting.

"I'm sorry, but I regret to inform you that I simply cannot remember how many shots were being fired at me. Unfortunately, I was being cut down with bullets at the time and lost count. I also cannot say for sure which wounds I received were caused by which particular bullets in the several second timespan of the assassination attempt that I barely survived."

Don't you think that the conspiracists aren't being fair about this? I see it to be exploitation of unreliable testimony.

I think that those people who insist that they could determine the direction of shots being fired at them as they were being hit with said bullets are either disingenuous or don't appreciate the panic and chaos involved in being on the receiving end of such an event. From personal accounts of Marines I've known in Gulf War I and the current War in Iraq, none of them were able to immediately determine the source of enemy hostile fire even when taking direct fire.

One fellow I know who occasionally posts here on FR survived an IED attack in Iraq that neither killed nor injured any of the Marines in his patrol, but made everyone think that the whole world exploded around them when it went off. No sound, just instant ringing in the ears. No light, just darkness. No wall of heat or flame, just an eruption of dirt and cordite smoke. No shockwave, just instant contrast between the violent moment of the explosion compared to the peaceful moment just an instant before the blast. No warning whatsoever. Only when they recovered from the blast did they even know what had happened. For all the difference it would have made, the explanation could have been that the sun simply just went supernova. Instead, it was two 155mm shells rigged together that blew up less than 100 meters away from their position. Imagine being slapped to the ground by a giant invisible flyswatter while someone cuts the lights off in the room you're in. Let that happen to you and then take a quiz on how much detail you remember right before the blast. Compare your answers to everyone else's, and that ought to show everyone what the reliability of individual testimony amounts to during a time of extreme crisis.

It's one thing for conspiracists to be a forensic reconstructionist (or deconstructionist, as I believe is the better word for them) who believe that a mall full of people would be uniformly reliable witnesses to the chaos of a startling and unexpected violent event.

I'm sure you agree.