Nellie Connally Disputes Warren Commission

NewsMax.com ^ | 11/25/03 | Carl Limbacher and NewsMax.com Staff

[kattracks]

For all the coverage generated by the 40th anniversary of the Kennedy assassination this past weekend, the media managed to miss the only genuine news to emerge from the commemoration.

Nellie Connally, wife of former Texas Gov. John Connally and the only person still alive who rode in the presidential death limousine, publicly disputed for the first time the Warren Commission's "magic bullet" theory, a scenario absolutely essential to its finding that Lee Harvey Oswald was Kennedy's lone assassin.

A year after the assassination the Commission concluded that Kennedy and Gov. Connally were both wounded by the first shot fired by Oswald from the Texas School Book Depository. A second shot missed completely. A third shot slammed into Kennedy's head and splattered his brains throughout the car.

But Mrs. Connally told CNN's Larry King that Kennedy and her husband couldn't have been struck by the same bullet, because she watched her husband react over a period of two seconds after the first shot struck the president.

"John [Connally] sitting right in front of him knew it was a shot," the former Texas first lady said. "He's a hunter and a shooter, you know. . . ."

Mrs. Connally continued:

"So he turned quick to his right and he couldn't see [Kennedy] because he was directly in front of him. And he said, 'No, no, no' and turned to his left. . . . Now this is a second or two. Then, as he whirled back, the second shot hit John . . ."

When pressed about the single bullet theory adopted by the Warren Commission, Mrs. Connally told King, "Do you think a bullet that went through the president's neck can hang there in air between the two seats while John turned to the right, turned to the left and came back?

"That's what I asked the Warren Commission," she explained. "I said, 'I don't believe a bullet could do that. That bullet -- the same bullet did not hit both of them.'"

[Brandon]

I watched the same show, with my 16 year old son, whose interest in the matter is purely historical. About halfway through, he went into the kitchen and came back with a roll of aluminum foil, and proceeded to fashion hats for both of us. THat was his sole commentary, but I think it's reasonable. Did you notice that not one single shred of corroborating evidence was offered to back up this woman's story? No secondary witnesses, either -- everyone she named who might have been able to verify or debunk her claims is rather conveniently dead. She struck me as a publicity hound, anxious to grab a moment in the spotlight by claiming to be Oswald's lover.

[Phaedrus]

Connelly himself, who was a foot soldier as a young man and frequently under enemy fire, insisted to his dying day that there were two gunmen, and that the Warren Commission's conclusions were impossible.

Could've been 3 or 4.

[Phaedrus]

Nellie Connolly is just wrong on this.

Here we go again.

[veronica]

If she confirms and believes that there were only three shots, which she does - (as her husband did as well) by process of elimination - one missed and hit the pavement - one hit the President in the head - so - one HAD to hit both men. It's pretty clear.

[Phaedrus]

It's pretty clear.

Only to you.

[veronica]

To me and many others. Including Lee Harvey Oswald's brother.

[Deuce]

The "magic bullet" theory is very plausible.

The theory is very plausible, if and only if, you ASSUME that:

a.) only three shots were fired; and
b.) each shot was fired from the rear.

Since these two assumptions were implicitly made by the WC, the SBT is the only plausible explanation. Expand your thinking to allow for the fact that there may have been other shooters in other locations and the SBT sounds preposterous.

[veronica]

Nellie Connolly herself states that only three shots were fired. That's a fact.

http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0311/22/lkl.00.html

In this interview with Larry King, Nellie Connolly says that there were only three shots - that the second one hit her husband - and that the third shot hit the President's head. She also says that there were no shots from the front.

'Splain that.

[Darnright]

I watched the program. I did a bit of online searching, and came up with: Lee Oswald's Girlfriend in New Orleans? Secret CIA Bioweapons Researcher? Should We Believe Judyth Baker?.

My opinion? No.

[N. Theknow]

What do you expect from a Commission that had Gerald Ford on it as a member and Arlen Specter on it as an Assistant Counsel?

[texasbluebell]

Thanks for the ping!

[DustyMoment]

Interesting article - thanks for pinging me.

I find it interesting that there are some here who will dispute the words of someone who was actually in the car. Granted, Mrs. Connally is not a scientist or a ballistics expert, but she was there, on the scene and saw/heard what she saw/heard. She was also married to one of the victims; do we think they didn't talk?

There are many complex aspects of the SBT that have not, IMO, been taken into account. Given the shape of the area of Dealy Plaza and the number of buildings around it, acoustically, it would be very difficult to determine the direction from which any given sound emanated unless one was looking at the source of the sound. The surrounding tall structures on three sides of the plaza would cause the sound to echo and travel both upwards and out towards Stemmons Freeway. As the result of these acoustical patterns, it would be difficult for anyone to determine the actual source of the gunshots since ALL of them would sound as though they came from the direction of the TSBD or the jail due to the echo and reverberation of the sound.

Also, there is little that I have seen to suggest the possibility that shooters in front of the motorcade could have fired almost simultaneously; literally within microseconds of one another. Given the acoustics of the area, multiple shots, fired within microseconds of each other, could sound to the average individual like one shot. The three-shots report also precludes the use of silencers by those assassins in front of the motorcade. Silencers existed and were available in those days.

These aspects aside, the reaction of Kennedy's head to the "third" bullet that blew the back of his head off strongly suggests that the shot came from the front. For example, when 2 boxers are fighting and 1 clocks the other directly in the face, the boxer who was hit DOES NOT jerk his head forward, then back. His head will move backward in reaction to the blow, then will snap forward. This is exactly what JFK's head did after the final bullet struck him. There is no other plausible explanation for his head to react that way. That is the physical evidence that supports the theory that assassins were placed in front of the motorcade.

[texasbluebell]

You might want to read this if you haven't yet!

[texasbluebell]

Didn't the Parkland docs all say the hole in JFK's throat was an entrance wound and not an exit wound? Am I remembering that correctly?

Yep, that's what the ER pros said, but who are they to know...

And in the past day or so, I read something that had never either made sense or else I missed it. It was that the back bullet hole -- the one that hit JFK about 5 or so inches down his back, the one that is apparently the "magic bullet" that went on supposedly through his throat and then made its way all through John Connelly -- this bullet was probed in the hospital and did not go very far into the body.

In other words, it did not exit out the front of his body.

Can anyone refute that?

[texasbluebell]

The HSCA went on to determine that there was probably a conspiracy, though they could not say who the conspirators were. (They based it not solely on the audio evidence, which some say is debunked.)

The WC is not the end of the story, though everyone seems to ignore the House Select Committee on Assassinations' findings.

I don't know why.

[Tares]

Kennedy assassination links for all to consider (in no particular order):

Kennedy Assassination Home Page
Lee Harvey Oswald's Paper Bag
Guinn’s neutron-activation Analysis
Warren Report: Table of Contents
One Hundred Errors of Fact and Judgment in Oliver Stone's JFK
The Academic JFK Assassination Web Site
HSCA (House Select Committee on Assassinations) Final Assassinations Report
A Critique of The Warren Report
Attempted assassination of General Walker
Oswald interviews, Acoustic studies and other information relating to the assassination of JFK
Queen of Diamonds
Zapruder 313
Head Wound
Photos and Illustrations of the JFK Assassination
Zapruder Head Shot
A Conspiracy Too Big? Intellectual Dishonesty in the JFK Assassination

If any of the links do not work, please let me know.

[Quix]

Nice for a participant involved to speak for some truth

FINALLY.

[Shooter 2.5]

I noticed that.

"John [Connally] sitting right in front of him knew it was a shot," [The first shot missed the limo and hit the guy at the triple underpass] the former Texas first lady said. "He's a hunter and a shooter, you know. . . ."

Mrs. Connally continued:

"So he turned quick to his right and he couldn't see [Kennedy] because he was directly in front of him. And he said, 'No, no, no' and turned to his left. . . . Now this is a second or two. Then, as he whirled back, the second shot hit John . . ." [The second shot or the Pristine bullet or the magic bullet or whatever it's called these days.]

How does this differ from the Warren Report?

Two bullets probably caused all the wounds suffered by President Kennedy and Governor Connally. Since the preponderance of the evidence indicated that three shots were fired, the Commission concluded that one shot probably missed the Presidential limousine and its occupants, and that the three shots were fired in a time period ranging from approximately 4.8 to in excess of 7 seconds.

[Hemingway's Ghost]

The "magic bullet" theory is very plausible, and the only one that has not been completely debunked.

PS: the moon is not made of cheese.

[churchillbuff]

Of course it is. Who is Mrs. Connally going to believe, The Warren Commission or her lying eyes?

LOL