LNers: Your Views of the Missed Shot?

[John Iacoletti]

Which "variation" of the SBT was proposed during the autopsy? I've never read that happened. From what I've read the autopsy doctors never considered the wounds on Connally. Why would they? Their job was to determine the cause of the injuries to JFK not Connally. Moreover, Humes said (the JAMA article, for example) they couldn't figure out where the bullet that entered the back went to. It wasn't until the next morning when he called Perry and learned that the tracheotomy covered a wound to the throat that he concluded it had exited there.

That was the story.  But Dr. Robert Livingston said he called Humes prior to the autopsy and told him about the throat wound.

[John Iacoletti]

Actually, these images show us a lot. They show us that CTers can see gunmen in almost any image from Dealey Plaza taken on November 22, 1963. They don?t tell us a lot about what happened. But they give us lots of insight into the minds of CTers.
I wonder if while in Kindergarten, if they could always spot Waldo immediately, but usually in the wrong place.

You know what nobody sees in any image from Dealey Plaza taken on November 22, 1963?

Lee Harvey Oswald.

[John Iacoletti]

1.) Who said there were three shots? What if there were only two?
2.) The problems with a shallow back wound: a) Ruby shot Oswald with a snub-nose .38 special revolver. It's not a particularly penetrating projectile. Still, the bullet went from one side of Oswald to the other. A rifle bullet at any normal velocity would go at least as far. b)According to the Edgewood tests, the 6.5 Carcano bullets they tested only lost 400fps travelling completely through a simulated human neck made of meat covered with goatskin. Other experiments had determine that it takes a rifle-caliber steel ball about 150fps just to penetrate the skin. So a bullet that only burrows in an inch or so to the body is going to impact JFK travelling on the order of 200-400ft/sec. At 200ft/sec a bullet fired from 200ft away has a 1 second flight time, and will drop 1/2*(32.2ft/s/s)*1s = 16 feet. A bullet travelling at 400ft/sec will fly for 0.5sec and similarly drop 4 feet. So, to hit JFK with suck a pokey projectile, the shooter would have to be aiming for a point several feet above JFK's head, which doesn't make sense. c.) If the bullet was stopped by the spine, it would have caused severe damage to the vertebra.

So really what you mean is that it's physically impossible for a normal 6.5 bullet fired from a Mannlicher Carcano rifle from the SE corner of the 6th floor of the TSBD and directly hitting JFK's back to have created a "shallow back wound".

[Mitch Todd]

a. 3 shell casings in the alleged SN, the majority of earwitnesses, the original FBI report
b.  Someone planted 1 too many shells in the SN

The rifle being brought into the building with an empty shell casing already in the chamber would account for two shots and three casings. Cycle the bolt once to eject the empty and load the rifle, fire, cycle bolt again, fire, cycle again, decide not to shoot. 3 shells, two shots, one live bullet in the chamber.

[Steve Taylor]

That was the story.  But Dr. Robert Livingston said he called Humes prior to the autopsy and told him about the throat wound.

At 3:30 PM CST, UPI, quoting PH doctor Perry, said "There was an entrance wound below the adam's apple.  There was another wound on the back of his head."  This info went nationwide.  It seems unlikely that the people at Bethesda did not hear about this.  Other things also make this teletype interesting reading.

https://static.lib.virginia.edu/JFK/

[Steve Taylor]

193 is a clear frame of JFK waving, then blurring starts so I put the range from 194-206.  To narrow it down, I feel 200-206 were closer to the event and coincide with the Willis photo.

[Steve Taylor]

1.) Who said there were three shots? What if there were only two?
2.) The problems with a shallow back wound: a) Ruby shot Oswald with a snub-nose .38 special revolver. It's not a particularly penetrating projectile. Still, the bullet went from one side of Oswald to the other. A rifle bullet at any normal velocity would go at least as far. b)According to the Edgewood tests, the 6.5 Carcano bullets they tested only lost 400fps travelling completely through a simulated human neck made of meat covered with goatskin. Other experiments had determine that it takes a rifle-caliber steel ball about 150fps just to penetrate the skin. So a bullet that only burrows in an inch or so to the body is going to impact JFK travelling on the order of 200-400ft/sec. At 200ft/sec a bullet fired from 200ft away has a 1 second flight time, and will drop 1/2*(32.2ft/s/s)*1s = 16 feet. A bullet travelling at 400ft/sec will fly for 0.5sec and similarly drop 4 feet. So, to hit JFK with suck a pokey projectile, the shooter would have to be aiming for a point several feet above JFK's head, which doesn't make sense. c.) If the bullet was stopped by the spine, it would have caused severe damage to the vertebra.

Your later solution to 1. above seems reasonable.
Regarding 2. above, thank you for the understandable examples.  However, since we are working in round numbers let me modify your example.  At 400ft/sec, a round will drop 2 ft in a 100 feet distance.  Additionally, if it is flying at a 45 degree angle to the horizon, it should only drop 1 foot.  This is the difference between a head and back shot. Do you agree?

[Mitch Todd]

Your later solution to 1. above seems reasonable.
Regarding 2. above, thank you for the understandable examples.  However, since we are working in round numbers let me modify your example.  At 400ft/sec, a round will drop 2 ft in a 100 feet distance.  Additionally, if it is flying at a 45 degree angle to the horizon, it should only drop 1 foot.  This is the difference between a head and back shot. Do you agree?

At 400fps, a bullet will traverse a 100' range in 1/4 second. It will drop 1/2 * 32 * (1/4)^2 or 1'. The acceleration due to gravity is independent the direction it's fired. At 400fps, It's still going to drop 1' from the point of aim after 100'. Or are you meaning that the 100' is 45 degrees from horizontal, too? And where behind JFK is there a possible shooter location 100' from jfk @45degrees?