The Magic Bullet - Fact or Fiction?

[Tim Nickerson]

?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?

He reiterates

?It was a very brief span of time; oh, I would have to say a matter of seconds. I don't know, 1.0, 1.2 seconds. It was extremely rapid, so much so that again I thought that whoever was firing must be firing with an automatic rifle because of the rapidity of the shots, a very short period of time.? WC Testimony

Your turn to concede bud

Uhhhh......

"Mr. SPECTER: What is your best estimate as to the timespan between the first shot which you heard and the shot which you heretofore characterized as the third shot?
Governor CONNALLY: It was a very brief span of time; oh, I would have to say a matter of seconds. I don't know, 10, 12 seconds. It was extremely rapid, so much so that again I thought that whoever was firing must be firing with an automatic rifle because of the rapidity of the shots; a very short period of time."

http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/russ/testimony/conn_j.htm

Am I still supposed to concede?

[Eddie Haymaker]

YES

automatic rifle twice

Sorry about that my bad I misunderstood - not deliberate

still automatic rifle though

So when he says

"It was extremely rapid, so much so that again I thought that whoever was firing must be firing with an automatic rifle"

Its pretty clear

[Tim Nickerson]

YES

automatic rifle twice

Sorry about that my bad I misunderstood - not deliberate

still automatic rifle though

So when he says

"It was extremely rapid, so much so that again I thought that whoever was firing must be firing with an automatic rifle"

Its pretty clear

Ok, I concede to you that Connally did say that he "thought that whoever was firing must be firing with an automatic rifle". You do realize though that 10 to 12 seconds is more than what LNs like myself use in our arguments, right? Now, I haven't chained myself to this but I tend to believe that the first shot was at about Z153.

313 - 153 = 160

160/18.3 = 8.74 seconds

[Jerry Organ]

How do we know Connally was reacting to being hit? Maybe he was just reacting to a round landing within a couple feet of him. If the round did come through the windshield it would have passed within inches of Connally's head.
 I find it questionable that after having 4 inches of rib blasted away he would/could twist around to his right as far as he could  to see JFK. Secondly he holds his Stetson in his right hand after having his Radius shattered and the tendon to his thumb  severed.

The tendon to his thumb was severed?

    "After as careful and complete a debridement of the volar wound as
     possible and the integrity of the flexor tendons and the median nerve
     on the volar side established, the wound of exit on the volar surface
     of the wrist was closed primarily with wire sutures. The wound of
     entrance on the radial side of the forearm was only partially closed,
     being left open for the purpose of drainage."
          --Report by Dr. Charles F. Gregory

Gragory did not repair a severed tendon. I don't believe Connally ever reported a disability of the right hand involving the thumb opposing the rest of the hand.

June 22, 1966

August 15, 1971

Then he articulates his wrist downward to fit his hat between him and the door of the limo as he twists around to see JFK.

How the wrist behaved after being struck probably wasn't voluntary. Since the median nerve and thumb tendon function, the fingers and thumb involuntarily oppose each other. Connally was already holding the Stetson, so no change in how the fingers and thumb held onto it.

If a round passes through your wrist I doubt you would then bend it like he does.

Of course not. It's been shot, the radius is broken (larger fragments were nondisplaced) and the wrist is seen to dangle unnaturally. The ulna is intact through and much of muscle mass is present. They repaired the Governor's wrist without resort to bone and tissue grafts.

[Chris Bristow]

Jerry, I thought I had heard Cyril Wecht say the tendon was severed, I guess I was wrong on that. Regarding bending of the wrist, he did not bend it till well after the shot so I do not think it was involuntary. It looks like he did it to allow the hat to fit between himself and the door. My point was not about the fingers and thumb, it was about the wrist position changing.
 To say he could still move his wrist because it did not need bone graphs misses the point. Just having a bullet pass through the wrist would make it painful and difficult to bend the wrist. Also I think because the wrist bones are mounted on the radius it would be painful to articulate the wrist.
 These are interesting points to discuss but I try not to reach absolute conclusions about subjects like this. There just isn't enough data.

[Chris Bristow]

JBC was reacting to being hit because he was hit. The evidence for that is beyond doubt. No round came through the windshield. JBC was in the process of turning to his left when struck by CE-399. Even after being hit in the wrist JBC hangs on to his hat.

The fact they both reacted at the same time may look convincing but it does not prove he was hit as opposed to just reacting to being very close to the shot.
Connally said he turned to the right because he heard the gunshot on that side and also wanted to look at JFK. Then according to the SBT he was shot BEFORE he started to turn not during it. He also said he was unable to see JFK and started to tun to the other side. I make an assumption here that he must have tried to twist around as far as he could while attempting to see JFK. That would mean while missing 4 inches of rib on his RIGHT side he still twists very far to the right.
  I find all this questionable but I am not claiming anything here as proof of anything. Neither do I accept that the evidence is 'beyond doubt' that he was hit by the same round.

[Tim Nickerson]

The fact they both reacted at the same time may look convincing but it does not prove he was hit as opposed to just reacting to being very close to the shot.

You have Connally out to be a Barney Fife-like character.

Connally said he turned to the right because he heard the gunshot on that side and also wanted to look at JFK. Then according to the SBT he was shot BEFORE he started to turn not during it.

Where do you get that from? The SBT has him being hit as he was turning back toward the front after he had rotated to his right to try to see Kennedy over his right shoulder.  He began that initial turn to the right at about z157 and reached the maximum right rotation at z193. At the time of the strike (ca Z223), his upper torso is turned about 30 degrees to the right.

[Jack Trojan]

You think that they could test DNA back then?

DNA is shorthand for blood, flesh or bone, as if you didn't know.

None of the blood , flesh, or bone from Connally's torso would be expected to be on the bullet.

"A bullet that is not broken up during penetration usually emerges without detectable amounts of blood or tissue clinging to it. As it penetrates, the bullet is moving so rapidly that its primary effect on tissue is to push it aside, creating a temporary cavity, not pick it up." -- The JFK Myths: A Scientific Investigation of the Kennedy Assassination, by Larry Sturdivan, pg 120

https://www.amazon.com/JFK-Myths-Scientific-Investigation-Assassination/dp/1557788472

By the time that the FBI lab received the bullet, any blood that might have been on it from Connally's shallow thigh wound would have been wiped clean from being in the sheets of Connally's stretcher and the pocket linings of two or three people.

Horsesh@t. And I won't even get into the condition of the MB after it crashed thru JFK's T1 vertebrae and zig-zagged into Connally's chest and smashed thru his wrist bone (leaving material) only to fall out of his thigh and onto the wrong gurney with the copper jacket completely intact and only slightly deformed at the base. Almost like it was fired into a swimming pool.

If that's not magic, then I've got some beans you might be interested in.