Physical Impossibilities in the Zapruder Film

[Michael T. Griffith]

The Zapruder film contains several events that are physically impossible, which means the version we have has been altered. One example of physically impossible events is the movement of Charles Brehm's son.

In Z277 Brehm junior is standing behind his father. Then, from Z277-287, or in just over half a second, he bolts out from behind his father and comes to stand beside him, clapping his hands no less. In other words, in Z277 Brehm junior is standing behind his father, but, just ten frames later, he is standing calmly and steadily beside him and clapping his hands--all in a fraction over half a second. Ten frames of the Zapruder film, calculated at the assumed speed of 18.3 frames per second, equals .56 seconds (or 560 milliseconds).

Furthermore, a frame-by-frame analysis of the movement of Brehm's son in the Muchmore film shows that the son's movement takes nearly twice as long in the Muchmore film as it does in the Zapruder film.

I have done several experiments to try duplicate the movement of Brehm's soon in the required .56 seconds. I never came close. Try it yourself. It is impossible.

Numerous elements in the Zapruder film still refute the lone-gunman theory, which is why the film was suppressed for so long. Those who edited the film simply were not able to remove enough of the problematic elements to make the film fully compatible with a lone-gunman scenario.

[Michael T. Griffith]

As the car passed, Charles Brehm leaned to his left at the same moment the son stepped (or transferred weight onto his right leg) and leaned to his right. Both contributed to the gap between them.

What are you looking at to come up with such a description? In the Zapruder film, at 277, Brehm's son is behind him. At 277, the area to Brehm's right is clearly visible, and there is no one there.



The son's movement first becomes visible at 278-280. By 283, he is about 2/3 the way to his ultimate position and the angle and position of his body to his dad's body begin to change markedly.



By 287, he is calmly standing behind his dad and clapping, as if he had casually moved to his dad's side. And Brehm's legs never change their location in this sequence. He shifts his weight a bit, but his legs never move horizontally.



Clearly, many frames of his movement from behind his dad to beside his dad are missing. 

[John Mytton]

What's the problem?



JohnM

[Michael T. Griffith]

People aren't stickpins stuck in the ground. Their bodies can pivot and rotate; go back-and-forth and side-to-side. Probably the person is not much aware of it.

This is an irrelevant observation. This has nothing to do with anyone's body pivoting or rotating. Brehm's legs never change their horizontal position, and the son moves from being behind him to being beside him at an impossible speed. You are simply ignoring the problem of how anyone could carry out the son's movements in 0.56 seconds, or barely over half a second. Try it. I've done several experiments with one of my sons, and he was never able to even come close to doing those movements in 0.56 seconds.

Another physically impossible movement in the current Zapruder film is the head turn of the driver, William Greer, from Z315-321. Greer turns his head about 165 degrees in six frames, or in only 1/3rd of a second. Mike Pincher and Roy Schaeffer observe that Greer's head turn should create blurring in the film because the human eye can't remain focused when following such a rapid movement, but no blurring is seen:

"If the reader flashes his hand in front of his face in approximation of one-third of a second, it appears as a blur. The eyes are incapable of staying in full focus in following this action. If Greer's 165-degree movement in one-third of a second truly depicted real time, it would likewise appear as a blur. But blurring of this nature is not seen in the Zapruder film." (Assassination Science, p. 223)

Or, look at the astonishing speed at which Malcolm Summers moves his leg in Z353-356. In this sequence, we see Malcolm Summers diving to the ground. Summers is to the right of James Altgens. In Z353 Summers' left leg is extended most of the way out. But, in the very next frame, Z354, amazingly, the foreleg is bent markedly backward. Can anyone flex their foreleg to that degree so quickly, in 1/18th of a second? Then, in Z355 Summers' left leg is bent even farther backward. Can anyone move their foreleg that much in 1/9th of a second (from its position in Z353 to its position in Z355)? Then, in Z356, the left foot seems to be on the ground. Can anyone whip their left foreleg backward and then put their foot on the ground in the space of three frames, 1/6th of a second?

[Michael T. Griffith]

What's the problem?

Your GIF is showing the son's movements in slow motion. The problem is that in just 0.56 seconds, the son emerges from behind his dad to be standing beside him and clapping, which is an impossible movement in that amount of time. Get a kid close to Brehm's son's age, or get a teenager even, and do an experiment: See if the kid can carry out those same movements in just 0.56 seconds. Get a chair. Have the kid stand mostly behind the chair. Tell the kid to move from behind the chair to a position roughly beside the chair and to be clapping while he completes the last 0.10 seconds of the movements. I did this with one of my sons many times, and he was never able to even come close to duplicating Brehm's son's movements in 0.56 seconds.

Indeed, your GIF shows the problem. In slow motion, the son's movements should be much slower than they are in your GIF. In your GIF, the son's movements seem to occur at a natural speed precisely because the movements are much faster when the film is played at its regular speed.

[Michael T. Griffith]

I think that perhaps the most compelling physical impossibility in the Zapruder film is the split-second slowing of the limousine in Z294-304. This event is noteworthy because it has been detected, measured, and discussed by scientists, including Dr. Luis Alvarez. From Z295-304, the limousine slows from 12 mph to 8 mph, a deceleration of about 0.37 g, in the space of barely half a second. Said Alvarez,

"The heavy car decelerated suddenly for about 0.5 sec. (10 frames), centered at about frame 299, reducing its speed from about 12 mph to about 8 mph" (American Journal of Physics, 44:9, September 1976, p. 825).

But Alvarez did not grasp, or chose to ignore, the implications of this rapid slowdown for the film's authenticity. Going from 12 mph to 8 mph in 10 frames would have produced a deceleration of about 0.37 g. As other scientists have noted, a deceleration of 0.37 g would toss things around, especially the occupants. Most cars do not decelerate more than 0.4 g. Yet, in the current Zapruder film, we see no visible effect on the occupants in the limo from the deceleration. The fact that JFK is not moved by this deceleration is particularly interesting because he no longer had voluntary muscle control and should have been thrown forward. Yet for many frames before and after this event, he appears to be quite immobile.

I suspect that this split-second rapid slowdown is a remnant of the obvious, noticeable slowdown/stop that numerous witnesses described seeing. For various reasons, this event had to be removed from the film. Throughout the current film the limousine seems to move at a steady speed.  No stop or marked slowdown can be seen by viewing the film at normal speed, which of course is the speed at which the witnesses would have observed the limousine. Alvarez only detected the slowdown by making measurements based on a frame-by-frame analysis of the film. Until Alvarez discovered the split-second slowdown, nobody had noticed it. So surely this is not the slowdown event that the witnesses described.
 

[John Mytton]

Your GIF is showing the son's movements in slow motion. The problem is that in just 0.56 seconds, the son emerges from behind his dad to be standing beside him and clapping, which is an impossible movement in that amount of time. Get a kid close to Brehm's son's age, or get a teenager even, and do an experiment: See if the kid can carry out those same movements in just 0.56 seconds. Get a chair. Have the kid stand mostly behind the chair. Tell the kid to move from behind the chair to a position roughly beside the chair and to be clapping while he completes the last 0.10 seconds of the movements. I did this with one of my sons many times, and he was never able to even come close to duplicating Brehm's son's movements in 0.56 seconds.

Indeed, your GIF shows the problem. In slow motion, the son's movements should be much slower than they are in your GIF. In your GIF, the son's movements seem to occur at a natural speed precisely because the movements are much faster when the film is played at its regular speed.

Your GIF is showing the son's movements in slow motion.

You miss the point of the exercise, compare the distance travelled by the relatively slow moving Limo to the minuscule movement of Brehms kid. Anyway to make you happy I modified the Gif to play out at regular speed and in all cases all movements are completely harmonious. Btw exactly what do you think they were trying to hide by doing the alteration as you describe?

Get a kid close to Brehm's son's age, or get a teenager even, and do an experiment: See if the kid can carry out those same movements in just 0.56 seconds. Get a chair. Have the kid stand mostly behind the chair. Tell the kid to move from behind the chair to a position roughly beside the chair and to be clapping while he completes the last 0.10 seconds of the movements. I did this with one of my sons many times, and he was never able to even come close to duplicating Brehm's son's movements in 0.56 seconds.

Yawn, Michael it's up to you to prove your own claim, I'm frankly a bit tired of you amateur noobs saying "I see something, now you prove me wrong" how about you film your kid in the exact same circumstances and let's analyse that.

Indeed, your GIF shows the problem. In slow motion, the son's movements should be much slower than they are in your GIF. In your GIF, the son's movements seem to occur at a natural speed precisely because the movements are much faster when the film is played at its regular speed.

Here we go again, more speculation of what you think you see, claims are a dime a dozen around here, either back up your claims with photographic/video proof or don't but it's your credibility at risk not mine!

JohnM

[John Mytton]

Numerous elements in the Zapruder film still refute the lone-gunman theory, which is why the film was suppressed for so long. Those who edited the film simply were not able to remove enough of the problematic elements to make the film fully compatible with a lone-gunman scenario.

The following week the most important frames(besides the headshot) were published in LIFE magazine and allowing for production and distribution, the amount of time to alter these frames all of which can be perfectly slotted back into the original, was only a few days, and is simply was not enough time but don't believe me go and ask any older SFX specialist and ask them exactly what could be done with 8mm film or any film for that matter and then ask if your ideas are actually plausible.
Another problem for you is that all the individual elements that you think were edited all have their own specific properties as in lighting, motion blur and angles and etc, and if you cut something out and stick it somewhere else then it's a guarantee that the moved object will be out of place with the surroundings.







JohnM