Did John Connally Turn To His Right And Survey The Crowd After The First Shot?

[Thomas Graves]

Did John Connally turn to his right and survey the crowd immediately after the first shot (which I believe occurred about 1.4 seconds before Zapruder resumed filming at Z-133)?

This is what he said in an interview:

[...] At that particular juncture the crowd was still very thick and very enthusiastic. It began to thin immediately after we turned onto Elm Street. We could look ahead and see that the crowd was beginning to thin along the banks, just east, I guess of the overpass ... We had just made the turn, well, when I heard what I thought was a shot. I heard this noise which immediately took to be a rifle shot. I instinctively turned to my right because the sound appeared to come from over my right shoulder, so I turned to look back over my right shoulder, and I saw nothing unusual except just people in the crowd, but I did not catch the President in the corner of my eye, and I was interested, because once I heard the shot in my own mind I identified it as a rifle shot, and I immediately -- the only thought that crossed my mind was that this is an assassination attempt. So I looked, failing to see him, I was turning to look back over my left shoulder into the back seat, but I never got that far in my turn. I got about in the position I am in now facing you, looking a little bit to the left of center, and then I felt like someone had hit me in the back. [...]

[emphasis added]

The Zapruder film, frame-by-frame:

https://www.assassinationresearch.com/zfilm/


--  MWT 

[Chris Bristow]

It looks like he is turned his head about 90 degrees to his right before reaching the Stemmons sign. That is the point he should have seen JFK in the corner of his eye. Maybe that is the look around he referred to but he should have seen JFK who was still sitting straight up.
  Not seeing JFK would make more sense if the look around started after 223 because JFK was leaning left away from J.C.'s view by the time he turned around. But the big problem is J.C. said that after he was hit he fell back or was pulled back by Nellie then he rolled over into her lap. He did not say that after being hit he shifted his torso around to the right and turned as far as he could to look backwards. That part of his account is more consistent with his and Nellie's opinion that JC was hit well after JFK's neck shot.
 JC's turn around after 223 looks very awkward and I guess it was tough for a big guy to shift around in that small and low seat. That is why it is hard to understand how he did that after loosing 4 inches of rib and a sucking chest wound. Or how he held his hat after the bullet fractured his wrist and severed the tendon to his thumb. He also articulated his wrist into a bent position as he fit his hat between himself and the door. I suppose if a bullet passed cleanly through the wrist you might still be able to move even after that trauma. But it is hard to see it happening when the bone that the wrist pivots and rotates on is fractured and a chunk broken off the end of it.
 So looking at the Z film he could have looked back before the Stemmons sign as well as after but after 223 makes more sense to me.

[Thomas Graves]

It looks like he is turned his head about 90 degrees to his right before reaching the Stemmons sign. That is the point he should have seen JFK in the corner of his eye. Maybe that is the look around he referred to but he should have seen JFK who was still sitting straight up.
  Not seeing JFK would make more sense if the look around started after 223 because JFK was leaning left away from J.C.'s view by the time he turned around. But the big problem is J.C. said that after he was hit he fell back or was pulled back by Nellie then he rolled over into her lap. He did not say that after being hit he shifted his torso around to the right and turned as far as he could to look backwards. That part of his account is more consistent with his and Nellie's opinion that JC was hit well after JFK's neck shot.
 JC's turn around after 223 looks very awkward and I guess it was tough for a big guy to shift around in that small and low seat. That is why it is hard to understand how he did that after loosing 4 inches of rib and a sucking chest wound. Or how he held his hat after the bullet fractured his wrist and severed the tendon to his thumb. He also articulated his wrist into a bent position as he fit his hat between himself and the door. I suppose if a bullet passed cleanly through the wrist you might still be able to move even after that trauma. But it is hard to see it happening when the bone that the wrist pivots and rotates on is fractured and a chunk broken off the end of it.
 So looking at the Z film he could have looked back before the Stemmons sign as well as after but after 223 makes more sense to me.

Yes, but my question was whether or not Connally was already turning his head towards his right at Z133-134, etc.

--  MWT 

[Chris Bristow]

Those early Z frames are too blurry for me to say much. But the Towner film shows him with his head about 60 degrees to the right for about 20 frames as he passes the TSB from Towner's pov. He keeps his head at about 60 from half way past the TSB till he disappears behind Jackie. The last we see of JC in the Towner film is the equivalent of  Z 120. 
 So he is looking out at 60 degrees as he rounds the corner in Towner which starts around Z 100 and ends around Z 120. He was definitely looking to the right as late as Z120. But he would need to have turned  90 degrees to attempt to see JFK. 

[Thomas Graves]

Those early Z frames are too blurry for me to say much. But the Towner film shows him with his head about 60 degrees to the right for about 20 frames as he passes the TSB from Towner's pov. He keeps his head at about 60 from half way past the TSB till he disappears behind Jackie. The last we see of JC in the Towner film is the equivalent of  Z 120. 
 So he is looking out at 60 degrees as he rounds the corner in Towner which starts around Z 100 and ends around Z 120. He was definitely looking to the right as late as Z120. But he would need to have turned  90 degrees to attempt to see JFK.

Chris,

Based on what Max Holland shows us in The Missing Bullet, I believe the first shot was fired about 1.4 seconds before Zapruder resumed filming at Z-133.

This seems to jibe with what you're saying and what Vicki Adam's told James Leavelle in February of 1964.

Thanks.

--  MWT 

[Steve Barber]

John Connally told the Warren Commission  that they'd ridden "about 150-200 feet" when the first shot was fired.  The sudden head snap by both Kennedy and Connally--both of whom were looking to their left-- indicates the first shot at circa z 155.  Connally's head snap from left to right happens in 1/4 of a second. 

[Thomas Graves]

John Connally told the Warren Commission  that they'd ridden "about 150-200 feet" when the first shot was fired.  The sudden head snap by both Kennedy and Connally--both of whom were looking to their left-- indicates the first shot at circa z 155.  Connally's head snap from left to right happens in 1/4 of a second.

In his later interview, he said right after the turn ...

--  MWT