Was Hickey's AR15 in burst mode?

[Gerry Down]

The angles are all wrong for a shot from Hickeys location. Plus doesn't explain the rearward head snap.

[Marjan Rynkiewicz]

The angles are all wrong for a shot from Hickeys location. Plus doesn't explain the rearward head snap.

I redd that Zapruder shows that there was a headsnap forwards of an inch or so (due to the force of the entry etc) followed by a large muscular reaction backwards.
Nearly forgot, there is youtube of exploding melons (shot with frangible slugs) flying back towards the rifle (whilst their guts flys mostly forwards)(& sideways etc), which is a force/momentum reaction, ie in addition to any possible muscular reaction (JFK's muscles, not the melon's muscles).

Re angles i have never looked far into that stuff.
I think that the slug's traject throo the head is not known, we have an entry hole but no exit hole.
The remnant slug veers say 6 deg to give us our cracked windshield. That is the only angle problem that i see. A frangible slug duznt veer much compared to a FMJ. Plus veer in jelly can be huge but only if over a long distance eg 30 deg in 18". So how duzz a frangible slug veer 6 deg in only 6". The answer (that has been found) is that the slug firstly hits an angled solid layer, in our case angled bone. Its do-able, ie 6 deg in 6", as can be seen in youtube of ballistic jelly tests.

I dont know whether there is a problem that the head is leaning too far forward to make sense of the entry/exit angle or too far backwards.
Here i mean re the geometry of the AR15 & the hole & the skull (not re the crack in the windshield).
Off hand it looks ok to me. Anyhow we dont know the exact exit location.

Nearly forgot. The paramount angle problem is that the headshot was impossible from Oswald's window.
The slug would have exited between JFK's eyes or some such.
And, a FMJ would have (after exiting) put a hole in something or someone in the limo.
And the angle of exit is nowhere near the cracked windshield.
And even if it were, the FMJ would make a big hole, not a crack(s).

[Anthony Frank]

At 0:54 in the youtube footage linked below i can see that Hickey (in the rear seat of Queen Mary) could have fired an accidental non-controlled burst of three AR15 shots if his AR15 was in burst mode (instead of manual mode).  Three shots if at 400 rpm or 6.7 rps would take 0.3 sec.  Far off it would sound like one shot.

Or if the AR15 was in auto mode then Hickey could have fired 2 or 3 or 4 shots, the AR15 would fire until Hickey released the trigger or ran out of ammo.

There are lots of possibilities.
(1) One made a crater in the vertical corner of a concrete pier of the underpass behind Tague.
(2) One ricocheted off the concrete curb near Tague.
(3) One ricocheted off the tarmac of Main Street near Tague.
(4) One ricocheted off Main Street then off the curb near Tague.
(5) One ricocheted off the tarmac in Elm Street.
(6) One hit a concrete storm sewer entry on the southern curb of Elm St.
(7) One hit the chrome trim on the top of the windshield.
(8 ) One cracked the windshield left of the rear vizion mirror.
(9) One hit JFK in the head (imagine JFK's head is 4'1"above that there cross painted in the center lane).

A quick automatic burst of shots would trace out a nice line or smooth arc.  If any of the above are too far to one side then that might disqualify them. (1)(2)(3)(4)(5)(7)(9) are ok, but (6) the sewer entry is too far left of the others, it is a lane width (13 ft) to the left of the Hickey-to-Tague line (the sewer is difficult to see at 0:54 but easy to see later in the footage).  And (8 ) the cracked windshield is too far left of the others.

In any case Hickey would have had some amount of horizontal swinging movement in his errant AR15, as well as some vertical movement.  I suppose that there is no limit to the possible spread of a burst if the AR15 is swinging wildly enuff. As long as the arc traced out by the shots doesnt need an impossible zig or zag, which i think it doesnt (except for the sewer & the crack).

The JFK fatal headshot would have been the first shot of the burst if Hickey were falling backwards (if the QM suddenly accelerated), or the last shot of the burst if falling forwards (if the QM suddenly braked).

If the AR15 fired at 400 rpm in burst or auto mode then that is 6.7 rps, modern AR15s can i think fire 12 rps. There were witnesses that mentioned bursts. Agent Kellerman in the passenger seat in the limo said there was a flurry of shots at Z313.  Many said that the shots at Z313 were almost simultaneous. Yes, i reckon that Hickey did set the AR15 in burst mode (which gives 3 auto shots).  Yes, many crazy witnesses were actually sane.

Royce Skelton saw a bullet hit the road (Elm St i think) at time Z313, he didnt say exactly where.  That was in addition to the bullet that Skelton saw that hit the road earlier at say Z150, near where Virgie Rackley Baker saw a bullet hit the road, but those two Z150 sightings were due to Oswald's shot-1 which had ricocheted off the signal arm, so they aint important here.

There was a lot of gunsmoke on Elm St, & gunsmoke followed the Queen Mary to the hospital.  I mean the smelly kind of gunsmoke (cordite) not the smokey kind (black powder). Yep a burst of 3 shots at street level would explain all of that stink much better than a single shot. Oswald's 2 shots up on the 6th story were too high to stink at street level, especially due to the prevailing wind being in his face on that Friday.

A burst of 3 shots makes sense.  Or an auto burst of 2 or 3 or more shots. 
Still thinking.  Here is the youtube footage, stop at 0:54.

Hickey wrote in his report that it was not until “the end of the last report” that he “reached to the bottom of the car and picked up the AR-15 rifle, cocked and loaded it, and turned to the rear.”

He reported that he stood up and turned his back to the President at the sound of the first shot allegedly “in an attempt to identify it,” and then after “two or three seconds” of looking toward the rear, he turned to look at the President and watched as the next two shots were fired.  Hickey picked up the AR-15 rifle only after a bullet struck President Kennedy in the head, more than five seconds and possibly as many as eight seconds after the first shot.

[Marjan Rynkiewicz]

Hickey wrote in his report that it was not until “the end of the last report” that he “reached to the bottom of the car and picked up the AR-15 rifle, cocked and loaded it, and turned to the rear.”

He reported that he stood up and turned his back to the President at the sound of the first shot allegedly “in an attempt to identify it,” and then after “two or three seconds” of looking toward the rear, he turned to look at the President and watched as the next two shots were fired.  Hickey picked up the AR-15 rifle only after a bullet struck President Kennedy in the head, more than five seconds and possibly as many as eight seconds after the first shot.

If u click on me & click on my postings u will see that i answer all of thems kinds of questions.
Or do a search for Hickey & go to my postings.
Or do a search for Bronson & go to my postings.
It was rotten luck, he was just doing his job.

[Marjan Rynkiewicz]

Many (lone nutters) on this forum believe that Oswald fired the fatal Z313 headshot.
There has been lots written on this forum & other forums & books etc that the wound angles don’t support a shot from the snipers nest.
And lots has been written that a shot from the sniper's nest could not veer enuff in JFK's skull such that the slug then cracks the windshield.
Or that the slug veers enuff to dent the chrome trim above the mirror.
I have explained that there is also a small such veer problem for Hickey.
Hickey's accidental headshot had to veer say 6 deg for the remnant slug to crack the windshield just left of the mirror.
6 deg is a big ask for a hollow point, in the short distance in JFK's skull.
But i reckon that it is/was do-able, based on youtubes of shots in ballistic jelly.
There was no veer problem for Hickey's shot that dented the chrome trim above the mirror, this was a clean direct shot, no veer needed.
But, anyhow, today i am revisiting this topic. 
I show a printscreen of the SS reconstruction showing the view from the sniper's nest at Z313.
The printscreen is taken at 21:22 of 24:40 of Reconstruction film JFK exhibit 3.

Actually my printscreen is probly at about Z320, where the angles are a bit kinder to the lone nutters & less favourable to my criticism.
I have shown 6 points.
Lone nutters say that the headshot also cracked the windshield, &/or that the headshot also dented the chrome trim, or that the headshot did both.
As can be seen in my pix, a shot from the sniper's nest would have to veer from point 3 to point 4 or point 5.
Not possible.
Here below is my explanation of the 6 points.
1.  Approx entry in JFK's head, if he was sitting upright & not slumped. 
2.  Approx entry at Z313, when JFK was slumped left & forward & down a bit.
3. Here 2 is corrected to show the entry if the reconstruction limo was a foot or two longer to match the JFK limo.
3.  Shows where there would be a hole in the limo if the slug went straight throo the skull.
4.  Shows the pozzy of the dent in the chrome trim (above & a bit right of the mirror).
5.  Shows the pozzy of the crack the windshield (just below & left of the mirror).
6.  Shows pozzy of hole used by the Sixth Floor Museum on one of their youtubes.
They used the hole to establish a traject throo JFK's skull to the Sniper's Nest.
Their hole was about 3" below the top of the dash, & about 8" right of the left door.
They should have placed their hole at my 3, down near the floor.
There was indeed a bullet-hole found in the steel floor of the JFK limo (in Dec 1963), but that hole was in the center, above the drive-shaft, tween Nellie & John Connally's jump seats.
The hole had been made by Oswald's shot-1, that ricocheted offa the signal arm at about Z113.

[Marjan Rynkiewicz]

I hadnt thort of it before now, but the crease in the front face of the hard tough chrome trim would have helped to stop the small frangible slug (possibly hollow point) from Hickey's AR15.
The remnant slug & some of the lead splatter would probly have ended outside of the JFK limo (ie on the road). This was the 2nd last shot of Hickey's auto burst.

The last shot of the accidental auto burst hit JFK in the head, & the remnant slug veered say  6 deg inside the skull to then crack the windscreen (just left of the mirror).
This remnant probly ended inside the JFK limo. In which case it must have been secretted by the SS. Unless it did end up on the road.
https://i.postimg.cc/C1TW9z5Z/chrome-trim-before-jfk-cropped-crack-dent.jpg


From 6:16 this video shows an open-ended jacketed bullet hitting something hard:

[Marjan Rynkiewicz]

COPY OF REPLY#13.

In the pix we can see that a puny chrome stripe over thin sheet steel can stop a handgun slug.
The JFK limo had a big chrome trim (usually stainless steel)(very hard) over a say 3" by 1.5" steel tube (much tougher than the sheet steel of the door in the pix), & Hickey's AR15 slug was a say 55grain hollow point & not full metal jacket. Dent shown in bottom pix.

[Marjan Rynkiewicz]

Here Holland says that he saw a SSA (Hickey) stand up with a machine gun (AR15), & fall down.
This was after the first shot (of a total of 4 shots) Holland said.
Hickey said that he picked up the AR15 when he was at about the triple underpass.



Clemon Johnson standing on the underpass saw puffs of smoke on Elm St, not near the picket fence.
The smoke came from 6 shots of the AR15.