from
"The Bastard Bullet"
by Raymond Marcus
1966
Thanks for providing this interesting analysis from 1966. I agree that there is a great deal of evidence against the SBT.
However, he points out that the WC found that the first shot would not have been before z210. The WC also said that z210 was about the time Willis took his photo. The WC had not bothered to determine the exact frame of Phil Willis' photo (which, he said, was taken an instant AFTER the first shot), which can be conclusively identified as
z202. This is done by aligning Willis in the zfilm with Zapruder and the head of the secret service agent Clint Hill as they are aligned in Willis' photo. They align only in frame
z202.
The WC was also basing this finding on a seriously flawed re-enactment of the motorcade positions using the wrong car and looking at the tree in full spring foliage. The actual view as seen at the time of the assassination was captured by the Secret Service in early December 1963. The president is quite visible the entire time he passes under the uppermost branches of the oak tree and is clear of them when he was about half-way between the lamppost and Thornton Freeway sign on the north side of Elm St. That position corresponds to the position at frame z195.
In my view, the evidence is very consistent that the first shot was after z186 (Hughes, Betzner), likely after z191 (motorcade witnesses) likely before z199 (Jack Ready starts turning around, which he said he did in response to hearing the first shot) and before z202 (Willis). This is all consistent with witnesses along Elm who described the position of the president relative to where they were standing at the time of the first shot and is consistent with JFK being visible from the SN.
The WC conclusion is also based on an opinion from Robert Frazier of the FBI who gave the opinion that the Governor was turned too far to his right by z240 to have been struck by the bullet that impacted his right armpit. Frazier qualified his opinion by stating that it was based on the assumption that the bullet did not deflect in passing through the Governor. That was the basis on which the WC concluded that Connally was hit before z240.
In my view, this is also flawed. First of all, it is by no means a fair assumption that the bullet which struck Connally did not change direction. A change in direction requires the application of significant force to the bullet and, in this case, the force would have been supplied by the fifth rib which deflected significantly on impact. The WC did not mention it, but the fifth rib was broken near the spine due to the bending of the rib due to the impact. The description of the impact felt by Connally is consistent with such a force.
Second, the "not after z240 second shot" conflicts with the overwhelming body of evidence from over 40 witnesses who clearly recalled the 1........2....3 spacing of the three shots. It is also inconsistent with what Gov. Connally described - turning rearward to check on the President because he realized he had just heard a rifle shot and thought an assassination was underway. He makes no such turn in prior to z200 and it is impossible for him to have turned around to look at JFK and turned back as he was in z224 while he was behind the Stemmons sign in the zfilm. Rather, the turn that begins about z230 and continues to z270 fits this description much better. JFK had leaned to his left toward Jackie and JBC could not see him out of the corner of his eye.
If Connally was hit as he starts turning back just after z270, that would fit well with the last two shots being closer together and it would also fit with the description given by both Wm. Greer and Nellie Connally of the impact of the second shot. Greer said he turned back after the second shot and then forward quickly and back again just before the third (he does all this between z278 and z305). Nellie said she did not look back after the second shot (she is looking back until about z269) and said she saw her husband recoil from being hit, reached over and pulled him down. She does this in the z280s. It would also fit perfectly with what SA Hickey observed - that the hair on JFK's right side lifted at the moment of the second shot but that this shot did not do any damage to JFK. That hair can be seen lifting at z273.
Ironically, the evidence is perfectly consistent with Oswald firing all three shots. The SBT was the solution to a problem that did not exist.