JFK's Head Snap and the Implausible Jet-Effect and Neurospasm Theories

[Dan O'meara]

Just a couple of comments I have on the jacket movement/shot timing.
 
Effectively what I think may have happened in such a scenario is any exiting chest debris as well as the jacket itself was immediately imparted with velocity as the bullet penetrated, but at a much slower velocity than the bullet (it doesn’t pick up near the full velocity of the bullet that just  transversed).  I don’t think it would wait for a while and then move.  The displacement as seen on film could be a function of the impacted material velocity, and how far it moved in one frame at its resultant velocity, and then the ability of the film/camera angle to show incremental position at resultant speed in one frame.

The right jacket area looked fully extended at z224, so if that is the result of the bullet’s imparted velocity on mass movement (chest debris or the jacket itself), the bullet transiting was a bit earlier.

The jacket may have been in its initial stages of motion as early as z223, but the displacement not quite great enough yet to readily pick out.

Of course this dynamic has been argued as speculative, but there is one other piece I observed that appears to be relevant or possibly supportive.

2 frames before the full jacket displacement at z224, at z222, I see the cuff of Connally’s white shirt of his right arm just a bit out from his suit jacket sleeve, visible just above the edge of the limo as his hand holds his hat.

In less than or equal to 55 ms, at z223, it appears to have been be driven down, totally out of view.

In the next frame at z224 the jacket flip becomes maximally visible. If his right wrist was struck violently in a downward manner by a bullet, might one expect the wrist to disappear from view in a manner like this very quickly?  If a bullet hit the wrist and drove it out of view between 222 and 223, the shot may actually have been triggered around z219 with the bullet approaching the limo ~z221?

I can buy your reasoning abut a strike at z223, a solid argument. Not sure I can see the cuff movement but I may need better quality frames.

[Dan O'meara]

[Dan O'meara]

Just a couple of comments I have on the jacket movement/shot timing.
 
Effectively what I think may have happened in such a scenario is any exiting chest debris as well as the jacket itself was immediately imparted with velocity as the bullet penetrated, but at a much slower velocity than the bullet (it doesn’t pick up near the full velocity of the bullet that just  transversed).  I don’t think it would wait for a while and then move.  The displacement as seen on film could be a function of the impacted material velocity, and how far it moved in one frame at its resultant velocity, and then the ability of the film/camera angle to show incremental position at resultant speed in one frame.

The right jacket area looked fully extended at z224, so if that is the result of the bullet’s imparted velocity on mass movement (chest debris or the jacket itself), the bullet transiting was a bit earlier.

The jacket may have been in its initial stages of motion as early as z223, but the displacement not quite great enough yet to readily pick out.

Of course this dynamic has been argued as speculative, but there is one other piece I observed that appears to be relevant or possibly supportive.

2 frames before the full jacket displacement at z224, at z222, I see the cuff of Connally’s white shirt of his right arm just a bit out from his suit jacket sleeve, visible just above the edge of the limo as his hand holds his hat.

In less than or equal to 55 ms, at z223, it appears to have been be driven down, totally out of view.

In the next frame at z224 the jacket flip becomes maximally visible. If his right wrist was struck violently in a downward manner by a bullet, might one expect the wrist to disappear from view in a manner like this very quickly?  If a bullet hit the wrist and drove it out of view between 222 and 223, the shot may actually have been triggered around z219 with the bullet approaching the limo ~z221?

Just a quick response to this earlier post. I wasn't sure about the part about JBC's wrist injury because I couldn't get a good close-up clip at the time but anoter member posted this on a different thread:



I can now see exactly what you're saying - JBC's white cuff is clearly visible in z222 then suddenly disappears in z223, the moment of impact. His wrist seems forced down then rebounds up slightly and by the end of the clip his hand is bent over in quite a strange way that may indicate it is no longer getting any support from the wrist. I originally thought the fact he was still holding on to his Stetson was significant but this could easily be an involuntary response to the wrist damage (I just need to look at the way JFK's hands are balled into fists to see it's possible)

[Brian Roselle]

Dan, yes that’s it, good eye.  I saw it on some MPI frames but it is on this gif as well.

The cuff disappears down the same time the orientation of his hat starts changing around, presumably following the wrist/hand motion.
 
To me it looks like the wrist was driven down after aperture closure of z222 and before it opened for frame z223.

I agree his wrist orientation a few frames later looks weird. I had heard he held the hat all the way to Parkland. Perhaps wrist strength/flexure and finger grasping strength/flexure are different enough to allow a finger grasp to exist after wrist damage.

[Dan O'meara]

Dan, yes that’s it, good eye.  I saw it on some MPI frames but it is on this gif as well.

The cuff disappears down the same time the orientation of his hat starts changing around, presumably following the wrist/hand motion.
 
To me it looks like the wrist was driven down after aperture closure of z222 and before it opened for frame z223.

I agree his wrist orientation a few frames later looks weird. I had heard he held the hat all the way to Parkland. Perhaps wrist strength/flexure and finger grasping strength/flexure are different enough to allow a finger grasp to exist after wrist damage.

Kudos to you.

It's crazy how that one small observation ties it all together. JBC's right shoulder being pulled forward and slightly down, possibly from the energy of the wrist impact.

The SBT is alive and well

[Joe Elliott]

Dan, yes that’s it, good eye.  I saw it on some MPI frames but it is on this gif as well.

The cuff disappears down the same time the orientation of his hat starts changing around, presumably following the wrist/hand motion.
 
To me it looks like the wrist was driven down after aperture closure of z222 and before it opened for frame z223.

I agree his wrist orientation a few frames later looks weird. I had heard he held the hat all the way to Parkland. Perhaps wrist strength/flexure and finger grasping strength/flexure are different enough to allow a finger grasp to exist after wrist damage.

This is correct. In the book “The JFK Myths” Larry Sturdivan explains that the bullet shattered only one of the two forearm bones, the radius, but not the other bone, the ulna.  One nerve was cut, but it was a sensory nerve, not a motor control nerve, so he was still capable of holding the hat, and is seen still holding his hat just after the head shot at z312 when a few frames later the wrist and the hat drop below view. But his wife said he held onto the hat all the way to the hospital.

So, I would suspect he would not have been able to hold up a bowling ball but keeping a grip on the hat was no problem.

[Michael T. Griffith]

Two other long-known facts should be mentioned:

* The Harper Fragment is occipital bone. Dr. Mantik was able to establish this a few years ago ("The Medical Evidence Decoded," pp. 9-10, 67-70, https://themantikview.com/pdf/The_Medical_Evidence_Decoded.pdf). This proves that the autopsy photos that show the back of the head intact have been altered. The FBI or Dr. Burkley "lost" the Harper Fragment, but, luckily, some photos were taken of it in Dallas. The only doctors who actually handled the Harper Fragment, including the chief of pathology at Methodist Hospital in Dallas, said it was occipital bone. Dr. Mantik interviewed one of those doctors, Dr. Noteboom, who confirmed that it came from the occiput:

Harper took it to his uncle, Jack C. Harper, M.D., who in turn showed it to A.B. Cairns, the chief pathologist at Methodist Hospital. A total of three Dallas pathologists examined the bone and they identified the site of origin as the occiput. (On 22 November 1992, on a Palm Springs radio talk show, I helped to interview one of these pathologists, Dr. Gerhard Noteboom, who reaffirmed that conclusion; he also recalled the lead deposit on the fragment.)  ("The Medical Evidence Decoded," p. 67).

The WC and the HSCA FPP would not acknowledge that the Harper Fragment is occipital bone because (1) missing occipital bone indicates a shot from the front, and (2) a sizable defect in the occiput proves that all but one of the autopsy photos of the back of the head have been altered.

* Jackie Kennedy saw a piece of JFK's skull [or brain] blown onto the trunk of the limousine, and that's why she started crawling on the trunk. Clint Hill, who got an up-close look at Kennedy's skull in the limo, said there was a large defect in the right-rear part of his skull. Agent Hill saw this wound again when he was asked to view the body to record the locations of the wounds. In her WC testimony, Jackie explained that she was trying to hold the back of JFK's head together, but that part of her testimony was omitted in the published version--it came to light years later.

Of course, literally dozens of witnesses who saw Kennedy's body in Dealey Plaza and/or at Parkland Hospital and/or at Bethesda Naval Hospital said there was a large wound in the back of the head, on the right side of the back of the head. Diana Bowron, the Parkland nurse who helped prepare the body for placement in the casket, described this wound, as did Tom Robinson, the mortician who prepared the body for burial after the autopsy. A number of these witnesses drew diagrams of the large rear head wound for the HSCA or the ARRB, and, thanks to the ARRB, we now have those diagrams:

http://www.jfklancer.com/Backes.html

Dr. Michael Chesser has confirmed Dr. Mantik's optical density measurements of the autopsy skull x-rays, which, among other things, prove that the right-rear defect in the skull has been patched on the autopsy skull x-rays in an attempt to conceal its existence (http://assassinationofjfk.net/a-review-of-the-jfk-cranial-x-rays-and-photographs/). When the x-rays were altered, no one knew that in future years technology would enable experts to detect the patching.

Dr. Mantik has examined the autopsy materials nine times at the National Archives. Here is one summary of his findings in which he discusses his optical density measurements and the hard scientific evidence that the x-rays have been altered: https://assassinationresearch.com/v2n2/pittsburgh.pdf

[Tim Nickerson]

Two other long-known facts should be mentioned:

* The Harper Fragment is occipital bone. Dr. Mantik was able to establish this a few years ago ("The Medical Evidence Decoded," pp. 9-10, 67-70, https://themantikview.com/pdf/The_Medical_Evidence_Decoded.pdf). This proves that the autopsy photos that show the back of the head intact have been altered. The FBI or Dr. Burkley "lost" the Harper Fragment, but, luckily, some photos were taken of it in Dallas. The only doctors who actually handled the Harper Fragment, including the chief of pathology at Methodist Hospital in Dallas, said it was occipital bone. Dr. Mantik interviewed one of those doctors, Dr. Noteboom, who confirmed that it came from the occiput:

The WC and the HSCA FPP would not acknowledge that the Harper Fragment is occipital bone because (1) missing occipital bone indicates a shot from the front, and (2) a sizable defect in the occiput proves that all but one of the autopsy photos of the back of the head have been altered.

* Jackie Kennedy saw a piece of JFK's skull blown onto the trunk of the limousine, and that's why she started crawling on the trunk. Clint Hill, who got an up-close look at Kennedy's skull in the limo, said there was a large defect in the right-rear part of his skull. Agent Hill saw this wound again when he was asked to view the body to record the locations of the wounds. In her WC testimony, Jackie explained that she was trying to hold the back of JFK's head together, but that part of her testimony was omitted in the published version--it came to light years later.

Of course, literally dozens of witnesses who saw Kennedy's body in Dealey Plaza and/or at Parkland Hospital and/or at Bethesda Naval Hospital said there was a large wound in the back of the head, on the right side of the back of the head. Diana Bowron, the Parkland nurse who helped prepare the body for placement in the casket, described this wound, as did Tom Robinson, the mortician who prepared the body for burial after the autopsy. A number of these witnesses drew diagrams of the large rear head wound for the HSCA or the ARRB, and, thanks to the ARRB, we now have those diagrams:

http://www.jfklancer.com/Backes.html

Dr. Michael Chesser has confirmed Dr. Mantik's optical density measurements of the autopsy skull x-rays, which, among other things, prove that the right-rear defect in the skull has been patched on the autopsy skull x-rays in an attempt to conceal its existence (http://assassinationofjfk.net/a-review-of-the-jfk-cranial-x-rays-and-photographs/). When the x-rays were altered, no one knew that in future years technology would enable experts to detect the patching.

Dr. Mantik has examined the autopsy materials nine times at the National Archives. Here is one summary of his findings in which he discusses his optical density measurements and the hard scientific evidence that the x-rays have been altered: https://assassinationresearch.com/v2n2/pittsburgh.pdf

https://www.history-matters.com/archive/jfk/hsca/reportvols/vol7/html/HSCA_Vol7_0120a.htm

"The Harper fragment photographs show it as a roughly trapezoidal piece, 7 centimeters by 5.5 centimeters in size, coming mainly from the upper middle third of the right parietal bone. Near its short upper edge vascular foramina on the inside and a faint irregular line on the outside indicate saggital suture. Its posterior inferior pointed edge appears to fit the crack in the posterior section of the right parietal [bone] and its slightly wavy lower border can fit the upper edge of the loose lower section of right parietal [bone]. Its upper short border, on the left of the midline near vertex, may meet the left margin of the gap. Behind it there appears to be a large gap and in front a narrow one." -- Dr. J. Lawrence Angel