This is what a "non-conspiracist" says on the matter:
THE SHOOTING OF JFK
The core of the case must be a determination of what happened on Dealey Plaza at 12:30pm, November 22, 1963. The President was shot and killed. How many shots were fired, by who, and from where? Where did they go? What damage did they do? The government's conclusion is that one man, LHO, shot three times from the sixth floor of TSBD, his place of employment, killing the President and wounding Governor Connally. The conspiracy theories, generally, flow from the idea that the narrow timing of the shots, the misalignment of the wounds, and other medical and ballistic factors prove that one man could not have done the deed, thus a conspiracy.
5.1 The number of shots
Of the approximately 200 witnesses whose statements were taken by the WC, 88% said they heard three shots, 5% said they heard more than three. Only 2% reported hearing shots coming from more than one location, but the issue is complicated somewhat by the echoes created by the buildings surrounding the Plaza. Three shells were discovered on
the sixth floor "sniper's lair" to bolster the theory that three shots were fired.
5.2 The source of the shots
Of the earwitnesses who stated an opinion as to the source of the shots, most thought the shots came from their end of the plaza; people on the uphill end of Dealey Plaza tended to think the shots came from the direction of the TSBD; people at the other end, tended to think the shots
came from the GK area. However, the consensus was the shots all originated from a single source.
5.3 The first shot
The current consensus is that the first shot was a miss, perhaps because Oswald shot through the canopy of the tree in front of the TSBD. He may have done this out of anxiety, or because he was aiming through an opening in the canopy, or because the tree suddenly loomed before his scope as he tracked the limousine. The bullet may have been deflected
by a branch.
5.4 The second shot -- Single Bullet Theory (SBT)
The second shot hit JFK in the back of the neck and emerged from the bottom of the throat (a lower point), having been slowed. It also tumbles, its travel having been disrupted by the neck. It hits Connally's back mid-tumble, causing an elongated wound, and "slap fractures" Connally's rib. It emerges below Connally's right nipple, considerably
slowed now. It passes through the right wrist at about half its muzzle velocity, too slow for the bullet to be damaged by contact with the wrist bone. The wrist deflects the bullet which ends its path shallowly embedded in Connally's right thigh.
This determination of the bullet's path was not obvious to the WC investigators. They had a minimum of information and were limited by time and the analytical technology of the day. Certain aspects of the shot, as revealed by the amateur Z-film, were ambiguous, especially the question of whether JFK and Connally were hit at the same time. Ulti-
mately, the confidence of the investigators in the SBT arose from process of elimination or, as Sherlock Holmes said, "When one has eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, is the truth." Today, though, the SBT has been more thoroughly studied and tested, using modern technology, and has been affirmed as
not only plausible, but the only likely solution to the puzzle.
Conversely, the critics of the SBT have failed to quantify their criticism by showing how far from possible they consider the SBT to be. Nor have they supplied a counter-explanation that accounts for all the physical and medical evidence.
5.5 The third shot
Oswald's third shot hit JFK in the cowlick area of the back of the head. JFK's head moved forward for a brief fraction of a second and then his body fell back and slumped to the left side. The explanation for the non-intuitive backwards reaction relies on many possible factors which would be almost impossible to duplicate in a single experiment. Some
of the factors are: 1) JFK's nervous system had already been damaged by his first wound, whereby tissue displaced by the bullet pushed into his spinal cord, 2) the head shot created instant, massive damage to the nervous system, including stimulation of the nerves in the spinal cord,
leading to a neuromuscular spasm, 3) the bullet made a small hole on entry, then created outward pressure in the soft tissue it displaced, causing a large exit wound and the escape of pressure to the front (referred to as the "jet effect"), 4) JFK was wearing a back brace which stiffened his upper body, 5) the vehicle was moving.
5.6 Miscellaneous
A bystander on the other side of Dealey Plaza, James Tague, was hit on the cheek by shrapnel. There's no consensus on whether it came from the first shot hitting the pavement or from the head shot.
mcadams.posc.mu.edu |
