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Author Topic: Where “Six Seconds in Dallas” by Josiah Thompson may be found.  (Read 3917 times)

Offline Joe Elliott

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Where “Six Seconds in Dallas” by Josiah Thompson may be found:

https://archive.org/details/SixSecondsInDallas/page/n103/mode/2up

I believe this is a useful book, not because of the writing of Josiah Thompson, but because of the work on a Physics graduate student, William Hoffman who provided graphs on the estimated speed of the limousine relative to the ground and the speed of JFK’s head relative to the limousine. The later is quite useful in helping determine if the movement of JFK’s head is consistent with a shot from the rear or from the front. A Physics graduate student is just the sort of expert one would want to do this analysis. This analysis is particularly useful because it was conducted before the “Neurological Spasm” theory was formed so any bias should have minimum effect on one’s observations.

Josiah Thompson later said this work was in error but this work was the work of William Hoffman, not Josiah Thompson. I would like to hear William Hoffman say that this work was in error. Josiah Thompson’s opinion is meaningless because he never had the expertise of a William Hoffman.


There may be some confusion over page numbers. The page numbers shown on the bottom of the screen, to the right go from page 1 through 348. I will refer to these numbers as ‘Computer’. These are different then the page numbers printed in the book, which I refer to as ‘Book’.

Below are the two most useful sections of the book:

Page 105 (Computer) or Page 91 (Book) shows the position of JFK’s head from z301 through 330 with a couple of graphs.

Appendix B and C, which was prepared by Physics graduate student William Hoffman appears on Pages 286-291 (Computer) or Pages 272-277 (Book)

These are the two sections that are the most valuable parts of this book, the sections based on the work by William Hoffman.

Note: One needs to give one's email address, and make up a password and use it, to get access to the contains of this book. But I think it is well worth while to do so, for serious students of the JFK assassination who understand Classical Physics. Many years ago, I bought myself a copy of this book, but I think it is fairly expensive to purchase a copy, new or used, now. But one can look at it online now for free.
« Last Edit: June 02, 2023, 01:00:25 AM by Joe Elliott »

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Offline Rick Plant

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Re: Where “Six Seconds in Dallas” by Josiah Thompson may be found.
« Reply #1 on: May 16, 2020, 01:17:14 PM »
Thanks for posting Joe. I'll check it out.

Offline Brian Roselle

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Re: Where “Six Seconds in Dallas” by Josiah Thompson may be found.
« Reply #2 on: May 16, 2020, 02:25:51 PM »
Joe,

Thanks for sharing.

I agree with your thoughts.  I have seen parts of the book before and agree it’s a good reference as I think it was one of the earlier books after the event.

Regarding the forward head motion, and in spite of dozens of others seeing the forward motion on the film (including me), I understand he now thinks it was an illusion based on blurring. I don’t know the full extent for the reason proposed, but I believe he was led to believe this by what David Wimp thought.

As such he is publishing a new book including his new hypothesis this fall.
https://www.amazon.com/Last-Second-Dallas-Josiah-Thompson/dp/0700630082

My understanding is that he does believe in a damaging head shot from the rear, not at z312/313 but that it was around z328.

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Re: Where “Six Seconds in Dallas” by Josiah Thompson may be found.
« Reply #2 on: May 16, 2020, 02:25:51 PM »


Offline Jerry Organ

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Re: Where “Six Seconds in Dallas” by Josiah Thompson may be found.
« Reply #3 on: May 16, 2020, 04:10:19 PM »
"The sudden two-inch forward movement of the president’s head in the Zapruder film
just before his head explodes is revealed to be an optical illusion caused by the
movement of Zapruder’s camera."



"Optical illusion"?

Poor Tink. Misleading JFK assassination researchers since 1967.

Offline Joe Elliott

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Re: Where “Six Seconds in Dallas” by Josiah Thompson may be found.
« Reply #4 on: May 16, 2020, 04:24:42 PM »

Joe,

Thanks for sharing.

I agree with your thoughts.  I have seen parts of the book before and agree it’s a good reference as I think it was one of the earlier books after the event.

Regarding the forward head motion, and in spite of dozens of others seeing the forward motion on the film (including me), I understand he now thinks it was an illusion based on blurring. I don’t know the full extent for the reason proposed, but I believe he was led to believe this by what David Wimp thought.

As such he is publishing a new book including his new hypothesis this fall.
https://www.amazon.com/Last-Second-Dallas-Josiah-Thompson/dp/0700630082

My understanding is that he does believe in a damaging head shot from the rear, not at z312/313 but that it was around z328.

Hello Brian

Yes, but it’s not William Hoffman who changed his mind. It’s the one with much less experience in Physics, Josiah Thompson.

I don’t know a lot about Physics. But I took a high school class in it and found that a real basis of it is measuring data. Over time, one can develop good skills with that. So, I would think that a Physics graduate student, like William Hoffman would be just the sort of person I would want to measure data, like the Zapruder film. Particularly in such an early study. Before the Neurological Spasm theory was known to him, I would believe, and there are minimum reasons for his hopes to affect his measurements.

Could the apparent forward movement at z312-z313 be blur. I’m no expert but its apparent that the answer is no. The data shows the head slowly moving backward, moves just half an inch backwards from z301 to z312. What a tremendous coincidence that it is only at z313 that we get a “blur error”. At the worst, most misleading frame possible, with good data during the 12 previous frames, we get a bad one that gives us bogus forward movement of JFK’s head during z312-z313. Are those conspirators lucky or what?

Frame z313 is a little blurry. But z302 is almost as blurry, but it somehow did not give a bogus appearance of forward head movement of JFK during z301-z302. See, “The JFK Myths” by Larry Sturdivan, Appendix E, Table E1, Relative Peaks from Hartmann’s Blur Measurements from the Zapruder film. Z302 had a peak of 1.5%. z313 of 2.0%.

Even more telling, why does this blur only cause JFK’s head to move forward? Why doesn’t Jackie’s head appear to move forward as well? Why does JFK’s head appear to move forward relative to Jackie? This is mighty selective blurring, that only effects the most critical frame, z313, that only effects the most critical object seen in that frame, JFK’s head. And why does JFK’s head appear to have moved forward, compared to z312, relative to the limousine, relative to Jackie’s head, not just in frame z313 but in frames z314 and z315 as well? And neither frames z314 nor z315 are very blurry. Clearly, something did suddenly move JFK’s head forward just after z312, just at the time his head exploded. To say otherwise is just to be in denial.

Josiah Thompson’s denial is a classic example of denying what the data is telling him. This type of thinking dates back to the very dawn of the modern science era. When Galileo saw the moons of Jupiter, saw that on some nights he could see 3 specks of light just to the left of Jupiter and one to the right. Then on a different night he might see one of the left and two on the right. The obvious explanation was Jupiter had smaller moons in orbit around it. Each moon would sometimes be on the left, sometimes on the right, sometimes lined up with it, in front or behind it.

The church officials rejected this. They claimed the images were distorted and could not be relied on. The truth is the images were distorted. Indeed, even the best modern telescopes have some distortion. One can never collect perfect data. But the church officials never explained why three different telescopes would all see the same thing when used on the same night? Why would different telescopes suffer the same “illusion”? If the images were illusions, why wouldn’t one telescope show one moon to the left and two to the right while another would show all four moons to the left?

Similarly, Thompson does not explain, total dodging the issue, of why this “blur error” only effects frame z313? And only effect the apparent movement of JFK’s head, not Jackie’s? People are always looking for excuses to throw away data that they don’t like.



On another point, does Thompson saying the hit from behind did occur, but not at z312, but at z328 show he is not affected by biased thinking? No. Moving the hit from behind from z312 to z328 removes difficulties for his original double hit theory? How is it, just be coincidence, that two shots just happened to hit the head at almost the same instant? What a coincidence that the timing was perfect to simulate a Neurological Spasm. First a hit from behind, followed by a more powerful hit from ahead just one frame later. What lucky conspirators.

Denying frames z313, z314 and z315 show any forward movement, moving the hit from behind from z312 to z328 conveniently removes all these problems while establishing his “street cred”, that his conclusions are not a result of any bias against the possibility of a shot from behind.
« Last Edit: May 16, 2020, 04:38:35 PM by Joe Elliott »

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Re: Where “Six Seconds in Dallas” by Josiah Thompson may be found.
« Reply #4 on: May 16, 2020, 04:24:42 PM »


Offline Gary Craig

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Re: Where “Six Seconds in Dallas” by Josiah Thompson may be found.
« Reply #5 on: May 16, 2020, 04:34:32 PM »
http://www.jfklancer.com/audioconversations.html
JFK Conversations with Alan Dale
Online interviews with experts on the Presidency & Assassination


Interview with Josiah Thompson - Part I - 01:01:49
Interview with Josiah Thompson - Part II - 00:49:52

Online Royell Storing

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Re: Where “Six Seconds in Dallas” by Josiah Thompson may be found.
« Reply #6 on: May 16, 2020, 04:46:03 PM »

  Everybody has always wanted to make a big deal about JFK's Forward head tilt. The extremely SIMPLE ANSWER is Jackie is pulling DOWNWARD on JFK's wrist/arm. This ain't rocket science folks.

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Re: Where “Six Seconds in Dallas” by Josiah Thompson may be found.
« Reply #6 on: May 16, 2020, 04:46:03 PM »


Offline Joe Elliott

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Re: Where “Six Seconds in Dallas” by Josiah Thompson may be found.
« Reply #7 on: May 16, 2020, 05:08:58 PM »

  Everybody has always wanted to make a big deal about JFK's Forward head tilt. The extremely SIMPLE ANSWER is Jackie is pulling DOWNWARD on JFK's wrist/arm. This ain't rocket science folks.

Yes. Which by sheer coincidence her pull downward, which naturally pulls JFK’s head forward, just happens to occur at the worst possible time. Were those conspirators lucky or what? Or maybe Jackie was part of the conspiracy and had vastly quicker reflexes than Ted Williams.

Of course, one could say Jackie’s motion was triggered by the shot at z312. But normal reflexes do not happen that fast. They would take several frames to show any effect.

What of the ‘Neurological Spasm’. The ‘Neurological Spasm’ is a special exception. This is not an unsupported claim but a fact shown by goats starting to move their body in 40 milliseconds after being shot through the brain. The time between z312 and z313 is 55 milliseconds. Normal reflexes are never nearly that fast and have never been shown to be that fast in any film.


It never ceases to amaze me how easily CTers will propose a theory that requires a big coincidence. As long as it supports the CT side, there is no reason for them to take a skeptical look at this theory.
« Last Edit: May 16, 2020, 05:10:53 PM by Joe Elliott »