What is the Fastest Reaction Time in an Animal?

[Joe Elliott]

Gosh, how many times do people have to point out to you that JFK's headshot reaction looks nothing like the goat's reaction in the goat film? Kennedy's limbs don't splay after the headshot--his head starts to move backward first, and then his shoulders move backward, and then he goes limp. His arms never splay. A fraction of a second after bullet impact, he goes limp. Can you just not see this?

Gosh, I’m afraid I can’t see that:



Clearly, the President’s body does not just go limp as a result of the head shot. Can you not see the right elbow raise several inches? That can only happen if a neuromuscular spasm, or, let’s call it, muscle movement, happened as a result of the bullet through the brain. Just like the goat, muscle movement was activated by the bullet through the brain.

Does not goat’s movement and the President’s movement look identical? Of course not. The goat was a quadruped, the President, a biped. Also, the President’s head was not clamped in place. But in the essentials the movement was the same. In both cases, it appears the stronger muscles won out over weaker. Hence, the President’s head moves backward, the back arches and moves the torso backward, and the arms rise up. As Dr. Lattimer pointed out long ago. And, I guess by sheer coincidence (you CTers love coincidences), in both cases the muscles were activated shortly afterwards, 40 to 70 milliseconds after the bullet impact.

Yes, the arms of the President do not splay. Goats and humans do have a different anatomy. Our forelimbs (arms) are not designed to help us gallop over the ground. Not anymore. But the stronger muscle in each pair of muscles in the arm moved the limb, just like the forelimb of the goat.

Question:

If the muscles of the goat’s legs and the President’s arms were not activated by the bullet through the brain, why do both move? Why would the President’s right elbow move several inches upwards against gravity?

[Duncan MacRae]

his head starts to move backward first

[Jerry Freeman]

Why does everybody lurch forward [Jackie not so much] when JFK is flung backwards?

[Joe Elliott]

Why does everybody lurch forward [Jackie not so much] when JFK is flung backwards?

Its not from the limousine braking. During that time, the limousine was very slightly accelerating, possibly from coasting down the 3-degree slope. This minor acceleration was not large enough to affect the movements of the occupants very much. For all practical purposes the limousine was moving with a steady velocity.

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

Perhaps everyone was ducking from the sounds and effects of the shot at z312.

[Jerry Freeman]

Its not from the limousine braking. During that time, the limousine was very slightly accelerating, possibly from coasting down the 3-degree slope. This minor acceleration was not large enough to affect the movements of the occupants very much. For all practical purposes the limousine was moving with a steady velocity. Perhaps everyone was ducking from the sounds and effects of the shot at z312.

                                                                        "Perhaps"   
 

[Jerry Freeman]

There is reaction to the shots but 313 could not have been heard that quickly. The driver is looking back to the rear of the car at 313. He hears Jackie screaming. He sees the SS man running to the back of the car out of the corner of his eye. He obviously brakes very quickly but turns forward and accelerates.

[John Mytton]

There is reaction to the shots but 313 could not have been heard that quickly.

Not from the sound of the rifle but they were impacted by blood and matter and in addition, the sounds of a bullet striking Kennedy's head, fragments hitting glass and the steel surround would have been a total sensory overload.

JohnM