The First Shot

[Tom Graves]

You gotta wonder if Gov Connally is seated more toward the middle of the JFK limo than JFK is, how is it that when he turns to his right he can't see JFK behind him? 

Dear Comrade Storing,

That's an excellent question!

Which I've addressed about five times over the past year -- most recently in this very thread.

He we go again:

1) Connally recognizes the loud sound at "Z-124" as a rifle shot from behind him and "to his right."

2) Gasp . . . a rifle shot during a Presidential motorcade and the President is sitting three feet behind you?

3) Can you say ADRENELYNE?

4) After turning his head to his left for a split second to see if Nellie's okay (so now he's looking straight ahead in Z-161), Connally turns back to his right -- to his far right -- to see where the shot came from and to see if JFK's okay.

5) When he gets turned far enough to his right to theoretically catch a glimpse of JFK over his right shoulder, he can't "see" him because JFK's head is turned far to his right (so his face is in now "in profile" to Connally), and he's raised his forearm and started waving to someone off to the right. Therefore, JFK's forearm and hand are partially blocking Connally's peripheral view of JFK's "in-profile" face -- and guess what -- Connally doesn't "see" JFK, but he does see people waving back at him and that's all he remembers after being hit by CE-399 a couple of seconds later.

6) Note: Since Connally turned to his right to see where the "Z-124" shot had come from, his attention was more focused on "the background" (e.g., the TSBD) than the "foreground" (i.e., JFK). To prove my point, notice how he and Rosemary Willis are looking in the same direction in Z-180:

https://assassinationresearch.com/zfilm/z180.jpg

-- Tom

[Royell Storing]

Dear Comrade Storing,

That's an excellent question!

Which I've addressed about five times over the past year -- most recently in this very thread.

He we go again:

1) Connally recognizes the loud sound at "Z-124" as a rifle shot from behind him and "to his right."

2) Gasp . . . a rifle shot during a Presidential motorcade and the President is sitting two feet behind you?

3) Can you say ADRENELYNE?

4) After turning his head to his left for a split second to see if Nellie's okay (so now he's looking straight ahead in Z-161), Connally turns back to his right -- to his far right -- to see where the shot came from and to see if JFK's okay.

5) When he gets turned far enough to his right to theoretically catch a glimpse of JFK over his right shoulder, he can't "see" him because JFK's head is turned far to his right (so his face is in now "in profile" to Connally), and he's raised his forearm and started waving to someone off to the right. Therefore, JFK's forearm and hand are partially blocking Connally's peripheral view of JFK's "in-profile" face -- and guess what -- Connally doesn't "see" JFK, but he does see people waving back him and that's all he remembers after being hit by CE-399 a couple of seconds later.

6) Note: Since he turned to his right to see where the shot had come from, Connally's attention was more focused on "the background" (e.g., the TSBD) than the "foreground" (i.e., JFK). To prove my point, notice how JBC and Rosemary Willis are looking in the same direction in Z-180:

https://assassinationresearch.com/zfilm/z180.jpg

-- Tom

    Once he completes the turn to his (R), Connally's upper torso is squared up with JFK. He is face-to-face with JFK. That is NO "glimpse" as you claim. And please post your source for your claiming that Gov. Connally was, "more focused on the background than the foreground". You are making undocumented claims and seeing what you want to see. NOT what is actually on the Current Zapruder Film. 

[Andrew Mason]

What do you mean by "expressing his distress"?

If you had been Connally and you had heard a high-powered rifle shot from behind about a-second-and-a-half earlier, what would you have done?

It has nothing to do with what I would have done. It has to do with what JBC said he did.  By "expressing his distress" I am referring to how JBC said he reacted immediately after hearing the first shot and recognizing it as a rifle shot.  He said:

• "Mr. CONNALLY. Mr. Cornwell, we had just turned to Elm. We had gone, I suspect, oh, 150, 200 feet when I heard what I thought was a rifle shot and I thought it came from-I was seated right, as you know, the jump seat right in front of the President, and they have a fairly straight back on them so I was sitting up fairly erect. I thought the shot came from back over my right shoulder, so I turned to see if I could catch a sight of the President out of the corner of my eye because I immediately had, frankly, had fear of an assassination because I thought it was a rifle shot." (1 HSCA 42)
• "We had just made the turn, well, when I heard what I thought was a shot. I heard this noise which I immediately took to be a rifle shot. I instinctively turned to my right because the sound appeared to come from over my right shoulder, so I turned to look back over my right shoulder, and I saw nothing unusual except, just people in the crowd, but I did not catch the President in the corner of my eye, and I was interested, because once I heard the shot in my own mind I identified it as a rifle shot, and I immediately-the only thought that crossed my mind was that this is an assassination attempt. So I looked, failing to see him. (4 H 132-133)

You seem to be saying that for about 5-6 seconds after z124 JBC reacted the way he described he reacted to the first shot.  I don't see any such reaction in Willis 4 (z134-135), or Croft (z161) or in the zfilm z133-z225.

He said he thought an assassination was unfolding and feared for the President and tried to look at him.  Where do you see that occurring before his turn to the rear beginning about z230?  He does not even turn his head far to the right let alone his shoulders prior to z230.

A frame or two after Z-161, Connally, after seeing that Nellie was okay, quickly turned his head and upper torso far back to his right to see where the shot had come from and to see if JFK was okay.

He couldn't "see" JFK, however, because JFK had turned his head to his far right and started waving to someone, thereby blocking Connally's view of his now-in-profile face.

Connally decided to turn back the other way to try to catch a glimpse of JFK over his left shoulder but only made it about 1/5 of the way there when JFK and he were struck by CE-399 around Z-222.

How many times do I have to inform you of this?

JBC is not even turning his head, let alone his body, to look rearward. JFK was leaning to his right and could easily have been seen by JBC if he had just turned around as he had done at other times during the motorcade.  Nothing prior to z230 resembles how JBC said he reacted to the first shot.  Nothing prior to z230 shows any expression of fear or horror of an assassination unfolding, as JBC described.  One does see that after z230.  He utters something around z240-250 that draws the attention of Jackie because she turned and looks at him.

[Tom Graves]

Once he completes the turn to his (R), Connally's upper torso is squared up with JFK.

Dear Comrade Storing,

What do you mean by "squared up with"?

He is face-to-face with JFK.

Dear Comrade Storing,

Their heads are roughly parallel and about three feet apart.

JFK's face is "in profile" to Connally's view, be it peripherally or straight on, and his forearm is raised and he's waving to someone. JFK's forearm and hand are therefore partially obscuring Connally's peripheral (i.e., "out of the corner of my eye") view of him.

That is no "glimpse" as you claim.

Dear Comrade Storing,

Connally, himself said in so many words that he tried to catch a glimpse of JFK over his right shoulder.

We had just made the turn, well, when I heard what I thought was a shot. I heard this noise which I immediately took to be a rifle shot. I instinctively turned to my right [he forgot that the first thing he'd done was turn his head quickly to his left to see if Nellie was okay] because the sound appeared to come from over my right shoulder, so I turned to look back over my right shoulder, and I saw nothing unusual except just people in the crowd, but I did not catch the President in the corner of my eye, and I was interested, because once I heard the shot in my own mind I identified it as a rifle shot, and I immediately -- the only thought that crossed my mind was that this is an assassination attempt. So, I looked, failing to see him, I was turning to look back over my left shoulder into the back seat, but I never got that far in my turn. (emphasis added)

And please post your source for your claiming that Governor Connally was, "more focused on the background than the foreground".

Dear Comrade Storing,

In case you missed it, above, Connally said, "Because the sound appeared to come from over my right shoulder, I turned to look back over my right shoulder."

Rhetorical question:

Why would Connally's impression of the directionality of the shot cause him to turn in that same direction unless it was to try to locate the shooter?

D'oh!


-- Tom

[Tom Graves]

It has nothing to do with what I would have done. It has to do with what JBC said he did. 

No, it doesn't, because Connally was a startled, traumatized, and wounded "witness" to an event and therefore his recollections were less dependable than those of even a non-startled / non-traumatized witness to something.

JBC is not even turning his head, let alone his body, to look rearward.

Connally, having turned his head quickly to his left at Z-154 to see if Nellie was okay, started turning his head and upper torso back to his right in Z-165. He reached the end of his turn to his right in about Z-184 and stays there for a few frames before starting to turn his head back to his left again to try to catch a glimpse of JFK over his left shoulder, but hasn't made it very far when JFK and he are hit by CE-399 at about Z-222.

JFK was leaning to his right and could easily have been seen by JBC if he had just turned around as he had done at other times during the motorcade.

It's too bad he didn't do that, because his not doing so, in conjunction with his really, really confident but mistaken recollections, has been a veritable gold mine for tinfoil-hat JFKA conspiracy theorists and confused Lone Gunman Advocates.

Nothing prior to z230 resembles how JBC said he reacted to the first shot.

You're wrong.

See above.

Nothing prior to z230 shows any expression of fear or horror of an assassination unfolding, as JBC described.  One does see that after z230.  He utters something around z240-250 that draws the attention of Jackie because she turned and looks at him.

BFD.

Pardon my German.