A History of the Single-Bullet Theory Follies

[Tom Graves]

I discuss Oswald's poor marksmanship skills at great length in my recent book A Comforting Lie: The Myth that a Lone Gunman Killed President Kennedy.

Griffith,

Oswald was a very good marksman by civilian standards.

https://www.rrauction.com/auctions/lot-detail/345171706200220-lee-harvey-oswalds-us-marine-corps-rifle-score-book-warren-commission-exhibit-no-239/

[Andrew Mason]

* At first the back wound was above the throat wound, but now it's level with or slightly below the throat wound, a difference of at least 1 inch in its vertical location on the back. But, we are told, the SBT still works!

In Dale Myers' SBT animation, the back wound is above the throat wound, noticeably above it. But the HSCA established that the back wound is actually slightly below the throat wound, or at least level with it.

This is not an argument just against the SBT.  It is an argument that the bullet did not transit JFK's neck.  That appears to be at odds with all the evidence.

* At first the alleged magic-bullet hit came at right around frame 210 of the Zapruder film (Z210), then it was at Z188, but now it's "positively" at Z224, based on a 56-millisecond supposed flip of Connally's lapel, never mind that pieces of fabric cannot move up and down that quickly.

* At first the alleged magic-bullet hit was the first shot, but now it's "positively" the second shot.

I agree that the shifting time of the shot through JFK and the change in sequence does not instill confidence that the Single Bullet Theory is a "Fact".

* At first, no one denied that JFK is clearly reacting to a wound in Z225, which proves he must have been hit no later than Z221, because it would take at least 4 frames for him to react to a wound with his hands and arms. But, at the 1992 ABA mock Oswald trial, Dr. Robert Piziali, who headed the Failure Analysis SBT trajectory analysis, denied that Z225 shows JFK reacting to a wound! Piziali put forth this specious denial because he admitted that if JFK reacted in Z225, the bullet that caused this reaction could not have hit him later than Z221, which would destroy his Z224-lapel-flip SBT.

To show the confusion that exists among SBT defenders, I note that Dr. John Lattimer, a devout WC apologist, concluded Kennedy shows a "reflex reaction" to a wound in Z225 and opined the wound occurred at about Z220. In fact, in his book Kennedy and Lincoln (New York: Harcourt, Brace, Johanovich, 1980), Lattimer acknowledged that Kennedy's elbows are beginning to "fly upward in frame 224" (p. 241), yet current SBT defenders claim the magic bullet hit him in Z223-224, making his Z224 reaction a physical impossibility.

Latimer lacked the "ne" in his qualifications to be a neurologist.

His theory that JFK assumed the "Thorburn position" is not supported by any qualified neurologist.  The original report of Dr. Thorburn shows that it took a few days for the unfortunate falling victim to assume the "Thorburn position" and that was because the spinal cord was crushed between the 5th and 6th vertebrae which resulted in: "complete paralysis of the lower limbs, and of the abdominal and thoracic muscles. All the muscles of the arms were paralysed, with the exception of the biceps, brachialis antiens, supinator longus and deltoid, the consequence being that the elbows were flexed, the shoulder abducted and rotated outwards, and the hands and arms fell into the position indicated in the annexed engraving (Fig. 1)":

* At first the SBT required that Connally was rotated 20-30 degrees to the right when the missile struck, but now we're assured the theory can still work even though some of the theory's defenders admit Connally's torso was rotated only 10-15 degrees.

In his SBT analysis, Myers has his Connally figure rotated 15 degrees to the right, whereas fellow lone-gunman theorist Todd Wayne Vaughan measures the degree of rotation as being only 10 degrees. In the Zapruder film we see Connally's shoulders are facing nearly parallel to the roll bar in Z223-224. The roll bar is a fixed horizontal point inside the limousine, and thus provides us with an excellent measuring rod. One can look at Z223-224 and plainly see that Connally's shoulders are nearly parallel to the roll bar. FBI photographic expert Lyndal Shaneyfelt noted to the WC that in Z222 Connally is turned only slightly to the right and that in the few frames thereafter he is "almost square, straight on with the car momentarily."

I agree that this makes it very difficult to get the right armpit far enough left to intersect with a right to left path from JFK's midline.  Also, at z225, JFK is not leaning over the right side of the car as he was earlier making the SBT less feasible.  It also appears that JFK's hands may have been in the way of a path from the throat to JBC's right armpit just before z225.

Your argument about the trajectory not going from JFK's throat to JBC's right armpit is reasonable one that has evidentiary support.  But not the suggestion that a bullet did not transit JFK's neck.

[Tom Graves]

Now the alleged magic-bullet hit "positively" came at Z224, based on a 56-millisecond supposed flip of Connally's lapel, never mind that pieces of fabric cannot move up and down that quickly.

Griffith,

Don't forget the movement of JBC's tie in Z-222.

https://www.jfk-assassination.net/video/JFK_sbt.mp4

[Tim Nickerson]

Latimer lacked the "ne" in his qualifications to be a neurologist.

His theory that JFK assumed the "Thorburn position" is not supported by any qualified neurologist.  The original report of Dr. Thorburn shows that it took a few days for the unfortunate falling victim to assume the "Thorburn position" and that was because the spinal cord was crushed between the 5th and 6th vertebrae which resulted in: "complete paralysis of the lower limbs, and of the abdominal and thoracic muscles. All the muscles of the arms were paralysed, with the exception of the biceps, brachialis antiens, supinator longus and deltoid, the consequence being that the elbows were flexed, the shoulder abducted and rotated outwards, and the hands and arms fell into the position indicated in the annexed engraving (Fig. 1)":

https://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Thorburn+position

That one will piss off a lot of CTs. 

I prefer St*rdivan's description myself. He says that the damage to the spinal nerves caused by the shockwave of the single bullet passing by  resulted in Kennedy assuming that "Thorburn-like posture".

[Michael T. Griffith]

This is not an argument just against the SBT.  It is an argument that the bullet did not transit JFK's neck.  That appears to be at odds with all the evidence.

[SNIP]

Your argument about the trajectory not going from JFK's throat to JBC's right armpit is reasonable one that has evidentiary support.  But not the suggestion that a bullet did not transit JFK's neck.

The idea that a bullet transited JFK's neck is at odds with all of the best evidence that we now have:

-- The ARRB disclosures about the absolute, complete, final determination during the autopsy that the back wound had no exit point.

-- The fact that the shirt slits were made by the nurses.

-- The fact that JFK's tie had no hole in it, only a small nick near the left edge of the knot.

-- The fact that the shirt slits had no metallic traces around them, had no fabric missing from them, and were below the inside collar band. The photographic evidence makes it clear that JFK's tie knot was neatly centered between the collar band, which proves that no bullet could have exited the slits and then created a nick near the left edge on the surface of the tie knot.

-- The fact that there was no path from the back wound to the throat wound without smashing through the spine--not just nicking the edge of C7 or T1 but smashing through the middle part of the spine, as Dr. Mantik established with an overhead CT scan of an adult male with the same height and width as JFK.

-- The fact that the throat wound was only 3-5 mm in diameter, neat, and punched-in.

-- The fact that the damage that the Parkland doctors observed under/behind the throat wound clearly indicated the bullet ranged downward into his chest.

-- The hard physical evidence of the rear clothing holes in JFK's coat and shirt, which prove the back wound was too low on the back to have exited the throat, even if we did not already know that on the night of the autopsy, the pathologists absolutely, positively, and completely determined that the back wound had no exit point. 

[Andrew Mason]

I prefer St*rdivan's description myself. He says that the damage to the spinal nerves caused by the shockwave of the single bullet passing by  resulted in Kennedy assuming that "Thorburn-like posture".

And what qualifications in neurology does Larry Sturdivan have?   

As far as I can tell, no qualified neurologist and no documented case establishes that:

• the so-called Thorburn position is a reflex position.
• that it is assumed where there is no compression or damage to the spinal cord
• that JFK's reaction could be anything other than a natural response to startle or pain and "air hunger" as he struggles to breathe.

We have a spine to protect the spinal cord from the effects of impacts to the body.  The 2000 fps bullet passed within 1-2 inches from the spine in 1 to 2 24000ths of a second. If it lost 600 Joules of its initial 1860 Joules of energy in passing through the neck, that means it deposited about 1/3rd of that or 200 Joules in the region near the spine.  But that is over a complete 360 degrees around the bullet.  In the direction of the spine it would be maybe 1/8th of that or 25 Joules.

25 Joules is the energy that a 25 watt lightbulb puts out in 1 second or the energy of a baseball moving at 18 m/sec or 40 mph. 

[Andrew Mason]

The idea that a bullet transited JFK's neck is at odds with all of the best evidence that we now have:

-- The ARRB disclosures about the absolute, complete, final determination during the autopsy that the back wound had no exit point.

....Until they discovered that the tracheostomy was done at the same location as the pre-existing throat wound.  Nurse Heschliffe saw the throat wound which she described as a small round hole (6 H 141):

• Mr. SPECTER. Did you see any wound on any other part of his body?
  Miss HESCHLIFFE. Yes; in the neck.
  Mr. SPECTER. Will you describe it. please?
  Miss HESCHLIFFE. It was just a little hole in the middle of his neck.
  Mr. SPECTER. About how big a hole was it?
  Miss HESCHLIFFE. About as big around as the end of my little finger.

This was also seen by Dr. Carrico:  "We opened his shirt and coat and tie and observed a small wound in the anterior lower third of the neck" (6 H 3) and by Dr. Perry: "Dr. PERRY. The wound was roughly spherical to oval in shape, not a punched out wound, actually, nor was it particularly ragged. It was rather clean cut, but the blood obscured any detail about the edges of the wound exactly" (6 H 9).
 

-- The fact that the shirt slits were made by the nurses.

That is not the evidence. The cut to the tie to the left side of the knot and was a clean cut :

They had pulled the tie down before cutting it.  You can see this from the tie in CE395.

-- The fact that JFK's tie had no hole in it, only a small nick near the left edge of the knot.

That nick was closely examined by the FBI and found to be elongated horizontally (Frazier 5 H 62).  The tie was cut vertically.

-- The fact that the shirt slits had no metallic traces around them, had no fabric missing from them, and were below the inside collar band. The photographic evidence makes it clear that JFK's tie knot was neatly centered between the collar band, which proves that no bullet could have exited the slits and then created a nick near the left edge on the surface of the tie knot.

They did not cut the tie near the throat. How would they cut the shirt underneath the tie knot?