Why I Believe in the JFKA Conspiracy

[Benjamin Cole]

The Mannlicher Carcano bolt action had to be worked between shots. This meant that a good rifleman could get off shots in about 2.3 seconds, minimum. I call that a "single-shot bolt-action rifle."

My read on the Z-film is that Gov. Connally is struck ~Z-295 and JFK at Z-313, with the film running at 18 frames per second.

This is the one part of about the JFK debate that I feel somewhat confident about.

But hey---others have other views. So it goes.

IMHO, caveat emptor, and draw your own conclusions.

[Tom Graves]

The Mannlicher Carcano bolt action had to be worked between shots. This meant that a good rifleman could get off shots in about 2.3 seconds, minimum. I call that a "single-shot bolt-action rifle."

My read on the Z-film is that Gov. Connally is struck ~Z-295 and JFK at Z-313, with the film running at 18 frames per second.

This is the one part of about the JFK debate that I feel somewhat confident about.

Since JFK, Jackie, JBC, Nellie, Kellerman, George Hickey and Rosemary Willis can be seen around Z-145 to be consciously reacting virtually simultaneously to the first, missing-everything, shot (or . . . gasp . . . to a loud firecracker, blowout, backfire or [fill in the blank]) said first, missing-everything shot (or loud firecracker, blowout, backfire or [fill in the blank]) must have occurred around "Z-124," i.e., half-a-second before Zapruder resumed filming.

[Michael T. Griffith]

Well, no one ever asked, but then I live in rural Thailand.

At bottom, it comes down to this:

(Gov.) Connally: "I was knocked over, just doubled over by the force of the bullet. It went in my back and came out my chest about 2 inches below and the left of my right nipple. The force of the bullet drove my body over almost double and when I looked, immediately I could see I was just drenched with blood. (1 HSCA 42)"

My layman's read on the Z-film is JFK is struck ~Z-209, when he "goes behind" the Stemmons Freeway sign, from the perspective of the film.

Connally's testimony is that he heard the first shot, looked over his own right shoulder (and is seen in Z-film facing backwards), could not see JFK, then turned forward to begin to look over his left shoulder, but was interrupted by the second shot, one that he did not hear (accurately, as the bullet traveled more quickly than sound).

We see Connally pushed forward ~Z-295, about 4.5 seconds after JFK appears to have been shot.

The third shot struck JFK at Z-313.

Thus, JFK is shot perhaps one second after Connally was shot. That is too rapid a sequence to have been accomplished by a lone-gunman armed with a single-shot bolt-action rifle.

Witness testimony (as anyone who worked the courts knows) is very iffy. But there is a tendency to believe someone who says what happened to them after they were shot in the back.

Could Connally have been shot at the same time as JFK, and then 4.5 seconds later is pushed forward for some reason, but only believes he had been impacted by a bullet at that later time? Seems like a stretch. What else would push him forward? That is not an illusion; it is seem in the Z-film.

Some have argued that bullets do not push victims in a direction, and indeed many hunters will tell you that often deer just slump to he ground after being shot.

True, bullets that do not meet resistance are sometimes seen to pass through the body, without moving the body much.

However, Dr. Robert Shaw, who worked on Connally at Parkland, testified before the WC:

Dr. SHAW. The bullet, in passing through the Governor’s chest wall struck the fifth rib at its midpoint and roughly followed the slanting direction of the fifth rib, shattering approximately 10 cm. of the rib.

https://www.history-matters.com/archive/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh6/pdf/WH6_Shaw.pdf

The bullet that struck the Governor traveled along and shattered the rib, meeting resistance, and pushing Connally forward. The bullet also punctured Connally's lung.

----

There are as many narratives of the JFKA as there are narrators, including endless theories about the true perps.

I do not know who were the true perps, though I suspect a very small conspiracy, possibly just two people and Lee Harvey Oswald.

As LHO's confederates were never apprehended, captivating theories have been fabricated, including the CIA, Mafia, KGB, LBJ, G-2, anti-Castro exiles, and others as the true perps, leading up to the very highest levels of government and enterprise.

Almost inevitably, the ideology drives the agenda, and the agenda drives the JFKA narrative. Tehran stooges and anti-Semitic crackpots are recently promoting the "Mossad did it" narratives on the JFKA.

However...WC supporters should keep in mind the HSCA did come down on the side of that there was a conspiracy in the JFKA. And WC bashers should remember the HSCA concluded LHO fired the lethal shots on 11/22. 

Someday I will post my "Vatican Perped the JFJA" narrative. It will show how easy it is to put together a narrative based on "facts" and motives, and circumstantial evidence.

I do not believe the Vatican had anything to do with the JFKA.

Who was behind the JFKA? I am not sure.

Great post, Ben. Just a few facts that help your case:

-- After viewing high-quality prints of the Zapruder frames under high magnification for Life magazine, Connally chose Z234 as the moment of impact, and we see his right shoulder slammed forward in Z238-242, which matches perfectly with his description of the force of the bullet's impact. He also insisted he was certain he was not hit before Z231. When Life asked him about Z228, he said, "there is no question about it. I haven't been hit yet."

But SBT believers must dismiss Connally as "mistaken." Right, the guy who actually experienced the shooting just couldn't tell that he was really hit at Z224!

-- Your point about a shot at around Z295 is valid. I think Connally's forward movement at this time is due to Nellie pulling him down, but there are several Z-film reactions that occur between Z290 and Z301, indicating a shot fired at around Z285:

* A blur episode starts at Z290. This indicates the shot was fired at right around Z285, since tests show that it takes 5-7 frames for a person to physically respond to a loud noise, even if they know it's coming.

* William Greer snaps his head to the rear beginning at Z301.

* Roy Kellerman is seen to "duck" his head beginning at Z293. His head tips noticeably forward, in an apparent ducking motion.

* Jean Hill begins to snap her head to the right at around Z295. She is standing to the left of the limousine, across the street from Zapruder. By Z298 we can see she has turned her head and is looking to the rear of the limousine.

Of course, chained down by the lone-gunman theory, WC apologists universally reject a Z285 shot and dismiss the Z290-301 reactions as meaningless.

[Tom Graves]

Great post, Ben. Just a few facts that help your case:

-- After viewing high-quality prints of the Zapruder frames under high magnification for Life magazine, Connally chose Z234 as the moment of impact, and we see his right shoulder slammed forward in Z238-242, which matches perfectly with his description of the force of the bullet's impact. He also insisted he was certain he was not hit before Z231. When Life asked him about Z228, he said, "there is no question about it. I haven't been hit yet."

But SBT believers must dismiss Connally as "mistaken." Right, the guy who actually experienced the shooting just couldn't tell that he was really hit at Z224!

-- Your point about a shot at around Z295 is valid. I think Connally's forward movement at this time is due to Nellie pulling him down, but there are several Z-film reactions that occur between Z290 and Z301, indicating a shot fired at around Z285:

* A blur episode starts at Z290. This indicates the shot was fired at right around Z285, since tests show that it takes 5-7 frames for a person to physically respond to a loud noise, even if they know it's coming.

* William Greer snaps his head to the rear beginning at Z301.

* Roy Kellerman is seen to "duck" his head beginning at Z293. His head tips noticeably forward, in an apparent ducking motion.

* Jean Hill begins to snap her head to the right at around Z295. She is standing to the left of the limousine, across the street from Zapruder. By Z298 we can see she has turned her head and is looking to the rear of the limousine.

Of course, chained down by the lone-gunman theory, WC apologists universally reject a Z285 shot and dismiss the Z290-301 reactions as meaningless.

Dear Comrade Griffith,

You never answered my question:

Does "former" KGB officer Vladimir Putin pay you, or do you do it for free?

-- Tom

[Charles Collins]

The Mannlicher Carcano bolt action had to be worked between shots. This meant that a good rifleman could get off shots in about 2.3 seconds, minimum. I call that a "single-shot bolt-action rifle."

My read on the Z-film is that Gov. Connally is struck ~Z-295 and JFK at Z-313, with the film running at 18 frames per second.

This is the one part of about the JFK debate that I feel somewhat confident about.

But hey---others have other views. So it goes. IMHO, caveat emptor, and draw your own conclusions.

The Mannlicher Carcano bolt action had to be worked between shots. This meant that a good rifleman could get off shots in about 2.3 seconds, minimum. I call that a "single-shot bolt-action rifle."


You can call it whatever you wish. But if you want to be correct and at least make it appear that your opinions might be worth reading, it is a repeater bolt action rifle.

[Lance Payette]

Or just call it a bolt action, but it's definitely not a single shot. I had a single shot shotgun - you actually have to stop and reload it each time. Ditto with an old Mauser. I guess "repeater" is the correct term, but we used to reserve that for lever action rifles like the Winchester the Rifleman (Chuck Connors) had on TV.

I had a humorous experience once with a .25 caliber six-shot handgun a friend had modified to be fully automatic. I fired at a target and it just went "blip." I asked "What happened?" He replied "That was it, six shots." Yep, the magazine was empty. I had absolutely no sense of anything other than a single "blip." There was no blip-blip-blip AT ALL. I still can't quite believe it.

Orr says his 1.75 seconds between the first and second shots is enough time for the Carcano to be worked. He really needs to start paying me for all this free publicity.

[Tom Graves]

Orr says his 1.75 seconds between the first and second shots is enough time for the Carcano to be worked.

Based on a 2020 analysis, by Brian Roselle and Kenneth Scearce, of the conscious reaction times of seven earwitnesses (including JFK and Jackie) to the sounds of the first shot, it's much more likely that former Marine sharpshooter Oswald took 5.50 seconds between his first (missing-everything) shot and his second (CE-399) shot in the echo chamber known as Dealey Plaza.

https://d7922adf-f499-4a26-96d4-8ab2d521fa35.usrfiles.com/ugd/d7922a_e280e26982b44f2c97c6e6e27026e385.pdf

[Lance Payette]

Believe it or not, there is actually a scholarly, peer-reviewed journal called "The Journal of Perpetrator Research" - https://jpr.winchesteruniversitypress.org/. My new favorite name - it's sounds like something out of Monty Python skit. The Minister of Silly Perpetrator Research.

Nevertheless, in 2019 Dr, Richard Reiman, Professor of History at South Georgia State College, published a 27-page article entitled "Six ‘Shots’ in Dallas: ‘Framing’ the Perpetrator of the Kennedy Assassination through the Zapruder Film, 1963–2013" - https://jpr.winchesteruniversitypress.org/articles/39/files/submission/proof/39-1-307-1-10-20191018.pdf.

It's a completely LN-supportive piece. He actually refers to the Z film as a Rorschach test and the thesis is basically how the film has been made to say whatever anyone wants over the decades. He places the first shot very early, when Rosemary Willis reacts, has JFK being hit around Z224, and JBC's first obvious reactions around Z235 - but with JBC's "lapel flip" at Z224 being proof he was actually hit at the same time as JFK.

And on it goes. Rorschach test.