Based on his recounting of the shots, wouldn’t the early missed shot make it four shots? He thought he was hit by a shot he had never heard. JFK was hit by two shots. JBC said he heard two shots.
1) He said he was looking straight ahead when he was hit.
2) He said he was hit by the second shot and JFK was hit by the third shot.
3) [fill in the blank]
Perhaps you missed the subject of this thread / the first sentence in my post.
Here it is again for you:
Connally screwed things up.
Perhaps I should have said Connally
experienced three shots.
ME: How many shots did Governor Connally believe were fired, altogether, whether they hit or missed?
GROK: Governor John Connally believed a total of three shots were fired during the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963. In his testimony to the Warren Commission and subsequent interviews, he consistently stated that he heard three shots: the first he believed missed, the second struck him, and the third was the fatal shot to Kennedy. He maintained this account, emphasizing three shots total, regardless of whether they hit or missed, as noted in the Warren Commission Report (Chapter 3) and his later statements, such as in a 1982 interview with The Dallas Morning News.
ME: If he believed that the first shot missed, the second shot hit him, and the third shot hit JFK's head, how did he explain the entrance wound in JFK's upper back / lower neck and the exit wound in JFK's throat?
GROK: Governor John Connally's testimony and statements about the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963, focus primarily on his experience of the shots and their effects, but he did not directly provide a detailed explanation for the specific wounds to Kennedy, such as the entrance wound in Kennedy’s upper back/lower neck and the exit wound in his throat. However, based on his accounts, particularly in the Warren Commission testimony and later interviews, we can infer his perspective and how it aligns with or diverges from the official findings.Connally testified before the Warren Commission (Volume IV, pages 131–137) that he heard three shots: the first, which he believed missed both him and Kennedy; the second, which struck him in the back, exiting through his chest; and the third, which he identified as the fatal head shot to Kennedy. He explicitly rejected the "single-bullet theory" (the Warren Commission's conclusion that one bullet caused both Kennedy’s back/neck/throat wounds and Connally’s injuries), arguing that the second shot hit him separately from any shot that hit Kennedy. He based this on the timing and his immediate sensory experience, stating he was not hit by the first shot but was struck by the second after turning to look toward Kennedy.Regarding Kennedy’s wounds specifically—the entrance in the upper back/lower neck and the exit through the throat—Connally did not offer a detailed explanation in his testimony or public statements about how these wounds occurred. His focus was on the sequence of shots and his own injuries. However, his belief in three shots and his rejection of the single-bullet theory imply that he likely attributed Kennedy’s back/neck/throat wounds to a separate bullet, distinct from the one that hit him. In his view, since the first shot missed and the third was the head shot, the second shot (or another shot not aligned with his own wounding) would have had to account for Kennedy’s non-fatal wounds. He did not specify which shot caused these wounds, but his insistence on separate shots for himself and Kennedy suggests he believed a different bullet (likely the second in his sequence) struck Kennedy in the back and exited through the throat. In later interviews, such as one with The Dallas Morning News in 1982, Connally reiterated his belief in three shots and his skepticism of the single-bullet theory, stating that the bullet that hit him could not have also hit Kennedy due to the timing and his physical reaction. He did not elaborate on the forensic details of Kennedy’s wounds, as his account was based on his personal experience rather than ballistic analysis. He acknowledged the possibility of a lone gunman but maintained that the shots’ effects on him and Kennedy were distinct events. The Warren Commission, conversely, concluded that a single bullet (the "single-bullet theory") caused both Kennedy’s back-to-throat wound and Connally’s injuries, based on ballistic evidence, the alignment of the men in the limousine, and the timing of the shots in the Zapruder film. Connally’s rejection of this theory implies he believed Kennedy’s back/neck/throat wounds were caused by a separate bullet, but he did not provide a specific alternative explanation for which shot caused them or how they occurred in his three-shot framework. In summary, Connally did not directly explain the mechanics of Kennedy’s back/neck/throat wounds but implied they resulted from a separate bullet, likely the second shot in his sequence, as he believed the first missed and the third was the head shot. His rejection of the single-bullet theory suggests he viewed Kennedy’s non-fatal wounds as caused by a distinct shot from the one that struck him.
