Gov. John Connally Grips His White Stetson Hat at Z-272

[Andrew Mason]

Ok so you  propose a Z190-193(approx ) shot hit JFK in the back and exited his throat and then bypassed JCs back entirely and the bullet came to rest in JCs left thigh yes?

CE399 definitely caused the thigh wound but there is not enough evidence to determine where it ended up.  While some of the medical evidence suggests it did not penetrate far, that was not what Dr. Shires said.  He operated on the wound and removed damaged tissue down to the femur.  He also said that the xrays of JBC’s left thigh showed a small lead fragment embedded in the femur. The fragment is visible in the xray front and side views. 

Dr. Gregory observed the thigh wound and said it was a punctate wound that looked like it was made by the butt end of an intact missile. That is quite different than the description he provided of the missile that struck the radius which Gregory described as an irregularly shaped missile.

So, it may be that CE399 stayed in the wound. Or, because it was a very oblique strike by a tumbling bullet, likely rapidly tumbling, it may have tumbled out of the wound and struck something at low speed and bounced back onto JBC. There is also the possibility that it bounced back onto the back seat. That is based the recent (but completely uncorroborated) statement by SA Landis that he picked up a whole bullet from the back seat and later placed it on JFK’s stretcher.

A. How do you account for the thigh wound being shallow if the momentum of the CE 399 bullet passing thru JFKs back and throat was not reduced by very much, thus probably still traveling at 1500 ft/ sec when it would have entered the thigh of JC?

I suggest that the bullet after exiting JFK’s neck, striking the tie, tumbling, striking the thigh butt-first and leaving lead from its base embedded in the femur   and a wound that damaged tissue down to the femur did not make a shallow wound.

Your drawing to demonstrate how you think JCs body position was at Z190-193 looks like an extremely difficult twisted torso position that one has wonder if an older man like JC would even have been able to twist his upper body around that much while still leaving his left leg hanging to the left of his lower buttocks.

Connally was a healthy 46 year old. I don’t know of any evidence to suggest that he couldn’t do what he is seen doing in the zfilm at z193.  He is turned around much more than that by z255.

D.Can you prove from Z frames Z190-Z193  that JCs shoulder line is rotated to his right at greater than a 45% angle as your drawing appears to be showing?

Connally is turned so his chest is facing to the left of Zapruder. Zapruder was 31 degrees to the car direction at z193. It looks to me like JBC’s shoulders are turned to about a 2 o’clock position relative to the car.  What do you say?

E. Can you demonstrate  how JFK and  JCs  bodys were positioned in Z frames Z270-75 so that the 2nd bullet passed by JFKs body completely yet hit JC as he leaned over and the bullet  struck JCs wrist bone entering backwards and where that bullet went after exiting his wrist?

JFK is leaning forward and to the left after the neck shot.  Dave Powers sitting directly behind JFK said that JFK moved far left after first shot. He said that left JBC visible until the second shot when he disappeared.  There is no question that a bullet passing just to the right of JFK could have struck JBC.

As far as the wrist wound is concerned, his right arm is pronated do that the back of his forearm is facing the chest right where the bullet exited.  The damage done to the wrist indicates that the bullet deflected off the radius leaving a very long and irregular hole in the french cuff. There is also evidence it fragmented.  Greer said he sensed a concussion on the second shot as if it hit something in the car. There was damage to the top of the windshield frame. Tague said he was hit on the second shot.