When Was JBC Hit?

[Andrew Mason]

How I currently perceive Mason's Pet Theory.

    "The trajectory from the SN through JFK's neck and travelling
     on a 14 degree right to left 18 degree downward path could
     easily have gone to the left side of JBC."

....

    "hit the left thigh if it was out to the left as it likely was
     (he would not sit as you have him with his legs together)"

How do you know that? Hee hee. More likely both knees were towards the car door as he spent much of his time looking to his right.

I see that you have not tried sitting on a seat on the floor with your knees in the air. Unless you are a eunuch, you would sit with legs apart.

[Andrew Mason]

As one might expect, a bullet passing through the soft tissues of a body without directly striking bone should follow a straight line—from the point of entry to the point of exit from where it continues without deviating; however, ballistics has demonstrated that this is not the case.

After the bullet penetrates JFK's back, while it traverses through his body, it probably deviates from a straight line—possibly slightly UPWARD from its initial line and to the RIGHT; but continues in a general downward trajectory as it exits his throat and strikes Governor Connally.

The Knott Laboratory digital reconstruction appears rather convincing until one scrutinises it further. They base their findings on straight-line bullet trajectories from entry to exit that continue without deviation while traversing JFK's neck and continue undeviated after projectile exit. A bullet deviating RIGHT as it exits the throat could account for the discrepancy in their trajectory analysis. So, their determinations are demonstrable fallacies and, therefore, cannot be used as irrefutable evidence to disprove the Single Bullet Theory.

For a bullet to deviate from a straight path a net force must be applied to it (Newton 1).  So it must experience asymmetrical forces to deviate from the straight line path from the rifle.  It does not appear to have struck anything hard in passing through the neck so, as the WC ballistics experts noted, it would leave JFK's throat in a straight line but likely tumbling (as it would have lost rifling in passing through JFK).

After leaving JFK's throat the only forces would have been gravity and air.  It is travelling at about 1200 fps at that point, give or take.   If it is going to change direction in the ensuing 24 inches to JBC's right armpit, it has to do that in 1/600th of a second. 

In 1/600th of a second, gravity will cause it to drop as distance s where: s=gt^2/2=9.8/(2 x 600^2)=1.36 x 10^-5 m which is 13.6 millionths of a metre or .0136 mm ie. nothing.

To actually deflect a 10 g. 1200 fps bullet even one inch over 24 inches (ie. 1/600th of a second) one needs a force much greater than gravity - one that will give it an average lateral speed of 600 inches/sec. In other words, it must go from 0 to 1200 inches/second laterally in 1/600th of a second.  That would require an enormous asymmetrical force.

An unstable bullet will drift an inch or two from a straight line path due to aerodynamic forces and will prescribe a gradual spiral path. But this will occur over tens of yards, not 24 inches. 

This was demonstrated nicely in an American Rifleman article from September 1968:


These results show that the unstable bullet deviated from a straight line path by one inch after passing through 28-32 paper screens. Screen 1 was 25 yards downrange and was after it passed through the destabilizing brush.  Screens 2-22 were 12" apart and screens 23-32 were 20 feet apart.  So 28 screens represents 21+20(7)=161 feet. 32 screens represents 241 feet.

So the idea that the bullet from JFK's neck to the plane of JBC's back will deviate from a straight line by more than a negligible distance - much less than an inch - is fantasy.  This is essentially what ballistics expert Larry Sturdivan told the HSCA (1 HSCA 408):

Mr. FAUNTROY. So it would yaw a little coming through but would be pretty much straight?
Mr. STURDIVAN. It is still very straight but its angular momentum is such that as it comes out it is turning.
Mr. FAUNTROY. I see.
Mr. STURDIVAN. OK
Mr. FAUNTROY. Could it have struck another man sitting directly in front of the first man?
Mr. STURDIVAN. If the initial trajectory had been into that man, yes, because it would not have deviated significantly from its original trajectory.

[Dan O'meara]

There's lot of hype about the Knott Lab laser reconstruction but I can't find an independent analysis or critique of it anywhere.
The pic below shows the culmination of the reconstruction and illustrates their fundamental claim, that the bullet passing through JFK can't be lined up with JBC:



The green line shows the trajectory of the bullet from the SN.
The red line shows the trajectory of the bullet passing through JBC.
Two issues spring out immediately:
1] The Knott reconstruction shows the bullet passing through JFK and hitting JBC (green line). It shows the bullet hitting JBC about 10 inches away from where it should be. The question is - what happened to the bullet they show hitting JBC? We know he wasn't hit in the position they are showing, so what happened to this bullet?
2] The red line, showing the trajectory of the bullet through JBC, seems to be showing that JBC was shot by JFK!! Is that the revolutionary new theory Knott are presenting? It is beyond obvious that their reconstruction shows the bullet that hits JBC in the back MUST pass through JFK first. How do they explain this?

Knott Laboratory don't seem to have taken reality into account. They haven't taken into account that the Z-film shows both men reacting at exactly the same moment. If there were two different bullets, as Knott claims, then JFK must have shot JBC as it is IMPOSSIBLE for a bullet to hit JBC in the back without going through JFK first.
On top of this, their reconstruction shows the moment at z225. By z223 the bullet has passed through both men, crushing JBC's rib on the way through. While this does not really affect the position of JFK (as the bullet passes straight through soft tissue), it radically affects the position of JBC by z225 as his body is responding to the instantaneous physical reaction of the bullet against bone. The right side of his body is thrust forward instantaneously and has twisted to a significant degree by z225.

Below is a still from the Knott reconstruction and it shows that JFK and JBC are sat pretty much one behind the other.



This is simply not the case. JBC was sat far more inboard than this reconstruction shows. The pic taken by Dave Powers demonstrates this clearly.




I'm no image analyst but there seems to be lots of issues with the Knott reconstruction and I don't see where they've had to answer any difficult questions about it.