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

[John Corbett]

What I notice in that clip is beginning at about Z250 Jackie seems to turn her attention to JBC and Nellie seems to turn her attention to JFK. It must have been bewildering to both of them.

[Tom Graves]

Didn't he say that it felt as though he'd been hit in the back with a fist?

[Tom Graves]

Connally said he did not feel pain until he got to Parkland and got out of the car. So, the expression on his face is not pain. Perhaps it is fear -- the fear, having just heard a rifle shot, that an assassination of the President was underway.

LOL!

Nice try,

He said it felt as though he'd been hit in the back with a fist.

ME: Did Governor Connally say it felt as though he'd been hit in the back with a fist?

GROK: Yes, Governor John Connally did say exactly that.

In his own accounts of the November 22, 1963, assassination in Dallas (including his autobiography and interviews), he described the impact of the bullet that struck him as feeling like a powerful blow to the back, such as being hit with a fist.

Key quotes include:

From his autobiography excerpt: “In the middle of [sic; about 1/8 of] my turn [back to his left to look over his left shoulder to see if JFK was okay after having tried to do so over his right shoulder as we can see in Z-167], I felt a thud, as if someone had pounded me on the back with a fist, a blow so hard I doubled over.” He noted it was not a sharp, searing pain but a heavy impact, after which he saw blood on his shirt and realized he’d been hit.

In a 1965 interview and other retellings, he referred to it as feeling “like a fist hitting my shoulder” or “back with a closed fist.”

This description is frequently cited in discussions of the Warren Commission’s single-bullet theory, as Connally initially thought the first shot (which hit President Kennedy) had missed everyone, and he didn’t immediately realize he’d been wounded until feeling that impact (widely interpreted as the second shot). The Zapruder film timing and his reactions have been debated, but his wording about the “fist” sensation is consistent across his testimony and recollections.


This comes directly from Connally’s own words, not secondhand reports.

[Robin Unger]

LOL!

Nice try,

He said it felt as though he'd been hit in the back with a fist.

ME: Did Governor Connally say it felt as though he'd been hit in the back with a fist?

GROK: Yes, Governor John Connally did say exactly that.

In his own accounts of the November 22, 1963, assassination in Dallas (including his autobiography and interviews), he described the impact of the bullet that struck him as feeling like a powerful blow to the back, such as being hit with a fist. Key quotes include:

From his autobiography excerpt: “In the middle of my turn [back to his left to look over his left shoulder to see if JFK was okay after having tried to do so over his right shoulder as we can see in Z-167], I felt a thud, as if someone had pounded me on the back with a fist, a blow so hard I doubled over.” He noted it was not a sharp, searing pain but a heavy impact, after which he saw blood on his shirt and realized he’d been hit.

In a 1965 interview and other retellings, he referred to it as feeling “like a fist hitting my shoulder” or “back with a closed fist.”

This description is frequently cited in discussions of the Warren Commission’s single-bullet theory, as Connally initially thought the first shot (which hit President Kennedy) had missed everyone, and he didn’t immediately realize he’d been wounded until feeling that impact (widely interpreted as the second shot). The Zapruder film timing and his reactions have been debated, but his wording about the “fist” sensation is consistent across his testimony and recollections.


This comes directly from Connally’s own words, not secondhand reports.

"It felt like a double fist in the back"