Reclaiming History (115 page)

Answer: “The relative positions in the automobile of the president and the governor.”
¹¹⁵

A
s opposed to the Warren Commission, the HSCA photographic panel spent a considerable amount of time studying Connally’s movements in the Zapruder film. As we discussed earlier, the governor’s initial reaction was to turn to the right at the sound of the first shot, believing the sound to have originated from his right rear. Calvin McCamy, a member of the photographic panel who studied the Zapruder film for the HSCA, testified that Connally’s entire torso remained twisted to the right as he disappeared behind the Stemmons Freeway sign.
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When he emerged from behind the sign, about a second later, at Z222–224, the panel perceived that Connally was reacting to a severe external stimulus: “He appears to be frowning, and there is a distinct stiffening of his shoulders and upper trunk. Then there is a radical change in his facial expression and rapid changes begin to occur in the orientation of his head.”
¹¹⁷
Hence, the HSCA, and without the use of the delayed-reaction argument, has Connally first showing a reaction to being hit by a bullet at the same time Kennedy clearly showed a reaction—as the two of them were emerging from behind the Stemmons Freeway sign.
*
As with Kennedy, Connally, of course, could have been struck several frames earlier when his body was hidden from Zapruder’s camera by the sign.

However, the HSCA ultimately concluded that “the second shot hit the limousine’s occupants (both Kennedy and Connally) at about Zapruder frames 188–191,”
¹¹⁸
and the committee says that Kennedy “does not appear to react to anything unusual prior to 190,” although it does not say what change in Kennedy it noticed at frame 190.
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The HSCA goes on to say that “at approximately Zapruder frame 200, Kennedy’s…head moves rapidly from right to his left in the direction of his wife.”
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There are many reasons why the HSCA was wrong in its Z188–191 conclusion, one of which is obvious to even a lay reader. Z frame 193 (see photo section), three frames after Kennedy was supposedly reacting at frame 190 to being hit, clearly shows Kennedy still waving to the crowd. But more importantly, it is difficult to see how the HSCA photographic panel can say that at Z frame 200 Kennedy’s head moves rapidly from right to left in the direction of Mrs. Kennedy. Z frames 200 to 203 in the Warren Commission volumes
¹²¹
show that Kennedy is still very definitely looking to his right. In fact, as late as Z frame 204 (see photo section) he is still looking to his right. And Willis photo number 5, taken from the motorcade’s rear at around frame 202, shows Kennedy looking to his right.
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†

One support the HSCA has cited for its Z188–191 conclusion is that a jiggle or blur analysis of the Zapruder film showed a jiggle around that time. But there was also a jiggle around frames 220–228.
¹²³
Since even the HSCA agrees that shots were not fired both at 181–191
and
at 220–228, this only confirms the unreliability of jiggle analysis, the reason being that blurs can be caused by things other than the sound of a gunshot. Inasmuch as the HSCA can’t have it both ways (i.e., it accepts the jiggle analysis supporting a shot hitting the limousine occupants around frames 188–191, but does not accept the jiggle analysis showing a second shot being fired around frames 220–228), the jiggle analysis is negated and is no support for the HSCA’s conclusion that the bullet that hit Kennedy and Connally struck them both around frames 188–191.

Second, though the Warren Commission’s conclusion on this issue cannot be automatically accepted, it cannot be cavalierly ignored either, and as we’ve seen, the Warren Commission’s conclusion is that the Kennedy-Connally bullet struck them between frames 210 and 225.

Indeed, the HSCA’s own forensic pathology panel didn’t agree with its conclusion, saying that “the
first
visual evidence that the president was struck was the movement of his hands to a position in front of his neck.”
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Of course, that was around frames 225–226, two full seconds after the HSCA said Kennedy was hit.

Finally, and most importantly, logic and human experience would seem to dictate that the HSCA was wrong on this score. We know that from the sixth-floor sniper’s nest, with the exception of one-eighteenth of a second at Z186,
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the oak tree obstructed a view of the president from around the time of Z166 up to Z210.
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A bullet striking Kennedy around Z188–191 would mean that the sniper who fired this bullet (who the HSCA itself concluded was Oswald in the sniper’s nest of the Book Depository Building)
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fired the shot a fraction of a second earlier—around Z186—which seems to fit the one-eighteenth-of-a-second moment when an opening in the leaves would have afforded him a clear view. But even making the illogical assumption that one-eighteenth of a second (Z186) is long enough for a gunman to have realized that he had a clear shot and to fire the rifle, which seems extremely unlikely, why would a sniper fire almost blindly through the leaves of the oak tree, when he would know that
in just one second
or so he would have a completely clear and unobstructed view of the president for the rest of the road ahead?

But since HSCA members nevertheless embraced their seemingly illogical position that Kennedy and Connally were hit by the same bullet back at Z188–191, they had a problem. Though they saw Kennedy first reacting at Z200
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to the shot at Z188–191, the first reaction they saw in Connally was when he emerged from the Stemmons Freeway sign at Z222–224.
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Because of the differences in apparent reaction times between Kennedy and Connally, the HSCA forensic pathology panel was compelled to deal head-on with the
allegation
that the “observable interval” between the reactions of Kennedy and Connally in the Zapruder film was inconsistent with the single-bullet theory, which the HSCA had accepted. The committee’s report noted that, contrary to the allegation, a majority of the panel “believes that the interval is consistent with the single-bullet theory. At issue is the time delay between bullet impact and the observable reactions of each man to his injury, which in turn is determined by many factors, including whether or not their reactions were voluntary or involuntary. If involuntary, they would have occurred almost simultaneously with the injuries. If voluntary, there is often a slight delay in reacting.”
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As mentioned earlier, the majority of the panel thought the movement of Kennedy’s arms around Z225 was voluntary, although they recognized that it could have been involuntary had the bullet caused sufficient shock to the president’s spinal cord. Turning to Connally, the medical panel said that they were unable to say precisely when the governor was hit, but the majority of the panel felt that the “nature of his injuries could have resulted in a voluntary motion, which would mean a delayed reaction. Thus, the majority believes that there could have been
sufficient delay
in Governor Connally’s reaction to account for the interval seen in the film and to permit the conclusion that a single bullet injured both men.”
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In other words, both men were hit by the same bullet around Z190, with Kennedy first showing a visible reaction at around Z200 and Connally at around Z225.

Why, one may ask, was the HSCA forensic pathology panel more inclined to think that Connally was more likely than Kennedy to have had a voluntary response? Dr. Charles Petty, a member of the HSCA pathology panel, testified at the London trial that the bullet that entered Kennedy’s back went closer to his spinal cord, where there is a concentration of nerves. (Petty felt Kennedy “had an involuntary response.”) “Governor Connally,” Petty went on, “had no such wounds. He was wounded in the chest, the wrist, and the thigh. These were not close to any major nerve system.”
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Despite the numerous medical opinions and documented empirical evidence relating to delayed reactions in the wake of bullet strikes to human flesh, critics have, predictably, opted for the notion that a separate shot struck Governor Connally, necessitating a second gunman, and hence, a conspiracy. One of the first such critiques appeared in Josiah Thompson’s 1967 book,
Six Seconds in Dallas
, in which he writes,

In Z236–237 [Connally’s] mouth opens in what appears to be an exclamation. Then, suddenly, in Z238 his cheeks puff [out] and, in succeeding frames, his mouth opens wide—he gives the appearance of someone who has just had the wind knocked out of him. Dr. [Charles F.] Gregory told me in Dallas that a necessary consequence of the shot through Connally’s chest would be a compression of the chest wall and an involuntary opening of the epiglottis, followed by escaping air forcing open his mouth. Dr. Gregory estimated the interval between impact and mouth opening to be on the order of ¼ to ½ second. Thus the surge of air to the cheeks in Z238 and the subsequent mouth opening indicate the impact of a bullet only the barest fraction of a second earlier. Had both victims been hit by the same bullet, we would expect Connally to be manifesting the signs of impact at least
sixteen
frames earlier.
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*

Not only is Thompson incorrect about the time that Connally first reacts (subsequent investigations agree that Connally is shown reacting immediately after emerging from behind the Stemmons sign, at Z222), but the medical premise Thompson bases his observations on is apparently flawed. When I read the above passage to Dr. Baden, he asked, “Was Thompson quoting Dr. Gregory?”

“No,” I said, “it’s a paraphrase. There are no quotation remarks.”

“I thought so,” Dr. Baden replied. “It’s easy for a layperson to misinterpret what a doctor says. For one thing, unless we’re eating or drinking, the epiglottis [the thin cartilaginous valve that covers the opening at the upper part of the larynx during swallowing to permit the entrance of food and liquid into the larynx] is
always
open. Also, a bullet cannot cause the chest wall to collapse. Thompson probably meant lung as opposed to chest wall, but he would have misunderstood Dr. Gregory even on this point. When the lung is punctured, as Connally’s was,
†
the air in the lung goes out into the chest cavity,
not out
of the mouth, so Connally’s cheeks puffing would not have been caused by air trying to escape.” Baden attributed the puffing of the cheeks to just one of the many unpredictable ways one reacts to a physical trauma. He added that Connally’s right lung only partially collapsed and his left lung remained intact. Could Connally’s attempt to breathe have caused the puffing of the mouth, I asked. “I don’t see how,” he said. He added that we breathe about fifteen times a minute, meaning once every four seconds, which translates to more than seventy-three Zapruder frames. And here, we’re talking about a matter of just a few frames.
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G
overnor Connally’s observation that he was not hit by the same bullet that hit Kennedy has given aid and comfort to, and been embraced by, the conspiracy theorists for years. In the November 25, 1966, edition of
Life
magazine, he said, “They talk about the one-bullet or two-bullet theory, but as far as I am concerned, there is no theory. There is my absolute knowledge…that one bullet caused the President’s first wound, and that an entirely separate shot struck me. It’s a certainty. I’ll never change my mind.”
¹³⁵
Governor Connally said in many interviews through the years that he did not believe there were two assassins, that only one gunman fired all the shots at the presidential limousine. But of course, were one to accept his assertion that he and Kennedy were struck by separate bullets, his conclusion of one assassin would have to be wrong.

It was Connally’s belief that the president’s first wound was caused by the first bulled fired. He believes the second bullet hit him, and the third hit the president.
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But perhaps one of the least likely persons in the world who would know things such as this would be the person being shot. At the moment he was hit, Connally shouted out, “My God, they’re going to kill us all,” meaning he was in the ultimate state of fear and panic, which can only cloud, not sharpen, perception. Moreover, a bullet piercing a human body is an enormous, physiologically neutralizing assault on all the senses of the victim, including, of course, cognition. I mean, even when we are sitting in a comfortable chair watching a slow-motion film of the assassination, we cannot be absolutely positive exactly when Connally was hit and whether it was by the same bullet that first hit Kennedy. We must make recourse to other evidence to prove this point. So how in the world would Connally know these things? The governor himself, in his Warren Commission testimony, acknowledges as much when he said he was “in either a state of shock or the impact [of the bullet] was such that the sound didn’t even register on me…I was never conscious of hearing the second shot [the one, we should add, he nonetheless testified he was sure hit him] at all.”
¹³⁷

Quite apart from the fact that the governor, having been shot, would be one of the least likely people to know what happened, the governor’s own testimony refutes his conclusion that the president was hit by the first shot. Connally testified that after the first shot, which he said he heard as “we had just made the turn” onto Elm, “I turned to look back over my right shoulder…
but I did not catch the president in the corner of my eye
.”
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He said he was in the process of “turning to look over my left shoulder into the backseat to see if I could see him [the president]. I never looked. I never made the full turn.”
¹³⁹
Even if Governor Connally had seen the president, there would be no way for him to know for sure if the same bullet that struck him had struck the president, but since he admits not seeing the president when the president was hit or at any time during the shooting, it would be impossible on its face for him to know, or even have a sensible opinion, of whether or not he was hit by a separate bullet. If he
had
seen the president, he would have seen that the president was in no physical discomfort at all after the first shot. Rather, he was smiling and waving to the crowd for at least two full seconds after Z160.