Was JFK really waving?

[Thomas Graves]

On 10/25/2010 at 1:53 PM, Robert Harris said:

Standard lore in the JFK case is that at the time JFK first appeared at frame 133 in the Zapruder film, he was happily waving to the crowd. And it may be that some of the witnesses thought the same. But we have an advantage over them. We can slow down the action and magnify the frames to make a much better determination of what was happening.

In this animation I would invite interested readers to look VERY closely at JFK then and particularly at frame 139 where I inserted a short pause to give you a better look at his right hand. If his hand was turned outward, then he was probably waving.

But if it was turned inward, it is far more likely that he had raised his hand to his head, exactly as we would expect him to do if he had been struck there by a piece of debris from a missed shot that shattered on the pavement to his right.

I'm sure some of my newfound shadows will be eager to tell you what you are seeing but I would urge everyone to look very, very closely and make his own call.

It doesn't pause at frame 139.