Chris Bristow

About 60 seconds into the Bell film the first people are seen running toward the knoll as press car 1# stopped and press car 2# went around it. It happened 1:10 sec after the head shot. The people running towards the knoll are not in the street yet and there is no one on the stairs. After press car 2# went around Press car 1# it was followed by 5 more cars spaced apart by 3 to 4 seconds then followed by the first bus. There was no time for anyone to cross Elm till after the cars and bus passed. Their first opportunity to cross Elm happened 1:35 seconds after the head shot. It looks like those people were anxious to get across the road as they were mostly running that way. I think it is safe to assume they crossed as soon as they could which was right after Bus 1# passed. They would have been climbing the steps approx 1:45 seconds after Z frame 313.

I would agree the wrist was likely hit with a different bullet. Trying to place the dorsal side of the wrist up near the exit seems highly implausible. It is possible to hold the arm lower and several inches out from the chest and be in a position to catch the bullet without having to rotate the arm too much. The lower your arm is and the farther from the exit wound it is the more it has to deflect to get to the thigh. Maybe a tumbling bullet would deflect that much after breaking a solid bone like the radius. The SBT requires a lot of deflection for a bullet in such good condition and even with a lot of deflection JC would have to have his left leg pulled quite a ways to the right. I think one problem is he is barely starting his turnaround at frame 223 with his torso turned only 20 or 30° at that point. I don't see a natural way to do the turn without moving the upper torso first and then pulling the lower torso around with it. So I think around frame 223 is lower torso would still be facing forward.

Yes I think deflection has to be part of the scenario for the bullet to find its way to the thigh. JC was sitting in a very low seat so his knees were elevated a bit which makes the turn even more Awkward. I can't see his arm around frame 223 but his right shoulder does seem to dip down possibly as a result of the strike to the arm. His exit wound is elongated and shows the bullet was tumbling by the time it exited. A tumbling bullet that hits the radius bone directly enough to break the bone in two is likely to deflect in its path.

If we could just see Connally's arm and left leg in the Z film this thing would be a lot easier to figure out. I also wonder exactly where his hat was and why the bullet didn't pass through that on the way to his thigh. Considering the 28° downward angle through Connally's chest there is a placement of the forearm that may work. That would be the entry wound on the forearm being about three to four inches below the nipple and about six inches out from the body. keeping the elbow near the body the forearm would angle outwards from the Torso. Then if the wrist was rotated with the dorsal side towards the exit wound under the nipple it would line up pretty well. In that position I can rotate my forearm about 25°. That's pretty close to matching the 28° downward trajectory so the Bullet would enter the top and exit the bottom of my wrist / forearm. The farther you position the forearm from the Torso the sharper the turn the bullet has to make to leave the forearm and reach the left thigh. In addition the entry and exit on his torso suggest the bullet had to deflect to the right as it passed through him. With his torso turned at least 20° to the right, as seen in the Z film, the direction of the bullet as it left his torso would be heading slightly outboard towards the right side of the limo. He would really have to bring his left leg over a long way or have a very great deflection of the bullet through the wrist for that to work.

A shot from the south knoll is blocked by the windshield from fr 250 to 300. The south colonnade may work when he was in the middle of his turn but Nellie and the side window may have blocked that shot. Slightly earlier in his turn a shot from the Old Red Courthouse or the county courts building on the north east side of Main and Huston would line up. Maybe a shot from the Records building would have worked very early around frame 235.

Sometimes breaking boards with your hand can be a parlor trick. But five or more boards without spacers between them becomes very difficult. 95% of people who are of average size take 3 to 5 years of practice to break five boards.

In that test with the pine wood they commented that the bullet left the muzzle at 2,080 ft per second. So we know they tested with a full load. The problem is they were so close to the wood that it impacted the wood at virtually full velocity. the fact that it struck the wood at full velocity but was not deformed by those first boards it struck proves without any doubt that the pine is not dense enough to deform the bullet EVEN AT FULL VELOCITY. They are testing to see if they can deform the bullet on a material that is not dense enough to deform the bullet even at full velocity. That's an unavoidable fact and completely nullifies their test.

Yes there is a large margin. Connally's face sheet shows the entry 7.5 inches from the spine. Assuming J.C. was sitting 7 inches inboard of JFK the entry would be at the spine. So I assume we have to account for 7.5 inches of lateral movement for the bullet to line up with his entry wound. Testing a 30 rotation combined with a 10 degree rearward lean I find it only accounts for 4 inches of the 7.5 needed. But there are some unknowns I can't pin down. Usually we assume the limo aligned with the direction of the lane marker next to the limo. But if Greer was starting to point the limo towards the next set of marker he could be facing a degree or two left. Secondly, J.C. might have shifted slightly to his left as he positioned himself to turn around. Third, I have heard the distance between JFK's neck exit and J.C.'s entry as being either 30 or 36 inches. Both JFK and J.C. could have been 3 inches forward or backward at the moment of the shot. The 6 inch difference changes the entry by one inch. finally I don't know if J.C. was 6 or 7 or 8 inches inboard from JFK. These slight changes are near impossible to measure from the Z film. They could make a total difference of about 5 inches. The basic 30 degree turn gives 4 or 5 inches of the 7.5 inches needed. If J.C. was sitting more than 8 inches inboard and he shifted left a bit as he prepared to turn, and if the distance between JFK and J.C was 30 inches then the shot could feasibly line up. Including the limo direction there are 4 unknowns, 2 or 3 of them would be enough to make the shot possible. I don't personally buy the SBT but I think the trajectory may line up. Below are some overexposed frames of J.C. that show the coat pretty well. I think the entry location looks too close to the armpit and needs to go inboard about 2 inches.

Here is the overhead view showing the lateral trajectory. J.C. turning to the right moves the entry wound to the left. Once you turn J.C to the right the trajectory through his chest has to be altered as seen by the blue lines in the diagram. The face sheet has his exit wound 2.5 inches closer to his center line than the entry, so assuming he was turned 20 degrees the bullet would have to deflect by 15 degrees through his chest. Then it would have to deflect another 40 degrees to go from the wrist to the thigh. I am not making a case for the SBT here, just measuring what it would take for a shot at fr223 to work. It is hard to just look at J.C in fr223 and measure his torso rotation. Measuring his head position is much easier and more accurate. He appears to be looking about 20 degrees to the right of Z's camera. Z's camera is at 42 degrees to the limo so J.C is looking about 62 degrees right of the limo. Then you can compare J.C's tie knot to the center line of his face or the bottom of his chin. He is looking about 30 degrees to the right of his tie knot/torso position. That means his torso was turned up to 30 degrees to the right. We know 3D models are only as good as the data they are based on. The only way to check the work is to do the basic math for slope angles and such. I would love to see the measurements the model is based on. Having all the relative heights and distances would allow for the best evaluation of the graphics created from those measurements. For anyone who uses the diagram below it has one serious problem. The width of the torso compared to the thickness is way off. The thickness of the torso has to be increased by 30%! I know it seem like a lot and when you correct it is looks weird. The thing is we hardly ever see the view from directly above. But comparing chest cavity dimension of anatomical drawings they consistently show the diagram to be way off. That is true whether you just compare rib cages or you add the shoulders. both separate comparisons show the thickness of the chest to be approx 30% too small. I have not made the correction in the diagram but in doing so the bullet travels a couple more inches laterally and exits almost 6 inches away from the official exit.

The perspective of the lateral trajectory is seen looking down from above. The side view shows the vertical trajectory. I'm only talking about the lateral left to right trajectory of the bullet. My point was that Connally turning to his right moves the entrance wound several inches to the left. I think the 20° plus rotation needs to be added to the model. The only way the vertical trajectory works is if we accept JFK's entrance wound as being between C7 and T1, give or take an inch. If it was a T4 then it exits JFK's sternum and hits Connally too low.

I thought it was generally agreed that Connally was turned approx 30 degrees to his right at 223 and maybe 20/25 degrees by 225? The 3D model shows him almost straight forward in his seat. Rotating J.C. 20 degrees moves the entry wound location about 2 to 3 inches to the left bringing it closer to aligning with the bullet trajectory. In addition having his torso turned partially towards Zapruder makes it hard to judge just how much he was leaning back because that movement is almost directly away from Z, so any amount of rearward lean can not be determined accurately. The 28 degree downward track through J.C. may indicate he was leaning back by 10 degrees(Or maybe the bullet deflected 10 degrees downward.). That would move the entry wound location to the left/rear, maybe 2 inches closer to aligning with the bullet trajectory. If his back was slightly hunched it would be unreadable from Z's position and would bring the alignment another 1 to 2 inches closer. On top of all that we can only estimate J.C.'s position to within maybe 1.5 inches from the Z film. We have to add at least that for JFK. I think at minimum there is a 1.5 inch tolerance due to Z's distance and film resolution of J.C.. Add another 2 inches because we can't tell if he was leaning back, and another 1.5 inch because his back could have been slightly hunched and there is a total of 5 inches of ambiguity. Once we rotate J.C. to 20 or 30 degrees and take the 5 inch ambiguity into account the trajectory appears to be possible.

I think the separate frames can still be downloaded at John Costella's JFK site. You can compare frames 315 and 317 which both have similar amounts of blur. Note the distance the limo travels in those two frames. The white trash on the grass goes from over Greer's head to above the crossbar. The limo itself is a good yardstick because we know it is 256 inches long including the rear foot holds. I think it is 248 without the footholds. It is easy to make an accurate measurement of how far the limo moved forward relative to the fixed trash on the ground. The limo traveled 16 to 18 inches from 315 to 317. At 8mph the limo advances 7.5 inches per frame so the limo has to doing 8+mph. I find sizing an image of the limo to 248 mm on the screen makes it very easy to measure separate sections of it because 1mm will = 1 inch. Although you need a photo taken from more than 30 feet and perpendicular to the limo to be non distorted. You can do the same thing with the HSCA drawing but here is a link to a good photo. https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Ffordauthority.com%2F2019%2F04%2Fkennedy-presidential-limo-replica-is-on-ebay%2F&psig=AOvVaw2NsEysndIHWKky7NWgia8Q&ust=1671340401357000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CA8QjRxqFwoTCKj796ry__sCFQAAAAAdAAAAABAK

I'm not ignoring those other Witnesses I'm just specifically talking about the four bike cops testimony. I understand Witnesses behind or directly in front can't perceive motion as well as those on the side. The Z film shows the limo moving at just under 9 mph at frame 314. If it is correct then the Limo slowed by less than 1 mph to reach it's slowest speed at 8.3 mph by frame 320. The deceleration starting in the mid 200s and increasing just after frame 313 is a mostly gradual deceleration. That's what the Z film documents. I don't know how the less than abrupt deceleration we see in the Z film could be mistaken for a stop or extreme slowing by the four bike cops right next to the limo.

By frame 270 the limo was down to just under 12mph. If it had suddenly slowed from 20 to 8mph I could see some folks being confused by that. But the slowing was gradual.

There are valid reasons the limo needed to slow down. But the speed of the limo can be accurately measured and I can't wrap my head around the cops maybe 3 ft away calling 8mph a stop or almost a stop.

In the Z film the limo never slows below 8 miles per hour. We can measure that accurately because we know it's filming at 18.6 frames per second and all of the Zapruderr frames are available for free download. Slowing from 13 to 8 mph doesn't match up with people saying it almost stopped., imo.

I think so many witnesses using the phrase slowed or stopped is compelling. For people to be unsure as to whether it just slowed or actually stopped would mean it had to go very very slow.

When thinking about this I looked on YouTube and found a video of a guy shooting from bushes right after it rained and it did create Steam. But it could have been raining lightly and I just didn't see it, or maybe it was warm and humid. I also don't remember what kind of rifle it was. I've never fired a rifle under those circumstances but I wanted to offer up the possibility. Thanks for your input.

The testimony of Hargis, Chaney, Jackson, and Martin regarding the limo slowing/stopping is highly qualified. They were tasked with keeping Pace with the limo throughout the parade. They were expected to stay near the rear bumper and not pull up right alongside JFK and Jackie. That is a difference of about 10 ft before hargis' exhaust is pointing right at JFK and Jackie. To keep that tight window they had to monitor the speed of the limo very closely. If for instance, the limo suddenly slowed from 8 mph to 2 mph for just 3 seconds it would change the position of the limo on Elm by about 27 ft. That would mean Hargis and Chaney would pass right by JFK and Jackie and be out beyond the front hood of the limo if they didn't hit the brakes right away. All four cops testified to the limo either slowing to almost a stop or coming to a momentary complete stop. How could all four cops, who are closely watching their position relative to the limo, make such a huge error in their perception?

It had rained that morning and it was rather cold so I assume water that was hanging in the trees would still be there. If you fire a rifle about 6 in under the branches I would think a great deal of heat would go upward and outward. Is it possible that burst of Rising Heat could have caused some of the water on those leaves to turn to steam and be mixed with the Gunsmoke?

He gave us all a great deal, a very big footprint. He will be remembered.

haven't forgotten this I'll get back to you in a day or two.

Dr McClelland said it was "a wound of the left temple". That easily could be a simple mistake. But I wonder if a doctor is going to describe what killed a person would he talk about the entry wound or the exit wound? Seems when I hear about someone getting shot they describe where the entry wound was. But this issue of why he said "left temple" requires far too much speculation to be of any real value. I think most people understand that McClelland never agreed with the autopsy photos regarding the issue of that big hole in the back of his head. It has been misrepresented by deceptive sound bites from that Nova documentary and some people believe it. He didn't even agree that the back of the head photo wasn't a forgery, he simply theorized that they may have pulled the skin up over the wound. The most compelling argument from Parkland is obviously the sheer number of people who reported the wound in the rear. The second compelling Factor is that the skeptics have to Cobble together a dozen different reasons to explain the consistency of those testimonies. Add a lot of speculation about people's thoughts and motivations and some appeal to Authority and they still have a very flimsy case.

Your explanation was detailed and clear, but I'm not sure life experience tells us the rifle would not move. All things being equal I suppose it would just lay there but I still can't see the forces as equal. I would expect that if I put a firecracker in a closed can with a bottom of 6 in and the top only 3 in the bottom would absorb more energy and the can would jump in that direction. The lead plug would have a smaller diameter than the inside back surface of the shell. It seems to me it should receive more of the force. I think a master cylinder conveys the principal I'm thinking about. The initiating plunger is smaller than the secondary one. So the power transferred to the secondary plunger is greater than the force applied by the initiating plunger. In your explanation reaching fb-0 is based on the premise that the gun should not move if plugged. I'm not confident in the premise. Aside from small details I think your basic statement was correct and the kickback largely represents the energy going out the barrel.

The Hat seen through the bushes turns out to be Emmett Hudson's, the groundskeeper for the Plaza. He's one of the three guys standing on the steps. Zapruder's line of sight through the bushes to the point on Elm directly behind the Hat passes directly through Hudson's known position on the steps. You can estimate the height of the Hat using the slope angle of that line of sight and it comes out to between five and six feet off the ground. It is pretty much a perfect match and the only object in that line of sight that could account for that hat.