John Connally injury photographs

[Gary Murr]

2 hours ago, Keyvan Shahrdar said:

I question Gov. Connally's injuries.

Did the bullet ricochet or passed through the wrist? (No photograph, we can't tell!)

How many shots in the chest area? (No photographs, we can't tell)

Was there an entry hole in the back of the chest? (No photographs, we can't tell)

Was there an entry hole in the front of the chest? (doubt it, but no photographs)

The entry hole to the thigh?  (No photographs)

Hello Keyvan:

Apologies for not answering sooner but a self-imposed deadline that deals with another subject matter and the completion of a manuscript takes up the majority of my spare time. Because of this I have neither the time nor the inclination at this moment in my research to delve back into the Connally wounding process in any great detail. That subject matter will be my next project to finish and rework, all 2200+ pages that it contains, plus another few hundred pages of documentation picked up along the way over the past five years. However, I do appreciate your interest in this subject matter and agree that in many ways the entire Connally wounding scenario, and in particular its treatment in the years that followed, not only by various investigative agencies but also the Connally’s themselves, has been under-researched. I will answer the questions you have posed, in the same chronological order that you have written.

Did the bullet ricochet or pass through the wrist? No, if for no other reason than the missile responsible for this wound site never struck the Governor’s wrist. The wound was actually a comminuted fracture of the distal fourth – end – of the Governor’s right radius bone, not the wrist. Yes, there was internal vascular damage that involved the wrist but this was secondary to the initial point of impact. And second no, in my opinion the bullet did not pass through the wrist because the radius was not struck by a bullet, pristine, yawing, tumbling, or otherwise. No singular missile actually passed through the Governor’s wrist. That a fragment of the impacting missile is responsible for the small horizontal wound of exit is another matter altogether.

There was one and only one shot that generated the damage inflicted on the Governor’s chest, singular wound sites of entrance and exit on the anterior and posterior surfaces. The fact that there is no photographic evidence in support of this wound site, as well as the same argument you advance in your next two points, is not indicative that there was more than one shot to the Governor’s chest. To postulate otherwise is to infer that doctor’s Shaw, Gregory, Shires, Red Duke, Boland and multiple other medical personnel, including anesthesiologists, x-ray technicians, nursing staff and orderlies who attended to the Governor during his stay at PMH, are liars. And yes, there was a singular entry wound to the thigh, but it was a wound of superficiality, minor in nature. And again, just because there is no photograph of this same wound site, does not mean that it did not exist as a singular entity.

FWIW

Gary

[Keyvan Shahrdar]

1 hour ago, Gary Murr said:

Hello Keyvan:

Apologies for not answering sooner but a self-imposed deadline that deals with another subject matter and the completion of a manuscript takes up the majority of my spare time. Because of this I have neither the time nor the inclination at this moment in my research to delve back into the Connally wounding process in any great detail. That subject matter will be my next project to finish and rework, all 2200+ pages that it contains, plus another few hundred pages of documentation picked up along the way over the past five years. However, I do appreciate your interest in this subject matter and agree that in many ways the entire Connally wounding scenario, and in particular its treatment in the years that followed, not only by various investigative agencies but also the Connally’s themselves, has been under-researched. I will answer the questions you have posed, in the same chronological order that you have written.

Did the bullet ricochet or pass through the wrist? No, if for no other reason than the missile responsible for this wound site never struck the Governor’s wrist. The wound was actually a comminuted fracture of the distal fourth – end – of the Governor’s right radius bone, not the wrist. Yes, there was internal vascular damage that involved the wrist but this was secondary to the initial point of impact. And second no, in my opinion the bullet did not pass through the wrist because the radius was not struck by a bullet, pristine, yawing, tumbling, or otherwise. No singular missile actually passed through the Governor’s wrist. That a fragment of the impacting missile is responsible for the small horizontal wound of exit is another matter altogether.

There was one and only one shot that generated the damage inflicted on the Governor’s chest, singular wound sites of entrance and exit on the anterior and posterior surfaces. The fact that there is no photographic evidence in support of this wound site, as well as the same argument you advance in your next two points, is not indicative that there was more than one shot to the Governor’s chest. To postulate otherwise is to infer that doctor’s Shaw, Gregory, Shires, Red Duke, Boland and multiple other medical personnel, including anesthesiologists, x-ray technicians, nursing staff and orderlies who attended to the Governor during his stay at PMH, are liars. And yes, there was a singular entry wound to the thigh, but it was a wound of superficiality, minor in nature. And again, just because there is no photograph of this same wound site, does not mean that it did not exist as a singular entity.

FWIW

Gary

3

Hi Gary,

Thank you for your comprehensive response to this thread.

To be clear, I did mis-characterize the fracture of the distal fourth – end – of the Governor’s right radius bone for the wrist.  My question to be clear, did the missle pass through the area of the forearm where the Governor's right radius bone was fractured?

[Gary Murr]

25 minutes ago, Keyvan Shahrdar said:

My question to be clear, did the missle pass through the area of the forearm where the Governor's right radius bone was fractured?

Hi Keyvan

In my opinion, and for multiple reasons, some complex but unfortunately a distraction I cannot afford at the moment, the answer to this question is no. One aspect of this wound site that you might want to consider, and this is irrespective of the makeup of the missile that did strike the distal end of the right radius, is the point of impact of this wounding missile. It is not on the “top” or backside of the end of the radius but, as described and sketched by Dr. Gregory, more to the lateral or side of the end of the radius. While there are no photographs, in my opinion the pre-op x-ray is a good image to study. Note that the displacement of the main mass of the radial end is somewhat lateral, toward the middle of the forearm if you will. This is also visible in the post op x-rays of the same wound site, though somewhat more difficult to interpret as these images were taken through the cast materials. And as I indicated yesterday, compare this damage to the avulsed nature of the “wrist” wounds seen in experiments outlined in CRDLR 3264.

Supporters of the SBT will of course argue that the difference seen is as a result of different impact velocities, in the case of the SBT, much reduced. However, this is a specious argument, at best, and as I examined in my 2016 Lancer Conference presentation, the missile which traversed the Governor’s right thoracic region actually passed through tissue equivalent to or less than that known in the test goats used at Aberdeen.

Gary