Biological Map in JFK’s Neck Points to South Knoll

[Paz Marverde]

Biological Map in JFK’s Neck Points to South Knoll

Milicent Cranor

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If you want to know where one of the shots that hit John Kennedy came from, you can consult a biological map, and the one in Kennedy’s neck is pretty reliable. Other researchers present bullet paths through the head, but the one in the neck is easier to see.

If the wound in Kennedy’s throat was an entrance, this of course means that one shooter was firing from in front of the motorcade. (Please go here to see some reasons to believe it was an entrance.) But the path through Kennedy’s neck can tell you approximately where in front the shooter was. Consider the three dots below that represent damage reported by Parkland Hospital:

• A small hole in the skin in the middle of the neck
• A larger hole in the right side of his trachea
• Bleeding in the area of the right mediastinum over the lung

Connect these three dots and you have a diagonal line across Elm Street that leads to an area in front—and to the left of Kennedy. The south knoll.

In other words, the damage in the neck shows the path of a bullet going northeast—which means it came from the southwest.

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No Fourth Dot

If the wound in Kennedy’s throat was an exit instead of an entrance, then we would have to assume that a bullet entered the back and exited the throat. But in an article published long ago, the late John Nichols, MD, PhD explained why this could not have happened: the wound was only 5 centimeters or 1.9 inches from the midline of the back and even closer to outer edge of the spine itself. In its hypothetical journey to the middle of the throat, the bullet would have to go through the spine.

And he showed that for the bullet to avoid hitting the spine, it would have to have entered the back further to the right than it actually did.

Here is a scan showing the cross-section of the neck of a man whose size was very similar to Kennedy’s. It was done by David Mantik, MD, PhD to demonstrate what Nichols was talking about.

The red line begins in the lower right-hand corner—where the bullet wound was in Kennedy’s back. The wound could not be probed and seemed to stop within an inch after penetrating. In any case, a medium-high velocity bullet could not have followed the path below without creating tremendous, obvious damage, shattering the bones it went through as well as damaging tissue lateral to its path.

X-rays of Kennedy’s spine showed no such damage. The shadow of a line appeared between two parts of the spine, suggesting a separation of the transverse process and where it attaches. Promoters of the Lone Nut Theory have tried to use it as proof of a shot at the seventh cervical level—but buried in the HSCA Hearings is an expert radiologist’s report of several additional shadows, proving they are all meaningless artifacts:

Unenhanced x-ray: “The first rib appeared to be separated from the sternum ...” (JFK Exhibit F-34). Enhanced x-ray: “there appear to be fractures of the posterior aspects of the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th ribs. These are artifacts.” (7 HSCA 219)  (Please go here to see my story on this, and more.)

The lead pathologist who performed the autopsy, James Humes MD, testified that they saw no fractures in the vertical column, that is, the spine. His words:

... we examined carefully the bony structures in this vicinity [of the back wound] as well as the X-rays... and we saw no such evidence, that is no fracture of the bones of the shoulder girdle, or of the vertical column, and no metallic fragments were detectable by X-ray. [I believe “vertical” should have been “vertebral,” possibly a transcription error.]

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Reversing the Path

Any bullet—whether from the front or the back—missed all parts of the spine. And so I propose we use, as a biological map, Nichols’s diagram of a path that misses the spine:

Where the bullet stopped, we do not know. Nor do we know what happened to it. It is entirely possible that it was found during the autopsy and furtively removed by one of the pathologists, his back to the audience, his body obscuring Kennedy’s.

Trusting the Parkland Hospital doctors’ report—but not the pathologists’—we do know the damage suggests the bullet went to the right somewhere inside Kennedy, just above the right lung. And so I suggest we use the uppermost path in Nichols’s diagram as our map. It goes far enough to the right to miss the spine.

Below is another diagram from the Nichols article which I have cut to include only the path through the front of the body. In other words, I have disconnected it from the back wound. It shows a simple overhead drawing of Kennedy and his right arm:

You will have to orient this diagram in relation to where the limousine was at the time of the strike, and it may be impossible to get it exactly right. I suggest finding several possible locations, bracketing them—no earlier than this position, no later than that position.

I would wish you happy hunting, but this is really a grim business. 

https://kennedysandking.com/john-f-kennedy-articles/biological-map-in-jfk-s-neck-points-to-south-knoll

Milicent Cranor

 

Milicent Cranor is the co-author of over a dozen articles for peer-reviewed medical journals, an amateur paleographer, former staff writer for Applause Magazine, and former editor at E. P. Dutton; she is a member of the American Mensa Society. Milicent was a frequent contributor to Probe.

Edited April 24, 2018 by Paz Marverde

[Paz Marverde]

I found this astonishingly well written 

[Greg Wagner]

I am certainly open to a legitimate entry wound in the throat, since I believe there were shooters positioned in front of Kennedy. But if Kennedy was shot in the throat and there was no damage to the spinal column, shouldn't there be a corresponding exit wound since we're just talking about a bullet traversing soft tissue?

Could it have been merely fragment that splintered off from an initial impact elsewhere?

It reminds me of the back wound, where the bullet seemed underpowered and barely penetrated.

[Rick McTague]

3 hours ago, Paz Marverde said:

I found this astonishingly well written 

Paz, 

I appreciate your posts.  To give a little context on the trajectory of a bullet "through and through" the windshield from front to back and angling from midline towards JFK's right as Milicent explains, here is a pic I took back in February from about 20' from the south end of the triple overpass, standing right over where James Tague stood (the concrete divider between Main and Commerce).

The two maroon cars in the center lane of Elm are over the two X's painted; the rear car is over where they claim JFK was shot first, where the front throat shot hit him.

FYI the maroon car in the front is over the X where he was hit in the head; it also shows a trajectory from this same location to the right temple hairline entry (as he was leaning towards his left into Jackie) towards the back right part of the head for exit, like the Parkland folks saw it.

I think this is where Sherry Fiester tracked those two wounds as well.

Hope this helps!

Rick 

Edited April 24, 2018 by Rick McTague
windshield

[Greg Wagner]

Great photo, Rick. Thanks for posting that. I was never convinced of a gunman on the South Koll until I read Sherry's book a couple years ago. She makes a strong case for it and I now consider it a very real possibility.

[Ron Ecker]

35 minutes ago, Rick McTague said:

Paz, 

I appreciate your posts.  To give a little context on the trajectory of a bullet "through and through" the windshield from front to back and angling from midline towards JFK's right as Milicent explains, here is a pic I took back in February from about 20' from the south end of the triple overpass, standing right over where James Tague stood (the concrete divider between Main and Commerce).

The two maroon cars in the center lane of Elm are over the two X's painted; the rear car is over where they claim JFK was shot first, where the front throat shot hit him.

FYI the maroon car in the front is over the X where he was hit in the head; it also shows a trajectory from this same location to the right temple hairline entry (as he was leaning towards his left into Jackie) towards the back right part of the head for exit, like the Parkland folks saw it.

I think this is where Sherry Fiester tracked those two wounds as well.

Hope this helps!

Rick 

Rick,

How did you get to that spot where you took the picture? I've been to DP once, in 1990, and wanted to explore that area by walking from the north knoll, but the way was fenced off. The railroad tracks weren't fenced off, but there was a closed gate and fencing along the railing of the overpass, and I guess I didn't try to venture onto the tracks. (I'm trying to remember exactly how it was and what I did almost 30 years later, but it was frustrating not to go where I wanted to go.)

 

  

[Rick McTague]

34 minutes ago, Greg Wagner said:

Great photo, Rick. Thanks for posting that. I was never convinced of a gunman on the South Koll until I read Sherry's book a couple years ago. She makes a strong case for it and I now consider it a very real possibility.

Greg,

You are very welcome.  Here are a couple more pics. 

This one is from the very southernmost end of the overpass.  Seems to be too far south for it to work. 

This next pic is moving a little north from the end of the overpass,  Still not the right angle but getting closer.  At the far left lower corner, you can see right where James Tague was standing, that little spot of concrete. Where I'm standing there is a decorative column (visible at the left) where someone could stand and hide a rifle where no one else could see it from the opposite end of the overpass where SE Holland and the other railroad workers were located.

It wasn't until I moved to about 20' (in my first pic) that the angles lined up.  Getting on site really gives a good perspective; DP is much much smaller in person than it seems in pictures and film.

Hope this helps!

[Rick McTague]

7 minutes ago, Ron Ecker said:

Rick,

How did you get to that spot where you took the picture? I've been to DP once, in 1990, and wanted to explore that area by walking from the north knoll, but the way was fenced off. The railroad tracks weren't fenced off, but there was a closed gate and fencing along the railing of the overpass, and I guess I didn't try to venture onto the tracks. (I'm trying to remember exactly how it was and what I did almost 30 years later, but it was frustrating not to go where I wanted to go.)

 

  

It's all open now; I just walked from the parking lot at the west end of the north knoll and started across the overpass.  You can easily walk across it today which is what I did.  I go there about every 3 months or so since I live a ways north.  I try to go on a Friday, get there about 11:30, eat at a diner close to DP then just walk around, starting on the overpass.  

[Greg Wagner]

Well done, Rick! I agree that the first photo looks about right. 

[Rick McTague]

Finally, one more pic from the far western end of the north knoll.  The angles are all wrong here and get worse the more you move east towards the TSBD; a right temple entry would have exited the left rear which no one saw.  In addition, it was too much risk for Jackie to get hit also.  You can make out the X in the street where they marked the fatal head shot.

Thanks

[Ron Ecker]

1 hour ago, Rick McTague said:

It's all open now; I just walked from the parking lot at the west end of the north knoll and started across the overpass.  You can easily walk across it today which is what I did.  I go there about every 3 months or so since I live a ways north.  I try to go on a Friday, get there about 11:30, eat at a diner close to DP then just walk around, starting on the overpass.  

Thanks.

I personally not only favor the head shot being from the spot near the south end of the overpass where you took the pic, but I think that James Tague, standing below that spot, possibly encountered the shooter, a "patrolman" who turned up by Tague and asked him what happened. (Tague's original account before he changed his story.) 

 

[Robert Harper]

Let me join in the thanks.

I also found myself emotionally moved by Mr McT's  economic and unsentimental account of his visits to Dealey Plaza. Such an account gives psychic encouragement to those of us who put such value on their feeling, that that day and  that man, mattered.

 

Edited April 24, 2018 by Robert Harper

[Paz Marverde]

4 hours ago, Rick McTague said:

Hope this helps!

Sure. Really appreciated. Extremely kind, Rick 

[Paz Marverde]

2 hours ago, Robert Harper said:

that day and  that man, mattered.

I absolutely feel the same 

[David Josephs]

After reading Sherry's work many, many years ago... I produced this graphic to give some sense of where JFK was facing at the time of the Z313 shots...

The yellow line is the center of JFK's head pointing in the direction he's facing...

Mr. ALTGENS - Yes. What made me almost certain that the shot came from behind was because at the time I was looking at the President, just as he was struck, it caused him to move a bit forward. He seemed as if at the time----well, he was in a position-- sort of immobile. He wasn't upright. He was at an angle but when it hit him, it seemed to have just lodged--it seemed as if he were hung up on a seat button or something like that. It knocked him just enough forward that he came right on down. There was flesh particles that flew out of the side of his head in my direction from where I was standing, so much so that it indicated to me that the shot came out of the left side of his head. 

From where Altgens was (you can see his name just below the yellow line as it reaches the curb) with a car moving left to right and physical proof that at least one or more shots occurs but 15 feet from his location... the shooter would seem to need to be much further WEST than the east corner of the TSBD pr even the WEST corner of that building...

 

 

And any time the South Knoll comes up, we should give a shout out to Tosh and this diagram...  believe or not, there is good indication that at least 1 shot comes from the south knoll area...

FWIW
DJ