The Simple Explanation of Why There Were at Least Two Guns in Dealey Plaza

[Benjamin Cole]

 

The Simple Explanation of Why There Were at Least Two Guns in Dealey Plaza

It is beyond reasonable doubt that at least two shots were fired in Dealey Plaza on Nov. 22 within too short a time to have been executed by a single-shot bolt action rifle.

How can this assertion be made?

Due to the unwavering testimony of Governor John Connally, his wife, and of several witnesses, all confirmed by the Zapruder film. 

Secret Service agents Clint Hill and Sam Kinney, and presidential aide David Powers, close at the scene on Nov. 22, all say there were three separate shots that struck President John F. Kennedy and Connally that day. Among other witnesses.  

Lee Harvey Oswald’s purported rifle that day was a single-shot bolt action rifle, the infamous Mannlicher-Carcano found in the TBSD.

Ergo, that means there was a second gun firing at JFK that day.  

The JFKA research community is to be deeply admired for dreadnought pursuit of truth over the decades, but this simple, compelling and presentable story seems to have been buried.

So let us review: 

Frame 225

In frame 225 of the Z-film, we see President Kennedy’s hands reaching for his neck or throat as the president emerges from behind the Stemmons Freeway sign. 

By witness testimony and Z-film confirmation, JFK has been shot at this point, whether from front or rear. Jackie Kennedy is looking at her husband, and concerned.  Connally is beginning to react, and turn around to see what happened. 

The WC posited—and inexplicably, the HSCA accepted—that Governor John Connally was also stuck by frame 225. And not only that, but by the very same bullet that struck JFK, now known as the “magic bullet.” 

Connally flatly refuted the WC version, in his testimony to the WC, and many times thereafter (and recorded on film), as did his wife, who was seated next to him that day in the limousine. 

Eventually, two Secret Service men and the presidential aide would reveal they concurred with the Connallys—that is, the first shot struck JFK, a separate second shot hit Connally, and a third shot struck JFK. 

Connally explicitly testified he heard the first shot, the one that struck JFK in the neck or throat. Connally was seated in the limousine, in a seat in front of JFK. 

Frame 284

Connally recounted he then turned around to peer over  his own right shoulder, trying to get a glimpse at JFK. And indeed the Z film at frame 284 shows the profile of the left side of Connally’s face—that is, Connally all but made a 180-degree turn in his seat to look for JFK. But after being struck in the neck, JFK had slumped towards Jackie Kennedy, to JFK’s left and out of Connally’s view. 

The WC version is, in essence, is that Connally was unaware he had been shot through the chest, had a shattered right wrist and leg wound, and then made a 180-degree turn in his seat to look for JFK. 

This does not hold water. 

The Z film confirms the Connally version, and that of the Secret Service agents and other close witnesses. Indeed, as stated, the left profile of Connally’s face is seen in frame 284, and he appears to looking for JFK, just as he consistently remembered and testified. Connally’s face is uncontorted, and does not show pain in frame 284.

Frame 300 

As he testified, Connally then begins to unwind himself to face forward, when he was struck. On the Z-film, Connally looks to have been struck ~296, and certainly looks distressed at ~300.

The Z film runs at about 18 frames per second, meaning Connally was struck about four seconds after JFK received his neck or throat shot. 

Frame 313 

And herein lies the story of why there were at least two guns that day in Dealey Plaza: Without dispute, a third shot strikes JFK in the head at Z-film frame 313.

Of course, the result of the above sequence is there is about one second between the shot that struck Connally and the subsequent shot that struck JFK. 

As even new JFKA researchers know, the Mannlicher-Carcano rifle—to repeat, a single-shot bolt action rifle—requires a bare minimum of two seconds to manually operate between shots. 

This sequence, of a shot, then a four-second delay until the next shot, and then a one-second delay until the third shot, lines up with what many witnesses said that day: That there was one shot, a short delay, and then two shots in close succession. 

While witness testimony can be garbled and inconsistent, in this case the exact unwavering testimony of the Connallys is backed up by the Z-film. 

It is likely it this sequence and timing of shots that so bedeviled the WC, and in concert with Connally's straightforward testimony became the primary reason suppressing the Z-film and the invention of the single-shot theory, that of a bullet that passed through JFK and Connally.

If one suspects the Z-film has been altered, that is fine. The alterationists were unable to mask the timing and sequence of the shots.

Conclusion

The scholarship of the JFKA community, and the hunger for a nuanced understanding of the politics and mechanics of the assassination and the subsequent cover-up is to be deeply admired. 

Necessarily, JFKA researchers will go down some rabbit holes in search of the truth, and evolve some arcane and tortured narratives. 

And to be sure, the real truth may not be an easy-to-digest made-for-TV movie story. 

But for public consumption, the JFKA community has a true and easy to understand explanation of why there were two guns firing that day in Dealey Plaza, the one presented here. Two guns firing mean, at the very minimum, a conspiracy.

I am going to try to present this truth to mainstream publications, before President Joe Biden decides on Oct. 26 whether or not to release the remaining more-than 15,000 files still suppressed, as he should under John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992.

I hope others do also. 

Epilogue

Of course, everyone who watches the Z film notices the violent lurch JFK's body made after being shot in the head, to JFK’s back and left, as if shot from the Grassy Knoll. No doubt this bit of recorded celluloid history also made the WC very nervous. 

And in fact JFK may have been struck from a shot the Grassy Knoll. But the idea that bodies are violently propelled away from a gunshot is not always true, as hunters and soldiers can attest. Often, bodies do not move much after receiving a bullet, as seen by the first shot to JFK, and the second shot to Connally. For public consumption, this line of inquiry—the probable Grassy Knoll shot—can get muddied and twisted. 

It is regrettable that the acoustical evidence is simply not intelligible by the public in the way the Z film is. For example, when I listen to the Dallas Police Department dictabelt, said to be from an open mike on a Dallas motor cop’s cycle during the assassination, I hear nothing decipherable. 

However, how many people can believe that after being shot through the chest and having his right wrist shattered by a bullet, Connally would make a 180-degree turn in his chair to check on JFK, unaware that he (Connally) had been shot?  

[James DiEugenio]

Nice one Benjamin.

I have heard this one before, but your version was most effective.

How the heck does JBC twist all the way around like that with a bullet blasted through him?

[Joseph McBride]

It's a shame the Connally family wouldn't let the remaining

fragments of bullet in his body be removed before he was

buried. Some of us tried to get that to happen.

[Benjamin Cole]

1 hour ago, James DiEugenio said:

Nice one Benjamin.

I have heard this one before, but your version was most effective.

How the heck does JBC twist all the way around like that with a bullet blasted through him?

James D-

My contributions are but a candle next your searchlight, but if enough of us hold candles....maybe something good will happen. 

I kept this short post short and on topic, but few if any serious surgeons who have treated bullet injuries believe that a person does not know when they have been shot, especially if the bullet strikes and shatters bone. 

Connally's treating surgeon in Dallas had treated hundreds of wartime bullet wounds, and dismissed the idea that Connally could be unaware he had been shot with multiple fractured bones, or that a bullet had tumbled before it hit Connally. 

[Benjamin Cole]

1 hour ago, Joseph McBride said:

It's a shame the Connally family wouldn't let the remaining

fragments of bullet in his body be removed before he was

buried. Some of us tried to get that to happen.

True, but CE 399 has, beyond reasonable doubt, been dismissed as real evidence anyway. I have enjoyed your excellent inquiries into the JFKA over the years.

[Joseph McBride]

Thanks for your kind comments. Yes, of course, the bullet is a plant,

but measuring the fragments in his body and adding that weight

to what was recovered from him at Parkland would help show

that 399 is false evidence and further discredit the SBT.

[Sean Coleman]

Could Connally’s back & chest wounds have originated from the rear (Dal Tex etc.), with his wrist and thigh wounds coming from the SW window?

 This could add credence to the SW window & multiple gunshot witnesses

[Benjamin Cole]

31 minutes ago, Sean Coleman said:

Could Connally’s back & chest wounds have originated from the rear (Dal Tex etc.), with his wrist and thigh wounds coming from the SW window?

 This could add credence to the SW window & multiple gunshot witnesses

Thanks for reading. 

If the shots that struck Connally were simultaneous or nearly so, that could be the case---gunfire from two different locations. Connally believed he was struck by one shot. However, the surgeon that treated Connally was open to the idea that two missiles struck Connally and told the WC as much. 

For his part, Connally told the WC bullets were entering the limo rapidly, as if from "automatic" gunfire. I think he meant to say "semi-automatic" but so be it. 

The idea that a single-shot Mannlicher-Carcano did all the shooting on Nov. 22 just does not hold water. 

 

[Andrej Stancak]

Ben:

my visual analysis of Z-film tells me that John Connally showed signs of distress possibly from being shot around frames 239-241. While I agree that the President was hit earlier than Connally, it may be that the shot that had hit Connally came before frame 284. Frame 284 shows him turned toward the President, however, this was not how he described the shot. He was in the process of turning to his left (i.e., facing the front of car) when he registered being shot.

Of course, I may be wrong as my is just an observation from Z-frames.

[Tony Krome]

34 minutes ago, Andrej Stancak said:

He was in the process of turning to his left (i.e., facing the front of car) when he registered being shot.

That is correct. Always check the earliest reports. Connally was hit simultaneously as he turned to his left.

[David Andrews]

However, how many people can believe that after being shot through the chest and having his right wrist shattered by a bullet, Connally would make a 180-degree turn in his chair to check on JFK, unaware that he (Connally) had been shot?  

Benjamin - good stuff.  I, also, do not believe Connally was hit until he started that 180-degree turn.

I would just be cautious about any phrasing that might suggest that one bullet penetrated Connally's back, chest, wrist and thigh (as underlined above).  Because he testified that he didn't know he was wounded in the limbs until he awoke the following day:

that is when I first learned that the bullet had gone through my chest and through my wrist and had broken all the bones in my wrist.

I obviously, I suppose, like anyone else, wound up the next day realizing I was hit in three places, and I was not conscious of having been hit but by one bullet, so I tried to reconstruct how I could have been hit in three places by the same bullet, and I merely, I know it penetrated from the back through the chest first. I assumed that I had turned as I described a moment ago, placing my right hand on my left leg, that it hit my wrist, went out the center of the wrist, the underside, and then into my leg, but it might not have happened that way at all.

Nellie Connally wasn't asked directly, and her statement makes qualifed assumptions about JBC's hand positions, and perhaps repeats the assumed knowledge of doctors and law enforcement:

He was in the process of turning, so it hit him through this shoulder, came out right about here. His hand was either right in front of him or on his knee as he turned to look so that the bullet went through him, crushed his wrist and lodged in his leg. And then he just recoiled and just sort of slumped in his seat.

It's worth watching Zapruder for Connally's hand and leg movements.  For instance, do we see Connally face front again, so his torso and legs are aligned, as he claims here?

I didn't think it was a blowout or explosion of any kind. I didn't see the President out of the corner of my eye, so I was in the process of, at least I was turning to look over my left shoulder into the back seat to see if I could see him. I never looked, I never made the full turn. About the time I turned back where I was facing more or less straight ahead, the way the car was moving, I was hit. I was knocked over, just doubled over by the force of the bullet.

JBC's positioning of himself in this statement seems to quietly validate that he was shot from behind the car, where Oswald was said to be, despite his insistence that he was hit by the "second shot."

[Ron Ecker]

14 hours ago, Benjamin Cole said:

few if any serious surgeons who have treated bullet injuries believe that a person does not know when they have been shot, especially if the bullet strikes and shatters bone.

The official story is that Reagan didn't know he was shot until he was inside the car. The first pain he felt was when the Secret Service agent fell on him ("I think you broke my rib!")

 

[Joseph McBride]

Reagan said to Jerry Parr, the agent who saved him, "You son

of a bitch, you broke my rib!" Parr pushed him into the car

and landed on top of him. But unlike Connally, who

suffered massive and obvious hits, Reagan was hit by a small

flattened piece of metal the bullet had turned into when

it hit the side of the car and ricocheted into his armpit, coming close to his heart.

The doctors had a hard time finding the entrance hole

and the flattened bullet in the hospital as he lost

half his blood. Parr had used his training to ascertain

that Reagan was shot when frothy blood came out of his

mouth, indicating a chest wound. He redirected the

car from the White House to the hospital. The White House

initially denied Reagan had been hit. Though they soon admitted

it, they gave unduly rosy reports. It took months before

we learned (in a book on Jim Brady) just how serious Reagan's

condition had been. I was surprised when I talked with Reagan's

friend James Stewart soon after the shooting, and Stewart

seemed distraught. It seemed somewhat excessive given

the press reports, but Stewart obviously had inside knowledge.

Edited June 10, 2021 by Joseph McBride

[Benjamin Cole]

8 hours ago, Andrej Stancak said:

Ben:

my visual analysis of Z-film tells me that John Connally showed signs of distress possibly from being shot around frames 239-241. While I agree that the President was hit earlier than Connally, it may be that the shot that had hit Connally came before frame 284. Frame 284 shows him turned toward the President, however, this was not how he described the shot. He was in the process of turning to his left (i.e., facing the front of car) when he registered being shot.

Of course, I may be wrong as my is just an observation from Z-frames.

Thanks for reading.

I just don't see it your way.

For example, here is frame 276:

 

You are indicating that Connally, the silver-haired man, has already been shot through the chest, completely demolishing a rib? But after being shot, Connally has turned around in his chair to check on JFK? 

On its own, I would find that difficult to believe. 

But in addition, Connally's testimony, and that of his wife, is that he was shot as he began to unwind himself from checking on JFK, to face forward. That is after frame 276, in this example.

One could posit that Connally was struck as late as frame 303. 

Connally's chest must have been largely facing forward when struck, as he was shot cleanly in the back, from a non-tumbling bullet, by the testimony of his surgeon, who had treated hundreds of wartime wounds. 

Evidently, the impact of the shot to Connally's back, likely from a high-powered rifle, was akin to a "knock-out blow" and he all but lost consciousness thereafter, and was unaware of other injuries. The shot to the back was immediately incapacitating, by Connally's testimony. Well, I can imagine a clean hit from a high-powered rifle to the back would do that.

When I look at frame ~240 I see Connally reacting to a gunshot, but the one that struck Kennedy and possibly entered the cab of the vehicle, or sent off a shock wave of sorts. I suppose it is also possible that someone fired an additional round from a muzzled rifle, and the bullet whizzing by or striking a surface inside the cab has startled Connally. The governor said shots were entering the cab as if from "automatic" gunfire. 

BTW, this is handy frame-by-frame set-up, that give an easy "freeze frame" view. 

https://www.assassinationresearch.com/v2n2/zfilm/zframe276.html

Well, that's my take. 

Edited June 10, 2021 by Benjamin Cole
typo

[Benjamin Cole]

6 hours ago, David Andrews said:

However, how many people can believe that after being shot through the chest and having his right wrist shattered by a bullet, Connally would make a 180-degree turn in his chair to check on JFK, unaware that he (Connally) had been shot?  

Benjamin - good stuff.  I, also, do not believe Connally was hit until he started that 180-degree turn.

I would just be cautious about any phrasing that might suggest that one bullet penetrated Connally's back, chest, wrist and thigh (as underlined above).  Because he testified that he didn't know he was wounded in the limbs until he awoke the following day:

that is when I first learned that the bullet had gone through my chest and through my wrist and had broken all the bones in my wrist.

I obviously, I suppose, like anyone else, wound up the next day realizing I was hit in three places, and I was not conscious of having been hit but by one bullet, so I tried to reconstruct how I could have been hit in three places by the same bullet, and I merely, I know it penetrated from the back through the chest first. I assumed that I had turned as I described a moment ago, placing my right hand on my left leg, that it hit my wrist, went out the center of the wrist, the underside, and then into my leg, but it might not have happened that way at all.

Nellie Connally wasn't asked directly, and her statement makes qualifed assumptions about JBC's hand positions, and perhaps repeats the assumed knowledge of doctors and law enforcement:

He was in the process of turning, so it hit him through this shoulder, came out right about here. His hand was either right in front of him or on his knee as he turned to look so that the bullet went through him, crushed his wrist and lodged in his leg. And then he just recoiled and just sort of slumped in his seat.

It's worth watching Zapruder for Connally's hand and leg movements.  For instance, do we see Connally face front again, so his torso and legs are aligned, as he claims here?

I didn't think it was a blowout or explosion of any kind. I didn't see the President out of the corner of my eye, so I was in the process of, at least I was turning to look over my left shoulder into the back seat to see if I could see him. I never looked, I never made the full turn. About the time I turned back where I was facing more or less straight ahead, the way the car was moving, I was hit. I was knocked over, just doubled over by the force of the bullet.

JBC's positioning of himself in this statement seems to quietly validate that he was shot from behind the car, where Oswald was said to be, despite his insistence that he was hit by the "second shot."

David A.--

Thanks for reading.

I am not sure I follow your last paragraph. No one disputes JBC was shot in the back. 

Connally may have been hit by yet another shot, that hit his wrist, according to his surgeon.