Two Head Shots and the Zapruder Film

[Keven Hofeling]

THE MYSTERY OF ZAPRUDER FRAME 314; MIRACLE, MYTH, OR PHOTOGRAPHIC FAKERY?

The clear images of the Zapruder film head wound sequence begin at Z-314 (as we see below in these blown up and cropped images from the 1998 MPI "Image of an Assassination" CD struck off the extant "original" Zapruder film in the National Archives, thus making it a FIRST GENERATION product). Z-314 through Z-337 depict a top of the head blow out which seems to morph into a huge crater in JFK's forehead which, of course, none of the witnesses reported, not even pathologists Boswell and Humes (who had otherwise mutilated the top of JFK's head by performing a modified craniotomy with a bone saw, but did not do anything resembling the huge forehead crater we see in these Zapruder images).

 

And in all of the frames that follow Z-313 in which it is possible to see the back of JFK's head, there is a conspicuous black patch covering the occipital-parietal wound in the back of JFK's head.

 

Multiple witnesses, in  Dealey Plaza, and some who viewed the camera-original Zapruder film on 11/22/1963, reported real world observations of copious amounts of blood, brain and skull being ejected from the back of JFK's head....

 

WITNESS ACCOUNTS OF BLOOD AND BRAINS EXITING THE BACK OF JFK'S HEAD:

Clint Hill, Samuel Kinney, Bobby Hargis, Bill Newman, Marilyn Willis, Harry Holmes, Charles Brehm, Abraham Zapruder, Erwin Schwartz and Dino Brugioni.
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"...BLOOD, BRAIN MATTER, AND BONE FRAGMENTS EXPLODED FROM THE BACK OF THE PRESIDENT'S HEAD. THE PRESIDENT'S BLOOD, PARTS OF HIS SKULL, BITS OF HIS BRAIN WERE SPLATTERED ALL OVER ME -- ON MY FACE, MY CLOTHES, IN MY HAIR..."

Secret Service Agent Clint Hill (in his 2012 book "Mrs. Kennedy and Me: An Intimate Memoir").
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"...I HAD BRAIN MATTER ALL OVER MY WINDSHIELD AND LEFT ARM, THAT'S HOW CLOSE WE WERE TO IT ... IT WAS THE RIGHT REAR PART OF HIS HEAD ... BECAUSE THAT'S THE PART I SAW BLOW OUT. I SAW HAIR COME OUT, THE PIECES BLOW OUT, THEN THE SKIN WENT BACK IN -- AN EXPLOSION IN AND OUT..."

Secret Service Agent Samuel Kinney (3/5/1994 interview by Vince Palamara).
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"...WHEN PRESIDENT KENNEDY STRAIGHTENED BACK UP IN THE CAR THE BULLET HIT HIM IN THE HEAD, THE ONE THAT KILLED HIM AND IT SEEMED LIKE HIS HEAD EXPLODED, AND I WAS SPLATTERED WITH BLOOD AND BRAIN, AND KIND OF A BLOODY WATER...."

Dallas Motorcycle Patrolman Bobby Hargis (4/8/1964 Warren Commission testimony).
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"...I CAN REMEMBER SEEING THE SIDE OF THE PRESIDENT'S EAR AND HEAD COME OFF. I REMEMBER A FLASH OF WHITE AND THE RED AND JUST BITS AND PIECES OF FLESH EXPLODING FROM THE PRESIDENT'S HEAD..."

Dealey Plaza witness Bill Newman interviewed about the JFK assassination -- 0:13-0:27 -- https://youtu.be/EEhlbAwI7Zg?t=13
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"...THE HEAD SHOT SEEMED TO COME FROM THE RIGHT FRONT. IT SEEMED TO STRIKE HIM HERE [gesturing to her upper right forehead, up high at the hairline], AND HIS HEAD WENT BACK, AND ALL OF THE BRAIN MATTER WENT OUT THE BACK OF THE HEAD. IT WAS LIKE A RED HALO, A RED CIRCLE, WITH BRIGHT MATTER IN THE MIDDLE OF IT - IT JUST WENT LIKE THAT...."

Dealey Plaza witness Marilyn Willis from 24:26-24:58 of TMWKK, Episode 1, at following link cued in advance for you https://youtu.be/BW98fHkbuD8?t=1466 ).
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"...THERE WAS JUST A CONE OF BLOOD AND CORRUPTION THAT WENT RIGHT IN THE BACK OF HIS HEAD AND NECK. I THOUGHT IT WAS RED PAPER ON A FIRECRACKER. IT LOOKED LIKE A FIRECRACKER LIT UP WHICH LOOKS LIKE LITTLE BITS OF RED PAPER AS IT GOES UP. BUT IN REALITY IT WAS HIS SKULL AND BRAINS AND EVERYTHING ELSE THAT WENT PERHAPS AS MUCH AS SIX OR EIGHT FEET. JUST LIKE THAT!..."

Dealey Plaza witness and Postal Inspector Harry Holmes. Murder from Within (1974), Fred Newcomb and Perry Adams, p. 213. 
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"...Charles Brehm: 0:21 WHEN THE SECOND BULLET HIT, THERE WAS, THE HAIR SEEMED TO GO FLYING. IT WAS VERY DEFINITE THEN THAT HE WAS STRUCK IN THE HEAD WITH THE SECOND BULLET, AND, UH, YES, I VERY DEFINITELY SAW THE EFFECT OF THE SECOND BULLET.

Mark Lane: 0:38 Did you see any particles of the President's skull fly when the bullet struck him in the head?

Charles Brehm: 0:46 I SAW A PIECE FLY OVER OH IN THE AREA OF THE CURB WHERE I WAS STANDING.

Mark Lane: 0:53 In which direction did that fly?

Charles Brehm: 0:56 IT SEEMED TO HAVE COME LEFT AND BACK...."

Dealey Plaza witness Charles Brehm interviewed about JFK assassination by Mark Lane for the 1967 documentary "Rush to Judgment": https://youtu.be/RsnHXywKIKs
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"...I SAW THE HEAD PRACTICALLY OPEN UP AND BLOOD AND MANY MORE THINGS, WHATEVER IT WAS, BRAINS, JUST CAME OUT OF HIS HEAD...."

Testimony of Dealey Plaza witness Abraham Zapruder -- who filmed the assassination -- at the Clay Shaw trial -- https://www.jfk-assassination.net/russ/testimony/zapruder_shaw2.htm
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"...I also asked him if he saw the explosion of blood and brains out of the head. He replied that he did. I asked him if he noticed which direction the eruption went. He pointed back over his left shoulder. He said, "IT WENT THIS WAY." I said, "You mean it went to the left and rear?" He said, "YES." Bartholomew then asked him, "Are you sure that you didn't see the blood and brains going up and to the front?" Schwartz said, "NO; IT WAS TO THE LEFT AND REAR...."

Excerpt from interview of Erwin Schwartz -- Abraham Zapruder's business partner -- who accompanied Zapruder to develop the camera-original Zapruder film, and saw the camera-original projected more than a dozen times. Bloody Treason by Noel Twyman.
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"...Brugioni's most vivid recollection of the Zapruder film was "...OF JFK'S BRAINS FLYING THROUGH THE AIR." He did not use the term 'head explosion,' but rather referred to apparent exit debris seen on the film the night he viewed it. "...AND WHAT I'LL NEVER FORGET WAS -- I KNEW THAT HE HAD BEEN ASSASSINATED -- BUT WHEN WE ROLLED THE FILM AND I SAW A GOOD PORTION OF HIS HEAD FLYING THROUGH THE AIR, THAT SHOCKED ME, AND THAT SHOCKED EVERYBODY WHO WAS THERE..."

Excerpt from interview of Dino Brugioni -- Photoanalyst at the CIA's National Photographic Interpretation Center -- who viewed the camera-original Zapruder film the evening of 11/23/1963. Douglas Horne, Inside the Assassination Records Review Board" , 2009, Volume IV, Chapter 14, page 1329.

 

But all of this rearward flying biological debris is mysteriously missing from the extant "original" Zapruder film, and in its place the red mist cloud lasting but for one frame (1/18th of one second in duration):

 

Frame 314 of the Zapruder film immediately follows frame 313 -- the single frame in which we see the halo of blood from the head shot. Z-314 appears to portray a slice of skull or scalp coming off of the top of JFK's head, yet none of the doctors and nurses at Parkland Hospital reported any wounds on JFK's head other than the occipital-parietal wound in the back. Not even Nurse Diana Bowron, who washed the dried blood out of JFK's hair before the body was placed in the ceremonial casket encountered such a wound in the front or top of JFK's head.

 

A great many JFK assassination researchers have speculated that the wound depicted by Z-314 is a swinging bone door (or flap) which Jackie Kennedy pushed back into place on the way to Parkland Hospital; and that said bone door (or flap) was sealed so well by the First Lady that none of the medical personel at Parkland Hospital could see it.

 

Nor was such a frontal cranial swinging bone door (or flap) encountered at the Bethesda Naval Medical Center during the autopsy; although pathologists Boswell, Finck and Humes reported a wound in the top of JFK's head which none of the Parkland nurses or doctors had seen or encountered. So perhaps the swinging bone door (or flap) opened while the body was in transit to Bethesda?

 

Special Agents O'Neil and Sibert who were tasked with preparing a report of the autopsy for the Federal Bureau of Investigation attended the autopsy from beginning to end, and reported that the only head wound they had seen at the autopsy was the occipital parietal wound in the back of JFK's head. Both agents also told the House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) and the Assassination Records Review Board (ARRB) that they had not seen any head wound at the autopsy other than the occipital-parietal wound in the back of JFK's head. So both the swinging bone door (or flap) in the top of JFK's head that some JFK assassination researchers speculate existed, AND the frontal head wound reported by the pathologists, were for some reason invisible to Agents O'Neil and Sibert, and invisible to all the other autopsy witnesses except for the three pathologists. How could that possibly be?

JAMES W. SIBERT'S SKETCH OF HEAD WOUND FOR THE ARRB:

 

FRANCIS X O'NEIL JR'S SKETCH OF HEAD WOUND FOR THE HSCA:

 

A few of the photographs of the autopsy appear to depict what some JFK researchers have called a "bat wing" in the area of JFK's right temple, but said "bat wing" seems to be considerably smaller than the swinging bone door (or flap) depicted by Z-314, and is oriented differently. FBI agents O'Neil and Sibert did not report seeing such a "bat wing" to the FBI, the HSCA or the ARRB; and the three pathologists did not specifically note such a "bat wing" in their official Autopsy Protocol, so said "bat wing" is also quite mysterious.

 

Mortician Tom Robinson of Gawler's Funeral Home, who was primarily responsible for restoration of JFK's head for an open-casket funeral, reported to the HSCA that the only significant wound on JFK's head other than the occipital-parietal wound in the back was a puncture in JFK's right temple that was a quarter inch in diameter that he sealed with a dab of wax (Robinson also noted very small shrapnel wounds in JFK's right cheek that he also sealed with wax). The speculated swinging bone door (or flap) and underlying frontal head wound was evidently also invisible to the morticians, so if it had ever existed, it had vanished by the end of the autopsy procedures.

 

However, the diagram Tom Robinson executed of the right temple wound for the ARRB (See below) does have a triangular shape, and could be speculated to be the "bat wing" of the autopsy photographs (and Robinson even referred to it as "a flap" in his ARRB testimony), but it is certainly far too small to be the swinging bone door (or flap) that we see in Z-314, and Robinson's quarter inch in diameter estimation of the right temple wound he sealed with wax could not be the enormous head wound we see in later frames of the Zapruder film, such as Z-335 and Z-337.

TOM ROBINSON'S SKETCH OF RIGHT TEMPLE WOUND FOR THE ARRB:

 

ZAPRUDER FILM FRAME 335:

 

ZAPRUDER FILM FRAME 337:

 

Thus, the underlying frontal head wound that we can only presume existed at frame 314 of the Zapruder film (since only the so-called swinging bone door, or flap can be seen in Z-314) mysteriously appeared only for pathologists Boswell, Finck and Humes; and not for any other autopsy attendee. And the swinging bone door (or flap), and underlying frontal head wound remained as invisible to the morticians as it was to the Parkland Hospital medical witnesses, and all other autopsy attendees.

 

How can this possibly be? What exactly is the mysterious slice of skull matter or biological debris we see in Z-314, and how is it possible that the underlying frontal head wound briefly appeared only for the autopsy pathologists, only to disappear again prior to the beginning of the work of the morticians?

Is the vanishing swinging bone door (or flap) a miracle, a myth, or photographic fakery?

Edited January 1 by Keven Hofeling