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Kennedy's wounds


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In order to come to an interpretation of the autopsy photographs, xrays and medical reports I have choosen to approach the subject by looking at an alternative set of information.

It is important to note that I am presenting the results in the way that I arrived them as some of them are surprising and need interpretation. I present my interpretation in the hope that comments will confirm/debunk/refine same.

To start with I have here taken

# a photo of the inside of the Limousine and

# a photo of the back of Kennedy's shirt.

________

I choose a spectrum of colors on the limousine that seemed to be body fluids and tissue and compressed this spectrum to a deeper red to highlight the location of same.

As the shirt is initially a uniform white the colors here already stand out.

________

I resized the shirt to approximate what it would have been in the scale of the Limousine backseat.

Then I 'flipped', or mirrored the shirt so it would be as if looked at from the front.

Then I tilted the shirt to approximate how I interpret his position to have been around the time of the head shot.

To my surprise, the pattern of blood on the shirt fits around the pattern of blood on the back of the rear seat. In other words, there is a major 'blotch' of blood on the back seat that does NOT repeat on the shirt. On the contrary, this blotch is matched remarkably precisely with an area of NO blood on the shirt. How could this be?

Simple. He was wearing a backbrace. The shirt was tucked into the back brace!

Or rather: The brace was put on OVER the shirt.

Scrutiny of a photo of Kennedy wearing a backbrace outside his shirt and shorts confirms this.

The photo of the bundle of his back brace cleaned and folded indicates that in Dallas and probably for most public appearances he was wearing the 'heavy duty' version which included slings around his upper legs.

This backbrace was quite a feat to put on daily. His 'valet' did it for him, with considerable effort. It had steel rods in it and was wrapped on. I am suggesting that across his back the wrap was first crossed from right shoulder down left, then from left shoulder down right. Why?

Where the wraps crossed, the top wrapping (left to right down) was sufficiently lifted off the body by the lower wrapping (right to left down) so that at this point the blood could seep past. Elsewhere the tight brace wrapping kept the shirt clean.

However, due to its thickness (rods, thick material), the wrap lifted the coat away from the body thus making it act like a 'rubber stamp'.

Thus the 'blotch' on the back seat is a precise indicator of Kennedy's body position at the time when his body hit the back seat after the head shot!

_________

Further: When considering the origin of the blood stains one needs to consider the spacing of shots, the movement of the body, and the beating of the heart.

To state some obvious things, blood flows most voluminously and forcefully out of a wound while the heart is beating. It obeys the laws of gravity and is guided by folds and strictures of surrounding materials. Surrounding materials absorb blood to different degrees.

Wound ballistics dictate that dispersal is also determined by the peak pulse or cavitation, (or to my mind erroneously ascribed to Alvarez as something he 'discovered' : 'the jet effect' as is shown at http://history.amedd.army.mil/booksdocs/ww...tcs/default.htm (warning: some of the images at this site and links may be disturbing!) which within a closed system pumps matter out through the point of least resistance. This is also in this case aided by the compression and consequent expansion of air in the respiratory system acting like a set of bellows.

While a pulse was noted on arrival to Parkland, the blood pressure would have been low due to the massive wounds and due to the fact that such a large part of the nervous system was obliterated. Kennedy was essentially dead at the moment he sustained the head wound.

Therefore the blood on the shirt and the imprints on the back seat are largely due to blood flowing strongly from the first wound. This flowed for some time while the Limousine continued on to where the head shot occurred.

_______

Further: When scrutinising the pattern of blood on the back seat closer to where Kennedy was sitting at the time of the first shot one may deduce that:

He was sitting in the area that is cleanest, and remained in contact here while his body tilted into the position he had when the headshot occurred.

When one looks at the streaks on the rear of the backseat one can see that this was caused as his lower torso clothing remained in contact with the backseat during the tilting from the time of the shot causing the back wound and the action leading to the 'back and to the left' movement that imprinted the 'blotch'.

Edited by John Dolva
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An attempt at 'unbunching' the shirt by studying the blood pattern where folds and the backbrace has dammed and directed bloodflow, results in an image that, when the coat (unfortunately cleaned, but still showing discoloration and creases) is unbunched, has a matching hole.

Further : When superimposed on a photograph of Kennedy's back, this matches an apparent hole in his back.

A photo of him from the front can indicate a location of the wound in the front of his throat (here shown in red)

If this is indeed an exit wound to the back wound it indicates an entry from his right, rear, at a fairly shallow angle.

Edited by John Dolva
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I'm impressed with the images, John...they make the info we have a lot clearer.

And since the limo was "cleaned" at Parkland, you've given us here at the Forum a lot more information to work with than the DPD, FBI, and SS had in the hours immediately after the assassination.

Essentially, there were two crime scenes...Dealy Plaza, and the limo. The limo was the part of the crime scene that was "tampered with" prior to being investigated, so IMHO using technology that can "restore" this crime scene to its condition BEFORE it was tampered with is well worth the efforts. For even if it yields no NEW evidence, it can help confirm what we originally ASSUMED to be true.

Bravo, John!

Edited by Mark Knight
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Thank you Mark and Christopher. I try to approach these things using as little disputed material as I can. Hence less likely to have been tampered with, perhaps 'slipped by the net' to now where everyone has access to the originals. Too late to tamper with.

Further on : trajectory. And this is also a surprise to me.

IF it is as this study indicates, then taking this (wound locations), with the indication of Kennedys position (as deduced above re. clean seat, streaks) in the Limousine AND assuming the dashboard hit as I have here then a shot is possible passing through Kennedy at points indicated to the dashboard, passing over Connally's left shoulder and between the two SS guys. But NOT through Connally.

Christopher, very nice! Italy too, with the toe pointing at Sicily, home of you know who.

Edited by John Dolva
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This image shows roughly a sweep of the origin over this period. Only the red is put on by me. There are error margins involved. When I don't assume errors and I do assume I have correct body pose I get the point of origin to be the second window, not the snipers nest, of 6th floor TSBD.

As one can only assume what happened behind the sign, one may extrapolate this sweep to include the Dal-Tex building.

It seems to me also that at no time during this period does Kennedy line up with Connally for a shot from the TSBD in order for Connally to receive the wounds that he does.

This post has been edited by John Dolva: Yesterday, 10:20 AM Attached image(s)

From the thread on the Connally wounds... John, I think maybe you're onto something here. Since I don't know how to do all the graphic wizardry you're doing here, I'd like to pose a question:

With the low trajectory you're projecting on the JFK back/throat wound, is there a possibility that this might align [margin of error, etc] with the low windshield defect [hole/not a hole, depending upon which report] reportedly observed in the limo at Parkland Hospital?

Just brainstorming here....[not sure I've got enough brain working today to get to "partly cloudy" yet...]

Edited by Mark Knight
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mmm...brainstorming is good. Yes, it seems to me to be possible, The wound in the throat is a large margin of error since the tracheotomy. I accept the need of the treating physiscian here to do his utmost and do a tracheotomy first and worry about wound locations later.

Other things that seem possible to me too is that :

the throat wound came from a fragment of the head wound and the backwound was not deep indicating perhaps a dud round. Therefore the dashboard and windshield are both misses. (firecrackers, flurry)

the windshield fracture was from a fragment of the bullet that hit the dashboard.

the windhield bullet was a round that missed. If so then perhaps a later investigation (coming up) can show if this could be the Tague shot.

If it is the windshield shot then the dashboard still needs explaining. Again, a fragment? a missed shot?

If it is the Kennedy-windshield scenario the shot is shallower still. Possibly at the time it occurred it could have come from the Dal-Tex building.

___________

If the shot occurred when many seems to indicate then this composite may indicate what happened behind the sign. Maybe 'quick-draw-mcgraw' has a memory of a bullet whizzing past his hand?

Edited by John Dolva
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A repeat from post 1, refer to images above.

In order to come to an interpretation of the autopsy photographs, xrays and medical reports I have choosen to approach the subject by looking at an alternative set of information.

It is important to note that I am presenting the results in the way that I arrived them as some of them are surprising and need interpretation. I present my interpretation in the hope that comments will confirm/debunk/refine same.

To start with I have here taken

# a photo of the inside of the Limousine and

# a photo of the back of Kennedy's shirt.

________

I choose a spectrum of colors on the limousine that seemed to be body fluids and tissue and compressed this spectrum to a deeper red to highlight the location of same.

As the shirt is initially a uniform white the colors here already stand out.

________

I resized the shirt to approximate what it would have been in the scale of the Limousine backseat.

Then I 'flipped', or mirrored the shirt so it would be as if looked at from the front.

Then I tilted the shirt to approximate how I interpret his position to have been around the time of the head shot.

To my surprise, the pattern of blood on the shirt fits around the pattern of blood on the back of the rear seat. In other words, there is a major 'blotch' of blood on the back seat that does NOT repeat on the shirt. On the contrary, this blotch is matched remarkably precisely with an area of NO blood on the shirt. How could this be?

Simple. He was wearing a backbrace. The shirt was tucked into the back brace!

Or rather: The brace was put on OVER the shirt.

Scrutiny of a photo of Kennedy wearing a backbrace outside his shirt and shorts confirms this.

The photo of the bundle of his back brace cleaned and folded indicates that in Dallas and probably for most public appearances he was wearing the 'heavy duty' version which included slings around his upper legs.

This backbrace was quite a feat to put on daily. His 'valet' did it for him, with considerable effort. It had steel rods in it and was wrapped on. I am suggesting that across his back the wrap was first crossed from right shoulder down left, then from left shoulder down right. Why?

Where the wraps crossed, the top wrapping (left to right down) was sufficiently lifted off the body by the lower wrapping (right to left down) so that at this point the blood could seep past. Elsewhere the tight brace wrapping kept the shirt clean.

However, due to its thickness, the wrap lifted the coat away from the body thus making it act as a 'stamp'.

Thus the 'blotch' on the back seat is a precise indicator of Kennedy's body position at the time when his body hit the back seat after the head shot!

_________

Further: When considering the origin of the blood stains one needs to consider the spacing of shots, the movement of the body, and the beating of the heart.

To state some obvious things, blood flows most voluminously and forcefully out of a wound while the heart is beating. It obeys the laws of gravity and is guided by folds and strictures of surrounding materials. Surrounding materials absorb blood to different degrees.

Wound ballistics dictate that dispersal is also determined by the peak pulse or cavitation, (or to my mind erroneously ascribed to Alvarez as something he 'discovered' : 'the jet effect' as is shown at http://history.amedd.army.mil/booksdocs/ww...tcs/default.htm (warning: some of the images at this site and links may be disturbing!) which within a closed system pumps matter out through the point of least resistance. This is also in this case aided by the compression and consequent expansion of air in the respiratory system acting like a set of bellows.

While a pulse was noted on arrival to Parkland, the blood pressure would have been low due to the massive wounds and due to the fact that such a large part of the nervous system was obliterated. Kennedy was essentially dead at the moment he sustained the head wound.

Therefore the blood on the shirt and the imprints on the back seat are largely due to blood flowing strongly from the first wound. This flowed for some time while the Limousine continued on to where the head shot occurred.

_______

Further: When scrutinising the pattern of blood on the back seat closer to where Kennedy was sitting at the time of the first shot one may deduce that:

He was sitting in the area that is cleanest, and remained in contact here while his body tilted into the position he had when the headshot occurred.

When one looks at the streaks on the rear of the backseat one can see that this was caused as his lower torso clothing remained in contact with the backseat during the tilting from the time of the shot causing the back wound and the action leading to the 'back and to the left' movement that imprinted the 'blotch'.

_______

When taking the photograph from the above series that shows the Limousine from directly rear, and locating Kennedy's shirt according to the above analysis of the bloodstains in the Limousine and on the shirt.

and

Locating Connally according to other photos.

It seems clear to me that their positions , contrary to the SBT do not line up for such a shot to be possible.

The two parallel lines are just a theorising on the reasoning from post #9.

The first line is if the shot through Kennedy passed over Connally's left shoulder and into the dashboard. The second one is a missed shot passing through the windscreen from the same source and possibly landing in front of Tague.

Coming in from the right, as per the 'Connally wound's topic is a shot from The sixth floor TSBD.

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There appears to me to be one set of positions where the wounds of Connally and Kennedy could be the result of a single bullet.

The range of their movements would have to be limited by the length of limbs.

Here is a plot of the positions of both Kennedy and Connally (from 'Connally's wound's' topic) combined on a scaled drawing of the Limousine.

Kennedy would have to have risen up and leant forward and right with a leftward twist as if to say something to Connally, and Connally would have to have turned slightly right towards Kennedy.

This, as far as I can find out has no supporting witness evidence.

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There appears to me to be one set of positions where the wounds of Connally and Kennedy could be the result of a single bullet.

The range of their movements would have to be limited by the length of limbs.

Here is a plot of the positions of both Kennedy and Connally (from 'Connally's wound's' topic) combined on a scaled drawing of the Limousine.

Kennedy would have to have risen up and leant forward and right with a leftward twist as if to say something to Connally, and Connally would have to have turned slightly right towards Kennedy.

This, as far as I can find out has no supporting witness evidence.

Did not prevent the HSCA from attempting to pass of the same type drawing.

However, in this scenario, one should truely look at the top elevation of the seat in which JBC is seated, and thereafter look at the position of the entrance wound in his back.

I do not seem to recall any mention of a bullet hole through the seat.

Tom

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Hi John.

Interesting post.

Here are a couple of pics from my website:

I beleive they are part of the Marsh Collection.

nellsseat.jpg

NA013020.jpg

Below is a "Very Large" image of the limo taken from the right hand side.

It might give you something of a better resolution to work with.

Click Here

Edited by Robin Unger
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There appears to me to be one set of positions where the wounds of Connally and Kennedy could be the result of a single bullet.

The range of their movements would have to be limited by the length of limbs.

Here is a plot of the positions of both Kennedy and Connally (from 'Connally's wound's' topic) combined on a scaled drawing of the Limousine.

Kennedy would have to have risen up and leant forward and right with a leftward twist as if to say something to Connally, and Connally would have to have turned slightly right towards Kennedy.

This, as far as I can find out has no supporting witness evidence.

John;

In my way of thinking, the first priority problem would be attempting to come up with some rational explanation as to how CE399 struck and fractured the right transverse process of the C7 vertebrae, then traversed to the apex of the right lung, then came back to exit at/about the third tracheal ring in the throat, without having ripped the vertebral column; throat tissue and muscles, and exterior skin in the anterior portion of the neck of JFK, completely to pieces.

If one can get by this obstacle, then perhaps the SBT can be "sold".

Or, at least perhaps the JFK portion of it can.

To date, I am not buying!

Tom

Edited by Thomas H. Purvis
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