At 12:30 CST on 22 November 1963, as John Fitzgerald Kennedys limousine entered Dealey Plaza and slowly approached the Texas School Book Depository the Presidential limousine turned and passed the Depository and continued down Elm Street, three shots were fired at Kennedy. Within one second of each other, President Kennedy, Texas Governor John Connally, and Mrs. Kennedy, all turned abruptly from looking to their left to looking to their right. Connally, like the president a WWII military veteran testified he immediately recognized the sound of a high-powered rifle, then he turned his head and torso rightward attempting to see President Kennedy behind him. Connally testified he could not see the president, so he then started to turn forward again, and was hit in his upper right back by a bullet. Mrs. Connally testified that right after hearing a first loud, frightening noise that came from somewhere behind her and to her right, she immediately turned towards President Kennedy and saw him with his arms and elbows already raised high with his hands already close to his throat. She then heard another gunshot and John Connally started yelling. Mrs. Connally then turned away from President Kennedy towards her husband, then another gunshot sounded and she and the limousines rear interior were covered with fragments of brain, blood, and bone matter. According to the Warren Commission and the House Select Committee on Assassinations, as President Kennedy waved to the crowds on his right with his right arm upraised on the side of the limo, a shot entered his upper back, penetrated his neck, slightly damaged a spinal vertebra and the top of his right lung, exited his throat nearly centerline just beneath his Adams apple, then nicked the left side of his suit tie knot. He then raised his arms and clenched his fists in front of his face and neck, then leaned forward and towards his left. Mrs. Kennedy (already facing him) then put her arms around him in concern. Governor Connally also reacted after the same bullet penetrated his back creating an oval entry wound, impacted and destroyed 10cms of his right, fifth rib bone, exited his chest just below his right nipple creating a 7.5cm oval sucking-air chest wound, then entered just above his right wrist, impacted and cleanly fractured his right wrist bone, exited just below the wrist at the inner side of his right palm, and entered his left inner thigh. The Warren Commission theorized that the single bullet struck between Zapruder frames 210 and 225, while the House Select Committee theorized it occurred exactly at Zapruder frame 190. According to the Warren Commission, a second shot struck at Zapruder film frame 313 (the Commission made no conclusion as to whether this was the second or third bullet fired) when the Presidential limousine was passing in front of the John Neely Bryan north pergola concrete structure (the House Select Committee concluded that the final shot was the fourth shot). They each concluded that this shot entered the rear of President Kennedys head (the House Select Committee determined the entry wound to be four inches higher than the Warren Commission), then exploded out a roughly oval shaped hole from his heads rear and right side. Head matter, brain, blood, and skull fragments covered the interior of the car, the inner and outer surfaces of the front glass windshield and raised sun visors, the front engine hood, the rear trunk lid, the followup Secret Service car and its drivers left arm, and motorcycle officers riding on both sides of the president behind him. Mrs. Kennedy then reached out onto the rear trunk lid. After she crawled back into her limousine seat, both Governor Connally and Mrs. Connally heard her say more than once, They have killed my husband, and I have his brains in my hand. United States Secret Service agent Clint Hill was riding on the left front running board of the followup car, immediately behind the Presidential limousine. Hill testified he heard one shot, then, as documented in other films and concurrent with Zapruder frame 308, he jumped off into Elm Street and ran forward to try and get on the limousine and protect the president. (Hill testified to the Warren Commission that after he jumped into Elm Street, he heard two more shots. After the president had been shot in the head, Mrs. Kennedy began to climb out onto the back of the limousine, though she later had no recollection of doing so. Hill believed she was reaching for something, perhaps a piece of the presidents skull. He jumped onto the back of the limousine while at the same time Mrs. Kennedy returned to her seat, and he clung to the car as it exited Dealey Plaza and sped to Parkland Memorial Hospital where the President was later pronounced dead. https://youtube/playlist?list=PLD9A8604F10968990
Posted on: Fri, 21 Nov 2014 19:27:00 +0000
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