Reclaiming History (114 page)

The first official investigative body to take a crack at determining the precise moment of the second shot based on the Zapruder film was, of course, the Warren Commission. In 1964, Lyndal Shaneyfelt, the FBI’s photographic expert, testified to the Commission that right up to around Z205, when Zapruder’s view of the president is blocked by the freeway sign, “it is obvious he [Kennedy] is smiling, you can actually see a happy expression on his face…and his hand is in a wave.”
⁸⁹
Shaneyfelt said that as the president fully emerges from behind the Stemmons Freeway sign at Z225, “his right hand that was waving [just a little over a second earlier, in the frames before Z205]…has been brought down as though it were reaching for his lapel or throat…His left hand is…rather high, as though it were coming up, and he is beginning to go into a hunched position.”
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Shaneyfelt testified that frame 225 is the first frame on the Zapruder film that reveals the president responding to a severe external stimulus, though the reaction, he said, is “barely discernible” at frame 225, but “clearly apparent in 226.”
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Because of photographs taken by the FBI during its on-site reenactment on May 24, 1964, the Warren Commission concluded that it was “probable that the president was not shot before Z210,” since with the exception of the fleeting instant at Z186 when the president appeared in an opening among the leaves of the oak tree,
†
Z210 was the first time (from the moment the limousine disappeared under the oak tree at Z166) that an assassin at the sixth-floor window would have had a clear shot at the president
*
“It is unlikely,” the Commission said, “that the assassin would deliberately have shot at [Kennedy] with a view obstructed by the oak tree when he was about to have a clear opportunity.” Consequently, the Commission concluded that “the President was not hit until at least frame 210 and that he was probably hit by frame 225.”
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This conclusion, of course, was only the first of many opinions as to when the president was first hit by the bullets fired in Dealey Plaza.

U
nlike the Warren Commission, which saw no reaction in Kennedy until after he emerged from the Stemmons Freeway sign, the 1978 House Select Committee on Assassinations, in this necessarily imprecise and subjective endeavor, concluded that Kennedy was first struck by a bullet at Z190 and exhibited signs of being hit before he disappeared behind the Stemmons sign. The HSCA’s photographic panel concluded that “at approximately frame 200 [ten frames, or just over a half second after being hit] Kennedy’s movements suddenly freeze; his right hand abruptly stops
†
in the midst of a waving motion and his head moves rapidly from [his] right to his left in the direction of his wife. Based on these movements, it appears that by the time the President goes behind the sign at Z207 he is evidencing some kind of reaction to severe, external stimulus. By the time he re-emerges from behind the sign at Z225, the President makes a clutching motion with his hands toward his neck, indicating clearly that he’s been shot.”
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The very awkward and unusual position of Kennedy’s arms during the sequence Z226–236 (see photo section) is perhaps the most persuasive evidence that Kennedy has been hit by Z225. Both elbows eventually become flexed and raised to a point above the shoulders, his right and left forearms are pulled inward, and his hands become clenched—the right in front of his mouth, the left just below his chin. Oddly, though both the Warren Commission and the HSCA concluded that Kennedy’s movements at Z225–226 indicate he had been shot, each failed to comment on the very unusual position of his hands and arms, describing them as if they were in a completely pedestrian position. The Warren Commission said that at Z226 the president had raised “his hands to his throat,”
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while the HSCA said the president “leans forward and clutches his throat.”
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In fact, the president’s hands are not “clutching” or even touching his throat.

Could the bullet’s passage close to the president’s spine
⁹⁶
have caused enough trauma to the nerves in that area to result in Kennedy’s odd raised-elbow posture? The answer seems to be yes, and, if true, it likely would have caused an instantaneous reaction. The HSCA’s forensic pathology panel noted that as a bullet passes through tissue, considerable radial motion is imparted to the surrounding area, creating a large temporary cavity. The panel agreed that this kind of tissue disruption “might have produced fractures of the transverse processes of one or several of the lower cervical and/or upper thoracic vertebrae in President Kennedy’s neck, as indicated by the post-mortem X-rays.” The muscles attached to this vertebra would have received a “tremendous shock, even if several inches distant from such a missile.”
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In addition to the muscle masses present, the neck region contains nerve bundles that control both arm muscles. These nerves would also be affected by any tissue disruption. The resulting effect would be immediate—like flipping a light switch. Dr. Baden testified, “If a nerve is injured, this would produce a quicker response than if a nerve weren’t injured. That is why, if the bullet injured the president’s spinal nerves in the neck area, which is rich with nerves, a reflex, rapid reaction might ensue.”
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If the nerves in Kennedy’s neck had been sufficiently stimulated by the passage of the bullet, as Dr. Baden suggests, how soon after being struck could we expect to see the president react? In other words, how quick is a reflex, or involuntary reaction, as opposed to the slower voluntary reaction? Larry M. Sturdivan, a research physical scientist involved in wound ballistic studies for the U.S. Army, showed the HSCA high-speed films of a goat being shot in the head. The films show that neuromuscular, involuntary reactions in the goat begin one-twenty-fifth of a second after the bullet impact.
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If the same time frame were applied to humans, and the president’s reaction in Z225–226 was involuntary, it could be the result of a bullet impact less than one frame earlier, at Z224, although the president’s reaction, of course, could also have started several frames earlier, only becoming visible for the first time as he emerged from behind the Stemmons Freeway sign at Z225.

Despite the suggestion that Kennedy’s reaction to being hit might have been immediate, the HSCA panel of forensic pathologists was unable to determine, based on the medical evidence alone, “whether President Kennedy’s reaction was voluntary or involuntary.”
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The majority of the panel (including Baden) believed the president’s physical reaction around Z225 was a voluntary reaction (i.e., Kennedy consciously brought his arms up in reaction to the shot through his back and neck), though they recognized that his movements “could have been involuntary had the bullet caused sufficient shock to his spine and spinal cord. The majority [of the panel] cannot say definitely, based on the available evidence, whether this more serious injury occurred and precisely when the president was struck.”
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The reason for the uncertainty is that, as indicated, specific human reactions to gunshots are difficult, if not impossible, to predict or prove given all of the variables involved. This might partly explain why there was a discrepancy between the conclusions of the two government investigations that attempted to pinpoint when the president was first hit—the Warren Commission concluding that Kennedy was struck somewhere between Zapruder frames 210 and 225 and first showed a reaction at frame 225, and the HSCA concluding that Kennedy was first struck around Z190 and first showed a reaction at frame 200. In either case, I think we can all agree that the position the president was in, at Z225–226, is a very unusual position and that the president is undoubtedly reacting in these frames to having been struck by a bullet.

W
hat about Governor Connally’s reaction as seen in the Zapruder film around the time of the second shot? Though Warren Commission counsel elicited much testimony from experts analyzing the president’s reactions in the Zapruder film, they, perhaps inadvertently, did very little of this during their hearings with respect to Connally. There was
testimony
as to when he could have been hit, and when he was hit (Connally himself, after watching the Zapruder film, testified he felt he was hit somewhere between frames “231 and 234”),
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but not an analysis of his specific facial or bodily movements from which an inference could be drawn as to what Zapruder frame he was struck at. Representative Ford did ask Shaneyfelt, “Isn’t it apparent in those pictures [never spelled out precisely which ones, but frames 222, 231, 248, and 249 are discussed in no discernible pattern in the preceding paragraphs] that after a slight hesitation Governor Connally’s body turns more violently [to the right] than the president’s body?”

Shaneyfelt: “Yes.”

When asked by Senator Cooper when Connally commenced this turn, Shaneyfelt responded, “Approximately at frames 233 to 234.”
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Commission members John McCloy and Allen Dulles expressed puzzlement over the fact that Connally did not seem to exhibit a reaction until Z233–234, whereas Kennedy was reacting by Z225–226—a difference of seven to eight frames, the equivalent of less than a half second.
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Absent an explanation, this pointed in the direction of Connally being hit by a separate bullet and hence, necessarily a conspiracy. The Warren Commission noted that “there was, conceivably, a
delayed reaction
between the time the bullet struck [Governor Connally] and the time he realized he was hit…The Governor didn’t even know he had been struck in the wrist or in the thigh until he regained consciousness in the hospital the next day.”
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The Commission’s receptiveness to the delayed-reaction theory was not quixotic on its part.

It is well known, of course, that men can sometimes experience a delayed reaction when struck by bullets. Recall the testimony I elicited from Dealey Plaza witness Charles Brehm at the London trial. Another example among many—Secret Service agents reported that President Ronald Reagan was not aware, until being told, that he had been shot by John W. Hinckley in 1981. And Dr. James Humes, the chief autopsy surgeon, testified before the Warren Commission that “people have been drilled through with a missile and didn’t know it.”
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Likewise, Dr. Arthur J. Dziemian, a physiologist at the U.S. Army Chemical Research and Development Laboratories and the chief of the Biophysics Division, told the Commission, “All I can say is that some people are struck by bullets and do not even know they are hit. This happens in wartime. But I don’t know about [Connally’s reaction].”
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The Commission said that by merely looking at the film, it appeared Connally “could have” received his injuries as late as Z235–240.
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This conclusion strangely ignores the important testimony of FBI firearms expert Robert A. Frazier, who participated in the FBI’s 1964 reenactment of the assassination utilizing frames from the film. Frazier testified that with respect to the trajectory from the sixth-floor window and the location of the governor’s wounds, Connally “could have been struck anywhere…from [frames] 207 to 225.” Asked if the same were true for frames after 225, Frazier replied that from frames 226 to 239 Connally’s body was facing “too much towards the front” for the bullet to enter Connally’s back where it did, and from 240 on he was turned “too far to the right” to be hit where he was—that is, the governor’s wounds would have been misaligned with the trajectory of the bullet.
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In its final report, the Commission noted Frazier’s testimony and Connally’s belief, after viewing the film, that he was hit between Z231 and Z234.
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But then the report erroneously states, “At some point between frames 235 and 240…is the last occasion when Governor Connally could have received his injuries [in fact, Frazier’s testimony—which, as indicated, the report cites—reflects the opposite], since in the frames following 240 he remained turned too far to his right.”
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It was FBI photographic expert Lyndal L. Shaneyfelt, not Frazier, who testified that Connally might have been in the requisite alignment position to be shot as late as Z240. However, Shaneyfelt deferred his opinion to that of FBI expert Frazier who, he pointed out, was “in the window with the rifle scope and made a more thorough study of the possible path of the bullet [than I].”
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Although the Warren Commission’s analysis of Connally’s reactions to determine just when he was struck by the bullet in the back was superficial, Commission members did opt for common sense in reaching their ultimate conclusion that the bullet that hit Connally had previously exited from the president’s throat, inferentially concluding, therefore, that Connally, like Kennedy, was struck by a bullet somewhere between Zapruder frames 210 and 225.
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They were aided in this commonsense conclusion by the testimony of experts. Robert Frazier testified before the Commission that because Kennedy and Connally were in direct alignment with each other during those frames from the vantage point of the rifle in the sniper’s nest, “the [bullet] through the president
had
to cause Connally’s wound, otherwise it would have struck somewhere else in the car and it did not strike somewhere else. Therefore, it
had
to go through Governor Connally.”
¹¹⁴
Among other Warren Commission witnesses, Dr. Frederick W. Light Jr., a wound ballistics expert, testified, “Perhaps the best, the most likely thing is
what everyone else has said so far
, that the bullet did go through the president’s neck and then through the [governor’s] chest and then through the wrist and then into [his] thigh.”

Question: “You think that is the most likely possibility?”

Answer: “I think that is probably the most likely, but I base that not entirely on the anatomical findings but as much on the circumstances.”

Question: “What are the circumstances which lead you to that conclusion?”