HERBERT BLENNER SAID:
The declination angle of the bullet that allegedly went through President Kennedy was twenty degrees.
DAVID VON PEIN SAID:
It's only approximately 20 degrees when the 3.15-degree street grade of Elm Street is added into the equation. But when we put the limousine (and, hence, President Kennedy's body too, since he was sitting, upright, in that car when it was travelling on Elm Street, which is angled at a declination of 3.15 degrees [3 degrees, 9 minutes]) back onto level ground, without any angle of declination in the road, the angle of the bullet path through JFK's upper back and throat measures approximately 17.7 degrees.
HERBERT BLENNER SAID:
They subtracted the three-degree decline of Elm Street from this declination angle to compensate for the stand-ins being on level ground. So the pointer with a declination angle of seventeen degrees passed through the exit wound on the stand-in for the President and the entrance wound on the stand-in for the Governor. Your failure to correct the mistaken explanation by the WC for subtracting the three-degree angle from the declination angle of the bullet does not speak well of your qualifications to mock critics of the SBT.
DAVID VON PEIN SAID:
Why should I (or anyone) feel the need to "correct" the Warren Commission and the Commission's surveyors with respect to the angles they used?
There is no need to do that, of course, because the angles that were measured ARE WHAT THEY ARE (with a built-in "plus or minus" of potential error, of course, since the WC's 17.72-degree measurement [17 degrees, 43 minutes] through the President's upper back and throat was actually the AVERAGE angle of two separate angles that were taken from Oswald's Sniper's Nest) -- at Zapruder Frame 210 and Z225 -- since the WC determined that JFK was struck with the first bullet that hit him somewhere between those two Z-Film frames.
And even via 1964 technology, they were 100% right. JFK and JBC were struck by Oswald's CE399 bullet at Z224, which indeed falls in the bracketed range of Z-Frames estimated by the Warren Commission.
The angle from the Sniper's Nest to JFK's inshoot wound on his upper back was measured to be 21 degrees, 34 minutes at Z210 and 20 degrees, 11 minutes at Z225.
The 3.15-degree street grade of Elm Street was then factored into the measurements (and subtracted, just as it should have been), with the average angle between Z210 and Z225 (sans the 3.15-degree declination of the Elm St. pavement) coming out to 17.72 degrees "assuming that he [JFK] was sitting in a vertical position" (WCR; Pg. 106) -- which he almost certainly was, as evidenced by Z-Frame 225:
QUOTING THE WARREN REPORT:
"A surveyor placed his sighting equipment at the precise point
of entry on the back of the President’s neck, assuming that the
President was struck at frame 210, and measured the angle to the end
of the muzzle of the rifle positioned where it was believed to have
been held by the assassin. That angle measured 21 degrees 34’. From
the same points of reference, the angle at frame 225 was measured at
20 degrees 11’, giving an average angle of 20 degrees 52’30” from
frame 210 to frame 225. Allowing for a downward street grade of 3
degrees 9’, the probable angle through the President’s body was
calculated at 17 degrees 43’30”, assuming that he was sitting in a
vertical position." -- WCR; PAGE 106
==========================
Mr. SPECTER. I now hand you a photograph which has been marked as
Commission Exhibit No. 903 and ask you if you know who the
photographer was?
Mr. SHANEYFELT. Yes; I took this photograph.
Mr. SPECTER. When was that photograph taken?
Mr. SHANEYFELT. It was taken Sunday afternoon, May 24, 1964.
Mr. SPECTER. Is there a white string which is apparent in the
background of that photograph?
Mr. SHANEYFELT. That is correct.
Mr. SPECTER. What is the angle of declination of that string?
Mr. SHANEYFELT. That string was placed along the wall by the surveyor
at an angle of 17 degrees-43'-30".
Mr. SPECTER. Did the surveyor make that placement in your presence?
Mr. SHANEYFELT. He did.
Mr. SPECTER. Were the stand-ins for President Kennedy and Governor
Connally positioned in the same relative positions as those occupied
by President Kennedy and Governor Connally depicted in the Zapruder
films?
Mr. SHANEYFELT. Yes; these positions were approximately the position
of the President and Governor Connally in the Zapruder films in the
area around frame 225 as they go behind the signboard and as they
emerge from the signboard.
Mr. SPECTER. Was the rod which is held in that photograph positioned
at an angle as closely parallel to the white string as it could be
positioned?
Mr. SHANEYFELT. Yes.
Mr. SPECTER. And through what positions did that rod pass?
Mr. SHANEYFELT. The rod passed through a position on the back of the
stand-in for the President at a point approximating that of the
entrance wound, exited along about the knot of the tie or the button
of the coat or button of the shirt, and the end of the rod was
inserted in the entrance hole on the back of Governor Connally's coat
which was being worn by the stand-in for Governor Connally.
Mr. SPECTER. And was Governor Connally's stand-in seated in the
position where the point of exit would have been below the right
nipple at the approximate point described by Governor Connally's
doctors?
Mr. SHANEYFELT. That is correct.
Senator COOPER. May I ask a couple of questions? Am I correct in
assuming that you have made these determinations about the degree of
the angle of the trajectory of the bullet at the time the President
was struck, locating the position of the President in the car on the
one hand, and the location of the rifle at the time the shots were
fired?
Mr. SHANEYFELT. The location of the wound, you mean the angle of the
wound?
Senator COOPER. Yes. .... You had to establish the position of the
President at the time the bullet struck him and the position of the
rifle to make a determination about the degree of the angle of the
direction?
Mr. SHANEYFELT. That is correct. The positions in the car, their
positions in the car, were based on the Zapruder film.
Senator COOPER. And you were able to determine what you think very
accurately the position of the President in the car by the films that
you have examined?
Mr. SHANEYFELT. Yes.
Senator COOPER. Then the factor then, which is not determinable
exactly, then is the location of the rifle, is that correct?
Mr. SHANEYFELT. That is correct.
Senator COOPER. Upon what did you determine the location of the rifle
upon what factors?
Mr. SHANEYFELT. The rifle was positioned in the sixth floor window of
the Book Building where the cartridges were found, and was determined
from information furnished by representatives of the Commission.
Senator COOPER. Did you have information about the location of certain
boxes that were seen--were found--at the window after the shooting
occurred?
Mr. SHANEYFELT. That is correct. Yes; we had photographs of the boxes
and we were advised, of the approximate position in the window and how
far down the window was, the fact that some observers noted the rifle
sticking out the window.
Senator COOPER. I want to ask you--you did have information from the
testimony of witnesses who said they saw the rifle protruding from the
window?
Mr. SHANEYFELT. We had this information furnished to us by the
Commission.
Senator COOPER. And those facts, those locations were made known to
you, and upon that evidence did you locate the rifle, in making these
calculations?
Mr. SHANEYFELT. That was the basis for the location of the rifle in
all of our calculations.
Senator COOPER. Just one other question. Assuming that there might
have been some variation in the location of the rifle, length of the
window, the breadth of the window, or that the rifle you used was held
higher than the rifle might have been...how much variation would it have
made, in your judgement, in these calculations you made?
Mr. SHANEYFELT. I don't believe that any movement of the rifle in that
specific window would alter our calculations to any appreciable degree
if you stay within that window, because our reenactment and our
repositioning of the bodies in the car based on the photographs is
subject to some variation, too, so we have variations throughout. And
the variations from the position of the rifle at that particular
window, I feel would be negligible.
Senator COOPER. At every point where you made it, hypothetically, at
least, made the determination that at a particular point the President
was struck by a bullet, at that point the car and the President could
be seen from the window?
Mr. SHANEYFELT. That is correct.
=============================
Every single thing about CE903 and the 5/24/64 re-creation that was performed by the FBI and Warren Commission in Dealey Plaza works out to "SBT perfection". And only someone who is totally blind (or someone who just doesn't WANT the Single-Bullet Theory to be true) could fail to see that obvious fact when examining the detailed record concerning this matter.
David Von Pein
October 30, 2008
