ROBERT HARRIS SAID:
We both know (or think we know) that one bullet passed through Kennedy and Connally.
DAVID VON PEIN SAID:
Of course one bullet passed through both men. And that one bullet had no choice but to be bullet #CE399. (Notwithstanding a conspiracy theorist's unfounded speculation about that particular bullet being a fake, of course.)
1.) The autopsy doctors determined that one bullet passed through JFK.
2.) The Warren Commission determined that one bullet "probably" passed through both JFK and John Connally. They were being soft on the terminology, of course, in order to keep from saying that one bullet POSITIVELY passed through the victims.
3.) The HSCA determined that the SBT is true.
To believe that the SBT is untrue and that the back-wound bullet to JFK did not exit, a person has to throw all logic out the window and pretend that TWO bullets went into Kennedy (with neither bullet exiting the President's body) and then both of those bullets vanished. And that's just plain silly.
And to believe in some weird alternate "SBT, But Not The WC's SBT" (which is what a kook named Bob Harris believes), a person must get within about an inch of accepting the obviously-true "WC/CE399" version of the SBT, but not quite accepting it, and instead make up a bunch of junk from whole cloth to postulate an "Anti-SBT SBT" theory (as Robert Harris has done). And that's just plain silly, too.
ROBERT HARRIS SAID:
But the problem is that nobody heard that shot, not even Connally who was wounded by it. Instead, they heard the next shot that most of them thought hit Connally and that Mrs. Kennedy thought hit her husband.
DAVID VON PEIN SAID:
Let's take a look at things from the standpoint of RAW FACTS and PHYSICAL EVIDENCE:
1.) Three shots (and only three shots) were fired at JFK's car on 11/22/63. (This fact is based on the 90%+ of witnesses who heard THREE OR FEWER shots fired; plus #2 below.)
2.) Exactly three empty shell casings were found beneath the Sniper's Nest window on the 6th Floor of the TSBD.
3.) No bullets were found inside JFK's neck or upper-back regions.
4.) No substantial damage was done to JFK's upper back or neck that would cause anyone to believe that ANY bullets could have suddenly stopped dead in their tracks after entering the President in these areas of his body (let alone having TWO bullets stop their flight paths for no apparent reason whatsoever, which is what almost all conspiracy theorists firmly believe, save Robert Harris and maybe three other CTers in the world).
5.) This verbiage appears in JFK's autopsy report:
"The missile contused the strap muscles of the right side of the neck, damaged the trachea and made its exit through the anterior surface of the neck. As far as can be ascertained this missile struck no bony structures in its path through the body." [Warren Report; Pg. 543]
6.) Robert A. Frazier of the FBI, after looking through the scope of Lee Harvey Oswald's Mannlicher-Carcano rifle from the vantage point of the sixth-floor Sniper's Nest window during the WC/FBI 5/24/64 reconstruction of the shooting in Dallas, said this to the Warren Commission:
"In my opinion, the bullet had to strike in the car, either the car itself or an occupant of the car. .... In fact, I think...it is obvious when you look at the photographs themselves that the crosshair of the telescopic sight actually would give you the point of impact of the bullet if the weapon is sighted in and if there is no change in the line of sight the bullet had to strike the cars [sic] shown in each of these photographs, which is frame 225 on this end of this series, and frame 207 on the other end of the series. It shows that there would be no chance for the bullet to miss the car at all if it had...no deflection in its path."
[5 H 169]
ROBERT HARRIS SAID:
The question is, what did Mrs. Kennedy, Mrs. Connally, and the others hear that made them mistakenly believe that one of the victims was wounded at that instant. I'm sure you are as eager as I am to figure that out. So, when do you think Mrs. Connally and Mrs. Kennedy suffered an hallucination, thinking their spouses were hit? I think if we pool our analytical skills, we can solve this mystery David!
DAVID VON PEIN SAID:
In short -- There is absolutely NOTHING in the collective testimony of Jacqueline Kennedy, Nellie Connally, John Connally, Roy Kellerman, and William Greer that would definitively eliminate the possibility of one bullet striking both President Kennedy and Governor Connally at Zapruder Film frame #224.
And I think I make a pretty good case to back up that last paragraph in the October 2007 Internet message linked here (at least as far as Nellie Connally's and John Connally's observations are concerned).
Robert Harris has elected to elevate the testimony of the limousine's occupants to ridiculous levels of ASSUMED ACCURACY. But such an exercise is, again, just plain silly.
Witness testimony can, indeed, be very helpful. No question about that. Such as the stat I cited earlier regarding the "90%-plus" of the Dealey Plaza earwitnesses who heard three shots or fewer, which is an ironclad fact that, surprisingly, even very few conspiracy promoters seem to dare ever challenge.
But to think that the limo occupants (or any of the witnesses in Dealey Plaza) are going to each recall those unexpected, horrific few seconds with pinpoint precision and accuracy when it comes to specific, detailed timing issues relating to the shooting is just too much to hope for.
But, since Robert "Z285" Harris has a specific (subjective) theory to peddle, he needs to rely on certain things that were said by the limo witnesses. And Bob needs to place a great deal of faith in his wholly subjective and unique analysis of the silent Zapruder Film too. Otherwise, Bob's "Z285" theory goes sliding down the drain (which is where it deserves to reside, of course).
David Von Pein
November 9-10, 2009
