The Kennedy Assassination

[Capt. Windh]

I am quite interested in the JFK-assassination and just wonder what the lot here thinks about it...

Single gunman? Shot from the Grassy Knoll? LHO? Faked/altered evidence?

 

[Apollo 11]

Why we're bringing up the death of a great man I have no clue but I believe in one shot from the TSBD.

 

[Capt. Windh]

Just wondering if anyone here was interested. here are many users interested in physics and there are a lot of physics in the case.

 

[agentgonzo]

Single gunman. Three shots from the 6th floor of the TSBD (the last one was the fatal one I seem to remember). Conspiracy enthusiasts seem to be in the same league as the moon-landing-hoax crowd.

 

[Xantcha]

I think the man was killed, may be even was shot.
I am probably very close to truth

 

[Urwumpe]

Also, it is interesting that most theorists assume the other shooters to be close to good echo sources...

The problem is not that Kennedy got killed. At that time, in the USA many people got killed. Call it minority vote. The problem is, that there had never been a real process investigating the crime. It was made secret too fast, and with many missing answers. For example how the single shooter was able to fire as fast as expert snipers of the army with a rather primitive rifle.

I think for me personally, that the suspected guy that later was killed, was just a pawn in a very bad game.

 

[agentgonzo]

For example how the single shooter was able to fire as fast as expert snipers of the army with a rather primitive rifle.

Because he was trained to use a rifle in the marines and attained sharpshooter qualification.

 

[Linguofreak]

Single gunman. Three shots from the 6th floor of the TSBD (the last one was the fatal one I seem to remember). Conspiracy enthusiasts seem to be in the same league as the moon-landing-hoax crowd.

I've heard one conspiracy theory that was halfways sensible, but it only involved how the thing was planned, and the execution was no different than the official story. (Oswald as a single gunman from the TSBD and all).

Basically, it involved a few people with independent grudges against Kennedy getting together to put together a plan to bump him off. It involved the Mafia, but just a boss or two with a grudge rather than a massive plot by the whole organization and all.

 

[Urwumpe]

Because he was trained to use a rifle in the marines and attained sharpshooter qualification.

Yes, but he fired faster and more accurate as 90% of all with sharpshooter qualification, using modern semiautomatic rifles. If Oswald did it, he would have required not only a better rifle, but also much more experience, as he officially had (He just achieved two and one point above the minimum requirements for becoming sniper).

The italian-build Rifle he used, was also completely different to the M1 rifle he was trained for long before the assassination.

So, the question for me is not: Did Oswald do it? The evidence for that point is clear from a investigation point of view (ballistic analysis of projectiles and rifle).

The question is: Who did he train him after leaving the Marine Corps and where was he able to practice shooting like that before the Dallas assassination? There was no good investigation of this part of his background. He was in the USSR for some years (1959 - 1962), but seen as possible infiltrator of the US. Officially he had no chance to get rifle training there - it must have happened after he returned in June 1962, unless the USSR information is wrong. He had only 17 months from return to the USA to the JFK Shootings.

I think, there is more behind the killing of JFK, as a simple aggressive maniac with bad childhood.

 

[Deke]

Why he was killed can be open to suggestions, but who killed him is obvious.

Single gunman, three shots, third was fatal, as someone already said.

Lee Harvey Oswald was already an accomplished marksman in the military. However, he was firing at a moving vehicle, first shot missed and you can see in the archival footage of JFK and the Governor looking around after hearing it, then the second shot enters the back of the president's neck and into the shoulder of the governor, you can see they are hit and in pain. The third shot, obviously striking the president in the back of his head.

None of this grassy knoll junk, none of these random gun shots.

Three shots, that's all.

 

[Missioncmdr]

I would hate to sound like some sort of conspirator, but if you have ever seen the Zapruder film, you can see Kennedy's head fly back as if the final shot came from the front (from his perspective). And clue as to what caused that?

 

[GregBurch]

I would hate to sound like some sort of conspirator, but if you have ever seen the Zapruder film, you can see Kennedy's head fly back as if the final shot came from the front (from his perspective). And clue as to what caused that?

Have you ever seen any other large mammal shot in the head? It's not uncommon for the explosive compression of the cerebral matter to basically act as a "rocket" out of the exit wound. Also, there's a lot of jerking around from muscle contractions.

1 gun, 1 shooter, 3 shots from behind, all lined up along the same declining line. It's not that hard. I go by there relatively frequently going to and from the courthouses in Dallas, which are in sight of the spot. It was good shooting, but not at all beyond what a very good marksman can accomplish.

 

[Missioncmdr]

Have you ever seen any other large mammal shot in the head?

Actually, no.

But thanks for the explanation.

 

[BigDAS]

Jump over here and read all sorts of opinions and theories.

 

[jgrillo2002]

actually there were 2 men. last year. congress opened the JFK archives and discovered that there were two people. Oswald and someone else

 

[spcefrk]

There have been numerous recreations of the final shot causing the infamous "back and to the left" motion, and a bullet from the front causes the opposite motion. Using the same rifle and bullet types, testing on various targets all show that the exit wound effectively creates a nozzle forcing the head back away from the exit wound.

The entry wound doesn't impart much force -- the bullet is very thin and the skull doesn't really have the right material properties to absorb the momentum of the bullet and cause any sort of a forward motion. The exit wound blows a rather large opening and the bullet carries with it plenty of brain and skull which (assuming you all recall your Newtonian physics) imparts a change in momentum forcing the skull away from the motion of the bullet and brain matter.

So I think anyone is hard pressed to prove at least from a scientific standpoint that the final shot came from anywhere but the Book Depository behind Kennedy at the time. I also find it hard to believe that it was a convoluted conspiracy but rather one more result of the turmoil of the late 1960s. I tend to agree with Urwumpe's information as it corroborates a lot of other information I've seen, though having played around with the JFK game recreating the incident (with reload time and all) it does seem pretty possible to get off the necessary three shots, but Oswald would have needed a great deal of practice to get his coordination down. I wonder why he opted not to use the rifle he trained on though...

actually there were 2 men. last year. congress opened the JFK archives and discovered that there were two people. Oswald and someone else

Do you have a link to that?

 

[Kyle]

I was watching the show UFO Hunters, it was about NASA and UFOs.
Bill Burns said "NASA never even went to the moon, how can they cover up stuff about UFOs?"

 

[Dr Pepper]

...though having played around with the JFK game recreating the incident (with reload time and all) it does seem pretty possible to get off the necessary three shots, but Oswald would have needed a great deal of practice to get his coordination down. I wonder why he opted not to use the rifle he trained on though...

Cost? It was probably cheaper to get the rifle he used rather than a M1. Also, who says he didn't have time to practice his skills with the rifle used in the killing before he actually used it to kill JFK? That would easily explain how he got good enough to get off the three shots so quickly, using what he learned in the Marines plus plenty of practice time on the range.

 

[Capt. Windh]

Have you ever seen any other large mammal shot in the head? It's not uncommon for the explosive compression of the cerebral matter to basically act as a "rocket" out of the exit wound. Also, there's a lot of jerking around from muscle contractions.

1 gun, 1 shooter, 3 shots from behind, all lined up along the same declining line. It's not that hard. I go by there relatively frequently going to and from the courthouses in Dallas, which are in sight of the spot. It was good shooting, but not at all beyond what a very good marksman can accomplish.

Hi Greg.

Well, this is what´s commonly referred to as the "jet effect"..

Sure it´s plausible, but I would bet on that the "back and to the left" motion is rather a neuro-muscular reaction to the total collapse of the nervous system.

About the Z-film: If you look close enough, you actually see that the head instantly snaps FORWARD after the hit, then back and to the left. Check it out:

http://users.skynet.be/mar/Eng/Headshot/back&left-eng.htm

 

[Native Son]

It doesn't matter anymore. The man was killed forty years ago. I have no more sympathy for him than the rest of Americans that are mercilessly killed each day.