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WEAK_HEADS
November 25, 2013
December 19, 2013
UR_CONSPIRACY
As I skim through the JFK-assassination material out
there now-- this is the first time I've thought about ASSASSINATION_DON
this in the webbed-up world-- I'm often disappointed
by the display of logic out there.
The film/video "The Case for Conspiracy" starts
out, appropriately enough with the Zapruder film,
in this case the version with the frames restored
that were mangled when Life Magazine got a hold
of it (I swear, some of this stuff was done just
to wind people up)-- the sequence they see:
(1) immediately before the shooting, JFK was
looking to the right; (2) then JFK appears to Then (as they tell it): a
suddenly look closer to center, in the direction shot from JFK's right-front,
of the grassy knoll; (3) then he waves for a entering the side of the
moment; (4) and then he was hit by a bullet in head, and blowing out the
the throat, fired from in front, which is why left-rear; plus a book
he's clutching at it. repository shot, which hit
Connolly.
Their interpretation of this is that the
reason he looked over just before being hit
is that he heard the sound of a shot: there
was a bullet fired at that moment that had
missed. This is certainly a very plausible
interpretation-- but they then act as
though this is a proven fact. The narrator In general, "The Case
practically begins ranting about how this for Conspiracy" doesn't
shot wasn't mentioned at all in the Warren do a bad job on it's
report, and so on. case-- it has a number
of impressive things,
It strikes me that a sudden glance might be such as the long litany
explained by any number of things-- of hospital staff
e.g. perhaps he noticed Zapruder filming. looking at the autopsy
photos put forward by
the Warren Comission,
and insisting that JFK
actually had a nasty
exit wound on the
right-rear side of his
head...
(The narrator goes off
the rails at a few other
points, though.)
Then consider the video
"JFK Head Shot
Recreation" --
"JFK Head Shot Recreation"
This purports to be an expert http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RCX3RdVHqo
recreation of the assasination (Posted by a Nelson Smith,
scene, working with extremely without any other attribution...)
realistic high-tech mock-up
heads as targets. They try
shots from different angles,
in a setting that emulates the
distances and angles of Dealey
Plaza.
They spend so much time trying to
establish how wonderful these high-tech
heads are that I wondered what was going
on... (I just fast-forwarded through most
of it). It's funny watching them do their A point of contention is whether
recreations: while the heads may be the various films really show
spiffy, the artificial necks and bodies what we think they do: Kennedy's
they're mounting them on are too stiff, head blown backwards from a shot
and don't react correctly at all... from the front. These mock-up
heads don't move in response to
the shots, and so don't help on
a key point.
They've got a couple of interesting bits:
(1) they lead with the claim that any professional
assassin would use a soft point round, and they
show that it would completely obliterate the head. I know nothing
Oswald was supposed to be using jacketed rounds, about this issue,
however, and when they switch to those you see but I can contrive
visible wounds in an intact head, as expected from reasons a pro would
the films of the scene. use jacketed ammo,
e.g. to make it
(2) they make a show of setting up a grassy look more like an
knoll shot (picket fence edition), which in amateur hit.
their reconstruction would be a shot from the
right, not really a shot from in front. They
show you a shot made from that side, point at
the exit wound on the far side of the head, Unless it came from a
and go "Wow, that would've hit Jackie!". slightly different
Since Jackie was not hit, they conclude that angle than their test
they've conclusively disproven the possibility shot. Several degrees
of a grassy knoll shot... to the left or right
and it would miss her.
(In retrospect, this one And there's something funny about
point makes the whole the angles in their reconstruction.
production smell very bad: If you take a look at any map of the
it looks like a tremendously scene, it's hard to see how a
elaborate con job to prop up picket-fence guy would get that shot
the Warren Commission at the right profile... it'd be more
version of events-- who like a three-quarter view.
would care this much at this
late date to do this?)
They use a large fan in front of the target to
simulate the wind that was supposed to be blowing
that day. This is shown blowing head fragments
toward the rear of the car, even when they
initially are blown forward by a rear shot.
They point to some head-goo on the front of the
windshield, and a large skull fragment on the back
trunk, which neatly explains what Jackie was
reaching for.
I would double-check the weather report myself.
And the claim that that gigantic fan was
an appropriate simulation of the wind...
Anyway, to sum up: the logic of pro
and anti conspiracy people often seems
challenged, but in this pairing, I
think the "The Case for Conspiracy"
comes off much better.
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