General Discussion

I believe that I read that Hinckley's bullet missed Reagan's aorta by an inch.

I have visited Dealy Plaza. The shots were not challenging.

Gerald Posner's book explores the order of the shots and the pathes of the bullets. Posner writes about the findings of a firm known as Failure Analysis. According to the firm's findings, the group of three shots took place over an interval of nine seconds. In looking at the Zapruder film, one sees Kennedy in the limousine moving towards the Stemmons Freeway sign which temporarily blocks his appearance on the film. When the president emerges from behind the sign, the president's arms and fists are raised up in an odd appearance. The Failure Analysis conclusion is that the president underwent what is known as the Thornburn Reaction. The second bullet grazed his spinal cord and set off an instantaneous neuorological reaction which caused the president's hands to clench and his arms to rise. Jackie turned to him in astonishment because of his raised arms. It was not apparent that the president had been hit, and no Secret Service agent was drawing any handgun in preparation to discharge it as some conspiracy theories state. As for the tragectory of that second bullet which traveled through the President's neck and struck Governor Connally, the governor related on Larry King Live the sequence of events which explains the bullet's path. The governor heard the first shot. Fearing that the president was hit, he turned to his right to look back to the rear seat of the limousine. At that time, the second bullet was fired, and it traveled through the president's neck, tumbled, and, in a broad-wise position, hit the back of the governor whose body had been turned part-way backward to view the president. To me, this theory is logical. I keep an open mind, and I am willing to process any new information which might come along. However, my opinion is that Oswald was the only shooter in Dealy Plaza that day. Whether some sinister party had prior knowledge of his intentions is another issue, but I strongly lean to the conclusion that this horrific tragedy constituted a crime of opportunity on the part of Oswald.