JFK Myths: A Scientific Investigation of the Kennedy Assassination

Customer Reviews

• Author: Joe Elliott
  
  I like this book quite a bit. On the whole, I think he provides a scenario with some minor improvements over Gerald Posner's "Case Closed" scenario.
  
  It does make more sense to me if James Tague was wounded from a fragment from the third and final shot, if only because the sixth floor window, the position of the limousine at frame 313 and James Tague form a pretty straight line on a map, all that's needed is to have a fragment deflected slightly upwards to reach Mr. Tague. Likely, some fragments were not deflected high enough and struck the windshield, others were deflected slightly higher and continued on toward James Tague. It is not even necessary for a fragment to hit the curb and still have enough energy to kick loose a chip which hit James Tague. It is at least as likely that one fragment could have struck the curb and another struck James Tague.
  
  More importantly, Mr. Sturdivan makes a good case that the first bullet was probably fired too soon to have hit the tree. Using the "Jiggle Analysis" pins down the timing of the shots more accurately, I think.
  
  There is one glaring problem. On page 160 (Chapter 8) and on page 300 (Appendix D), Mr. Sturdivan seems to accept, if I understand him correctly, Dr. Crenshaw's estimate of the speed the president was thrown backwards as 80 to 100 feet per second (should it be 80 to 100 feet per minute?). This estimate is wildly off. Josiah Thompson, in his book, Six Seconds in Dallas, has a much more accurate estimate, an estimate endorsed by Dr. Kenneth Rahn. The president's head fell back about 8 inches during frames 313 through 321, until his head hit the seat behind him. This works out to about 1.5 feet per second or 0.5 meters per second. While the math in Appendix D is quite correct, the error in observation in the Zapruder film leads to what I believe is a faulty conclusion, that the physical effects of a bullet could not throw the president back hard enough to match what is observed in the Zapruder film.
  
  Also, the section in Chapter 8 on the "Jet Effect" could use improvement. It is, in theory, possible for a target to be propelled toward the rifle with more momentum than the momentum contained by the bullet just before it struck the target. If the jet of material contains twice the momentum of the original bullet, the target will definitely move backwards with one to two times the momentum of the original bullet, depending on how much momentum remains with the bullet or it's fragments. If the jet of material contains three times the momentum of the original bullet, the target will definitely move backwards with two to three times the momentum of the original bullet.
  
  But Mr. Sturdivan seems to believe that the target could not move toward the rifle with more momentum than the bullet originally had, at least, not due to the "Jet Effect" or by any other physical effect.
  
  Running some rough calculations:
  
  * The momentum of the bullet was around 5.852 kms.
  
  * The president weighted around 80 kg.
  
  * Only the upper 50 k of his body moved backwards in frames 313 through 321, when he hit the seat behind him.
  
  * The upper 50 k did not move backwards uniformly but rotated back, with the top of the head moving at 0.5 ms, equivalent to 25 k moving uniformly back at 0.5 ms.
  
  * The amount of momentum was 25 k * 0.5 ms or 12.5 kms.
  
  The president was thrown back and to the left with about twice the momentum of the bullet, which means the "Jet Effect" may be the proper explanation why he fell back and to the left, exactly the opposite direction of the forward blood splatter seen on the Zapruder film.
  

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