From: grant_jo@ripple.enet.dec.com (Joel Grant)
Newsgroups: alt.conspiracy.jfk
Subject: The First Shot
Date: 12 Jan 93 22:42:54 GMT
Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation
NNTP-Posting-Host: RIPPLE


In article <1993Jan6.112827.1@cc.newcastle.edu.au> Big Al writes:

|to Joel Grant (and others?)

|The HSCA photo panel chose frame Z-162 for the first shot. You support it.

|So what do you think this bullet did?


	It missed.   ;^)

	As for why it missed or what happened to it, I really don't
	know.  Some people think that it hit the pavement, fragmented,
	and then a portion hit the curb near James Tague.  I suppose
	that's possible, but I'm not at all certain this could line
	up, horizontally or vertically.

	There are something like six eyewitnesses who report what	
	they assume was a bullet hitting the pavement behind the
	limo.  I think that Royce Skelton reported seeing two bullets
	hit Elm street, one closer to Houston and Elm, another closer
	to the triple underpass.  It is very difficult to judge just
	what they saw, exactly when they saw it, or where the bullet
	struck, since their accounts conflict somewhat.

	Some people think it was deflected by the tree on the grassy
	strip between "Old Elm" and Elm Street, but if it was fired
	early enough for Connally to have reacted by 162, I don't
	think the tree was in the way.  CE875, in Vol. XVII of the
	Hearings shows remarkably good views from the window of the
	SE corner, 6th flr., TSBD.  The photos were taken so as to
	closely ape the view one would actually have, sitting in that
	window, as opposed to the distorted view of the camera.

	Anyway, it was a re-enactment, starting with a limo (though
	not with the jump seats) turning onto Houston from Main St.,
	turning onto Elm from Houston, and then traveling down
	Elm St.  The pictures were taken on December 5, 1963, so
	you can get an excellent view of the tree as it was less
	than two weeks after the assassination.  Sadly, the many
	flowers and wreaths laid near the south curb of Elm at 
	about the spot of the fatal shot are eerily visible.
	You can see the spot where Zapruder stood, the area of
	the picket fence, in fact the whole scene.

	The pictures do not correspond to z-frames, so all you
	can do is guess.  Since in the re-enactment staged
	later by the FBI the tree does not block the view until
	frame 166, you can use that as a rough guide.  The only
	object prior to that point that could even remotely be
	responsible for deflecting the bullet is the stoplight
	just past the corner, but something tells me that a
	FMJ rifle bullet hitting that overhanging metal would make a
	very noticable noise.

	He missed this one, perhaps having pulled the slack on
	the trigger, possibly creating a hair-trigger situation.
	(HSCA firearms panel said it wasn't a hair trigger, but
	they didn't comment on whether or not pulling the slack
	would turn it into a hair trigger, as Cortland Cunningham
	suggested.)

	I would like to think the third shot missed, but Connally's
	reactions starting at 162 are so in tune with his testimony
	that it is hard for me to deny that his contortions are a
	reaction to the sound of a rifle exploding.



Joel Grant (speaking on his own behalf)