From: grant_jo@ripple.enet.dec.com (Joel Grant)
Subject: trajectories
Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation
Date:  4 SEP 92 17:51:48 PDT


re: _Best Evidence_

Harrison Livingstone does a pretty good number on Lifton's
daffy theory in HTII.

re: 3174  (Bruce Schuck)


>Lattimer , deliberately , left out any question of the angle
>the bullet went through JFK's body on the horizontal plane.

	Er, what do you mean by "deliberately"?  Do you mean
	something like: Lattimer believed the horizontal
	angle proved the bullet couldn't have come from
	the SE corner, 6th floor, TSBD - and "deliberately"
	withheld the information?  If you believe Lattimer
	did this, kindly present the evidence to support
	this claim?  If not, then, what exactly is your
	point?

>The bullet entered JFK's back 1 3/8 inches to the right
>of JFK's spine. Supposedly the bullet exited slightly to
>the right of the centreline of JFK's windpipe.

>JFK was looking to the right when this bullet traversed
>his body.

>Cyril Wecht says the horizontal angle from Oswalds supposed snipers
>position was 38 degrees. 

	And the HSCA says it was 26 degrees, based on a shot
	at frame 190.  I believe the angle was somewhat larger,
	as it seems quite clear that the first bullet struck
	JFK around frame 220.

	Personally, I am somewhat skeptical of all trajectory
	analysis of the shot that hit JFK in the upper back,
	because no one knows precisely where the car was or
	what position JFK was in at the precise moment of
	impact.  If Wecht's analysis is correct we're talking
	about a difference of a couple of inches out of
	150 or so feet.  This gets into "angels on the head
	of a pin" territory.

>Using a scale map of Dealey Plaza, I have mapped out the corresponding
>angles as they would have occurred in JFK's upper chest area.

>Accordingly, if JFK's upper chest was 4.5 inches thick -- which is
>ridiculously thin -- a bullet could have entered 1 3/8 inches to the
>right of his spine and exitted from the centreline of his throat if
>fired from the TSBD and JFK was looking straight ahead.

>If JFK was looking to the right [which he was] or his
>upper chest was thicker than 4.5 inches [it certainly was] then it
>would have been impossible for such a bullet to enter and exit where
>the WC and pro-WC supporters like Lattimer and Joel claim.
>The bullet would certainly have exitted an inch or more to the *left*
>of the centreline of JFK's throat.

>If the angles are mapped out, it clearly points towards a building
>closer to directly behind JFK as the firing point.

>The Dal-Tex and the County Records Building fit such criteria.

	Interestingly, no one saw any rifles being fired from
	those buildings, no one recovered any rifles from
	those buildings, and no bullets or bullet fragments
	matching any rifle but LHO's were ever recovered.
	
	Anyway, what the angles were depends entirely upon
	when you believe the shot was fired.  And, as I say,
	I have doubts that any of the precise analysis done
	can possibly be proved to be 100% accurate.

>Since the bullet also travelled in an upwards track -- according to
>the HSCA committee -- it is also clear that it was fired from a very
>low floor of the Dal-Tex or the County Records Building.

>In light of the above facts Joel, please recount Lattimers explanation
>for the *horizontal* angle through JFK's body in relation to the
>supposed 6th floor snipers nest in the TSBD.

	Lattimer doesn't address the horizontal angle.  My guess
	is that because both CE399 and the limo fragments came
	from LHO's gun, because six witnesses saw a rifle and/or
	a man firing a rifle from the 6th floor, SE corner,
	TSBD, there was no reason for him to do any independent
	testing on this matter.

	As for the matter of the vertical trajectory, in my opinion 
	Lattimer was off.  But that's getting ahead of the story.

Joel Grant (speaking on his own behalf)


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