# JFK Assassination **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 11, 2013, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jfk-assassination/649942 "2013-02-11T05:05:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![wedgehed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8edcca/32.png) [@wedgehed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wedgehed)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2013, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jfk-assassination/649942/101 "2013-02-14T15:04:30Z")
> [@NitroPress](#): > > I really don’t want to stand here being a WC chauvinist, but you’re welcome to list any significant t’s and i’s. I think you may be promoting the CT view of the commission - sloppy, inept, rushed, brief etc., none of which are true. Even the intensive re-examination came back with only one later-disproven addition. Just off the top of my head…the WC underestimated the amount of time that Oswald had to fire three shots. Again, off the top of my head, the WC went with six seconds vs Posner’s eight. Also, I was not aware of Connelly’s “lapel flap” until I read Posner. ---
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2013, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jfk-assassination/649942/102 "2013-02-14T15:13:02Z")
> [@spifflog](#): > > You asked, I answered. I asked somebody to search my history??? ---
**Author:** ![spifflog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c5a1d2/32.png) [@spifflog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spifflog)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2013, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jfk-assassination/649942/103 "2013-02-14T15:18:36Z")
> [@handsomeharry](#): > > I asked somebody to search my history??? Come one Harry. You asked: > [@handsomeharry](#): > > Why are you searching my history? Whenever something controversial comes up, why do people do this? I answered that some would check how or what you answer in the past, and wonder why a smart guy like you apprear to be would still be questioning this over so much time. But you knew this. ---
**Author:** ![wedgehed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8edcca/32.png) [@wedgehed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wedgehed)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2013, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jfk-assassination/649942/104 "2013-02-14T15:20:28Z")
> [@handsomeharry](#): > > I asked somebody to search my history??? No need to ask. That’s just a benefit provided by your CIA overlords. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2013, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jfk-assassination/649942/105 "2013-02-14T15:23:12Z")
The touchstone for ID’ing a conspiracy theorist is their finely-tuned selectivity. Note that harry has ignored all of my suggestions for broadening his understanding, but is in a complete lather because one of the participants here is…\* dunt dunt DUNNNN…\* checking up on him. _Shh, guys. He’s close to figuring it out. Act normal._ ---
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2013, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jfk-assassination/649942/106 "2013-02-14T15:28:10Z")
> [@spifflog](#): > > But you knew this. In good faith, I didn’t quite make the connection, so, I owe you an apology. Some whanker, a few years ago, went back into my history and used that to take the thread all over the place, and it has, since, made me a bit curmudgeonly. I would appreciate it if you overlook my swinishness in this matter! ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2013, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jfk-assassination/649942/107 "2013-02-14T15:32:29Z")
> [@Stealth\_Potato](#): > > Pretty easily, actually. A high-speed bullet travelling through the skull generally does not dump very much momentum into the head at large; however, it causes a lot of chaotic movement of the fluids and tissues inside, a large quantity of which are ejected through the exit wound. This ejecta acts like a miniature rocket; the conservation of momentum causes the head to be pushed back in the direction the bullet came from. > > If you have a rifle, a cantaloupe, and some duct tape, you can try it yourself. What would the duct tape be for? ---
**Author:** ![spifflog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c5a1d2/32.png) [@spifflog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spifflog)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2013, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jfk-assassination/649942/108 "2013-02-14T15:32:30Z")
No problem! Here to help 😛 ---
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2013, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jfk-assassination/649942/109 "2013-02-14T15:38:21Z")
> [@NitroPress](#): > > The touchstone for ID’ing a conspiracy theorist is their finely-tuned selectivity. Note that harry has ignored all of my suggestions for broadening his understanding, but is in a complete lather because one of the participants here is…\* dunt dunt DUNNNN…\* checking up on him. 1. Don’t start with the finely-tuned selectivity biz. When you have all of the anti-CT crowd clucking, you will find that the ‘selectivity’ button pretty much evens out. 2. As noted in my last post, some A-holes use past posts to change the subject. Calling hh a ‘whatever’, or implying same, can keep the issue clouded quite well. 3. Ignored your suggestions?? I just woke up, am in my underwear, haven’t got to my coffee yet, and can barely see the screen, and you want me to…do anything that \*anybody \*suggests? I think not!😉 ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2013, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jfk-assassination/649942/110 "2013-02-14T15:40:08Z")
> [@Lemur866](#): > > People have the idea, from watching movies, that when a person is shot they fly across the room from the force of it. Or, if they don’t fly across the room, they at least get shoved around a bit. > > But that’s because movies are fake. When you see a guy in a movie get shot, he flies across the room because he’s being pulled by wires… in the movie _Schindler’s List,_ I believe Spielberg had it that people executed by pistol flung their heads in the direction of the shot. ETA: that is, towards, not away, from the shooter. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2013, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jfk-assassination/649942/111 "2013-02-14T15:56:04Z")
> [@handsomeharry](#): > > Oh, I’ve put more on here since then. > Why are you searching my history? Whenever something controversial comes up, why do people do this? Pretty much everything is controversial in the formal sense, “dispute, argument, or debate, esp one concerning a matter about which there is strong disagreement and esp one carried on in public or in the press.” The problem is that people have come to view things that are controversial as having two equal sides. After all, if there people in public who are saying something loudly in a totally convinced tone then there must be something to it, right? Wrong. There is nothing to the other side in conspiracy theories. One of the many things that are fascinating about them is how chock full of nothing they are. They rip themselves from basic common sense with the first step and then proceed to float free of facts, science, logic, history, psychology, and plausibility. The pattern is uncannily similar with the “controversies” behind the Moon landing, 9/11, Obama’s birth, and now the Newtown shootings. There is absolutely no doubt about any of these events: we did land on the Moon six times, four planes did crash on 9/11, Obama was born in Hawaii, there was one shooter at Newtown. Controversy is only possible if you make claims that veer from ridiculously wrong to thoroughly insane. And the Kennedy shooting falls exactly into this pattern. Oswald did it, alone. All the rational questions have been answered rationally. Whenever a conspiracy theorist insists that up is down, white is black, and the lizard people are behind it all, it is not in the least controversial. It’s really a bit frightening. The Illuminati are not ruling the world: they don’t exist at all. But CTs do exist and that’s bad for all rational people. That’s why we’re concerned when someone spends decades on a CT. Some CTs kill people, like the anti-vaxxers. Some might be harmless delusions today, but who knows what horrors any long-term delusional thinking might produce. IT is not out there. There is only one side. That is not controversial. ---
**Author:** ![CurtC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ce73a5/32.png) [@CurtC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CurtC)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2013, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jfk-assassination/649942/112 "2013-02-14T16:31:54Z")
> [@Leo\_Bloom](#): > > in the movie _Schindler’s List,_ I believe Spielberg had it that people executed by pistol flung their heads in the direction of the shot. A reaction towards the shooter would only be the case if there was a large exit wound. I had the impression that pistols fired un-jacketed bullets and would probably not go clear through a skull. ---
**Author:** ![CurtC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ce73a5/32.png) [@CurtC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CurtC)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2013, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jfk-assassination/649942/113 "2013-02-14T16:40:16Z")
> [@ralph124c](#): > > About the only “mystery” regarding the hit, is Oswald’s weird relationship with the CIA. The guy is penniless, he winds up emigrating to Russia..then comes back, has the money to travel to Mexico City, meets with KGB agents? As has been noted, Oswald took the bus to Mexico City so it’s not like it was an expensive trip. Then he walks into the Russian embassy, and being a defector he could get in front of a KGB agent. Given that Oswald was squirrely, none of this implies that he had help. > [@](#): > > Something tells me that Oswald may well have been a double agent, or a double agent wannabe. He was a double agent wannabe. One of the things I recall from Posner’s research is that when LHO was a kid, he fantasized about this. There was an old radio show (IIRC) about a double agent and it was Oswald’s favorite. > [@](#): > > In any case, the CIA files on Oswald will probably never be revealed-they might have been destroyed-it wouldn’t do to have the country’s top spies associated with a presidential assassin. The CIA doesn’t release information about their people or methods. ---
**Author:** ![Crotalus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crotalus/32/41_2.png) [@Crotalus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crotalus)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2013, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jfk-assassination/649942/114 "2013-02-14T16:40:30Z")
> [@CurtC](#): > > A reaction towards the shooter would only be the case if there was a large exit wound. I had the impression that pistols fired un-jacketed bullets and would probably not go clear through a skull. There is plenty of FMJ pistol ammunition available. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2013, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jfk-assassination/649942/115 "2013-02-14T16:40:36Z")
> [@CurtC](#): > > A reaction towards the shooter would only be the case if there was a large exit wound. I had the impression that pistols fired un-jacketed bullets and would probably not go clear through a skull. Not steel jacketed anyway. [From here](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_bullet_theory): > [@](#): > > a three-centimeter (1.2")-long copper-jacketed lead-core 6.5-millimeter rifle bullet I don’t have a source, but I heard these bullets and the type of gun once called ‘humanitarian’ because of their ability to kill with a single clean shot instead of disintegrating within the body of the victim leaving them to die slowly from their wounds and later infections. If anyone can verify or deny the statement above, please do so. ---
**Author:** ![Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freddy_the_Pig)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2013, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jfk-assassination/649942/116 "2013-02-14T16:42:51Z")
> [@NitroPress](#): > > I really don’t want to stand here being a WC chauvinist, but you’re welcome to list any significant t’s and i’s. I haven’t read the 22 (or is it 26?) volumes, and don’t intend to, but my impression is that the WC never made the critical demonstration of how the “magic bullet” could be so lightly scratched. To a non-firearms person such as myself the magic bullet seemed wildly implausible, and lent instant credibility to CT’s. Until I read Posner I never read any coherent experiment-backed argument that the bullet _as slowed down by passage through Kennedy_ could break Connally’s bones without deforming. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2013, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jfk-assassination/649942/117 "2013-02-14T16:44:42Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > I don’t have a source, but I heard these bullets and the type of gun once called ‘humanitarian’ because of their ability to kill with a single clean shot instead of disintegrating within the body of the victim leaving them to die slowly from their wounds and later infections. > > If anyone can verify or deny the statement above, please do so. The purpose of force in combat is to disable, but not kill, as many enemy troops as possible, because while a corpse can be left until later, a wounded comrade must be rescued and treated, which ties up a substantial number of potential combatants and support personnel. Which is why the Geneva Convention restricts many common forms of “injurious” or “disabling” weapons in favor of those that kill cleanly. \ How odd you humans are. \ ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2013, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jfk-assassination/649942/118 "2013-02-14T16:48:08Z")
> [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](#): > > I haven’t read the 22 (or is it 26?) volumes, and don’t intend to, but my impression is that the WC never made the critical demonstration of how the “magic bullet” could be so lightly scratched. To a non-firearms person such as myself the magic bullet seemed wildly implausible, and lent instant credibility to CT’s. Until I read Posner I never read any coherent experiment-backed argument that the bullet _as slowed down by passage through Kennedy_ could break Connally’s bones without deforming. I think the problem is that the more detailed explanation is in the full report and only a misleading summary, with one photo, is in the summary that most people read and referred to. The photo of the magic bullet commonly seen shows it to be almost undamaged, while photos from other angles show substantial flattening and damage. They also did not get adequate testimony from ballistics and military medical personnel who encountered such things on a routine basis in WWII and Korea. It made it all seem patched-together and phony when yes, the commission probably could have done a better job with the point. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2013, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jfk-assassination/649942/119 "2013-02-14T16:58:21Z")
> [@NitroPress](#): > > I think the problem is that the more detailed explanation is in the full report and only a misleading summary, with one photo, is in the summary that most people read and referred to. The photo of the magic bullet commonly seen shows it to be almost undamaged, while photos from other angles show substantial flattening and damage. Yes, the usual photo is a high contrast black and white image taken at an angle that hides the missing chunk, and that it is twisted and bent like a banana. It’s one of the reasons why I discount anything Cyril Wecht says, and many other famous for their TV appearances forensic pathologists as well. ---
**Author:** ![UltraVires](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecccb3/32.png) [@UltraVires](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UltraVires)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2013, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jfk-assassination/649942/120 "2013-02-14T19:16:21Z")
> [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](#): > > And me as well! I was referring to his ownership of the strip clubs. 😛 D’oh! That’s what I get for not reading for comprehension. 🙂 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jfk-assassination/649942.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jfk-assassination/649942.md?page=7)