{"id":1339,"date":"2011-06-09T06:38:53","date_gmt":"2011-06-09T10:38:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/?page_id=1339"},"modified":"2011-06-09T06:38:53","modified_gmt":"2011-06-09T10:38:53","slug":"understanding-evidentiary-video-point-2","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/understanding-evidentiary-video-point-2\/","title":{"rendered":"UNDERSTANDING EVIDENTIARY VIDEO: Point #2"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s about what I call \u201cwitness dynamics,\u201d one element of which is, if we don\u2019t know what to look for, we won\u2019t look for it; and if we don\u2019t look for it, we won\u2019t see it.<\/p>\n

In forensic evidence, I can think of no more classic example than what is probably the most heavily \u201cwitnessed\u201d homicide in human history: the assassination of President John Kennedy in Dallas on November 22, 1963. Countless millions of people have seen Abraham Zapruder\u2019s film of Kennedy\u2019s death, taken with an 8mm Bell & Howell home movie camera that was running 18 frames per second and change.<\/p>\n

And most of those people believed they saw Kennedy grab his throat, and Governor Connally in front of him slump forward sometime thereafter, convincing them of the \u201cimpossible magic bullet theory\u201d and that the two men couldn\u2019t possibly have been hit by the same bullet, as the Warren Commission concluded.<\/p>\n

Trouble was, they were wrong, and the next time you watch the Zapruder film you\u2019ll see that the evidence does in fact indicate a single bullet. First, Kennedy never grabs his throat. His arms and hands curl up in what Dr. John Lattimer may have been the first to recognize as Thorburn\u2019s Reflex, a neurological response to trauma to the spinal chord in the area of the sixth cervical vertebra; autopsy showed a displacement of C6 that would have impinged at exactly that point. In the exact same frame, we see Connally\u2019s right suitcoat lapel blow outward \u2013 forward, into the wind coming into the moving, open-top limousine \u2013 at exactly the spot where physicians at Parkland discovered a bullet had exited his chest. The same bullet then strikes Connally\u2019s right wrist, causing a radial nerve reaction that flips into the air the white Stetson hat he has been holding in that hand.<\/p>\n

Screen captures are below, courtesy of an enhanced version of the Zapruder film courtesy of Dr. Michael West and sharp-eyed journalist Johann Rush, who was the first to spot the hat flip many, many years after the Zapruder film\u2019s release to the public. (The flip of the Governor\u2019s lapel, to my knowledge, was first spotted by Failure Analysis Associates, also many years after both the 1963 incident and the 1967 public release of the film.) <\/em>The small arrow indicating JFK\u2019s hands going into the Thorburn\u2019s Reflex are from West and Rush, while the large arrows indicating hat flip and lapel flip were put in for this blog entry.<\/p>\n

Though it appears that the Warren Commission didn\u2019t spot these two details either \u2013 because they didn\u2019t look for them \u2013 these two evidentiary points indicate that they were right about a single bullet going through Kennedy\u2019s neck, and Connally\u2019s chest and right wrist\/forearm area, stopping in Connally\u2019s leg.<\/p>\n

The learning points once again: IF WE DON\u2019T KNOW WHAT TO LOOK FOR, WE WON\u2019T LOOK FOR IT, AND IF WE DON\u2019T LOOK FOR IT, WE WON\u2019T SEE IT. This can result in us seeing something we were told to see\u2026instead of what actually happened.<\/p>\n

The limo emerges from behind billboard in frame 223. Governor Connally is facing the camera, Jacqueline Kennedy directly behind him<\/strong><\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

At frame 225, President Kennedy, left, goes into Thorburn’s Reflex, hands and forearms rising. Large arrow shows Governor Connally’s right lapel, flat against his chest in frame 223, now blowing outward at the point where a bullet exit wound was found in his chest.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

As the President’s hands continue to rise, watch the Governor’s white hat.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Small arrow courtesy researchers Johann Rush and Michael West shows hat flipping upward, consistent with reflex from gunshot wound to radial nerve area, in frame 228. Camera was running slightly faster than 18 frames per second.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s about what I call \u201cwitness dynamics,\u201d one element of which is, if we don\u2019t know what to look for, we won\u2019t look for it; and if we don\u2019t look for it, we won\u2019t see it. In forensic evidence, I can think of no more classic example than what is probably the most heavily \u201cwitnessed\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":6428,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1339","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1339","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1339"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1339\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6428"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}