Not that this proves anything, it was just a "oh, I can tangibly see it" feeling that I didn't get from reading about it. For some reason the view from Oswald's window isn't in popular knowledge although you can find plenty of pictures.
Not that this proves anything, it was just a "oh, I can tangibly see it" feeling that I didn't get from reading about it. For some reason the view from Oswald's window isn't in popular knowledge although you can find plenty of pictures.
For the experiment they had all the measurements and distances, detailed ballistic dummies (with bones and whatnot), positioned properly (the Governor was on a smaller, lower jump seat, and sitting below the President), and they shot from a tower.
They had the same rifle, though not the actual rifle, and they had period ammunition from the same lot that Oswald used. Who knows where they dug that up. I also can’t speak to the atmospheric conditions but those would affect accuracy, not impact.
Only thing hey didn’t mimic was the actual motion. It was a stationary shot.
Sorry to be graphic here, but as I recall this was the shot that hit The President in the throat, passed through him and continued on to hit the Governor, twice, I believe. Through his arm and into his leg.
And you know what?
They did it. They replicated the shot. Was it 100%? No. But I’d call it 90+%.
The damage to the dummies was very similar, including deflection off the bones. They recovered the bullet and it was not perfect, but it was in very good shape. It was simple ball ammunition and did not expand like modern bullets can.
It was, to me, a very convincing demonstration about how little magic was in the original bullet.
Here's the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghmY6HmR4fs
For instance, I recall sitting next to a table of 9/11-truthers meeting up at a coffee shop. Their discussions kept circling back to the sheer implausibility of a fire causing structural beams to buckle. People don't have intuition for jet-fuel-hot fires; nor skyscraper-high gravitational potential energy. Similarly, the dynamics of a high-speed bullet is so far outside people's intuitions that they derisively call its behavior "magic."
I'd like to hope that at least problem 2) could be ameliorated if good laboratory-based educational experiences were widespread enough; the terribleness of everyday intuitions smacks you in the face quickly when you try to do even a basic experiment. On the other hand, maybe the old dictum holds true that education benefits those most who need it least.
They might, if they think for a few minutes about how metalworking works.
> I'd like to hope that at least problem 2) could be ameliorated if good laboratory-based educational experiences were widespread enough
I think a lot of this comes from people being alienated from working with the physical world. Blacksmiths probably have extremely accurate everyday intuitions about how metal behaves under extreme heat.
https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/02/politics/b-21-stealth-bomber-...
But who knows, maybe an intelligence or sapience from another world just wants to confuse people, or something similar in the long probability tail of life experience in this universe.
...who ordered the murder. Shooter is the least important factor considering how many enemies JFK had in the establishment. It is too easy to blackmail someone in performing the murder.
Especially if you have friends in the CIA.
From wikipedia: Ruby was known to have been acquainted with both the police and the Mafia. The HSCA said that Ruby had known Chicago mobster Sam Giancana (1908–1975) and Joseph Campisi (1918–1990) since 1947, and had been seen with them on many occasions.
"In July 1974, however, he was seized by police in Mexico City and shipped back to Chicago. One year later he was bullet-riddled in his home in Oak Park, Ill., by unknown assailants. He had been scheduled to appear before the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee to discuss his alleged involvement in a Central Intelligence Agency plot to assassinate Fidel Castro in the early 1960s."
Source: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Sam-Giancana
So, the guy was involved and worked with the CIA. Meaning, CIA could have been involved, too.
And they conveniently offed him to prevent him to talk. Such class.
So, yea, the depository is a perfect location to shoot onto that route. This in and of itself is a massive problem.
Presidential security in 1963 wasn't what it is today. For example, JFK would stop his car to go mingle with the crowd. There's a photo on this audio recording from Miami in 1963 [1].
There are parallels with 9/11. Prior to 9-11, people would generally go along peacefully with hijackers. Why? Because they knew the "routine". The hijackers would fly the plane somewhere, land it, make demands, make noise for their political cause and, more often than not, people would get to go home. Harrowing for sure. But the general public didn't conceive of planes being used as cruise missiles. We all know post-9/11 was so much security theater but it was also largely unnecessary because people were now aware they could be used as a missile so were less likely to simply go along with demands.
JFK's assassination changed the threat modelling and protection by the Secret Service of the president. In spite of that, Ronald Reagan was shot by an assailant [2] without any great planning or mass conspiracy.
Now it's all bulletproof motorcades with armor plating to survive running over a land mine. It's Secret Service vetting every audience member at a live event. It's mapping out and securing any potential sniper positions. None of that was true to the same degree in 1963.
[1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ep_NiYKrcC0
[2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attempted_assassination_of_Ron...
EDIT: Here's a video of someone replicating the shots with that rifle. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghmY6HmR4fs The comments also point out other factors that could have made the shot easier.
Also, the car only started accelerating after the hit was made, and it was fairly axial to the bullet trajectory. I dunno know about you, but I can reload a bolt action rifle without dropping aim in under a second. It’s using the rifle as it was designed to be used.
It wasn’t a good shot. It was a lucky shot. One he clearly didn’t fully prepare to land, otherwise he probably wouldn’t have been arrested shortly after in a nearby movie theater. It was hardly sophisticated, and its success hinged almost entirely on blind luck and circumstance, which is the most difficult scenario to protect against.