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Title: How steel back brace made JFK a sitting duck in Dallas
Source:
The Standard
URL Source: http://www.thestandard.com.hk/stdn/std/Opinion/FK27Df02.html
Published: Sep 9, 2009
Author: James Reston
Post Date: 2009-09-09 21:10:18 by Turtle
Keywords: None
Views: 1903
Comments: 135
Two years ago, historian Robert Dallek revealed new details about the extraordinary range of shots, stimulants and pills former United States President John F Kennedy took to control his physical pain and present his youthful image to the world. Important and interesting as these details are, they should not distract us from the one medical remedy that probably killed the president: his corset. Members of Kennedy's inner circle had often witnessed the painful ritual that Kennedy endured in his private quarters before he ventured in public, when his valet would literally winch a steel-rodded canvas back brace around the president's torso, pulling heavy straps and tightening the thongs loop by loop as if it was a bizarre scene out of Gone With the Wind. Once in it, the president was planted upright, trapped and almost bolted into a ramrod posture. Many would wonder how JFK could ever move in such a contraption. And yet move he did, and, besides his painkillers, his corset contributed to the youthful, high-shouldered military bearing that he presented glamorously to the world. But this simple device imparted a fate almost Mephistophelean in its horror to the sequence of events in Dallas 41 years ago. In researching my biography of governor John Connally of Texas 15 years ago, I was led to the critical importance of Kennedy's corset in the ghastly six seconds in November 1963 by a former Texas senator, the late Ralph Yarborough, who was in the motorcade that day. Yarborough growled softly about that ``damned girdle,'' and this led me to the remarks of two doctors, Charles James Carrico and Malcolm Oliver Perry, buried in Volume 3 of the 26-volume set of testimony that attended the Warren Commission report. In November 1963, Carrico was the 28-year-old resident in the emergency room of Parkland Hospital who first received the injured president in the trauma room; Perry came quickly to the emergency room to supervise the case - and then to pronounce the president dead a half-hour later. Before the Warren Commission, Carrico told of removing Kennedy's back brace in the first seconds after his arrival. He described the device as made of coarse white fibre, with stays and buckles. Apart from the never-ending controversy over how many bullets Lee Harvey Oswald actually fired from the Texas School Book Depository, most experts agree with the Warren Commission that Oswald's first bullet passed cleanly through Kennedy's lower neck, missing any bone, then entered Connally's back, streaking through the governor's body and lodging in his thigh. This was the first so-called magic bullet. When Connally was hit, he pivoted in pain to his left, his lithe body in motion as it swivelled downward, ending up in the lap of his wife, Nellie. But because of the corset, Kennedy's body did not act as a normal body would when the bullet passed through his throat. Held by his back brace, Kennedy remained upright, according to the Warren Commission, for five more seconds. This provided Oswald the chance to reload and shoot again at an almost stationary target. The frames of the Zapruder film confirm this ramrod posture: Kennedy's head turns only slightly in those eternal seconds, and his upper body almost not at all, from frame 225 (when the first shot entered his neck) to the fatal frame of 313. Without the corset, the force of the first bullet, travelling at a speed of 600 metres a second, would surely have driven the president's body forward, making him writhe in pain like Connally, and probably down in the seat of his car, beyond the view of Oswald's cross hairs for a second or third shot. With no bones struck and the spinal cord intact, the president almost certainly would have survived the wound from the first bullet. Both Carrico and Perry testified to this likelihood (and apropos of the decades-long controversy, both testified that the small, round, clean wound in the front of Kennedy's neck was an exit wound rather than an entry wound). To Perry, under the questioning of then-assistant counsel - now senator from Pennsylvania - Arlen Specter, the injury was ``tolerable''; the president would have recovered. Because the bullet had passed below the larynx, the wound would not even have impaired his speech later. In the new focus on cortisone shots, codeine painkillers, barbiturates, stimulants such as Ritalin, and gamma globulin injections, the simple corset needs to be emphasised, tragically, in the context of those medical strategies Kennedy used to create the illusion of the vigorous leader.
Poster Comment: I've always been amused by Kennedy "experts" who've pontificated to me about three shooters, the grassy knoll, his driver shot him...and not one of them knew Kennedy was straight-jacketed into his back brace, and that the throat shot was not fatal, indeed not even that bad of a wound.
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Begin Trace Mode for Comment # 131.
#3. To: Turtle (#0)
This is the bullet that magically entered JFK's back, did a left hand turn, stopped and did a sharp 90 degree turn to exit his throat, hit Connally in the back, turn, exit, hit him in the wrist, turn, travel up his hand, turn, then hit in the leg, all without damaging the bullet at all... Here's a diagram of what the Warren Commission claimed happened. More info below;
Typical conspiracist nonsense from an ignoramus. The bullet hit Kennedy in the back, exited through his throat, tumbled upright, made a "keyhole" wound in Connely's back, exited, hit his wrist and bounced into his thigh. I will tell you what I tell all conspiracist crackpots: I will give you 10,000 years to prove your case, be it Kennedy or the "Truther" nonsense. You're never do it.
Have you ever fired a gun Turtle? Bullets are made of lead and deform when they enter soft tissue, and if they hit bone they fragment.
Have you ever fired a gun Turtle? Bullets are made of lead and deform when they enter soft tissue, and if they hit bone they fragment. You are truly an ignoramus. The bullet was steel-jacketed.
The 6.5 Carcano was a fine rifle (made with Czech steel), the round was more than adequate for what Oswald did with it. Sources: personal.stevens .edu/~gliberat/carcano/emary.html "The 91/41 and most other Carcanos are well made rifles that exhibit old world craftsmanship and are a fine addition to anyone's collection." Source: www.surplu srifle.com/shoo...005/carcano9141/index.asp It's a low-recoil cartridge that exhibits similar ballistics for other 6mm European cartridges that are popular for moose and other European game.
I disagree, it was a well-made rifle. See my links above (post #49). See this link for modern assessments by people who own them: http://www.gunandgame.com/forums/other-military-firearms/42148-6-5mm-carcano- why-bad-hype.html
Don't know if they're talking about the 38 in particular here. Like I say I've handled a few and the tolerances were pretty sloppy. Fit and finish were poor, IMHO, but I'm not an expert by any means. I'm going to do some research on this rifle and also on the question: "What rifle should the JFK assassin used?"
If one were to choose a surplus military rife for the job, the swedish mauser would be the bomb!
I tend to agree, any of the 6mm calibers would be perfect: low recoil, excellent accuracy, devastating damage. Tthe 6mm's are very popular in Europe: they work, even on moose.
I tend to agree, any of the 6mm calibers would be perfect: low recoil, excellent accuracy, devastating damage. Tthe 6mm's are very popular in Europe: they work, even on moose. The Swedish Mauser was 6.5mm caliber though. (which is not 6mm) And that particular Swedish caliber, 6.5 X 55 (mm) works at considerably lower chamber pressures than most other main battle rifles, particularly those developed later, in the early or mid 20th century. The 6mm REM and its Winchester-chambered equivalent, the .243 WIN both work at higher pressures and would be better choices for sniper work than the 6.5 Swedish or Carcano chamberings. Unlike military snipers modern police snipers in urban settings take their shots from an average distance of 78 feet which is why some agencies choose rifles that will accurately end hostage situations with a minimum of overkill. In fact the Steyr Mannlicher SSG sniper rifle was available in both .308 and .243 for a time. (I owned one in .308) One modern wildcat chambering, the 6.5-06 (which is self explanatory, the .30-06 brass necked down to accept 6.5 mm bullets) is an excellent long range caliber, and is favored by bighorn sheep hunters attempting to accurately place a shot and harvest a trophy from one mountaintop to the next. Needless to say this wildcat (that is, not factory chambered in rifles or commercially loaded in ammo) works at considerably higher pressures than any of the late 19th century military chamberings for the 6.5. I suppose Critter is basing his high praise of the Swedish Mauser on its mild recoil and adequate killing power. However, if I were to select a sniper caliber (for a JFK-type of contract) I'd lean toward a more powerful cartridge such as the 7mm Rem Mag. Not only can the caliber reliably "put 'em thru one hole" at 300 yards, but the powerful belted magnum will do the job with a single solid hit and only one shot would be necessary, thereby negating any concerns about recoil and recovery for follow up shots. Of course the "BIG 7" is a loud, "pain in the ass" rifle and over penetration is a very real possibility, but the JFK team didn't seem to be concerned about collateral damage or the crowd hearing multiple shots from different locations. It must have been reassuring to know in advance that the media, the secret service and the commission that investigated would all be pulling for you to make it a successful hit. This may have required the team to use the same caliber rifles so that the lone nut story wasn't exposed by the recovery of a bullet in a different caliber. And, that may be why the assassination was so crappily executed. And, it's highly doubtful that the results would have been much improved had they used the Swedish caliber ( developed in 1891) instead of the antiquated Italian chambering.
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#8. To: FormerLurker (#3)
#14. To: Turtle (#8)
#17. To: FormerLurker (#14)
#49. To: Turtle (#17)
#54. To: X-15. all (#49)
6.5 Carcano information - it was a POS -
#60. To: Lod (#54)
(Edited)
#70. To: X-15 (#60)
#90. To: randge (#70)
I'm going to do some research on this rifle and also on the question: "What rifle should the JFK assassin used?"
#93. To: Critter (#90)
If one were to choose a surplus military rife for the job, the swedish mauser would be the bomb!
#131. To: X-15, Critter, christine, lod (#93)
(Edited)
If one were to choose a surplus military rife for the job, the swedish mauser would be the bomb!
Replies to Comment # 131.