General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy believed President Kennedy was killed by a conspiracy. [View all]Spider Jerusalem
(21,786 posts)three shots were fired. The majority of witnesses testified to hearing three shots, not four. The witnesses on the fifth floor of the TSBD who heard shots from directly above (and heard the shooter operating the bolt of the rifle, and the cartridge casings hitting the floor), heard three shots. One shot missed and struck the pavement (bystander James Tague got a cut across the cheek from a bit of concrete it kicked up); one shot struck both Kennedy and Connally (CE399, the Parkland stretcher bullet, matched to Oswald's rifle ballistically, matched to fragments recovered from Connally by NAA); one shot struck Kennedy in the head and blew out the right front of his skull (this bullet fragmented; fragments were recovered from Kennedy's skull and from the interior of the limousine). That's three shots fired, three accounted for. Any shot that hit Kennedy in the head fired from the Grassy Knoll would have had to penetrate his right temple and leave a wound of exit on the left side...and probably would have struck and killed Jackie who was to his immediate left.. The left side of his head was intact. Jackie wasn't hit. No other bullets or fragments were recovered. QED.
And re Patrolman Hargis getting spattered...this is a high-contrast version of Z-film frame 313 (the head shot); you'll observe that fragments of skull are moving up and forward (the car was in motion, Hargis was in motion, and the wind was in front, there's nothing odd or surprising about him getting spattered):
And this is what happens when a high-velocity rifle round hits ballistic gelatin (this is what happens to tissue, like a brain, struck by a bullet; it creates a pressure wave and cavity, and causes a blowout of the skull to relieve the pressure):