General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy believed President Kennedy was killed by a conspiracy. [View all]stopbush
(24,395 posts)However, your idea of a shooter missing on the first shot and correcting for subsequent shots actually fits the Oswald-as-single-shooter scenario.
Think about it - first shot misses, so Oswald corrects for the second shot and hits JFK in the back. He adjusts once more and hits JFK in the head. One would assume that JFK's head was Oswald's target for all three shots.
We know that the scope on Oswald's rifle was misaligned when it was found by police. We don't know if it was misaligned during the shooting, or if the misalignment occurred while Oswald was hiding the rifle. If Oswald - an experienced shooter - realized that his scope wasn't properly aligned, he could have compensated as you suggest.
IIRC - Bugliosi does quote one person who has dismissed the idea the the first shot Oswald took would have been the easiest and best shot, if for no other reason that Oswald's rifle would have been swinging from the left to the right, tracking JFK from the point where he turned onto Elm. By the time Oswald fired the second and third shots, JFK was well down Elm Street, and Oswald would be able to take those shots with the rifle relatively stable. It also tends to support the time taken between the three shots: first shot fired, a slight wait until the second shot is fired (Oswald hits JFK, but in the back, not the head), with a longer wait until the final shot was fired (Oswald takes his time compensating for the misaligned scope to make sure the third is a head shot).