Warren Commission (05 of 26): Hearings Vol. V (of 15)

by United States. Warren Commission

Representative Ford. Then the firing of the rifle, repeat that again?

Mr. Shaneyfelt. As to the firing of the rifle—we have been advised that the minimum time for getting off two successive well-aimed shots on the rifle is approximately two and a quarter seconds. That is the basis for using this 41 to 42 frames to establish two points in the film where two successive quick shots could have been fired.

Representative Ford. That is with one shot and then the firing.

Mr. Shaneyfelt. Work the bolt and fire another one.

Mr. Specter. At frame 249 was Governor Connally in a position where he could have taken a shot with the bullet entering at the point immediately to the left under his right armpit with the bullet then going through and exiting at a point immediately under his right nipple?

Mr. Shaneyfelt. No; Governor Connally has begun to turn in his seat around in this manner, in such a way, turn to his right so that his body is in a position that a shot fired from the sixth floor window could not have passed through the path that it reportedly took through his body, if the bullet followed a straight, undeflected path.

Mr. Dulles. I don't quite get that. You mean because of his having turned this way, the shot that was then—had then been fired and apparently had hit the President could not have gone through him at that point?

Mr. Shaneyfelt. That is correct under the stated conditions. Even a shot, independent of the shot that hit the President, could not have gone through in that manner, coming from the sixth floor window, because the window was almost directly behind the automobile at that time and the Governor was in a position where the bullet couldn't have gone through his body in the manner that it reportedly did.

It would have come in through his shoulder and out through the other shoulder, in the way that he was lined up with the window.

Mr. Specter. So you say it could have gone through him, but it could not have passed through him with the angle of entry as disclosed in the Parkland Hospital records and described by Dr. Shaw?