Re: REVIEW -- "JFK: INSIDE THE TARGET CAR" (2008 DISCOVERY CHANNEL DOCUMENTARY)
David Von Pein
REVIEW OF THE DISCOVERY CHANNEL DOCUMENTARY
"JFK: INSIDE THE TARGET CAR" (2008)
==================================
On November 16, 2008, the Discovery Channel cable-TV network aired the
fourth and (evidently) last in a mini-series of "JFK" programs for
that network's "Unsolved History" television series, entitled "JFK:
Inside The Target Car".
Utilizing groundbreaking techniques, the Discovery Channel, along with
award-winning sharpshooter Michael Yardley and an Australian company
that specializes in creating surrogate dummies, went about the task of
trying to simulate the fatal gunshot that struck the head of President
John F. Kennedy in Dallas, Texas, on November 22, 1963.
And that fatal shot was, indeed, simulated with a very good degree of
accuracy, as Yardley (on a California test-firing range) took aim at a
human-like head filled with simulated brain tissue from a mock firing
position that represented the sixth-floor sniper's perch inside the
Texas School Book Depository Building in Dallas.
The result of that "Depository" test shot, when compared with the
"blood spray" pattern seen in Abraham Zapruder's famous home movie of
the actual assassination of JFK in 1963, was almost identical in
nature to that of the Zapruder Film -- with the spray pattern of blood
and brain tissue from Yardley's test shot matching the real Zapruder
Film to a tee (as was shown in side-by-side comparisons on the
Discovery Channel broadcast).
The direction of the spray of blood and brain tissue was almost all
FORWARD of the head (a head that was shot from behind), with one
interesting exception (also captured on film by the high-speed cameras
that were used to document the test) -- one chunk of brain tissue went
flying to the REAR after the surrogate head was hit from BEHIND by
Yardley's 6.5-millimeter Mannlicher-Carcano bullet (a bullet just like
the type Lee Harvey Oswald used in his rifle in 1963).
For decades, conspiracy theorists have argued that it would have been
impossible for JFK to have been hit from behind and still have brain
matter end up on the TRUNK of the Presidential limousine afterward.
This Discovery Channel test positively debunks that conspiracy notion
for all time--without a shred of a doubt.
Another very impressive part of the "Target Car" program is when we
see Mr. Yardley take two shots (on the California range again) from a
location in front of JFK's car -- i.e., from a position that simulated
the famous Grassy Knoll in Dallas' Dealey Plaza.
And those two "Grassy Knoll" gunshots were very interesting, in that
they effectively proved beyond virtually ALL doubt that John Kennedy
was definitely NOT hit in the head by a bullet fired from the Grassy
Knoll.
The first "Knoll" simulated shot, using a different type gun and
bullet (instead of a Carcano, Yardley used a Winchester rifle and a
"soft point" bullet), literally blew the surrogate head right off of
its spring-based "neck". It was actually a rather unnerving test, with
the head being totally blown to bits, with nothing left on the "neck"
to even analyze afterward. And, of course, nothing even close to that
kind of "obliteration" of JFK's head occurred in Dealey Plaza back in
'63.
Thankfully, the Discovery Channel and Mr. Yardley had enough of these
human-like surrogate heads (four in total) to perform a second test
shot from the Grassy Knoll firing location -- and this time Yardley
fired a 6.5-millimeter bullet through a Mannlicher-Carcano rifle like
Lee Harvey Oswald's.
And the results of that test were just as I had predicted they would
be a few days ago:
"Any...shot from a simulated "Grassy Knoll" firing position
would no doubt have resulted in the test skull having quite a bit of
damage to the LEFT side of the head (which we don't find at all in the
real head of John Kennedy)." -- DVP; 11/1/2008
www.google.com/group/alt.conspiracy.jfk/msg/9e1874e14ddf6b36
Yardley's test bullet went clear through the simulated JFK head,
entering near the right temple and exiting on the other side, causing
a good deal of damage to the LEFT SIDE of the head....which is
something that positively did not happen to John Kennedy in 1963. The
left side of Kennedy's head at his autopsy was completely undamaged,
as we can easily see via this official autopsy photograph of JFK taken
on the night of 11/22/63:
So, in the final analysis, I don't think there can be much doubt
whatsoever about the direction from which President Kennedy received
his fatal head wounds -- that shot HAD to have come FROM BEHIND the
President.
Of course, that particular fact (i.e., JFK was shot only one time in
the head, with that shot coming from behind) was actually arrived at
back in November 1963, during JFK's autopsy at the Bethesda Naval
Medical Center, and this autopsy picture proves that fact....
....But it's also nice to be able to put this issue to bed once and
for all from a strictly scientific and "hands-on" testing standpoint,
with an actual test using lifelike skulls and real bullets being done
to check out what happens to a human head when it is hit with a
Mannlicher-Carcano (Oswald-like) bullet from the front. We now have
the answer. And it's not a surprising answer at all -- the LEFT side
of the head will suffer major damage. And since this did not happen to
JFK in '63, the math is fairly easy to do from that point forward.
OTHER RANDOM "INSIDE THE TARGET CAR" COMMENTS:
The final results of the actual test firings that were done by Michael
Yardley are very impressive indeed, with those results driving a big
fat nail of doom into the heart of many conspiracy theories
surrounding the death of JFK (at least the theories that offer up the
notion that Kennedy was hit in the head by a frontal gunshot at any
rate)....but there were three things in the "Target Car" documentary
that had me scratching my head a little bit as I watched them:
1.) The Discovery Channel team and Yardley and Sixth Floor Museum
curator Gary Mack chose four areas within Dealey Plaza as potential
shooting locations (not counting Lee Harvey Oswald's Sniper's Nest on
the 6th Floor of the Book Depository).
But of those four possible places where a gunman could have been, I
believe that only one of them is a location that has seriously been
considered as a source for any gunfire by a vast majority of
conspiracy theorists over the many years since the assassination. And
that one location is behind the picket fence on the Grassy Knoll on
the north side of Elm Street, which is an area that's a little bit
west of the even-more-famous "Badge Man" shooting position. It's from
this shooting location that Yardley's shot resulted in major damage to
the left side of the test dummy's head.
But the other three "frontal" shooting spots were all very strange
ones, in my opinion, with very few people that I have ever encountered
(even hardcore conspiracy kooks) believing that shots came from any of
these three locations, which included an area on the far-south side of
Dealey Plaza (the south-side "Grassy Knoll"), and another location on
top of the south side of the Triple Underpass, and a third on the
north end of the Underpass (but not actually on top of the Underpass
bridge itself).
Now, maybe some conspiracists believe that those three locations
contained a gunman who fired shots at JFK back in '63, but I sure as
heck don't think that that number of theorists is very high at all.
For one thing, if shots had come from either of the two SOUTH-SIDE
locales, why did no witnesses report hearing any shots at all coming
from the SOUTH end of the Plaza? I doubt you could find any witness
who suggested that shots had come from that far SOUTH in Dealey Plaza.
And for another thing, as Gary Mack rightly and logically points out
to the audience during the Discovery Channel program when talking
about the north-side shooting location near the Underpass, any shot by
a gunman from that spot (or ANY location on top of the Underpass
itself) would have almost certainly been detected by the many railroad
workers--not to mention the TWO uniformed Dallas police officers--who
were watching the motorcade from just a few yards away, from atop the
Triple Underpass itself.
Would a gunman have been so bold and reckless to have placed himself
in such a vulnerable and wide-open position when firing a rifle at the
President? Common sense is telling me--no way.
Therefore, I'm wondering why the Discovery Channel people even
bothered to speculate about those three crazy-as-all-get-out potential
shooting locations in the first place? It seemed quite strange that
precious time would have been wasted in a 40-plus-minute TV
documentary by speculating about such obviously-insane firing
positions within Dealey Plaza.
IMO, the more commonly-accepted possible shooting points of the Dal-
Tex Building, or the County Records Building, or Gary Mack's own
famous "Badge Man" location would have been more appropriate when
speculating about any potential additional non-Depository gunmen in
Dealey Plaza. But none of those three locations I just mentioned was
even brought up in the Discovery documentary.
2.) When positioning the occupants in the limousine, the Discovery
Channel has placed Jackie Kennedy in an absurd position inside the
car. The documentary shows Jackie's head situated in a place that
appears to be BEHIND her husband's head at the time of Zapruder Frame
#312. But in the Zapruder Film, we can see that Jackie's head is very
much to the FRONT of President Kennedy's head.
Now, I realize that the perspective of the limousine's occupants for
any "frontal" gunman would be different when compared with Mr.
Zapruder's pretty much STRAIGHT ON point-of-view as of Z-Frame 312.
But even accounting for this difference in perspective, it appears to
me that the Discovery people have got Jackie severely out of position
in the car at Z312:
(Note: The above comparison photo comes courtesy of assassination
researcher David Emerling, who was kind enough to e-mail me that
comparison shot. The picture on the right side, btw, was taken from a
spot in front of the fence near the Triple Underpass on the north side
of Elm Street, which is one of those three crazily-insane firing
positions being examined during the documentary as potential places to
put a sniper.)
Also, the documentary program has both of Jackie's arms wrapped around
her husband at the time of Frame 312, which is not accurate at all.
Not even close. Here's Zapruder Frame 312:
3.) I'm wondering why the test shots couldn't have simply been done in
the best possible place to perform such a test -- right in Dealey
Plaza itself (and from the 6th-Floor window inside the Book Depository
itself)?
The Discovery people already had arranged for the police to completely
close off Elm Street and Dealey Plaza for a period of time for their
initial "looking through the rifle scope" tests (to see whether
certain angles within the Plaza were feasible ones or not for the head
shot)....so I wonder why they didn't just go the whole nine yards and
perform the actual test shots that were fired into the surrogate
skulls from Dealey Plaza as well?
I know that Oswald's Sniper's-Nest window is now technically "off
limits" to visitors of Mr. Mack's Sixth Floor Museum. But surely an
exception could have been made to allow Mr. Yardley to use that corner
window to fire just that one shot at a dummy's head.
If the test shots could have been fired right at the scene of the
crime itself (Dealey Plaza), I think it would have been better all the
way around, and mainly to silence even more critics of the lone-
assassin conclusion.
But by doing the actual shooting tests in California, the naysayers
can now argue that the tests weren't set up right...or that the
distances cannot be confirmed...or that the height of Oswald's window
wasn't measured with accuracy...etc., etc.
But I'm guessing that some legal restrictions (or some kind of
roadblock anyway) prohibited the shooting tests from being done right
there in Dealey Plaza. That's too bad, too, because unless I miss my
guess, a head-shot test performed from the actual crime scene would
have been even MORE powerful and conspiracy-refuting.
===========================
Despite my three quibbles listed above, I very much enjoyed "Inside
The Target Car". It's a program that proves, via filmed scientific
tests, that the Warren Commission and the autopsy doctors were 100%
correct -- the fatal bullet that hit JFK in the head on 11/22/63 came
from behind the President's car. There can be no doubt about that
fact.
My thanks to the Discovery Channel, and to the Australian team of
people who built the four human-like heads, and to Gary Mack.
Together, this group of people--via the TV documentary "JFK: Inside
The Target Car"--has placed on film another important piece of
documentation relating to the truth about the assassination of
President John F. Kennedy.
David Von Pein
November 20, 2008
================================================
"The more scientific and ballistics tests that are done (like
the Discovery Channel's tests and Dale Myers' excellent computer
animation projects relating to both the SBT and the acoustic/Dictabelt
evidence), the further and further away from a multi-gun conspiracy we
get in the JFK case.
"Shouldn't that make even the staunchest CTer pause and ask -- I
wonder how this can be...if JFK was really hit from the front and
rear, like Oliver Stone, Jim Garrison, et al, insist he was?" -- DVP;
11/1/2008
==============================================
"JFK: INSIDE THE TARGET CAR" VIDEO CLIPS AND PREVIEWS:
http://dsc.discovery.com/video/player.html?bctid=2153830001
http://dsc.discovery.com/video/player.html?bctid=2153862001
http://dsc.discovery.com/video/player.html?bctid=2130750001
==============================================
RELATED LINKS:
www.google.com/group/alt.conspiracy.jfk/msg/24ba8fc851da4e27
www.google.com/group/alt.conspiracy.jfk/browse_thread/thread/53ab2d9b58add127
www.google.com/group/alt.conspiracy.jfk/msg/62bf0edb07582126
www.google.com/group/alt.conspiracy.jfk/msg/69758897e673c5a2
==============================================
chip...@hotmail.com
>
> So, in the final analysis, I don't think there can be much doubt
> whatsoever about the direction from which President Kennedy received
> his fatal head wounds -- that shot HAD to have come FROM BEHIND the
> President.
>
> Of course, that particular fact (i.e., JFK was shot only one time in
> the head, with that shot coming from behind) was actually arrived at
> back in November 1963, during JFK's autopsy at the Bethesda Naval
> Medical Center, and this autopsy picture proves that fact....
>
>
> (Note: The above comparison photo comes courtesy of assassination
> researcher David Emerling, who was kind enough to e-mail me that
> comparison shot. The picture on the right side, btw, was taken from a
> spot in front of the fence near the Triple Underpass on the north side
> of Elm Street, which is one of those three crazily-insane firing
> positions being examined during the documentary as potential places to
> put a sniper.)
>
> Also, the documentary program has both of Jackie's arms wrapped around
> her husband at the time of Frame 312, which is not accurate at all.
> Not even close. Here's Zapruder Frame 312:
>
>
> www.google.com/group/alt.conspiracy.jfk/msg/62bf0edb07582126
>
> www.google.com/group/alt.conspiracy.jfk/msg/69758897e673c5a2
>
> ==============================================
Nice review of the program. I have done research and read many
assassination books and agree that the locations chosen were odd.
They picked spots I have never heard seriously considered.
firefly
car being very out of line with the wounds the President suffered.
What really happened was the shot came from the grassy knoll to the driver's
side of the Plaza, across the street.
The angle of the road, and the leaning of Kennedy's head to the left, made a
shot from the other side of the plaza the required trajectory, if through
the windshield between the driver's head, and the rear view mirror.
According to testimony, the hole was seen precisely there by a newspaperman,
public witnesses, and the repairman who removed the window that weekend.
John Kennedy was leaning down and to the left, any shot from behind would
not raise him up at over 100 miles per hour. That came from in front.
---firefly
<chip...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:d0fb0852-ad4f-4ba4...@y18g2000yqn.googlegroups.com...
David Von Pein
>>> "What really happened was the shot came from the grassy knoll to the driver's side of the Plaza, across the street." <<<
LOL.
That must be why ZERO total earwitnesses said any shots came from the
south side of Elm Street. Right?
>>> "The angle of the road, and the leaning of Kennedy's head to the left, made a shot from the other side of the plaza the required trajectory, if through the windshield between the driver's head, and the rear view mirror. According to testimony, the hole was seen precisely there by a newspaperman, public witnesses, and the repairman who removed the window that weekend." <<<
There was no hole in the windshield, of course:
www.google.com/group/alt.conspiracy.jfk/msg/4176e8573c11564d
>>> "John Kennedy was leaning down and to the left, any shot from behind would not raise him up at over 100 miles per hour." <<<
Who in the world ever claimed JFK was "raised up at over 100 MPH"? How
silly. That never happened.
>>> "That [head shot] came from in front." <<<
No, it didn't. It came from the TSBD (and from Lee Oswald's Carcano
rifle). Every reasonable person knows that, my friend.
These two pictures are "fakes", right?:
Gil Jesus
YoHarvey
> Mantik's review of this program:
>
> http://www.ctka.net/2008/JFK_limo.html
Mantik never met a conspiracy he didn't love. Does that sound
familiar?
Gil Jesus
"The final irony of this Discovery program is the reliance placed on
eyewitnesses -- .....However, lone gunman theorists repeatedly remind
us that eyewitnesses cannot be trusted and that their comments should
simply be ignored. Now that the shoe has shifted, will anyone notice?"
--David Mantik, M.D., PhD.
David Von Pein
>>> [Quoting Dr. David Mantik:] "The final irony of this Discovery program is the reliance placed on eyewitnesses -- .....However, lone gunman theorists repeatedly remind us that eyewitnesses cannot be trusted and that their comments should simply be ignored. Now that the shoe has shifted, will anyone notice?" <<<
Totally untrue, of course.
Witnesses like Brennan, Markham, Davis, Davis, Scoggins, Benavides,
and Callaway certainly haven't been "ignored" by lone-assassin
believers.
And that's simply because those particular witnesses said something
(such as IDing Lee Oswald with a gun in his hands) that is fully
corroborated by OTHER STUFF (like ballistics evidence, fingerprints,
and Oswald's own actions and lies). Ignoring those witnesses would be
just plain silly.
Can anyone name one "CT" type witness in Dealey Plaza or on 10th
Street or at Parkland Hospital whose observations can be backed up
with ballistics evidence (or any other hard, physical evidence of some
kind)?
Alas, no such "CT" witness exists, of course, because no shot was
fired from the Grassy Knoll. Therefore, it's perfectly proper to
dismiss such witnesses in favor of better evidence (such as the
autopsy photos and X-rays, which prove ALL of the Parkland witnesses
to be wrong, as amazing as that may sound).
Also.....
Mantik's above comment -- "the final irony of this Discovery program
is the reliance placed on eyewitnesses" -- is a rather weak argument
when the "Inside The Target Car" documentary is weighed in full.
Dr. Mantik is referring to only 2 "blood spatter" witnesses in that
above quote -- and, ironically, one of the two is motorcycle policeman
Bobby Hargis, who is almost always used by the conspiracy theorists
(not by LNers) when discussing the head "spray" and debris that struck
Hargis after the fatal shot hit JFK in the head.
The only other witness referred to in the Mantik quote is a young man
who happened to be in the Parkland parking lot and looked inside the
bloody back seat of JFK's car before the crowd was shoved further back
by police.
IMO, these two witnesses could have easily been cut out of the
Discovery Channel program altogether, because they don't have much to
offer anyway.
The "Target Car" program was mainly about re-creating the fatal head
shot, and observing the differences in a surrogate head when that head
is hit by a bullet being fired from both the rear and the front.
And that type of SCIENTIFIC reconstruction (and an evaluation of the
holes in the mock heads after they've been struck with bullets from
various locations) doesn't need any "witnesses" at all. The surrogate
heads were simply shot from different locations, and the results were
then filmed and examined. No Dallas witnesses required at all.
So when Mantik props up the Discovery Channel's "reliance" on those
two completely-unneeded eyewitnesses (who are peripheral, at best, to
the program's main content), it sounds to me as if Dr. Mantik is
digging deeper than usual for some "CT chaff".
And that's probably because no conspiracy-favoring wheat was available
for him to prop up in this instance.