Dallas Morning News: Gary Mack and the evolution of a JFK conspiracy theorist

[William Seger]

52. Well, first, I'd suggest actually USING your eyes

... to examine the Zapruder film carefully, instead of letting conspiracy hucksters like Oliver Stone tell you what to see. Then, I'd suggest applying some simple physics to what you see. For some reason most conspiracists simply refuse to do that, but nonetheless, what the film actually shows is that JFK's head immediately snapped forward when it was hit.



Once you know that forward snap is there, by the way, it's easy to see it when watching the movie in real-time. Try it.

Now the simple physics: The bullet exerted force on the head only while it was passing through the head, which was obviously between the two frames shown above (312 and 313). By the conservation law, momentum was transferred to the head instantaneously as the bullet slowed down, and the result was that the head accelerated -- but only while that force was being applied. Once the bullet exited the skull, it's completely impossible for it to exert any other forces or impart any more momentum to the head.

Now putting the observation and the physics together: Frame 313 clearly shows the immediate result of that force -- a forward head snap of about 2.5 inches -- which unambiguously implies that the bullet came from behind. And unsurprisingly, that conclusion is perfectly consistent with the explosion of matter in the forward direction.

On the other hand, the infamous "back and to the left" motion doesn't begin until two frames later, so it cannot possibly have been caused by a bullet that's long-gone from the scene. Furthermore, that motion shows acceleration over several frames, which requires a sustained force over that time, which again cannot possibly have come from that bullet. Furthermore, such a hit would have created a massive exit wound on the left rear, which leads to one of the favorite games of conspiracists of inventing excuses for why there's no such evidence.

So the Zapruder film is consistent with all the other credible evidence that says the hit was from behind, and it's refuted by nothing but cartoon physics and hand-waving assertions that anything that supports the "official story" must be fake.