The Warren Commission reported a bullet entered the right rear of President Kennedy's head, disrupted the right cerebral hemisphere and shattered the right side of his skull upon exiting.
Experts from various fields examined the medical evidence and the photographic records. These specialists had the technical training to recognize a serious conflict, namely a bullet from the rear acting exclusively on the right side would have spun the head leftward as it rotated downward.
Comparable spinning and rotating accelerations would accompany a wound less than two inches from the right and at the top of the head. Lowering the wound location while keeping distance from the center fixed would make the spinning larger than the rotating acceleration. Justification for these above remarks appears under the title of "Modeling the head as a cylinder."
Contrary to expectations, the Zapruder film shows an abrupt downward rotation of the head without any observable leftward spinning. Clearly something was rotten in Washington.
Source: WCR
"President Kennedy was first struck by a bullet which entered at the back of his neck and exited through the lower front portion of his neck, causing a wound which would not necessarily have been lethal. The President was struck a second time by a bullet which entered the right_rear portion of his head, causing a massive and fatal wound."
"At 12:30 p.m., c.s.t., as the President's open limousine proceeded at approximately 11 miles per hour along Elm Street toward the Triple Underpass, shots fired from a rifle mortally wounded President Kennedy and seriously injured Governor Connally. One bullet passed through the President's neck; a subsequent bullet, which was lethal, shattered the right side of his skull."
Source: Appendix
"Following formalin fixation the brain weighs 1500 gms. The right cerebral hemisphere is found to be markedly disrupted. There is a longitudinal laceration of the right hemisphere which is para-sagittal in position approximately 2. 5 cm. to the right of the of the midline which extends from the tip of the occipital lobe posteriorly to the tip of the frontal lobe anteriorly. The base of the laceration is situated approximately 4. 5 cm. below the vertex in the white matter. There is considerable loss of cortical substance above the base of the laceration, particularly in the parietal lobe. The margins of this laceration are at all points jagged and irregular, with additional lacerations extending in varying directions and for varying distances from the main laceration. In addition, there is a laceration of the corpus callosum extending from the genu to the tail. Exposed in this latter laceration are the interiors of the right lateral and third ventricles.
When viewed from the vertex the left cerebral hemisphere is intact. There is marked engorgement of meningeal blood vessels of the left temporal and frontal regions with considerable associated sub-arachnoid hemorrhage. The gyri and sulci over the left hemisphere are of essentially normal size and distribution. Those on the right are too fragmented and distorted for satisfactory description."
Modeling the head as a cylinder
The angular acceleration of the head, A, is the torque, N, divided by the moment of inertia, I. In general A = N / I. Hence the ratio of spinning to rotating accelerations becomes
As / Ar = ( Ns / Nr ) ( Ir / Is ).
Taking the head as a cylinder of height, H, and radius, R, we get 1 / 3 m H2 + 1 / 4 m R2 for the moment of inertia, Ir, belonging to the downward rotation. Correspondingly the moment of inertia, Is, associated with spin is 1 / 2 m R2. Using these moments to simplify the ratio of accelerations yields
As / Ar = 1 / 6 ( Ns / Nr ) ( 3 + 4 H2 / R2).
Typically H = 3 R for a well proportioned human head and neck extension. Hence the ratio of accelerations becomes
As / Ar = 6.5 Ns / Nr.
A wound caused by a force, F, at a distance h from the rotational joint of the head yields a torque of Nr = F h. Concurrently a force, F, acts at a distance r from the spin axis of the head and gives Ns = F r. Simplifying produces
As / Ar = 6.5 r / h.
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