The JFK 100
The Fourth Shot
View from the "sniper's nest" window
of the Texas School Book Depository
View from the "sniper's nest" window
of the Texas School Book Depository
Here New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison (Kevin Costner) describes the fourth shot, originating in the "sniper's nest" window -- the easternmost window of the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository.
Oliver Stone cites no source for this claim, but it's a fairly common one, possibly originating in Josiah Thompson's influential book, Six Seconds in Dallas. Thompson bases his argument on such factors as an analysis of Governor Connally's facial expressions.(2)CUT TO: the sixth floor shooter firing rapidly and missing Kennedy but hitting Connally (stand in).(1)JIM (VOICE OVER) Connally's turning now here. Frame 238 . . . the fourth shot misses Kennedy and takes Connally in the back. This is the key shot that proves two rifles from the rear. This is 1.6 seconds after the third shot, and we know no manual bolt action rifle can be recycled in that time.Connally is hit, his mouth drops, he yells out, "My God, they're going to kill us all" . . . Here . . .
As even Oliver Stone consultant Robert Groden has concluded,(3) more conclusive evidence fixes the instant of the Governor's wounding between frames 223 and 224 of the Zapruder film.
NOTES:1. Oliver Stone and Zachary Sklar, JFK: The Book of the Film (New York: Applause, 1992), p. 165. All quotations are from the shooting script and may vary slightly from the finished motion picture.
2. Josiah Thompson, Six Seconds in Dallas (New York: Bernard Geis Associates, 1967), p. 71.
3. Robert J. Groden, The Killing of a President (New York: Viking Studio Books, 1993), p. 26.