The JFK 100

DISSOLVE TO a scene inside the Texas School Book Depository in 1967. Jim [Garrison] and Lou [Ivon] walk the floor and look out the windows. Lou has a Mannlicher-Carcano in his hand with a sight and clip. We see Oswald's supposed view of the limousine as he pulls the trigger. Now, innocuous traffic goes by, but the iris of the camera tightens into a sniper's scope.

LOU The Zapruder film establishes 3 shots in 5.6 seconds. Here. I'm Oswald. Time me.

Lou cocks the Mannlicher for the first shot. Jim looks at his watch. Lou assumes the Oswald pose, crouched at the window aiming out.

JIM Go!

Lou pulls, quickly recharges the bolt, fires, recycles, fires.

LOU Time?

JIM Between six and seven seconds.⁽¹⁾

 

More importantly, the Warren Commission never stated that Lee Harvey Oswald fired three shots in under six seconds.

What did the Commission say?

Based upon an evaluation of the home movie taken by bystander Abraham Zapruder, the Warren Commission concluded that

the time span between the shot entering the back of the President's neck and the bullet which shattered his skull was 4.8 to 5.6 seconds. If the second shot missed, then 4.8 to 5.6 seconds was the total time span of the shots. If either the first or third shots missed, then a minimum of 2.3 seconds (necessary to operate the rifle) must be added to the time span of the shots which hit, giving a minimum time of 7.1 to 7.9 seconds for the three shots. (Emphasis added.)⁽²⁾

The growing consensus among assassination researchers is that the first shot was fired at about frame 155 of the Zapruder film, and missed. If correct, this would give Oswald an ample 8.6 seconds to fire three shots.

But, as Oliver Stone himself inadvertently demonstrates, six seconds would also have been enough time to fire three shots from Oswald's rifle.

For more on what a Mannlicher-Carcano rifle like Oswald's was capable of, check out this eye-opening YouTube video:

NOTES:

1. Oliver Stone and Zachary Sklar, JFK: The Book of the Film (New York: Applause, 1992), p. 126. All quotations are from the shooting script and may vary slightly from the finished motion picture.

2. Report of the President's Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy (U.S. Government Printing Office, 1964), hereafter the Warren Commission Report, p. 117. The Warren Commission Report is available online in its entirety.