Governor Connally: Turning With Multiple Injuries

Governor Connally placed his body a little bit to the left of the center when he felt the striking bullet.

Warren Commission Testimony of Governor John Bowden Connally, Jr. on April 21, 1964 - 4H, 132
Mr. SPECTER. As the automobile turned left onto Elm from Houston, what did occur there, Governor?

Governor CONNALLY. We had - we had gone, I guess, 150 feet, maybe 200 feet, I don't recall how far it was, heading down to get on the freeway, the Stemmons Freeway to go out to the hall where we were going to have lunch and, as I say, the crowds had begun to thin, and we could - I was anticipating that we were going to be at the hall in approximately 5 minutes from the time we turned on Elm Street. We had just made the turn, well, when I heard what I thought was a shot. I heard this noise which I immediately took to be a rifle shot. I instinctively turned to my right because the sound appeared to come from over my right shoulder, so I turned to look back over my right shoulder, and I saw nothing unusual except, just people in the crowd, but I did not catch the President in the corner of my eye, and I was interested, because once I heard the shot in my own mind I identified it as a rifle shot, and I immediately - the only thought that crossed my mind was that this is an assassination attempt. So I looked, failing to see him. I was turning to look back over my left shoulder into the back seat, but I never got that far in my turn. I got about in the position I am in now facing you, looking a little bit to the left of center, and then I felt like someone had hit me in the back.

This left-of-the-center orientation was necessary for bullet to have entered his back between the shoulder blade and the armpit of his right side, deflected leftward while transiting the torso, emerged slightly to left and below the right nipple, transited his right wrist and came to rest in the left thigh.

Warren Commission Testimony of Governor John Bowden Connally, Jr. on April 21, 1964 - 4H, 135
Mr. SPECTER. And what is your reason for that conclusion, sir?

Governor CONNALLY. Well, in my judgment, it just couldn't conceivably have been the first one because I heard the sound of the shot. In the first place, I don't know anything about the velocity of this particular bullet, but any rifle has a velocity that exceeds the speed of sound, and when I heard the sound of that first shot, that bullet had already reached where I was, or it had reached that far, and after I heard that shot. I had the time to turn to my right, and start to turn to my left before I felt anything.
It is not conceivable to me that I could have been hit by the first bullet, and then I felt the blow from something which was obviously a bullet, which I assumed was a bullet, and I never heard the second shot, didn't hear it. I didn't hear but two shots. I think I heard the first shot and the third shot.

The supersonic bullet struck Connally before the arrival of the muzzle blast. As a result his nervous system being verloaded by the bullet striking his back failed to respond to the muzzle blast. This is the physiological basis for Connally not hearing the shot nor immediately felling the multiplicity of his wounds.

Governor Connally reaffirmed his posture as rotated to the left of the center when shot.

Warren Commission Testimony of Governor John Bowden Connally, Jr. on April 21, 1964 - 4H, 138
Mr. SPECTER. Governor Connally, can you recreate the position that you were sitting in in the automobile, as best you can recollect, at the time you think you where struck?

Governor CONNALLY. I think, having turned to look over my right shoulder, then revolving to look over my left shoulder, I threw my right wrist over on my left leg.

Mr. SPECTER. And in the position you are seated now, with your right wrist on your left leg, with your little finger being an inch or two from your knee?
Governor CONNALLY. From the knee.

Throwing the right wrist over the left thigh would have been a natural motion to accompany a sudden and decisive leftward turn of the upper body. However, Connally also expressed uncertainty concerning the location of his wrist when shot.

Warren Commission Testimony of Governor John Bowden Connally, Jr. on April 21, 1964 - 4H, 139
Mr. SPECTER. Governor Connally, this is the exhibit which I was referring to, being 689. Was that your approximate position except - that is the alinement with your right hand being on your left leg as you have just described?

Governor CONNALLY. No; it looks like my right hand is up on my chest. But I don't know. I can't say with any degree of certainty where my right hand was, frankly.

Mr. SPECTER. Governor Connally ---

Governor CONNALLY. It could have been up on my chest, it could have been suspended in the air, it could have been down on my leg, it could have been anywhere. I just don't remember. I obviously, I suppose, like anyone else, wound up the next day realizing I was hit in three places, and I was not conscious of having been hit but by one bullet, so I tried to reconstruct how I could have been hit in three places by the same bullet, and I merely, I know it penetrated from the back through the chest first. I assumed that I had turned as I described a moment ago, placing my right hand on my left leg. that it hit my wrist, went out the center of the wrist, the underside, and then into my leg, but it might not have happened that way at all.

Commissioner Dulles gave Connally another opportunity to express his concern for the well being of the President. The repetition of this theme seems to be self-glorifying.

Warren Commission Testimony of Governor John Bowden Connally, Jr. on April 21, 1964 - 4H, 138
Mr. DULLES. How did you happen to turn then to the left, do you remember why that was?

Governor CONNALLY. Yes, sir; I know exactly. I turned to the right both to see, because it was an instinctive movement, because that is where the sound came from, but even more important, I immediately thought it was a rifleshot, I immediately thought of an assassination attempt, and I turned to see if I could see the President, to see if he was all right. Failing to see him over my right shoulder, I turned to look over my left shoulder.

Mr. DULLES. I see.
Governor CONNALLY. Into the back seat, and I never completed that turn. I got no more than substantially looking forward, a little bit to the left of forward, when I got hit.

Again, Connally affirmed his posture as a little bit to the left of forward when shot.

Warren Commission Testimony of Governor John Bowden Connally, Jr. on April 21, 1964 - 4H, 143
Mr. SPECTER. Do you have any recollection of your arrival at the hospital itself, at the Parkland Hospital?

Governor CONNALLY. Yes. I think when the car stopped the driver was obviously driving at a very rapid rate of speed, and apparently, as he threw on the brakes of the car, it brought me back to consciousness. Again, a strange thing - strange things run through your mind and, perhaps, not so strange under the circumstances, but I immediately - the only thought that occurred to me was that I was in the jump seat next to the door, that everyone concerned, was going to be concerned with the President; that I had to get out of the way so they could get to the President. So although I was reclining, and again Mrs. Connally holding me, I suddenly lurched out of her arms and tried to stand upright to get myself out of the car.  I got - I don't really know how far I got. They tell me I got almost upright, and then just collapsed again, and someone then picked me up and put me on a stretcher. I again was very conscious because this was the first time that I had any real sensation of pain, and at this point the pain in the chest was excruciating, and I kept repeating just over and over, "My God, it hurts, it hurts," and it was hurting, it was excruciating at that point.
I was conscious then off and on during the time I was in the emergency room. I don't recall that I remember everything, but I remember quite a bit. I remember being wheeled down the passageway, I remember doctors and various people talking in the emergency room. I remember them asking me a number of questions, too, which I answered, but that was about it.

The shattering of ten centimeters of his fifth rib would have produced many sharp fragments to tear into tissues when Connally attempted to bend or twist his wounded torso. This consideration more than anything else discredits the Warren Commission version, which had Connally nearly do two about faces before felling the intense pain from of his injuries.

Warren Commission Testimony of Governor John Bowden Connally, Jr. on April 21, 1964 - 4H, 145
Mr. SPECTER. I have just one other question, Governor. With respect to the films and the slides which you have viewed this morning, had you ever seen those pictures before this morning?
Governor CONNALLY. I had seen what purported to be a copy of the film when I was in the hospital in Dallas. I had not seen the slides.

Mr. SPECTER. And when do you think you were hit on those slides, Governor, or in what range of slides?
Governor CONNALLY. We took - you are talking about the number of the slides?

Mr. SPECTER. Yes.
Governor CONNALLY. As we looked at them this morning, and as you related the numbers to me, it appeared to me that I was hit in the range between 130 or 131, I don't remember precisely, up to 134, in that bracket.

Mr. SPECTER. May I suggest to you that it was 231?
Governor CONNALLY. Well, 231 and 234, then.

Mr. SPECTER. The series under our numbering system starts with a higher number when the car comes around the turn, so when you come out of the sign, which was -
Governor CONNALLY. It was just after we came out of the sign, for whatever that sequence of numbers was, and if it was 200, I correct my testimony. It was 231 to about 234. It was within that range.