5 ms·

That doesn't make sense. The Zapruder film shows him shot from the front. Jackie Kennedy goes and grabs a piece of brain or skull from the back of the car.

madspindel 5y ago
> Jackie Kennedy goes and grabs a piece of brain or skull from the back of the car. Sorry, not from the US but why would she do that?
- swamp40 5y ago
  Because people do weird things under extreme stress.
- khazhoux 5y ago
  She reached for it within the fraction of a second that the bullet struck JFK's head. It was an instinctive action. In fact, we humans usually can't rationally comprehend catastrophic injury to the body, while in that state of immediate shock. Think of the image of the soldier carrying his detached arm.
- dang 5y ago
  Edit: the parent comment originally said "why would she do that? To keep a souvenir?" and has since been edited. Stealth-editing a comment to deprive replies of their meaning is not a nice thing to do, so please don't do that. -- original reply: -- "Don't be snarky." "Eschew flamebait." https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
  - shadowgovt 5y ago
    Clarification: is this snark or flamebait? I might be missing something, but it seems like a reasonable question. I recall the first time I heard she'd done that, my own incredulity was similar (having never been in a life-or-death crisis, I didn't have the frame-of-reference to get that a person may not be thinking rationally "Doctors can't put brain parts back in" and might grab whatever they see come off a loved one).
    - runnerup 5y ago
      I suspect the minimized version, "Why would she do that?" would have been well received. I don't think anyone understands why the "I'm not from the US" clause is there and I personally assigned a reasonable probability that it was a short-hand stand-in for the following sentiment : "The US has so much gun violence that they must have some kind of expertise that leads them to know that its a good idea to save skull fragments in case the doctors need them. Lol, just kidding, that was sarcasm; I just wanted to bash the US for their high rate of gun violence." Of course I accept that this may be mis-interpreting it. The only other meaning I can parse is: "I imagine that everyone in the USA learned about this event in great detail in their school lessons/etc. I haven't so....could someone explain why she grabbed the skull fragment?"
    - dang 5y ago
      The comment originally read "why would she do that? To keep a souvenir?"
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- Ancapistani 5y ago
  People react to sudden, extreme stress in way that seem odd after the fact. This doesn’t seem inconceivable at all.
- trutannus 5y ago
  Shock, likely.
  - khazhoux 5y ago
    Pre-shock, even.
- Narretz 5y ago
  She was in shock, and tried to do something to help her husband. It's not even that far fetched. If your hand was cut off, you'd want to save it for possible reattachment.
- swearwolf 5y ago
  Some combination of shock and instinct. Probably more shock since she later reported that she didn’t remember doing it at all.
- IE6 5y ago
  It's really impossible to speculate until you've been in a situation like that and most of us probably have not. I would suspect it was a panic response and not some deeper nefarious action.
jrm4 5y ago
For some reason, I'm remembering peoples' take on this being that she was scared and running away, and I'm weirdly glad to see that someone else understood this. It's all morbid and strange, but some weird part of me feels that its important that we see this distinction; this wasn't cowardice, she was trying to "fix it."
sgt101 5y ago
It looks like he's shot from the front because it looks like there's a splash of matter from his face - like you'd get if you threw a water balloon at him. But rifle bullets aren't water balloons. They don't splash on human flesh - they do on concrete or steel - but not flesh. They go through and what you are seeing is ejecta from a bullet passing through JFK's head and exiting, leaving a high pressure mess behind and a small hole for it to leave by. God knows what Jackie was doing, maybe getting something, maybe trying to get to the guard. God knows.
- tehjoker 5y ago
  That's one interpretation. He also slumps backwards rather than forwards. In JFK Revisited, Oliver Stone looked into the hospital staff that saw him at Parkland Hospital and all of the accounts he was able to find had the back of JFK's head blown out with an exit wound.
  - defterGoose 5y ago
    Dude, just watch the film. It's so obvious that his head recoils forward and that there's a massive exit wound on his face. Whatever his body does afterward is going to be a combination of simple dynamics and the muscular contractions that would be characteristic of a massive head trauma. If there's a conspiracy to be uncovered, it's not going to be evidenced in the film.
    - tehjoker 5y ago
      I just did, it didn't look like what you said at all. I did not see his head rock forward. It's difficult to determine if that's a massive exit wound on his face, it could just be blood. CONTENT WARNING: JFK ASSASSINATION https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdwVUBlK-Y0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdwVUBlK-Y0

madspindel 5y ago

> Jackie Kennedy goes and grabs a piece of brain or skull from the back of the car. Sorry, not from the US but why would she do that?

swamp40 5y ago
Because people do weird things under extreme stress.
khazhoux 5y ago
She reached for it within the fraction of a second that the bullet struck JFK's head. It was an instinctive action. In fact, we humans usually can't rationally comprehend catastrophic injury to the body, while in that state of immediate shock. Think of the image of the soldier carrying his detached arm.
dang 5y ago
Edit: the parent comment originally said "why would she do that? To keep a souvenir?" and has since been edited. Stealth-editing a comment to deprive replies of their meaning is not a nice thing to do, so please don't do that. -- original reply: -- "Don't be snarky." "Eschew flamebait." https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- shadowgovt 5y ago
  Clarification: is this snark or flamebait? I might be missing something, but it seems like a reasonable question. I recall the first time I heard she'd done that, my own incredulity was similar (having never been in a life-or-death crisis, I didn't have the frame-of-reference to get that a person may not be thinking rationally "Doctors can't put brain parts back in" and might grab whatever they see come off a loved one).
  - runnerup 5y ago
    I suspect the minimized version, "Why would she do that?" would have been well received. I don't think anyone understands why the "I'm not from the US" clause is there and I personally assigned a reasonable probability that it was a short-hand stand-in for the following sentiment : "The US has so much gun violence that they must have some kind of expertise that leads them to know that its a good idea to save skull fragments in case the doctors need them. Lol, just kidding, that was sarcasm; I just wanted to bash the US for their high rate of gun violence." Of course I accept that this may be mis-interpreting it. The only other meaning I can parse is: "I imagine that everyone in the USA learned about this event in great detail in their school lessons/etc. I haven't so....could someone explain why she grabbed the skull fragment?"
  - dang 5y ago
    The comment originally read "why would she do that? To keep a souvenir?"
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
Ancapistani 5y ago
People react to sudden, extreme stress in way that seem odd after the fact. This doesn’t seem inconceivable at all.
trutannus 5y ago
Shock, likely.
- khazhoux 5y ago
  Pre-shock, even.
Narretz 5y ago
She was in shock, and tried to do something to help her husband. It's not even that far fetched. If your hand was cut off, you'd want to save it for possible reattachment.
swearwolf 5y ago
Some combination of shock and instinct. Probably more shock since she later reported that she didn’t remember doing it at all.
IE6 5y ago
It's really impossible to speculate until you've been in a situation like that and most of us probably have not. I would suspect it was a panic response and not some deeper nefarious action.

jrm4 5y ago

For some reason, I'm remembering peoples' take on this being that she was scared and running away, and I'm weirdly glad to see that someone else understood this. It's all morbid and strange, but some weird part of me feels that its important that we see this distinction; this wasn't cowardice, she was trying to "fix it."

sgt101 5y ago

It looks like he's shot from the front because it looks like there's a splash of matter from his face - like you'd get if you threw a water balloon at him. But rifle bullets aren't water balloons. They don't splash on human flesh - they do on concrete or steel - but not flesh. They go through and what you are seeing is ejecta from a bullet passing through JFK's head and exiting, leaving a high pressure mess behind and a small hole for it to leave by. God knows what Jackie was doing, maybe getting something, maybe trying to get to the guard. God knows.

tehjoker 5y ago
That's one interpretation. He also slumps backwards rather than forwards. In JFK Revisited, Oliver Stone looked into the hospital staff that saw him at Parkland Hospital and all of the accounts he was able to find had the back of JFK's head blown out with an exit wound.
- defterGoose 5y ago
  Dude, just watch the film. It's so obvious that his head recoils forward and that there's a massive exit wound on his face. Whatever his body does afterward is going to be a combination of simple dynamics and the muscular contractions that would be characteristic of a massive head trauma. If there's a conspiracy to be uncovered, it's not going to be evidenced in the film.
  - tehjoker 5y ago
    I just did, it didn't look like what you said at all. I did not see his head rock forward. It's difficult to determine if that's a massive exit wound on his face, it could just be blood. CONTENT WARNING: JFK ASSASSINATION https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdwVUBlK-Y0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdwVUBlK-Y0