Oswald in the doorway: the blog of the Oswald Innocence Campaign, by Ralph Cinque

Let's describe JFK's aberrant behavior after being shot. I have the very excellent Image of An Assassination, A New Look at the Zapruder film. I watched it again, several times, at regular speed and slow motion.

So, JFK is smiling and waving. All's well. Then suddenly, around frame 198, he puts his hand over his face. 

Now, I don't believe he really did that.Why would he? It's not even a reasonable response to being shot, and according to them, he hasn't been shot yet.  It has to be paint  They were covering up the expression on his face from being shot because he was already shot in the back at that point. Remember the "quizzical" look Jackie spoke of? That's what I'm talking about. 

So, the hand over his face continued until he disappeared behind the sign.  When he emerges, he goes through raising his hands to his throat. His right hand he places over his mouth and coughs, but apparently just once, which means that he cleared whatever it was that was blocking his breathing. To do it in one cough tells me it wasn't much. 

But then, even though he was finished, he continued holding his arms up and his elbows out. It isn't normal to raise your elbows. You can bring your hand to your mouth and leave your elbow down. But look at frame 239 where he lifted his elbow higher than his hand. 

His mission was accomplished at that point. He had no reason to continue holding up his arms at all, but he couldn't let them go. To me, it looks like he is trying to make an elbow strike to a taller man. Indeed, he looks like a martial artist. 

Then, Jackie tries first with one hand, and then with two hands, to get him to lower his arm, as per frame 255..  She has little success. 

His muscle spasming increases, with his posterior cervical and spinal muscles all contracted, as well as his trapezius, as per frame 278.

And mentally, he seems incapacitated, where he is not responding to the emergency and shows no awareness of it. He seems completely internalized. He seems cognitively detached and dysfunctional. He seems frozen. And that continues until 313 when the shot to his head kills him except for lingering and winding down vital signs that are no more significant than a chicken running around with its head cut off. 

I am very interested in understanding the cause of all that aberrant behavior, and I hope I am not the only one.