JUSTICE BUILDING BLOG

WELCOME TO THE OFFICIAL RICHARD E GERSTEIN JUSTICE BUILDING BLOG. THIS BLOG IS DEDICATED TO JUSTICE BUILDING RUMOR, HUMOR, AND A DISCUSSION ABOUT AND BETWEEN THE JUDGES, LAWYERS AND THE DEDICATED SUPPORT STAFF, CLERKS, COURT REPORTERS, AND CORRECTIONAL OFFICERS WHO LABOR IN THE WORLD OF MIAMI'S CRIMINAL JUSTICE. POST YOUR COMMENTS, OR SEND RUMPOLE A PRIVATE EMAIL AT HOWARDROARK21@GMAIL.COM. Winner of the prestigious Cushing Left Anterior Descending Artery Award.

Friday, November 22, 2013

FRAME 313

This is the Zapruder film synchronized with the dicta belt recording from the motorcycle officer who left his microphone open by mistake. 





  When the presidential limousine emerges into view from the sign on the lower left, Kennedy has already been shot once. You can see his hands go to his throat where there was an exit wound from what has been called the magic bullet.  (The movement of the hands-which look unusual- is most likely a medical phenomenon called "Thorburn's Positon"  which is an involuntary  movement of the hands and arms  in a vertical manner in response to a spinal injury, first noted by a neurologist in the early 19th century I believe.)  If you also look carefully in the lower left, you can see the umbrella open by Umbrella man. 

Long a conspiracy theory mystery, Umbrella man- the man who opened a black umbrella on a warm sunny Dallas day at the moment the president was shot, turned out to be a normal citizen who was, of all things, protesting the appeasement  policy of President Kennedy's father - Joseph P. Kennedy, when he was ambassador to the court of Saint James. The umbrella was to symbolize the Ambassador's support for Prime Minister Neville Chamberlin's appeasement policy. Chamberlin often carried an umbrella. For more on the unusual circumstances of Delay Plaza that day, see John Updike's comment in a 1967 New Yorker article: 

Updike observes that the Umbrella Man “dangles around history’s neck like a fetish.” 
We wonder whether a genuine mystery is being concealed here or whether any similar scrutiny of a minute section of time and space would yield similar strangenesses—gaps, inconsistencies, warps, and bubbles in the surface of circumstance. Perhaps, as with the elements of matter, investigation passes a threshold of common sense and enters a sub-atomic realm where laws are mocked, where persons have the life-span of beta particles and the transparency of neutrinos, and where a rough kind of averaging out must substitute for absolute truth. The truth about those seconds in Dallas is especially elusive; the search for it seems to demonstrate how perilously empiricism verges on magic.

We've thought about this long and hard. We've read at least a dozen books (we highly recommend the re-release of William Manchester's "Death of a President") and we've personally inspected Dealey Plaza on two occasions, once as an unofficial advisor to a documentary being made. 

Oswald killed Kennedy by himself. It hurts that such a small, insignificant failure of a man killed such a great man. But he did. By himself. With a cheap Italian WWII surplus rifle. 

Our favourite book on the assassination is a work of fiction: Stephen King's 11/22/1963. Read it. You'll be glad you did. 

Frame 313 of the Zapruder film is the head/kill shot. 50 years later it still remains perhaps the most disturbing film image of our time. A young man, slain down at the prime of his life. 




For in the final analysis, our most basic common link, is that we all inhabit this small planet, we all breathe the same air, we all cherish our children's futures, and we are all mortal.
John F. Kennedy, Speech at The American University, Washington, D.C., June 10, 1963



26 comments:

FAKE SPECIAL K said...

The Northeast was hit with a power failure at the time of the assassination. A combat bridge was over the air of Washington DC. Most of the cabinet was in a plane over the Pacific.
The body was rushed out of Dallas before an autopsy which was required by law, could be done. The Dr who did an "autopsy" at Bethesda was not a pathologist.
Johnson's closest aid, who knew all about Johnson's financial improprieties was under subpoena and headed to prison. The Generals never forgave Kennedy from abandoning the landings in Cuba. The week before Kennedy had signed a finding refusing to commit more troops to Vietnam. A dozen southern senators and governors hated Kennedy and his work to integrate the south.

This wasn't a murder Rumpole. This was a damn COUP D'ETAT.
And the investigation isn't over Just remember: there is no statute of limitations for TREASON.


Anonymous said...

Let us not forget William Hurt's "Reasonable Doubt." You can get it for one penny on Amazon. Offers a riveting expose of what a cesspool of zaniness New Orleans was in the early 60's. A lot of inferences and assumptions but if you are a hard core conspiracy buff and like to think there was a cabal of military/CIA/bankers and old Cuban men in fedoras sipping coffee at the Versaille behind every random tragic event in the 1960's, this book is for you.

Anonymous said...

"Libra" by Don DeLillo is also a great book about the assassination and a great piece of literature as well. DeLillo actually makes Oswald into a sort of hero and creates a completely plausible explanation for the "Oswald as patsy" conspiracy theory. The most disturbing snapshot from the Kennedy assassination for me is the mob-style execution of Oswald in the basement of a police station, while he is surrounded by police officers, all broadcast live on national T.V., an event that--50 years later--still has to be the most shocking reality T.V. event ever.

Rumpole said...

I'm sorry. I don't find Oswald's killing disturbing for me. I find a young president's head being half blown off in front of his wife with his brains splattered on her dress much more disturbing. I find his two year old son saluting his casket three days later much more disturbing. I just don't have any sympathy for Oswald.

CAPTAIN JUSTICE said...



Reposted, with permission from The Captain.



The Captain Reports:

Nuclear Option, November 22, and Frame 313 .....

To be clear, the nuclear option employed that now moves back to the simple majority rule in the Senate, will affect not only the President's nominees to become a Judge, (except for the Supreme Court), but all nominations of the President, for Cabinet positions and other posts.

To 6:34 PM and other supporters of Will Thomas:

Not so fast ....

This rule change has nothing to do with Senator Rubio's blocking of Thomas' ascension to the Federal bench. Rubio has not issued his "blue slip" and given his "nod" to the head of the Judiciary Committee that it is ok with him to take a vote on the nominee and then send the recommendation to the floor of the Senate.

The Chair of the Judiciary could do so anyway, but he would then be bypassing another accepted "tradition" and protocol calling for the OK of both State Senators before a nominee faces a full up or down vote.


As for Frame 313, maybe some of our robed readers from the GJB could learn a lesson from LIFE Magazine. LIFE chose NOT to publish frame 313 despite having the rights to do so because of the graphic nature of the photo.

How many of you have been in trial on a homicide case when the State insists on showing the jury a photo or many photos, graphic in nature, of the scene of the crime. Photos that will be emblazoned into the memories of each and every jury for the rest of their lives. Photos that don't need to be shown to the jury in order to prove an element in the case. Photos that, the ASA knows, are only being shown for the effect they will have on the jurors, so that they become more likely to return a verdict of Guilty.

Rarely are the photos probative of anything other than showing the jury that the State has a dead body. Something that every defense attorney is willing to stipulate to in most cases.

There have been a few Judges in our courthouse who have had the cajones to say NO to the State and do the right thing.

Cap Out .....
Captain4Justice@gmail.com

Cheryl S. said...

I"m with you. I saw a documentary where they recreated everything that day, and it was totally do-able, by Oswald, by himself.

Oswald obviously had the same sickness as John Hinkley, Mark David Chapman, and many others. If you kill a great man, you become "someone" yourself. Sad.

Off to check out Stephen King's book. I've never read that one.

Anonymous said...

In the paraphrased words of Frankie Pentangela " lets pack the court now while we have the muscle." The republicans will one day have a majority in the senate anyway, when they do, they will find no seats left to fill.

Anonymous said...

Some Brady material in Miami Gardens:

http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/11/21/3769823/in-miami-gardens-store-video-catches.html

And in Sweetwater:

http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/11/21/3770676/tainted-by-scandal-sweetwater.html

Anonymous said...

I heard this morning on radio that the dictabelt recording had been discredited because the officer whose mike got stuck in the on position was 2 miles away at the time and that a recently-performed expensive high-tech study of the reording had shown that it was worthless as evidence. Anyone knows more?

Anonymous said...

Case Closed by Gerald Posner is the definitive work proving once and for all that Oswald acted alone.

Anonymous said...

You better find a better champion for your lone gunman theories--http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tag/gerald-posner-plagiarism. Posner and Vincent Bugliosi, another of the great lone gunman theorists, are both inveterate self-promoters who don't bother to address the bigger issue of the Don DeLillo scenario, in which Oswald fires the shots after being manipulated by outside forces. Too bad Oswald didn't live long enough to go to trial or at least talk to an attorney, but somebody didn't want that to happen.

Anonymous said...

captain needs to have his blog privileges suspended for a bit.

good stuff rumpole.

Frobisher said...

Oswald told Dallas police he wanted to speak to attorney John Abt. Abt at the time could not be reached because he was at his vacation home.

former judge said...


5:48, I served with The Captain. I knew The Captain. The Captain was a friend of mine. 5:48, you're no Captain.

And as a Former Judge, I can appreciate and agree with what The Captain said.

Eye On Q said...

In the Q's string theory podcast today he posits that in most dimensions Oswald either missed Kennedy or the Secret Service had the plexiglass bubble on the car because it was raining in Dallas. He says that only in very few strings or alternate dimensions, of which we live in one, was Kennedy killed.
Fascinating.

Anonymous said...

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/11/kennedy-assassination-conspiracy-oswald-cuba

DS said...

Why did the "Ex-CIA" operative kill Oswald before a full investigation could occur?
Not saying its a conspiracy, but it does raise questions.

As an aside, I was in 3rd grade , being sent down to the` office w/ Jimmy Teachman, for a talking to by Mrs. Havens, the Principle , at Greynolds Park Elem.
We had been talking/playing to much and disrupting Mrs. Gilmer's remedial reading class. As we passed the cafeteria, a 6th grade Teacher came out to tell us to be quiet , the` President had just been shot. The 6th graders were watching the news on TV in the Cafeteria.

Anonymous said...

I don't believe the lone gunman theory. It looks like it was a C-O-N-Spiracy wherein several persons whose identity is presently unknown to the media (though not necessarily unknown to the state and the feds) conspired, agreed and confederated with each other to commit a capital felony, to wit: the murder of JFK.

Anonymous said...

Not to engage the larger issue, but just focusing on the umbrella man:

1. Other than his claims to be the UM, is there any collaboration that the guy who surfaced in the 1970s was actually who he claims to be?

2. His narrative about the Chamberlain protest is bizarre, but you accept it at face value Rump. Is there any evidence whatsoever that this man previously protested, or given any public evidence that this was a pet cause of his, or any public evidence of disliking Kennedy or his father, etc? Seems like things a good cross examination would get out. You expect us to believe that all of a sudden, on this day of all days, you take up a 20 year old political cause and protest it in the most subtle, bizarre way ever?

Rumpole said...

Ruby was NOT an ex-cia operative. he was a two bit strip club owner with a known explosive temper. There is ample evidence that while he stalked Oswald- he is seen in the background of pictures at a press conference the day before- his act of killing Oswald was spontaneous. Exactly FOUR minutes before he shot Oswald he was two blocks away wiring 25 to a stripper. He walked over to the police station an hour later than the announced time Oswald was to be transferred.

As to a conspiracy- tell me the reason so compelling that a president had to be killed.

Anonymous said...

I have never been able to convince myself that the head shot that killed President Kennedy could possibly have come from directly behind him and caused his head to snap backwards as it did.

If one is struck in the back of the head with such force, one's head will snap forwards.

The first shot, the "throat shot," allegedly came from the same rifle and from directly behind the President.

Rumpole said...

Simple answer. Kennedy was wearing a full body back brace he could not fall forward. Only to the side which he did.

Anonymous said...

Sorry, Rump. He wasn't wearing a neck brace.

If he had been hit in the back of the head, his head would have snapped forward until his chin hit his chest, not backwards towards the source of the impact.

Rumpole said...

Not a NECK brace but a BACK brace and that is documented by his secret service detail and the ER room doctors. He could not bend forward or backward.

Anonymous said...

Yes, I saw that you wrote back brace and I accept that is correct.

My point was that his neck was clearly not supported and was free to move in any direction.

Rumpole said...

No, his neck was frozen. The muscles were locked. Google the neurological Thorburn's position.