From: dccdfarr@vaxxine.com (Chris Farrer) Newsgroups: alt.conspiracy.jfk.moderated,alt.conspiracy.jfk Subject: Strully on JFK & Thorburn's Position Approved: aja@thuntek.net Date: Sat, 28 Dec 1996 14:28:42 EST Organization: Vaxxine's Internet Access Lines: 119 Distribution: world Message-Id: X-Newsreader: Trumpet for Windows [Version 1.0 Rev B final beta #1] Status: O Bill MacDowall wrote: >On 11 Dec 1996 22:18:59 -0600, dccdfarr@vaxxine.com (Chris Farrer) >wrote: > >>>Bill MacDowall wrote: >>>What comes through from the posts every time, is a complete lack of >>>appreciation of the effects each bullet which struck JFK had and the >>>implications of those effects. >> >>Would you mind elaborating, Bill? >> >>Chris Farrer > >Certainly Chris. > >As I mention in response to another post of yours in this thread, the >claim of a neuromuscular reaction to the head shot to explain JFK's >movements is untenable. More than that, the fact that the experts >don't care to address this subject is very suspicious. > >Basically, the problem is this. Presented with the need to explain >all of JFK's wounds in terms of two shots from above and behind, the >available evidence is troublesome. Firstly, there is the need to >explain why JFK grasps towards his throat after the first shot. Many >have claimed that it was a reaction to a throat shot from the front >and that the entry wound was obliterated by the tracheotomy performed >at Parkland. > >Based upon the autopsy findings and the x-ray plates taken at >Bethseda, JFK suffered major trauma to the spinal cord in the area >designated C6. Expert opinion is that the grasping motion observed in >JFK immediately after was the manifestation of "Thorburn's position" a >neuromuscular reaction which causes the arms to be thrown up into a >fixed position parallel to the chin. > >Faced with explaining why JFK's head was then observed to move back >and to the left after another shot allegedly originating above and >behind the motorcade, the experts conjured up another neuromuscular >reaction to account for this. > >Unfortunately, the trauma to the transverse process at C6 caused by >cavitation totally precludes any neuromuscular reaction to the head >shot because by the time it struck home JFK was quadraplegic and >incapable of such involuntary responses. Further, the total >destruction of the right cerebral hemisphere resulting from the fatal >shot released "Thorburn's position" instantly indicating that a total >cessation of muscular activity. > >For those of us who remain sceptical of the official findings, matters >such as this are highly troublesome. Simply put, the effect of the >first shot was such that it precluded the explanation offered for the >movements observed in the second. > >The so-called "jet-effect" was offered as a supplementary cause of the >movements observed in JFK but this only complicates matters further. >The head X-rays show a massive bone deficit in the right parietal >region and the Zapruder film demonstrates graphically the force with >which bone and tissue was sprayed into the air. Any "jet-effect" >produced by this explosive ejection of tissue would have caused an >equal and opposite reaction, sending JFK's head to the left...not back >and to the left as actually happened. > >The above information illustrates the problems inherent in failing to >consider the implications of an initial premise and the difficulties >which arise when embellishments are added to re-inforce weaknesses. > > >Bill According to Dr. Kenneth Strully, a neurosurgeon from New Hampshire, JFK's movements following the neck shot were the result of direct stimulation of the relevant nerves, not spinal trauma to C6. The following are excerpts from a letter sent by Strully to Dr. Robert Artwohl, dated April 9, 1994: "Before all else, it is necessary to remember that this assassination reveals a sequence of neural responses initiated in the neck by the shock wave and cavitation induced by the bullet in its traverse of the neck. This traumatized all structures in a 6 inch radius in all directions from the path of passage through the neck. This spread of forces occurred in a fraction of a second, traumatizing all neural structures in the immediate vicinity within a fraction of a second as determined by the speed of the missile according to ballistic studies. As a result, contraction of the muscles innervated by nerves closest to the bullet's path took place first; -- right deltoid, left deltoid, right biceps followed by the left biceps and sequential contraction of all muscles in the forearms, hands, chest, abdominal walls and paraspinal muscle groups, with muscles in the lower extremities, farthest from the shock wave, responding last. All neural structures in the neck were stimulated at the same moment but the distance an impulse had to travel to cause muscle contractions in the hamstrings and gluteal muscles was greater, thus the motor responses in these muscles occurred much later." [...] "There is no evidence here of Kennedy having assumed Thorburn's Position which is seen in quadriplegics due to transverse lesions of the spinal cord at the C6 level. The position is assumed involuntarily. With quadriplegia, the patient lying in the supine position can only contract the biceps while the triceps, anconeus and muscles innervated by the C6 root and all others innervated by spinal nerves distal to the C6 level are paralyzed. The patient under these circumstances cannot extend the forearm at the elbow once contraction of the biceps occurs to flex the forearm at the elbow. Kennedy did not reach for his throat. All movements seen in the films, occurring relative to the bullet's passage, were involuntary; lifting of the shoulders was a result of contraction of the deltoids followed by contraction of the biceps muscles which flexed the upper extremities at the elbows, then forearm and intrinsic muscles of the hands causing clenching of the hands." Chris Farrer