Poor, Poor Man

Just read a factoid (well, a plausible one, possibly) about the JFK assassination that, while not quite curdling my blood, did give me a shiver of melancholy-and-the-infinite-sadness.

You’ve all seen the Zapruder film, the shaky 8-mm video of the motorcade as it proceeds past the Texas School Book Depository and the president is killed. In a book entitled Murder in Dealey Plaza, in a chapter on the chronology of November 22, 1963 (compiled by Ira David Wood III), I read that

SS agent Roy Kellerman … testifies that he hears JFK call out: “My God! I’m hit!” JFK, who is wearing a rigid back brace, does not slump, but is held erect by the device.

How awful! While Governor Connolly, in the seat directly in front of the president and hit, too, is able to slide to the center of the car and partially shield himself from further gunfire, Kennedy is trapped and held up like a duck on one of those shooting gallery treadmills, a suited bullseye for Oswald or whoever to fire those brutal 6.5 mm shells at until the mission is accomplished.

What a poor man! May God have mercy on his soul.