I had the opposite feeling. Looking from the window, to your left, a winding road. To your right, the freeway entrance. With a bolt action rifle, Oswald had to shoot, eject the casing, reload, acquire the target of an accelerating vehicle, shoot, eject the casing, reload, acquire the target of an accelerating vehicle and fire again. One of the Marine Corps' top snipers said, "I can't do it." If he can't, how could Oswald?
The Carcano M91/38 is a magazine fed rifle, it isn't manually reloaded. You can work the bolt while remaining on target. That's not a particularly hard thing to do, either- I was able to learn that skill the first afternoon I shot a magzine fed bolt action.
EDIT: Here's a video of someone replicating the shots with that rifle. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghmY6HmR4fs The comments also point out other factors that could have made the shot easier.
One of the cable networks had a guy make the shot from the exact same height and distance. After I watch that episode I'm convinced it happened that way. What really makes it a conspiracy is how RFK covered up the political on goings in the White House. JFK was doing thing politically not popular in America, in an effort to cover this up RFK rushed the funeral, medical exam and burial to put those things to rest.
Thank you for sharing this context and the video. It is also interesting anachronism to see Americans casually handling firearms with competence on a TV broadcast
They weren’t exactly bullseye hits. He got the bullets in the right vicinity, which is admittedly an impressive feat, but it was pure chance that they managed to strike in a way that caused a lethal blow. If one was going through the effort of conspiring with 1-2 other gunmen, then it should have featured better and more intentional targeting, from spaces anywhere along the motorcade route that wouldn’t be so difficult to enter/exit. Or, if we’re talking about a broader planned conspiracy, use a blunter instrument like an IED or another vehicle, or both. Why opt for a sniper at all? The chances of success seem too little for a professional hit, but about right for an unstable radicalized former soldier looking for revolutionary glory.
Also, the car only started accelerating after the hit was made, and it was fairly axial to the bullet trajectory. I dunno know about you, but I can reload a bolt action rifle without dropping aim in under a second. It’s using the rifle as it was designed to be used.
It wasn’t a good shot. It was a lucky shot. One he clearly didn’t fully prepare to land, otherwise he probably wouldn’t have been arrested shortly after in a nearby movie theater. It was hardly sophisticated, and its success hinged almost entirely on blind luck and circumstance, which is the most difficult scenario to protect against.
