What Happened -- Shot 2
The next shot in my scenario aligns with the second "suspect impulse" (with the closest acoustical match being occurring with the "rifle withdrawn" from the TSBD window), occurring 1.6 seconds after the initial "suspect impulse." This is the shot that was about simultaneous with the famous Altgens 6 photograph, showing Kennedy in distress (the decorticate posture "chest-grab" position), with Jackie's hands on his arm. My "take" on this shot may surprise you.
Sections:
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Acoustical Alignment
The shot under discussion in this section is the one that occurred as the second "suspect impulse" accepted by the acoustical experts, the one occurring at 139.27 seconds into the stuck mic sequence of the recording.
Again, here is my chart transferring the data from the acoustical experts' testimony:
This second "suspect impulse" is, I contend, a recording of the shot that occurred when the limousine was "almost simultaneously" (see James Altgens' testimony below) in the position of the famous "Altgens 6" photograph.
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The "Moonwalking Bear"
Before you go any farther, please take the very short "Awareness Test" (It's a short Public Service Announcement commercial) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KB_lTKZm1Ts. This PSA "Awareness Test" is meant to warn drivers to maintain an alertness and awareness for cyclists on the road.
Go ahead. Take the test. It's short, and I'll still be here when you're done. I won't grade you, I promise.
The "Awareness Test" video went viral, for reasons I'm sure you now understand (assuming you took the test) and it demonstrates the nature of a phenomenon known as inattention blindness. Inattention blindness is just one of the many factors that caused Dealey Plaza witnesses to miss hearing (or processing, anyway) the first shot. And possibly the second.
The colloquial nickname for inattention blindness is called "missing the Moonwalking Bear." If you've taken the Awareness Test, you know why.
Although a number of witnesses believed that the presidential limousine's location in Altgens 6 was its location for the "first" assassination shot, I contend that these witnesses missed processing the actual first shot, especially since a very common theme among witnesses was to believe that the first shot or shots was "firecracker/s" or "backfire." They were not expecting an assassination to take place, and inattention blindness complicated by the noises of the crowds and motorcycles, caused them to miss the fact that Kennedy had already been shot. Mary Moorman, for example, in a same-day interview, stated that she did not know that shots were being fired until after she had taken her famous photograph, which she had believed was simultaneous with the "first" shot of three (although in a same day interview, she said "three or four" that she was "sure of").
There were quite a few witnesses who missed the "Moonwalking Bear" of the first shot, and quite a few who missed this one, as well. They weren't expecting an assassination. Their attention was on other things. (Did you take the "Awareness Test" whose link I posted at the beginning of this section? Take the test, and you'll see how it's possible to miss something right in front of your eyes.)
Many witnesses reported a shot that was concurrent with the limousine in the position of the Altgens 6 photograph. Many people believed that this was the "first" shot. However, none of these people were expecting an assassination to take place, and the sound may have been masked by the noisy (and back-fire prone) motorcycles. There is also a phenomenon called "inattention blindness" that can cause people to miss something right in front of them. Additionally, there is a potential of mis-perceiving separate and distinct shots as a shot plus an "echo" (instead of another shot). Taken together, these examples explain why honest witnesses were far more likely to under-report the number of shots fired than to over-report the number.
Go ahead. Take the test. It's short, and I'll still be here when you're done. I won't grade you, I promise.
The "Awareness Test" video went viral, for reasons I'm sure you now understand (assuming you took the test) and it demonstrates the nature of a phenomenon known as inattention blindness. Inattention blindness is just one of the many factors that caused Dealey Plaza witnesses to miss hearing (or processing, anyway) the first shot. And possibly the second.
The colloquial nickname for inattention blindness is called "missing the Moonwalking Bear." If you've taken the Awareness Test, you know why.
Although a number of witnesses believed that the presidential limousine's location in Altgens 6 was its location for the "first" assassination shot, I contend that these witnesses missed processing the actual first shot, especially since a very common theme among witnesses was to believe that the first shot or shots was "firecracker/s" or "backfire." They were not expecting an assassination to take place, and inattention blindness complicated by the noises of the crowds and motorcycles, caused them to miss the fact that Kennedy had already been shot. Mary Moorman, for example, in a same-day interview, stated that she did not know that shots were being fired until after she had taken her famous photograph, which she had believed was simultaneous with the "first" shot of three (although in a same day interview, she said "three or four" that she was "sure of").
There were quite a few witnesses who missed the "Moonwalking Bear" of the first shot, and quite a few who missed this one, as well. They weren't expecting an assassination. Their attention was on other things. (Did you take the "Awareness Test" whose link I posted at the beginning of this section? Take the test, and you'll see how it's possible to miss something right in front of your eyes.)
Many witnesses reported a shot that was concurrent with the limousine in the position of the Altgens 6 photograph. Many people believed that this was the "first" shot. However, none of these people were expecting an assassination to take place, and the sound may have been masked by the noisy (and back-fire prone) motorcycles. There is also a phenomenon called "inattention blindness" that can cause people to miss something right in front of them. Additionally, there is a potential of mis-perceiving separate and distinct shots as a shot plus an "echo" (instead of another shot). Taken together, these examples explain why honest witnesses were far more likely to under-report the number of shots fired than to over-report the number.
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Patricia Ann (Lawrence) Donaldson
One of the witnesses who thought the "first" shot happened when the limousine was in the Altgens 6 position was Patricia Ann (Lawrence) Donaldson. I use her for example because there is a video showing both her position along Elm Street and the position of the limousine at the time when she heard her "first" shot. Ms. Donaldson was apparently standing just to the left of the TSBD stairs (on the east end of the building, almost under the shooter's window but closer to the stairs), as the video shows, and is looking at the limousine parked in the approximate location of the Altgens 6 photograph in a JFK Assassination anniversary event, and telling her interviewer that "This is approximately where--the car was in this position when I heard the first shot." (See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5GKuXhwpbMM)
Here are a few images showing her location, from different perspectives:
Here are a few images showing her location, from different perspectives:
Image from https://www.history-matters.com/analysis/witness/. Listed under "Lawrence, Patricia".
From the video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5GKuXhwpbMM Note the access road behind her, not visible in other images.
In actuality, and despite her relative nearness to the intersection of Elm and Houston, I believe she missed the first shot, the one reported by Alan Smith, Pierce Allman, and others. But her "first" shot location does match fairly well with the limousine's position in the Altgens 6 photo, and that match is why I believe it was parked there for some amount of time during the assignation anniversary event (during which the video was recorded), with actors/stand-ins for the Kennedy's and Connally's. This image shows fairly well how short the distance actually was along Elm Street, between Patty Ann's position, and the Triple Underpass:
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James "Ike" Altgens
AP photographer James "Ike" Altgens testified to the Warren Commission that he snapped his picture "almost simultaneously" with the shot that he heard. But he missed the actual first shot, because he had been running from the corner of Main and Houston, where he took his Altgens 5 photograph, to his new location where he took his Altgens 6 photograph.
The Altgens 5 image, from https://www.jfkassassinationgallery.com/displayimage.php?album=2&pos=11
After taking the above "Altgens 5" picture, he picked up his gear bag and ran across the the distance to his new location, racing the limousine as it finished traveling down Houston and turned onto Elm, dropped his gear bag, and then stepped onto the street (which the white dot below does not show) to take his Altgens 6 picture. He thought his picture was about simultaneous with the "first" shot. But he was so busy running and getting his camera ready and so on, that he missed the "moonwalking bear" of the actual first shot.
Image from https://www.history-matters.com/analysis/witness/. Listed under "Altgens, James". With my arrow annotation added to show where he ran between taking his Altgens #5 and Altgens #6 photos.
From his testimony (Hearings, vol. VII, pp.517-518 https://www.history-matters.com/archive/contents/wc/contents_wh7.htm):
Mr. Altgens. I made one picture at the time I heard a noise that sounded like a firecracker-I did not know it was a shot, but evidently my picture, as I recall, and it was almost simultaneously with the shot-the shot was just a fraction ahead of my picture, but that much-of course-at that time I figured it was nothing more than a firecracker, because from my position down here the sound was not of such volume that it would indicate to me it was a high-velocity rifle.
Mr. LIEBELER. Did you have any idea where the sound came from when you were standing there at No. 3 on Commission Exhibit No. 354?
Mr. ALTCENS. Well, it sounded like it was coming up from behind the car from my position-I mean the first shot, and being fireworks-who counts fireworks explosions? I wasn’t keeping track of the number of pops that took place, but I could vouch for No. 1, and I can vouch for the last shot, but I cannot tell you how many shots were in between. There was not another shot fired after the President was struck in the head. That was the last shot-that much I will say with a great degree of certainty.
Mr. LIEBELER. Did you have any idea where the sound came from when you were standing there at No. 3 on Commission Exhibit No. 354?
Mr. ALTCENS. Well, it sounded like it was coming up from behind the car from my position-I mean the first shot, and being fireworks-who counts fireworks explosions? I wasn’t keeping track of the number of pops that took place, but I could vouch for No. 1, and I can vouch for the last shot, but I cannot tell you how many shots were in between. There was not another shot fired after the President was struck in the head. That was the last shot-that much I will say with a great degree of certainty.
There are a number of things of interest in this excerpt of Altgens' testimony. For now, let's focus on the timing between when he heard the shot and when he took his picture. He testified under oath that he took his picture "almost simultaneously with the shot" the the shot was "just a fraction ahead of my picture." One would reasonably assume that "just a fraction ahead" meant "just a fraction of a second ahead."
However, in a 1967 CBS news special "A CBS News Inquiry: The Warren Report." Altgens told viewers that the Warren Commission had "fixed" his picture as occurring about 2 seconds after the shot was fired, in which President Kennedy was "struck in the neck, the first shot." (See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C8VmRC3-lp8 starting at about 11:10).
While 2 seconds is close to about the same time as the shot, it is not "almost simultaneously" with the shot. A car can cover a great deal of ground in 2 seconds, even when starting from a stop. Having just turned the corner, the limousine was already moving some 3-5 mph (as told by a Secret Service driver in a HSCA report that is now no longer available at the location where I originally found it) at the time of the first shot, at which point it began accelerating out of the turn to proceed down Elm Street.
A "2 seconds" time difference is not "almost simultaneous. However, "2 seconds" is a fairly closely match to the "1.6 seconds" difference in timing that the acoustical found between the first and second "suspect impulses" in the dicta belt tape. That "1.6 seconds" in the acoustical evidence may not have been the actual time that elapsed between the first and second shot. The actual time was slightly longer, because the playback speed on the tape was reported to have been slightly faster than the speed of the actual events. However, it's close enough for our purposes, and 1.6 to 2 seconds would have been plenty of time for the limousine to travel from where it had been at the time of the shot reported by Alan Smith and Pierce Allman, etc., to where it could be seen in Altgens 6, even starting from a near-stop. (I determined this by observing cars that turn from the intersection on the small residential street in front of my house. The limousine had already made its turn at the time of the shot, and was assumedly starting to accelerate to continue down Elm Street, so even with a slow acceleration, there was plenty of time.)
However, in a 1967 CBS news special "A CBS News Inquiry: The Warren Report." Altgens told viewers that the Warren Commission had "fixed" his picture as occurring about 2 seconds after the shot was fired, in which President Kennedy was "struck in the neck, the first shot." (See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C8VmRC3-lp8 starting at about 11:10).
While 2 seconds is close to about the same time as the shot, it is not "almost simultaneously" with the shot. A car can cover a great deal of ground in 2 seconds, even when starting from a stop. Having just turned the corner, the limousine was already moving some 3-5 mph (as told by a Secret Service driver in a HSCA report that is now no longer available at the location where I originally found it) at the time of the first shot, at which point it began accelerating out of the turn to proceed down Elm Street.
A "2 seconds" time difference is not "almost simultaneous. However, "2 seconds" is a fairly closely match to the "1.6 seconds" difference in timing that the acoustical found between the first and second "suspect impulses" in the dicta belt tape. That "1.6 seconds" in the acoustical evidence may not have been the actual time that elapsed between the first and second shot. The actual time was slightly longer, because the playback speed on the tape was reported to have been slightly faster than the speed of the actual events. However, it's close enough for our purposes, and 1.6 to 2 seconds would have been plenty of time for the limousine to travel from where it had been at the time of the shot reported by Alan Smith and Pierce Allman, etc., to where it could be seen in Altgens 6, even starting from a near-stop. (I determined this by observing cars that turn from the intersection on the small residential street in front of my house. The limousine had already made its turn at the time of the shot, and was assumedly starting to accelerate to continue down Elm Street, so even with a slow acceleration, there was plenty of time.)
Note that in the Altgens 6 photograph, Jackie already has her hands on the President's left arm, and JFK is already in that decorticate posture "chest grab" position. Neither of those actions happened instantaneously with the shot, but required oh, let's say, about 1.6 to 2 seconds after the shot, for those actions to occur.
And it takes about 2 and a half seconds just to operate the bolt on the clumsy Mannlicher-Carcanno rifle, never mind aiming. Oswald could not have fired a second shot this quickly after the first shot. Someone else fired it, and a key to who that was can be found in the Altgens 6 photograph itself.
And it takes about 2 and a half seconds just to operate the bolt on the clumsy Mannlicher-Carcanno rifle, never mind aiming. Oswald could not have fired a second shot this quickly after the first shot. Someone else fired it, and a key to who that was can be found in the Altgens 6 photograph itself.
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The Altgens 6 Photograph
This second shot in my scenario aligns with the famous Altgens 6 photograph, which Altgens told the Warren Commission was taken almost simultaneously to what he perceived to be the "first" shot, (and with the limousine positioned where many other witnesses also believed the "first" shot to have occurred).
Kennedy already can be seen to be in the decorticate posture "chest grab" position in the Altgens 6 photograph, with Jackie's white-gloved left hand on her husband's left forearm:
Kennedy already can be seen to be in the decorticate posture "chest grab" position in the Altgens 6 photograph, with Jackie's white-gloved left hand on her husband's left forearm:
This movement of Kennedy into the "chest grab" position and Jackie turning and putting her hands on his arm did not happen instantaneous to the shot that had obviously struck him before the photograph was taken. There needed to be some time--like 1.6 to 2 seconds--in order for these actions to occur.
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The FBI "Visual Aid" Model
The FBI provided a "Visual Aid" of photographs of a model of Dealey Plaza, placing the models of the first 5 cars of the motorcade in various positions along Houston and Elm Streets. (The booklet is found at https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=10699#relPageId=1 Scroll down for the images.) The Altgens 6 position is about where the FBI model places the "first" shot.
The FBI "Visual Aid" model puts "Shot 1" concurrent with the limo position in Altgens 6. Image from zhttps://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=10699#relPageId=21
The string line for the FBI "Visual Aid" model (see https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=10699#relPageId=23) suggests that the shot concurrent with the Altgens 6 picture was "shot 1" and that it originated from the TSBD window. I contend that both of these are wrong.
I include this image not because of the FBI's string-line or contention that it was "Shot One" (both contentions are wrong), but because it gives a good visual representation of the limousine's position, as well as the position of the next three cars in the motorcade: The Secret Service follow-up car, the Vice-President's car, and the Vice-President's Secret Service follow-up car. The importance of the positions of all these cars will become clear momentarily. However, the shot didn't originate from the TSBD window as the white FBI trajectory string-line (barely visible, but present) suggests. The "Phantom Revolver" visible in Altgens 6 is a clue as to where this shot actually originated.
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The "Phantom Revolver" in Altgens 6
In his Warren Commission testimony quoted above, Altgens stated that the shot "sounded like it was coming up from behind the car from my position."
In fact, I contend that this shot originated from Johnson's Secret Service follow-up car, which would have been positioned much like the last car in the line in the FBI model. Open doors on both sides of this car can be seen in the Altgens 6 photograph, one showing the "weird hand" of Secret Service agent Warren Taylor, which appears to be melting through the window via a drop of emulsion. Some researchers (e.g., from Murder from Within) have suggested that Taylor was holding a "phantom revolver." I agree. But I think the shot probably originated from the other (passenger) side of the car, from Lem Johns' position, where open doors can also be seen in the Altgens 6 photo:
Warren Taylor's weird arm holding a "phantom revolver" and "melting" through the window of the open car door (back seat, driver's side) in Altgens 6.
A passenger side door of the VP follow-up car can also be seen to be open.
In fact, if we back the motorcade up a bit to where the VP follow-up car makes the turn onto Houston, Warren Taylor's door can be seen to be opening in the Marie Muchmore film, just after the VP follow-up car turned onto Houston. Then the car travels down Houston Street, to the point where it is in the Altgens 6 picture.
An image from the Marie Muchmore film, showing Johnson's Secret Service follow-up car and Warren Taylor's door opening, just after the car had turned onto Houston Street.
Being farther back on Houston Street, Johnson's agents had a better view of the TSBD window than Kennedy's agents did, who by the point when the first shot occurred were almost right at the building, and would have had to crane their necks in order to see the gun. I contend that one of Johnson's follow-up car Secret Service agents saw the gun being readied to shoot, and the agents in the car started to react (as seen in the Muchmore film) before the first shot even occurred, which I contend was when the limousine was at the point of the FBI "Visual Aid" model's odd "not-a-shot" string-line position.
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The "Poof" off the Stemmons Sign
JFK Assassination Researcher Jim Marrs conducted an interview with Frenchman William Reymond, who claimed to see the "Other" Zapruder Film (See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSdyqDBTpeo) In the interview, Reymond, who claimed to have seen a version of the Zapruder Film different from what is available to the rest of us, described seeing a "poof" or ricochet off the Stemmons sign. Reymond speculated that a shot had hit the sign because limousine driver William Greer "missed his turn."
William Reymond told researcher Jim Marrs that, in the version of the Zapruder Film he saw, there was a "poof" off the sign because of a ricochet.
William Reymond thought that his "poof" or ricochet was because the driver Bill Greer had "missed his turn." But that's a big "miss" for any assassin, including someone as poor a shot as some researchers claim Oswald was.
But what if the sign was exactly the target that the shooter (one of Johnson's protective agents--probably Lem Johns) meant to hit? I think there absolutely was a ricochet off the Stemmons sign (after all, the sign was moved around and probably replaced, before Emmett Hudson gave his Warren Commission testimony), but I doubt very much that the ricochet was a "miss, because Greer missed his turn." I think the sign was exactly the target that the shooter meant to hit.
Before I discuss the reason for the shot and why my SS shooter meant to hit the sign, I'd like to address why one important witness (Charles Brehm) thought that Kennedy was hit by this shot, and another (Virginia Rachley Baker) thought that there was a miss or a "bullet" strike on the street. They weren't reacting to what was happening inside the car, but what was happening on the street--and that occurred entirely by coincidence.
But what if the sign was exactly the target that the shooter (one of Johnson's protective agents--probably Lem Johns) meant to hit? I think there absolutely was a ricochet off the Stemmons sign (after all, the sign was moved around and probably replaced, before Emmett Hudson gave his Warren Commission testimony), but I doubt very much that the ricochet was a "miss, because Greer missed his turn." I think the sign was exactly the target that the shooter meant to hit.
Before I discuss the reason for the shot and why my SS shooter meant to hit the sign, I'd like to address why one important witness (Charles Brehm) thought that Kennedy was hit by this shot, and another (Virginia Rachley Baker) thought that there was a miss or a "bullet" strike on the street. They weren't reacting to what was happening inside the car, but what was happening on the street--and that occurred entirely by coincidence.
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The (Coincidental) Skull Fragment
Charles Brehm, Virgie Rachley Baker, the Bobby Hargis Cheek Fragment, Seymour Weitzman, and Malcolm Couch
Although many witnesses believed that this Altgens 6 limousine position was equivalent with the "first" assassination shot, there wasn't really much description of what happened to any of the passengers when the limousine was in the Altgens 6 position. Some witnesses described something happening with the "first" shot, like "fireworks exploding inside the car" (the Franzen's, Mrs. Charles Hester, Ruby Henderson) but don't really give the car's position (unlike Alan Smith and Pierce Allman, who do give the car's position). However, given the location where these witnesses were standing (e.g., Mrs. Charles Hester, Ruby Henderson) and their point of view, their first shot had to have been just after the turn onto Elm. Ruby Henderson and Mrs. Hester would not have been able to see much if there were several vehicles between her position and the President's car, especially with Secret Service men standing on the running board of the follow-up car, given that there were now three more vehicles between them and the President's car at the time of this second shot. So their first shot had to have been when their view was not blocked--i.e., my first shot location--supporting the small number of witnesses who actually do give the limousine's location at the time of the first shot.
However, with the vehicle in the Altgens 6 photograph position, the most we get is accounts of something "landing on the street," They didn't specifically see this "something" come off the President's head, but they did see it landing in the street.
Virgie Rachley Baker saw something hit the street that she thought gave off "sparks" like a "firecracker." She speculated that maybe a bullet had hit behind the car, but the truth is, she didn't really know what it was.
With Charles Brehm's Mark Lane interview in Rush to Judgement, we find out what it was. Brehm described to Mark Lane a "skull fragment" (Lane's description) or "whatever it was" (Brehm's description) landing in the road immediately after the "second" shot. He didn't see it come off the President's head--he just saw it land in the road.
I contend that what they saw was a skull fragment that had ejected with the first shot, and momentarily stuck to Hargis' right cheek. Hargis really didn't know that he had been hit with any body matter until after the assassination when his friend and fellow motorcycle officer Bobby Brewer told him he had "something stuck to his lip." Hargis missed the "Moonwalking bear" of exactly when and how that brain/skull matter got there on his lip and cheek.
However, with the vehicle in the Altgens 6 photograph position, the most we get is accounts of something "landing on the street," They didn't specifically see this "something" come off the President's head, but they did see it landing in the street.
Virgie Rachley Baker saw something hit the street that she thought gave off "sparks" like a "firecracker." She speculated that maybe a bullet had hit behind the car, but the truth is, she didn't really know what it was.
With Charles Brehm's Mark Lane interview in Rush to Judgement, we find out what it was. Brehm described to Mark Lane a "skull fragment" (Lane's description) or "whatever it was" (Brehm's description) landing in the road immediately after the "second" shot. He didn't see it come off the President's head--he just saw it land in the road.
I contend that what they saw was a skull fragment that had ejected with the first shot, and momentarily stuck to Hargis' right cheek. Hargis really didn't know that he had been hit with any body matter until after the assassination when his friend and fellow motorcycle officer Bobby Brewer told him he had "something stuck to his lip." Hargis missed the "Moonwalking bear" of exactly when and how that brain/skull matter got there on his lip and cheek.
The Altgens 6 photograph shows something stuck to Bobby Hargis' right cheek, next to his lip. I contend that this is a skull fragment with attached brain matter that ejected with the first shot in my scenario.
The fact that this thing on Hargis' cheek landed on the road immediately after this second shot was purely a matter of coincidence. Hargis might have turned his head to the source of the sound, or to see what the agents in the follow-up car were looking at, causing the skull fragment to blow off his cheek and land in the road. A splash of bloody matter or a bounce before landing still might have given Virginia Rachley Baker, who was on the opposite side of the street, with cars passing between her and the thing landing on the pavement the impression that she was seeing "sparks." But with Charles Brehm, we find out more about exactly what it was.
The thing didn't stay in the street. Immediately after the shooting, Sheriff's Deputy Seymour Weitzman, not knowing what it was and thinking it was a piece of a "firecracker" (he must have thought it was some weird kind of "firecracker") picked it up off the street and carried it to a location in front of the west end of the TSBD. There, he gave it over to a man who had identified. himself to Weitzman as a Secret Service agent (giving fodder to the rumors of someone impersonating a Secret Service agent in Dealey Plaza after the shooting). However, how would Weitzman have "later learned" that the thing was a piece of skull bone if he had given it over to an imposter? From Weitzman's Warren Commission testimony (Hearings, vol. VII, p. 107):
The thing didn't stay in the street. Immediately after the shooting, Sheriff's Deputy Seymour Weitzman, not knowing what it was and thinking it was a piece of a "firecracker" (he must have thought it was some weird kind of "firecracker") picked it up off the street and carried it to a location in front of the west end of the TSBD. There, he gave it over to a man who had identified. himself to Weitzman as a Secret Service agent (giving fodder to the rumors of someone impersonating a Secret Service agent in Dealey Plaza after the shooting). However, how would Weitzman have "later learned" that the thing was a piece of skull bone if he had given it over to an imposter? From Weitzman's Warren Commission testimony (Hearings, vol. VII, p. 107):
Mr. BALL. What did you notice in the railroad yards?
Mr. WEITZMAN. We noticed numerous kinds of footprints that did not make sense because they were going different directions.
Mr. BALL. Were there other people there besides you?
Mr. WEITZMAN. Yes, sir; other officers, secret Service as Well, and somebody started, there was something red in the street and I went back over the wall and somebody brought me a piece of what he thought to be a firecracker and it turned out to be, I believe, I wouldn’t quote this, but I turned it over to one of the Secret Service men and I told them it should go to the lab because it looked to me like human bone. I later found out it was supposedly a portion of the President’s skull.
Mr. BALL. That you picked up off the street?
Mr. WFJTZMAN. Yes.
Mr. BALL. What part of the street did you pick this up?
Mr. WEITZMAN. As the President’s car was going off, it would be on the left-hand side of the street. It would be the---
Mr. BALL. The left-hand side facing-
Mr. WEITZMAN. That would be the south side of the street.
Mr. BALL. It was on the south side of the street. Was it in the street?
Mr. WEITZMAN. It was in the street itself.
Mr. BALL. On the pavement?
Mr. WEITZMAN. Yes, sir.
Mr. BALL. Anywhere near the curb?
Mr. WEITZMAN. Approximately, oh, I would say 8 to 12 inches from the curb, something like that.
Mr. BALL. Off the record.
(Off record discussion.)
Mr. WEITZMAN. We noticed numerous kinds of footprints that did not make sense because they were going different directions.
Mr. BALL. Were there other people there besides you?
Mr. WEITZMAN. Yes, sir; other officers, secret Service as Well, and somebody started, there was something red in the street and I went back over the wall and somebody brought me a piece of what he thought to be a firecracker and it turned out to be, I believe, I wouldn’t quote this, but I turned it over to one of the Secret Service men and I told them it should go to the lab because it looked to me like human bone. I later found out it was supposedly a portion of the President’s skull.
Mr. BALL. That you picked up off the street?
Mr. WFJTZMAN. Yes.
Mr. BALL. What part of the street did you pick this up?
Mr. WEITZMAN. As the President’s car was going off, it would be on the left-hand side of the street. It would be the---
Mr. BALL. The left-hand side facing-
Mr. WEITZMAN. That would be the south side of the street.
Mr. BALL. It was on the south side of the street. Was it in the street?
Mr. WEITZMAN. It was in the street itself.
Mr. BALL. On the pavement?
Mr. WEITZMAN. Yes, sir.
Mr. BALL. Anywhere near the curb?
Mr. WEITZMAN. Approximately, oh, I would say 8 to 12 inches from the curb, something like that.
Mr. BALL. Off the record.
(Off record discussion.)
There was a witness to Weitzman picking up the skull fragment. Cameraman Malcolm Couch described seeing a "well-dressed man" (Weitzman was wearing a coat and tie) pick the thing up and followed the man as he carried it over to the sidewalk between the TSBD and the railroad yard. This was the same place where Couch later saw a "spot" (not a "pool" as Couch clarified in his Sixth Floor Museum "Living History" video) of bloody brain matter, so I think at some point that Weitzman accidentally dropped it onto the sidewalk.
After Weitzman gave this skull/brain matter to the Secret Service agent, we can trace it to the inside of the TSBD, where this "official" (Secret Service agent?) laid it on a secretary's desk as he questioned people.
From the transcript I bought from the Sixth Floor museum of Couch's "Living History" interview:
After Weitzman gave this skull/brain matter to the Secret Service agent, we can trace it to the inside of the TSBD, where this "official" (Secret Service agent?) laid it on a secretary's desk as he questioned people.
From the transcript I bought from the Sixth Floor museum of Couch's "Living History" interview:
Excerpt of the transcript of Malcolm Couch's Sixth Floor Museum "Living History" interview, after he describes following a man in a suit (Weitzman was wearing a suit) who had picked up a piece of skull or brain matter from the street, and following the man to the area by the TSBD and railroad yard--the same area where he saw a "spot" (not a "pool") of bloody brain matter on the side walk.
But the thing is, nobody (with the possible exception of Charles Brehm) actually saw this piece of skull/brain matter eject from the President's head at the time of the second/Altgens 6 shot. Brehm remembered seeing a "hair lift" at the time, but I think he was conflating the hair lift from the first shot (described by Karen Westbrook in the Chicago Tribune article I discuss in the "Shot 1" section, 1.6 to 2 seconds earlier) with this shot. Brehm saw the skull fragment land on the street immediately after the second shot, and I think he just assumed (wrongly) that it had ejected with the shot he heard at the time.
I assert that the skull fragment landing was "coincidental" with the shot, because I have another witness, Mary Woodward Pillsworth, who asserted that "no one in the car was hit" with the shot that was the Altgens 6 shot.
I assert that the skull fragment landing was "coincidental" with the shot, because I have another witness, Mary Woodward Pillsworth, who asserted that "no one in the car was hit" with the shot that was the Altgens 6 shot.
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Mary Woodward Pillsworth
Mary Woodward Pillsworth's location along Elm Street was identified by the Sixth Floor Museum as being this circled bystander in a Zapruder Film image:
Image from https://www.history-matters.com/analysis/witness/ Listed under "Pillsworth, Mary".
She's also in the Alton's 6 photograph, and can be seen smiling with her friends, completely unaware of what is going on, even though Kennedy is clearly already in distress in the same picture, with Jackie supporting his arm:
Woodward's attention is on the car. She "missed" the Moonwalking Bear of the first shot, but she's looking right at the President and his wife, albeit unaware that an assassination is taking place, at the time of the Altgens 6 shot.
Meanwhile, of the other bystanders along the street, some are looking at the car (some with smiles, but the Black man to the right of motorcycle officer Chaney who is peering into the car looks shocked), and some are looking to their left--perhaps up towards the window, or perhaps towards the motorcade behind Kennedy.
In her Sixth Floor Museum "Living History" interview (available on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eim4Pu57FZc) Mary Woodward Pillsworth, then a writer for the Women's section of the Dallas Morning News. Pillsworth stated that as the car approached her, the limousine occupants were "talking amongst themselves." She also thought Kennedy and Jackie had "waved" to her and her friends, and she and her group of friends were the last people that the first couple had waved to before anyone was struck by bullets.
Here is some of what Woodward said in that "Living History" interview:
Meanwhile, of the other bystanders along the street, some are looking at the car (some with smiles, but the Black man to the right of motorcycle officer Chaney who is peering into the car looks shocked), and some are looking to their left--perhaps up towards the window, or perhaps towards the motorcade behind Kennedy.
In her Sixth Floor Museum "Living History" interview (available on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eim4Pu57FZc) Mary Woodward Pillsworth, then a writer for the Women's section of the Dallas Morning News. Pillsworth stated that as the car approached her, the limousine occupants were "talking amongst themselves." She also thought Kennedy and Jackie had "waved" to her and her friends, and she and her group of friends were the last people that the first couple had waved to before anyone was struck by bullets.
Here is some of what Woodward said in that "Living History" interview:
They had turned the corner, and it was like the parade was over. They were about to hit the Freeway...And they were kind of talking amongst themselves in the car. And I yelled out, "Please look this way!" because I wanted to see Jackie Kennedy. "Please look this way!" And they did look at us, and waved, and I think that we were the last people they waved to.
Then the shooting...there was one shot. And I've never--I have always believed it didn't hit anybody, and I think a lot of research has shown I'm probably right on this, because I couldn't see anything happen, and I couldn't figure out what it was, and we were saying, "Is it--you know, we thought it was somebody backfiring a car, or fireworks, or something. But then the next two shots came very, very rapidly. They sounded--one didn't kind of fade away before the second shot came. And that's when, the second shot, I saw, really, what happened. And I don't know, of the four of us, it seemed that I was the only one who really saw or really understood what happened.
Then the shooting...there was one shot. And I've never--I have always believed it didn't hit anybody, and I think a lot of research has shown I'm probably right on this, because I couldn't see anything happen, and I couldn't figure out what it was, and we were saying, "Is it--you know, we thought it was somebody backfiring a car, or fireworks, or something. But then the next two shots came very, very rapidly. They sounded--one didn't kind of fade away before the second shot came. And that's when, the second shot, I saw, really, what happened. And I don't know, of the four of us, it seemed that I was the only one who really saw or really understood what happened.
Mary Woodward had missed the "Moonwalking Bear" of the actual first shot in her excitement about seeing the first couple, especially Jackie. Her attention was on wondering what Jackie was wearing. Naturally, she was not expecting an assassination, and missed hearing the shots, perhaps due to the noise of the crowds and the motorcycles, or her attention on what she and her friends were saying. She misinterpreted Kennedy's slump, Jackie's turn to her husband, and Connally's attempt to look at Kennedy as "talking amongst themselves." She misinterpretedKennedy's movement into the decorticate posture "chest grab" in the moving car as him "waving" to her. In other words, she saw what she wanted to see.
But with the Altgens 6 shot, the limousine was right in front of her, and her undivided attention was on the car's occupants. She's looking right at the car in the photograph. Nevertheless, I don't think she heard the Altgens 6 shot, either. She heard three shots, with a space after the first one, and then the double-bang. She wasn't aware of any problems until the first shot of the double-bang, which I will discuss in a later section. Her "first" shot was either the Altgens 6 shot, or the next one, which I will discuss shortly (the one that struck Connolly). But she didn't think her "first" shot hit anyone in the car, and she was looking right at the Kennedy's at the time of the Altgens 6 picture.
And I agree that the Altgens 6 shot didn't hit anyone in the car. Kennedy had been hit 1.6 to 2 seconds earlier, and Connally would be hit with the next shot (with Kennedy blocking Woodward's view of Connally, who wasn't the object of her attention in any case).
But with the Altgens 6 shot, the limousine was right in front of her, and her undivided attention was on the car's occupants. She's looking right at the car in the photograph. Nevertheless, I don't think she heard the Altgens 6 shot, either. She heard three shots, with a space after the first one, and then the double-bang. She wasn't aware of any problems until the first shot of the double-bang, which I will discuss in a later section. Her "first" shot was either the Altgens 6 shot, or the next one, which I will discuss shortly (the one that struck Connolly). But she didn't think her "first" shot hit anyone in the car, and she was looking right at the Kennedy's at the time of the Altgens 6 picture.
And I agree that the Altgens 6 shot didn't hit anyone in the car. Kennedy had been hit 1.6 to 2 seconds earlier, and Connally would be hit with the next shot (with Kennedy blocking Woodward's view of Connally, who wasn't the object of her attention in any case).
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The Reason for the Shot
Pillsworth was not the only person who missed the "moonwalking bear" of the first shot.
In my "Shot 1" discussion, I mentioned Senator Ralph Yarborough's account that he had been "lulled into a false sense of security for the President's safety" because it seemed to him that the Secret Service responded "very slowly." Remember Drew Pearson's exposé about Secret Service agents drinking in Fort Worth late the night before and into the early morning hours of the day of the assassination? Consider also that the Secret Service agents in Kennedy's follow-up car had noisy motorcycles practically right next to the front of their car. Consider that at the time of the first shot, the TSBD window was just about at its closest point to their car, and the window was 6 floors up. They would have had to crane their necks to see the gun sticking out of the window.
Now consider that Oswald didn't fire while the limousine was on Houston Street. He waited until the car had just turned onto Elm Street. At what point did he put the barrel of the gun out the window where it could be seen?
All that brings us to the reason for this second shot, fired by one of Lyndon Johnson's protective agents in the follow-up car, probably Lem Johns.
The closer Kennedy's protective agents got to the building before Oswald put the gun out the window, the more difficult it would be for the agents to see the gun sticking out the window, because they would have had to crane their necks to see it.
Johnson's follow-up protective agents, on the other hand, were two cars farther back than Kennedy's agents, and the building was straight ahead. They undoubtedly had a better view of the window, and could very well have seen Oswald getting ready to take his first shot. (In fact, one of Johnson's agents may have fired what I call a "pre-assassination warning shot"--matching a dicta belt impulse rejected by the acoustical experts as not having the same volume as or similar echo pattern to the test shots fired from the TSBD or Grassy Knoll--a premature rejection, in my view. All the potential firing locations were not considered, only those two: TSBD and one GK location. Given this 2-location match criteria, any warning shots fired by one of Johnson's agents while on Houston Street would automatically be rejected--as would any shooter, from, say, the roof of the Dal-Tex building--where some theorists place a shooter, although I'm certain there was no shooter at that location.)
In my "Shot 1" discussion, I mentioned Senator Ralph Yarborough's account that he had been "lulled into a false sense of security for the President's safety" because it seemed to him that the Secret Service responded "very slowly." Remember Drew Pearson's exposé about Secret Service agents drinking in Fort Worth late the night before and into the early morning hours of the day of the assassination? Consider also that the Secret Service agents in Kennedy's follow-up car had noisy motorcycles practically right next to the front of their car. Consider that at the time of the first shot, the TSBD window was just about at its closest point to their car, and the window was 6 floors up. They would have had to crane their necks to see the gun sticking out of the window.
Now consider that Oswald didn't fire while the limousine was on Houston Street. He waited until the car had just turned onto Elm Street. At what point did he put the barrel of the gun out the window where it could be seen?
All that brings us to the reason for this second shot, fired by one of Lyndon Johnson's protective agents in the follow-up car, probably Lem Johns.
The closer Kennedy's protective agents got to the building before Oswald put the gun out the window, the more difficult it would be for the agents to see the gun sticking out the window, because they would have had to crane their necks to see it.
Johnson's follow-up protective agents, on the other hand, were two cars farther back than Kennedy's agents, and the building was straight ahead. They undoubtedly had a better view of the window, and could very well have seen Oswald getting ready to take his first shot. (In fact, one of Johnson's agents may have fired what I call a "pre-assassination warning shot"--matching a dicta belt impulse rejected by the acoustical experts as not having the same volume as or similar echo pattern to the test shots fired from the TSBD or Grassy Knoll--a premature rejection, in my view. All the potential firing locations were not considered, only those two: TSBD and one GK location. Given this 2-location match criteria, any warning shots fired by one of Johnson's agents while on Houston Street would automatically be rejected--as would any shooter, from, say, the roof of the Dal-Tex building--where some theorists place a shooter, although I'm certain there was no shooter at that location.)
Based on the open doors of Johnson's Secret Service follow-up car (which can actually be seen to opening while the car was on Houston Street, in the Marie Muchmore film) and the "phantom revolver" being held by Taylor's "weird hand" in the Altgens 6 photograph, the authors of Murder from Within thought that a Secret Service agent had fired a "distraction shot" to get the assassination rolling. While I agree with who fired the shot, I completely disagree with their conclusion of why. Its purpose was more benign than a "distraction shot."
Gerald Blaine told an audience in his Kennedy Detail book tour ("Warwick's Books Presents The Kennedy Detail: JFK's Secret Service Agents" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYpY8zI_wwA at about 8:20) that communications in the Secret Service at the time of the assassination were "pre-technology." They didn't have the ear-buds characteristic of modern-day agents. Blaine said that if an agent wanted to get the attention of another agent to alert him to a particular threat, he might "bang on the hood of the car." In this case, the agents whose attention was sought were positioned 2 cars ahead. "Banging on the hood of the car" wasn't going to alert them to the threat that Johnson's follow-up car agents, who were riding further back and thus had a better view of the building and its window with the gun, could see. They'd never hear it. The shot wasn't meant as a threat to the President; it was meant as a warning to alert the slow-responding (half of whom were probably hung-over) Secret Service agents 2-cars ahead that there was danger.
It was meant as a warning shot. That doesn't mean it didn't have any unintended consequences. But like Mary Woodsworth Pillsworth, I don't think it hit any of the occupants of the car.
Gerald Blaine told an audience in his Kennedy Detail book tour ("Warwick's Books Presents The Kennedy Detail: JFK's Secret Service Agents" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYpY8zI_wwA at about 8:20) that communications in the Secret Service at the time of the assassination were "pre-technology." They didn't have the ear-buds characteristic of modern-day agents. Blaine said that if an agent wanted to get the attention of another agent to alert him to a particular threat, he might "bang on the hood of the car." In this case, the agents whose attention was sought were positioned 2 cars ahead. "Banging on the hood of the car" wasn't going to alert them to the threat that Johnson's follow-up car agents, who were riding further back and thus had a better view of the building and its window with the gun, could see. They'd never hear it. The shot wasn't meant as a threat to the President; it was meant as a warning to alert the slow-responding (half of whom were probably hung-over) Secret Service agents 2-cars ahead that there was danger.
It was meant as a warning shot. That doesn't mean it didn't have any unintended consequences. But like Mary Woodsworth Pillsworth, I don't think it hit any of the occupants of the car.
This second shot was a "nothing" shot, in that it didn't actually hit any of the limousine passengers (as Mary Pillsworth stated). It occurred about 1.6 seconds after the forehead shot fired from the TSBD, with the limousine in about the Altgen's 6 photograph position. However, this shot did not originate from the TSBD, as the string line wrongly indicates. Kennedy was clearly already struck by the time the Altgens 6 picture was taken. Jackie already has her hand on his arm, and the President's hands are already at his chest in the decorticate posture "chest grab" position.
However, this shot was not a "miss," in that it struck its intended target. However, its intended target was not a person, but a sign--the Stemmons Freeway sign. There were some unintended consequences after the bullet bounced off the sign and created the "poof" off the sign that Frenchman William Reymond described to Jim Marrs (that Reymond had seen in the "other" Zapruder Film), but it was not due to a "miss" because driver William Greer had "missed his turn," as Reymond believed.
It was a warning shot.
It was aimed at the Stemmons sign, as the safest target the Secret Service shooter could quickly find.
But the bullet bounced off the Stemmons sign--and then it did something completely unexpected, and unintended.
It ricocheted back towards the limousine, and made a hole in the windshield.
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The Windshield Hole
A number of individuals who saw the limousine reported a hole in the windshield. They reported a "through-and-through" hole, from front to back (which they could tell from the beveling of the glass).
Many researchers who study the windshield hole--and all the evidence of its being covered up (which I won't go too deeply into here, but you can read more about it in my article "The Limousine Redux Reduced" at https://www.a-benign-conspiracy.com/the-limousine-redux-reduced.html)--try to place the windshield hole high in the glass, near the mirror. They do this, because they try to connect the windshield hole with the throat wound.
Those researchers really should have listened to the witnesses.
The late Doug Weldon--an attorney who knew more about the windshield hole cover-up than just about anyone else--ignored his own witness, DPD motorcycle officer Stavis Ellis, who had tried to tell him that the hole was "lower than that." But, Weldon asserted, It couldn't be any lower than that. See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OACTLn75I30&t=4348s for Weldon's 1999 presentation on the windshield coverup.
The reason it couldn't was because Weldon was trying to connect the windshield hole to the throat wound. But that was Weldon's pre-determined conclusion! The two points--the windshield hole and the throat wound--didn't really connect.
Many researchers who study the windshield hole--and all the evidence of its being covered up (which I won't go too deeply into here, but you can read more about it in my article "The Limousine Redux Reduced" at https://www.a-benign-conspiracy.com/the-limousine-redux-reduced.html)--try to place the windshield hole high in the glass, near the mirror. They do this, because they try to connect the windshield hole with the throat wound.
Those researchers really should have listened to the witnesses.
The late Doug Weldon--an attorney who knew more about the windshield hole cover-up than just about anyone else--ignored his own witness, DPD motorcycle officer Stavis Ellis, who had tried to tell him that the hole was "lower than that." But, Weldon asserted, It couldn't be any lower than that. See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OACTLn75I30&t=4348s for Weldon's 1999 presentation on the windshield coverup.
The reason it couldn't was because Weldon was trying to connect the windshield hole to the throat wound. But that was Weldon's pre-determined conclusion! The two points--the windshield hole and the throat wound--didn't really connect.
Attorney Doug Weldon gave a 1999 presentation about the limousine windshield hole, in which he described motorcycle officer Stavis Ellis telling him that he thought the hole was "lower than that"--that being the "spiral nebula" location in Altgens 6 of an oddity near the mirror. Image from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OACTLn75I30&t=4348s
Another witness to the hole, Secret Service Joe Paolella gave, us a better description of the hole's location--and it was not near the rear-view mirror:
"...there appeared to be a bullet hole in the windshield, on the driver's side, a couple inches, you know, over the hood of the car, several inches." (See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wg_x4sx_m-w)
"...there appeared to be a bullet hole in the windshield, on the driver's side, a couple inches, you know, over the hood of the car, several inches." (See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wg_x4sx_m-w)
Secret Service agent Joe Paolella described seeing a bullet hole in the windshield of the Presidential limousine, "several inches above the hood of the car," from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wg_x4sx_m-w
Based on that description, on the driver's side and only several inches above the hood, I believe we can locate the hole in this FBI photograph of the limousine, showing what appears to be a pencil through the glass in the area of interest (indicated by the area that's illuminated by a light), right where Paolella described the hole as being.
After creating the hole in the windshield, that was pretty much it. The bullet didn't actually strike anyone in the car. However, Dr. Mantik theorized that glass shards from the windshield impact may have created some wounds to Kennedy's cheek. He might be correct on the cause of the cheek perforations, but I don't think this bullet caused the throat wound or other major wounds to Kennedy.
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The Dr. Young "Extra" Bullet
I contend that this bullet was found in the car, when Dr. Humes sent 2 Navy Corpsmen from the autopsy to go search the limousine. They came back with, among some fragments of bone, a clean, bloodless spent slug, which was witnessed by one of Kennedy's personal physicians, Dr. James Young, who watched much of the autopsy from the morgue's viewing Gallery. From https://www.dropbox.com/s/dk6dwvzn6yq2ukd/NM%20and%20the%20Kennedy%20Assassination.pdf?e=1&dl=0
Excerpt from "Navy Medicine and President Kennedy's Autopsy: Recollections from a former White House Physician" at https://www.dropbox.com/s/dk6dwvzn6yq2ukd/NM%20and%20the%20Kennedy%20Assassination.pdf?e=2&dl=0
This was the same bullet reported by Captain (later Admiral) Osborne to David Lifton and described in Lifton's book Best Evidence as a "clean, bloodless slug."
Image excerpt from Best Evidence by David Litton. Admiral Osborne, who was a Captain at the time of the autopsy, told Lifton that held a bullet in his hand that had been brought into the autopsy.
Osborne believed that the bullet had been brought into the autopsy from Parkland, but I believe that was an mis-recollection on Osborne's part. I believe that he heard some discussion about a bullet being brought in from Parkland, and when the one described by Dr. Young had been brought in from the limousine, he just assumed it had come from Parkland.
But note that when asked if this bullet showed any blood, Osborne replied, "No, it was reasonably clean."
It was bloodless, because it didn't actually strike any person. It did, however, strike the Stemmons sign--which is how it created the windshield hole and ended up in the limousine.
The bullet was "disappeared" from the evidence, of course. The evidence for its existence, like the existence of the windshield hole, is largely anecdotal. (The windshield hole has the further corroborating evidence of a report by Secret Service agent Charles Taylor, who later retracted that statement by describing the windshield in storage as "cracked.") Nevertheless, I am certain that it existed, just as I am certain that there was a hole in the windshield.
But note that when asked if this bullet showed any blood, Osborne replied, "No, it was reasonably clean."
It was bloodless, because it didn't actually strike any person. It did, however, strike the Stemmons sign--which is how it created the windshield hole and ended up in the limousine.
The bullet was "disappeared" from the evidence, of course. The evidence for its existence, like the existence of the windshield hole, is largely anecdotal. (The windshield hole has the further corroborating evidence of a report by Secret Service agent Charles Taylor, who later retracted that statement by describing the windshield in storage as "cracked.") Nevertheless, I am certain that it existed, just as I am certain that there was a hole in the windshield.
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Denise's Shot 2 Trajectory
Below is my modification of the FBI "Visual Aid" model for this second (not "first") shot in the assassination sequence, the warning shot that struck the Stemmons sign and then ricocheted back. to hit the limousine and create the windshield hole near the bottom of the glass:
Denise's corrected trajectory for the Altgens 6 shot, fired not from the TSBD window, but from the Vice-President's Secret Service follow-up car, to alert the agents 2 cars ahead to the danger.
Also, importantly, their best acoustical match between the evidence pattern to a test shot pattern was with the "rifle withdrawn" test shot. I believe there is a good reason for this. The shot was fired not from the TSBD window, but from the road immediately below the window. The echo patterns off the buildings would have been extremely similar--so similar that I believe the echo patterns from a shot fired by my SS shooter on the road would have been an extremely near-match to the echo patterns from the TSBD window. And a revolver shot would have been of a somewhat different volume than a rifle shot. Both the somewhat in front of the building location for my shooter and the different type of weapon accounts for the "rifle withdrawn" test shot as the best acoustical match.
The reason Mary (Woodward) Pillsworth and others did not see anyone in the limousine struck with this shot is that no one in the limousine was struck--with the possible exception of Kennedy being struck by glass shards from the windshield hole, although already in the decorticate posture reflex caused by severe neurological trauma, he was hardly in a position to react to any such minor injury. The skull fragment that coincidentally landed on the pavement near the curb gave observers the mistaken impression of what it actually was (Virginia Rachley Baker) or when it was created (Charles Brehm).
But this shot, which occurred 1.6 seconds (per acoustical tapes, which were somewhat faster than actual time) to 2 seconds (as James "Ike" Altgens was told) after the extremely dire head shot (forehead entry) that was my first shot. It was covered up because it was extremely embarrassing.
The reason Mary (Woodward) Pillsworth and others did not see anyone in the limousine struck with this shot is that no one in the limousine was struck--with the possible exception of Kennedy being struck by glass shards from the windshield hole, although already in the decorticate posture reflex caused by severe neurological trauma, he was hardly in a position to react to any such minor injury. The skull fragment that coincidentally landed on the pavement near the curb gave observers the mistaken impression of what it actually was (Virginia Rachley Baker) or when it was created (Charles Brehm).
But this shot, which occurred 1.6 seconds (per acoustical tapes, which were somewhat faster than actual time) to 2 seconds (as James "Ike" Altgens was told) after the extremely dire head shot (forehead entry) that was my first shot. It was covered up because it was extremely embarrassing.
Coming soon: What Happened -- Shot 3 (The Shot that Struck Connally)
When this actually occurred will surprise you!
When this actually occurred will surprise you!