Chapter 7:  Pieces in the Plaza

For reasons beyond my grasp, the first image in each chapter sometimes fails to appear.  If there's nothing up above, don't despair; you can still see the image here

Over the Underpass

Atop the railroad bridge were a number of railroad men and police officers whose statements remain intriguing to this day.                    

S.M. Holland (11-22-63 statement to Dallas County Sheriff’s Department, 19H480, 24H212) “the President’s car was coming down Elm Street and when they got just about to the Arcade I heard what I thought for the moment was a fire cracker and he slumped over and I looked over toward the arcade and trees and saw a puff of smoke come over from the trees and I heard three more shots after the first one but that was the only puff of smoke I saw…After the first shot the President slumped over and Mrs. Kennedy jumped up and tried to get over in the back seat to him and then the second shot rang out.  After the first shot the secret service man raised up in the seat with a machine gun and then dropped back down in the seat.  And they immediately sped off.” (11-24-63 FBI report, CD5 p. 49-50) “The motorcycle escort and the lead car had passed underneath the underpass and the Presidential car was approximately forty to fifty yards away. He stated that he heard what he first believed to be a firecracker and then saw President Kennedy, who had just waved to the crowd on the President’s left, crumple forward.  Jacqueline Kennedy appeared to rise up in the rear seat and caught the President in her lap and then sat back down with the President’s head face down in her lap.  Simultaneously with the first shot, he stated he heard either three or four more shots fired together and saw Governor Connally, sitting directly in front of the President, fall forward…When the first shot was fired, Holland stated that a motorcycle officer behind the car stopped his motor …One of the officers in the front seat of the Presidential car stood up with a machine gun…The only unusual thing that Holland could recall was an approximate one and one-half to two foot diameter of what he believed was gray smoke which appeared to him to be coming from the trees which would have been on the right of the presidential car but observed no one there or in the vicinity.” (4-8-64 testimony before the Warren Commission, 6H239-248)  “the motorcade was coming down in this fashion, and the President was waving to the people on this side…And she (Jackie) was looking…in the southern direction…And about that time he went over like that(indicating) and put his hand up, and she was still looking off…(he) pulled forward and his hand just stood like that momentarily…His right hand; and that was the first report that I heard…it was a pretty loud report, and the car traveled a few yards, and Governor Connally turned in this fashion, like that (indicating) with his hand out, and another report…And another report rang out and he slumped down in his seat, and about that time Mrs. Kennedy was looking at these girls over here (indicating).  The girls standing—now one of them was taking a picture…by the time she could get turned around, he was hit again along in—I’d say along in here (indicating)…It knocked him completely down on the floor.  Over, just slumped completely over.  I heard a third report and I counted four shots and about the same time all this was happening and in this group of trees…There was a shot, a report, I don’t know whether it was a shot…And a puff of smoke came out about 6 or 8 feet above the ground right out from under those trees…you could see that puff of smoke, like someone had thrown a firecracker, or something out…It wasn’t as loud as the previous reports or shots.” (Interview in Rush to Judgment, filmed 3-21-66) “The first bullet, the President slumped over, and Governor Connally made his turn to the right and then back to the left.  And that’s when the second shot was fired and knocked him down to the floorboards…I saw that next bullet that struck the President because it flipped him over almost on his stomach, and the side of his head, and his head was laying on the edge of the seat.  He was laying more on his stomach, and his foot was hanging out over the edge of the car upside down…I looked over to where I thought the shot came from and I saw a puff of smoke still lingering underneath the trees in front of the wooden fence.  The report sounded like it came from behind the wooden fence…I know where that third shot came from…from behind the picket fence, close to the little plaza…there’s no doubt in my mind, there’s no doubt whatsoever in my mind and the statements that I made in the Sheriff’s Office immediately after the shooting, and the statement that I made to the Warren Commission, I made it very plainly there was no doubt in my mind what there was definitely a shot fired from behind that picket fence.  I made it plain to the Warren Commission and I think I made the same statement in the Sheriff’s Office. There was a fourth shot.” 

(6-27-66 UPI article, found in the Connelsville PA Daily Courier) "Holland is certain that a separate shot came from beneath trees on a grassy knoll north and west of the depository building. At the time, he was standing on a railroad viaduct under which Eim Street passes. Looking straight ahead and down, he had one of the best views of any eyewitness. Holland says there were four separate shots. (The Warren report concludes there were three.) He says the first came from the book building and hit the President. The second came from the same place and hit Gov. John Connally riding in the same car. 'The third shot came from behind the picket fence to the north of Elm Street. There was a puff of smoke under the trees there like someone had thrown out a Chinese firecracker and a report of a gun entirely different from the one which fired from the book building. I don't know whether it hit anything.' Holland said the fourth shot from the depository struck the President in the head, blowing away a large portion of his skull." (11-22-66 UPI article, found in the Albuquerque Tribune) "There definitely was a shot fired from behind that fence," maintains S. M. Holland in regard to the assassination of President John Kennedy three years ago...He said in an interview yesterday that one and possibly two shots were fired at the motorcade from behind a wooden fence adjacent to the underpass and some 150 feet from where he was standing..."Four or five of us saw it, the smoke," Holland said. "One of my employees even saw the muzzle flash..."I was close enough to see it and hear it," Holland said. "And if you don't think you can see rifle smoke against a clump of trees, you're mistaken." He added that he is certain there were at least four shots fired, and perhaps five. "Now, the ones that came from up the street (the depository area) were quite a bit louder than the one from the fence. That's how I could tell they were from different rifles." (Late 1966 Interview with Lawrence Schiller recounted in The Scavengers and the Critics of the Warren Report, published 1967) (When asked where the sound of the first shot came from) "Well, it came from the other end of Elm Street, up about the corner of Houston and Elm Street. I couldn't tell whether it was on the ground or whether it was up in the building." (When asked about the third shot) "Third and fourth were so close together. The third shot came from the fence." (When asked where he was looking at the time of the third shot) "My attention on the third and fourth shots was to my left, behind the picket fence, or over to the picket fence, and where I saw that puff of smoke coming from and heard the report. I couldn't swear that it was a rifle. It could have been a firecracker, but I don't think it was." (Interview with CBS broadcast 6-26-67) "Just about the time the parade turned on Elm Street, about where that truck is - that bus is now, there was a shot came from up-the upper end of the street. I couldn't say then, at that time, that it came from the Book Depository book store. But I knew that it came from the other end of the street, and the President slumped over forward like that and tried to raise his hand up. And Governor Connally, sitting in front of him on the right side of the car, tried to turn to his right and he was sitting so close to the door that he couldn't make it that-a-way, and he turned back like that with his arm out to the left. And about that time, the second shot was fired and it knocked him over forward and he slumped to the right, and I guess his wife pulled him over in her lap because he fell over in her lap. And about that time, there was a third report that wasn't nearly as loud as the two previous reports. It came from that picket fence, and then there was a fourth report. The third and the fourth reports was almost simultaneously. But, the third report wasn't nearly as loud as the two previous reports or the fourth report. And I glanced over underneath that green tree and you see a - a little puff of smoke. It looked like a puff of steam or cigarette smoke. And the smoke was about - oh, eight or ten feet off the ground, and about fifteen feet this side of that tree.”  Analysis: it’s easy to see why Holland is so popular with conspiracy theorists.  He said there were four shots and that at least one of them came from the stockade fence.  The problem is he doesn’t have a lot of credibility. Over the years his story kept getting better and better, incorporating bits of Connally’s testimony, adding in juicy details like Kennedy’s foot hanging over the side of the car—something he could only have seen in a newspaper. Still, if one goes by Holland’s earliest statements, where he says he saw Jackie get up from her seat, and Hickey pull out the AR-15, after the first shot, and notes that he mentioned the smoke in the trees from the get-go, it’s hard to completely dismiss what he was saying. The man saw smoke in the trees and heard at least one shot after the head shot. Heard four shots?  Last two shots probably bunched together (with the last shot after the head shot).  Saw smoke on the knoll.

Austin Miller (11-22-63 statement to the Dallas County Sheriff’s Department, 19H485, 24H217) “I saw a convertable automobile turn west on Elm off Houston Street.  It had proceeded about halfway from Houston Street to the underpass when I heard what sounded like a shot a short second two more sharp reports.  A man in the back seat slumped over and a woman in a bright colored dress (Orange or Yellow) grabbed the man and yelled.  One shot apparently hit the street past the car.  I saw something which I thought was smoke or steam coming from a group of trees north of Elm off the railroad tracks.” (12-18-63 FBI report, CD205 p.27-28) “He saw an open top limousine containing people turn left off of Houston, driving west directly in front of the Texas School Book Depository.  He heard three shots and also noticed a powder dust spray in the street directly to the driver’s side and rear of the car…It was his first impression that the noise of the shots was a motorcycle backfire or firecrackers….he saw someone fall forward but could not tell who was in the car.” (4-8-64 testimony before the Warren Commission, 6H223-227) “it came down Main Street and turned North on Houston Street and went over two blocks and turned left on Elm.  Got about halfway down the hill toward the underpass and that is when as far as I can recall the first shot was fired…I thought at first the motorcycle backfiring or somebody throwed some firecrackers out…just a few seconds later, there was two more shots fired or, or sounded like a sound at the time…it was after that I saw some man in a car fall forward, and a woman next to him grab him and hollered, and just what, I don't know exactly what she said…About that time I turned to look toward the - there is a little plaza sitting on the hill. I looked over there to see if anything was there, who threw the firecracker or whatever it was, or see if anything was up there, and there wasn't nobody standing there, so I stepped back and looked at the tracks to see if anybody run across the railroad tracks, and there was nobody running across the railroad tracks. So I turned right straight back just in time to see the convertible take off fast..." (When asked from where he thought the shots came) "the way it sounded like, it came from the, I would say right there in the car.” (11-09-83 AP article found in the Indiana Gazette) "Miller, a railyard worker in 1963, had walked over to Elm Street on his lunch-break and was looking right at Kennedy "when shots began to crackle." - - - At first he didn't realize what was happening, he said. But when he saw a Secret Service agent jump onto the back of Kennedy's limousine, he knew. "I've tried to forget all I could of it, but I still remember most of it," said Miller, 25 at the time. "I guess you never forget it." Miller said he has told very few of his friends and co-workers that he was there when Kennedy was killed." Analysis:  Miller heard the first shot after Z-190, and the last two shots bunched together. He also saw smoke in the trees. His contention that a shot was fired past the limo, when coupled with the FBI report’s mentioning that this shot hit behind the car, might be taken to mean that he thought the shots were coming from the knoll. But when one considers Miller’s view of the limousine, and that the limousine was on a descent throughout the Plaza, it seems more likely this “dust spray” was the cloud created by the explosion of Kennedy’s skull. This cloud exploded upwards and to the left of Kennedy. That Miller notes Kennedy’s falling over but doesn’t note the explosion of his skull makes this all the more likely. First shot hit 190-224.  Last two shots bunched together.  Saw smoke on the knoll.

Royce Skelton (11-22-63 statement to the Dallas County Sheriff’s Department, 16H496) “We saw the motorcade come around the corner and I heard something which I thought was fireworks. I saw something hit the pavement at the left rear of the car, then the car got in the right hand lane and I heard two more shots.  I heard a woman say “Oh, no” or something and grab a man inside the car. I then heard another shot and saw the bullet hit the pavement.  The concrete was knocked to the south away from the car.  It hit the pavement in the left or middle lane.” (12-18-63 FBI report, CD205 p.26) “Mr. Skelton noticed that as an open top limousine turned on Elm Street, it had moved approximately one hundred feet at which time he noticed dust spray up from the street in front of the car on the driver’s side.  This dust spray came from the direction of the Texas School Book Depository building. A few seconds later, he heard what he believed to be three shots.” (4-8-64 testimony before the Warren Commission, 6H236-238) “Just about the same time the car straightened out—got around the corner—I heard two shots, but I didn’t know at the time they were shots…It sounded like they were right there more or less like motorcycle backfire, but I thought they were these dumbballs that they throw at the cement because I could see the smoke coming up off the cement (when asked how many shots) “I thought I heard four—I mean—I couldn’t be sure…after those two shots, and the car came on down closer to the triple underpass, well, there was another shot—two more shots I heard, but one of them—I saw a bullet, or I guess it was a bullet…hit in the left front of the President’s car on the cement, and when it did, the smoke carried with it—away from the building.”  Analysis:  while Skelton’s story morphed over only a few months, we can take a few of the things he said and run with them.  In his initial statement he said he heard something that sounded like fireworks, and then saw something hit the street. As a bullet travels much faster than the speed of sound, whatever he saw hit the street was not related to this first sound. (When studying the words of the railroad men it’s important to remember they were 500 feet or so away from the sniper’s nest, and would hear any shot from that location a half second or so after it was fired, in which time the limousine would have traveled 8-10 feet.)  As he heard a woman, clearly Jackie Kennedy, yell “Oh, no” after this first shot, and she didn’t yell out until after the head shot, at approximately frames Z-327-Z-338, and as he thought the car cut into the right lane at this point, which is most logically a reference to Chaney and Jackson slamming on their brakes just after the head shot, this shot is most logically the head shot.  As we saw with Miller, he makes no other references to the head shot.  And yet in every version of Skelton’s story, he hears at least two shots after witnessing the head shot, only one of which could have been the shot itself!  If Skelton is correct about seeing something hit the street with this last shot, well, then we can guess what happened to the shot heard after the head shot.  As no one on the street remembers seeing this ricochet, however, it remains probable Skelton simply saw a skull or bullet fragment land in the street. Heard four shots?   Last two (or more) shots bunched together (with one or more shots after the head shot).

 Frank Reilly (12-19-63 FBI report, CD205 p.29) “He saw two cars turn on Elm toward the underpass and at this time heard three shots which he thought came from the trees west of the Texas School Book Depository.” (4-8-64 testimony before the Warren Commission, 6H227-231) (When asked if he saw the motorcade) “not until it turned and started to come under the underpass. “  (When asked how many shots he heard)  “three shots…It seemed to me like they come out of the trees…on the North side of Elm Street at the corner up there...it’s at that park where all the shrubs is up there—it’s to the north of Elm Street—up the slope.” Analysis:  Reilly’s Warren Commission testimony is difficult to understand.  Did he mean the trees in front of the depository building?  If so, why didn’t he make reference to the building?  Fortunately, the FBI report exists to tell us which trees he was talking about. Perhaps the “corner” Reilly was referring to was the corner of the stockade fence. While many interpret his statement that the shots came out of the trees to mean he saw smoke, that’s probably going too far. Too vague. Possibly saw smoke on the knoll.

George Davis (3-18-64 FBI report, 22H837) “Shortly after the motorcycle escort and Presidential car came into view and was at a point just east of the viaduct, Mr. Davis heard a sound which he described as similar to firecrackers exploding.  All shots were very close together and he stated it was impossible for him to determine the number of shots.  He stated his first impression was that someone had played a prank, but then he saw guns in the hands of the Secret Service Agents with President Kennedy, saw President Kennedy slumped forward, and the police motorcycle escort maneuver swiftly about the area, and he realized it was not a prank.”  Analysis: as he says all the shots were very close together, it sounds like he’s describing the bunching of the last two shots, and perhaps their echoes. Did not hear a shot as early as frame 160.  Last two shots probably bunched together.

Clemon Johnson (3-18-64 FBI report, 22H836) “he first realized something was wrong when the motorcycles began moving from their regular course and at or just before this he heard sounds that could have been shots…he did not know it was shots and he could not state how may shots he heard.” (11-09-83 AP article found in the Indiana Gazette) "Like dozens of other witnesses to the assassination, Johnson was called to testify before the Warren Commission. He told what he saw, which was little. He said he was 'within throwing distance' of Kennedy when the shots were fired and the Warren Commission grilled us as if we had done it.' '"I never like to talk about it," he said of having seen the incident. 'I always just try to ignore talking about it, because to me it was a sad event, not what we thought it would be — just see the president come along and that'd be it." (No More Silence, p.79-83, published 1998) “The President was headed toward the underpass at the time the shots went off.  First, you think of firecrackers going off, then, when you see all the motorcycles buzzing around, falling down, turning around, and running into one another, then you could plainly see that the President’s head was shot off…you could tell that the whole top of his head was probably missing…I heard maybe three shots.  I know two plainly… You could tell it was a rifle…The car they were in…you could see it speed up and then stop, then speed up, and you could see it stop while they threw Mrs. Kennedy back up in the car...I didn’t have any idea where the shots came from, not even a guess…I did see smoke, lots of puffs of smoke, but I was of the opinion that the smoke was coming out of those motorcycles.  The smoke was coming up off the ground out where the motorcycles were, not on the grassy knoll.”  Analysis: his reference to the motorcycles moving from their regular course is a reference to Chaney and Jackson’s braking after the head shot. Here, once again, we have a witness from the bridge whose statements indicate he heard at least two shots beginning around the time of the head shot. If there had been 5 second gaps between these shots he would have had not said “just before or after” and would have had an idea how many shots he heard.  His offered explanation for the smoke seen on the knoll doesn’t fly because Officer Haygood, who parked his bike on the street by the knoll, never reached the knoll until Kennedy’s limousine was long gone. Probably heard only two shots.  Did not hear a shot as early as frame 160.  Last two shots probably bunched together.  Saw smoke.  (On the knoll?)

Walter Winborn (3-18-64 FBI report, 22H833) “As the motorcycle escort and the vehicle carrying the president approached the viaduct, Mr. Winborn heard three distinct shots ring out...his attention remained on President Kennedy. He stated, however, that the shots sounded as if they all came from the same area.” (3-17-65 interview by Barbara Bridges, as noted in Best Evidence, published 1980) "there was a lot of smoke...from out of the trees, to the left." (5-5-66 interview with Stewart Galanor, transcript on history-matters.com) “I just saw some smoke coming out in a—a motorcycle patrolman leaped off his machine and go up towards that smoke that come out from under the trees on the right hand side of the motorcade….There was a wooden fence there.” (When asked if he told the FBI about the smoke) “Oh yes. Oh yes.” Analysis: as he says the vehicle was approaching the viaduct, his words seem more in line with the first shot coming after frame 160. Probable first shot 190-224.  Saw smoke on the knoll.

Richard Dodd (3-18-64 FBI report, 22H835) “when the motorcycle escort and the automobile carrying President Kennedy approached the area where he was standing his attention was directed on President Kennedy…he saw president Kennedy slump forward and simultaneously heard shots ring out. He stated he did not know how many shots were fired, but that the sounds were very close together.” (Interview in Rush to Judgment, filmed 3-24-66) “We all, three or four of us, seen about the same thing, the shot, the smoke came from behind the hedge on the north side of the Plaza. And a motorcycle policeman dropped his motorcycle in the street with a gun in his hand and run up the embankment to the hedge.”  Analysis: heard shots ring out as Kennedy slumped forward, which almost certainly means the head shot.  If he was describing an earlier shot, why would he fail to mention witnessing the head shot? Did not hear an early shot.  Last two shots bunched together.  Saw smoke on the knoll.

Nolan Potter (3-19-64 FBI report, 2H834) “when the President’s car…had driven past the Texas School Book Depository Building, he heard three loud reports which sounded like firecrackers.  He then saw President Kennedy slump over in his car…Potter said he recalls seeing smoke in front of the Texas School Book Depository rising above the trees.”  Analysis: from the railroad bridge looking up Elm, the knoll was just to the left of the school book depository.  A puff of smoke coming out from the knoll would rise up above the trees in front of the depository. Or was saying the trees were in front of the school book depository simply an FBI mistake? As he said the car had driven past the school book depository, a shot as early as frame 160 seems unlikely. First shot 190-224. Saw smoke. (On the knoll?)

James Simmons (3-19-64 FBI report, 22H833) “stated when the President’s car started down Elm Street he heard three shots ring out.  President Kennedy slumped forward in his seat and appeared to have been hit by a bullet…he recalled that a motorcycle policeman drove up the grassy slope toward the Texas School Book Depository Building, jumped off his motorcycle and then ran up the hill toward the Memorial Arches.  Simmons said he thought he saw exhaust fumes of smoke near the embankment in front of the Texas School Book Depository Building.”(Interview in Rush to Judgment, filmed 3-28-66) “As the presidential limousine was rounding the curve on Elm Street, there was a loud explosion…it sounded like a loud firecracker or a gunshot, and it sounded like it came from the left and in front of us toward the wooden fence.  And there was a puff of smoke that came underneath the trees on the embankment.  It was right directly in front of the wooden fence.”  (2-15-69 testimony in the trial of Clay Shaw) (When asked where the limousine was at the time of the first shot) “It had, it was about one-third of the way or maybe half-way between the Depository and the Overpass.” (When asked Kennedy’s response) “Well, I don't remember exactly -- it was between the first or second or thereabouts and he turned to his left and threw his hands up. “(When asked Kennedy’s response to the third)  “Well, he fell and there was matter and a halo of blood.” (When asked if he noticed anything unusual in the area of the grassy knoll when the second and third shots were fired) "Well, after I heard the shots I looked to see if I could see where they were coming from and underneath the trees up on the grassy knoll by the fence I detected what appeared to be a puff of smoke or wisp of smoke." Analysis:  it appears the FBI made a similar “mistake” in their report on Simmons as they did in their report on Potter. Once again, it is purported that something that probably took place on the knoll took place in front of the school book depository. Haygood parked his bike near the grassy slope by the knoll; it seems very doubtful Simmons would say he drove it toward the school book depository.  His Shaw trial testimony clears up matters some. His description of Kennedy turning to his left is a description of what one sees in the Zapruder film after Z-224.  First shot hit 190-224. Saw smoke on the knoll.

Ewell Cowsert (3-19-64 FBI report, 22H836) “just as President Kennedy’s car passed the Texas School Book Depository he heard two or three shots ring out and saw President Kennedy slump forward in his seat….he has no idea where the shots came from.”  Analysis:  as the shots are mentioned together and as occurring after the car had passed the school book depository, Cowsert probably heard the last two shots bunched together. Last two shots probably bunched together.

Curtis Bishop (3-19-64 FBI report, 22H834): (He said that) “when President Kennedy’s car came into view he started down Elm Street past the Texas School Book Depository Building.  He heard three shots ring out.  He then saw President Kennedy slump over as if he had been hit.”  Analysis: while his statement that ‘he then saw” President Kennedy slump might be taken as an indication that there were no shots after the head shot, it’s unclear how closely he was watching the President at this time. Too vague.

Thomas Murphy (3-20-64 FBI report, 22H835) “Murphy said they watched President Kennedy’s limousine turn down Elm Street past the Texas School Book Depository and start towards them.  He stated he then heard what sounded like two shots and he saw President Kennedy and Governor Connally slump in their seats.  Murphy said in his opinion that these shots came from just west of the Texas School Book Depository.” (5-6-66 interview with Stewart Galanor, transcription on history-matters.com) (When asked how many shots he heard) “More than three.” (When asked where the shots came from) “they come from a tree to the left, of my left, which is to the immediate right of the site of the assassination…on the hill up there. There are two or three hackberry and elm trees. And I say it come from there.” (When asked if he saw smoke) “Yeah, smoke...in that tree.”  Analysis:  as he failed to mention a missed shot or a head shot, the shot where he saw Kennedy slump would most probably be the head shot. Since he failed to mention a gap between these shots, he probably heard the last two shots closely bunched together.  His adding in additional shots for Galanor could reflect his adjusting his story to match Holland’s.  On the other hand, maybe the FBI misunderstood him two years earlier.  Heard four shots?  Last two shots possibly bunched together. Saw smoke on the knoll.

J.W. Foster was the Dallas police officer on top of the railroad bridge. (12-4-63 signed statement to the Dallas Police Department, CD1259 p18) "After the motorcade turned from Houston Street to Elm Street, I was watching the railroad employees very closely so that I would be in a position to prevent any incident. When I heard the shots I was standing directly behind these railroad employees and I then moved to the railroad overpass banister to see what was happening. I then saw the President slumping over in the car and other persons falling down in the grass in the vicinity of the President's car. The President's car and a couple of other cars left the scene immediately at a high rate of speed with a motorcycle escort. I then observed some officers running toward the building on the northeast corner of Elm and Houston. I immediately ran towards the same building and assisted in blocking off the building." (3-26-64 FBI report, CD897 p.20-21) “Just as the vehicle in which President Kennedy was riding reached a point on Elm Street just east of the underpass, Patrolman Foster heard a noise that sounded like a large firecracker…he realized something was wrong because of the movement of the President. Another report was heard by Patrolman Foster and about the same time the report was heard, he observed the President’s head appear to explode, and immediately thereafter, he heard a third report which he knew was a shot.” (4-9-64 testimony before the Warren Commission, 6H248-253) “After he came onto Elm…I heard a loud noise, sounded like a large firecracker.  Kind of dumbfounded at first, and then heard the second one.  I moved to the banister of the overpass to see what was happening.  Then the third explosion.” (No More Silence p.211-214, published 1998) “When they got about halfway between Houston and the Triple Underpass, I heard three distinct, evenly spaced shots.  I could see into the car but couldn’t really determine anything…all I could tell about the shots was that they all sounded about the same, and they came from back toward Elm and Houston Streets.  None of them came from the grassy knoll.”  Analysis:  over the years, Foster “corrected” his recollections of what he saw in order to avoid controversy. He initially acknowledged running towards the Dal-Tex Building. He initially believed he heard a shot after the head shot. He then side-stepped these statements in his Warren Commission testimony.  By the time he talked to Snead for No More Silence, he was playing stupid. Even so, his placement of the limousine at the time of the first shot is in conflict with the LPM scenario.  First shot hit 190-224.  Last two shots bunched together (with the last shot after the head shot).  

Earle V. Brown was a Dallas police officer stationed on the south end of the railroad bridge. (12-23-63 FBI report on a 12-9-63 interview, CD205 p39) "He stated he heard the shots that killed President Kennedy, but did not see the shots take effect and stated he could not furnish any information which would assist in identifying the assassin. He advised that he believed he could smell gunpowder in the air on the overpass but believed it was probably brought there by the wind." (4-7-64 testimony before the Warren Commission, 6H231-236) "the first I noticed the car was when it stopped...After it made the turn and when the shots were fired, it stopped." (When asked if it made a complete stop) "That I couldn't swear to." (When asked how many shots he heard) "Three." (When asked from where the shots came) "Well, they seemed high to me...It came it seemed the direction of that building, that Texas...School Book Depository." (7-15-64 signed statement to Dallas Police Department, 22H600)  "I heard the shots and they seemed like they were coming high from the direction of the book depository building. There was a terrific echo." (11-09-83 AP article found in the Indiana Gazette) "I was down there early at about 10 a.m. and I had this vision of a rifle sticking out of a window. It was very strange. Then I heard these shots," said Brown. "It was a premonition and it has always really shook me up when I think of it. It was like someone was trying to tell me something." About two hours later, Brown said, he heard shots and saw two or three puffs of white smoke wafting toward the bridge. The president, he said, was lying in his wife's lap as the car passed beneath him. "I still see that," he said." Analysis: as Brown associated the shots with the limo's stopping, and as the limo didn't slow to just before the head shot, it's hard to see how his testimony is consistent with a first shot miss, 8 seconds earlier. Still, too vague.

The preceding witnesses were almost all called on by the FBI in March, 1964. At least eight and possibly nine of them saw puffs of smoke rising near the grassy knoll. Were they all hallucinating, or were they merely confused by the smoke of Officer Haygood’s motorcycle, as suggested by Clemon Johnson?  The debate continues. The railroad men themselves, mostly conservative types, were convinced they saw smoke, and were among the first conspiracy theorists. They risked ostracism in their hometown by refusing to go along with the official story that Oswald acted alone. Undoubtedly, they behaved admirably. But were they right?

There are frames in the Wiegman film and Zapruder film that convince me they were.  In these frames, one can see what looks like a puff of smoke hovering in the trees. While one can easily see such things once one starts looking for them, and fool oneself, the fact is there are no other apparent puffs of smoke in the Zapruder film besides the one seen in the reddish tree by the stockade fence as the limousine heads for the underpass.  Furthermore, that there appears to be smoke in the trees in the Wiegman film, at exactly this same time, seems too great a coincidence.

Should one need further convincing, one should consider the words of Ed Johnson, a reporter riding in the motorcade press bus.  In an 11-23-63 article in the Fort Worth Star Telegram, he wrote “Some of us saw little puffs of white smoke that seemed to hit the grassy area in the esplanade that divides Dallas’ main downtown streets.” (Source:  history-matters.com)

Under the Overpass

John Dolan (12-18-63 FBI report, CD205 p.32) “he was stopped at the eastern edge of the triple viaduct…he got out of his car and stood at the base of the triple viaduct…the Presidential motorcade came into view and from where he stood he could hear three shots fired at the Presidential car…He advised he did not see where these shots came from.” Analysis:  too vague. 

James Tague (12-16-63 FBI report, CD205 p31) “was stopped in traffic at the Triple Underpass…He stood near the curb of Main Street waiting for the motorcade…When the motorcade was approximately 100 feet from him he heard a loud noise, and at that time he looked around as he thought someone had shot a firecracker. He then heard two more loud noises in quick succession…During the time of the shooting he felt something hit him on the right cheek….He thought that possibly one of the bullets had hit the curb near his feet and possibly a piece of the curbing had hit him on the cheek… He did not see the shots take effect and stated he could not furnish any information as to where the shots actually came from.” (Interview in the Dallas Times Herald, 6-5-64) "There was that first shot, then the second and the third.  Some time, I think it was the second shot, a bullet--I'm sure it was a bullet--hit the curb in front of me and I felt a sting on my cheek." (7-23-64 testimony before the Warren Commission, 7H552-558) “I was standing there watching, and really I was watching to try to distinguish the President and his car.  About this time I heard what sounded like a firecracker.  Well, a very loud firecracker.  It certainly didn’t sound like a rifle shot.  It was more of a loud cannon-type sound.  I looked around to see who was throwing firecrackers or what was going on and I turned my head away from the motorcade and, of course, two more shots.” (When asked if he saw the President hit) “I did not” (When asked which shot hit him) “maybe the second or third shot, I couldn’t tell you definitely” (When asked if he heard any shots after he was hit) “I believe I did…I believe it was the second shot, so I heard the third shot afterwards. (When asked where he thought the shots came from) “my first impression was that up by the, whatever you call the monument…somebody was throwing firecrackers up there. ” (Interview in Rush to Judgment, filmed March, 1966) “Right after the presidential car had turned the corner, I heard these three loud noises…My first impression was that they had come from the left of us…somewhere towards the wooden fence.” 

(1-19-92 interview with Gerald Posner, reported in Case Closed, 1993) (When asked which shot hit the curb) "I actually can't tell you which one. I could try to pick one, but through the years have maintained accuracy. I don't know which one hit me." (Article by William Goggins available on the website of John McAdams, making repeated reference to a 5-6-97 interview with Tague) (On the first shot) "In an interview with the author, Tague explained that it was a "flat sound", whereas the other two were sharp "cracks" which sounded like a true rifle shot." (On what he did after the third shot) "He told the author he "did what anyone would do. I scanned the area to see what was going on" (On Posner's quoting him in Case Closed) "After personally interviewing James Tague, he made it aware to me that he was misquoted in Posner's book. Tague told me that it was not the first shot that caused his wound. He told the author in an interview that "something made me jump back behind the abutment, and that's why I think it was the second one (shot)."  (No More Silence, p.109-115, published 1998) “When I heard the first shot, I thought somebody had thrown a firecracker and was standing there wondering what had happened. Then I heard another sound which was a little different.  The third shot sounded the same as the second…I could not honestly tell from where the shots had originated, but the first shot I found the most interesting.” (3-30-99 oral history for the Sixth Floor Museum) I was looking in the general direction toward the School Book Depository. The first noise had a firecracker sound, which I am one of many witnesses to that. It was a pop. I want to be very emphatic about that. I grew up on a farm. I’ve handled rifles, and I grew up with a rifle in my hands. I know what a rifle shot sounds like, and I know what a firecracker sounds like. The first shot was very clearly like the sound of a firecracker. My first thought was, “Oh, God, somebody is throwing firecrackers with the President going by.” Then I heard the crack of a rifle, and it caught my attention and then the crack of another shot. (Truth Withheld, 2003) “I stood there wondering what was going on when a limousine emerged from this crowd and headed down Elm Street toward where I was standing… My thoughts were quickly broken by the pop of a firecracker and I recall thinking “What kind of idiot would be setting off a firecracker with the President driving by?”…That thought was soon interrupted by the crack of a high-powered rifle shot, and then almost immediately the crack of a second high-powered rifle shot.  It was then that something stung me in the face…One thing that I have always been positive of is that the first shot was not the shot that hit the curb near me…The first shot sounded like a firecracker.” (Interview on Fox News Channel program JFK: Case Not Closed, broadcast 11-2003) “I heard a pop. And my first thought was “Who in the world is throwing a firecracker with the President driving by?”  Then I heard the crack crack of two rifle shots.” (Interview in 11-22-03 WBAP radio program found on Youtube) "I heard a firecracker go off. What kind of fool is throwing firecrackers when the President's driving by." Analysis: Tague’s statements that the second and third shots came in quick succession are in opposition to the currently-popular scenario. Since Tague initially believed he was hit by the second shot, and since he was standing in line with a shot fired from the sniper’s nest at the moment of the head shot, his statements are also consistent with his being hit by a fragment of the head shot bullet.  In his book, Truth Withheld, he concludes that yes indeed he was hit by the second shot.  First shot hit 190-224.  Last two shots bunched together.

 

Up Close and Personal

In this section we will meet some of the closest bystanders to witness Kennedy’s assassination. We will work our way east from those closest the railroad bridge, occasionally jumping from the south to the north side of the street and then back again.

Jack Franzen, his wife, and son, can be seen in the Zapruder film on the south side of Elm as the limousine races for the underpass.(11-24-63 FBI report, 22H840) “He said he heard the sound of an explosion which appeared to him to come from the President’s car and noticed small fragments flying inside the car and immediately assumed someone had tossed a firecracker inside the automobile.  He heard a second and third and possibly a fourth explosion and recognized these sounds as shots fired from some firearm. At the same time he noticed blood appearing on the top and sides of the head of President Kennedy.” (Family interview recorded 6-18-97 available online) “so we walked on down to the grassy area, just short of the triple underpass...We had a ball and Jeff and I were tossing the ball back and forth and a few people came along...and we moved further west down the hill. Right across from a little people station or something there on the north side of Elm. And, sure enough, you could then start hearing some noise to our east and directly, the cars came down Main… About that time, the Presidential car was turning the corner right there at the School Book Depository, and almost came to a stop as it turned the corner... and about that time there were two explosions. They sounded like fireworks and - to my memory - there were some kind of feathers or confetti or something, uh, stirred around the car. The limousine driver and the guy in the front seat almost - momentarily - stopped the car and he turned his head and everything was alright, so he turned back and proceeded to come on down toward us. The car was moving very slowly. Then there was another explosion - seemed to me like it was maybe 200 feet from the corner. And it didn’t register, exactly. But the car kept coming and picking up a little speed. Then, we were right there at the car - maybe 25 feet from it. Connally appeared to be bending over - in retrospect, he’d probably been hit. Nell was looking at him. At just about that time, another explosion and, you could just see Kennedy’s head - his forehead - literally explode. Whatever hit him, I would feel, hit from the back...for his blood and brain matter went forward. His body went forward…and to his left. And he was sitting on Jackie’s right. As it went forward and to the left, there was a lot of gore and he kind of fell over onto Jackie and she jumped up. Almost got her knees or feet on the seat rather than on the floor; about that same instant the driver turned his head around and saw that Kennedy was a mess.”  Analysis: since the confetti shot would seem to be the head shot, Franzen’s earliest statements would indicate he heard the head shot first, and multiple shots afterwards.  It seems likely from this he actually heard the last two shots bunched together and then echoes, much as Sam Holland and Royce Skelton. Franzen’s more recent statements are even more confusing.  Now he remembers the confetti shot and a head shot.  He remembers Greer stopping after the confetti shot but then continuing to drive slowly because everything was “alright.”  Did not hear an early shot.  Last two (or more) shots bunched together (with the last shot after the head shot).

Mrs. Jack Franzen  (11-25-63 FBI report, 24H525) “She advised shortly after the President’s automobile passed by on Elm Street near where she and her family were standing, she heard a noise which sounded to her to as if someone had thrown a firecracker into the President’s automobile.  She advised at approximately the same time she noticed dust or small pieces of debris flying from the President’s automobile.  She advised she heard two other sounds which sounded like shots from a firearm and noticed blood appearing on the side of President Kennedy’s head…She advised the President’s automobile continued on down Elm Street at a higher rate of speed.” (12-11-63 Airtel from Dallas FBI as a response to a Bureau Airtel of 12-6--apparently they sought some clarification--FBI Headquarters File 102-82555,  Sec 27, p41) "She recalled hearing the shots, thinking at the time that the first was a firecracker, and noticed blood appear on the side of the President's head...She recalled that after the President's car sped away, she observed police officers and plain-clothes men searching an area adjacent to the TSBD Building and assumed the shots came from that area." Analysis: Mrs. Franzen confirms her husband’s initial impression.  As the Franzens did not comment on the explosion of Kennedy’s skull, only “blood appearing on the side” of his head, it should be clear the confetti shot was the head shot. Did not hear an early shot.  Last two (or more) shots bunched together (with the last shot after the head shot).

Jeff Franzen (December 1999 BBC interview) “You could hear the noise of the crowd start to reach a little more of a crescendo, and it was obvious something was getting closer. So we all stopped and my mother and father and I came close to the street. And you could actually see one of the first cars of the parade and the motorcycle policemen come around the corner. And then the main limousine, carrying the President and the then Governor of Texas, John Connolly, came also right in front of us, coming down the street from our right. As they started coming down the hill, they slowed a little bit. And you could hear a loud pop, which to me at the time sounded like firecrackers. Being a young child, I felt like it was just part of the parade and fireworks and confetti. And then it proceeded - the car came even closer to us, which was by then maybe less than ten to fifteen yards away. And there was another pop of firecrackers. And this one - there was a great deal of what I thought at the time was confetti, just exploding from the car. I subsequently learnt, much later, that this was obviously President Kennedy being shot, and the confetti was actually his head - the front of his skull and the brains, in retrospect, going up into the air….After the explosion, the President's wife - she was dressed in a very bright pink dress, and she had a lot of red roses in her lap, too; which was also confusing, because it was a mixture of the President and the blood and all the mess and then her pink dress and the flowers - she immediately panicked. And at that point she jumped up and tried to climb out of the back of the vehicle, when a secret serviceman came running from the vehicle right behind. And he just barely jumped on the car as the driver was accelerating, and was able to push Jacqueline Kennedy back into the seat.”  Analysis: young Jeff was only six years old when he witnessed the President of the United States get his brains blown out.  It seems possible from this fact that his parents went into a bit of denial on the issue and tried to convince themselves that what they saw that day was confetti. While he only mentions two pops of gunfire, he describes them as firecrackers, which could indicate more than one shot. Even so his recollection of only one shot before the head shot or shots argues against a shot as early as-160.  Only heard two shots?   First shot 190-224.

Malcolm Summers can be seen diving to the ground in Zapruder frame 345. (11-23-63 statement to Dallas Sheriff’s Department, 19H500) “The President’s car had just come up in front of me when I heard a shot and saw the President slump down in the car and heard Mrs. Kennedy say, “Oh, no,” then a second shot and then I hit the ground as I realized these were shots. Then all of the people started running up the terrace away from the President’s car and I got up and started running also, not realizing what had happened. In just a few moments the president’s car sped off.” (Nova episode Who Shot President Kennedy?, 1988) "I do think the first shot came from the school book depository up there.  And when the second one came I did not know who all was shooting.  I was thinking there was more than one person shooting. The first shot sounded just like a little pop.  It sounded like a firecracker from a far away distance. The others sounded real close." (No More Silence p.102-107, published 1998) “The first shot I heard was just after they had immediately turned the corner headed west on Elm Street. The first reaction that I saw when that first shot was fired was the Secret Service men kind of looking around and down at the people. I was of the impression that someone had thrown a firecracker…As a result my attention was diverted away from looking at Kennedy, and I didn’t see him reach for his throat.  But then it was such a short time that the other shot was fired, then you knew that it wasn’t anything like that. Then the third shot came right after that also.  I heard three shots altogether…Then, when Jackie reached over and grabbed John, she was saying, “Oh, no! Oh, God no!” or something to that effect…Then I knew immediately that he had been hit…I thought he might have been ducking…When I heard her say that was after the second one had already hit.  Apparently, that was the head wound.…as to the spacing of the shots, there was much more time between the first one and the second two, the second and the third.  They were real close.” (Oral History for the Sixth Floor Museum, 3-7-2002 ) Well, they came around and then the first shot. I think they thought it was a firecracker, also, and have always maintained this, and then I thought in my mind, well, what a heck of a joke, you know, to be playing like that. Well, then the car kept coming, and then the second shot rang out. And then the third was just about where I was at, rang out.  I heard Connally say, “They’re going to kill us all!” And then, I heard Jackie Kennedy scream out, “Oh, God! No, no, no!” (From an 11-22-2003 WBAP radio program psoted on Youtube) "I thought someone had threw a firecracker down on the ground, just to be smart. But then the procession kept coming. And then the second and the third shot rang out. Well, I knew it was being shot at...The car got to right beside me where I was at. And it actually stopped momentarily. And I heard Jackie Kennedy 'Oh God, no, no' And I heard John Connally say 'They're going to shoot us all.'" Analysis: Summers heard an early shot and thought nothing of it, then witnessed the head shot, followed by a third shot. He seconds Royce Skelton’s statement that Jackie yelled out before the third shot was fired. (She is seen yelling out between frames 325 and 338 on the Zapruder film). As he can be seen hitting the ground in the Zapruder film around frame 345, his statement that he hit the ground just after the last shot, helps us place the time of this shot. (Apparently, it rang out while Jackie was still yelling.)  By stating that the Secret Service agents were looking around after the first shot, and that the second shot was the head shot, he confirms a first shot hit. First shot hit 190-224.  Last two shots bunched together (with the last shot after the head shot).

James Altgens can be seen in Zapruder frame 345 just to the east of Malcolm Summers. (11-22-63 eyewitness account, presented as an AP dispatch and published in Cover-Up) "There was a burst of noise - the second one I heard - and pieces of flesh appeared to fly from President Kennedy's car. Blood covered the whole left side of his head. Mrs. Kennedy saw what had happened to her husband. She grabbed him exclaiming, "Oh, No!". The car's driver realized what had happened and almost as if by reflex speeded up towards the Stemmons Expressway. There seemed to be utter confusion. One motorcycle officer ran his cycle into the curb, almost falling off. Police came from everywhere as the President's car disappeared from sight. At first I thought the shots came from the opposite side of the street. I ran over there to see if I could get some pictures. But it turned out to be just more confusion. Police ran in all directions in search of the assassin. I did not know until later where the shots came from. I was on the opposite side of the President's car from the gunman.  He might have hit me. The motorcade was moving along in routine fashion until there was a noise like fireworks popping. I snapped a picture of the motorcade at just about that time, still unaware of what was happening. I cranked my camera for another shot. The procession still moved along slowly. Then came the second burst of noise. (11-22-63 AP report preceding the announcement of Kennedy's death and found in the Frederick Maryland News) "AP Photographer James W. Altgens said he saw blood on the President's head. Altgens said he heard two shots but thought someone was shooting fireworks until he saw the blood on the President. Altgens said he saw no one with a gun." (11-22-63 news bulletin on WBAP, shortly after the AP report) "The Associated Press reports from Dallas that President Kennedy was shot today just as his motorcade left the downtown section.  Mrs. Kennedy is said to have jumped up and grabbed her husband and cried "Oh, no!" as the motorcade sped off. Photographer J.W. Altgens of the Associated Press said that he saw blood on the President's head.  The photographer said he heard two shots but thought someone was shooting fireworks until he saw the blood on the President.  He said he saw no one with a gun." (11-22-63 announcement on WFAA that the President had been shot) “An Associated Press photographer, James Altgens…reports he saw blood on the President’s head.  The AP man said he heard two shots but that he thought someone was shooting fireworks until he saw blood on the President.” (5-24-64 article in the New York Herald-Tribune) "I was about 30 feet in front of the President's limousine on Mrs. Kennedy's side. I remember hearing what I thought was a firecracker at the instant I snapped the picture. I was going to make another picture, the one I was really set up for, when I realized what had happened and I froze, aghast." (6-5-64 FBI report, CD 1088 p.1-6) “at about the instant he snapped the picture, he heard a burst of noise which he thought was firecrackers… he does not know how many of these reports he heard…After taking the above photograph…he heard another report which he recognized as a gunshot. He said the bullet struck President Kennedy on the right side of his head and the impact knocked the President forward.  Altgens stated pieces of flesh, blood, and bones appeared to fly from the right side of the President’s head and pass in front of Mrs. Kennedy to the left of the Presidential limousine. Altgens stated Mrs. Kennedy grabbed the President and Altgens heard her exclaim “Oh, no!” as the president slumped into her lap.  Altgens said he also observed blood on the left side of the President’s head and face.” (7-22-64 testimony before the Warren Commission, 7H517-525) “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…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 number 1 and I can vouch for the last shot, but I can not tell you how many shots were in between. There was not another shot after the President was struck in the head. That was the last shot--that much I will say with a great degree of certainty.” (When asked how he could be certain it was the last shot) "Because, having heard these shots and then having seen the damage that was done on this shot to the President's head, I was aware at that time that shooting was taking place and there was not a shot--I looked--I looked because I knew the shot had to come from either over here, if it were close range, or had to come from a high-powered rifle." (When asked where he meant by "over here") "The left side of the car." (When asked if that meant the little street running in front of the school book depository, the Elm Street extension, presumably behind the knoll) "Somewhere in that direction, yes, sir. But if it were a pistol it would have to be fired at close range for any degree of accuracy and there was no one in that area that I could see with any firearms, so I looked back up in this area." (When asked if "this area" meant the buildings at Houston and Elm, including the depository.) "Yes. What made me almost certain that the shot came from behind was because at the time I was looking at the President, just as he was struck, it caused him to move a bit forward. He seemed as if at the time----well, he was in a position-- sort of immobile. He wasn't upright. He was at an angle but when it hit him, it seemed to have just lodged--it seemed as if he were hung up on a seat button or something like that. It knocked him just enough forward that he came right on down. There was flesh particles that flew out of the side of his head in my direction from where I was standing, so much so that it indicated to me that the shot came out of the left side of his head. Also, the fact that his head was covered with blood, the hairline included, on the left side all the way down, with no blood on his forehead or face--- suggested to me, too, that the shot came from the opposite side, meaning in the direction of this Depository Building, but at no time did I know for certain where the shot came from." (On the head shot) “up to that time I didn’t know that the President had been shot previously. I still thought up until that time that all I heard was fireworks and that they were giving some sort of celebration to the President by popping these fireworks. It stunned me so at what I saw that I failed to do my duty and make the picture I was hoping to make. The car never did stop. It was proceeding along in a slow pace and I stepped out in the curb area and made another picture as the Secret Service man stepped upon the rear step of the Presidential car and went to Mrs. Kennedy's aid and then after that I immediately crossed the street and once again I was looking to see if I could find anything in this area of Elm and Houston Streets that would suggest to me where the shot came from. Moreover, I was interested in knowing whether or not somebody else had been struck by a bullet or one of the bullets in this area. I saw that no one else had been hit.” 

(Interview with CBS broadcast 6-26-67) “As I was getting ready to make some pictures why I heard this noise-- I thought it was a firecracker explosion—but I just went ahead and made the picture which shows the President right after he was struck by a bullet, struck in the neck, the first shot, and this was the picture that the Warren Report later fixed as being made two seconds after the shot was fired.  And as they got in close to me, I was prepared to make the picture—I had my camera about at eye level—that’s when the President was shot in the head.  And I do know that the President was still in an upright position, tilted, favoring Mrs. Kennedy. And at the time that he was struck by this blow to the head, it was so obvious that it came from behind. It had to come from behind because it caused him to bolt forward, dislodging him from this depression in the seat cushion, and already favoring Mrs. Kennedy, he automatically fell in that direction.” (No More Silence, p.41-59, published 1998) “I only recall the President hit once that I can vouch for because that first camera shot…made any definite conclusion uncertain.  But this particular one where he was hit, the head shot, was obvious to everyone that it was a shooting, not fireworks. I don’t know how many shots there were.  If I were guessing, I would figure that was probably the third shot. In other words, he was hit when I was taking the picture, and the fatal shot should have been somewhere around the third shot, and that should have been the last…The tissue, perhaps bone, a lot of fragments, all came my way…But the majority of the mass that was coming from his head came directly like a straight shot out my way on to the left in a straight line.  When he fell over into her lap, the blood was on the left side of his face.  There was no blood on the right hand side which suggested to me that the wound was more to the left than it was to the right.”  Analysis: Altgens heard only two bunches of shots, one which occurred just before his photograph taken at Z-255, and the head shot, and yet he seems to recall other shots, just not when he heard them. While his words have been used to show there was no shot from the knoll, his initial impression was, apparently, that sounds had come from that direction. As far as Altgens' latter-day statements that the blood was on Kennedy's left side, it seems probable he was confused by his facing Kennedy, whereby his left hand corresponded to Kennedy's right side.  Only heard two definite shots. First shot hit 190-224.

Richard O. Bothun is the photographer just east of Altgens in Zapruder frame 345. (Pictures of the Pain, p.155, Trask interview with Mrs. Jan Bothun, 11-26-84) “Mrs. Bothun recalled that her husband was very shocked at the sight of the President being hit in the head and that he had been close enough to hear Mrs. Kennedy “holler.”  Analysis: too vague.

Emmett Hudson stood on the steps on the North side of Elm with two still-unidentified men. He can be seen in the Muchmore film. References to the other men standing beside him are in italics. (11-22-63 statement to Dallas Sheriff’s Department, 19H481) “This day I was sitting on the front steps of the slopping [sic} area and about half way down the steps. There was another man sitting there with me. He was sitting on my left and we were both facing the street with our backs to the railroad yards and the brick building. At the same time the President's car was directly in front of us, I heard a shot and I saw the President fall over in the seat. I do not know who this other man was that was sitting beside me. In our conversation he talked about having a hard time finding a place to park. He also talked about working somewhere over on Industrial Blvd. This man said Lay down and we did. I definately [sic] heard 3 shots. The shots that I heard definately [sic] came from behind and above me. When I laid down on the ground I laid on my right side and my view was still toward the street where the President's car had passed. I did look around but I did not see any firearms at all. This shot sounded to me like a high powered rifle.” (11-26-63 FBI report, CD5 p.30-31) “He said he was looking directly at President Kennedy and saw his head slump to one side simultaneously with the loud report made by the first shot fired by the assassin.  He said he then heard two more reports which sounded like shots, such reports coming in rapid succession after the first shot. He volunteered the shots were fired 'just about as fast as you could expect a man to operate a bolt action rifle' or words to that effect. Hudson said the shots sounded as if they were fired over his head and from some position to the left of where he was standing. In other words, the shots sounded as if they were fired by someone at a position which was behind him, which was above him, and which was to his left. He again called attention to the photograph referred to above (NOTE: this is the Moorman photograph), and particularly to the corner of the Texas School Book Depository building appearing in such photograph and said the shots sounded as if they were coming from that building (Texas School Book Depository Building). Hudson stated when he heard the shots, he turned around and looked in the general direction of the Texas School Book Depository Building, 411 Elm Street, Dallas, Texas; however, he did not see anyone with a rifle or firearm of any kind. He pointed out, however, it was a matter of two or three seconds after he heard the shots before he focused his vision on the Texas School Book Depository Building and perhaps in that small lapse of time the assassin had stepped back from the window. Hudson estimated he was approximately thirty feet from the Presidential car at the time he heard the shots and immediately noticed the President's head slump to one side. He advised he did not know the identity or address of either one of the other two men referred to above in the three man group in the photograph. He said the only statement he remembered either one of these two men made was that one of the men stated that he worked somewhere over on Industrial Boulevard in Dallas, Texas." (7-22-64 testimony before the Warren Commission, 7H558-565) “Well there was a young fellow, oh, I would judge his age about in his late twenties. He said he had been looking for a place to park and he walked up there and he said he finally just taken a place over there in one of them parking lots, and he come on down there and said he worked over there on Industrial and me and him both just sat there first on those steps. When the motorcade turned off of Houston onto Elm, we got up and stood up, me and him both. He was on the left side and I was on the right and so the first shot rung out and, of course, I didn’t realize it was a shot, what was taking place right at that present time, and when the second one rung out, the motorcade had got further on down Elm and you see, I was trying to get a good look at President Kennedy. I happened to be looking right at him when that bullet hit him, the second shot…it looked like it hit him somewhere along a little bit behind the ear and a little bit above the ear.  (When asked where the car was when he heard the first shot)  “I remember it was right along about this light post here” (indicating the first light post). (When asked if he heard three shots)  “Yes, sir.”  (When asked if he was sure the second shot hit Kennedy in the head)  “Yes, I do believe it was—I know it was.” (When asked what happened during the third shot)  “the young fellow that was sitting there with me—standing there with me at the present time, he says 'Lay down , Mister, somebody is shooting at the President.' He says, 'Lay down, lay down.' and he kept repeating, 'Lay down.' so he was already laying down one way on the sidewalk, so I just laid down over on the ground and resting my arm on the ground and when that third shot rung out and when I was close to the ground - you could tell the shot was coming from above and kind of behind.” (When asked if he’d “heard it come from sort of behind the motorcade and then above?”) “Yes.” (When asked if he felt Kennedy was hit by the first shot) “No, sir, I don’t think so.” (When asked what happened after the second shot “he slumped over and Mrs. Kennedy, she climbs over in the seat with him and pulls him over.” (When asked to clarify if he saw Kennedy hit in the neck by the third shot or was just guessing) “I just saw him hit once.” (When asked if he thought shots could have been fired from depository) "Well, it sounded like it was high, you know, from above and kind of behind like - in other words, to the left." (When asked the pattern of the shots) "Well they was pretty fast and not fast either. It seemed like he had plenty of time to operate his gun plenty well - when the shots were all fired." (When asked the length in time of the shooting) "Oh, probably 2 minutes..It might not have been that long." When asked again the pattern of the shots) "They seemed pretty well evenly spaced."  (HSCA outside contact report, 2-3-79, as quoted and summarized in the HSCA report) "Everything I told the Warren Commission was correct"...Hudson, now 71, had heard for years about the controversy about a shot from the knoll; he does not think that one was fired from behind the stockade fence." Analysis:  Hudson heard a shot when the limousine was back by the first streetlight (where it was at frame 190) but didn’t notice Kennedy was hit. He then witnessed the head shot, and heard another shot shortly thereafter. He confused the Warren Commission by guessing that the President suffered his neck wound with the last shot. Presumably, he confused the FBI when he spoke to them as well, as they have him saying the head shot was the first shot, and that two shots followed. First shot hit 190-224. Last two shots probably bunched together (with the last shot after the head shot).

F. Lee Mudd is a bit of a mystery man in that most researchers prior to myself had incorrectly assumed him to have been standing on the east side of the grassy knoll. Statements that suggest he was the young man described by Hudson are in italics. (11-23-63 article in The Shreveport Journal entitled Local Man Near Kennedy's Car at Time of Shooting) "H. Lee Mudd, who lives on Spring Ridge Road, was standing about 25 feet in front of the car in which President Kennedy was shot Friday in Dallas. 'I heard two reports that sounded like fire crackers,' Mudd said. 'Then I looked and the President had slumped down in his seat.' Mudd, who was in Dallas on a business trip, had taken time off to watch the parade. 'It happened so fast no one could tell exactly what had happened,' he said. 'But we could tell he had been shot and everybody could tell something terrible was going on.' (1-28-64 FBI report on an interview with Mudd, 24H538)  “On November 22, 1963, he was in Dallas, Texas, on a business trip to purchase clothing for his store. He operates the Southside Ranch, 9066 Mansfield Road, Shreveport, Louisiana, a western store. While in Dallas he decided to watch the parade for President Kennedy. At about noon, he was watching the parade from a position on the north side of Elm Street and some 75 to 100 feet west of a building, which he later learned was the Texas School Book Depository.  He saw the president’s car approaching from the east on Elm Street in the parade, and he recognized President Kennedy and saw him waving to the crowd.  When the President’s car was some 50 or more feet away from him, he heard what sounded to him like two gunshots, and he saw the President slump.  Immediately thereafter, he observed the President’s car pull out of the line of the parade and continue west on Elm Street toward the underpass. When the President’s car came abreast of Mudd, he could see the President slumped down toward his wife, who was leaning over him. He recalled seeing another man in the car, whom he did not recognize at the time but whom he later learned was Governor Connally and this man appeared to be holding one arm to his side. However he did not notice this man much because his attention was focused on the President. Mr. Mudd stated he definitely recalls hearing two shots probably less than a second apart. He said there may have been a third shot fired, but he could not be sure of this. He stated that immediately after the shots were fired, some of the spectators along the side of the street dropped to the ground, and he did so himself, inasmuch as the shots alarmed him and he did not know what had happened or where the shots had come from. He looked around him, and he recalled that in looking toward the building nearby, he noticed several broken windows on about the fourth floor, and the thought occurred to him that possibly the shots had been fired through these broken windows. However, he did not observe any smoke, nor did he see anyone at the windows, nor did he notice any motion within the building. He said the building appeared to be abandoned. Subsequent to the shooting, he did not notice anyone enter or leave the building. Mr. Mudd stated that when the shots were fired, they sounded as if they came from the direction of the building. Mr. Mudd stated that he remained in the vicinity for possibly three or four minutes, after which he walked back toward the main part of town, where he had parked his car. He did not remain to talk to police or Secret Service men because he did not feel he had seen anything that would be of assistance to them. Mr. Mudd said that he was not with anyone else at the time this occurred. He said he later made another trip to Dallas, accompanied by his wife, and he showed her the place where the assassination occurred, and he observed the Texas School Book Depository building and he is confident this is the same building he was standing near at the time of the assassination. Mr. Mudd said he could furnish no further information regarding this matter." Analysis: since the FBI report on Mudd indicates he was on the north side of Elm Street, 75 to 100 feet west of the depository building, and that 1) the last burst of gunfire occurred when the limo was still 50 feet in front of him, and 2) he saw the President pass by just after these shots, it follows that the mysterious Mr. Mudd is in fact one of the two supposedly unidentified figures standing next to Emmett Hudson on the grassy knoll steps. If so, then, seeing as Mudd was supposedly in Dallas on business buying western wear, he is most logically the little guy in what appears to be a red western shirt readily seen in the Muchmore film, who, as Mudd, sat down on the ground after the shots. (That Mudd is indeed the man in red is further suggested by the fact that Mudd told the FBI he'd had to walk some distance back to his car, and that Hudson, who'd stood next to the man in red, testified that this man had mentioned walking in from a distant parking lot.) Did not hear the first shot. Only heard two shots.  Last two shots bunched together

Wilfred or Wilfled Daetz  is a little-known witness, and is probably not worth mentioning, outside the intriguing possibility he was the other man on the steps with Hudson and Mudd.  He is reported to have called the Dallas Chief of Police in 1966 and to have said he'd been a witness. The Dallas Chief of Police told the FBI about him, and the FBI investigated. At that time, however, Daetz reportedly denied making the phone call to Dallas and denied being in Dallas in November, 1963.  When the FBI confronted him with the fact that the phone call had been billed to his phone, Daetz reportedly claimed the whole thing must have been a practical joke. It seems probable that Daetz lied to the FBI.  Perhaps he'd called Dallas on a lark and was trying to cover up his behavior. On the other hand it's possible he was afraid to tell the FBI what he'd seen, or was intimidated into retracting his statements. It's unlikely we'll ever know. What is certain, however, is that nothing he said was so outrageous that it should be dismissed out of hand.  If Daetz had called Dallas while drunk and/or seeking attention, it seems likely he would have made up a more colorful story. (12-7-66 letter from Dallas Police Chief Charles Batchelor to Dallas FBI agent-in-charge J. Gordon Shanklin) "I received a long distance phone call at 1:40 p.m. December 5. 1966, from New York City, from a person who identified himself as Wilfled Daetz...The subject stated that on November 22, 1963, at the time of the assassination of President Kennedy, he was standing on the grass on the north side of Elm Street--on the slope approaching the triple underpass.  He recalls only one shot and that immediately after the shot he ran up the slope toward the railroad tracks and was stopped by an unknown police officer who pointed a pistol at him and shouted "Where are you going?" He then returned down the slope. The subject stated that he could hear very little out of his left ear and that he heard the shot with his right ear and in his opinion the shot came from his right which was in the direction of the railroad tracks.  He also stated he saw a puff of smoke come from behind the fence near the railroad tracks. He stated that he was so excited he doesn't recall any additional shots.  He further stated that at the time of the incident, he did not reveal himself and had talked to no one regarding this until the recent publicity.  He states that then he revealed himself  and made a statement to the Federal Bureau of Investigation in New York City."  Analysis:  too vague.  Saw smoke on knoll (if he was actually there).

Lee Bowers was working in railroad tower just north of the grassy knoll. (11-22-63 Affidavit to the County of Dallas, box 2 folder 1 file 15 of the Dallas JFK Archives) “I heard at least three shots very close together.” (11-22-63 report of the Dallas County Sheriff's Department, 19H510) "He said he heard what sounded like three shots from a rifle." (4-2-64 testimony before the Warren Commission, 6H 284-289) (When asked if he saw any men between his own location and Elm Street) "Directly in line, towards the mouth of the underpass, there were two men. One man, middle-aged, or slightly older, fairly heavy-set, in a white shirt, fairly dark trousers. Another younger man, about mid-twenties, in either a plaid shirt or plaid coat or jacket...They were standing within 10 or 15 feet of each other, and gave no appearance of being together, as far as I knew...They were facing and looking up towards Main and Houston, and following the caravan as it came down." (When asked if he could see the corner of Houston and Elm from his location) “after they passed the corner of Elm and Houston the car came in sight again…I heard three shots. One, then a slight pause, then two very close together. Also reverberation from the shots…The sounds came either from up against the School Depository Building or near the mouth of the triple underpass...At the moment I heard the sound, I was looking directly towards the area---at the moment of the first shot, as close as my recollection serves, the car was out of sight behind this decorative masonry wall in the area….  It came in sight immediately following the last shot...At the time of the shooting there seemed to be some commotion…I just am unable to describe it rather than it was something out of the ordinary, a sort of milling around, but something occurred in this particular spot which was out of the ordinary, which attracted my eye for some reason, which I could not identify.” (Interview with Mark Lane in Rush to Judgment, 1966) “At the time of the shooting, in the vicinity of where the two men I described were, there was a flash of light or—there was something which occurred that caught my eye.  What this was I couldn’t say at the time and at this time I couldn’t identify it, other than that there was some unusual occurrence, a flash of light or smoke or something, which caused me to feel that something out of the ordinary had occurred there…There were three shots. These were spaced with one shot, then a pause, and then two shots in very close order, such as perhaps (He raps on table with his hand “rap…raprap").  Almost on top of each other, while there was some pause between the first and second shots.” (When asked if he told this to the FBI) “When I stated that I felt like the second and third shots could not have been fired from the same rifle, they reminded me that I wasn’t an expert, and I had to agree.” (Unreleased segments of Bowers' 1966 interview with Mark Lane, from a transcript of the interview found in the papers of Rush to Judgment director Emilo de Antonio at the Wisconsin Historical Archives, and published online by Dale Myers, 2004)) (When asked if there were any pedestrians between his location and Elm Street) "Directly in line - uh - there - of course is - uh - there leading toward the Triple Underpass there is a curved decorative wall - I guess you'd call it - it's not a solid wall but it is part of the - uh - park....And to the west of that there were - uh - at the time of the shooting in my vision only two men. Uh - these two men were - uh - standing back from the street somewhat at the top of the incline and were very near - er - two trees which were in the area...And one of them, from time to time as he walked back and forth, uh - disappeared behind a wooden fence which is also slightly to the west of that. Uh - these two men to the best of my knowledge were standing there - uh - at the time - of the shooting...Ah - one of them, as I recall, was a middle-aged man, fairly heavy-set with - what looked like a white shirt. Uh - he remained in sight practically all of the time. The other individual was uh - slighter build and had either a plaid jacket or a plaid shirt on and he - uh -is walking back and forth was in and out of sight, so that I could not state for sure whether he was standing there at the time of the shots or not..." (When asked if he saw anyone suspicious in the area) "Other than these two and the people who were over on the top of the Underpass who - that were, for the most part, were railroad employees or were employees of a Fort Worth welding firm who were working on the railroad, uh - there were no strangers out in this area." (When returning to the question of whether or not anyone was shooting from behind the fence) "Now I could see back or the South side [Note: here MYERS adds: "BOWERS is actually speaking of the north side of the fence] of the wooden fence in the area, so that obviously that there was no one there who could have - uh - had anything to do with either - as accomplice or anything else because there was no one there - um - at the moment that the shots were fired." Analysis: as we’ve seen time and time again, the bunching of the last two shots means the first shot hit. The bunching of these shots, moreover, makes Bowers a good witness for conspiracy. It should be pointed out, however, that Bowers is, despite widespread belief to the contrary, a terrible witness for the grassy knoll gunmen so many embrace as the cornerstone of this conspiracy. In opposition to what so many assume, Bowers never said he heard a shot come from the area around the picket fence, just that something there caught his eye. The unedited transcript of Bowers' interview with Mark Lane, moreover, is even more damaging to the case for a grassy knoll gunmen. It proves both that the two men many think Bowers saw behind the fence were in fact in front of the fence, (quite possibly even Emmett Hudson and F. Lee Mudd), and that Lane has been deliberately deceptive on this matter. First shot hit 190-224.  Last two shots bunched together. 

Abraham Zapruder stood on a pedestal east of Hudson filming a movie. (11-22-63 notes of an unknown reporter found in the files of the Dallas Times Herald, as quoted in Pictures of the Pain, p. 149) “Abraham Zapruder…heard 3 shots///after first one Pres slumped over grabed stomac…hit in stomac…two more shots///looked like head opened up and everything came out…blood spattered everywhere…side of his face…looked like blobs out of his temple…forehead…Jackie first reached over to the Pres. And after second shot…she crawled over to back of car…after that she was lying…” (11-22-63 interview on WFAA, at approximately 2:10 PM) “as I was shooting, as the President was coming down from Houston Street making his turn, it was about a half-way down there, I heard a shot, and he slumped to the side, like this. Then I heard another shot or two, I couldn't say it was one or two, and I saw his head practically open up, all blood and everything, and I kept on shooting.” (Volunteering, moments later) "As I explained before, it was a sickening scene. At first I thought perhaps it was a...it sounded like somebody making a joke, y'know, a shot and somebody grabbing their stomach." (9:55 PM 11-22-63, memo of SS Agent Max Phillips accompanying a copy of the Zapruder film) “According to Mr. Zapruder, the position of the assassin was behind Mr. Zapruder.” (12-4-63 FBI report, CD7 p.12) “He stated he had started taking pictures prior to the first shot being fired…Zapruder advised he could not recall but having heard only two shots.” (7-22-64 testimony before the Warren Commission, 7H569-576) “Well, as the car came almost in line. I was standing up here and I was shooting through a telephoto lens, which is a zoom lens and as it reached about--I imagine it was around here--I heard the first shot and I saw the President lean over and grab himself like this (holding his left chest area)…In other words, he was sitting like this and waving and then after the shot he just went like that…Leaning—leaning toward the side of Jacqueline. For a moment I thought it was—you know, like you say, “Oh, he got me,” when you hear a shot…but before I had a chance to organize my mind, I heard a second shot and then I saw his head opened up and the blood and everything came out and I started—I can hardly talk about it. (the witness crying)."  (When asked how many shots he heard) “I thought I heard two, it could be three, because to my estimation I thought he was hit on the second—I really don’t know…I heard the second—after the first shot—I saw him leaning over and after the second shot—it’s possible after what I saw, you know, then I started yelling, “They killed him, they killed him.” (When asked where the shots came from) “I also thought it came from back of me...I assumed that they came from there, because as the police started running back of me, it looked like it came from back of me.” (11-15-64 AP article, found in the Abilene Reporter-News ) "I heard the shot and saw the President grab his heart and lean over towards Jacqueline. I thought he was making believe, saying 'Oh, he got me' but then I thought, 'No, a president wouldn't be joking.' Then another shot broke his head open. I started yelling 'They killed him. They killed him.' But I kept on taking pictures until the limousine disappeared, still aiming through the viewfinder." (Interview with CBS broadcast 6-26-67) (On whether the shots could have come from the picket fence to his right) "I'm not a ballistics expert, but I believe that if there were shots that come from my right ear, there would be a different sound.  I heard shots coming from--I wouldn't know which direction to say--but they was driven from the Texas Book Depository and they all sounded alike. There was no difference in sound at all." (2-13-69 testimony in the trial of Clay Shaw)  “I saw the approaching motorcade…coming down towards the underpass. As they were approaching where I was standing I heard a shot and noticed where the President leaned towards Jackie. Then I heard another shot which hit him right in the head, over here, and his head practically opened up and a lot of blood and many more things came out.” (When asked about the first shot) “As I said, he grabbed himself with his hand towards his chest or throat and leaned towards Jackie.” (And the second) “He leaned about the same way in falling towards Jacqueline, forward, down towards the bottom of the car.” Analysis: Zapruder thought he heard a shot after the head shot, but then talked himself out of it.  He initially said he heard three shots and described the last two as coming together. He then went on TV and realized he couldn’t say for sure if it was one or two.  When asked by the Warren Commission he started to explain that he thought there was a shot after the head shot but then backed off. Since he felt sure the shots hadn't come from his right, he told CBS he was convinced that the shots came from the sniper's nest. He overlooked or avoided that a shot from the sniper's nest would have come from his left, and that his earliest recollections were that the shots came from neither the picket fence nor the sniper's nest, but from directly behind his location. Zapruder's placement of the first shot is also of interest. As pointed out by Harold Weisberg in his book Whitewash, Zapruder testified, while looking at frames from his film, "as it reached about--I imagine it was around here--I heard the first shot" but the counsel taking his testimony, Wesley Liebeler, failed to note where "here" was. This suggests that Zapruder identified a point after Kennedy had stopped waving but before Kennedy disappeared behind the sign as the moment of the first shot, and that, since the timing of this shot didn't support the scenario already chosen by the Commission, they saw no reason to record his observation. Only heard two clear shots.  First shot hit 190-224.  Last two shots possibly bunched together (with the last shot possibly after the head shot).  

Marilyn Sitzman stood beside her boss Abraham Zapruder. (11-22-63 notes on an interview of Sitzman by a Dallas Times-Herald reporter, as presented in The Zapruder Film by David Wrone, 2003) "Shot hit pres. Right in the temple." (11-23-63 report of Deputy Wiseman, 19H535) “I talked to a Marilyn Sitzman… She said the shots came from…the old Sexton Building.”  (11-29-66 interview with Josiah Thompson) “There was nothing unusual until the first sound, which I thought was a firecracker, mainly because of the reaction of President Kennedy. He put his hands up to guard his face and leaned to the left…And the next thing I remembered correct…clearly was the shot that hit him directly in front of us, or almost directly in front of us, that hit him on the side of his fa…” (When asked where the bullet struck) “I would say it’d be above the ear and to the front…between the eye and the ear…And we could see his brains come out, you know, his head opening…And as far as the sound of the shots go, the first one, as I said, sounded like a firecracker, and the second one that I heard sounded the same…the loudest thing I heard that afternoon was the siren…” (Life Magazine, November 1983) "They had just come down the hill.  I heard shots, and I thought, firecrackers.  All I could see was his hands going up.  Then he was right in front of us...The last shot got him in the head.  Everybody was on the ground, and Mr. Z was gone.  There had been gunshots, and I was standing there all by myself." (The Men Who Killed Kennedy, broadcast 1988)  “Finally, they come around the corner, and start coming down, and they’re you know waving at everybody, and then we heard what to me sounded like two firecrackers.  You know it was starting to get a little confusing because you could see things happening in the car.  And you couldn’t quite get what was happening until they got right here in front of us and the third shot hit Mr. Kennedy right in his head.  We knew what happened." (6-29-93 oral history for the Sixth Floor Museum) “(We) went over to where that concrete pergola was, and we decided that would be the best place... [Mr. Zapruder] said, "You'll have to stand behind me and hold onto me." So, we both got up there, and I...held on to him. I only remember when they started...turning into the street, he said, "OK, here we go." That's when I remember he started actually doing the filming.  Yeah...They turned the corner, and they started coming down.  And the first thing I remember hearing was what I thought was firecrackers because Kennedy threw his hands up, and I heard “bang, bang.”  Now, there could have been a third “bang,” I can’t swear to that one.  But I know there were two “bangs” very close together, and I thought they were firecrackers because his arms were going into the air, and it was way off to my left and above.  So, you know, I’m just kind of like… what a stupid thing to throw firecrackers, and as they came down… the last shot that we heard was right in front of us and it was like the same sound—far off and to the left—but I saw his head open up and I saw the brains coming up.  So, of course, by this time, I knew it wasn’t firecrackers.  But those were the only sounds I heard." Analysis:  Ms. Sitzman only heard two separate bursts of gunfire but sometimes “corrected” her memory and turned the early firecracker sound into two separate shots.  To no avail.  Her description of any two shots as “Bang! Bang!” automatically rules out that there was a single assassin using Oswald’s rifle.  Only heard two shots.  First shot hit 190-224. 

 

Up Close and Even More Personal

These are the prime witnesses, people whose lives were forever changed by their experience. One or more of these persons, however, may not be who they say they are.

Francine Burrows was purported by Gerald Posner in 1993 to be the woman running north towards Kennedy in the Zapruder film.  She can be seen to the west of Mary Moorman in the frames just before the head shot. (3-6-92 interview with Gerald Posner, reported in Case Closed, 1993) “She (Burrows) ran across the grass to get closer to the President.  In the Zapruder film, she is seen in a beige raincoat, running toward the limousine neat the point of the fatal head shot, and has never been identified until now.  Burrows was within twenty-five feet of JFK when he was shot and was also looking directly at the grassy knoll.  She saw nothing there.  Instead, she remembers three shots, and says, “I was very close to him when he got shot.  And I looked up at that window immediately…I knew instinctively that’s where the shots came from.”  Analysis:  if this is the woman in the film she is nowhere near twenty-five feet from Kennedy at the moment of the head shot, as Posner claims, but forty to fifty feet away at the closest. As we are not allowed to read all that she had to say, an accurate evaluation is difficult, however. While Posner boasts she heard three shots, as a way of cutting off speculation that more than three shots were fired, he doesn’t let us read how the shots sounded, or when she heard them in relation to where she was in the film.  It is highly doubtful that the woman in the film, who, in Posner’s theory had continued to run towards the President for five seconds after hearing the second shot, knew shots were being fired prior to the head shot, and yet Posner wants us to believe that at the moment of the head shot, she immediately knew that all the shots had come from the school book depository. It seems quite possible she heard one or more shots just before or after the head shot, and that Posner trimmed her words to hide this fact. Too vague.

Toni Foster is a woman claiming to be the same woman that Posner claims is Francine Burrows..  Unlike Posner, when researcher Debra Conway publicly identified Foster as the “Running Woman,” she had the good sense to publish pictures of her. There is, indeed, a resemblance to the woman seen in the Zapruder film. (2000 article in the Kennedy Assassination Chronicles) “I heard two firecracker-like sounds and I looked up because it sounded like it was coming from up in the air. At the time, I thought, “Those sound like firecrackers.” To me it was click-click; they were just that fast.  As I thought that and I looked towards the president I didn’t know he was already shot.  Because when I did look at him that’s when the third shot hit and his head went down like that (puts her head to her chest). I looked at him, I noticed he took his hands and did like this (brings her hands up and crossed at her chest), his head came down.  I thought, “I wonder what he’s doing?  Why did he do that?” As I’m thinking that—that fast—the 4^th shot, the last shot, hit and his head exploded. So to me it was four shots.  I do recall after that, the shell, I could hear that clink. And I remember everything stopped for me. I remember (his head) looked like confetti, it was just blown off.  It hit him back here (puts her hand on the right rear of her head) and it was just like confetti.  The spray went behind him.  I do believe from what I heard and what I saw the shots came from the back.  Now this whole thing was a shock but that’s how I feel, what I heard and what I saw—they were coming from the back.”  Analysis: Foster has more credibility than Burrows, if only because Ms. Conway allows her to have more credibility. Although Foster says she heard four shots, she says she believed they all came from behind. She also says the spray went to the back, which is inaccurate, but would have been how the spray appeared since the limousine was in motion.  Where she is almost certainly wrong is in her recollection of three shots before the head shot, and two missed shots at the beginning, something no one else, save another controversial witness, Beverly Oliver, seems to remember.  Heard four shots.  Three early shots.

William Newman was standing on the north side of Elm Street with his wife and two kids and can be seen in the Muchmore film. (11-22-63 interview on WFAA, prior to the announcement of the President's death, at approximately 12:45)  “We were, we just come from Love Field after seeing the President and First Lady, and we were just in front of the triple underpass on Elm Street at the edge of the curb, getting ready to wave at the President. (After being asked to clarify his position) We were halfway in between the triple underpass. We were at the curb when this incident happened. But the President’s car was some fifty feet in front of us still yet in front of us coming toward us when we heard the first shot and the President. I don't know who was hit first but the President jumped up in his seat, and I thought it scared him, I thought it was a firecracker, cause he looked, you know, fear. And then as the car got directly in front of us well a gunshot apparently from behind us hit the President in the side of the temple.” (When asked if he thought the first shot came form the same location) "I think it came from the same location apparently back up on the mall, whatchacallit." (When asked if he thought the shot came from the viaduct)  "Yes, sir, no, no, not on the viaduct itself but up on top of the hill, on the mound, of ground, in the garden." (When asked from how far away the shots were fired) "I have no idea. I didn't see where the gunshots come from. I believe we was looking directly at the President when he was hit. He was more or less directly in front of us. We didn't realize what happened until we seen the side of his head, when the bullet hit him. (When asked if he saw blood) "Yes sir, we seen it. I seen it" (11-22-63 second interview on WFAA, prior to the announcement of Kennedy's death, at approximately 1:00 PM) (When asked if he felt the shots came from different directions) "No sir, actually I feel that they both come from directly behind where we were standing. The President, it looked like he was looking in that direction. I don't know whether he was hit first. Apparently he wasn't. It looked like he jumped up in his seat, and when he jumped up he was shot directly in his head. I don't know whatchacallit--the mall behind us--but apparently (interviewer Bill Lord finishing his thought) "that's where he was." (11-22-63 third interview on WFAA, at approximately 1:10 PM) “My wife and my two sons were standing at the curb, looking at the President approaching us, when we heard a blast. And the President looked like that he right jumped up in his seat, and by that time he was directly in front of us. And then he......we seen him get shot in the side of the head. He fell back in the seat and Governor Connally was holding his stomach." (When asked if the shots were almost simultaneous) "Yes sir, they were probably 10 seconds apart." (When asked if he heard a third shot) "I didn't hear a third...I don't recall a third shot. There may have been. We hit...my family hit the ground. I don't recall a third shot. I just couldn't...I'm not certain of that. I do know I heard two shots." (11-22-63 statement to Dallas Sheriff’s Department, 24H219) “We were standing at the edge of the curb looking at the car as it was coming toward us and all of a sudden there was a noise, apparently gunshot. The President jumped up in his seat, and it looked like what I thought was firecracker had went off and I thought he had realized it. It was just like an explosion and he was standing up.  By this time he was directly in front of us and I was looking directly at him when he was hit in the side of the head.”  (11-24-63 FBI report, 22H842) “when the President’s car was approximately 50 feet from him proceeding in a westerly direction on Elm Street, he heard the first shots fired...the shots were fired in rapid succession which he thought at the time was a firecracker. The car was proceeding toward him and it seemed that the President’s arms went up and that he raised up in his seat and started to look around.  The car proceeded to a point about even with him and he could see Governor John Connally was holding his stomach.  About that time another shot was fired which he estimated was ten seconds after the first shot was fired.  At that time he heard the bullet strike the president and saw flesh fly from the President’s head… Newman first thought the President and Governor were playing some kind of a game.” (11-29-66 interview with Josiah Thompson)  “In my opinion the ear went…My thoughts were that the shot entered there and apparently the thoughts of the Warren Commission were that the shot came out that side.” (2-17-69 testimony in the trial of Clay Shaw) “as the car was approaching I heard two shots -- BOOM, BOOM -- and when the first shot was fired the President throwed his hands up like this (demonstrating), and at the time what we thought had happened, somebody throwed firecrackers or something under the automobile and he was protecting his face. At the time of the first shot Governor Connally turned in his seat in this manner (demonstrating), to look back at the President I suppose, and then the second shot was fired, and then as the car approached us to where we were standing, I could see Governor Connally leaning back in his seat holding his hands down like this (demonstrating), and at that time I could see blood on his shirt, and that is when I actually realized that it appeared, you know, he had been shot. The President all the time was staying in an upright position in his seat and it looked like he was looking into the crowd of people as if he was trying to see someone. I caught a glimpse of his eyes, just looked like a cold stare, he just looked through me, and then when the car was directly in front of me, well, that is when the third shot was fired and it hit him in the side of the head right above the ear and his ear come off…I observed his ear flying off, and he turned just real white and then blood red, and the President, when the third shot hit him he just went stiff like a board and fell over to his left in his wife's lap, and I told my wife, "That is it, hit the ground," and that is when we hit the ground because I thought the shots were coming over our heads. And then I looked back and I saw Mrs. Kennedy jumping up on the back end of the car…”    

(The Kennedy Assassination Tapes, 1979) Civilian L “When the President’s car came around the corner, I had a good view from about 150 feet.  About that time I heard two loud sounds about three seconds apart.  I didn’t associate them with gunshots… They seemed more like firecrackers.  However, I did notice a change in President Kennedy, his arm went up and he seemed to stiffen. Just after the two sounds…the limousine stopped for an instant, a large man in the right front seat picked up what looked to be a telephone, and then the car shot forward again.  Some of the agents on the following car got off…From a distance of 12-to 15 feet…we saw the bullet hit the President from the right rear and literally tear away the side of his scalp and right ear…Thinking about it afterwards, I had the impression that they had been fired from behind us.  I noticed Mr. Zapruder with his camera and thought it was a gun.  My impression was only “behind us,” not from the stockade fence.  I am certain no shot was fired from there.” (7-23-86 testimony in televised mock trial, On Trial: Lee Harvey Oswald) "As the President's car come towards us, probably 200 feet or so from us, we heard a Boom (one second pause) Boom, like that. The President sorta throwed his arms up, and we thought at that time maybe someone had throwed firecrackers or something beside the President's car. As the President's car came closer to us, we could see that something was wrong. Governor Connally, I could see the blood on his shirt, and Governor Connally's eyes protruding. And the President was looking into the crowd of people. He was moving his head about and looking into the crowd of the people. And just as the President's car got directly in front of me, the President was probably fifteen feet away, Boom, and the side of his ear flew off, and justa, bits and pieces flew off. I can remember seeing just a white flash, and then the red, and the President fell across the car, as if you'd hit him with a bat. He fell across the car, and back, into Mrs. Kennedy's lap. I remember her saying 'Oh my God! They've shot Jack!'...Mrs. Kennedy...At that time I turned to Gayle and I said 'That's it! Hit the ground! We hit the ground because we thought we were in direct line of fire. (When asked where he thought the shots were coming from) Sir, I thought the shots were coming from directly behind. (When asked to mark on the map where he thought the shots came from) It would be somewhere back in this general area. (He then makes a large mark across the southern side of the Elm Street extension back behind the eastern half of the arcade, to the West of the School Book Depository). (When asked by Bugliosi if he thought the shot that hit Kennedy in the head was the last shot) "Yes sir, I do." (Interview in The Men Who Killed Kennedy, broadcast 1988) “I can remember seeing the side of the President’s ear and head come off.  I remember a flash of white and red and just bits and pieces of flesh exploding from the President’s head.  At that time, I turned to Gayle and said “That’s it, hit the ground.” And we turned and hit the ground and covered our children. When the third shot was fired I thought it came from directly behind, towards the grassy knoll behind us. I base that primarily on the third shot, from what I saw, the sight of the President’s head coming off, and from the sound of the rifle, the report of the rifle” (Interview with Jim Marrs published in Crossfire, 1989) "As he was coming straight toward us there was a boom, boom, real close together. I thought someone was throwing firecrackers. He got this bewildered look on his face and was sort of slowing moving back and forth. The he got nearer to us, and, bam, a shot took the right side of his head off. His ear flew off. I heard Mrs. Kennedy say 'Oh, my God, no, they shot Jack!' He was knocked violently back against the seat, almost as if he had been hit by a baseball bat. At that time, I was looking right at the President and I thought the shots were coming from directly behind us. I said, "That's it! Get  on the ground!" (Excerpt from 1991 interview with Mark Oakes, found online) "As the car got directly in front of us, the President was not much further than I am to you--probably ten to twelve feet, he was directly in front of me--the third shot rang out and I remember seeing the side of his head come off...I was looking straight at him and I remember seeing him go across the car and into Mrs. Kennedy's lap." (When asked if it hit him in the temple) "It appeared right in this area here (as he motions to his temple)" (11-20-97 interview published in No Case To Answer, 2005) "the President's car was out the distance of one lane from the curb line and some one hundred and fifty feet from us, some short distance, when the first two shots rang out.  And it was a boom-boom. They were very close together and I could remember thinking "Boy, that's a poor thing to do."  I thought someone had thrown a couple of firecrackers at the side of the President's car.  At that moment, I didn't realize that it was gunfire and the President had been shot.  I can remember his arms go up...he just kinda came forward and made a motion and apparently he was hit by one of the first two shots.  As the car got closer to us I could see that something was wrong.  I could see Governor Connally and I could see his eyes protruding and I could see him holding himself and I could see blood on his shirt.  I can remember that the President looked to me like he was sorta looking into the crowd with a bewildered look on his face.  As the car got directly in front of us--and we were on the curb's edge--and the President was probably not much further than I am from you (about ten feet) the third shot rang out and I can remember seeing the side of President Kennedy's head blow off.  There was black matter and then grayish and he fell across Mrs. Kennedy, into her lap, and she jumped up and hollered "Oh my God no. They've shot Jack."  And I turned to Gayle and I said: "That's it--hit the ground."  And we turned and pushed our kids down on the ground behind us." (When describing his impression of the direction from which the shots were fired) "From my view it was just "behind" and it was a visual impact it had on me of seeing the head wound and seeing President Kennedy go across the seat.  That gave me the impression of the shot being fired from behind..." 

(No More Silence p. 94-101, published 1998) “As the President’s car started down Elm, the first two shots were fired.  It was BOOM!…BOOM! like that. The first two were much closer together in my opinion.  It's hard for me to tell the time frame because my concentration was on the President's car.  I'm sure the Zapruder film can tell exactly the time frame.  But the first two shots were much closer than the third shot.  At that time I thought someone had thrown a couple of firecrackers or something beside the President's car.  I didn't even realize at that time it was gunfire.  The President’s car was probably 150 feet or so from us at the time.  As the car came closer to us, it was obvious something was wrong.  I could see Governor Connally; I could see his protruding eyes, and I could see him more or less frozen in the seat holding himself.  You could see the blood on Governor Connally and President Kennedy.  When the first two shots were fired, he threw his arms up.  I believe I said at the time that he raised up in his seat, which I think, in reality, all he did was throw his arms up.  I can remember him turning, looking into the crowd, and just as the car passed in front of us at a distance of ten to fifteen feet, the third shot rang out, and it hit the President.  It appeared to me that it hit him on the side of the head, as the side of his head came off.  I can remember seeing a white mass, and then just a mass of red.  The President fell across the car away from me over into Mrs. Kennedy's lap.  It was as if someone had given him a hard shove. It wasn't like slow motion.  He went across the seat pretty quick.  Mrs. Kennedy jumped up and said, "Oh my God, no, they've shot Jack!"  Then I recall her on the back of the car when the Secret Service agent ran toward the car and pushed her back in.  When the third shot rang out, I turned to Gayle and said, "That's it!  Hit the ground!" because at that time I thought the shot came from directly behind us in the grassy knoll area.  The only basis I had for that was what I visually saw:  the President going across the car and seeing the side of his head come off.  The sound played little factor.  I believe it was a visual thing at that time.  We turned and hit the ground and threw our children down and covered them." (November 1998 interview with Texas Monthly)  “”When his car was probably a hundred fifty feet or so from us, the first two shots rang out and it was boom!(smacks his hand) boom! (smacks his hand again) like that.”  

(Oral History for the Sixth Floor Museum, 7-10-03) "When he was probably a hundred feet or so from us, the first two shots rang out, and I can remember hearing a boom (slaps hands) boom (slaps hands) about like that. I thought somebody had thrown a couple of firecrackers or something beside the President's car. I did not recognize it even to be gunfire. And I can remember I thought now that's a pretty poor joke--somebody doing something like that. And the President's hands came up. I actually testified that day that the President came up out of his seat, which in reality he didn't stand up, but he just throwed his arms up, kinda raised up in his seat. As the car got closer to us I could see Governor Connally and I could see his protruding eyes, and I could see the blood on his shirt. He was outstretched in the car. And just as the President got straight in front of us, which is the width of that one lane. We were right on the curb, and just as he got straight out from the curb from us, the third shot rang out. And I can remember seeing the side of President Kennedy's head come off, and I thought his ear came off. And I testified to that effect but years later I saw a picture that showed otherwise. But I can remember seeing a flash of white and the red blood. He went across the car seat over into Mrs. Kennedy's lap. And I can remember her hollering out 'Oh my God, no, they've shot Jack.'" And I turned to Gayle and said 'Gayle, that's it. Hit the ground' because at that time I thought the shots had come from straight over the top of our heads from behind." (When discussing a report received at WFAA saying the President was still alive) "I was kinda dumbfounded to hear these people saying that, when just minutes earlier I'd seen the side of his head come off." (When asked if he knew the President was dead when first interviewed on WFAA) "When you see something the size of a grapefruit or orange or something blow out into the air, and then you hear the statement that he was in the emergency and was shot in the back whatever, it dumbfounded me momentarily.." (When later asked about his impression the shots came from behind) "It was the visual impact that it had on me more so than the noise--seeing the side of the President's head blow off, seeing the President go across the car seat into Mrs. Kennedy's lap, in her direction. It gave me the impression that the shots were coming from directly behind where I was standing." (When stressing just how much his impressions of the shot location were based on what he saw as opposed to what he heard) "It might be difficult for me to testify that I heard a noise." (History Channel program "Our Generation", broadcast 2007) "The President's car came toward us, probably some hundred feet or so from us, when the first shots rang out...I seen a bewildered look on President Kennedy's face...And when his limousine was straight out in front of us the third shot rang out...She (Jackie) hollered out "Oh my God no they've shot Jack" and I turned to Gayle and I said "That's it! Hit the ground!"  (Pierce Allman, "Our Generation", broadcast 2007) "A cop he got off his motorcycle and he said "everybody get down" and I bounced right back up and ran across the street and picked up Bill and Gayle Newman--I didn't know their names of the couple at the time--they had two little kids--and I said "Are you okay?"  And he said "Yeah, but they got the President. They blew the side of his head in." (11-19-08 AP article by Dylan Lovan) "As the president's black convertible came into sight, Bill Newman said, he heard what he thought were fireworks. 'I didn't recognize it as a gunshot,' he said, clapping his hands twice with a pause to simulate the sounds. But as the limousine drew closer, Newman said he could see blood on Kennedy and Texas Gov. John Connally, who was in the car with the president. 'Ten, 12 feet in front of us, the third shot rang out, and that's when the side of his head flew off and I could remember seeing' the blood, Bill Newman said. 'I turned to Gayle and I said, that's it, hit the ground.' (When asked if he felt there was second gunman on the grassy knoll) 'I do tend to want to lean in the direction that it was a conspiracy, meaning more than one person was involved. But so far, no one's ever come forward with concrete evidence." (11-22-08 article by David Flick in the Dallas Morning News) "With 45 years of practice, Bill Newman repeats what he saw on Nov. 22, 1963, dispassionately and in quick order. After witnessing President John F. Kennedy’s arrival at Dallas Love Field, he pressed the speed limit along Cedar Springs Road to get to his family to the parade route along Dealey Plaza. They arrived about five minutes ahead of the motorcade. As the presidential limousine approached, he heard a sound that he assumed was a firecracker, and then another. The president briefly raised his arms and then gazed out at the crowd with a bewildered look. A third shot. The president slumped into his wife’s lap."

Analysis: Newman’s statements demonstrate the necessity of grabbing eyewitness statements when fresh. While his statements have been consistent in many ways, in other, very important ways, they have changed. While he initially said the bullet impacted at the temple, within a few years it was blowing off Kennedy’s ear. Similarly, while he initially heard one early sound, which he believed to be a firecracker, this sound eventually became two separate, well-defined BOOMS, and two firecrackers.  Perhaps, as he became aware that most everyone, including his wife, had heard three shots fired, he re-interpreted the sound he initially thought was a firecracker, and convinced himself it was two shots. That he yelled to his wife and dived down to the ground after the head shot might account for his not hearing the final shot heard by so many others. Newman’s purported statements to Bowles for the Kennedy Assassination Tapes are also interesting. Here, for the first and only time in his purported statements, there is a three second gap between the first two shots, plenty of time for Oswald to re-fire. Here, Newman’s initial suspicion the shots came from behind him is based not on his aural and visual impressions, as stated in The Men Who Killed Kennedy, or his visual impressions alone as he would later insist, but on his suspicion Zapruder had a gun. As with the statements of the other unidentified witnesses in Bowles’ book, liberties appear to have been taken. Only heard two shots. First shot hit 190-224. 

Frances Gayle Newman: (11-22-63 first interview on WFAA, prior to the announcement of Kennedy's death, at approximately 12:45) (When asked if she saw the blood) "Yes sir, it was awful." (When asked what her first thought was after the shots were fired) "I thought it was a firecracker and I saw the blood and I.....I had the baby and I .....I just ran and we....I got on top of him and laid on the grass. I....I was....it scared me. It was terrible." (When asked what else she saw) "Governor Connally was kinda turned to the side and he grabbed his stomach." (11-22-63 second interview on WFAA, at approximately 1:17 PM) “We were standing next to the curb so the children could see the President. And the car was just up apiece from us and this shot fired out, and I thought it was a firecracker, and the President kind of raised up in his seat. And I thought, you know, he was kind of going along with a gag or something. And then all of a sudden the next one popped, and Governor Connally grabbed his stomach and kind of laid over to the side. And then another one—it was just awful fast.  And President Kennedy reached up and grabbed--it looked like he grabbed--his ear and blood just started gushing out. And my husband said “Quick, get down” and I grabbed the baby and we ran and laid down on the grass and I got on top of him. It was just right by us when it all happened, just right in front of us." (When asked if she saw anybody) "It happened so fast that you didn't have the chance to see anything. It was just too fast.” (11-22-63 statement to Dallas Sheriff’s Department, 24H218) “When President Kennedy’s car was about ten feet from us, I heard a noise that sounded like a firecracker going off.  President Kennedy kind of jumped like he was startled and then covered his head with his hands and then raised up.  After I heard the first shot, another shot sounded and Governor Connally kind of grabbed his chest and lay back on the seat of the car.  When I first saw and heard all this, I thought it was all of a joke. Just about the time President Kennedy was in front of us, I heard another shot ring out and the President put his hands up to his head, I saw blood all over the side of his head. About this time, Mrs. Kennedy grabbed the President and he kind of lay over to the side kind of in her arms. Then my husband, Billy, said it is a shot. We grabbed our two children and my husband lay on one child and I lay on the other one on the grass. We started to get up and then all of a sudden we lay back down. I don’t know what it was but another shot may have been fired that caused us to lay back down.” (11-24-63 FBI report, 22H842) “She estimated that when the limousine bearing the President was about 50 feet from them she heard 2 reports and the President seemed to rise up in his seat. A few seconds later she heard another shot and saw that the President had been hit in the head because she saw blood flowing from his body. She believed there were first two shots in succession, a pause, then another shot was fired which struck the President… After the shots were fired, she and her husband each grabbed a child and lay down on the grass fearing they might be hit by gunfire.”  

(2-15-69 testimony in the trial of Clay Shaw) “The President's car was maybe 100 or 150 feet from us when I first heard the noise and the first two noises were close together, just seconds apart…at the time of the first noise he threw his hands up…He threw his hands up like this and sort of turned his head… I saw Governor Connally with the first shot seemed to turn a little bit like this. (Indicating.)… at the time of the second shot Governor Connally grabbed his stomach…his eyes just got real big and he sort of slumped down in the seat…we heard a third report, it was a short time, not maybe 10 or 12 seconds after the first two shots…that shot when it happened, the President's car was directly in front of us and it was about a lane's width between us, it wasn't in the lane next to the curb it was in the middle lane, and at that time he was shot in the head right at his ear or right above his ear…The President, his head just seemed to explode, just bits of his skull flew in the air and he fell to the side.”  (Interview in The Men Who Killed Kennedy, broadcast 1988) “The first two shots I didn’t realize what they were but the third shot, after it was fired, I heard Mrs. Kennedy scream “Oh no! They shot Jack!”  And it just sorta put a chill over you.  It was just terrible.” (Excerpt from 1991 interview with Mark Oakes, found online) "When he was shot,(?) stuff flew up (motions to right temple) and blood started coming out of his head. And he fell over into Mrs. Kennedy's lap." (Interview with Texas Monthly, November 1998) “as the car turned the corner and came towards us, we heard a noise. I thought it was a firecracker. And the people in the car reacted, especially President Kennedy.  He threw his hands up, I thought he was going, you know, going along with a bad joke…Then, as they got closer to us, directly in front of us, when the other shot that (was) shot, you know, the side of his head, you could see the white matter coming out of his head, then red, and we heard her (Jackie) holler, “Oh my God, no, they shot Jack!”  And Bill turned to us and he said, “That’s it. Put the children on the ground.” We put the children on the ground and shielded them with our bodies because we thought we were in, you know, direct crossfire.” (Oral History for the Sixth Floor Museum, 7-10-03) "The first two shots sounded like firecrackers to me. I'd never been around gunfire so I had nothing to compare it with but the way he reacted I thought that man's got a sense of humor--y'know, someone doing something like that in such bad taste. And then as the car approached and got directly in front of us that third shot rang out, and just the visual--you could see bits of flesh flying in the air, a white mass and then red coming out of his head (during this last sentence, she placed her hand by her right ear). I heard Jackie Kennedy scream out also and we turned and put the children on the grass behind us and shielded them with our bodies." (When asked if she thought the President was dead) "I wouldn't think that anybody could live with the side of their head (at this point she fluttered her fingers over her right ear)...I mean, if you'd have seen it there would be no doubt in your mind that he was dead." (When later asked if she shared her husband's impression the shots came from behind) "Yes, mine is just visual. Y'know, the impact at the side of his head, and the way he fell over. Just visual." Analysis: Gayle Newman clearly saw the President wounded by the first shot. She then heard two more shots, fired closely together, associating one with the wounding of Connally, and one with the head wound on Kennedy. As the Newmans are about the only witnesses to note Connally's wounds before the head shot, their recollections are strong arguments against the rare but resilient theory that Connally was hit by a shot fired after the head shot. As Mrs. Newman was both one of the first people to comment on the shots, and one of the closest witnesses, her fresh recollection that the shot after the shot striking Connally came "awful fast" is also a strong argument against the LPM scenario, in which these shots are five tension-filled seconds apart. First shot hit 190-224.  Last two shots bunched together.

Mary Moorman was on the south side of Elm across from the Newmans.  She can be seen in the Zapruder film, Nix film, and Muchmore film, as well as stills such as the Bond photo. She took a picture of Kennedy a split second after the impact of the head shot. (3:16 PM 11-22-63 WBAP interview, available on Youtube) (When asked why she took the photo at that moment) “That was the only chance I had. Mine is a Polaroid and I can only take one every ten seconds, and that was at that time whenever I took it.  (When asked if she'd realized he'd been shot when he took the picture) "No I didn't.  I must have snapped it immediately when he slumped, cause in the picture that’s the way she’s there and he’s slumped over.” (When asked if she'd seen the shooter) "No, I had taken the picture.  And then the shots.  And I decided it was time to fall on the ground." (3:30 PM 11-22-63 KRLD interview, transcribed by David Lifton and posted online by Jack White, 2-16-07) (When asked if she took her Polaroid picture before or after the first shot) “Evidently, just immediately, as the…Cause he was, he was looking, you know, whenever I got the camera focused and then I snapped it in my picture, he slumped over.” (When asked how far way she was from Kennedy at this time) “10 or 15 foot, I, no, more…Because I fall behind my camera.”  (When asked where she was standing) “We stepped out in the street.  We were right at the car.” (When asked how many shots she heard) “Oh, oh, I don’t know.  I think three or four is what I, uh, that I heard…that I’m sure of.  Now, I don’t know, there might have been more.  It just took seconds for me to realize what was happening.  (When asked Kennedy’s response to the first shot.)  “He grabbed his chest, and, of course, Mrs. Kennedy jumped up immediately and fell over him, and she said “My God, he’s been shot.” (When asked the reactions of others) “Uh, they hesitated just for a moment ‘cause I think they were like I was, you know—Was that a shot or was it just a backfire, or just what? And then, of course, he clutched himself and they immediately sped up, real fast, you know, like to get out of there.  And, uh the police, there were several motorcycles around him, and uh, they stopped, and uh—one or two must have went with him.  And one ran up the hill, and a friend that was with me ran up the hill across the street, from where the shots came from.”  (When asked where the shots came from) “Oh, Lord.  North.  Just back there.”  (When asked if this meant the shots were fired toward her)  “Yes, sir.”  “The sound popped, well it just sounded like, well, you know, there might have been a firecracker right there in the car.”  (When asked again if her picture was taken before the shot) “Evidently, at the minute that he, that it hit him because, uh, we was we was looking, at me, or I mean, he was looking, you know, at the people when my picture came out.  Then he just slumped over, so I must have got it.”  (Describing her picture) “You could see he’s clutched, he’s bent over, and she’s…and she hadn’t even gotten up in my picture, and she did get up, stood up, in the car.” (11-22-63 WFAA interview, as quoted in Pictures of the Pain)  “My picture when I took it was at the same instant that the President was hit, and that does show in my picture…it shows the President, uh, he slumped…It all happened so suddenly, I don’t think anyone realized, you know, what had happened.” (About the shots) “There was three or four real close together, and it must have been the first one that shot him, ‘cause that was the time I took the picture, and during that time after I took the picture, and the shots were still being fired, I decided I better get on the ground. I was no more than 15 foot from the car, and in the line of fire, evidently.” (11-22-63 statement to Dallas Sheriff’s Department, 19H487, 24H217) “As President Kennedy was opposite me, I took a picture of him.  As I snapped the picture of President Kennedy, I heard a shot ring out.  President Kennedy kind of slumped over.  Then I heard another shot ring out and Mrs. Kennedy jumped up and said “My God, he has been shot!” When I heard these shots ring out, I fell to the ground to keep from being hit myself.  I heard three or four shots in all.”  (11-23-63 FBI, report, 22H838) “She took a second photograph of the President as his automobile passed her, and just as she snapped the picture, she heard what she first thought was a firecracker and very shortly thereafter heard another similar sound which she later determined to have been gunfire.  She knows that she heard two shots and possibly a third shot.  She recalls seeing the President sort of “jump” and start to slump sideways in the seat, and seems to recall President Kennedy’s wife scream “My God, he’s been shot!...She recalls that the President’s car was moving at the time she took the second picture, and when she heard the shots, and has the impression that the car either stopped momentarily or hesitated and then drove off in a hurry.” 

(2-15-69 testimony in the trial of Clay Shaw) “as the Presidential limousine approached me I stepped forward to observe closer in order to take a picture, that is what I planned to do and just what I did....I heard three noises and they sounded like firecrackers.” (1997 interview on KRLD, as posted online by Debra Conway) "Uh, just immediately before the presidential car came into view, we were, you know, there was just tremendous excitement. And my friend who was with me ( Jean Hill ) we were right ready to take the picture. And she's not timid. She, as the car approached us, she did holler for the president . " Mr. President, look this way!”  And I stepped out off the curb into the street to take the picture and snapped it immediately. And that evidently was the first shot.  You know I could hear the sound. and…"  (When asked if she recognized it as a rifle shot) "Oh no. A firecracker, maybe. There was another one just immediately following which I still thought was a firecracker. And then I stepped back up on to the grassy area. I guess just, people were falling around us, you know. Knowing something was wrong.  I certainly didn't know what was wrong”. (Appearance in Discovery Channel program Unsolved History: Death in Dealey Plaza, first aired 2-26-2003. Transcript provided by James Fetzer) ( Moorman is standing on the grass where she is seen in the Zapruder film) "I just stepped to the, uh, to the edge here, and Jean is hollering, "Look Mr. President, look our way!" and then I snapped the picture, which was at the same instant, evidently, as the bullet hit him, not realizing that's what had happened. But I did hear a noise, and then I could see people around me falling to the ground, or running, and doing--and that led me to know that something was happening."(April, 2007 interview on KRLD) (When asked how many shots she heard) "I heard three." (When asked what they sounded like) "I stepped up to snap a picture and at the instant that I snapped a picture there was a shot. And I know I stepped back a few steps and another shot.  And then there was another one shortly in a matter of seconds...The first two were closer together than the last one." Analysis: as Mrs. Moorman took her famous Polaroid at frame 315, the first shot she heard would have to have been the head shot.  She then describes a shot after this, but before she heard Jackie yell out.  In this she is probably mistaken, as Skelton and Summers and her friend Jean Hill remember Jackie yelling out just before this shot.  While she has been inconsistent on the number of shots she heard, she has been consistent in that the first shot she heard was the shot captured in her photo (at frame 315) and that she heard another shot (or two) just after this shot.  Did not hear the first shot.  Last two shots (or more) bunched together (with the last shot after the head shot).

Jean Hill, the woman in red in the Zapruder film, stood just east of her friend, Mary Moorman, who wore blue. (1:21 PM 11-22-63 WBAP interview) “the shots came directly across the street from us, and just as the President’s car became directly even with us…he and Jackie were looking at a dog that was in the middle of the seat, and about that time two shots rang out just as he looked up—just as the President looked up and these two shots rang out and he grabbed his chest, looked like he was in pain, and he fell over in his seat.  And Jackie fell over on him and said “My God, he’s been shot!” After that more shots rang out and the car sped away...the shots came from the hill…it was just east of the underpass...(when asked if she saw anyone) I thought I saw this man running but I looked at the President and, y'know, for awhile, and I looked up there and I thought I saw a man running and so right after that--I guess I didn't have any more sense--I started running up there, too.” (3:16 PM 11-22-63 WBAP interview, available on Youtube) “Just as Mary started to take the picture and the President came right even with us, two shots-- we looked at him and he was looking at a dog in the middle of the seat—two shots rang out.  And he grabbed his chest, and a look of pain on his face, and he fell across towards Jackie, and she fell over on him and said "My God, he's shot!" And there was an interval and then three or four more shots rang out.  By that time the motorcade had sped away.” (When asked if she saw the shooter) "No, I didn't see any person fire the weapon...I only heard it.  And I looked up and I saw a man running up the hill." (When asked if she knew what had happened) "No, I had no idea.  I had nothing to go by.  I don't think it dawned on me for an instant that the President had been shot. I mean I knew and yet it just didn't register. (3:30 PM 11-22-63 KRLD interview, transcribed by David Lifton and posted online by Jack White, 2-16-07) (When asked if she was 10-15 feet from the limousine, as described by Mary Moorman moments before) “Not anymore than that at all….we were both looking at the President. We were looking at his face. As Mary took the picture, I was looking at him.  And he grabbed his hands across his chest when two shots rang out.  He grabbed his hands across his chest. I have never seen anyone killed, or in pain before like that but there was this odd look came across his face, and he pitched forward onto Jackie’s lap.  And, uh, she immediately, we were close enough to even hear her, and everything, and she fell across him and says, “My God, he’s been shot”…The motorcade was stunned after the first two shots, and it came to a momentary halt, and about that time 4 more uh, 3 to 4 more shots again rang out, and I guess it just didn’t register with me.  Mary was, huh, had gotten down on the ground and was pulling at my leg, saying “Get, get down, they’re shooting, get down, they’re shooting, and I didn’t even realize it.  And I just kept sitting there looking.  And just about that time, well, of course, some of the motorcycles pulled away.  And some of them pulled over to the side and started running up the bank. There’s a hill on the other side…And the shots came from there.  After they were momentarily stopped—after the first two shots—then they sped away real quickly.”   (11-22-63 WFAA interview, quoted in Pictures of the Pain) “just as the car came right in line with us, the President looked up and just as he looked up two shots rang out and he grabbed his chest and this real odd look came over his face and he pitched forward onto her lap…the motorcade momentarily halted and three or four more shots rang out and they sped away real quickly.” (11-22-63 statement to Dallas Sheriff’s Department, 19H479, 24H212) “The President’s car came around the corner and it was over on our side of the street. Just as Mary Moorman started to take a picture we were looking at the President and Jackie in the back seat… looking at a little dog between them.  Just as the President looked up toward us two shots rang out and I saw the President grab his chest and fall forward across Jackie’s lap and she fell across his back and said “My God, he has been shot”.  There was an instant pause between the first two shots and the motorcade seemingly halted for a second and three or four more shots rang out and the motorcade sped away.” (Interview in Rush to Judgment, filmed 2-18-64) “the consensus of opinion…down there at the quarters was that there had been only three shots…they kept sayin’, are you sure it wasn’t echoes?” (3-18-64 FBI report, 25H853) “She stated that President Kennedy was looking down when she shouted and when he turned to look at her a shot rang out and he slumped towards Mrs. Kennedy… Mrs Hill heard more shots ring out and saw the hair on the back of President Kennedy’s head fly up…she heard from four to six shots in all and believes they came from a spot just west of the Texas School Book Depository.  She thought there was slight interval between the first three shots and the remaining shots.” (3-24-64 testimony before the Warren Commission, 6H205-223) “We were standing on the curb and I jumped to the edge of the street and yelled “Hey, we want to take your picture” to him and he was looking down in the seat—he and Mrs. Kennedy and their heads were turned toward the middle of the car looking down at something in the seat, which later turned out to be roses…as I yelled “Hey” to him, he started to bring his head up to look at me and just as he did the shots rang out. Mary took the picture and fell on the ground and of course there were more shots…I have always said there were some four to six shots.  There were three shots, one right after the other, and a distinct pause, or just a moment’s pause, and then I heard more.”

(Interview in Crossfire, published 1989) "I knew he'd never look our way because all the other people were on the other side of the street, so I jumped out in the street and yelled, 'Hey, Mr. President, look this way. We want to take your picture.' As he began turning toward us, he was hit. Then a bullet hit his head and took the top off. Mary fell to the ground and shouted, 'Get down, they're shooting!' But being young and dumb, I kept standing for a minute trying to see where the shots came from. It was eerie. Everything seemed frozen. I saw a man fire from behind the wooden fence. I saw a puff of smoke and some sort of movement on the grassy knoll where he was." (JFK: The Last Dissenting Witness, 1992, co-written with Bill Sloan ) "Hey, Mr. President," Jean shouted impulsively when the car was almost abreast of her. 'Look Over here. We want to take your picture.' In her desperation and excitement. she stepped off the curb into the street as she spoke, almost touching the front fender of the limousine before she instinctively drew back...What a great picture this is going to be, Jean thought, as Mary raised her camera.  She sighted through the viewfinder, and... CRACK!...almost simultaneously, Jean heard a shot.  Mary hesitated as an expression of pain and confusion crossed the president's face.  His hands jerked convulsively toward his throat . CRACK! Jean saw the president driven backward and sideways as a second shot struck him with tremendous force. The whole back of his head appeared to explode and a cloud of blood-red mist filled the air and spattered on the windshield of  J.B.'s motorcycle. Approximately an eighth of a second later (as investigators would later determine), as the President was falling toward his wife, Mary clicked the shutter of the Polaroid. Then Jean heard Jackie Kennedy's anguished cry: 'My God, they've shot my husband!' ...'Jean, get down!' Mary screamed, as she and the other panicked bystanders nearby threw themselves to the ground...Jean stood there, immobilized by the shock of what she had seen, while her friend tugged desperately at her legs. On the other side of the street, at the top of the little green mound universally known today as the 'grassy knoll,' Jean had seen an incredible sight...A muzzle flash, a puff of smoke, and the shadowy figure of a man holding a rifle, barely visible above the wooden fence at the top of the knoll, still in the very act of murdering the president of the United States." (Interview on Black Op Radio, 6-15-00) (When asked where she thought the shots came from) "I saw a shooter behind the fence on the grassy knoll, and the debris and so forth, the blood and the brains, hit my boyfriend's helmet and he was riding (a pause, to which Len Osanic adds 'to the rear left,' to which she adds) "right." (When it was repeated that she thought the shots came from the front) "Yes, I saw the man." (When asked if she saw a puff of smoke) "a puff of smoke, a flash of light from the rifle. I caught a glimpse of someone up there." (When discussing the possibility she would have been hit) "We were within ten feet of the car." (When discussing the shots from the sniper's nest) "I feel like those shots were just to get attention and get people looking in the wrong direction. And I think they succeeded." (When asked what the shots sounded like) "It sounded like gunfire, yes...I knew immediately it was gunshots. I never thought it was firecrackers... (When asked how many shots she heard) "4 to 6. I know that I heard 4 and as many as 6." (When asked what she was looking at) "I was actually watching Kennedy...I was following his head, and just as his head blew off is when I saw the flash of light from in front of him...So I knew it was a shot that came from the front." (When asked if she saw the limousine stop during the shooting) "I know it was hardly moving, if not stopped at one point."(When discussing the possibility limousine driver William Greer shot Kennedy) "I have no idea what happened in the car." (When asked if she was in the street or on the grass at the time of the head shot) "I was right at the curb. I had been out in the street but was back on the curb at the time of the shots." (When asked where the limo was in relation to her at the time of the shots) "Just before me but the head shot was right in line with me." (When asked if she noticed anything in the Z-film that was at variance with her recollections) "I think it goes along with what I said." Analysis: Jean Hill’s early statements described 2 quick shots, one as Mary Moorman took her picture and one after Jackie cried out, and then 2 or more shots after a pause. As virtually no one else claimed to hear shots after a pause after the head shot, it seems possible Ms. Hill was hearing the echoes of the two loud shots she'd just heard. The possibility of her having super-human hearing is refuted by the fact that she failed to hear even one shot before the head shot. By the late 80's, however, she tried to correct this problem by changing her story. She now described a first shot a moment before the head shot and the taking of Moorman's famous photograph. However, as the car at the moment of Kennedy's first being wounded was nowhere near being abreast of Hill, as claimed in her book, and as she could not possibly have "almost touched" the fender of a car some twenty yards in front of her, it's clear these later additions to her story are nonsense. Her sudden recollection that she saw a shooter on the knoll is even more curious. Did not hear the first shot. Last two shots (or more) bunched together (with the last shot after the head shot).

Charles Brehm and his small son Joe were several yards to Moorman’s and Hill’s right and can be seen in the Zapruder, Nix and Moorman films, as well as the Bond photo. (11-22-63 notes on an interview of Brehm by a Dallas Times-Herald reporter immediately after the shooting, as presented in The Zapruder Film by David Wrone, 2003) "The shots came from in front of or beside of the President." (11-22-63 article in the Dallas Times Herald) "The first time he slumped and the second one really blasted him," These were the words of Charles Drehm...Drehm seemed to think the shots came from in front of or beside the President." (11-22-63 (NBC?) radio interview found on the internet) “I happened to be about fifteen feet away from the President when the first shot hit him. There is some discussion now as to whether there was one or two shots that hit him, but the first shot rang out and I was positive when I saw the look on his face and saw him grab his chest and saw the reaction of his wife that he had been shot and just at that time, which was probably a few seconds later the second shot rang out and he just absolutely went down into the seat of the car. There was a third shot that went and by that time I had grabbed my little five year old boy who was with me and ran away from the scene of the thing. But the only thing that I did witness and something I'm sorry I did witness very honestly was the look on his face when that shot hit, and the look again on him and his wife's face when the shots started to ring out. And it was very obviously that he was hit. The first two shots that were heard. The first one hit the president—there was no doubt whatsoever--because his face winced and he grabbed himself and he slumped down. I do believe without any doubt that the second one hit him because he had an immediate reaction with that second shot. I do know there was a third shot but as I said by that time I had grabbed my boy and started to go. I did not witness Governor Connally’s being hit.” (11-22-63 WBAP television interview first broadcast 3:15 CST, as shown in Rush to Judgment) “Unfortunately I was probably 15-20 feet away from the President when it happened…He was coming down the Street and my five-year old boy and myself were by ourselves on the grass there on Commerce Street. And I asked Joe to wave to him and Joe waved and I waved (breaks up)…as he was waving back, the shot rang out and he slumped down in his seat and his wife reached up toward him as he was slumping down and the second shot went off and it just knocked him down in the seat...Two shots..." (When asked if he saw the shooter) "No, sir, I did not see the man who did it. All I did was look in the man's face when he was shot there and saw that expression on his face and he grabbed himself and slide, and the second one whenever it went--I’m positive that it hit him--I hope it didn't--but I'm positive it hit him and he went all the way down in the car. Then they speeded up and I didn't know what was going on so I just grabbed the boy and fell on him in hopes that there wasn't a maniac around.” (11-23-63 UPI article found in the Fresno Bee) “He was waving and the first shot hit him, and then that awful look crossed his face,” Brehm said.” (11-25-63 FBI report, 22H837-838) ‘‘He and his son stood right at the curb on the grass and saw the President’s car take a wide swing as it turned left into Elm Street. When the President’s automobile was very close to him and he could see the President’s face very well, the President was seated, but was leaning forward when he stiffened perceptibly, at the same instant what appeared to be a rifle shot sounded. According to Brehm, the President seemed to stiffen and come to a pause when another shot sounded and the President appeared to be badly hit in the head.  Brehm said when the President was hit by the second shot, he could notice the President’s hair fly up…Brehm said that a third shot followed and that all three shots were relatively close together… Immediately after the third shot rang out, Brehm pushed his son down…Brehm expressed the opinion that between the first and third shots, the president’s car only traveled some 10 to 12 feet…After the third shot, the car in which the president was riding increased its speed and went under the freeway underpass.” 

(12-1-63 article in the Philadelphia Bulletin) "As the President passed him about 20 feet away, Brehm said, he heard the first shot. It was 12:32 PM. 'He (the President) stiffened,' said Brehm. 'He had been sitting forward on the seat, not sitting deep back. He seemed to straighten out--as if digging his heels into the floor of the car.' The President's hand came up slowly to his neck, said Brehm.  'He gave a cringe of pain,' he said. This was not the bullet which caused the massive head wound, said Brehm. 'I saw what the next bullet to hit him did to his head,' he said. So this first bullet was the one which entered the President's body at the neckline, and, perhaps splintering, left a wound in his neck just below his Adam's apple near his necktie, and coursed down into his chest. Both Brehm and Truly, who was standing in front of the depository, thought that at this moment the limousine swerved--or 'jerked' as Brehm put it--to the left as if about to speed away. Then, however, Brehm said, it seemed to lose momentum--'almost as if the driver had taken his foot off the gas.' Maybe I was just imagining it,' said Brehm. 'Maybe I thought it was swerving because I just wanted that thing (the limousine) to leap out of there--get out fast.'  And then, for a long few seconds, there seemed to be silence. There seemed to be no immediate awareness of what happened. Brehm said the President's smile was 'sagging.' He had a pain-stricken look on his face,' he said. The President was still sitting straight, said Brehm. It wasn't until the President was hit again that he slumped against his wife, and she took his head in her arms. 'He seemed to be conscious that something terrible had happened to him,' said Brehm. 'It didn't look like it knocked him out.' Two facts of hideous portent emerge from the stories told by Brehm and others. The President's head was still visible above the leather upholstered seat of the limousine to the eye on the other side of the telescopic sight. Also, the car was still moving at 15 to 18 miles an hour. The rifleman, however, shifted his aim to Texas Gov. John B. Connally. Brehm said he heard a second shot, but didn't know where it went. 'I was watching the President,' he said. This shot hit Connally in the back just under the right shoulder blade. It splintered the fifth rib, coursed down through the body, and emerged from his side to break his right wrist lying in his lap and lodge in his left thigh. Brehm said he knew by the sound of the shots that they had crossed his line of vision rather than coming from over his shoulder or from the other side of the road.  And still--after the second shot--the President's head was still visible above  the seat; still there was no sudden burst of speed. The effect of the third bullet was murderous. It hit the back of the President's head with an ax-like or chopping effect. Another fraction of an inch--and the bullet might just have creased the President's head. Still another fraction of an inch and it might have missed him altogether. As it was, it hit at a shallow angle, ripping off a piece of skull 'perhaps the diameter of a teacup,' said Dr. William Kemp Clark, a neurosurgeon."

(3-28-66 Interview shown in the Mark Lane movies Rush to Judgment, 1966, and Two Men in Dallas, 1976) “he was possibly 30 feet away when the first bullet struck, moved a little closer and was possibly 20-25 feet away when the second bullet hit…When the second bullet hit, there was (he motions to his right ear)—the hair seemed to go flying. It was very definite then that he was struck in the head with the second bullet…I saw a piece fly over in the area of the curb…it seemed to have come left and back…whatever it was that I saw did fall both in that direction and over into the curb there.” (11-22-66 AP article found in the Alton Illinois Evening Telegraph) "When the first shot went off I really didn't think it was gunfire. He (the president) had a sense of humor, and when his hands went up to the sides of his neck I thought he was making a gesture. I thought it was a backfire. Then the second shot hit. He went down. He Just went down. I knew the sound that bullets make, and it was at this time that I thought it was shooting. It was too weird to think he was really shot. When I realized he had been I was trying to push that car to go, go, go. I fell with the boy on the ground. The third shot really upset me. I knew he was hit the first two times but the third one didn't make any sense at all." Brehm said, "I contend that the third shot went wild." (Late 1966 interview with Lawrence Schiller recounted in The Scavengers and Critics of the Warren Report, published 1967) "When the first shot went off, I thought it was a backfire from from a motorcycle. But when his hands went up, then I realized 'My God, he has been shot.' On the first shot I was possibly thirty feet maximum from him. On the second shot he was not more than fifteen feet away. I couldn't imagine that it was a shot. But when I seen the president stiffen and his hands go up, I knew then that he had been shot. From where I was on the second shot, the damage was visible to the President's head. It was clearly visible that he had been hit in the head. I could see that the damage was severe. There was defiintely blood.  It was not a great flow of it but you could see the area crimson. I did not see blood on the first shot. Then I grabbed the boy and threw him on the ground and fell on top of him, a natural infantry instinct that came to me. There were only three shots. It was a third wasted shot that from the sound of it, and I'm taking into account that I've heard these things go past me before and I've stopped a couple of them, that third shot came nowhere near the parade. I felt that was the hurried shot." (When asked if he saw something fly from the president's head) "I did see something fly to the left of the car and down into the street. I saw something but I couldn't positively identify it and I don't want to go on record as identifying it....My belief, and if I had to die on the spot from my belief, is those two shots came from the same place. I couldn't pinpoint it, but they came from what was established as a window. There was no shots from anywhere else...the shots came from up at the School Book Depository. There was no doubt in my mind that this was the way that it was."

(7-23-86 testimony in televised mock trial, On Trial: Lee Harvey Oswald) (When asked to tell the jury what happened, while standing in front of a map of Dealey Plaza) "As the car turned, and when I say the car I mean the Presidential car, turned and straightened out and started coming down (he is now pointing to the limo's location at approximately frame 175 of the Zapruder film) the first noise that I heard hit the President, uh. It struck him and he raised his hand up to his neck (he now grabs the back of his neck with right hand). The car proceeded there it seemed very very slow, proceeded down just beyond me in this area (he is now pointing to a location passed the steps seen in the Muchmore film, on the North side of Elm--this is approximately 50 feet passed the location of the limousine at the time of the head shot) when the second shot went off which absolutely destroyed the President's head. The car then took off in a zig-zag motion down into this area (he points to the stretch of Elm running parallel to the stockade fence) when the third shot--which seemed to me to be a wasted shot--went off, which frightened me more than any of the others because then I thought it was somebody shooting up the place. I then fell on my son. (When asked the time interval between the shots) "First and third shot. Somewhere around seven seconds." (When asked the location from which he thought the shots had been fired) "I told the officers that they came from one of the two buildings, one of which was the school book depository, the other was over on that corner (he points to the Dal-Tex Building). One of the two." (When asked if he felt confident about this) "Yes, I do". (When asked if he felt the shots came from behind the President) "Absolutely." (NOTE: the next two questions and answers were apparently not televised on the program in the U.S. but are included in Vincent Bugliosi's book, Reclaiming History.) (When asked if he thought the shots were spaced out far enough to have been fired by a bolt-action rifle) "Very easily."  (When asked if all the shots came from the same location) "All three shots were from the same origin." (No More Silence, p.60-69, published 1998) “Of course, it became obvious after the surprise noise that that it was a shot and that he was hurt... And when he got to the area just past me, the second shot hit which damaged, considerably damaged, the top of his head…That car took off in an evasive motion, back and forth, and was just beyond me when a third shot went off. ..You know when a bullet passes over you, the cracking sound it makes, and that bullet had an absolute crack to it.” Analysis: aside from the 12-1-63 article in the Philadelphia paper, where it seems likely Brehm's words were sculpted to fit the writers' own theory that the second shot hit Connally, Brehm consistently claimed the President was hit by the first and second shots and that a third shot came after the head shot. The piece of skull he saw crash into the curb could be the piece seen by Stavis Ellis and Royce Skelton. It is also interesting to note that Brehm's testimony to Bugliosi in 86 that all the shots sounded the same is in conflict with his statement to Sneed in No More Silence.  First shot hit 190-224.  Last shot after the head shot.

Beverly Oliver claims to be the woman standing behind Brehm and his son. People often refer to this woman as the Babushka Lady. (The Men Who Killed Kennedy, broadcast 1988) “When I first heard a noise I was not aware that that was a shot being fired.  And maybe perhaps that’s why I continued to film because I thought it was a backfire or a firecracker.  I mean I wasn’t used to being around guns.  I did not realize that those were shots until I saw in the frame of my camera President Kennedy’s head come off, the back of his head.  Then I realized that that was a shot.  I don’t know how many I heard.  I know where I thought the shots came from.  It was the picket fence area, around that large tree, somewhere on the other side of those steps but in the picket fence area.  There was a figure there and there was smoke there.  I will always believe that the man who shot President Kennedy was standing somewhere in the picket fence area and no one will convince me any differently.” (second interview)  “I’m convinced and no one will ever convince me any differently that the shots came from behind the area of the picket fence on the grassy knoll.  No one will ever convince me. I saw it.  I believe it’s where it came from.  And the only way that I’m gonna believe any different is when I stand before the judge on the judgment day and he tells me.  But I know what I saw and that’s what I saw.” (Interview with Robert Groden in his video, The Case for Conspiracy, 1993) "Just as he gets past me, there's a sound that goes ba-boom, and he goes back against his seat and the whole back of his head comes off and it looks like somebody threw a bucket of blood out the back of the car" (When asked what part of Kennedy's head was damaged) I couldn't pinpoint an exact part but it looked like the whole back of his head, like in this area right here (grabs the crown of her head) just went (motions backward) flying out the back of the car." (When asked from where she thought the shots derived) (she points to the picket fence west of the knoll steps) "Just to the right of that green-trunked tree and about thirty feet from the corner, west of the corner of the fence."((From her 1996 book Nightmare in Dallas) “Beverly heard a pop, pop sound coming from the direction she faced….How rude that some parents would let their kids throw sidewalk poppers near the President, she thought.  Then she heard another pop.  Hold steady.  The car was moving about twelve miles an hour as it passed directly in front of her.  It then seemed to come to a stop.  She continued filming wishing President Kennedy would turn around, then a loud, boom-boom sounded, and the President’s head was violently thrown backward as a spray of crimson blood spouted from the back of his head…”“Oh, my God…he’s been shot.”  She saw Jackie pull her husband down toward the seat as if she were trying to protect him and then crawl out onto the trunk of the car to pick up something which seemed to come from the President’s head… People were screaming and falling to the ground.  A motorcycle policeman crash-parked his cycle and raced up the grassy slope from where Beverly heard the gunfire... Beverly smelled something acid in the air.  It didn’t smell right. A cloud of smoke drifted up from behind the fence and dissipated as it blew across the lawn.” (11-10-09 interview broadcast on Nightfright radio) "I don't know if the first sounds I heard were shots. I could not get on the witness stand and swear that they were shots. Excuse the term. I thought that someone had allowed some little kids to bring what we called back then poppers. They were little bitty things about the size of your fingernail and you threw them against the sidewalk and they popped...The first sounds that I heard went bangbang...bang. But I could not say that they were shots...Just as he got past me to my left...as I turned to follow the motorcade, I heard a big KABOOM! And when that happened it looked like the whole back of his head just come out back over the trunk. At the time I thought it was brains but I now know it was skull..."  Analysis: while Oliver shares a characteristic with William Newman and Toni Foster—all three heard two early sounds that they originally thought to be a firecracker--the rest of her story is in line with Mary Moorman and Jean Hill, who heard no early shots at all.  While she originally stated she didn’t know how many shots she heard she later indicated there were five. The acid-scented smoke drifting over from the knoll is almost certainly poetic license, however. Her lack of total credibility may have nothing to do with whether or not Oliver is in fact the woman in the film (many doubt her story) but have more to do with the long delay in her telling her story, and her constant contact with conspiracy theorists, many of whom believe shots were fired from the knoll. Heard five shots?  Two early shots.  Last two shots bunched together.  Saw smoke on knoll.

Meanwhile, on the north side of the street…

Cheryl McKinnon was a short ways to the left of the Newmans and can be seen collapsed on the ground near the Newmans in the Wiegman film and Bond photo. (From an 11-22-83 article in the San Diego Star News) “As we stood watching the motorcade turn onto Elm Street, I tried to grasp every detail…Suddenly three shots in rapid succession rang out.  Myself and dozens of others standing nearby turned in horror toward the back of the Grassy Knoll where it seemed the sounds had originated.  Puffs of white smoke still hung in the air in patches.  But no one was visible.  Turning back to the street, now suddenly frightened, I suddenly realized the President was no longer sitting up in the seat waving to the crowd.  He was slumped over to his wife whose facial expression left no doubt as to what had occurred…the only thing I am absolutely sure of today is that at least two of the shots fired that day in Dealey Plaza came from behind where I stood on the knoll, not from the book depository.”  Analysis:  her description of the shots is a little too vague to come to any conclusions. Intriguingly, McKinnon, as Oliver, took many years before coming forward. One should wonder then if their recollections of  smoke on the knoll are accurate or are something they picked up along the way.  Too vague.  Saw smoke on the knoll.

Charles Hester was standing on the knoll with his wife.  In the Wiegman film, they can be seen crouching down up on the white arcade. (11-22-63 statement to the Dallas Sheriff’s Department, 19H478) “My wife Beatrice and I were sitting on the grass on the slope on Elm Street where the park is located.  When the President Kennedy’s car got almost to the underpass, I heard two shots ring out…I grabbed my wife because I didn’t know where the next shot was coming from and dragged her up next to the concrete embankment and got on the ground with her.” (11-25-63 FBI report, 22H841)  “Hester and his wife, Beatrice, were standing along the street at the point immediately preceding the underpass on Elm Street where President John F Kennedy was shot.  Hester stated he saw the President slump in the seat of the car and that he heard two shots fired from what appeared to be a building located on the corner of Elm and Houston Street.  He stated he and his wife were almost in a direct line of fire and that he immediately grabbed his wife and shoved her to the ground.  He stated he thereafter immediately escorted his wife across to the North side of the street on an embankment in an attempt to gain shelter.”  Analysis: as Hester “immediately” threw his wife to the ground, he is almost certainly referring to the head shot and a succeeding shot.  His grouping of the shots together in his first statement implies as much.  The FBI is mistaken in reporting the Hesters were on the south side of the street and crossed over after the shots. The FBI’s inclusion of Hester stating that the shots appeared to have come from a building on Elm and Houston (clearly a reference to the school book depository) is suspicious in light of Hester’s earlier statement that he did not know where the next shot was coming from.  Did not hear the first shot. Only heard two shots.  Last two shots bunched together.

Mrs. Charles Hester (11-25-63 FBI report, 24H523) “Mrs. Hester advised she heard two loud noises which sounded like gunshots, and she saw President Kennedy slump in the car he was riding in.  Her husband then grabbed her and shoved her to the ground.  Shortly thereafter they then went across to the north side of the street on an embankment in an attempt to gain shelter.”  Analysis:  a little too vague, but she is probably referring to the same two shots heard by her husband.  Did not hear the first shot. Only heard two shots.  Last two shots probably bunched together. 

 

Between the Signs 

There are many disappointing aspects of the aspects of the FBI’s investigation into the murder of President John F. Kennedy. The FBI simply didn’t try as hard as they should have. Once they had their man, Oswald, they simply stopped looking elsewhere. When one reads Volume 22 of the 26 volumes of supporting information for the Warren Report, one comes across dozens of statements taken by the FBI in March 1964.  These were statements made by employees working in Texas School Book Depository Building  What is troubling about these statements is that they all seemed to be designed to answer three questions—where were you during the shooting, did you know Oswald, and did you see any strange individuals in the building on November 22^nd, 1963?  The FBI was clearly not interested in what happened, only if anyone else was involved.  As a result, numerous witnesses to Kennedy’s death were not even asked what they saw.  Still, enough of them said enough to give us an idea.  Still others undermined the FBI’s efforts by saying that they’d never seen Oswald before or only vaguely remembered Oswald, and had not seen any strangers in the building.  These were, in fact, mutually exclusive statements.  By saying they had never seen Oswald, or only vaguely remembered seeing Oswald, who’d only worked in the same building with them for six weeks, they were as much as acknowledging they wouldn’t know what a stranger looked like.  A number of these employees watched the motorcade from the north side of Elm between the Thornton Freeway and Stemmons Freeway signs. Here then are the witnesses between the signs, in order from west to east. My placement of these witnesses is based on the research of Don Roberdeau.

Louie Witt stood just in front of the Stemmons Freeway sign. He stupidly opened up an umbrella in silent protest as Kennedy passed, and has ever since been dubbed “The Umbrella Man.” (9-25-78 testimony before the HSCA, vol. 4 p.329-352) “As I moved to the street, still walking on the grass, I heard the shots that I eventually learned were shots.  At the time it didn’t register as shots because they were so close together, and it was like hearing a string of firecrackers…As I was moving forward I apparently had this umbrella in front of me for some few steps.  Whereas other people I understand saw the President shot and his movements, I did not see this because of this thing in front of me.” Analysis:  while Witt says he was walking forward when the shots rang out, this would imply that all the shots rang out before frame 224, when Witt is seen on the sidewalk holding up his umbrella in the Zapruder film.  He doesn’t mention the head shot.  As he can be seen sitting on the curb, seemingly dejected after the shots, in photographs, he may have seen something he didn’t know how to explain. Too vague. 

John Chism (11-22-63 statement to Dallas Sheriff’s Department, 19H471)  “we were directly in front of the Stemmons Freeway sign…When I saw the motorcade round the corner, the President was standing and waving to the crowd.  And just as he got just about in front of me, he turned and waved to the crowd on this side of the street, the right side; at this point I heard what sounded like one shot, and I saw him “The President,” sit back in his seat and lean his head to his left side.  At this point, I saw Mrs. Kennedy stand up and pull his head over her lap, and then lay down over him as if to shield him.  And the two men in the front seat, I don’t know who they were, looked back, and just about the time they looked back, the second shot was fired.  At this point, I looked behind me, to see whether it was a fireworks display or something.  And then I saw a lot of people running for cover, behind the embankment there back up on the grass.” (12-18-63 FBI report, 24H525) “According to Chism, he was standing on the curb in front of the concrete memorial on Elm Street…when the Presidential motorcade passed this point. As it passed in front of him he heard at least two shots and possibly three but no more.  The first shot he thought was a firecracker until the second shot sounded and at the same instant he saw the President slump over in the seat of the limousine.  On hearing the second shot he definitely knew the first was not a fire cracker and was of the opinion the shots came from behind him.”  Analysis: as Kennedy was waving at the time of the first shot, and then leaned to his left, Chism failed to hear a shot at frame 160. As he failed to hear another shot until after Greer and Kellerman looked back, the next shot he heard was almost certainly the head shot, when the President “slumped.” As he thought he might have heard three shots, he may have heard a shot after the head shot. Only heard two clear shots. First shot hit 190-224.

Marvin Faye Chism was John Chism’s wife and stood beside him in front of the Stemmons Freeway sign. (11-22-63 statement to the Dallas Sheriff’s Department, 19H472) “As the President was coming through, I heard this first shot, and the President fell to his left. The President’s wife immediately stood over him, and she pulled him up, and lay him down in the seat, and she stood up over him in the car. The President was standing and waving and smiling at the people when the shot happened.  And then there was the second shot that I heard…It came from what I thought was behind us and I looked but I couldn’t see anything. The two men in the front of the car stood up, and then when the second shot was fired, they all fell down and the car took off just like that.” Analysis: while Mr. Chism noted that Kennedy leaned his head to the left after the first shot—a reference to his actions after frame 190 of the Zapruder film-- Mrs. Chism said he fell to his left. Still, her recollection of Jackie “standing over” Kennedy can only be a reference to the frames leading up to the head shot. Her statement that the men on the front of the car fell down was merely her way of expressing that Greer and Kellerman ducked down after the head shot. Only heard two shots.  First shot hit 190-224.

Gloria Jean Holt (3-18-64 statement to the FBI, 22H652) “I left the Depository building and walked down toward the Stemmons expressway underpass west of the building approximately fifty yards and took up a position on the curb on the south side of Elm Street to await the presidential procession…I was still standing on the curb at the time the president was shot.”  Analysis:  Holt is one of a number of witnesses who describes the north side of Elm Street as the south side. It’s possible their thought was that since they had to cross the dead end of Elm Street in front of the building to get where they stood, that they’d somehow crossed the street. Too vague.

Sharon Simmons (Sharon Nelson) (3-18-64 statement to the FBI, 22H665) “I was with Jeanie Holt…at the time the President was shot.”  Analysis:  too vague.

Stella Jacob (3-18-64 statement to the FBI, 22H655) I left the Depository building and walked down toward the Stemmons expressway underpass west of the building approximately fifty yards and took up a position on the curb on the south side of Elm Street to await the presidential procession… (names Sharon Simmons  and Gloria Jean Holt as companions) I was still standing on the curb at the time President John F. Kennedy was shot….”  Analysis:  too vague.

Carol Reed (3-19-64 statement to the FBI, 22H668) “At the time President Kennedy was shot I was standing on the curb of Elm Street about mid-way between the Texas school book Depository  Building and the Elm Street railroad overpass.  I was with Mrs. Karen Hicks…Miss Karen Westbrook…and Mrs. Gloria Calvery…at the time the President was shot.”  Analysis:  too vague. 

Karen Hicks (3-20-64 statement to the FBI, 22H650) “we walked to Elm Street and stopped at a point on the north side of Elm Street about halfway between Houston Street and the Triple Underpass.  We were standing at this point when President John F. Kennedy was shot.  The car he was in was almost directly in front of where I was standing when I heard the first explosion” (She names Calvery, Reed, and Westbrook as companions).  Analysis:  as Hicks was far down the street from Kennedy’s position at Z-160, she did not hear a first shot that missed. Number of shots???  First shot 190-224.

Gloria Calvery (3-19-64 statement to the FBI, 22H638) “we walked to Elm Street and stopped at a point on the north side of Elm Street about halfway between Houston Street and the Triple Underpass.  We were standing at this point when President John F. Kennedy was shot.  The car he was in was almost directly in front of where I was standing when I heard the first shot.” Analysis: as Calvery was far down the street from Kennedy’s position at Z-160, the first shot she heard was not at Z-160. Number of shots??? First shot 190-224.

June Dishong (Letter written on 11-22-63, as read by her daughter on CNN, 11-21-2003, and featured on the Sixth Floor Museum website) “here come the president and his wife…His arm in the air waving…He drops his arm as they go by, possibly 20 feet. Suddenly--a sound.  Gun shots? So hard to tell above the clamor of the crowd. The president bent forward into his wife’s lap as his arm slipped off the side of the car. Jackie circled him with her arm. Another shot. Panic among the people. Woman with children. Parents pushing them to the ground. No one knows where the shots are coming from. A cry. The President has been shot. A third shot, people scatter. I can't believe what I have seen. The picture of the man falling forward.”  Analysis: this letter, which was only discovered after Dishong’s death, sums up what would seem to be the majority view quite nicely: a first shot hit at 190 (when Kennedy stopped waving, and Jackie moved closer to him), followed by the head shot (when people started screaming and dropping to the ground), followed by a third shot. First shot hit 190. Last shot after the head shot.

Karen Westbrook (11-23-63 UPI article found in the Fresno Bee) "'I saw the president's hair fly up...I knew he was hit,' Karen Westbrook, 19 year old stenographer, sobbed." (3-19-64 statement to the FBI, 22H679) “On November 22, 1963, I left my office…I was with (Calvery, Reed, and Hicks)…about halfway between Houston Street and the Triple Underpass.  We were standing at this point when President John F. Kennedy was shot. The car he was in was almost directly in front of where I was standing when I heard the first explosion.  I did not immediately recognize this sound as a gun shot.”  Analysis: as Westbrook was far down the street from Kennedy’s position at Z-160, she did not hear a first shot that missed.  Number of shots??? First shot 190-224.

Jean Newman (11-22-63 statement to the Dallas Sheriff’s Department, 19H489, 24H218) “I was standing right on the side of the Stemmons Freeway sign, about halfway between the sign and the edge of the building on the corner…  The motorcade had just passed me when I heard something that I thought was a firecracker at first, and the President had just passed me, because after he had just passed, there was a loud report, it just scared me, and I noticed that the President jumped, he sort of ducked his head down, and I thought at the time that it probably scared him too, just like it did me, because he flinched like he jumped. I saw him put his elbows like this, with his hands on his chest...the motorcade never did stop, and the President fell to his left, and his wife jumped up on her knees…I just heard two shots” (11-28-63 FBI report, 22H843)  “She then walked in front of the building and turned right on Elm Street and stood on the curb on the  North.  A car carrying the President and other persons had just passed her when she heard a report and saw the President jump, raising his hands to his chest area.  She stated she assumed the report to be a firecracker and thought how “human” the president was that he too would react by jumping at a sudden noise. She stated the car had proceeded to approximately 12 feet to her right when she heard a second report and saw the President slump to the front of the car…Mrs. Newman said she only heard the two shots but cannot definitely state that additional shot or shots were not fired as people around her realizing what had happened began milling around and screaming.”  Analysis:  Mrs. Newman’s contention that screams may have prevented her from hearing additional shots indicates she was very alert and quite convinced there were no shots before the first one she heard.  Only heard two shots.  First shot hit 190-224.

Ernest Brandt claims to be the man with the hat along the north side of Elm in the Zapruder film. (6-08-09 post by Don Roberdeau on the alt.assassination.JFK Forum) "ERNEST CARL BRANDT is one of the 41 DP witnesses that I have communicated with. The following is an exact transcript of the July 2000 hand-written, 3-page letter that I received from BRANDT after I contacted him  (all EMPHASIS and quotation marks were as BRANDT originally wrote them)...."President Kennedy was about 15 feet from me when the FIRST SHOT WAS FIRED!!!He was SLIGHTLY PAST ME at a "ONE O'CLOCK POSITION" in relation to my location on the NORTH SIDE of the Elm street curb.My observation of JFK's re-action to the FIRST SHOT (I WAS STILL LOOKING AT HIM) was that he INSTANTLY RAISED HIS ARMS (ACTUALLY I COULD ONLY SEE HIS RIGHT ARM)-(HIS BODY + HEAD OBSCURED MY VIEW OF HIS LEFT ARM) - TO A POSITION PARALLEL WITH THE GROUND, BUT BENT AT THE ELBOW. MY CLOSE SCRUTINY of the "Z" film tells me that JFK is apparently UNHIT prior to passing behind the highway sign, but, of course, his arms are moving UPWARD as he emerges from behind the sign. I SEEM TO RECALL JFK WAS CASUALLY WAVING to the very sparse crowd in Dealey Plaza as he approached my location. My feeling is that he was hit in the neck at about frame #208 to #210 in the "Z" film + that is only a FRACTION of a second AFTER HE DISAPPEARED BEHIND the sign - or possibly at the VERY INSTANT of moving behind the "LEADING EDGE" of the SIGN!!! Gerald Posner thinks (his book, "Case Closed") that the FIRST SHOT hit a tree limb and missed JFK, but, I disagree EMPHATICALLY. I am TOTALLY CONVINCED the FIRST SHOT HIT JFK in the back of the lower neck!!! Hence his reason for raising his hands up to his face - HE WAS HIT in the NECK + his IMMEDIATE RESPONSE WAS TO GO TO THAT GENERAL AREA WITH HIS HANDS!!! The FIRST SHOT WAS, I THOUGHT, A POLICE MOTORCYCLE BACKFIRE - (MY CUSTOMER** WITH ME THOUGHT THE SAME) AND AS JFK RAISED HIS ARMS I THOUGHT HE HAD ALSO HEARD the BACKFIRE + WAS PLAYFULLY RE-ACTING to it!!! STRANGE THOUGHTS BUT, AN ASSASSINATION of the PRESIDENT of the U.S. WAS CERTAINLY THE LEAST LIKELY THING IN THE WORLD TO OCCUR!!! WHEN the 2nd shot occurred, it was the time I realized that SHOTS were being fired!!! and FEAR GRABBED ME QUICKLY!!! MY HEART BEGAN TO "POND" [sp] !!!   I KNEW SHOTS WERE BEING FIRED BUT HAD NO IDEA AT ALL FROM WHERE!!! (MY CUSTOMER** DIDN'T KNOW EITHER) So I LOOKED BEHIND ME FOR A PLACE TO RUN - ABOUT A DOZEN FEET DIRECTLY BEHIND ME WAS A "LONE" TREE - + I RAN QUICKLY TO THAT TREE!!! ONCE THERE I FELT A LITTLE MEASURE OF SECURITY!!! I REALLY CANNOT TELL YOU THE DISTANCE BETWEEN ME + JFK WHEN THE 2ND SHOT WAS FIRED FOR THE ABOVE REASON. WHEN AT THE TREE I IMMEDIATELY GLANCED DOWN ELM STREET TOWARD THE TRIPLE UNDERPASS! THE JFK "LIMO" WAS CLOSE TO THE UNDERPASS + IT WAS OVER - THE SHOOTING HAD STOPPED - (THE THIRD SHOT WAS FIRED AS I RAN FOR THE TREE) - THE "LIMO'S" TAIL LITES WERE "ON" WHICH TOLD ME THE DRIVER (GREER) HAD HIS FOOT ON THE BRAKES + THEN BLACK SMOKE SPEWED FROM THE EXHAUST PIPE + THE "LIMO" SPED OFF IN A SUDDEN BURST OF SPEED + IT WAS ALL OVER!!!"

(From a 10-31-01 alt.assassination.JFK post by Dave Reitzes which included a 7-15-01 e-mail response from Brandt) (when asked if he heard two or three shots) ”I did indeed think I heard only TWO shots at the time of the assassination…I KNOW, REPEAT, KNOW, THAT I HEARD THE FIRST SHOT. IT WAS EXTREMELY LOUD…When the second shot occurred I realized that the FIRST “noise” I had heard was NOT a police motorcycle back-fire…I quickly glanced behind me and saw a rather large tree….While consumed with FEAR & concentrating FULLY on arriving safely at that tree, the THIRD SHOT, OBVIOUSLY, was fired. I feel sure now that my ear-drums HEARD THAT THIRD SHOT.” (From a 2-06-03 article in Park Cities People) ""I stood only about 15 feet from President Kennedy when the first shot was fired," Brandt said. He heard three shots at the time. "I thought it was a motorcycle backfire at first," he said." (From a 2-7-03 article printed in The Shorthorn Online, a college publication) ‘”As he got closer, the crowd began to stir, and the ladies began to squeal. Then we heard the first shot—he was not 15 feet from me.” (From an 11-22-03 WBAP radio program posted on Youtube) "Just as he got a little passed us (slaps hands together) BANG, a loud report. My first thought was it was a motorcycle backfire. My second thought immediately was that Kennedy heard that motorcycle backfire and he was just playfully reacting to it, see. Boy, and then in about three seconds or so there was a second loud report (slaps hands together) like that. And then I realized it was not a motorcycle backfire and somebody was shooting from somewhere and I got scared and looked for a tree." (From a 6-03-09 online article by Megan Blank for North Penn Life) "Ernest Brandt was only 15 feet from President John F. Kennedy when the first shot was fired at 12:30 p.m. on Nov. 22, 1963. Previously, as that first motorcycle rounded the corner in Dealey Plaza in Dallas, a woman in a blue dress standing next to him commented on how all the police were probably along the parade route, adding, “It sure would be a great day to rob a bank in the suburbs, eh?” Then the shot, as loud as a Howitzer,” Brandt said...“The crowd was happy, yelling, some of the ladies were yelling, ‘Hi, Jackie,'" he said. “When Kennedy was directly in front of me, there were no shots, all was fine. Then, “I thought it was a motorcycle backfire,” he said. “I saw him throw his arms up. I thought Kennedy was playfully reacting. Then two or three seconds later, another [shot]. Then I knew it wasn’t.” Brandt added that the press called that bullet the “pristine,” or magic, bullet, which he thought was ridiculous. “I have a picture of it at my house,” he said. “It’s got the usual markings of a bullet shot through a gun.” Another of the three shots missed, but “the third shot literally blew his brains out, and I mean literally,” Brandt said...Terrified the shooter was facing him, Brandt ran behind a nearby tree. When he ran back, his customer was still standing there, out of shock." Analysis: while Brandt, a committed single-assassin theorist, has taught classes on the assassination, he needs to go back to school and re-evaluate his position. If the first shot was fired and hit Kennedy around Z-207, then who shot Connally at Z-224? Certainly not the same person shooting Kennedy! Brandt's discussion of the magic bullet in the Blank article is also strange. How can he both think Kennedy was hit by the first shot, and think the magic bullet was the second shot? Perhaps his words were misunderstood, or perhaps Ms. Blank tried to graft his words onto the LPM theory. To no avail. As not one spectator can be seen running in any of the film taken before the head shot, the second shot heard by Brandt (that led him to start running) was almost certainly the head shot. Only heard two shots. First shot hit 190-224.

John Templin is reportedly the man standing to Brandt's left. (from Brandt’s 7-15-01  e-mail to Dave Reitzes, posted online) “So when John (Templin) my customer & I joined again at the curb only a few seconds after the THIRD shot, I told him I only heard TWO shots…but he had heard THREE SHOTS…I then came to the realization that I really did HEAR the THIRD shot.” (from Don Roberdeau's 6-08-09 post on the alt.assassination.JFK Forum) "TEMPLIN remembered hearing 3 audible muzzle blasts and/or
mechanically suppress fired bullet bow shockwaves with the first two bunched distinctly closer together than last two he remembered...TEMPLIN said the first blast/shockwave originated from his left, "his" 2nd remembered blast/shockwave came from his right towards the railroad yard and hit JFK in head and it sounded different, and TEMPLIN's 3rd remembered blast/shockwave came from his left,  with the
total shots sequence lasting about 6 seconds...TEMPLIN thought "his" 1st remembered blast/shockwave was a motorcycle backfire...TEMPLIN saw limo brake lights illuminated during the shots...afterwards TEMPLIN - like BRANDT - did not go public with his claims until the early 1990's...afterwards TEMPLIN provided a 6-28-95 "Sixth Floor Museum" oral-histories interview and detailed that "his" 1st blast/shockwave occurred when limo was 30' PAST himself ---- again,  negating the posner/myers shots scenario theory, adding further support for the many witnesses who timestamped a  "1st remembered shot = 1st JFK impact"  AFTER  the President had already started his Z-170 starting right hand wave (and large tree hid JFK from *anyone* in the warrenatti, supposed, "lone nut" "sniper lair" from seeing-targeting him from Z-162 to 208)" Analysis: Although Templin apparently believes the first two shots were closer together than the second and third, this is at odds with his recollection that second shot hit Kennedy in the head. One can only assume then that he has misremembered which pair was closer together. First Shot Hit 190-224. Last shot after the head shot.

Georgia Ruth Hendrix (3-24-64 statement to the FBI, 22H649) repeats “At approximately 12:15 PM on November 22, 1963, I left the Depository Building and took up a position along the parade route along Elm Street about 150 feet west from the Depository Building entrance and viewed the presidential motorcade… I recall that just a few seconds after the car in which President John F. Kennedy was riding passed the position where I was standing, I heard a shot.  At first I thought it was salute to the President, but when the second shot was fired and I saw the President fall down in the car I knew someone was shooting at him.  When I heard the third shot I turned and fled back into the Depository Building.”(No More Silence p. 73-78, published 1998) “When that first shot rang out, I thought it was a firecracker…But as I looked, he fell over, and about that time Mrs. Kennedy raised up and pulled the man up over the back of the car…With that, they were out of my view and in an instant they were gone!...In the meantime, there had been two other shots…we didn’t know at first that they were targeting him anymore than they were just shooting at random. In all, I heard three shots, and it seemed to me that there was more time between the first and second and less between the second and third shots.” Analysis: while Ms. Hendrix first had one shot after the head shot and later had two shots after the head shot, she is consistent in that she heard a shot after the head shot. Since she says the first shot rang out as the limousine was just past her position, and she was west of Kennedy’s position at Z-160, and as Kennedy was hit at least once before the head shot, she confirms that the first shot hit.  First shot hit 190-224.  Last shot after the head shot.

Billie Clay (3-23-64 statement to the FBI, 22H641) “At approximately 12:15 PM on November 22, 1963, I left the Depository Building and took up a position along the parade route along Elm Street about 150 feet west from the Depository Building entrance and viewed the presidential motorcade… (names Mary Williams, Georgia Ruth Hendrix, Sue Dickerson, and Mrs. John Hawkins as accompanying her) “Just a few seconds after the car in which President John F. Kennedy was riding passed the position I was standing I heard a shot.  At first I thought it might be a firecracker or a motorcycle backfire, but when I heard the second and third shots I knew someone was shooting at the President…At this point the car president Kennedy was in slowed and I, along with others, moved toward the President’s car.  As we neared the car it sped off.”  Analysis: as she states she heard three shots and that the first rang out as the limousine passed her, she is indicating that there was no first shot miss at frame 160.  First shot 190-224.

Peggy Burney (11-23-63 UPI article in the Fresno Bee) "'We all saw him die,' Mrs. Peggy Burney said. But neither she nor the others who witnessed the assassination of the President could believe what they saw. They thought the first of the three shots from the assassin's rifle was the backfire of a car." (Online article by Vince Palamara referencing 11-24-63 Dallas Times Herald article) “she stated that JFK’s car had come to a stop.”  Analysis: Too vague.

Peggy Hawkins (3-26-64 FBI report, CD897 p.35-36) “Mrs. Hawkins said that the car containing the Presidential party had just passed in front of the building shortly after noon when she heard two or three shots fired in the near vicinity. She said she immediately recognized them as firearm shots and not as fireworks and had the impression that they came from the direction of the railroad yards adjacent to the TSBD building…She said that she was looking at the President’s car at the time and saw the President straighten up in the back and then slump over on his side…She estimated that the President was less than fifty feet away from her when he was shot, that the car slowed down almost coming to a full stop and then started off again.” Analysis: as she says she saw the President straighten up in the back and then slump over on his side, she is not referring to the neck shot, when he turned to his left.  She can only be referring to the head shot. As she only mentions him getting hit once, and no gaps between the shots, she probably failed to hear or appreciate the first shot. Too vague.

Mary Sue Dickerson (3-19-64 statement to the FBI, 22H644) “On November 22, 1963, at the time President John F. Kennedy was assassinated, I was standing at the curb on the north side of Elm Street about equal distance between the point where the President was shot and the west end of the Texas School Book Depository.” Analysis: which time? Too vague.

Mary Lea Williams (3-20-64 statement to the FBI, 22H682) (accompanied by Mrs. Sue Dickerson, Billie Clay, Ruth Hendrix, and Mrs. John Hawkins and her four year old son John) “Our group took up a position along the motorcade route about halfway between the first and second light poles on the curbside slightly west of Depository building.  We were on the north side of Elm Street…Following the shooting of President John F. Kennedy, we continued to stand in that area for another five to ten minutes…I do not recall having ever seen Lee Harvey Oswald at any time on or prior to November 22, 1963.”  Analysis:  too vague.

Betty Jean Thornton (11-24-63 FBI report, CD5 p.63) (On Oswald) “she had never seen him before as far as she knows…she was standing on the street when the President’s car passed by and she heard what she thought was a number of firecrackers.”  (3-23-64 statement to the FBI, 22H677) “On November 22, 1963, at approximately 12:35 PM, I was standing with Jane Berry…on Elm Street in front of the Texas School Book Depository Building to watch a motorcade bearing President John F. Kennedy pass by.  As the car in which the President was riding passed by, I heard what I thought were firecrackers being discharged, but I did not actually see the President hit with any shots.”  Analysis: as she didn’t hear any shots until Kennedy was passing by, and as she was far west of where Kennedy was at Z-160, she failed to hear a shot as early as Z-160. Had no recollection of Oswald  Number of shots???  First shot 190-224.

Jane Berry (11-25-63 FBI report, CD5 p.42) “Just as the car was passing by her, she heard a rifle shot.  A few seconds later, she heard a second and third shot.  She observed President Kennedy slump over and everyone began falling to the ground or running…It sounded as if it had been fired from a position west of where she had been standing.”  (3-19-64 statement, 22H637) “On November 22, 1963, at approximately 12:35 PM, I was standing in front of the Texas School Book Depository with Betty Thornton…As the motorcade passed by the building I heard three shots and observed the President slump over in the automobile in which he was riding. (On Oswald)  “I don’t recall having seen him around the Texas School Book Depository Building.” Analysis:  as she heard a second and third shot “a few seconds later,” without mention of a gap between them, she probably heard them close together. As she heard the first of the three shots as the limo was passing by her, and she was far west of Z-160, she heard no first shot miss. First shot 190-224. Probable first shot hit.  Last two shots probably  bunched together.

 

The Last Wave

The testimony of those standing near the Thornton Freeway sign are particularly important in establishing the time of the first shot.  As we’ve seen most have said Kennedy had already passed them when the first shot rang out, and none of them said he had yet to reach them. A number of others have said they saw Kennedy waving just before the first shot.  This wave suddenly stopped around Z-190, a likely moment of impact according to the Zapruder film jiggle analysis.  Convincingly, not one witness near the Thornton Freeway sign said that Kennedy had yet to reach them when the first shot rang out, and no eyewitnesses who mentioned Kennedy waving said he resumed waving after the first shot rang out.

Mary Woodward (11-23-63 newspaper article Witness From the News Describes Assassination written by Woodward for the Dallas Morning News) "We decided to cross Elm Street and wait there on the grassy slope just east of the Triple Underpass…We had been waiting about half an hour when the first motorcycle escorts came by, followed shortly by the President’s car. The President was looking straight ahead and we were afraid we would not get to see his face. But we started clapping and cheering and both he and Mrs. Kennedy turned, and smiled and waved, directly at us…After acknowledging our cheers, he [JFK] faced forward again and suddenly there was a horrible, ear-splitting noise coming from behind us and a little to the right. My first reaction, and also my friends', was that as a joke someone had backfired their car. Apparently, the driver and occupants of the President's car had the same impression, because instead of speeding up, the car came almost to a halt...I don't believe anyone was hit with the first bullet. The President and Mrs. Kennedy turned and looked around, as if they, too, didn't believe the noise was really coming from a gun...Then after a moment's pause, there was another shot and I saw the President start slumping in the car. This was followed rapidly by another shot.  Mrs. Kennedy stood up in the car, turned halfway around, then fell on top of her husband’s body….The cars behind stopped and several men--Secret Service men,--I  suppose-- got out and started rushing forward, obstructing our view of the car…. About ten feet from where we were standing, a man and a woman had thrown their small child to the ground and covered his body with theirs. Apparently the bullets had whizzed directly over their heads.” (12-23-63 FBI report, recounting a 12-5-63 discussion between U.S. Attorney Barefoot Sanders and an FBi agent, CD205, p39) "a reporter for the Dallas Morning News, name unrecalled, has advised him that four of the women working in the Society Section of the Dallas Morning News were reportedly standing next to Mr. Zapruda when the assassination shots were fired. According to this reporter, these women, names unknown, stated that the shots, according to their opinion, came from a direction other than from the Texas School Book Depository Building." (12-7-63 FBI report, 24H520)  “She stated she was watching President and Mrs. Kennedy closely, and all of her group cheered loudly as they went by. Just as President and Mrs. Kennedy went by, they turned and waved at them. Just a second or two later, she heard a loud noise.  At this point, it appeared to her that President and Mrs. Kennedy probably were about one hundred feet from her.  There seemed to be a pause of a few seconds, and then there were two more loud noises which she suddenly realized were shots, and she saw President Kennedy fall over and Mrs. Kennedy jumped up and started crawling over the back of the car. She stated that her first reaction was that the shots had been fired from above her head and from possibly behind her.” (3-24-64 testimony of Mark Lane before the Warren Commission, 2H32-61) “on November 23, 1963, the Dallas Morning News ran a story by Miss Woodward, and I have since that time spoken with Miss Woodward by telephone, and she has confirmed portions--the entire portion which I will quote from now--in her conversation with me. That is, that as she and her three coworkers waited for the President to pass, on the grassy slope just east of the triple overpass, she explained that the President approached and acknowledged their cheers and the cheers of others, "he faced forward again, and suddenly there was an ear-shattering noise coming from behind us and a little to the right." Here we have a statement, then, by an employee of the Dallas Morning News, evidently speaking--she indicated to me that she was speaking on behalf of all four employees, all of whom stated that the shots came from the direction of the overpass, which was to their fight, and not at all from the Book Depository Building, which was to their left."

(Interview in The Men Who Killed Kennedy, broadcast 1988) “One thing I am totally positive about in my own mind is how many shots were there were.  And there were three shots.  The second two shots were immediate.  It was almost as if one were an echo of the other. They came so quickly the sound of one did not cease until the second shot.  With the second and third shot I did see the president being hit.  I literally saw his head explode. So, I felt that the shots had come, as I wrote in my article, from behind me and from my right, which would have been the direction of the grassy knoll, and the railroad overpass." (11-21-93 Reporters Remember conference, as quoted in Reporting the Kennedy Assassination). "(We) stationed ourselves just down from the School Book Depository building and waited for the parade to come by.) And we were chatting, and as we were talking, I looked up at the grassy knoll. And I said to my friends, “That's a very dangerous-looking spot to me, it must be, there must be a lot of security up there, because it looks a perfect spot, if somebody wanted to do something.  And then the motorcade came along and I couldn't believe it: finally, I'm gonna see Jacqueline Kennedy, and she's looking in the other direction. So I yelled and I said “Please look this way!”  And they looked right at us, waved, and at that moment, I heard a very loud noise. And I wasn't sure what it was at that point, and I turned to my friends and asked 'what was that; is some jerk shooting off firecrackers?'’ And, uh, then I heard the second one, and this time I knew what had happened, because I saw the president's motion, and then the third shot came very, very quickly, on top of the second one. And that time, I saw his head blow open, and I very well knew what had happened by that point…we waited for just a few minutes… and walked back to the Dallas Morning News…I started writing my story, and I wrote it exactly as I knew it…And to this day, I think I wrote it correctly…The only thing that I guess I got myself in a little bit of controversy about, I said that the shots appeared to have come from behind me and to my right…I didn’t say they did come from that direction…I had spoken to my friends just prior to the event, suggesting that the grassy knoll would be the perfect spot for an assassin… when it happened, I naturally expected it to have come from where I had predicted it would come from.  So in reality, I do believe they did come from the School Book Depository Building.  So I get a little bit upset when I get put into the other column...I never spoke to Mark Lane in my life, except to say I couldn’t speak to him.”  Analysis: while many witness’s recollections get wilder and wilder as they get older, Ms. Woodward has in recent years been trying to bring hers in line with the official story. In the 1993 conference quoted above, she bent over backwards to let the good old boys in the journalism profession know she was not a “conspiracist.”  To no avail.  Her assertion that the last two shots were bunched together locks her forever in the conspiracy camp. Her words are completely at odds with the LPM scenario--she says the President was past her when the first shot rang out, she says the limousine slowed down after the first shot, she said the President slumped down in his seat after the first of two closely grouped together shots.  It was only in recent years that she started adding on that this last shot was the head shot. While some LPM defenders might choose to focus on Woodward’s repeated assertion that the first shot missed, they will have to overlook that she says the President looked around after this shot—and that it came after the wave of his hand (which can be seen at frame 188 of the Zapruder film).  First shot hit 190.  Last two shots bunched together (with the last shot after the head shot).

Aurelia Alonzo, Margaret Brown, and Ann Donaldson were Woodward’s companions on November 22, 1963. (12-7-63 FBI report, CD7 p.19) “Ann Donaldson…Margaret Brown…and Miss Aurelio Alonzo…were interviewed December 6, 1963…All furnished the same information as that previously furnished by Mary Elizabeth Woodward.” Ann Atterberry (formerly Donaldson) (11-16-03 article in the San Francisco Chronicle travel section) "Jack and Jackie both looked pleased, and relieved," Atterberry said. "As they passed by us they waved, and they both made eye contact with us." Tears moistened her eyes, and her voice cracked. "I've often wondered if the four of us were the last thing he ever saw." At almost the same instant, she heard the first crack of gunfire. "My first reaction was that it was a firecracker," she said. "I thought that was awfully rude. I was just turning to see where the sound came from when I heard the second shot. Just as I realized what it was, I heard the third shot, and then there was no doubt in my mind. We all burst into tears.  It was absolute chaos. People on the knoll threw themselves on the ground. A motorcycle fell over and was left in the middle of the street. People were running everywhere." (5-29-2005 article for The Independent on Sunday, found on the BNET Business Network website) "We saw them round the corner and I heard what I thought were firecrackers and looked around to see where the noise came from. I then heard two more shots and saw the motorcade speed away and people fall to the ground. It seemed unreal and then I felt horror. We headed back to the paper crying. Later we were interviewed by the FBI and the CIA. It was only recently that I've been comfortable talking about it because of the negative impact it had on the city of Dallas and on the Dallas Morning News, where I worked until I retired in 1999. In the wake of the assassination the paper was reviled. It had run an ad that morning taken out by a group criticising Kennedy's politics. It affected me deeply, just the mental anguish of it. Most people don't know I was a witness. But I don't wish that I hadn't been there. It was a moment in history and it was one of the most momentous things in my life." (2-17-09 post by Honorfligh...@Aol.com, discussing personal contacts with eyewitnesses, found on the alt.assassination.JFK newsgroup) "I have spoken with one, Ann Atterberry, about 21 years ago. Ann described for us in still mournful detail that approximately one second or so before she heard the first very loud shot JFK then Jackie were both looking towards her and she was absolutely thrilled by that. JFK had also started waving towards her (which thrilled Ann even more) and then JFK made direct eye contact with Ann, THEN the first of 3 shots happened, and JFK immediately quickly reacted to being hit. As anyone can clearly see JFK started his wave only a second or two BEFORE he first "disappeared" behind the sign in the Zapruder film. She also described that one of the shots most definitely came from her right. (she was standing on the sidewalk street curb between the depository and the GK picket fence)." Analysis: While it appears that all three of these women remembered the shooting much the same as Woodward, we can’t be absolutely sure. Probable first shot hit 190 (X 3).  Last two shots probably bunched together (with the last shot after the head shot). (X3).

A.J. Millican (11-22-63, 19H486) “I was standing on the North side of Elm Street, about half way between Houston and the Underpass… Just after the President’s car passed, I heard three shots come from up toward Houston and Elm right by the Book Depository Building, and then I immediately heard two more shots come from the Arcade between the Book Store and the Underpass, and then three more shots came from the same direction only sounded further back…Then everybody started running up the hill. A man standing on the South side of Elm Street was either hit in the foot or the ankle and fell down…” Analysis:  Millican had trouble differentiating shots from echoes. He is probably describing three shots. Since Millican said he was “halfway to the underpass”, and that the limo was past him when the first shot rang out, he’s certainly not talking about a first shot at frame 160. Heard eight shots? First shot 190-224.