Chapter 2: Looking Through the Eyes of an All-seeing FBI

Chapter 2:  An Investigation Through the Eyes of an All-seeing FBI

A look at what apparently wasn't seen

The Investigation That Never Was

Since the Warren Commission investigation was so closely framed around the FBI’s initial investigation, it’s important that we look at the FBI’s investigation in more detail, to see if the conclusions of Oswald’s sole guilt contained in the FBI’s report of December 9, 1963 had any basis in reality. Since the foundation of most murder investigations is the statements of eyewitnesses, we shall put ourselves in the shoes of an imaginary team of FBI agents given access to the earliest statements of the eyewitnesses and ordered to solve the case. For the sake of sanity, we will look at the witnesses in chronological order, with married couples grouped together, and with their pre-12-9 statements all in one batch. While we will eventually discuss the origin of the shots as interpreted by the witnesses, at this point we shall focus primarily on their placement of the head shot in the shooting sequence. (The citations printed before the statements refer to the volume and page where you can find the complete statements of these witnesses in the 26 volumes of the Warren Report. References to CD are references to Commission Documents, documents not released with the Warren Report, but now available on The Mary Ferrell Foundation website.) (Note: while quite extensive, this chronology is by no means complete.)

Let’s start our examination by watching a little television. James Altgens.(11-22-63 WFAA announcement 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.” (11-22-63 AP dispatch, as reprinted in Cover-Up) “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...I did not know until later where the shots came from." Heard two shots. (Despite his being one of the closest witnesses to the assassination, Altgens was not interviewed by the FBI prior to the distribution of its December 9 Summary Report.)

A short while later, a young man and his wife, the closest bystanders by the President at the moment of the fatal head shot, come on TV and describe what they’d witnessed. William Newman (11-22-63 interview on WFAA) “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 and we were at the edge of the curb, getting ready to wave at the President 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." (11-22-63 second interview on WFAA) “The president’s car was some fifty feet 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 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.” (11-22-63 third interview on WFAA) “We heard...uh..a blast...and the President looked like that he right jumped up in his seat.....and then he......we seen him....uh.....get shot in the side of the head and he fell back in the seat and Governor Connally was holding his stomach." (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.”Only heard two bursts of gunfire. 

Frances Gayle Newman: (11-22-63 interview on WFAA) "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."  (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.” (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.” Final shot head shot.

There's two more witnesses on the radio. They will later appear on our all-seeing television. These women were standing on Elm Street directly across from the Newmans. Jean Hill (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 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.” (11-22-63 WBAP interview, quoted in Pictures of the Pain) “Mary started to take the picture and the President came right even with us, two shot, we looked at him and he was looking at a dog in the middle of the seat—two shots rang out…And there was an interval and then three or four more shots…” (11-22-63  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.” Mary Moorman (11-22-63 WFAA interview, 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.” (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.” (When we look at Moorman’s second photograph in the paper on Sunday, and compare it to her position in the various films at our disposal, we realize that the shot in sync with her photo, and the first shot heard by both herself and Ms. Hill, was in fact the head shot.)  Shot or shots after the head shot x 2. 

Only now does WFAA begin to talk of the Texas School Book Depository: “Secret Service man and policeman killed at different parts of the city from the Presidential assassination. The Texas School Book Depository has been evacuated. Man reported arrested in Oak Cliff.” (CD 962, p. 41) Minutes later WFAA begins broadcasting from in front of the building “Witnesses say they saw man with rifle in window. Shells found.”

We switch channels to CBS, and see Walter Cronkite inform the nation "The assassin took dead aim.  He  got the President, apparently, with the first shot in the head, and then Governor Connally with the next two shots." We wonder where he got this information. How does he know there was but one shooter?  How does he know which shot struck first?  We switch back to WFAA.

In between the various recaps and updates, there is another news bulletin: “Secret Service believes that an automatic weapon was fired from the top of the knoll.” (CD 962, p.37)  After a second round of interviews with the Newmans, the President’s death is announced. There is a third round of interviews with the Newmans (CD 962, p.60) before Kennedy’s death is confirmed by Washington.

Other witnesses appear upon our screen. One man claims he filmed the whole thing. Abraham Zapruder (11-22-63 interview on WFAA) “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.” (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.” Unsure. Possible shot after the head shot. (Marilyn Sitzman, Zapruder’s secretary, was standing beside him. She was never questioned by the FBI or Warren Commission.) Within a few hours of this interview Abraham Zapruder gives 2 copies of his film to the Secret Service. Within an hour after that the Secret Service gives one of them to the FBI to study. This film is flown back to Washington and copied the next day.

Charles Brehm  (11-22-63 WFAA television interview 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.  I asked Joe to wave to him and Joe waved and I waved to him…as he was waving back, the shot rang out and he slumped 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.  I’m positive that it hit him.” (11-22-63 radio interview (KLIF?) “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…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 third shot but as I said by that time I’d grabbed my boy and started to go.  I did not witness Governor Connally’s being hit.” (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.” Shot after the head shot.

Some witnesses remembered hearing two loud noises fired close together but failed to discern which one struck Kennedy in the head. Charles Hester (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  “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. Double head shot. (From hereon we will use the term ‘Double head shot” to indicate that the witness has described two closely-grouped shots at the end of the shooting sequence.) 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.” Double head shot. FBI report, 22H841)

There were also several witnesses on the railroad bridge. 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.”  (The Zapruder film demonstrates that Mrs. Kennedy never jumped up until after her husband had received the fateful bullet to his head. And yet Holland claims he heard shots after he saw her "jump up.") Shot or shots after the head shot. 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.” Double head shot.

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.” (Our examination of the Zapruder film shows us that Mrs. Kennedy didn’t yell out until after the head shot.)  Shot or shots after the head shot.

By now, we're beginning to feel confident that the last two shots rang out in rapid succession and that a shot followed the head shot. Since the rifle found on the sixth floor is a bolt action rifle and incapable of firing shots so rapidly we should be looking for a second shooter. Of course, if we can find concrete evidence that the 3 shots heard by most witnesses were all fired from the sniper’s nest, we might save ourselves some trouble. No such luck.

Howard Brennan  (11-22-63 statement to the Dallas Sheriff’s Department, 19H470) “I saw a man in this window…He was a white man in his early 30’s, slender, nice looking, and would weigh about 165 to 170 pounds.  He had on light colored clothing but definitely not a suit.  I proceeded to watch the President’s car as it turned left at the corner where I was and about 50 yards from the intersection of Elm and Houston and to a point where I would say the President’s back was in line with the last window I have previously described  I heard what I thought was a back fire.  It ran in my mind that it might be someone throwing firecrackers out the window of the building and I looked up at the building.  I then  saw this man I have described in the window and he was taking aim with a high powered rifle.  I could see all of the barrel of the gun.  I do not know if it had a scope on it or not.  I was looking at this man in the window at the time of the last explosion.” (11-23-63 FBI report, CD5 p. 12-14) “He said the automobile had passed down Elm Street (going in a westerly direction) 30 yards from where he (Brennan) was seated, when he heard a loud report which he first thought to be the “backfire’ of an automobile.  He said he does not distinctly remember a second shot but he remembers “more than one noise” as if someone was shooting fire crackers, and consequently he believes there must have been a second shot before he looked in the direction of the Texas School Book Depository Building.”  As Brennan only remembers hearing two shots, and as the vast majority of witnesses so far have stated there were two shots fired closely together at the end of the shooting sequence, his statements suggest that he failed to hear one of the final shots. We need more proof.

Fortunately, sitting close to Brennan was another witness to the firing of the rifle. If he heard and saw three shots fired from the sniper’s nest, maybe we can save ourselves a lot of legwork. Amos Euins (11-22-63 statement to Dallas Sheriff’s Department, 16H963, 19H474) “I saw the President turn the corner in front of me and I waived at him and he waived back.  I watched the car on down the street and about the time the car got near the black and white sign I heard a shot.  I started looking around and then I looked up in the red brick building.  I saw a man in the window with a gun and I saw him shoot twice…I could tell the gun was a rifle and it sounded like an automatic rifle the way he was shooting. This was a white man, he did not have on a hat.  I just saw this man for a few seconds.” One line from Euins’ statement sticks out—“it sounded like an automatic rifle the way he was shooting.” This confirms the statements of the bulk of the eyewitnesses and Sheriff’s Deputies--that the third shot was fired immediately following the second shot.   It also suggests that Euins saw the sniper in the window fire the last two shots without operating the bolt of the rifle in between, which is impossible.  Could it be that one of the last two shots heard by Euins came from somewhere else? 

We then read the statements of two witnesses from the school book depository. One of these men was sitting in the window right below the sniper’s nest, where three shells had reportedly been found.  If he heard three shots fired from the window above him, then perhaps we can assume the man firing from this window acted alone, and simply fired the last shot as rapidly as possible, missing wildly. Bonnie Ray Williams (11-22-63 affidavit to Dallas County, 24H229) “Just after we got on the fifth floor we saw the President coming around the corner on Houston from Main Street.  I heard 2 shots it sounded like they come from just above us.  We ran to the west side of the building.” (11-23-63 FBI report, CD5 p. 330-333) “Then he joined two other men known to him as Hank and Junior.  They were looking out windows on the south side of the building approximately at the middle of the building and saw the car of President John Kennedy come north on Houston Street and then make a turn going west on Elm Street down into the triple underpass directly in front of the Texas School Book Depository. While they were watching this car pass, Williams heard two shots which sounded like they came from right over his head…He stated he and the other two men ran to the west end of the building where they looked out and they did not realize the President had been shot.” Jack Dougherty (11-22-63 Affidavit to Dallas County Sheriff’s Department, CD81, p. 330) “I had already gone back to work and I gone down on the fifth to get some stock when I heard a shot.  It sounded like it was coming from inside the building but I couldn’t tell from where.  I went down on the first floor and asked a man named Eddie Piper if he had heard anything and he said yes, that he had heard three shots.” (11-23-63 statement to the FBI, CD5 p.366-367) “I was working on the fifth floor of the building at 411 Elm Street…when I heard a loud explosion which sounded like a rifle shot coming from the next floor above me.” 

Yikes!  Williams heard but two shots, and Dougherty, who had just gotten off an elevator coming down from the sixth floor, but one.  We now have strong reason to suspect one of the last two shots was fired from someplace other than the school book depository.

The next morning, there is an eyewitness account of the assassination in the paper.  Mary Woodward (11-23-63 newspaper article in the Dallas Morning News) "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.” (12-7-63 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.” (As Woodward heard two shots fired close together at the end of the shooting sequence, and associated the first of these two with a Kennedy "slumping in the car", it follows that this reaction was his getting hit by the head shot, and that a third shot followed.) Shot after the head shot.  Aurelia Alonzo, Margaret Brown, and Ann Donaldson.  (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.” (Our inspection of the Zapruder film shows that Kennedy waved to these women just before he was first hit. This means he was hit by the first shot described by Miss Woodward and that the slump she described in connection with the second shot is in fact the slump after the head shot.) Shot after the head shot x3.

We read an interesting article on the school book depository employee now charged with the crime. This 11-23-63 New York Times article reports that “Lee Harvey Oswald was not highly regarded as a marksman,” and that he’d scored 212 out of 250 when he’d first joined the Marines but had let his skills deteriorate so badly after three years that he barely qualified as a Marksman, scoring a poor-by-Marine-standards 191 out of 250 on his last test four years ago. We then receive the statement of another eyewitness to the firing of the rifle. If he says he saw three shots fired from the sniper’s nest, then maybe we can still say Oswald acted alone.

No such luck.  James Worrell (11-23-63 affidavit to Dallas County, 16H959) “I was standing on the sidewalk against a building on the corner of Elm and Houston Streets watching the motorcade of the President. I heard loud noise like a fire cracker or gun shots.  I looked around to see where the noise came from. I looked up and saw the barrel of a rifle sticking out of a window…While I was looking at the gun it was fired again. I looked back at Mr. Kennedy and he was slumping over. I got scared and ran from that location. While I was running I heard the gun fire two more times. I ran from Elm Street to Pacific Street on Houston. When I was about 100 yards from the building I stopped to get my breath and looked back at the building. I saw a w/m, 5’8” to 5’10”, dark hair, average weight for height, dark shirt or jacket open down front, no hat, didn’t have anything in his hands, come out of the building and run in the opposite direction.”

Not Exactly in the Bag

On 12-1-63 we read yet another report about the paper bag roadblock. The FBI still can't figure out how Oswald, or anyone, got the rifle used to kill Kennedy into the building. On 11-29, agent Vincent Drain followed up on agent Anderton's interview of Buell Frazier, in which Frazier mentioned that, oh yeah, he'd taken a lie detector test regarding his refusal to ID the bag. Drain talked to Dallas Police Captain Will Fritz, who confirmed that Frazier had told him on the day of the shooting that the bag he saw was "about two feet in length, and of brown paper." (CD7, p290). Drain then talked to Dallas Detective R.D. Lewis, who confirmed that Frazier, while being given a polygraph test, "was shown what appeared to be a homemade brown heavy paper gun case." Lewis stated further that "Frazier said that it was possible this was the case, but he did not think it resembled it. He stated that the crinkly brown paper sack that Oswald had when he rode to work with him that morning was about two feet long." Detective Lewis also told Drain "that if this was not identical to the sack that was turned over to the Bureau, it is possible that Oswald may have thrown it away." (CD7, p291). Apparently, Lewis believed Frazier.

And that's fine. But how is it that Anderton interviewed Frazier and Day on the 29th and reported Frazier was shown the bag, and Drain interviewed Lewis on the 29th and reported Frazier was shown the bag, while at the same time Drain supposedly interviewed Day on the 29th, and reported no one saw the bag?

Was Drain's report on his interview with Day a fabrication written by someone else, presumably one of his superiors? Did Drain even talk to Day? And, if not, was this phony report written to replace Anderton's report?

The widespread desire to close the case, particularly as it relates to the paper bag and its use by Oswald to bring the rifle into the building, however, is demonstrated by a 12-1 article in the Philadelphia Bulletin, datelined the day before, describing the events of 11-22. This article describes the morning's events as follows: "Oswald picked the blanket roll off the floor and put it on a white leather chair. He was busy with the bundle for perhaps ten minutes, police said. From it, they added, he took the bolt-action rifle which was used to kill the President. Police said he transferred the rifle from the roll to a brown paper bag." Later in the article, Buell Frazier, who gave Oswald a ride to work, further describes the bag: "As they drove off, Frazier said, he glanced to the back seat where he saw a paper-wrapped bundle. 'He said, yes, it was his--and he muttered something about curtain rods,' said Frazier. As a matter of fact, said Frazier, Oswald had told him the day before that he would be bringing some rods to exchange them for other rods he wanted for his room at Mrs. Johnson's. 'It didn't look to me as long as a rifle ought to be,' said Frazier. 'It seemed to me it should have been longer. If it was a rifle, he had taken it apart, to put it together in the warehouse." A few paragraphs later, the article returns to the bag one last time: "Frazier doesn't remember what Oswald did with the paper-wrapped bundle. 'I just lost track of it,' he said, although I guess he took it out of the car because I didn't see it again."

Well, this is quite puzzling, Frazier has signed a statement saying he saw Oswald remove the package from the car, and carry it into the building, and now he says he "guesses" Oswald took it out of the car? Someone's playing games. Either Frazier is lying to the press, for no apparent reason, or the writer of this article is twisting his words to hide that he got a good look at the bag and felt quite sure the "paper-wrapped bundle" was much smaller than a bag holding the rifle. That the article allows Frazier's assertion that the rifle had to have been broken down to fit inside the bag, sack, or bundle, but fails to tell its readers that the bag described by Frazier was a foot shorter than the rifle, even when the rifle was broken down, and that Frazier had refused to ID the bag found near the sniper's nest as the bag he saw in Oswald's possession, suggests that the writers and their sources in the Dallas Police were more concerned with telling a seamless tale than in getting at the truth. 

The New York Times, in an article published the day before, was even worse. The Times avoided the problems with the bag by reporting: "Mr. Frazier noticed that Oswald put a long package wrapped in brown paper sacks into the back seat, saying it was curtain rods. Evidence showed he had removed it from the Paine garage, where he had kept it with his other belongings wrapped in a blanket. Only the blanket was there when the police came to check. Mr. Frazier said Oswald carried the long package into the depository building and that was the last he saw of him before the assassination." This, disturbingly, not only avoids the sticky issue that the "long" package described by Frazier was not nearly long enough to have held the rifle, but completely misinforms its readers by asserting there was any evidence whatsoever that the "long package" had ever been in the garage. That the "long package" had been wrapped in the blanket sitting on the garage floor for almost two months, was either pure speculation, or deliberate misinformation. (The FBI had already tested the paper sack and had (reportedly) found it to match the paper sample taken from the roll in use at the depository on 11-22. They would soon determine that the depository changed rolls every few days, and that, accordingly, the sack or bag had most probably been created within 24 hours of the shooting.)

On 12-2-63, we find out that Dallas FBI agents Odum and McNeely, desperate to get around the problem created by Frazier's refusal to ID the bag, have visited the school book depository, gathered up some paper and some tape, and created a replica sack to show those who knew Oswald. Significantly, the report on their actions of the day before tells us the paper was described as "60 pound paper, 24 inches wide" and that the tape was "gummed, brown paper tape, three inches wide, made on 60 pound paper stock." (CD7, p292). It also tells us that after creating the sack, they took it, along with the original sack, which had been stained by the FBI during testing, over to show Ruth Paine, at whose home Oswald had stayed the night before the shooting. She "advised that she does not recall seeing Lee Oswald in possession of any sack resembling either of these sacks, nor does she recall seeing him in possession of paper or tape of the type used on either of these sacks." (CD7, p293).

Perhaps hoping he would change his mind, they then showed these sacks to Buell Frazier. In their 12-2 report, Odum and McNeeley re-tell Frazier's story. They write: "As he started to drive out of the yard, Frazier glanced back and noticed a long package, light brown in color, lying on the back of the rear seat and extending from approximately the right rear door to about the center of the seat...Frazier designated an approximate spot on the back seat where he felt the package extended to from the right rear door and measurement by Special Agents Bardwell D. Odum and Gibbon E. McNeeley determined that this spot was 27 inches from the inside of the right door, indicating that Frazier estimates that as the length of the package." They then recount Frazier's recollection of how Oswald carried the package into the building: "Oswald had this package under his right arm, one end of this package being under his armpit and the other end apparently held with his right fingers...Frazier stated that when he saw this package under the arm of Oswald, he reached the conclusion that the package was wrapped in a cheap, crinkly, thin paper sack, such as that provided by Five and Ten Cent Stores." They then describe showing Frazier the replica sack. Agent Odum held the sack under his arm, and they measured how much of the sack was visible to Frazier, when held under his arm. It was 9" by 1". According to Odum's report, Frazier then advised Odum "that he now realizes that his conclusion that the sack was thin, crinkly paper, of the type used in Five and Ten Cent stores, was based to a considerable extent upon the fact that the color of the sack was a very light brown as compared with the type of dark brown paper used for heavier grocery sacks. He noted that the color of the replica sack was the same color as the package which he had seen in possession of Oswald on the morning of November 22, 1963." Odum then shows Frazier the original sack. He writes: "Frazier examined the original found by the sixth floor window of the TSBD Building on November 22,1963, and stated that if that sack was originally the color of the replica sack, it could have been the sack or package which he saw in the possession of Oswald on the morning of November 22, 1963, but that he does not feel he is in a position to definitely state that this original is or is not the sack." This is incredibly disingenuous, and fails to note that Frazier was shown this sack, on the night of the shooting, before it had been discolored by the FBI's tests, and had refused to identify it as the sack or bag brought into work by Oswald. Odum then reports: "Frazier indicated on the replica sack the estimated width of the package in possession of Oswald on the morning of November 22, 1963, and this was found to be an approximate width of six inches." (CD7, 294-297).

They then showed the sack to Frazier's sister, Linnie Mae Randle. She also has her doubts about the sack. Odum reports: "Mrs. Randle states that at the time she saw Oswald walking across the street, he was carrying a long package wrapped in brown paper or a brown sack in his right hand. It appeared to contain something heavy. She stated that it was long but did not touch the ground as he walked across the street. She examined a replica of the sack...She stated that this was the same kind of paper that made up the sack or package that she saw Oswald carrying, and was the same heavy grade of paper, since she recalls noting that there was something heavy in the sack when she saw it, and it was the same color paper as the sack she had seen on the morning of November 22, 1963. She was shown the original paper sack...She stated that if the original sack was previously the same color as the replica sack, that the original sack could have been the one which she saw Oswald carrying on the morning of November 22, 1963...The action of Oswald walking across Westbrook Street was re-enacted by Special Agent McNeeley, carrying the replica sack...in accordance with Mrs. Randle's observations, Special Agent McNeeley grasped the top of the sack with his hand...When the proper length of the sack was reached according to Mrs. Randle's estimate, it was measured and found to be 27 inches long. She demonstrated the width of the sack as it appeared to her, noting that it did have something bulky in it originally. Her designation on the replica sack was found to be 8 1/2 inches for the width of the original package she had seen Oswald carrying." (CD7, p298-299).

Now here, once again, Odum acts as though the recollection of the witness is consistent with the sack carried by Oswald being the sack found in the sniper's nest. This just isn't true. Two witnesses saw the sack. The FBI performed two tests to determine the length of the sack seen by the witnesses. They had Frazier look at his back seat and estimate the length of the package he saw on his back seat. They measured this and it was 27 inches. This confirmed for Frazier that the sack he saw was about 27 inches long. They then re-enacted Oswald walking across the street to get Randle's best estimate of the length of the sack. This led her to conclude the sack she saw was...27 inches long. We've seen some evidence photos. The sack photographed by the FBI is about 38 inches long, approximately 40% longer than the sack described by both Frazier and Randle. It also appears to have been slightly tapered from one end to the other--from about 8 1/2 inches wide at the open end to about 9 1/4 inches wide at the closed end, for an average of 8 7/8 inches wide. Frazier, of course, said the bag in Oswald's possession was about 6 inches wide.

Time for math. 27 x 6 = 162 sq. inches. 38 x 8.875 = 337.25 sq. inches. This means the bag shown Frazier--assuming it was the bag sent on to the FBI--was more than twice as large as the bag he recalled seeing in Oswald's possession.

It was also made from a thicker paper. No wonder he'd refused to ID the bag!

The next day we receive a report on an interview with Orville Nix.  Nix had filmed the fatal headshot from the opposite of Zapruder. (12-3-63 FBI report, 24H539) “Nix believed the film depicts the third shot hitting President Kennedy and the sequence of events immediately after including Mrs. Jacqueline Kennedy reaching out over the back trunk lid to assist a secret service agent who is running to her aid.” Too vague.  Why wasn’t Nix asked to describe the shooting sequence? Does the description of the head shot as the third shot come from Nix or from the writer of the report?  Has the FBI already made up its mind? Apparently so.  

The 12-3-63 edition of the Washington Evening Star, a newspaper used by FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover to leak stories he wants before the public, reports: “An exhaustive FBI report now nearly ready for the White House will indicate that…Oswald was the lone and unaided assassin of President Kennedy, Government sources said today." 

The next day, we receive a report on an interview with Marie Muchmore. We've heard rumors that she filmed the assassination from the east end of the plaza, but she denies them. (12-4-64 FBI report CD7 p.31) “She advised that they stood on Main and Houston Streets. As the parade passed by there she heard the first shot but from where they were standing could not observe where the shot came from.  She said she panicked after this shot and ran back to the office, later becoming deathly sick over the incident…She said she had a movie camera with her at the time and Wilma Bond had a box camera but she advised that she did not obtain any photographs of the assassination scene.” Too vague.

Also on 12-4, a witness named Carolyn Walther comes forward with a remarkable claim. The FBI report to follow was dictated by Special Agents C. Ray Hall and Maurice J. White. 

Mrs. ERIC (CAROLYN) WALTHER, 4118 Shelley, Dallas, Texas, Stated she is employed in the cutting room for Miller and Randazzo, a dress factory, on the third floor of the Dal-Tex Mart Building, 501 Elm Street, Dallas.

On November 22, 1963 she and another employee, Mrs. Pearl Stringer, ate lunch at 12:00 noon and left the lunch room at about 12:20 PM to go down on the street to see President KENNEDY ride by. They walked out of the front door of the building, crossed the street, and stopped at a point on the east side of Houston Street, about fifty or sixty feet south of the south curb of Elm Street. They stopped next to the curb to await the passing of the President. While standing there, she started looking around, and looked over toward the Texas School Book Depository (TSBD) Building. She noticed a man wearing a brown suit and a very dark shirt leaning out a window of the third floor, somewhere about the middle window of the third floor. Shortly after this, a man in the crowd across the street to the west of where she was standing apparently had an epileptic seizure, and an ambulance came by and took the man away. Shortly after the ambulance left, she looked back towards the TSBD Building and saw a man standing on either the fourth of fifth floors, of the window on the south side of the building, which faces toward Elm Street. This man had the window open and was standing up leaning out the window with both his hands extended outside the window ledge. In his hands, this man was holding a rifle with the barrel pointed downward, and the man was looking south on Houston Street. The man was wearing a white shirt and had blond or light brown hair. She recalled at the time that she had not noticed the man there a few moments previously when she looked toward the building and thought that apparently there were guards everywhere. The rifle had a short barrel and seemed large around the stock or end of the rifle. Her impression was that the gun was a machine gun. She noticed nothing like a telescope sight on the rifle or a leather strap or sling on the rifle. She said she knows nothing about rifles or guns of any type, but thought that the rifle was different from any she had ever seen. This man was standing in about the middle of the window. In this same window, to the left of this man, she could see a portion of another man standing by the side of the man with a rifle. This other man was standing erect, and his head was above the opened portion of the window. As the window was very dirty, she could not see the head of this second man. She is positive this window was not as high as the sixth floor. This second man was apparently wearing a brown suit coat, and the only thing she could see was the right side of the man, from about the waist to the shoulders.

Almost immediately after noticing this man with the rifle and the other man standing beside him, someone in the crowd said "Here they come." and she looked to her left, looking south on Houston Street, to see the Presidential Party. As soon as President KENNEDY's car passed where she was standing, she and Mrs. SPRINGER turned away and started walking north towards Elm Street. At about the time they reached the curb at Elm Street, she heard a loud report and thought it was fireworks. There was a pause after the first report, then a second and third report almost at the same time, and then a pause followed by at least one and possibly more reports. The noise seemed to come from up in the air, but she never looked up in that direction. When the second report sounded, she decided it was gunfire, so she and Mrs. SPRINGER started diagonally across the street toward the TSBD Building. About the time she got across the street, she heard someone yell that the president had been hit. She stopped a moment and listened to the police radio on a motorcycle, then returned to the building across the street where she works. She returned to her job at about 12:45 PM. (24H522). 

Hearing this, we ask Latona once again if he's gonna run some elimination prints, and try to find out who, besides Oswald, had been in the sniper's nest. Silence.

But this is not the most disturbing development of the day. In agent Robert Barrett's memo on an interview with Abraham Zapruder we spot an intriguing sentence, one which we know could prove most problematic. It states that, according to Zapruder, who filmed the assassination from beginning to end, his camera was set to take "normal speed movie film or 24 frames per second." (CD7, p.12). Since Agent Robert Frazier has already indicated that the shooting would take a minimum of 5.6 seconds with Oswald's rifle, and since Agent Barrett's report on the Secret Service reenactment indicates the first and third shots hit Kennedy, Zapruder's film should show Kennedy first hit at least 134 frames before he suffered his fatal blow, should Oswald have acted alone. We are told this is not the case. We take comfort, nevertheless, in Barrett's statement that he has obtained Zapruder's camera and that the camera will undergo testing at the FBI's crime lab.

Yikes. It's beginning to feel like our case for a single-assassin is coming apart. 

And then the next day, 12-5, things get even stranger. A witness has come forward to confirm much of what Mrs. Walther claimed the day before. And no, it's not Pearl Stringer, the witness named by Mrs. Walther, who, when interviewed by agents Hall and White, "recalled that after the first shot there was a pause, then two more shots were fired close together," but did not recall looking at the upper floors of the book depository on 11-22 nor remember Mrs. Walther's mentioning seeing any men on the upper floors of the book depository on 11-22. (24H523) It's Ruby Henderson. Here is the FBI report on this interview. It was dictated by Special Agents James J. Ward and Robert E. Basham:

MRS. TONEY (RUBY) HENDERSON, 1434 Prairie Creek, Dallas, Texas (EX 1.2474), furnished the following information:

On November 22, 1963 at approximately 12:15 PM she was standing on the east side of Elm Street just north of Houston Street awaiting the passing of the Presidential Motorcade at that site. She said shortly after she arrived at this location, and just prior to the arrival of the motorcade, she recalls an ambulance arriving and departing the area to pick up an individual whom she understood had an epileptic fit. Mrs. HENDERSON said after the ambulance departed the area, she heard a woman in the record building located on the southwest corner of Elm and Houston, yell "Yeah, Woodman." which is a Dallas High School, and she looked in the direction from which the yell emanated. She said she thereafter swung around and looked in the building in which she works, the building located on the southeast corner of Elm and Houston and thence around to the Texas School Book Depository Building. 

She said she observed numerous people on various floors looking out of the windows of the Texas School Book Depository Building, and recalls that she saw two men on one of the upper floors of the building. She said she recalls one of the men had on a white shirt and one had on a dark shirt. She said she only observed these men from the waist up and she does not know what their other attire consisted of. She said these men were standing back from the window and she got the impression they were working and yet looking out the window in anticipation of the motorcade passing that building. She said she saw these men before the motorcade reached Houston and Elm, but doesn't have any idea how long it was prior to the motorcade arriving at that location. She says she believes the person in the white shirt had dark hair and was possibly a Mexican, but could have been a Negro as he appeared to be dark-complexioned. She said she couldn't describe the other person other than the fact he was taller than the aforementioned individual. Mrs. HENDERSON said at the time the motorcade passed where she was standing, she heard what she initially thought was a firecracker and saw what she thought was paper fly out of the Presidential car. She said she now realized it was a shot she heard and what she thought was paper was probably flesh. She said after the first shot, she believes she heard two more in rapid succession, and then a fourth shot. 

Mrs. HENDERSON said after the shooting she stood transfixed for some time before returning to work. She said she returned to her place of employment at approximately 12:43 PM. 

Mrs. HENDERSON said she became extremely upset and nervous after the President's assassination and it was necessary for her to take the following Monday off her job. She said she hesitated to mention anything about her observations but felt she should relate same as they might possibly be of some benefit. 

Mrs. HENDERSON reiterated she could not definitely state one of the men she saw in the window of the Texas School Book Depository was not a Negro. She said she does not know what floor of the building the men were on, but doesn't recall seeing anyone on a floor higher up than the one they were on. (24H524)

Well, holy smokes. Henderson confirms Walther's recollections from the day before? They both come forward to say they saw two men standing in a corner window? They both think they heard four shots? Do they know each other? What's going on? 

The thought occurs, then, that Mrs. Walther is somehow behind Mrs. Henderson's coming forward. And that Mrs. Henderson doesn't really believe what she has told agents Ward and Basham. 

Only no such luck. We find this lead sheet in the files of the Dallas FBI office. (This lead sheet was unearthed by Harold Weisberg and can be found in the Dallas FBI files preserved in the Weisberg Archives at Hood University.)  

On 11/28/63, a woman identifying herself as Mrs. TONY HENDERSON telephonically contacted the Dallas Office. She advised she works for a firm known as Miller and Randazzo with offices on the third floor of the building at 501 Elm St. She resides at 1434 Prairie Creek in the Pleasant Grove area of Dallas.

She stated that prior to the presidential motorcade passing the corner of Elm and Houston Streets, she had been down in the street with other persons from the building. She stated that she had been out in the street itself off the curb in an attempt to see better and that as she waited for the motorcade to approach, she had glanced up at and behind her and had seen people at the windows in her own building and had seen people also at open windows in the building of the Texas Book Depository. She stated that she had noticed quite a number of people at the windows on the third floor of the Texas Book Depository building and that it had not occurred to her until yesterday that she had seen two men standing in what she was certain was the corner window facing Elm Street on the sixth floor of the Texas Book Building. She stated she now recalls that she thought at the time that the two men standing there would have a bird's eye view of the entire scene. She stated also that the thought occurred to her that the men were not standing out actually prominent in the window, She said she had wondered why they were standing back a little. She stated that she was certain one of the men had on a white shirt, and she thought the other man, who was somewhat shorter, was wearing a blue shirt, or at least it was a dark shirt. 

When queried as to why she could see into the sixth floor window when she was standing east of the building, she stated that she had been standing far enough out in the street that she could easily observe that window. 

Mrs. HENDERSON advised that small items were coming back to her such as when the second shot was fired she saw what she thought was paper flying out of the presidential limousine and she now realizes it must have been flesh or bone.

LEAD

Contact Mrs. TONY HENDERSON at her residence or at her office and interview for any additional information she may be able to recall and to determine if she spoke of seeing these two men to any other individuals or of she knows of any other individuals who might have observed them. 

So, yikes. If anything, it's the reverse. Mrs. Henderson came forward on the 28th, but the FBI failed to follow up. Mrs. Walther, a co-worker of Mrs. Henderson's, then came forward on the 4th. And this led the FBI to go back and question Mrs. Henderson on the fifth. As Mrs. Henderson failed to cite Mrs. Walther as support for her story, and as Mrs. Walther failed to even mention Mrs. Henderson when she was interviewed, there is nothing to suggest these women shared their stories, or conspired in bringing their stories forward. The record, instead, suggests something else entirely--that the similarity in their stories comes from their standing in a similar location, and similarly looking up at the depository building about 15 minutes before the shooting, just after a young man named Jerry Belknap had suffered an epileptic fit. 

(Note: neither Henderson nor Walther were interviewed further, and neither of them were called before the Warren Commission.)

On 12-5 we see yet another signed statement from Buell Frazier, who gave Oswald a ride to work on 11-22-63. Frazier was the only person to get a good look at the package Oswald brought to work. Every member of law enforcement working on the case wants to believe this package contained Oswald's rifle, but Frazier told first the Dallas Police, and then the FBI, that the package he saw was only 2 feet long. Unfortunately, the bag reportedly found in the sniper's nest (there is no picture of it in situ) was over 3 feet long. This was barely long enough to have held Oswald's disassembled rifle. This newly-signed statement comes from the Secret Service. The third time's not the charm. Frazier sticks to his guns. He writes: "He had put a package in the back seat of the car. I got into the car and sort of glanced over my shoulder and saw a package in the seat. The package was approximately two feet in length. It was a brown paper sack and was folded so that the contents could not be seen. I asked Lee about the package and he said it was curtain rods." Frazier sticks to his guns (or lack of gun) in other ways as well. He writes: "Lee got out and took the package...The package was under his arm lengthwise and the paper was all that could be seen." (CD87, p795-796). A three-foot long package would not have fit under Oswald's arm in such a manner. If Frazier is correct, Oswald didn't act alone.

Do It Again 

On 12-5 we also see an FBI teletype message from Special-Agent-in-Charge J. Gordon Shanklin in Dallas. It discloses that the FBI's Exhibits section, under Leo Gauthier, is in Dallas preparing exhibits depicting the shooting, and that "While Gauthier and assistants were making measurements on the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository Building, on December Five, Secret Service Agents Miller and Sorrell arrived on the scene with a motion picture cameraman.  These men identified themselves as Secret Service men to Gauthier.  At approximately three P.M. on December Five, Secret Service Agents Miller and Sorrell supervised re-enactment of the route of the President's assassination. A white convertible similar to the black one in which President Kennedy made his last ride, rolled past the assassination spot.  A man and a woman sat in the back seat just as President and Mrs. Kennedy did, two men were in the front. Looking down on this scene was the movie camera, perched in the same window from which the fatal shots were fired. Field surveyors from the Robert H. West land survey company, apparently employed by the Secret Service, were present, compiling survey data (slope of the road) at the three points on the freeway where it is believed the bullets struck the President and the Governor. Gauthier discontinued making measurements during the time the Secret Service enactment." This tells us that not only are the Secret Service and FBI not working together to investigate the crime, but that they aren't even sharing any basic information.  

The 12-5 New York Times further describes this re-enactment: "An open car with a man and a woman in the back seat simulated again and again today the ride of the President and Mrs. Kennedy on Nov. 22. A motion picture camera in the sixth-floor window that was used by the assassin recorded these trips. A surveyor's transit stood in the parkway on the other side of the street looking up at the window. Each of the simulations differed slightly from the other, either in the speed of the car or the gestures of the occupants, or in some other detail. On one trip both occupants of the back seat waved. On another the man turned to the right, and, moments later, slumped in his seat; then the car's speed picked up. On all simulations, a motorcycle policeman rode on each side near the rear of the car. At all times the car used the middle of the three-lane road."

The Times article then put this re-enactment in context: "One question was how how the President could have received a bullet in the front of the throat from a rifle in the...Depository...after his car had passed the building and was turning a gentle curve away from it. One explanation from a competent source was that the President had turned to his right to wave and was struck at that moment." 

On 12-9, we see a memo from Gauthier himself, describing his efforts in Dallas. He is preparing floor plans of the depository and of the police station where Oswald was killed, as well as a mock-up of Dealey Plaza. He lists the advantages of having these exhibits and then declares "The marks on the freeway indicating where shots one, two, and three were believed to have struck the Presidential car, have been noted and this information can be indicated on the model. From this information, it appears that shot one struck the President momentarily after he came within gun range when his car moved passed the tree top as viewed by the assassin. Shot number two which is believed to have struck Governor Connally occurred after the car had traveled a distance of 95 feet at approximately 15 m.p.h.  The markings on the Freeway indicated that shot number three which is believed to have struck the President occurred after the car had traveled another 45 feet. At 15 m.p.h a car moves forward at a speed of about 22 feet per second or one car length. The President's car length is 21 feet long. Based upon this information the second shot occurred about 4.36 second after the first shot was fired and the third shot occurred about 2.0 seconds after the second shot was fired. The total elapse time to fire shots two and three was approximately 6.4 seconds during which time the President's car traveling at 15 m.p.h. covered approximately 141 feet." 

This is disturbing, and raises lots of questions. Hasn't anyone told Gauthier that the FBI's Robert Frazier has already tested the rifle and found that a shooter would need at least 2.8 seconds between shots?  And what does he mean by "marks on the freeway"? Has someone placed marks on Elm Street at the limo's locations when the shots were fired?  If so, how did they establish these locations and why do these marks differ so greatly from the locations determined by agent Howlett?

The Conclusion That Shouldn't Have Been

On 12-9-63 the FBI gives their summary report to each member of the newly convened Warren Commission. On page 1 it reads: “As the motorcade was traveling through downtown Dallas on Elm Street about fifty yards west of the intersection with Houston Street (Exhibit 1), three shots rang out.  Two bullets struck President Kennedy, and one wounded Governor Connally. The President, who slumped forward in the car, was rushed to Parkland Memorial Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 1:00 p.m.  Eyewitnesses at the scene of the shooting saw an individual holding a rifle in a sixth-floor window of the Texas School Book Depository Building located on the corner of Houston and Elm Streets.  One individual stated that after he heard what he believed to be a second shot, he looked up, and saw this man take deliberate aim with a rifle and fire in the direction of the Presidential motorcade as it passed. “ On page 18, the report clarifies: “Medical examination of the President’s body revealed that one of the bullets had entered just below his shoulder to the right of the spinal column at an angle of 45 to 60 degrees downward, that there was no exit, and that the bullet was not in the body.”  As the bullet creating this wound could not have continued on into Governor Connally, it certainly implies the bullet striking Connally was a separate shot. This would undoubtedly suggest the scenarios described by Secret Service Agent Howlett and FBI exhibits chief Gauthier...that the first shot hit Kennedy, the second hit Connally, and the third hit Kennedy in the head.

Outside of the statements of Howard Brennan, whose statements were misrepresented in order to support this shooting scenario (he'd actually said he'd looked up as a response to the first shot, and only heard two shots), the statements of the closest witnesses, normally the backbone of a criminal investigation, have apparently been ignored.

We're also appalled by the report's treatment of the fingerprint evidence. Not only does the report fail to mention that "Oh yeah, while we were able to identify 3 prints on the boxes as Oswald's, there were 25 more that we haven't yet identified," it actually goes out of its way to hide this fact, describing photos showing numerous prints as photos of "a latent fingerprint identifed as the right index finger impression of Lee Harvey Oswald" and "a latent palm print identified as the left palm print of Lee Harvey Oswald." (CD1 evidence photos 27 and 28, respectively.)

And we're also disgusted with the report's treatment of the paper bag. As could have been gathered from Agent Bardwell Odum's 12-2 reports, the FBI pretends that Frazier and Randle's statements support that the bag or sack carried by Oswald was the bag or sack found in the sniper's nest. On page 5, the FBI Summary Report declares: "When Oswald left Irving, Texas, on the morning of November 22, 1963, he carried a long package wrapped in brown paper." It later claims "After the assassination, brown wrapping paper in the shape of a long bag was found near the window from which the shots were fired on the sixth floor of the depository building." (CD1, p5). There is no acknowledgment that the only two witnesses to see Oswald with this "brown wrapping paper" refused to ID the paper bag found in the sniper's nest as this bag, and, in fact insisted the sniper's nest bag was far larger than the bag they saw. Apparently such things were just not to be acknowledged.

(The FBI, moreover, was not alone in its pretending all was on the up and up with the bag. It was, if anything, more honest about this situation than the DPD. In his 12-23-63 letter to Chief of Police Jesse Curry listing the evidence against Oswald, homicide chief Capt. Will Fritz blew some serious smoke. Here he is on the bag: "5. One large piece of brown wrapping paper fitting the description of one used by Oswald in bringing a large package to work on the morning of the murder. We later found that Buell Wesley Frazier...had given Oswald a ride to work on the morning of the killing, and both he and his sister, Linnie Mae Randle, saw Oswald put a long package wrapped in a heavy brown paper in the back seat of the car. After arriving at work, Wesley Frazier saw Oswald take this package and take it with him into the building. This paper was shaped like a crude bag, large enough to carry this rifle. This was also found on the sixth floor." Wow, that's something. In this brief passage, Fritz conceals: 1) that the bag purportedly found in the building did not match the description of the bag observed by Frazier; 2) that Frazier and his sister were the only ones claiming to have seen this bag; 3) that Frazier specified that the bag he saw was not made of heavy brown paper; 4) that Frazier was shown the bag found in the building and swore it was not the bag he saw wrapped around the package he'd observed in Oswald's possession; 5) that the bag was NOT large enough to carry the rifle, unless the rifle had been broken down, which was extremely unlikely given that Oswald was not known to have the ability to put together a rifle without tools and fire accurately with the first shot; and 6) that he, Fritz, had stood in the sniper's nest within inches of where this bag was supposedly discovered, and failed to notice this bag or be told of its existence while he was in the building. In other words, Fritz was flat-out freaking lying, and in an official letter to his boss, no less.)

In our frustration, we make some phone calls, searching for an explanation for the FBI's failure to properly present the evidence. We find that the Summary Report was sent over to President Johnson and Acting Attorney General Katzenbach on 12-5-63, before the FBI had even determined the speed of Abraham Zapruder's camera, and thus, if it was even possible for Oswald to have fired all the shots depicted in the film. If Zapruder is correct, and his camera was filming at 24 frames per second, so we've been told, then Oswald could not have fired all the shots. While complaining about this, we hear a rumor that the National Photo Interpretation Center has studied the film for the Secret Service.   

We call a close friend working at the National Photo Interpretation Center. He tells us that in the aftermath of the assassination, the Secret Service had given a copy of the Zapruder film to two of the Center's photo experts, Homer McMahon and Ben Hunter, and had asked them to make enlargements on specified frames of the film. It was believed that the creation of these enlargements would help them identify the moments the bullets struck both the President and the Governor. Our friend gets access to the worksheets created as part of this study. These worksheets indicate that the initial conclusion was that Kennedy was struck at frame 224, Connally was struck at frame 256, and that Kennedy was struck again at frame 312. This was based on the supposition that the Zapruder film was recording 16 frames per second, and that there was a 2 second gap between the first two shots, and a 3.5 second gap between the second and third. (This apparent conclusion is written in bold on the front side of a worksheet discovered in the CIA files in 1981. McMahon and Hunter recognized their writing on this worksheet.) There are numerous calculations on this worksheet. Most revolve around the number 242, an obvious reference to frame 242, by which time Connally has obviously been struck. On the front side of the worksheet, there is 312 - 242 (to measure the time between the headshot at 312 and the apparent impact on Connally). There is also 242 - 213 (to measure the time between when Kennedy would seem to be hit, 213, and when Connally appears to be hit).  Next to this is 242  -  32 (As 242 - 213 was only 29 frames, too short a time span for two shots to have been fired from a bolt-action rifle, it appears they were measuring what frame would then be acceptable, given that the dead bolt would take at least two seconds to operate). Next to this is 256 – 224 (which was 32 frames and was thus deemed acceptable). On the back side of the sheet there were even more calculations, many of them repeated from the first side. These calculations, however, are made with the assumption that the Zapruder film was recording 18 frames per second. Thus, the magic number here is 36 frames, e.g. 213 + 36 = 249.  There are also 242 – 190 = 52 and 52 / 18 = 2.8.  These last two indicate that if the Zapruder film was shown to record at 18 frames per second, the Secret Service was prepared to say the first shot hit Kennedy at 190, the second hit Connally at 242, and the final shot hit Kennedy at 312. 

On the whole, then, these numbers indicate that, rather than trying to isolate the actual moments of impact, the Secret Service was, from the very beginning, assuming that the third shot was the head shot, and trying to make the moments of impact fit neatly within the time constraints of Oswald’s bolt-action rifle. This suggests they were always operating under the belief Oswald acted alone. We wonder if this same kind of thinking has not infected the FBI, and negatively influenced the Summary Report.

We look closer at the worksheets, to see if anything they've proposed makes sense. On one sheet they suggest that the shots occurred at frames 213, 263, and 312. This is strange, as it seems obvious that Connally was hit long before 263.  Another scenario of 217, 242, and 312 is equally curious, as Robert Frazier’s tests back on 11-27 tell us that Oswald would have needed approximately 2.8 seconds or 51 frames between shots. Certainly, they weren't considering that someone other than Oswald fired one of the shots. This makes us suspect that the FBI has failed to tell the NPIC or Secret Service about their tests. As the NPIC is closely associated with the CIA, and as FBI Director Hoover has a problem with the CIA, this is not a big surprise.

When we look further through the worksheets, however, there is a surprise. The Secret Service has seriously considered the scenario offered in the 12-6 edition of Life magazine, holding that Kennedy was hit at 190, Connally at 264, and Kennedy at 312. We just can’t accept that Connally was hit so late however. Other scenarios considered at NPIC and by the Secret Service are 206, 242, 312, and 213, 242 and 312, but both of these have the first two shots too close together to have been fired by Oswald. The only single-assassin scenario that works, then, based upon even a cursory study of the Zapruder film, is the Kennedy 190, Connally 242, and Kennedy 312 scenario. Even this scenario is less than convincing, however. Not only does Connally appear to have been hit before frame 242 of the film, but the witnesses, as we well know, clearly suggested that the last two shots were bunched together, with the final shot after the headshot. (A more elaborate analysis of the Zapruder film by Robert Frazier for the Warren Commission concluded that, assuming a rifle was fired from the sixth floor sniper’s nest, Connally was turned too far to his right after frame 231 to receive his wounds.) 

With our re-inspection of the Zapruder film, however, we make another discovery. A number of the frames are blurry. Two blurs in particular stand out, one between frames 190 and 200 and one shortly after frame 313. The thought occurs that these blurs are related to the shots and are perhaps a reflection that Zapruder flinched after hearing the shots. One of us decides to hold the camera, which had been obtained by the FBI crime lab on 12-06, and asks the rest of us to make random loud noises all around while he films someone walking down the hall. This test confirms that the blurred images on the Zapruder film are quite possibly related to Zapruder’s jumping at the sound of the gunshots. When we closely analyze the original film, however, we find that his largest startle reaction occurs shortly after the startle reaction seemingly related to the head shot. This supports the many eyewitness statements claiming there were two closely bunched shots, shots fired so close together that many of the witnesses, including the two secret service agents directly behind Kennedy, couldn’t remember which one hit the President. We now have real reason to suspect the eyewitnesses were correct and that the last two shots were fired too close together to have been fired by Oswald alone. Do we tell Hoover? Neither the eyewitness statements nor our analysis of the rifle and Zapruder film suggest three shots were fired by a shooter in the sniper's nest. We have real reason to suspect that a second shooter was involved. Do we make the call?  Do we ask Hoover if we can expand the investigation and look for this second shooter? 

Well, no matter how you answered that last question, the fact is that this has been an imaginary investigation. As far as we know, there was no one in the FBI tasked with making sense of the eyewitness testimony, and seeing if it agreed with the physical and photographic evidence. No effort was made, and consequently no agreement was reached. The FBI search for witnesses and the truth was so half-hearted, in fact, that they failed to establish the photographer of Marie Muchmore's film of the assassination until February, 1964. On 11-26-63, Muchmore's film was shown on television; over the following days it was much discussed in newspapers. And yet the FBI never sought a copy of this film and only acknowledged its existence after its color frames were published in a widely distributed photo book of the assassination. Perhaps no one in the FBI read the paper or had a TV.

(Note: the significance of the blurred frames of the Zapruder film was not discovered until several years after the assassination. I include it here because I have every confidence that these blurs could have and should have been analyzed in 1963 by the FBI, should they have honestly been interested in analyzing the film. Professor William Hartmann studied these blurs for the HSCA in 1978. A chart in his final report, Figure II-5, measures the blurs in the Zapruder film and demonstrates that the largest startle prior to Zapruder’s losing control took place around frames 330-332. As most everyone by 1978 had come to believe the last shot was the head shot, however, Hartmann arbitrarily dismissed this substantial startle reaction as a second reaction to the head shot, and to Zapruder’s crying out. The consistent movement and blurring one would expect from Zapruder’s crying out does not in fact occur until approximately one second after the startle reaction recorded between frames 330-332.)

PatSpeer.com  

Chapter 2b: The Secret Service Secrets