1961 or 1962 Chevrolet, four-door Impala, white

[Lee Forman]

Mr. BOWERS - Third car, which entered the area, which was some seven or nine minutes before the shooting, I believe was a 1961 or 1962 Chevrolet, four-door Impala, white, showed signs of being on the road. It was muddy up to the windows, bore a similar out-of-state license to the first car I observed, occupied also by one white male.

Mr. BALL - What did it do?

Mr. BOWERS - He spent a little more time in the area. He tried-he circled the area and probed one spot right at the tower in an attempt to get and was forced to back out some considerable distance, and slowly cruised down back towards the front of the School Depository Building.

Mr. BALL - Then did he leave?

Mr. BOWERS - The last I saw of him he was pausing just about in--just above the assassination site.

Mr. BALL - Did the car park, or continue on or did you notice?

Mr. BOWERS - Whether it continued on at that very moment or whether it pulled up only a short distance, I couldn't tell. I was busy.

Mr. BALL - How long was this before the President's car passed there?

Mr. BOWERS - This last car? About 8 minutes.

Coincidentally, a 1961 or 1962 Chevrolet, four-door Impala, white, appears in the background of Dealey Plaza [is this Houston?] as the Three Tramps are being led down the street.

The sedan was not the most popular model, when compared with the popularity of the 2-door SuperSport [sS]. There were a large number of different choices to be made when purchasing an Impala, from axle to engine size, to tires, interior, paint color etc.

http://www.goissca.org/imp_hist.htm

I draw your attention to the photo, attached.

First off, the car has no front license plate. Just an observation.

Red arrows indicate a crop line, where a second image of an Impala appears to have been superimposed.

The blue arrow indicates what appears to be a second door handle on the driver's door. A convenient feature, but I didn't find that listed in the options. If it isn't a door handle, it's an odd place to put your 'Goldwater in 64' sticker.

The orange arrow and line indicate a missing piece of chrome trim - which frankly, just doesn't work. If the piece were missing, it would stop and start at the edges of the back door.

The white arrow indicates what may be the presence of God. If not, then the reflection is possibly from a large mirror, mounted on the roof of the car, which also isn't listed as a manufacturer's optional feature.

"If one of the photos was altered, ALL of the photos had to have been altered."

I don't have a problem with that logic.

An interesting conclusion one could draw from this apparent alteration concerns the identity of the driver of the Impala, who may have been obliterated, but also lends speculation as to the alteration of the identification of the tramps themselves, as proposed by AJ Weberman and Michael Canfield.

The version on Weberman's website is the highest quality I have seen. If anyone is aware of an earlier version of this photo, I'd like to see it.

Also, if anyone is aware of one [1] really good link to all of the various Dealey Plaza photos and films [jpeg's, gif's, tif's, bmp's and avi's or mpegs - even Quiktime] - I'd really appreciate it!

- lee

[Steve Thomas]

Lee,

Bowers said that the first car, the 1959 Oldsmobile, and the third car, the '61 or '62 Chevrolet had the same license plate configuration - six black numbers on a white background.

I once wrote to the License Plate Collectors Association of America and asked them what state had that particular configuration in 1963. The answer I got back was that the only state in the Union that had that particular configuration in 1963 was the state of Virginia. The plates could have been stolen of course, but I found that answer odd.

Steve Thomas

[Wim Dankbaar]

The Olds was Chauncey Holt's from Arizona. It had a Goldwater sticker on it and it was covered with red mud from the trip thru rain and storm.

Wim