Dealey Plaza, 18 February 2019

[Steve Thomas]

Rick,

 

In the second photo you provided (shot from where Zapruder stood), do you know what the building is that is directly across from Zapruder, the one with the clocks at the top?

That's one weird looking building.

I wonder who the architect was.

Steve Thomas

[Joe Bauer]

In our small town of Monterey, California we have two buildings the size of the Texas School Book Depository building.

They are right across the street from each other.

One is the Marriott hotel which at 10 or more stories and covering a full city block, is actually much bigger.

The other is an old 7 story Gothic style office building ( with Gargoyles!) which looks like it was built in the 30's.

My local downtown Monterey Subway shop is kitty corner to the Marriott and right across the street from the old Gothic style office building.

Whenever I go there for my Subway 6 inch tuna sandwich ( great deal at $3.75 ) I always make time after my indoor eating of this to stand on the sidewalk outside and look up at the 6th floor windows of both buildings to try to get some idea of the distance between these and the location of JFK's limo as it was going by and past the TXSBD building and when JFK was hit in the back and head by a snipers bullets in Dealey Plaza.

I did this yesterday.

I try to recreate the Dealey Plaza scene with JFK'S limo moving by and past the TXSBD at certain speeds and with JFK waving and looking around at the crowds and Jackie right up to his first being shot.

I picture the distance of JFK's limo from the snipers nest ( 6th floor windows of my local buildings ) at the first back shot moment and then at the head shot moment ( 266 feet ) and try to imagine the difficulty or ease of someone in Oswald's alleged shooting position being able to hit a moving around cantaloupe sized target in a moving away vehicle and scoring a bull's-eye while firing a junk rifle in a hurried way.

While viewing cars moving away from the buildings 6th floor windows here and at 266 feet in distance, no matter how much I try to accept that JFK's bull's-eye head shot was one a less than highly trained sniper could make, even with a scope, my common sense just can't.

It's the movement of the target and at that distance alone that throws me. And when combined with all these factual factors this clinches my doubt:

Notoriously inaccurate cheap rifle.

Misaligned scope.

Super stressed and hurried shooting ( you are aiming at the POTUS!) 

Cramped shooting position through a window just inches up from the floor.

Nervous awareness that some wandering School Book employee might innocently wander into the 6th floor area while you are shooting.

Target is moving and moving farther away and down an incline every second you are trying to fix your target in your sights.

You miss on your first shot which makes hitting on your second and third more desperate and stressed.

The shooter must know that the chances of people below being drawn to his shot sound location increase with each successive shot.

The many best trained marksmen hired to recreate Oswald's alleged shooting feat couldn't duplicate it ( except once? ) and none of them had the incredible life and death concerned stress and pressure that the JFK shooter must have been under.

I also position myself from my Monterey buildings at a 150 to 175 feet distance that Arnold Rowland was located in his viewing of a man in the TXSBD snipers perch window. Same with Carolyn Walther.

I am always struck by the closeness of this distance versus what I had always imagined in the Dealey Plaza scene, and how easily and clearly I could see someone in 6th floor windows from that distance. 

JFK was hit in the head at 266 feet, Rowland and Walther were no more than 150 to 175 feet from the shooters window.

This visual reality makes me believe Rowland and Walthers descriptions of who and what they viewed in the TXSBD that sunny day at noon.

Shooter eye witness Carolyn Walthers saw a similar dressed man as Rowland described ( light shirt, thin build, dark hired white man) in that window but also saw another man standing next to the kneeling man. This other man was wearing a brown suit according to Walthers.

Walthers did mix up the TXSCD building floor numbers in her initial affidavit which is often done by many people who don't initially count the ground floor as a numbered one.

 

 

 

Edited March 3, 2019 by Joe Bauer

[Adam Johnson]

23 hours ago, Steve Thomas said:

Rick,

 

In the second photo you provided (shot from where Zapruder stood), do you know what the building is that is directly across from Zapruder, the one with the clocks at the top?

That's one weird looking building.

I wonder who the architect was.

Steve Thomas

Hi Steve,

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dallas_County_Courthouse_(Texas)

 

[Joe Bauer]

On 3/2/2019 at 4:19 AM, Steve Thomas said:

Rick,

 

In the second photo you provided (shot from where Zapruder stood), do you know what the building is that is directly across from Zapruder, the one with the clocks at the top?

That's one weird looking building.

I wonder who the architect was.

Steve Thomas

The red building at the right? With the towers it looks like it would fit right in near the Kremlin.

Edited March 3, 2019 by Joe Bauer

[Joe Bauer]

On 3/2/2019 at 3:35 AM, Adam Johnson said:

Also found this recently...

 http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/7e17c15be2cac3ef19ed8caa427d87f8

In the video that comes up on the top right of the screen when you first access this link in Adam Johnson's post above, there is Dealey Plaza film of JFK in the limo after he has been hit in the back/throat and is leaning into Jackie and a micro-second later JFK's head explodes.

This film was taken by someone standing behind the group of bystanders that included the Babushka Lady. This group is right next to the Elm street curb and so close to JFK when he is hit in the head.

My question is about the quite tall man in this group who is wearing a white shirt and who is right in front of the Babushka Lady.

Has this person ever been identified? Did he ever come forward?

He was closer to JFK during the shots than the Babushka Lady and as close as Mary Moorman and Jean Hill.

Who was that guy?

Edited March 28, 2019 by Joe Bauer

[Ray Mitcham]

1 hour ago, Joe Bauer said:

In the video that comes up on the top right of the screen when you first access this link in Adam Johnson's post above, there is Dealey Plaza film of JFK in the limo after he has been hit in the back/throat and is leaning into Jackie and a micro-second later JFK's head explodes.

This film was taken by someone standing behind the group of bystanders that included the Babushka Lady. This group is right next to the Elm street curb and so close to JFK when he is hit in the head.

My question is about the quite tall man in this group who is wearing a white shirt and who is right in front of the Babushka Lady.

Has this person ever been identified? Did he ever come forward?

He was closer to JFK during the shots than the Babushka Lady and as close as Mary Moorman and Jean Hill.

Who was that guy?

Joe it could be Charles Brehm who was there with his small son.

 

 

[Adam Johnson]

Yep,  Spot on Ray,  it is Charles Brehm.

[B. A. Copeland]

Thanks Rick. Wow the Plaza looks so small in scale. My mind always goes crazy when imagining the size of this historic area. What a perfect strategic location for a shooting ambush. I'm not sure you could even ask for much better as far as an urban location.

[Ron Bulman]

On 3/28/2019 at 12:52 PM, Ray Mitcham said:

Joe it could be Charles Brehm who was there with his small son.

 

 

A damning statement.  "No I was not called to testify".

[Rick McTague]

15 hours ago, B. A. Copeland said:

Thanks Rick. Wow the Plaza looks so small in scale. My mind always goes crazy when imagining the size of this historic area. What a perfect strategic location for a shooting ambush. I'm not sure you could even ask for much better as far as an urban location.

B.A.,

You are certainly welcome.  I wanted to convey the current reality of DP for those who can't go there in person, tried to capture it from important areas and angles.  I am amazed every time I go there how really concentrated it is in distances.  It's only just a little bit down Elm from Houston where the shootings took place and it does seem to me as well that it's just an ideal kill zone complete with triangulation from concealment and easy egress.  I don't know how much better it could have been planned.  

Its odd how the pictoral record enlarges the space when you compare it against the actual location.

Glad you enjoyed, thanks for the note.

Thanks

[B. A. Copeland]

 

On 4/5/2019 at 9:54 AM, Rick McTague said:

B.A.,

You are certainly welcome.  I wanted to convey the current reality of DP for those who can't go there in person, tried to capture it from important areas and angles.  I am amazed every time I go there how really concentrated it is in distances.  It's only just a little bit down Elm from Houston where the shootings took place and it does seem to me as well that it's just an ideal kill zone complete with triangulation from concealment and easy egress.  I don't know how much better it could have been planned.  

Its odd how the pictoral record enlarges the space when you compare it against the actual location.

Glad you enjoyed, thanks for the note.

Thanks

Thanks for the response. I couldn't agree more.

[Darrell Curtis]

"On walking to the west end of the fence to access the overpass, you can see to the west Stemmons Freeway (white bridge), where Ed Hoffman saw the shooter and accomplice right about where I was standing.  Note that Stemmons rises up to provide a better view of the fence/parking lot area:"

Please note that this is not the original Stemmons freeway, and was not there in 1963. That overpass (which is actually just highway, and not an actual overpass) that is visible in your photo is part of construction of new roadways to expand the existing highway system here in DFW. The highway expansion that this is a part of began after 2001. The portion of Stemmons that Hoffman would have stood on/at is much lower to the ground, as are all of the highways of that era here in DFW, except for our so-called "mixmasters."

This is coming from someone who was born and raised here, I drive these roads regularly and am quite familiar with them. I thought it should be mentioned so that misinformation about Ed Hoffman's location, what he could see, or not see, didn't result.

[Darrell Curtis]

Edit: Duplicate post

Edited April 9, 2019 by Darrell Curtis

[Rick McTague]

On 4/9/2019 at 1:14 PM, Darrell Curtis said:

"On walking to the west end of the fence to access the overpass, you can see to the west Stemmons Freeway (white bridge), where Ed Hoffman saw the shooter and accomplice right about where I was standing.  Note that Stemmons rises up to provide a better view of the fence/parking lot area:"

Please note that this is not the original Stemmons freeway, and was not there in 1963. That overpass (which is actually just highway, and not an actual overpass) that is visible in your photo is part of construction of new roadways to expand the existing highway system here in DFW. The highway expansion that this is a part of began after 2001. The portion of Stemmons that Hoffman would have stood on/at is much lower to the ground, as are all of the highways of that era here in DFW, except for our so-called "mixmasters."

This is coming from someone who was born and raised here, I drive these roads regularly and am quite familiar with them. I thought it should be mentioned so that misinformation about Ed Hoffman's location, what he could see, or not see, didn't result.

Darrell,

VERY valuable information from a DFW native - I didn't know it was lower back then, thank you for the insight!

Thanks

[Darrell Curtis]

4 hours ago, Rick McTague said:

Darrell,

VERY valuable information from a DFW native - I didn't know it was lower back then, thank you for the insight!

Thanks

Rick,

Just to be clear, the original Stemmons is *still* there, you just can't see it from that vantage point. What you do see there, are additions made to existing highway system, much of which was being constructed in the early 60's. In some of the photos taken of Kennedy's car on Stemmons on the way to Parkland, you can see how Stemmons is at ground level.

To make sure I don't unintentionally mislead anyone, I wasn't born when those roads were being constructed, I don't know of it first hand. But I've read some of the history, and my parents, aunt and uncle have told me about when those roads were built, public reaction, etc.