Jump to content
The Education Forum

Richard Hocking

Members
  • Posts

    476
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Everything posted by Richard Hocking

  1. My take is Allan Hughes, James Phelan and Lafitte burgled Garrison's office to retrieve papers relating to Shaw.
  2. Why start with the Lone Nut Theory? To be truly objective, why not start with a blank slate, and let the chips fall as you do your research?
  3. More food for thought on relative heights of LHO and BNL: I am aware that BNL told the FBI, and the HSCA that he was 5' 8. But Lovelady also gave what seems like contradictory information on his height in an article that was circulated by UPI. The crop below is from an article that appeared in the Oxnard CA, Press Courier May 23, 1964. The article title was "JFK Slaying Mystery Cleared Up".
  4. Very Close Ian. According to Richard Sprague, he obtained an 11 x 17 blowup made from the original Altgens. Sprague claims the raised arm in front of Lovelady is that of a black man, his body not visible that is in front of Roy Lewis. If you look closely you can make out the faint outline of a hand at the top of the arm. Edit: Link http://jfk.hood.edu/Collection/Weisberg%20Subject%20Index%20Files/B%20Disk/Brunson%20Beverly/Item%2005.pdf
  5. Lee, There were very likely three men in suit and tie on the entrance steps when the Limo passed the TSBD: BookKeeper Supervisor Otis Williams Credit Manager Joe Molina TSBD Manager William Shelley A few other notes: Otis Williams and Pauline Sanders testimony places them on the East side of the entrance steps. Joe Molina testified he was standing with them. We know Shelley is gone from the steps by the time this photo was taken, so the two remaining candidates should be Williams or Molina. It should also be noted that Shirley Martin wrote a letter to Harold Weisberg dated July 8, 1967 revealing Molina claimed to be wearing a suit that day he was on the steps. My url to that letter is corrupted, but it is in the jfk.hood.edu collection that contains the Weisberg material.
  6. Larry, Geneva Hine provided a limited glimpse of the phone setup for the TSBD in her WC testimony: Mr. BALL. Did you have to change your desk over to another desk? Miss HINE. Yes, sir; to the middle desk on the front row. Mr. BALL. Was there a switchboard? Miss HINE. No, sir; we have a telephone with three incoming lines, then we have the warehouse line and we have an intercom system. Mr. BALL. You don't have a switchboard? Miss HINE. Not now; we did in the other building. Mr. BALL. Were you alone then at this time? Miss HINE. Yes. Mr. BALL. Did you stay at your desk? Miss HINE. Yes, sir: I was alone until the lights all went out and the phones became dead because the motorcade was coming near us and no one was calling so I got up and thought I could see it from the east window in our office. This sounds similar to the phone system scenario you describe in your post. Hopefully Jerry Dealey can add something to that. Regarding the "Janitor" issue ... Eddie Piper gave his title as Janitor in his first day affidavit and in his WC testimony (the only employee to do so). If someone had phoned the TSBD and asked for the Janitor, wouldn't Eddie Piper be the person who was paged on the intercom?
  7. Geneva Hine gives a similar description, comparable to Pierce Allman's "boom". An excerpt of her testimony to the Commission: Mr. BALL Could you tell where the shots were coming from? Miss HINE. Yes, sir; they came from inside the building. Mr. BALL. How do you know that? Miss HINE. Because the building vibrated from the result of the explosion coming in. Mr. BALL. Did you know they were shots at the time? Miss HINE. Yes, sir; they sounded almost like cannon shots they were so terrific. Geneva was leaning out an East facing window above Houston St. I have speculated in the past that shot(s) fired from the Dal-Tex building would have reverberated essentially in an "echo chamber" between the Dal-Tex building and the TSBD.
  8. Tommy wrote: "... Question: Would it have been unprofessional (or unreasonable or unrealistic) for Inspector Sawyer to leave his partially drunk soda pop in the shade on the steps at some point, and retrieve it a bit later to "finish it off"? " The first Allen photo showing the bottle on the NW corner step was taken about 12:42. Again going back to Sawyer's actions when he arrived at the TSBD at 12:34: He immediately went up the elevator to the 4th floor, quickly surveyed the floor, and returned to the first floor. In his testimony, Sawyer estimates his return time to the front entrance as 12:38 where he immediately goes outside and sets up a Command Post. No mention of walking to the back of the TSBD where the Dr. Pepper machine is located.
  9. Prayerman is not Lovelady. They appear close to each other in a frame from Weigman. Within seconds of the last shot fired, Shelley and Lovelady leave the entrance and make their way down the Elm St. extension (visible in the Couch film). Shelley and Lovelady are well down the street by the time Baker makes it to the entrance. Prayerman is still on the top step as Baker approaches the entrance. Also, Oswald (Prayerman) is seen in a storage room on the first floor when Ochus Campbell comes back into the building. There is a storage room right under the stairs in the entrance lobby. There is one other small storage room at the back (North end) of the first floor. It would have been one of those two. So he definitely went back into the building.
  10. Really Bill? Not "William's" or the one from the front steps... I had not put that together... Means there may have been prints on them that could ID people who should not be identified... if one was a paranoid Conspiracy Realist. Mr. DAY. Yes, sir; there was a sack of some chicken bones and a bottle brought into the identification bureau. I think I still have that sack and bottle down there. The chicken bones, I finally threw them away that laid around there. In my talking to the men who were working on that floor, November 25, they stated, one of them stated, he had eaten lunch over there. Mr. McCLOY. Someone other than Oswald? Mr. DAY. Yes, sir; so I discarded it, or disconnected it with being with Oswald. Incidentally, Oswald's fingerprints were not on the bottle. I checked that. Mr. McCLOY. They were not on the bottle? Mr. DAY. No, sir Yet the documentation for such an act as well as the storage of evidence is not available... or even mentioned in Day's reports... Were WILLIAMS' prints on the bottle? Another fascinating glimpse into the DPD investigation of the murder of the President. If it could not be used to establish Oswald's guilt, it was not considered evidence. Too bad they never tested the bottle on the Entrance step for prints.
  11. "... By focusing the question on the model itself and NOT showing the images depicting the shots... the entire thrust of the model is lost." "This again reinforces the selectivity of the WC lawyers with regards to source materials... " This brings to mind a similar tactic used when drawings of autopsy photos (prepared by illustrator Ida Dox) were presented as evidence to the Warren Commission instead of using the genuine Autopsy photos. Perhaps it is just me, but my gut feeling is that the logic used was “Look at the incredible amount of work we did to create these drawings and 3D scale models … therefore, you can trust our conclusions must be correct.”
  12. Robert, How would you respond to the argument that a shooter would have used the iron sights (instead of the scope) on the MC for the distances involved at Dealey Plaza?
  13. This is a follow-up to a question raised earlier in this thread concerning the Dr. Pepper bottle Inspector Sawyer is holding in the photo below. Could this bottle be the same bottle seen on the top step NW corner of the entrance in 4 other photos taken by William Allen? The answer lies in the sequence of the photos. We know that the bottle on the step appears in two photos taken by Allen during the 12:40 – 1:00 time range. Around 1:00 pm, Larry Florer is arrested on the street and taken to the Sheriff’s office. Allen walks over to the office and takes 6 pictures of Florer in custody. After several minutes in the office, Allen leaves and begins walking North on Houston Street back towards the TSBD. As he approaches, he takes two photos of the building. The next photo on the Allen Contact Sheet is the photo showing Sawyer on the steps with the Dr. Pepper bottle and a cigarette. The very next photo after that shows the 3 tramps being escorted in front of the TSBD. We know the tramps photo is taken around, or just after 2 pm. So, being sandwiched between the Florer photos and the Tramps photos places the Sawyer photo somewhere in the 1:15 – 2:00 time period. The Dr. Pepper bottle Sawyer is holding is not the same bottle seen on the top step in the other Allen photos. From a logical standpoint, it makes sense. When Inspector Sawyer arrived at the TSBD, in the immediate aftermath of the shooting, he became a very busy man. After going up to the 4th floor, taking a quick look, and coming back down to the entrance, he setup a command post. Numerous witnesses and suspects were arriving to be interviewed or give statements. These included Howard Brennan, Amos Euins, Charles Brehm, Arnold Rowland and wife, Robert Edwards, Larry Florer, and others. It seems unlikely Sawyer would have taken a cigarette and Dr. Pepper break during this hectic period when the assassin was also potentially in the building. Sawyer was out front of the TSBD until 4 pm. It seems reasonable that he would have taken a break later in the afternoon after the building had been cleared and the witnesses and suspects delivered to Decker and Fritz’s offices. So, for anyone keeping score, there was one Dr. Pepper bottle allegedly found on the 6th floor (with photos showing Johnson bringing it out front), another bottle left on the top step in the NW corner of the entrance, and a third bottle being held by Inspector Sawyer in the Allen photo. edited for syntax.
  14. David, My best guess is that the Warren Commission never looked into the problematic discrepancies illuminated in your post.
  15. David, found this photo just recently, showing some more detail on the trees near the SW corner of the TSBD. Credit Robin Unger for a still frame from the Lost Tapes DVD. It was taken on 11/23/63.
  16. Thanks for the visual update, James. FWIW, I also get a distance of 33' West of the West Wall for Z224 using Don Roberdeau's map. Here are some other reference points using that same map. All measurements are West of the West wall of the TSBD. Z224 ~ 33' Mary Moorman on S. Curb of Elm ~ 63' TUM on N sidewalk of Elm ~ 73' Z313 ~ 86'
  17. Great job on this issue, Robert. Side-mounting the scope certainly adds another level of complexity to hitting a moving target.
  18. James, That is a nice mockup of the buildings and Elm St. Can you extend a straight line following the West wall of the TSBD out across Elm St? This would show when the Limo would first become visible to anyone looking out an upper floor window on the West side. It would also be interesting to see the positions of TUM and DCM on your mockup. What plat are you using for your measurements? Looks like you have put quite a bit of time into this. Would like to see more as your work progresses.
  19. Good find, David. The photo on the right looks like it may have been taken a few feet West of Moorman's position. Gives an excellent illustration of the tree line against the TSBD. I am curious who took it and what day they snapped the photo. Regarding the Light pole, if you look at the uncropped Moorman photo, there is something that resembles the light pole near the right side of the photo.
  20. David, that's what I thought when I first saw the photo. After looking more closely, I decided that was not the case. The McIntire photo shows those same trees from a distance and they are roughly the same height, with the very highest branches reaching up to about the middle of the 4th floor window (at roughly 10' per floor that equates to a height of about 35'). Moorman is about 200-205' feet from the SW corner of the TSBD when she snaps her shot. If you do some line of sight geometry, those trees are not tall enough to block out the 5th and 6th floors, even when you account for her lower elevation. You bring up a fair point about the blurry photos. As you know, Moorman took 5 photos that day in Dealey Plaza. The two that showed the west side of TSBD in the background were apparently the poorest in quality.
  21. Correct about the "lost" Moorman photo, Gary. The memo you kindly posted echoes what I have heard from other sources -- "poor image quality ... shows nothing of interest". I believe the image is still archived somewhere and may eventually turn up.
×
×
  • Create New...