Josiah Thompson's brand new book LAST SECOND IN DALLAS

[Chris Bristow]

On 2/3/2021 at 8:46 AM, Pat Speer said:

If I had to sum it up in one image, David, it's this one...known as Bond 4.

The motorcyclist on the far left is H.B. McLain. The acoustics evidence holds that he was 20 feet short of the corner of Houston and Elm when the first shot was fired and that he traveled at 10-11 mph afterwards. And yet here he is in a photo taken more than 30 seconds after the first shot.

Note the officer on foot in front of Hill and Moorman. That's Bobby Hargis. In the seconds after the shooting, he has 1) parked his bike, 2) dismounted his bike, 3) run over to the white wall across the street, 4) looked around, 5) run over to the lamp post by the Newmans, and 6) run back to his bike. 

Now note the photographer behind the lamp post. That's Dave Wiegman. He turned his camera on within 4 seconds or so of the first shot, jumped out of Camera Car #1, and filmed almost non-stop after. He is at this time filming the Newmans, a scene that comes more than 30 seconds into his film. 

Now note the camera man behind Wiegman. That's Thomas Atkins. Both Wiegman and Atkins were riding in Camera Car #1--2 cars behind McLain's supposed location at the time of the first shot. And yet here they are filming on the knoll as McLain drives by.

In the scenario pushed by the acoustics devotees, Wiegman, on foot, raced past McLain on his motorcycle, and filmed the Hesters etc before McLain could even catch up.

It's absolute nonsense. The acoustics experts hired by the HSCA claimed the mike recording the shots traveled 10-11 mph across the plaza. And yet, the photo evidence makes clear McLain was either traveling at a much slower rate--slower than the idling speed of a Harley--or had started from much further back than 20 feet south of Houston and Elm. 

 

Is there any information on when Hargis crossed to the north side of elm? If the limo never went below 8mph he could not have run between it and the follow up car. I doubt LBJ's car or his follow up car would have paused to let Hargis by because there were bullets flying. He said he ran up to the brick wall to get a better look at the overpass near the fence. I'm wondering how Hargis got across the street and back again in the time it took McClain to reach the point in the photo.

Edited June 6, 2021 by Chris Bristow

[Steven Kossor]

If we agree that the microphone responsible for recording shots fired in DP as the JFK limo traveled on Elm Street was itself moving on Elm Street, then that traveling microphone should be on film shot there (presumably a three-wheel police motorcycle).  With no visual record of any three-wheel motorcycle in evidence, and the high probability that the dictabelt recordings were composites (manufactured after-the-fact), the gunfire sounds must have been recorded by a different microphone that was traveling on Elm Street and those gunshot sounds had to have been added to the dictabelt mix for some obscure reason, probably unintentionally.

Edited June 7, 2021 by Steven Kossor

[Mark Tyler]

On 6/6/2021 at 1:41 AM, Chris Bristow said:

Is there any information on when Hargis crossed to the north side of elm? If the limo never went below 8mph he could not have run between it and the follow up car. I doubt LBJ's car or his follow up car would have paused to let Hargis by because there were bullets flying. He said he ran up to the brick wall to get a better look at the overpass near the fence. I'm wondering how Hargis got across the street and back again in the time it took McClain to reach the point in the photo.

You are right Chris, Hargis didn't get across before LBJ's car passed him.  Here is a Wiegman film frame from about Z447, or 7-8 seconds seconds after the head shot:

As you can just about see at the left of the frame, he has just dismounted and is ready to scamper across the road.  The Mayor's car stopped for a few seconds which gave him enough time to cross the road.  You can see the brake lights of the Press Pool car in the foreground which is reacting to the Mayor's car stopping just ahead.

Once Hargis got to the north side of Elm Street he stood at the lamppost for about 15 seconds as he surveyed the area before running back to his bike, and was was caught by the Bond 4 photo that Pat referenced.  Here is Hargis standing at the lamppost (top right and bottom right images):

[Chris Bristow]

8 hours ago, Mark Tyler said:

You are right Chris, Hargis didn't get across before LBJ's car passed him.  Here is a Wiegman film frame from about Z447, or 7-8 seconds seconds after the head shot:

As you can just about see at the left of the frame, he has just dismounted and is ready to scamper across the road.  The Mayor's car stopped for a few seconds which gave him enough time to cross the road.  You can see the brake lights of the Press Pool car in the foreground which is reacting to the Mayor's car stopping just ahead.

Once Hargis got to the north side of Elm Street he stood at the lamppost for about 15 seconds as he surveyed the area before running back to his bike, and was was caught by the Bond 4 photo that Pat referenced.  Here is Hargis standing at the lamppost (top right and bottom right images):

Thanks Mark, that pins it down.

[Andrej Stancak]

Do I miss something? The switched-on microphone was supposed to be on Officer McClain's motorbike, not Hargis's motorbike.

[David Lifton]

19 hours ago, Mark Tyler said:

You are right Chris, Hargis didn't get across before LBJ's car passed him.  Here is a Wiegman film frame from about Z447, or 7-8 seconds seconds after the head shot:

As you can just about see at the left of the frame, he has just dismounted and is ready to scamper across the road.  The Mayor's car stopped for a few seconds which gave him enough time to cross the road.  You can see the brake lights of the Press Pool car in the foreground which is reacting to the Mayor's car stopping just ahead.

Once Hargis got to the north side of Elm Street he stood at the lamppost for about 15 seconds as he surveyed the area before running back to his bike, and was was caught by the Bond 4 photo that Pat referenced.  Here is Hargis standing at the lamppost (top right and bottom right images):

Has anyone ever advanced a hypothesis as to what Office Hargis was doing, leaning against the light pole, and looking directly across the street at the area where Zapruder had been standing?  (Zapruder, remember, said that the shots came "directly from behind me" [approx., from memory]).  So just what was Hargis looking at, and what did he see?  Did he ever elaborate?  That photo, I believe, captures a moment in time that I believe to have been quite relevant.  It raises the question: "What did Hargis know, and when did he know it?"   Did anyone ever show him this photograph, and ask him that question? (DSL, 6/8/21)

[James DiEugenio]

8 hours ago, Andrej Stancak said:

Do I miss something? The switched-on microphone was supposed to be on Officer McClain's motorbike, not Hargis's motorbike.

Mark:

Can you explain to Andrej, what this all means ?

[Mark Tyler]

12 hours ago, Andrej Stancak said:

Do I miss something? The switched-on microphone was supposed to be on Officer McClain's motorbike, not Hargis's motorbike.

That's right, we took a little detour off the topic of the dictabelt and explored what Hargis did on Elm Street while McLain was riding past.  Sorry for any confusion!

3 hours ago, James DiEugenio said:

Mark:

Can you explain to Andrej, what this all means ?

 

[Mark Tyler]

8 hours ago, David Lifton said:

Has anyone ever advanced a hypothesis as to what Office Hargis was doing, leaning against the light pole, and looking directly across the street at the area where Zapruder had been standing?  (Zapruder, remember, said that the shots came "directly from behind me" [approx., from memory]).  So just what was Hargis looking at, and what did he see?  Did he ever elaborate?  That photo, I believe, captures a moment in time that I believe to have been quite relevant.  It raises the question: "What did Hargis know, and when did he know it?"   Did anyone ever show him this photograph, and ask him that question? (DSL, 6/8/21)

Hi David.  Hargis does seem to be looking in that direction as Zapruder and Sitzman jumped down from the pedestal before they headed for the pergola shelter.  The Hester's were both on the ground with David Wiegman filming them, so Hargis was probably looking for a gunman of some kind.

Hargis spoke to the Warren Commission and explained what he did on the day:

https://www.history-matters.com/archive/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh6/html/WC_Vol6_0152a.htm

He also mentioned looking towards the railroad overpass and the TSBD, so all of this would have taken the roughly 15 seconds before he decided to go back to his bike.  He then carried on looking around beyond the overpass, and got off his bike as corroborated by this later Bell frame which shows a bike parked between the two overpass bridges:

He didn't seem to see anything of note, which would explain why he didn't stay in Dealey Plaza very long.

[James DiEugenio]

So Mark, you are trying to set a time stamp through Hargis of when MCLain passed through.  Is that correct?

[Mark Tyler]

19 hours ago, James DiEugenio said:

So Mark, you are trying to set a time stamp through Hargis of when MCLain passed through.  Is that correct?

The overall timestamp is the overlapping films: Wiegman, Bell, and Couch.  Through those we can know the total time from start to finish (roughly 30 seconds), as the Wiegman film shows Hargis dismounted at Z447 and the Bell film shows Hargis running back as McLain rides past:

Of course we don't know exactly what McLain was doing during all of that time as there is no continuous film footage of him, but we do know he must have travelled from Houston Street when the shooting started (either at the beginning or end of the street depending on whether you believe the HSCA scientists or not), to being halfway down Elm Street when the Bell and Couch films caught him.

After all of these calculations, we can know Hargis only spent about 15 seconds at the lamppost (plus about 15 seconds jogging between the points, to total the 30 seconds I mentioned earlier), which is just about enough time to survey the area, but nothing else.  This exactly matches his Warren Commission testimony so I am very confident this is what happened on the day.

[James DiEugenio]

A bit late, but here is my Part 2 review of Thompson's book.

I mention Mark in it.

https://kennedysandking.com/john-f-kennedy-reviews/last-second-in-dallas-part-2

[Benjamin Cole]

5 hours ago, James DiEugenio said:

A bit late, but here is my Part 2 review of Thompson's book.

I mention Mark in it.

https://kennedysandking.com/john-f-kennedy-reviews/last-second-in-dallas-part-2

That's a fair review. 

I have had reservations from the start on the acoustics evidence, which gives critics grounds to label the JFKA research community as "conspiracy nuts."

I mean, if you place faith in the ever-evolving mumbo-jumbo of acoustics analysis, then what else do you believe in? 

There is hard evidence in the Z-film, and the fraudulent CE 399, and the fact that JFK and JBC were struck by separate bullets, beyond reasonable doubt. 

The work of Dan Hardway and John Newman all but confirms LHO as a CIA asset, at least. Perhaps a manipulated unwitting asset, but an asset. 

So, why was a CIA asset charged in the murder of JFK, and how did so many bullets get fired in such a brief time span?

And who gave the word to Jack Ruby to do what he did? 

 

[James DiEugenio]

Thanks Ben.

This took a lot of work and some help as you can see from people like O'Dell, Costella and Mantik.

That is why it took so long.

 

[Joseph McBride]

I was surprised Thompson's new book largely ignores

the topic of the authenticity of the Zapruder

film, since so much of his earlier book is based

around that film being authentic and the "clock"

of the assassination. Thompson has been a vocal

opponent of alterationists, so I wonder why he

shied away from that topic in his supposed last word.

Since he is so engrossed in the acoustics, one would

think he would find the "so-called evidence" of the Z

film worth reconsidering (thanks and a tip of the Hatlo

Hat to Oswald for the phrase in quotes).

Edited July 28, 2021 by Joseph McBride