FIRECRACKERS

[Larry Hancock]

Wow, Michael I don't know what those guys are using but I've been shooting for 50 plus years and have never seen that sort of visible smoke produced by any standard weapon and cartridges - I have an old twenty two which is mechanically loose and generates a lot of powder when you fire it but not visible smoke.  Talk about giving away your position...

[Michael Crane]

The computer that I'm on right now does not allow me to find a good picture of rifle smoke.I did find this one.

 

Edited May 26, 2022 by Michael Crane

[Larry Hancock]

Given that he is breaking balloons inside an arena I'm not sure that is not something more like an old starter pistol type of ammunition - as you can imagine no military, paramilitary personnel much less a sniper class shooter is going to want to give away their firing position with that much smoke.  Not that some weapons don't smoke but generally its not something you see in even in hunting or target shooting with either pistol or rifle - at least I certainly have not.  Smell it, yes if there is enough shooting going on, see clouds of smoke, no.

[Chris Bristow]

If echos were an issue I would think the majority of witnesses would have reported 4 to 6 shots. The majority only reporting 3 shots might indicate they were not fooled by echos. Some reported hearing echos reverberating down Elm and Main and a couple SS reported a big echo from the underpass. It seems many were able to distinguish between shots and echos. I have never heard a combination of two shots very close together sounding like a firecracker but I am no expert. I suppose shots from the Dal Tex and TSB could conceivably have had the sound of the shock waves staggered and created frequency cancellation of the shock wave sound. Of course that would mean 2 shots fired around FR133 and no hits.
 I am not making a case for James files but the weapon he said he used was named for the incorrect load that put out a big flame. Sounds like a Fireball XP100 would put out more smoke with the big flame and may have also created a big puff of steam on that moist morning.
I think the RR workers version of the story had the smoke lingering for just a second or two. The Wiegman film frame is about 8 seconds after the head shot and I doubt there would be smoke still hanging there. At the moment of the Wiegman frame Z is starting to show the trees next to the knoll fence and the blustery wind is shaking them around a lot.
 
 John Costella's site lists the witnesses who heard firecrackers so it will be easy to map out the witnesses. I will post the map when done.
 

[Ron Bulman]

10 hours ago, Steve Thomas said:

I always thought that the first sound may have bee a .22.

I live around a lot of hunters, and the crack of a .22 is a lot different from the boom of  .45 or a .30-06.

Steve Thomas

I've long thought this myself Steve.  The crack of a .22 rifle which I have vs the boom of a .30-06 which my dad had.  In conjunction with JFK's 1'st wound in the throat being a small entrance wound. 

A .22 hollow point would have mushroomed, taken out his vocal cords to silence cries from coming wounds, and likely not exited.  

The butchered throat wound in the death stare photograph suggests the possibility of probing and removal of such a bullet.

A coincidence theory?  I don't think so.  But no proof.  JMO as likely a possibility. 

Edited May 27, 2022 by Ron Bulman

[Joe Bauer]

8 hours ago, Michael Crane said:

Joe,I have seen footage of a gunman shooting down at people,and the smoke that was emitted from the rifle was astounding.I would have never believed it if I didn't see it for myself.Now,I'm not saying that the rifle smoke was equivalent to the smoke coming from the trees.

A long time ago,there was a researcher on here that was able to capture some movement coming from that tree.But it was nothing that could be proven that it was a person.

 

Yes, that is a puff of smoke alright.

[Joe Bauer]

Funny, in the old western movies all you saw was smoke coming out from the guns being fired. Lots of it.

The old TV show "Gunsmoke" showed this every time when there was a gunfight between some drunk rabble-rousing cowhand and Matt Dillon.

In modern day shoot em up movies like Bond, Bourne, Taken you never see gun smoke.

[Ron Bulman]

16 minutes ago, Ron Bulman said:

I've long thought this myself Steve.  The crack of a .22 rifle which I have vs the boom of a .30-06 which my dad had.  In conjunction with JFK's 1'st wound in the throat being a small entrance wound. 

A .22 hollow point would have mushroomed, taken out his vocal cords to silence cries from coming wounds, and likely not exited.  

The butchered throat wound in the death stare photograph suggests the possibility of probing and removal of such a bullet.

A coincidence theory?  I don't think so.  But no proof.  JMO as likely a possibility. 

Of course, as Larry alludes to most modern guns don't smoke much, any of them.  

[Karl Kinaski]

Quote WC testimony of Mrs Donald Baker
Mr. Liebeler.
As you went down Elm Street that you saw this thing hit the street--what did it look like when you saw it?
Mrs. Baker.
Well, as I said, I thought it was a  ftrecracker. It looked just like you could see the sparks from it and I just thought it was a  firecracker and I was thinking that there was somebody was  fixing to get in a lot of trouble and we thought the kids or whoever threw it were down below or standing near the underpass or back up here by the sign.
c.quote

Link to a 2012 thread FIRECRACKER

Edited May 27, 2022 by Karl Kinaski

[Gil Jesus]

On 5/25/2022 at 5:49 PM, Chris Bristow said:

It is very curious that many witnesses described the 1st shot as sounding like a firecracker. I never counted but it must be at least 2 dozen. I recall no reports of the 2nd or 3rd shot sounding like a firecracker, just the 1st shot. I think these facts taken together are significant.
 People were not willing to immediately interrupt the 1st sound as a gunshot. Some expressed their initial disbelief with statements like 'I thought to myself, that's not a gunshot". Maybe this had an effect on their opinions about the 1st sound. I'm just throwing that out to be fair but I think there is probably more to the firecracker witnesses.
 Maybe the 1st round was a defective round that did not exceed the sound barrier, but that is uncommon. I have heard reducing the charge in a rifle to subsonic speeds will make it harder to detect the origin of the sound since there is no sonic crack. If the 1st round was subsonic it may take witnesses a bit longer to find and see the source of the shots. If the first shot came from the roof of the Dal Tex which can mimic the 6th floor trajectory to within 3 degrees,(3 degrees being too small for investigators to measure as it represents only a 1 1/2 inch alignment difference between JFK and JC.)  then a subsonic shot would help to set up the patsy on the 6th floor.
 There must be a reason for the number of reports that describe only the first shot as a 'firecracker'. Anyone have a theory?

2004 Taiwan: Taiwanese president and vice president wounded while riding in an open car.

Shots masked by firecrackers.

https://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/19/international/asia/taiwanese-leaders-survive-shooting-incident-ahead-of-vote.html

[Michael Crane]

16 hours ago, Joe Bauer said:

Funny, in the old western movies all you saw was smoke coming out from the guns being fired. Lots of it.

The old TV show "Gunsmoke" showed this every time when there was a gunfight between some drunk rabble-rousing cowhand and Matt Dillon.

In modern day shoot em up movies like Bond, Bourne, Taken you never see gun smoke.

[Chris Bristow]

8 hours ago, Gil Jesus said:

2004 Taiwan: Taiwanese president and vice president wounded while riding in an open car.

Shots masked by firecrackers.

https://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/19/international/asia/taiwanese-leaders-survive-shooting-incident-ahead-of-vote.html

Thanks that's very interesting.
"The gunshot occurred just as firecrackers were exploded, so we don't even know how many shots were actually fired,''

Edited May 27, 2022 by Chris Bristow

[Keyvan Shahrdar]

The firecracker shot originated from the top of the records building by the ghost shooter in the Zapruder Frames.  This shooter moves to the left most corner of the roof top after the shot at zframe 232.

Doctor Humes description of the first shot to the head: "Exhibit 385 shows in the low neck an oval wound which-excuse me, I wish to get the measurements correct. This wound was situated just above the upper border of the scapula, and measured 7 by 4 millimeters, with its long axis roughly parallel to the long axis of vertical column." ... "The second wound was found in the right posterior portion of the scalp. This wound was situated approximately 2.5 centimeters to the right, and slightly above the external occipital protuberance which is a bony prominence situated in the posterior portion of everyone’s skull. This wound was then 2.5 centimeters to the right and slightly above that point."

The description given by Dr. Humes is from a shot high and above as depicted in zframe 232.  IMO - This shot did not exit the skull.  It rotated inside the skull severing the brain stem as denoted by his orderly at the autopsy, Dr. James C. Jenkins in his interview with Patrick Bet-Davis in 2018.

 

[Mark Knight]

On 5/27/2022 at 2:58 PM, Michael Crane said:

In the "old West," bullets were propelled by "black powder," the same stuff used in the old muzzle-loading rifles of the musket days. According to Wikipedia, "smokeless powder" was invented in 1884. Modern ammunition uses smokeless powder as a propellant. From what I can determine, smokeless powder started coming into widespread usage beginning in 1893.

Fireworks generally use an agent not far removed from black powder.

As for the "firecracker" sound, a .22 caliber rimfire cartridge emits a sound similar to a firecracker. The 6.5 mm Carcano, due to its much larger propellant charge, has a sound closer to a larger caliber rifle than does a .22 rimfire.

[Jamey Flanagan]

Not sure if this will help any or be accepted as a valid theory, but on some program I saw once they were firing test shots into a windshield like the one that was on the limo. Every time a shot went through the glass windshield it sounded just like a firecracker. If the first shot was the one that went through the windshield and hit JFK in the throat then maybe that's why it made a firecracker sound. As for not hearing the actual shot, maybe the weapon that it came from had a silencer on it so the sound that was actually heard wasn't the shot but the bullet going through the windshield. Just brainstorming here so feel free to point out why this theory could be wrong. I'm not married to any theory, just like many of you I'm just looking for the truth no matter what that is!