The Witnesses: S.M. Holland

[Gil Jesus]

S.M. "Skinny" Holland was the Track and Signal Supervisor for the Union Terminal Railroad. He viewed the assassination from atop the triple underpass over Elm St.. Among the things he saw and heard was a shot from behind the picket fence, a puff of smoke in the area of that shot and that he saw JFK and Governor Connally hit by separate bullets. This is his 1966 interview with Mark Lane.

 

 

Edited January 28, 2023 by Gil Jesus

[Joe Bauer]

3 hours ago, Gil Jesus said:

S.M. "Skinny" Holland was the Track and Signal Supervisor for the Union Terminal Railroad. He viewed the assassination from atop the triple underpass over Elm St.. Among the things he saw and heard was a shot from behind the picket fence, a puff of smoke in the area of that shot and that he saw JFK and Governor Connally hit by separate bullets. This is his 1966 interview with Mark Lane.

 

 

Holland sure comes across as credible and totally sincere in his believing what he saw that day.

The man was a 42 year long career railroad man. That should hold some real weight in evaluating his integrity imo.

Love his working class good ole boy Texas twang style and manner of speech.

"In ma mind ...  I knowed what I saw."

Reminds me of a Steinbeck ( Grapes Of Wrath ) Oklahoma dust bowl type character.

 

 

[Marjan Rynkiewicz]

Almost every thing that SMHolland said in this footage (re what happened) was false.

In his many interviews he said that he & others ran over to the carpark immediately -- but pix & footage shows that no-one on the triple underpass moved far for a very very long time.

However, Holland is an important witness -- he said (not in this footage) that he saw Hickey (in Queen Mary) stand & then fall over -- & Holland saw Hickey holding the AR15.

Yep -- Hickey killed JFK.

Edited January 28, 2023 by Marjan Rynkiewicz

[James DiEugenio]

Tink Thompson made Holland the cornerstone of, really, both of his books on the case.

And those reenactments of what he did are pretty interesting I think.

Holland is the guy who IIRC, said something like, "If the day has come when a citizen cannot tell the truth about the president's assassination, then it is time to give the country back to the Indians."

Edited January 28, 2023 by James DiEugenio

[Benjamin Cole]

7 hours ago, Joe Bauer said:

Holland sure comes across as credible and totally sincere in his believing what he saw that day.

The man was a 42 year long career railroad man. That should hold some real weight in evaluating his integrity imo.

Love his working class good ole boy Texas twang style and manner of speech.

"In ma mind ...  I knowed what I saw."

Reminds me of a Steinbeck ( Grapes Of Wrath ) Oklahoma dust bowl type character.

 

 

JB---

Way OT, but I loved the old accents rapidly disappearing from America. Oh, there are some accents left, in milder form.  

Clothing styes too. There was a time woodsmen in the upper Northeast and Canada would unabashedly wear jodhpurs, and of course old Texans wore pearl-button shirts and cowboy hats--not for affectation, because they is what they always wore. 

OK, back to the JFKA.....

[Chris Bristow]

    Most consider the Wiegman image of 'smoke' to be an illusion created by yellowed leaves, but people still debate it. If it was smoke it had to travel almost 40 ft along the trajectory from the fence toward JFK. It could never travel that far even if the wind had been behind it, Which it wasn't.  People can argue aspects of the Wiegman smoke theory but 40 ft of travel should absolutely end that debate.
 Modern gunpowder is smokeless! That is what they say but we still see some smoke now and then. I had wondered if a freshly cleaned gun may smoke more on the 1st shot as it burns off the gun oil. I hit the jackpot on Youtube with this video of these two guys testing a very heavily oiled rifle. They explain that they used way too much oil to see what would happen. There was so much smoke generated that the old smokeless gunpowder argument is made irrelevant . It simply could have been a moderately over lubed gun on it's first shot. I also wonder if that thick, oily and heavy looking smoke would have lingered longer?
 

 

Edited January 29, 2023 by Chris Bristow

[Ron Bulman]

16 hours ago, Gil Jesus said:

S.M. "Skinny" Holland was the Track and Signal Supervisor for the Union Terminal Railroad. He viewed the assassination from atop the triple underpass over Elm St.. Among the things he saw and heard was a shot from behind the picket fence, a puff of smoke in the area of that shot and that he saw JFK and Governor Connally hit by separate bullets. This is his 1966 interview with Mark Lane.

 

 

Inspirational Gil.  Worth another thread.

Edited January 29, 2023 by Ron Bulman