Bobby Hargis sets the record straight

[Gerry Down]

Bobby Hargis testimony is often used to support the idea of there being a shot from the knoll. Its worth hearing what Hargis himself thinks of such an idea:

 

[Chris Bristow]

It is hard to take what he says in your clip at face value when he prefaces his statement in the video below with "This is not to be shown publicly but". He then states the limo came "Almost to a stop".
  Obviously the limo coming "Almost to a stop" is inconsistent with the Z film in which the limo never gets below 8mph. What reason, other than the controversy, would he give his caveat right before he says the limo almost stopped?
   If he did hold the opinion that a shot came from the knoll/overpass I doubt he would say it publicly. He didn't want his limo stop opinion made public and got burned on that. I don't know if he would make the same mistake twice.

 

[Joe Bauer]

So, in one way, we are expected to believe Hargis's 3 feet away right there eyewitness view and take ( 2 shots only?) from the TXSBD but we are supposed to then "not" believe his statement that the limo "came almost to a stop" just as JFK was hit with the head shot?

I would have liked to ask Hargis how much solid brain matter hit him from JFK's exploding brain?

A little? A lot? Did the matter hit him lightly...or did he feel it with more force?

[Chris Bristow]

17 hours ago, Joe Bauer said:

So, in one way, we are expected to believe Hargis's 3 feet away right there eyewitness view and take ( 2 shots only?) from the TXSBD but we are supposed to then "not" believe his statement that the limo "came almost to a stop" just as JFK was hit with the head shot?

I would have liked to ask Hargis how much solid brain matter hit him from JFK's exploding brain?

A little? A lot? Did the matter hit him lightly...or did he feel it with more force?

His comment that he thought he was "hit", meaning he thought for a moment he had been shot, implied he was struck with some force. He also said he assumed he might be getting hit with concrete. I don't know where that would come from or why he assumed that other than something substantial struck him. 

The Ln explanation for the blood on Hargis and Martin is that they just rode into a cloud of debris that hung in the air for 2/3 of a second as they drove into it. Hargis's testimony is inconsistent with that theory. If the hanging debris cloud theory is correct then it hung there for almost 2 seconds before Kinney drove into it.

 

[Gerry Down]

16 minutes ago, Chris Bristow said:

The Ln explanation for the blood on Hargis and Martin is that they just rode into a cloud of debris that hung in the air for 2/3 of a second as they drove into it. Hargis's testimony is inconsistent with that theory. If the hanging debris cloud theory is correct then it hung there for almost 2 seconds before Kinney drove into it.

 

Wind prob blew it back on Hargis. Wind was blowing at odd angles in that plaza - uneven vortices created due to layout of plaza and underpass.

Harper fragment could have landed on Hargis after being blown off the top of JFKs head. Might account for why Hargis thought he was hit.

Edited February 13, 2023 by Gerry Down

[Joe Bauer]

59 minutes ago, Chris Bristow said:

His comment that he thought he was "hit", meaning he thought for a moment he had been shot, implied he was struck with some force. He also said he assumed he might be getting hit with concrete. I don't know where that would come from or why he assumed that other than something substantial struck him. 

The Ln explanation for the blood on Hargis and Martin is that they just rode into a cloud of debris that hung in the air for 2/3 of a second as they drove into it. Hargis's testimony is inconsistent with that theory. If the hanging debris cloud theory is correct then it hung there for almost 2 seconds before Kinney drove into it.

 

Exactly.

[Pat Speer]

From patspeer.com, Chapter 5b:

Bobby W. Hargis rode to the right of Martin and to the left of Mrs. Kennedy. (Note: as so many use Hargis' words to support that the fatal bullet impacted on the front of Kennedy's head, or that the limo stopped on Elm Street, I have highlighted quotes touching upon these issues.)

(11-22-63 article in the Dallas Times-Herald. Note: in 1995 Hargis would tell researchers Ian Griggs and Mark Oakes that he didn't write this article and that it must have been based on a conversation he'd had with a reporter in a hallway) “About halfway down between Houston and the underpass I heard the first shot. It sounded like a real loud firecracker. When I heard the sound, the first thing I thought about was a gunshot. I looked around and about then Governor Connally turned around and looked at the President with a real surprised look on his face…The President bent over to hear what the Governor had to say. When he raised back up was when the President got shot…I felt blood hit me in the face and the Presidential car stopped almost immediately after that…I racked (parked) my motorcycle and jumped off. I ran to the North side of Elm to see if I could find where the bullets were coming from. I don’t think the President was hit with the first shot… I felt that the Governor was shot first."

(Undated typescript of interview with Hargis found within the Dallas-Times-Herald's photograph collection, as reported by Richard Trask in Pictures of the Pain, 1994. This is almost certainly the basis for the 11-22 article) "I felt blood hit me in the face, and the presidential car stopped almost immediately after that and stayed stopped about half a second, then took off at a high rate of speed. I racked my cycle and jumped off. I ran to the north side of Elm Street to see if I could find where the bullets came from. I don't think the President got hit with the first shot, but I don't know for sure. When I heard the first shot, it looked like he bent over. I feel that the Governor was shot first. I could be wrong. Right after the first shot, I was trying to look and see if the President got shot. When I saw the look on Connally's face, I knew somebody was shooting at the car...The fatal bullet struck the President in the right side of the head. I noticed the people in the Texas School Book Depository were looking up to see the top. I didn't know if the President stopped under the triple underpass or not. I didn't know for sure if the shots had come from the Book Depository. I thought they might have come from the trestle."

(11-23-63 UPI article found in the Fresno Bee) “I saw flesh flying after the shot, and the president’s hair flew up,” Hargis said, “I knew he was dead.”

(11-23-63 article in the Houston Post) "A Dallas motorcycle officer who was riding two feet from the presidential car described to the Houston Post Friday what he saw when a sniper fired the shots that killed President Kennedy and wounded Gov. John B. Connally. 'When the first rifle bullet spewed into the open limousine,' said Patrolman J.H. Hargis, 'The President bent forward in the car.' Hargis, a nine-year veteran of the force, said the first shot hit the governor. 'Then immediately after that,' Hargis said, 'the second shot was fired, striking the President in the right side of the head.' The Secret Service man driving the car immediately picked up the phone inside the car and said "Let's go to the nearest hospital.' Hargis said he jumped off his motorcycle and began a search of the building from which the shots were fired. 'I knew it was high and from the right. I looked for any sign of activity in the windows, but I didn't see anybody.'"

(11-24-63 article in the New York Sunday News) "We turned left onto Elm St. off Houston, about a half block from where it happened. I was right alongside the rear fender on the left side of the President's car, near Mrs. Kennedy. When I heard the first explosion, I knew it was a shot. I thought that Gov. Connally had been hit when I saw him turn toward the President with a real surprised look. The President then looked like he was bent over or that he was leaning toward the Governor, talking to him. As the President straightened back up, Mrs. Kennedy turned toward him, and that was when he got hit in the side of his head, spinning it around. I was splattered with blood. Then I felt something hit me. It could have been concrete or something, but I thought at first I might have been hit. Then I saw the limousine stop, and I parked my motorcycle at the side of the road, got off and drew my gun. Then this Secret Service agent (in the President's car) got his wits about him and they took off. The motorcycle officer on the right side of the car was Jim Chaney. He immediately went forward and announced to the chief that the President had been shot."

(4-3-64 testimony before the Warren Commission, 6H293-296): “I was next to Mrs. Kennedy when I heard the first shot, and at that time the President bent over, and Governor Connally turned around. He was sitting directly in front of him, and (had) a real shocked and surprised expression on his face…I thought Governor Connally had been shot first, but it looked like the President was bending over to hear what he had to say, and I thought to myself then that Governor Connally, the Governor had been hit, and then as the President raised back up like that the shot that killed him hit him.” (When asked about the blood) "when President Kennedy straightened back up in the car the bullet him in the head, the one that killed him and it seemed like his head exploded, and I was splattered with blood and brain, and kind of bloody water, It wasn't really blood. And at that time the Presidential car slowed down. I heard somebody say 'Get going' or 'get going.'" (When asked about the source of the shots) "Well, at the time it sounded like the shots were right next to me. There wasn't any way in the world I could tell where they were coming from, but at the time there was something in my head that said that they probably could have been coming from the railroad overpass, because I thought since I had got splattered, with blood--I was Just a little back and left of--just a little bit back and left of Mrs. Kennedy, but I didn't know. I had a feeling that it might have been from the Texas Book Depository, and these two places was the primary place that could have been shot from."

(8-7-68 interview with Tom Bethel and Al Oser, investigators working on behalf New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison, NARA #180-10096-10005) (When discussing how he could have been sprayed with blood, if the shot came from behind) "Well, that right there is what I've wondered about all along, but see there's ah -- you've got to take into consideration we were moving at the time, and when he got hit all that stuff went like this, and of course I run through it." (When discussing his interpretation of the direction of the shots) "Well, like I say, being that we know that the shot came from the School Book Depository, right then it was kind of hard to say what run through your mind. You know you pick up these little things. You don't know why you do it. You don't know why you do 'em, you just do 'em. It's just kind of instinct. But I had in my mind the shots you couldn't tell where they was coming, but it seemed like the motion of the President's head or his body and the splatter had hit me, it seemed like both the locations needed investigating, and that's why I investigated them. But you couldn't tell, there was -- it looked like a million windows on the Book Depository.You couldn't tell exactly if there was anyone in there with a gun." (When asked if the shots could have come from anywhere) "Uh huh. That's correct." (When asked if he saw the President's head jerk as a response to a bullet's impact) "Yes. Uh huh...To the left forward. Kind of that way...I couldn't see what part of it got hit...If he'd got hit in the rear, I'd have been able to see it. All I saw was just a splash come out on the other side."

(a 1971 interview of Hargis by "Whitney," someone working for researcher Fred Newcomb, as presented by Larry Rivera and Jim Fetzer on the Veterans Today website, 4-3-14) (When asked how long the limo stopped) "Oh – you mean after that first shot?...Only about uh, oh 3-4 seconds. Maybe about 5-6. That’s all...but you won’t find that in the Warren Commission report." (When asked if it said the limo stopped) "Ah no I don’t think it didn’t – you’ve seen a rolling stop have you? It’s going less than one mile an hour?...Well that’s what he was doing he wasn’t completely stopped or dead still."

The next three reports were posted on the Education Forum by Chris Scally, 6-21-11. (Interview by HSCA investigators James Kelly and Harold Rose on 10-26-77, notes transcribed 11-16-77, JFK document #003300, RIF 180-10107-10243) ""When they turned left on Elm from Houston, he was watching the President's car. Shortly afterwards, he heard a shot. He saw President Kennedy slump forward and Governor Connally turn. He felt at the time that Connally might have been hit and the President was leaning forward to find out what happened. He said the first shot sounded to him like a firecracker. The second shot hit JFK in the head. The presidential car had slowed almost to a stop. After the second shot, the car accelerated rapidly and sped to Parkland Hospital. Hargis said he pulled over to the curb at the grassy knoll. He got off the bike and went up the hill on the grass. He didn't see anyone with a gun, so he went over to the Texas School Book Depository at 411 Elm Street and helped other police officers seal it off."

(Interview by HSCA investigator Jack Moriarty dated 8-8-78, notes transcribed 8-23-78, JFK document #014362, RIF 180-10113-10272) "When the first report sounded, he was "about one-third of the way down Elm", having made the last turn from Houston. It sounded like a firecracker, but he was unable to tell where it came from. He looked to his right and saw Connally turning and the President appeared to be leaning forward as if he was trying to hear what the Governor was saying. He had seen JFK lean forward in like manner during the motorcade as he and Connally had been conversing. This time, though, the President had an expression of pain on his face. When the second shot was fired - no doubt gunfire this time as it hit the President's head - the limousine slowed so much it practically stopped and he had to put his feet down to maintain balance. Then the driver accelerated and several motormen started the escort. Hargis remained behind parking his bike where it stood in the left side of Elm now about one half way down the hill. He ran to the grassy knoll and continued until he had reached the top section of the underpass. Finding nothing significant, he returned to his bike - still on the stand with the radio on (and working) and the engine off. He started the bike and drove back up Elm and parked just west of the front door of the TSBD where he joined Brewer as they became part of the effort to seal off this building, although, he adds, at that time no-one was certain just where the shots had come from."

(Interview by HSCA investigator Jack Moriarty, 12-29-78, JFK document # 014224, RIF 180-10109-10354). "Reached Mr. Hargis at his new residence... today and developed the following additional information. At the sound of the first shot, he was "in position" - some five to six feet from the left corner of the rear bumper of John F. Kennedy limousine. At the sound of the second shot, he was a bit closer (the limousine slowed and nearly stopped) - perhaps four feet. By the third shot (although he doesn't recall the actual, but saw John F. Kennedy's head explode), he was "almost even with Jackie - no more than two or three feet, if that."

(Interview with NBC broadcast on the 1988 program That Day In November) "It sounded like a firecracker to me and I thought 'Oh Lord, let it be a firecracker. And it looked like the President was bending over, forward. And then when he raised back up is when that second shot hit him in the head."

(5-14-92 video-taped interview with Mark Oakes) "I was trying to catch up to my assigned station when the first shot rang out...I saw Connally turn around...I thought he had been shot. It sounded like a firecracker but then when I saw Connally's face I thought he'd been shot. Which he had...The second shot made his head like a ripe tomato when you shoot it with a gun on the ground. It explodes. That's how his head did. It exploded. Now you got brain matter, blood, and everything else on you"

(6-26-95 video-taped interview with Mark Oakes and Ian Griggs) (On the explosion of Kennedy's head) "It didn't only hit me...It showered everything in the car behind it...You put a ripe tomato, and you shoot it with a gun and it splatters. That's what it was...But the first shot sounded like a firecracker...I've been fired at like five times and every one of them sounded like a firecracker--to me..." (Later, after voicing his support for the single-bullet theory) "There was not three shots; there was only two. I only heard two. One got him through the back and one got him through the head. That's it...The facts was there was two shots--one that hit him in the back and one that hit him in the head. And the one that hit him in the head just busted his head wide open. That's it." (On William Greer, the driver of the limo) "That guy slowed down, maybe his orders was to slow down, slowed down almost to a stop."

(11-23-95 Dallas Morning News article found in the Herald Journal) "'I'm the only one living who was beside the car,' said Detective Hargis, now 63. 'When he was shot in the head, it splashed up, and I ran into all that brain matter, and all that. It came up and down, all over my uniform." (November 1998 interview with Texas Monthly) “About ten seconds after we made that left-hand turn, that first shot rang out…I remember Kennedy leaned forward to listen to what he had to say. And then when he raised back up, that second shot hit him in the head. But we figured out that he had got shot—that first bullet had gone through the upper part of his back, well through the seat, and hit Connally’s wrist and glanced off and went into his thigh.”

(Interview within an 11-22-03 WBAP radio program found on Youtube) "Yeah I looked toward the President and I thought maybe John Connally was hit because he turned around to look at the President. He had a real surprised look on his face. Kennedy was bending over like he was listening to what Connally had to say. When he raised back up, that second shot hit him in the head. That's what killed him, There was only two shots fired."

(11-22-03 article in the Dallas Morning News) “Hargis differs with the Warren Commission and most eyewitnesses, insisting that only two shots were fired. With the first, “a thousand million things went through my mind,” he says. After the last, “there was a plume of blood and brains and plasma. It was just like a fog, and I ran right through it.”

(Oral History interview performed for the Sixth Floor Museum, 9-24-10) (When asked if his observations suggested that the fatal shot came from in front of Kennedy) "No." (When asked if it bothered him that people use his statements to suggest there'd been a conspiracy) "Yeah, it does...There was no conspiracy, whatsoever. There was two shots fired, and both shots, we found the bullet." (On the possibility there was a second gunman on the grassy knoll) "To me it sounds ludicrous."

(11-22-13 article in The New York Post) "Few people were closer to President Kennedy’s assassination than the Dallas motorcycle cop who got splattered with his blood and gore. Bobby Hargis was riding a Harley-Davidson just behind and to the left of the Lincon Continental convertible that carried Kennedy through Dealey Plaza. The motorcade was moving so slowly, Hargis said, that “I had a hard time holding my Harley up. I never let it fall, but I had to use my kickstand quite a bit.” “People were so happy and they were crowding into the street,” Hargis said — until the shots that killed Kennedy cracked the air. “I saw him being struck. Big plume of brains and blood. I rode right through the plume. I didn’t even notice it,” said Hargis, 81. As chaos erupted, Hargis parked the bike and ran into the Book Depository looking for the shooter. Later, he recalled, “Another officer said to me, ‘You’ve got something on your lip.’ It was part of (Kennedy’s) brains.” Hargis said the shooting left him feeling guilty that and his colleagues had failed to protect the president. “Until then, I was real proud to be a police officer,” he said. “It seemed like we didn’t have it all together. We could have done better.” He also can’t forget how quickly things changed when Oswald opened fire. “One minute (Kennedy’s) so happy. They’re smiling and everybody’s happy. The crowd was happy,” he said. “And it was all just destroyed.”

Edited February 13, 2023 by Pat Speer

[Chris Bristow]

2 hours ago, Gerry Down said:

Wind prob blew it back on Hargis. Wind was blowing at odd angles in that plaza - uneven vortices created due to layout of plaza and underpass.

Harper fragment could have landed on Hargis after being blown off the top of JFKs head. Might account for why Hargis thought he was hit.

The wind was blowing from to the Northeast and maybe some gusts went East. But even directly east doesn't send the debris towards Hargis.

The official or estimated location for the Harper fragment is like 100 ft Southwest of Hargis at 313. Of course even if it did hit him it would have to Loft around in the air for about 2/3 of a second. Then of course it wouldn't be striking him hard enough for him to think he got shot.

If you have to invoke wind vortices you are more than stretching it.

[Pat Speer]

50 minutes ago, Chris Bristow said:

The wind was blowing from to the Northeast and maybe some gusts went East. But even directly east doesn't send the debris towards Hargis.

The official or estimated location for the Harper fragment is like 100 ft Southwest of Hargis at 313. Of course even if it did hit him it would have to Loft around in the air for about 2/3 of a second. Then of course it wouldn't be striking him hard enough for him to think he got shot.

If you have to invoke wind vortices you are more than stretching it.

They were moving. If something splashed up in the air Hargis would have driven right through it as it came down. That is what he said happened. Some have tried to claim blood, brain, and bone were propelled towards Hargis, moving with the direction of the bullet. But that's not how it works. A piece of bone broke off by a bullet would not be pushed by the bullet in the direction the bullet was heading. The piece of bone pushed by the bullet would be pulverized upon impact. Some of the bone surrounding that hole might fracture and break off and fly into the air, but it wouldn't go forward in a straight line, as the bone and matter would explode away from the bullet path, not ride along with it. 

In any event, the fact is that Hargis said from the start that the bullet impacted the right side of the head, and that he saw nothing impact or explode from the back of the head. 

I take this as support for something I'd already come to suspect/know based upon the medical evidence--that the large head wound was caused by a tangential impact at the supposed exit. 

 

Edited February 13, 2023 by Pat Speer

[Chris Bristow]

1 hour ago, Pat Speer said:

They were moving. If something splashed up in the air Hargis would have driven right through it as it came down. That is what he said happened. Some have tried to claim blood, brain, and bone were propelled towards Hargis, moving with the direction of the bullet. But that's not how it works. A piece of bone broke off by a bullet would not be pushed by the bullet in the direction the bullet was heading. The piece of bone pushed by the bullet would be pulverized upon impact. Some of the bone surrounding that hole might fracture and break off and fly into the air, but it wouldn't go forward in a straight line, as the bone and matter would explode away from the bullet path, not ride along with it. 

In any event, the fact is that Hargis said from the start that the bullet impacted the right side of the head, and that he saw nothing impact or explode from the back of the head. 

I take this as support for something I'd already come to suspect/know based upon the medical evidence--that the large head wound was caused by a tangential impact at the supposed exit. 

 

I could see him riding into debris but not as a result of the wind pushing it there, which is a popular theory. Debris does spread out and take an angle off the original trajectory, but maybe he was in a position slightly off the original trajectory and was struck by bone. Maybe it was the bone that Brehm claimed he saw hit the curb very near there.

I don't agree with your take on the location of the tangential head wound or your evaluation of the Parkland testimony so we probably could not see eye to eye on anything about the blood splatter on Hargis and Martin.

[Michael Griffith]

This is a sad and rather shameful exploitation of a simple, sincere old man who clearly knows little about the case. I wonder why the interviewer didn't ask Hargis how a shot from behind could have blasted blood and brain matter backward toward him with such force that he thought he himself had been hit.

Hargis actually said this in one of his early statements: "I thought at first I might have been hit." His full statement is even more revealing: "Then I felt something hit me. It could have been concrete or something, but I thought at first I might have been hit." Thus, the particulate matter that hit him struck him hard enough to make him guess that it might have been concrete. Hargis's windshield and part of his uniform were splattered with blood. 

The two lone-gunman theories to explain the backward head movement and the backward spray of blood, brain, and skull are silly, preposterous, and physically impossible. 

By the way, it's worth noting that the extant Zapruder film does not show a large amount of blood and brain being blown backward--in fact, it doesn't show any such matter being blown backward. Instead, it shows a blast of particulate matter blowing toward the camera, and then it magically disappears, all in less than two frames. Yet, we know, and no one denies, that a large amount of particulate matter from JFK's head was blown backward, and that a good portion of it slammed into Hargis's windshield and body. Again, it hit Hargis hard enough that at first he feared he himself had been hit.

Edited February 13, 2023 by Michael Griffith

[Pat Speer]

6 hours ago, Chris Bristow said:

I could see him riding into debris but not as a result of the wind pushing it there, which is a popular theory. Debris does spread out and take an angle off the original trajectory, but maybe he was in a position slightly off the original trajectory and was struck by bone. Maybe it was the bone that Brehm claimed he saw hit the curb very near there.

I don't agree with your take on the location of the tangential head wound or your evaluation of the Parkland testimony so we probably could not see eye to eye on anything about the blood splatter on Hargis and Martin.

Facts are facts. The facts about the blood spatter are not based upon my theories. My theories came after a close study of the facts. For decades, people took quotes from  this or that witness and spun it into being support for their pet theory. And then others quoted the spin. When I devoted myself to the case, however, I realized that much of what was being sold people on both sides of the fence was just not so, or likely not so. 

The Oswald did it crowd routinely repeats myth after myth, such as that Vickie Adams ran down the stairs after Oswald, or that Oswald had plenty of time to fire some relatively easy shots. But the Oswald didn't do it crowd has plenty of myths of its own. And the blood and brain exploded from the back of JFK's head and slammed into Hargis is one of them. 

Hargis, from his earliest statements, insisted he saw an explosion from the right side of JFK's head, and not the back. And he also explained over and over again that he drove through a cloud of debris. Could this shot have been fired from in front of JFK? Perhaps. Blood spatter explodes at a right angle to the surface of the skull where struck. So the explosion of blood observed in the Z-film could be from a shot from most any direction, provided that shot impacted at the supposed exit. 

While the severity of damage strongly suggests a tangential shot, moreover, that tangent need not be from behind. It is the entirely of the evidence, such as the impact on the windshield and on the curb down by Tague, that suggests the fatal shot came from behind, not the explosion of blood and debris. 

Now, there remains a problem in saying that ta-da! the shots came from behind. And that problem is that the earwitnesses and smoke witnesses suggest a loud sound and smoke in the knoll area. 

Well, that led me to wonder if someone might have exploded a firecracker in that area as a diversion. No one in JFK land had written about this. So I combed through books and WWII articles on sniping and found that both the Germans and Japanese had used diversionary devices (essentially long-fused firecrackers) to help conceal the location of elevated snipers from those on the street below. 

 

[Joe Bauer]

33 minutes ago, Pat Speer said:

Facts are facts. The facts about the blood spatter are not based upon my theories. My theories came after a close study of the facts. For decades, people took quotes from  this or that witness and spun it into being support for their pet theory. And then others quoted the spin. When I devoted myself to the case, however, I realized that much of what was being sold people on both sides of the fence was just not so, or likely not so. 

The Oswald did it crowd routinely repeats myth after myth, such as that Vickie Adams ran down the stairs after Oswald, or that Oswald had plenty of time to fire some relatively easy shots. But the Oswald didn't do it crowd has plenty of myths of its own. And the blood and brain exploded from the back of JFK's head and slammed into Hargis is one of them. 

Hargis, from his earliest statements, insisted he saw an explosion from the right side of JFK's head, and not the back. And he also explained over and over again that he drove through a cloud of debris. Could this shot have been fired from in front of JFK? Perhaps. Blood spatter explodes at a right angle to the surface of the skull where struck. So the explosion of blood observed in the Z-film could be from a shot from most any direction, provided that shot impacted at the supposed exit. 

While the severity of damage strongly suggests a tangential shot, moreover, that tangent need not be from behind. It is the entirely of the evidence, such as the impact on the windshield and on the curb down by Tague, that suggests the fatal shot came from behind, not the explosion of blood and debris. 

Now, there remains a problem in saying that ta-da! the shots came from behind. And that problem is that the earwitnesses and smoke witnesses suggest a loud sound and smoke in the knoll area. 

Well, that led me to wonder if someone might have exploded a firecracker in that area as a diversion. No one in JFK land had written about this. So I combed through books and WWII articles on sniping and found that both the Germans and Japanese had used diversionary devices (essentially long-fused firecrackers) to help conceal the location of elevated snipers from those on the street below. 

 

Hmmm.

Maybe the puff of smoke those salt of the Earth Texas railroad men saw coming out from the trees above the knoll was from a diversionary firecracker?

[Gil Jesus]

4 hours ago, Joe Bauer said:

Hmmm.

Maybe the puff of smoke those salt of the Earth Texas railroad men saw coming out from the trees above the knoll was from a diversionary firecracker?

BINGO !!! A "Cherry Bomb" or a quarter stick of dynamite, strong enough to shake the TSBD building, something a rifle shot would not have done. That very thought occurred to me back in 2004 after the assassination attempt of the President and Vice-President of Taiwan who were attacked while riding in an open convertible on the day before the election. In looking at that assassination attempt, I learned that in Taiwan, firecrackers were a common thing used in the celebration festivities of motorcades. Could the CIA have used this same technique to a.) mask the shots fired at the Kennedy limousine and b.) to divert attention away from the location of the real shooters ?