Looking for information on "Failure Analysis Associates" and a 1992 "do-ever" of Edgewood Arsenals Ballistics tests.

[Benjamin Cole]

8 hours ago, Pat Speer said:

From chapter 1 at patspeer.com:

Shots on the Motorcade

Forget everything you think you know about the Kennedy assassination. Your mind is clear and open to new impressions. It is 11-22-63. You are sitting at home, listening to the radio, when suddenly a newsman interrupts your favorite show.

He reads from a 12:34 P.M. UPI news bulletin: “Three shots were fired at President Kennedy’s motorcade in downtown Dallas.”

These are the words of Merriman Smith, a reporter for United Press International. Smith was sitting in the middle of the front seat of the presidential press pool car—a car riding but five cars back of the Presidential limousine in the motorcade--that was equipped with a phone. Upon hearing these shots, Smith grabbed ahold of this phone, called in this report, and refused to yield the phone to his fellow reporters.

Now, to most humans, Smith’s behavior would be inappropriate, if not downright disgusting. Someone has shot at the President of the United States, and a veteran newsman has responded to this not by sharing the lone phone available to the press traveling with the President but by fighting off his fellow newsmen in order to hold onto a scoop.

Of course, in journalism circles, this is the stuff of legend.

According to this legend, Smith smothered the phone like a fumbled football in order to keep it from his chief competitor, Jack Bell of the Associated Press, as a now-diminished motorcade (a half a dozen motorcycle escorts, a lead car containing the Dallas Chief of Police and Dallas Sheriff, the President’s limousine, a Secret Service back-up car, the Vice-President’s car, a second Secret Service car, the Mayor’s car, and, finally, the press pool car) raced to Parkland Hospital.

Here, moreover, is footage of the pool car taken a few seconds after the first shot was fired. The car is turning onto Elm Street from Houston Street, heading straight towards the Texas School Book Depository, the building from which the shots were fired. (At least according to the legend... Remember, we're like Sgt. Schultz on the 1960's TV show Hogan's Heroes. We know nothing.)

 

This footage was created by NBC News cameraman Dave Wiegman, who was traveling in the convertible just behind the pool car. He turned his camera on at the sound of the first shot, and began filming, hoping to catch something, anything, of importance. He then leapt from his car and ran around for 40 seconds or so before climbing back into the vehicle. While the footage of this mad race is priceless, it may have cost Wiegman something even more valuable. As a result of his mad dash around Dealey Plaza—a grassy park in Dallas, Texas, the scene of the crime--the car in which he was riding fell behind the section of the motorcade racing to the hospital. And that part of history—the arrival of the motorcade at Parkland Hospital, and the transport of the President and Governor Connally into the hospital—went unrecorded.

In any event, upon arrival at the hospital, Smith grabbed another phone and updated his story. This 12:39 flash reads: “Kennedy seriously wounded—perhaps seriously—perhaps fatally—by assassin’s bullet.”

A few minutes later, a more substantive bulletin followed. It reads: “President Kennedy and Gov. John B. Connally of Texas were cut down by an assassin’s bullets as they toured downtown Dallas in an open automobile today. The President, his limp body cradled in the arms of his wife, was rushed to Parkland Hospital. The Governor also was taken to Parkland. Clint Hill, a Secret Service agent assigned to Mrs. Kennedy, said, “He’s dead,” as the President was lifted from the rear of a white house touring car…”

A 12:45 follow-up adds: "Reporters about five car lengths behind the Chief Executive heard what sounded like three bursts of gunfire…There were three loud bursts. Dallas motorcycle officers escorting the President quickly leaped from their bikes and raced up a grassy knoll."

And then, at 12:54: “Some of the Secret Service agents thought the gunfire was from an automatic weapon fired to the right rear of the president's car, probably from a grassy knoll to which police rushed."

Note that I have highlighted certain words in Smith’s last report. These words are at odds with what, first, the FBI, and later, The President’s Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy (aka the Warren Commission), would come to conclude. These investigations held that the shots were fired seconds apart by a bolt-action rifle, and not by an automatic weapon. They also held that all three shots were fired from the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository, a red brick building sitting at the right rear of the President when the shots were fired—and that none of them were fired from the grassy knoll in front of Kennedy, and to his right.

Still, one might assume Smith’s reporting an anomaly, and that other reporters within the motorcade heard three well-spaced shots, and immediately suspected these shots came from a building in back of Kennedy.

But one would be wrong.

Take a gander at the bulletins sent out by the Associated Press within the first half-hour or so of the President’s arrival at Parkland. The first bulletin was provided by James Altgens--an Associated Press photographer who witnessed the assassination from the curb on Elm Street, and then ran to find a phone. Here is this first bulletin:

“President Kennedy was shot as his motorcade left downtown Dallas. Mrs. Kennedy jumped up and grabbed him. She cried “Oh, no!” The motorcade sped on. Photographer James Altgens said he saw blood on the President's head. Altgens said he heard two shots but thought someone was shooting fireworks until he saw blood on the President. Altgens said he saw no one with a gun…”

Now, the rest of these bulletins come from Jack Bell, the Associated Press reporter riding in the pool car with Smith, who tried in vain to get access to its phone, but had to settle on calling in his reports from Parkland Hospital, along with everyone else. (Note: I have corrected some spelling errors and slightly edited both these AP bulletins and the previously cited UPI bulletins.)

“AP reporter Jack Bell… said Kennedy was transferred to an ambulance… Bell reported three shots were fired as the motorcade entered the triple underpass which leads to the Stemmons Freeway to Parkland Hospital. Pandemonium broke loose around the scene. The Secret Service waved the motorcade on at top speed to the hospital. Even at high speed it took nearly five minutes to get the car to the ambulance entrance of the hospital. Bell said a man and a woman were scrambling on the upper level of a walkway overlooking the underpass…Mrs. Kennedy was weeping and trying to hold up her husband’s head when reporters reached the car…Kennedy apparently was shot in the head. He fell face down in the back seat of his car. Blood was on his head. Mrs. Kennedy cried ‘Oh, no!’ and tried to hold up his head… Gov. John B Connally of Texas also was cut down by bullets. The President was slumped over in the backseat of the car face down. Connally lay on the floor of the rear seat. It was impossible to tell at once where Kennedy was hit but bullet wounds in Connally’s chest were plainly visible indicating the gunfire might possibly have come from an automatic weapon… It was difficult to determine immediately whether the First Lady and Mrs. Connally were injured. Vice President Johnson was in a car behind the President’s. There was no immediate sign that he was hurt--in fact there was no evidence at all at what might have happened to Johnson since only the President’s car and its Secret Service follow-up car went to the hospital.”

Now, some of the surprising comments contained within these bulletins—Kennedy’s being transferred to an ambulance, Connally’s lying on the floor of the rear seat—were almost certainly the consequence of Bell’s making his report over the phone to a third party who typed it into a teletype—in other words, communication errors. But the bit about Johnson not going to the hospital? That’s either a cover story designed to protect Johnson, or sloppy, sloppy reporting. And the bit about automatic weapons? This was within minutes of Smith’s reporting that the Secret Service thought automatic weapons were fired on the President, probably from a grassy knoll. This would be quite the coincidence…if it was a coincidence.

Now note that Bell’s initial reporting made repeated references to the underpass--which had been in front of the president at the time of the shooting--and did not mention the buildings behind the president at the time of the shooting.

Now consider that an AP article published in the Christchurch Star, shortly after the shooting, declared: “Three bursts of gunfire, apparently from automatic weapons, were heard.”

Well, it’s clear then. Prior to the reporting of the roughly 1:00 P.M. discovery of a bolt-action rifle in the school book depository behind Kennedy at the time of the shooting, the suspicion among the nation’s top newswire reporters--Smith and Bell, who’d been traveling just five cars behind Kennedy in the motorcade—was that an automatic weapon had been fired at the President…from a location in front and to the right of Kennedy.

PS-

Fascinating. 

Yet we also have witnesses, such as the credible guy in the observation tower at the railroad yards (I forget his name, interviewed by Mark Lane, captured on film) who clearly states, (using a pencil on a table top) I heard "tap.....tap-tap." The last two taps (shots) a split-second apart. 

So, many witnesses did not hear automatic weapons fire. They heard three shots, the last two in close company. Not "rata-tata-tat, rata-tata-tat." 

But inside the limo, Connally and a Secret Service guy believed there was automatic weapons fire. So did some news reporters, as you point out. 

This is what makes me think there was the use of silencers, or a pneumatic rifle. 

I wonder if the many attempts on Presidents De Gaulle's life, including the famous one in which De Gaulle was shot at in his vehicle by automatic weapons (a relatively recent and very dramatic event in 1963), colored the reporter's observations. 

But great work by you.

In any event, I feel confident that a lone gunman, armed with a single-shot bolt-action rifle, could not have fired all the shots on 11/22.

Let alone the gunsmoke in the plaza.....

 

 

 

[Benjamin Cole]

8 hours ago, Tommy Tomlinson said:

A number of the earliest reports transcribed over the phone from the press corps (attributed to either British PA or Reuters) referred to what sounded like "three bursts of automatic gunfire..."

I believe that there were three guns, and the first "shot" was actually a volley. As you say Ben, the distance distortion of the sound could make one person hear one shot, another person may hear two, while a third person may hear all three, depending on their relative distance to the guns.

Then on the second and third "shots" there could have been a total of three further actual shots fired. The time differential described between two and three potentially discounts any more, unless one or more were fired from a semi automatic carbine like the ones Oswald trained with in the Marines... of course if suppression were used on one or two of the guns, then those shots would have potentially sounded more like echoes of the other shots.

Pat Speer makes excellent observations here as well.

I think we can all agree that there are different scenarios that explain the shots on 11/22---but not a lone gunman armed with a single-shot bolt-action rifle. That dog don't hunt. 

Let alone the many witnesses who smelled gunsmoke in Dealey Plza in the immediate aftermath of the JFKA....

[Pat Speer]

1 hour ago, Benjamin Cole said:

PS-

Fascinating. 

Yet we also have witnesses, such as the credible guy in the observation tower at the railroad yards (I forget his name, interviewed by Mark Lane, captured on film) who clearly states, (using a pencil on a table top) I heard "tap.....tap-tap." The last two taps (shots) a split-second apart. 

So, many witnesses did not hear automatic weapons fire. They heard three shots, the last two in close company. Not "rata-tata-tat, rata-tata-tat." 

But inside the limo, Connally and a Secret Service guy believed there was automatic weapons fire. So did some news reporters, as you point out. 

This is what makes me think there was the use of silencers, or a pneumatic rifle. 

I wonder if the many attempts on Presidents De Gaulle's life, including the famous one in which De Gaulle was shot at in his vehicle by automatic weapons (a relatively recent and very dramatic event in 1963), colored the reporter's observations. 

But great work by you.

In any event, I feel confident that a lone gunman, armed with a single-shot bolt-action rifle, could not have fired all the shots on 11/22.

Let alone the gunsmoke in the plaza.....

 

 

 

One of the most interesting aspects to me is that the initial APB said the shooter was equipped with a Winchester. I tried to figure out where this came from.

Here is what I came up with...

From Chapter 4b at patspeer.com:

Let's look at how the commission answered the question of whether Oswald had been in the sniper's nest window with the assassination rifle, or had even recently handled the assassination rifle.

At 12:44, 14 minutes after the shooting, Dallas Police Inspector J. Herbert Sawyer called in a description of the presumed assassin. He announced: "The wanted person in this is a slender white male about 30, 5 feet 10, 165, carrying what looks to be a 30-30 or some type of Winchester." He was then asked to confirm that this was a rifle. He responded: "A rifle, yes." He was then asked "Any clothing description?" He responded "Current witness can't remember that."

This description fueled a manhunt. A minute later, the Dallas Police Channel One dispatcher broadcast a description of the shooter based upon the information provided by Sawyer. He declared:"Attention all squads. Attention all squads. The suspect in the shooting at Elm and Houston is reported to be an unknown white male, approximately thirty, slender build, height five feet ten inches, weight one hundred sixty-five pounds, reported to be armed with what is thought to be a 30 caliber rifle. Attention all squads. The suspect from Elm and Houston is reported to be an unknown white male about thirty, slender build, five feet ten inches tall, one hundred sixty-five pounds, armed with what is thought to be a 30-30 rifle. No further description at this time, or information."

Now, here is how this suspect was described in that day's eyewitness statements and interviews...

Howard Brennan (11-22-63 statement to the Sheriff’s Department, 19H470): “He was a white man in his early 30’s, slender, nice looking, slender and would weigh about 165 to 175 pounds.He had on light colored clothing but definitely not a suit...There was nothing unusual about him at all in appearance. I believe that I could identify this man if I ever saw him again.”

Howard Brennan (11-22-63 FBI interview, as reflected in an 11-23-63 FBI report, CD5 p12-14) "Brennan described the man with the rifle as a white male, who appeared to be in his early 30's. about 5'10" tall, and about 165 pounds in weight. He said this individual was not wearing a hat and was dressed in 'light color clothes in the khaki line.' He added this individual may have been wearing a light-weight jacket or sweater; however, he could not be positive about the jacket or sweater."

Howard Brennan (1964 interview with CBS--found online as part of the 2-5-92 episode of 48 Hours) "The Secret Service man asked me for a description. I gave him a description of a man in his early 30's wearing light khaki-colored clothing, height five-feet nine or ten, weighing 170 pounds."

Well, let's stop right here. Brennan is the supposed source for Sawyer's description. And yet he never said anything about a 30-30 or Winchester. And he could describe the clothes.

That's not all that's odd. Here is how (in his 1987 book Eyewitness to History) Brennan subsequently described his discussion with Sawyer: "Shortly after we got to the front steps of the building a plain clothes policeman came out of the door. He asked me what I had seen and I told him. I gave him a description of the man I had seen on the sixth floor with the rifle. 'He was a young man about 25 to 35 years old. He seemed to be of average height, not over six feet and he had dark hair that was beginning to recede.' He went to a police car that was parked nearby and broadcast the description I had given him. I learned later that this was the first description broadcast to all units of the Dallas Police Department and may have led Officer J. D. Tippit to stop Lee Harvey Oswald."

Hmmm... Brennan claims he described the suspect's hair (Oops! This was something he'd told the Warren Commission he hadn't noticed!) but fails to mention that he provided an approximate weight for the suspect. And, oh yeah, he never mentions the rifle's being a 30-30 or Winchester.

So where did Sawyer get his information about the 30-30 and Winchester?

While some have mused that the witness providing the info to Sawyer was not Howard Brennan, but some unnamed conspirator trying to frame Oswald, others have mused that Sawyer combined the description provided by Brennan with the statements of one or more other witnesses.

So let's take a look at the rest of the statements in which the sniper's nest shooter was described.

Amos Euins (11-22-63 statement to the Sheriff’s Department, 19H474): “I saw a man in a window with a gun and I saw him shoot twice. He then stepped back behind some boxes. I could tell the gun was a rifle and it sounded like an automatic rifle, the way he was shooting...This was a white man, he did not have on a hat. I just saw this man for a few seconds.”

Well, perhaps that's it. Euins was briefly interviewed by Sgt. D.V. Harkness and placed in Inspector Sawyer's car around the same time Brennan was telling his story to Dallas Police Officer Welcome Barnett, and then Sawyer. Sawyer may have taken Euins' claim the rifle sounded like an "automatic rifle" and extrapolated from this that the rifle was a 30-30 or some other type of Winchester. The vast majority of 30-30 rifles and Winchester rifles are lever action rifles...which is to say, repeater rifles. Although not technically automatic rifles (where each pull of the trigger fires a bullet without the shooter having to perform any additional action), lever action rifles can be fired much faster than standard bolt action rifles, such as the one subsequently found in the depository. (Recall, if you can, Chuck Connors at the beginning of the 50's TV show, The Rifleman.) And no, I'm not just guessing at this. Articles on lever action rifles claim they can be fired twice a second, which is roughly five times as fast as one can fire a bolt-action rifle.

 

[Benjamin Cole]

27 minutes ago, Pat Speer said:

One of the most interesting aspects to me is that the initial APB said the shooter was equipped with a Winchester. I tried to figure out where this came from.

Here is what I came up with...

From Chapter 4b at patspeer.com:

Let's look at how the commission answered the question of whether Oswald had been in the sniper's nest window with the assassination rifle, or had even recently handled the assassination rifle.

At 12:44, 14 minutes after the shooting, Dallas Police Inspector J. Herbert Sawyer called in a description of the presumed assassin. He announced: "The wanted person in this is a slender white male about 30, 5 feet 10, 165, carrying what looks to be a 30-30 or some type of Winchester." He was then asked to confirm that this was a rifle. He responded: "A rifle, yes." He was then asked "Any clothing description?" He responded "Current witness can't remember that."

This description fueled a manhunt. A minute later, the Dallas Police Channel One dispatcher broadcast a description of the shooter based upon the information provided by Sawyer. He declared:"Attention all squads. Attention all squads. The suspect in the shooting at Elm and Houston is reported to be an unknown white male, approximately thirty, slender build, height five feet ten inches, weight one hundred sixty-five pounds, reported to be armed with what is thought to be a 30 caliber rifle. Attention all squads. The suspect from Elm and Houston is reported to be an unknown white male about thirty, slender build, five feet ten inches tall, one hundred sixty-five pounds, armed with what is thought to be a 30-30 rifle. No further description at this time, or information."

Now, here is how this suspect was described in that day's eyewitness statements and interviews...

Howard Brennan (11-22-63 statement to the Sheriff’s Department, 19H470): “He was a white man in his early 30’s, slender, nice looking, slender and would weigh about 165 to 175 pounds.He had on light colored clothing but definitely not a suit...There was nothing unusual about him at all in appearance. I believe that I could identify this man if I ever saw him again.”

Howard Brennan (11-22-63 FBI interview, as reflected in an 11-23-63 FBI report, CD5 p12-14) "Brennan described the man with the rifle as a white male, who appeared to be in his early 30's. about 5'10" tall, and about 165 pounds in weight. He said this individual was not wearing a hat and was dressed in 'light color clothes in the khaki line.' He added this individual may have been wearing a light-weight jacket or sweater; however, he could not be positive about the jacket or sweater."

Howard Brennan (1964 interview with CBS--found online as part of the 2-5-92 episode of 48 Hours) "The Secret Service man asked me for a description. I gave him a description of a man in his early 30's wearing light khaki-colored clothing, height five-feet nine or ten, weighing 170 pounds."

Well, let's stop right here. Brennan is the supposed source for Sawyer's description. And yet he never said anything about a 30-30 or Winchester. And he could describe the clothes.

That's not all that's odd. Here is how (in his 1987 book Eyewitness to History) Brennan subsequently described his discussion with Sawyer: "Shortly after we got to the front steps of the building a plain clothes policeman came out of the door. He asked me what I had seen and I told him. I gave him a description of the man I had seen on the sixth floor with the rifle. 'He was a young man about 25 to 35 years old. He seemed to be of average height, not over six feet and he had dark hair that was beginning to recede.' He went to a police car that was parked nearby and broadcast the description I had given him. I learned later that this was the first description broadcast to all units of the Dallas Police Department and may have led Officer J. D. Tippit to stop Lee Harvey Oswald."

Hmmm... Brennan claims he described the suspect's hair (Oops! This was something he'd told the Warren Commission he hadn't noticed!) but fails to mention that he provided an approximate weight for the suspect. And, oh yeah, he never mentions the rifle's being a 30-30 or Winchester.

So where did Sawyer get his information about the 30-30 and Winchester?

While some have mused that the witness providing the info to Sawyer was not Howard Brennan, but some unnamed conspirator trying to frame Oswald, others have mused that Sawyer combined the description provided by Brennan with the statements of one or more other witnesses.

So let's take a look at the rest of the statements in which the sniper's nest shooter was described.

Amos Euins (11-22-63 statement to the Sheriff’s Department, 19H474): “I saw a man in a window with a gun and I saw him shoot twice. He then stepped back behind some boxes. I could tell the gun was a rifle and it sounded like an automatic rifle, the way he was shooting...This was a white man, he did not have on a hat. I just saw this man for a few seconds.”

Well, perhaps that's it. Euins was briefly interviewed by Sgt. D.V. Harkness and placed in Inspector Sawyer's car around the same time Brennan was telling his story to Dallas Police Officer Welcome Barnett, and then Sawyer. Sawyer may have taken Euins' claim the rifle sounded like an "automatic rifle" and extrapolated from this that the rifle was a 30-30 or some other type of Winchester. The vast majority of 30-30 rifles and Winchester rifles are lever action rifles...which is to say, repeater rifles. Although not technically automatic rifles (where each pull of the trigger fires a bullet without the shooter having to perform any additional action), lever action rifles can be fired much faster than standard bolt action rifles, such as the one subsequently found in the depository. (Recall, if you can, Chuck Connors at the beginning of the 50's TV show, The Rifleman.) And no, I'm not just guessing at this. Articles on lever action rifles claim they can be fired twice a second, which is roughly five times as fast as one can fire a bolt-action rifle.

 

Chuck Connors in The Rifleman! Those were the days....

My understanding is that a "semi-automatic" rifle is one that fires with each squeeze of the trigger, whereas an "automatic" rifle fires in a flurry as long as the trigger is depressed (and ammo remains). 

Again, we agree on the big point: A lone gunman, armed with a single-shot bolt action rifle, does not explain the all the shots in 11/22, nor the many, many witnesses who heard or felt the effects of an "automatic" rifle. Or even the "bang...bang-bang" sequence heard by many. 

Let alone the many, many witnesses (including veterans and cops) who smelled gunsmoke in the Dealey Plaza in the immediate aftermath of the JFKA. 

The "lone nut with a Mannlicher Carcano" dog just don't hunt. 

See President Joe Biden is trying to gut the JFK Records Act for good....

Man, the JFK records are radioactive 60 years later. Just a lone nut?