the logic of Zapruder film alteration

[Sandy Larsen]

13 hours ago, Cliff Varnell said:

McGeorge Bundy was at the Situation Room.  Averell Harriman was at the Foggy Bottom headquarters of the State Department.

Max Holland's The Assassination Tapes, pg 57:

<quote on>

At 6:55 p.m. Johnson has a ten minute meeting with Senator J. William Fulbright and diplomat W. Averell Harriman to discuss possible foreign involvement in the assassination, especially in light of the two-and-a-half-year sojourn of Lee Harvey Oswald [in Russia]...Harriman, a U.S. ambassador to Moscow during WWII, is an experienced interpreter of Soviet machinations and offers the president the unanimous view of the U.S. government's top Kremlinologists. None of them believe the Soviets have a hand in the assassination, despite the Oswald association. </q>

The US governments "top Kremlinologists" were Llewellyn Thompson, Charles Bohlen, George Kennan and Harriman himself.  There was no consultation between them that day.

There's no record of contact between Harriman and the generals.

According to Craig Roberts and Jim Bishop, it was McGeorge Bundy who claimed to have spoken to Johnson on AF1.

 

Thanks for the corrections and clarifications!

Do you know where any of the JCS were while LBJ was flying back to Washington?

Do you know if Harriman told Bundy about the the supposed Kremlinologists thing prior to Bundy radioing LBJ?

 

[Cliff Varnell]

7 hours ago, Sandy Larsen said:

 

Thanks for the corrections and clarifications!

Do you know where any of the JCS were while LBJ was flying back to Washington?

Air Force Chief Gen. Curtis LeMay was on vacation and returned to view the autopsy.  Planes in the air ready to bomb Cuba would have been under his command.

7 hours ago, Sandy Larsen said:

Do you know if Harriman told Bundy about the the supposed Kremlinologists thing prior to Bundy radioing LBJ?

There's no record of such a conversation, to be expected.  Bundy came up with an affectionate nickname for Harriman -- The Ol' Crocodile.

The Wise Men, Walter Isaacson & Evan Thomas, pg. 640:

<quote on>

[The Diem] coup was messy.  Diem's body was found riddled with bullets and stab wounds.

John Kennedy himself was shot to death three weeks later.  Bill Sullivan [Harriman's chief of staff] found Averell Harriman that afternoon sitting on the edge of his chair, in front of a television set, holding his head in his hands.

<quote off>

Harriman appeared very uptight that afternoon.  Sorrow over the death of the man who recently demoted him -- or sorrow the patsy was captured alive?

Edited May 8 by Cliff Varnell

[Ron Bulman]

23 hours ago, Cliff Varnell said:

McGeorge Bundy was at the Situation Room.  Averell Harriman was at the Foggy Bottom headquarters of the State Department.

Hi Cliff.  I've read Foggy Bottom was originally HQ for the CIA in the 1950's before Dulles created the "Farm".  I didn't know the State Department was there in 1963.  Any CIA agents still there in 1963 mingling with the State guys?

[Cliff Varnell]

1 hour ago, Ron Bulman said:

Hi Cliff.  I've read Foggy Bottom was originally HQ for the CIA in the 1950's before Dulles created the "Farm".  I didn't know the State Department was there in 1963.  Any CIA agents still there in 1963 mingling with the State guys?

https://wtop.com/j-j-green-national/2014/10/how-the-cia-headquarters-broke-ground-in-langley-va/

Foggy Bottom is a neighborhood.  The CIA was headquartered there in the 50's.  A continued presence?  Your guess is as good as mine.

 

[Ron Bulman]

1 hour ago, Cliff Varnell said:

https://wtop.com/j-j-green-national/2014/10/how-the-cia-headquarters-broke-ground-in-langley-va/

Foggy Bottom is a neighborhood.  The CIA was headquartered there in the 50's.  A continued presence?  Your guess is as good as mine.

 

My perspective is a bit pessimistic at the moment (as usual?).  I'm reading The Brothers John Foster Dulles and Allen Dulles and their Secret World War by Stephen Kinzer.  Only half done, JFD is still alive.  I know he died in 1959.  But he as Secretary of State with Allen as head of the CIA until the end of 1962 it makes me wonder.  Were acolytes of both still interfacing in late 1963?  They did shape history into the early 1960's, and, until today. 

[Michael Crane]

For whatever reason,I for the life of me cannot see what Jackie is picking up off the trunk of the car.

Has anybody looked into the plotters editing this part also?

We know that it was a piece of brain or brain matter.

Edited May 9 by Michael Crane

[Sandy Larsen]

On 5/8/2024 at 6:11 PM, Ron Bulman said:

Foggy Bottom

 

The Watergate Hotel and complex are located in Foggy Bottom, BTW.

 

[Richard Bertolino]

On 5/9/2024 at 1:04 AM, Michael Crane said:

We know that it was a piece of brain or brain matter.

I don't

 

Edited Thursday at 02:49 AM by Richard Bertolino

[Kevin Balch]

7 hours ago, Richard Bertolino said:

I don't think we know even that. Somebody said so, but why would that be edited out of the film? I think she tried to grab some thing on the spare tire hump, a thing that can be seen moving upon close examination of the Nix film. But she failed to grab it. Perhaps a cover story was created or even enacted.

That’s a clip that releases the spare tire locker. I don’t even believe it would have been visible to Jackie.

https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth184701/m1/1/

[Michael Crane]

On 5/10/2024 at 4:25 AM, Richard Bertolino said:

I don't think we know even that. Somebody said so, but why would that be edited out of the film? I think she tried to grab some thing on the spare tire hump, a thing that can be seen moving upon close examination of the Nix film. But she failed to grab it. Perhaps a cover story was created or even enacted.

The forgers want the brain matter flying forwards instead of backwards.

Jackie picked up his brain matter and then asked one of the Parkland doctors if it would help JFK's condition.

Let me just include that it could of been part of JFK's skull also,but let's just keep it simple and say part of JFK's head.

Edited May 13 by Michael Crane

[Richard Bertolino]

On 5/13/2024 at 2:39 AM, Michael Crane said:

The forgers want the brain matter flying forwards instead of backwards.

Jackie picked up his brain matter and then asked one of the Parkland doctors if it would help JFK's condition.

Yes,

Edited Thursday at 02:49 AM by Richard Bertolino

[Kevin Balch]

8 hours ago, Richard Bertolino said:

Brain could go in any direction regardless of where the shot came from, even if the speed of the moving brain might be lower in one direction than in another.

At last something you have said that I can agree with!

Based on videos of melons being shot at, this is particularly true for a high velocity bullet hitting straight on. The entire melon explodes. At lower velocities, enough structure remains to identify clear entrance and exit points. Usually, the exit wound is larger but I have seen instances where the entrance also left a large hole. And In many instances, the targets do fall towards the shooter even though the makers of the videos were not even considering the JFK assassination.

My judgement is that the shot at 313 was a tangential wound (as described by Dr. Perry that afternoon) along the right side of the skull that entered the right side of the back of the skull and exited around the right temple. No need for crossfire or film alteration. The oblique point of impact made the entrance wound larger that it would have been if it hit straight on.

Every time Dino Brugioni describes the pattern of ejecta from the head shot, he holds his hand up and in front of his head and never behind his head. 

[Keven Hofeling]

On 5/8/2024 at 11:04 PM, Michael Crane said:

For whatever reason,I for the life of me cannot see what Jackie is picking up off the trunk of the car.

Has anybody looked into the plotters editing this part also?

We know that it was a piece of brain or brain matter.

WHY DID JACKIE KENNEDY START TO CLIMB ONTO THE BACK OF THE PRESIDENTIAL LIMOUSINE AFTER JFK HAD BEEN SHOT IN THE HEAD?

According to the testimony of multiple witnesses we should be seeing the ejection of much blood and biological debris from the back of JFK's head. It was all over the trunk of the presidential limo, and it is solidly substantiated that the reason Jackie Kennedy stood up was to go after some of that biological debris (in particular see Clint Hill's testimony below describing biological debris coming off the trunk -- imagery that has been completely excised from the film). 
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"...Jackie Kennedy told William Manchester in one of two, five-hour interviews conducted for his 1967 account of the assassination, The Death of a President:

"He had his hand out; I could see a piece of his skull coming off," she said.

She remembered being surprised by the fact it was flesh-coloured, not white; and later recalled climbing onto the trunk of the car to retrieve the serrated piece of his skull sliding onto the road...."

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/lifestyle/jfk-assassination-jackie-kennedys-iconic-pink-suit/DZ2IEVIFS2Z7URSTM6TU5Y3TBU/

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FROM A NEWSPAPER INTERVIEW OF DR. RONALD JONES:

"...That day, [Dr. Ronald Jones] arrived in Trauma Room 1 just as the president was being wheeled in. The 15-square-foot room, which usually saw victims of car accidents or bar brawls, was quickly filling up with Secret Service agents, presidential handlers, doctors and nurses, he said. First lady Jacqueline Kennedy stood in a corner of the room, not crying but looking grim, her husband's blood still fresh on her pink wool outfit, Jones said. Earlier, when she first arrived at the hospital, she had handed another doctor a section of skull and some brain matter belonging to her husband that she had gathered from the limousine they were riding in, he said...."

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/08/07/kennedy-assassination-doctor-parkland/2609969/ 

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TESTIMONY OF CLINT HILL REGARDING JACKIE KENNEDY "REACHING FOR SOMETHING COMING OFF THE RIGHT REAR BUMPER OF THE CAR"

"...Between the time I originally grabbed the handhold and until I was up on the car, Mrs. Kennedy -- the second noise that I heard had removed a portion of the President's head, and he had slumped noticeably to his left. Mrs. Kennedy had jumped up from the seat and was, it appeared to me, reaching for something coming off the right rear bumper of the car, the right rear tail, when she noticed that I was trying to climb on the car. She turned toward me and I grabbed her and put her back in the back seat, crawled up on top of the back seat and lay there...."

https://www.history-matters.com/archive/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh2/pdf/WH2_Hill.pdf

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MILICENT CRANOR ON DIFFERENCES BETWEEN ZAPRUDER FILM AND NIX FILM DEPICTIONS OF JACKIE KENNEDY AND CLINT HILL ON THE TRUNK OF THE PRESIDENTIAL LIMO:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/2232161073506616/posts/4392428030813232/

Milicent Cranor wrote on 8/17/2021:

"When comparing Jackie's position in the two films, please note that in the Nix film, Jackie's right arm is parallel to the trunk, and her hand clearly reaches to the end of it. In the Z film, her right arm is bent, and her right palm is flat on the trunk, not reaching out to Hill. And her distance from the end of the trunk could not possibly be explained by angle of camera."

------------------------------------------------------

"...* One clear indication of alteration in the Zapruder film is the fact that in the Zapruder film Jackie Kennedy goes only slightly beyond the middle point of the trunk before retreating back to her seat, whereas in the Orville Nix film she goes noticeably farther out on the trunk. This means that numerous frames have been removed from this segment of the Zapruder film. 

Z380 is the frame before Jackie begins to retreat from the trunk. She is barely halfway past the middle of the trunk in this frame. Her right hand is slightly beyond the middle point of the trunk—the rest of her body is clearly behind the middle point. Moreover, she is nowhere near Agent Clint Hill.

 Her right hand is at least 12 inches from Agent Hill, and the rest of her body is nowhere near him. In stark contrast, in the Nix film Jackie clearly goes much farther out on the truck and gets close to Agent Hill. Milicent Cranor, who has a background in medical forensic publishing, discusses this issue in detail in her article “JFK Assassination Film: Proof of Tampering?”..."   

Excerpt from 'Film Altered, Eyewitness Ignored - The Best 2014 Book on the JFK Assassination'
Donald E. Wilkes, Jr. is a professor emeritus at the University of Georgia, where he taught in the law school for 40 years. This is his 39th published article on the JFK assassination.  

https://digitalcommons.law.uga.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=&httpsredir=1&article=1207&context=fac_pm

------------------------------------------------------

The following is an excellent article by Milicent Cranor about the differences between the Zapruder film and the Nix film:
------------------------------------------------------
Milicent Cranor, a WhoWhatWhy senior editor with a background in forensic medical publishing, has studied the JFK assassination on and off for more than two decades. In this essay, Cranor asks readers to consider whether there is a significant discrepancy between the Nix and Zapruder films of the assassination, and if this indicates tampering. She also focuses on the Warren Commission testimony of Clint Hill, the Secret Service agent who jumped onto the back of the President’s limousine. What he said seems to suggest he saw Kennedy being shot in the head — for a second time — immediately after the first time. This would contradict the Commission’s central finding that JFK was killed by a single shooter. 

https://whowhatwhy.org/2018/07/12/jfk-assassination-film-proof-of-tampering/

https://www.facebook.com/groups/politicalassassinationsresearchgroup/posts/2635884919800894/
 

GOVERNMENT INTEGRITY

JFK Assassination Film: Proof of Tampering?

 

MILICENT CRANOR 07/12/18

 

No need to rely on eyewitness testimony. Be your own witness. See if we prove that action seen on the Nix film of the assassination is missing from the more well-known Zapruder film. Or not.

Listen To This Story

 

Milicent Cranor, a WhoWhatWhy senior editor with a background in forensic medical publishing, has studied the JFK assassination on and off for more than two decades. In this essay, Cranor asks readers to consider whether there is a significant discrepancy between the Nix and Zapruder films of the assassination, and if this indicates tampering. She also focuses on the Warren Commission testimony of Clint Hill, the Secret Service agent who jumped onto the back of the President’s limousine. What he said seems to suggest he saw Kennedy being shot in the head — for a second time — immediately after the first time. This would contradict the Commission’s central finding that JFK was killed by a single shooter.

---

The other day I was trying to make sense of some strange discrepancies in what a Secret Service agent said about what he saw when President John F. Kennedy was shot.

I’m referring to Clint Hill, the man who jumped onto the trunk of the limousine to protect Jackie Kennedy who had gone out onto the trunk of the car.

Here’s what I can’t sort out: His stories do not agree with the films, and the films do not seem to agree with each other.

Amateur films by Abraham Zapruder and Orville Nix do not agree with each other in at least one obvious way. James Norwood, a retired professor of Humanities, University of Minnesota, was perhaps the first to point out what seems to be a definitive discrepancy:

In the Zapruder film of the assassination, Jackie goes only just beyond the middle of the trunk before retreating.

In the Nix film, Jackie goes noticeably further out on the trunk.

Before looking at stills from these rather fuzzy films, you may want to see a good clear picture of the trunk, and the reference points that help nail down Jackie’s location on the trunk at various times: the seatback, the handholds, and the word on the side of the limousine (Continental).

One other thing to be aware of is the position of the photographers, relative to each other and to the street. The picture below — a still from the Nix film — shows Abraham Zapruder directly across from Nix, standing on an abutment.

Zapruder’s position indicated by yellow arrow on the Nix film below. (From this version of the film.)

Orville Nix stood across the lawn on the south side of Main Street, but we have no picture of him at the time. But you can tell a lot about where he stood from his film itself. Please go here to see an overhead view of Dealey Plaza. And to orient yourself even more, check out the view — in real time — from the alleged sniper’s nest in the Texas Book Depository Building: Earthcam of Dealey Plaza.

Zapruder Film

.

Below is an especially clear copy of Zapruder frame #375. It shows the farthest Jackie gets onto the trunk, in this film.

Consider the distance between Jackie’s right hand — and the left handhold grasped by Clint Hill. It looks to be almost a foot.

To see a slow motion of the sequence showing Jackie on the trunk, please go here. For your convenience, here are links to frames that appear before, during, and after Jackie gets to the farthest place on the trunk. Before: Z-368, Z-369, Z-370, Z-371, Z-372, Z-373, Z-374. During: Z-375, Z-376, Z-377, Z-378, Z-379, Z-380. After: Jackie begins to retreat. Z-381, Z-382, Z-383, Z-384, Z-385, Z-386, Z-387, Z-388, Z-389, Z-390, Z-391, Z-392, Z-393, Z-394, Z-395, Z-396. (Go here for individual still frames from the entire extant film.)

Nix Film

.

Below is a still frame that seems to show Jackie much closer to Hill. Jackie’s right wrist hovers at the edge of the trunk, and her hand seems to have reached the handhold. Her right elbow is above the word Continental on the side of the car. (It shows up only as a white blur on the blue near the bumper.)

Where are the Zapruder film equivalents to these frames?

I can find no cache of individual frames from the Nix film, but here are two copies of the film that offer different advantages:

A good steady copy that stops on each frame:

A slow motion film, but not too slow:

What Does It All Mean?

.

We don’t really know what any of it means. But we do know that a tremendous amount of chicanery has been performed in the presentation of evidence in this entire case. (To see some astounding examples concerning the medical evidence, please go here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.)

Orville Nix said that frames from the copy of his film are missing. (The original was never returned to the Nix family; it was “lost.”) But that film — at least as far as Jackie’s escapade on the trunk is concerned — seems less edited than the Zapruder film.

The Nix film shows far less detail because it was taken at a distance. But it does provide perspective and landmarks in the background. Removal of too many frames on that film would be noticeable.

A third amateur film of the assassination, taken by Marie Muchmore, only shows Hill getting off the follow-up car and making a run for the Kennedy’s car. JFK is hit in the head before he reaches the car, or so it appears — on that badly damaged film.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOthjMTWTlE

The Zapruder film gives a much closer view of the action, and of whatever may have landed on the trunk as a result of JFK’s devastating wound which might suggest a shot from the front — a possibility that would raise serious questions about the official narrative of the assassination,  that JFK was shot from behind. Such a possibility may explain why those frames were removed.

But there’s something else about this close view — it’s so close you can’t see exactly when Clint Hill first gets into the picture.

When did Hill actually grab onto the limousine the first time, before he fell off and got back on again? As you will see from what follows, this is a crucial question.

If Clint Hill told the truth when he testified before the Warren Commission, then — without knowing it — he witnessed a second head shot.

Hill said he saw JFK’s head come apart after he reached the car. But we know from all the films that JFK was shot in the head almost immediately after Hill got off the running board of the follow-up car.

Many witness stories suggest JFK was hit more than once in the head in a flurry of shots fired close together. (Documented below.)

In the following excerpts from Hill’s testimony before the Warren Commission, you will find specific reference points that seem to nail down the exact moment he heard the headshot.

As you will see, he associates that shot with the first time he grabbed the handgrip. And, he says, when he mounted the car the sound of that shot was different from the earlier one. His analogy, standing against something metal strongly suggests he was in contact with the car when JFK was shot in the head. These are physical — even visceral — connections he makes with the time JFK’s head came apart.

And that moment does not show on the Zapruder film.

What Did Clint Hill Witness — and When?

.

I heard a noise from my right rear, which to me seemed to be a firecracker. I immediately looked to my right, and, in so doing, my eyes had to cross the Presidential limousine and I saw President Kennedy grab at himself and lurch forward and to the left.

I jumped from the car, realizing that something was wrong, ran to the Presidential limousine. Just about as I reached it, there was another sound, which was different than the first sound. I think I described it in my statement as though someone was shooting a revolver into a hard object — it seemed to have some type of an echo. I put my right foot, I believe it was, on the left rear step of the automobile, and I had a hold of the handgrip with my hand, when the car lurched forward. I lost my footing and I had to run about three or four more steps before I could get back up in the car.

Between the time I originally grabbed the handhold and until I was up on the car … the second noise that I heard had removed a portion of the President’s head, and he had slumped noticeably to his left. Mrs. Kennedy had jumped up from the seat and was, it appeared to me, reaching for something coming off the right rear bumper of the car, the right rear tail, when she noticed that I was trying to climb on the car. She turned toward me and I grabbed her and put her back in the back seat…

Soon after, Hill was asked, “Was there anything back there that you observed, that she might have been reaching for?” His response:

I thought I saw something come off the back, too, but I cannot say that there was.

Asked about the origin of the “second” shot he heard:

It was right, but I cannot say for sure that it was rear, because when I mounted the car it was — it had a different sound … than the first sound that I heard. The second one had almost a double sound — as though you were standing against something metal and firing into it, and you hear both the sound of a gun going off and the sound of the cartridge hitting the metal place…

The right rear portion of his head was missing. It was lying in the rear seat of the car … There was so much blood you could not tell if there had been any other wound or not, except for the one large gaping wound in the right rear portion of this head.

In recent interviews (here, here, here, and here), Hill revised what he reported in his sworn testimony. And he mixed in the claims of the official story, as if they were his own observations. For example, he said the bullet entered the back of the head [gestures to area low in the back of the head] and came out the front, causing a piece of bone to flip out, although it adhered to the scalp. A far cry from his original observation of a “large gaping wound in the right rear.”

Corroboration of Sorts

.

It seems that several witnesses did not hear the actual first shot. Or even the next one. And some heard a shot — for the first time — when Kennedy was hit in the head, then they heard one or more shots afterward.

The stories I find the most convincing are those involving a reference point associated with the sound of the shot, as shown in the case of Clint Hill. Here are a few examples:

Emmett Hudson, Dealey Plaza groundskeeper: He associates the second shot he heard with the head wound. And he associates a third shot with the way it sounded as he lay on the ground.

I happened to be looking right at him when that bullet hit him — the second shot … it looked like it hit him somewhere along about a little bit behind the ear and a little bit above the ear.

I just laid down over on the ground [urged by another witness to get down] … and when that third shot rung out and when I was close to the ground you could tell the shot was coming from above and kind of behind.

I don’t know if you have ever laid down close to the ground … when you heard the reports coming, but it’s a whole lot plainer than it is when you are standing up in the air.

Another reference point is the moment a photographer takes a picture. Bystander Phillip L. Willis said, “The shot caused me to squeeze the camera shutter, and I got a picture of the President as he was hit with the first shot. So instantaneous … the crowd hadn’t had time to react.”

To the west of Willis, about three seconds later, Associated Press photographer James W. Altgens also took a photo of the motorcade. The strange thing is, Altgens said he took that picture almost simultaneously with what he called “the first shot.” When questioned closely about the timing, Altgens swore that he heard no other shots or noises that could have been shots before this “first” one.

Even further west, Mary Moorman took a Polaroid picture of JFK as he was being shot in the head. She said, “As I snapped the picture … I heard a shot ring out … Then I heard another shot ring out and Mrs. Kennedy jumped up in the car … I heard three or four shots in all.”

Sheriff William Decker, who was in the lead car, which was so far to the west it was almost at the underpass, said, “As the Motorcade was proceeding down Elm Street, I distinctly remember hearing 2 shots. As I heard the first retort [sic], I looked back over my shoulder and saw what appeared to me to be a spray of water come out of the rear seat of the President’s car.”

Special Agent George Hickey was also in the follow-up car with Hill. Below, he seems to be describing the effects of two bullets fired nearly simultaneously, one of which he thought was a near miss, disturbing only JFK’s hair. Other witnesses had the same impression.

I heard a loud report which sounded like a firecracker … A disturbance in 679X caused me to look forward toward the President’s car … At the moment he was almost sitting erect I heard two [more] reports which I thought were shots and that appeared to me completely different in sound than the first report and were in such rapid succession that there seemed to be practically no time element between them.

It looked to me as if the President was struck in the right upper rear of his head. The first shot of the second two seemed as if it missed because the hair on the right side of his head flew forward and there didn’t seem to be any impact against his head. The last shot seemed to hit his head and cause a noise at the point of impact which made him fall forward and to his left again.

Charles Brehm, bystander:

The President was leaning forward when he stiffened perceptibly at the same instant what appeared to be a rifle shot sounded … the President seemed to stiffen and come to a pause when another shot sounded and the President appeared to be badly hit in the head. BREHM said when the President was hit by the second shot he could notice the President’s hair fly up … and then [he] roll[ed] over to his side … Brehm said that a third shot followed … between the first and third shots, the President’s car only seemed to move some 10 or 12 feet … almost came to a halt after the first shot [FBI statement]

‘I guess there was a noise’

.

You may be wondering at this point: How could anyone with normal hearing not have heard that first loud bang? Jacqueline Kennedy gave a plausible explanation during her testimony to the Warren Commission:

You know, there is always noise in a motorcade and there are always motorcycles besides us, a lot of them backfiring. I guess there was a noise, but it didn’t seem like any different noise really because there is so much noise, motorcycles and things. But then suddenly Governor Connally was yelling …

Kennedy’s limousine was surrounded by nine motorcycle policemen: five in front, and four more close behind — two on each side putt-putting away.

The Altgens photo shows that Clint Hill still has not jumped off the running board. But he testified that he did so immediately after hearing the “first” shot. Like many other witnesses, Hill apparently did not hear the first shot, nor did he hear the one that struck JFK in the head before he reached the car.

Photo credit: Ike Altgens / AP / Wikimedia

Another thing you should know: Promoters of the lone assassin theory often stress the fact that one shot can sound like two. But what they don’t tell you is that, depending on the location of the witness in relation to the shooter, two shots can sound like one.

The first Bang can cause the little muscles supporting the eardrum to contract defensively, making one temporarily deaf to a second Bang. But many did apparently hear two nearly simultaneous shots at the time of the head wounding.

(This has implications for jiggle analysis — the correlation of a shot with film blur caused by a photographer’s startle reflex. For more on this, go here.)

Areas of Deception and Confusion

.

There is another, more sinister explanation for the confusion and discrepancies when it comes to the number and location of shots. It can be found in an article by attorney and JFK researcher Carol Hewett that is just stunning, rich in insight and very hard-to-get information.

She came upon a diagram, printed in 1963 showing a circle surrounding three snipers in a triangle. Each sniper is in a designated spot:

Area of Certain Location

Area of Deception (directly across from the Area of Certain Location)

Area of Confusion (one on each side of the Area of Certain Location)

Its caption is chilling:

Chart from Military Armament Corporation. The muzzle blast spread from a suppressed [i.e., “silenced”] weapon shows deception and confusion resulting from attempts to locate sound origin from a weak fixed source at various angles from the source.

Photo credit: Deleuze Cinema Project 1

Doctored Sound, Doctored Film?

.

Josiah Thompson, author of Six Seconds in Dallas, said in his book, “The present study seeks to make proper use of the photographs inasmuch as they constitute the only inviolable form of evidence. Whereas witness reports can be in error.”

Films and photographs are hardly an “inviolable form of evidence,” as is acknowledged in what many consider the “bible on evidence,” McCormick on Evidence, 3rd Ed., Edited by Edward W. Cleary, West Publishing Co., St. Paul, MN, 1984. Title 8, Chapter 21, Demonstrative Evidence; Section 214:

The principle upon which photographs are most commonly admitted into evidence is the same as that underlying the admission of illustrative drawings, maps, and diagrams. Under this theory, a photograph is viewed merely as a graphic portrayal of oral testimony, and becomes admissible only when a witness has testified that it is a correct and accurate representation of the relevant facts personally observed by the witness. (p.671)

Motion pictures, when they were first sought to be introduced in evidence, were frequently objected to and sometimes excluded on the theory that they afforded manifold opportunities for fabrication and distortion…

And in real life, as demonstrated by the chart from the Military Armament Corporation, there are also manifold opportunities for fabrication and distortion.

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I thank Pamela Brown, a flautist and JFK assassination researcher, for her help in understanding certain aspects of Kennedy’s limousine.  

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Related front page panorama photo credit: Adapted by WhoWhatWhy from Dealey Plaza (Father of Nehrams2020 / Wikimedia – CC BY-SA 3.0).

Author

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  Milicent Cranor is a senior editor at WhoWhatWhy. She has worked as a creative editor at E.P. Dutton, a comedy ghostwriter, and editor of consequential legal and scientific documents. She has also co-authored numerous peer-reviewed articles for medical journals.

 

Edited May 13 by Keven Hofeling

[Michael Crane]

Thanks again Keven.