Headshot Theory

[John Dolva]

I need to throw my two cents in.

Cent number one is that the HSCA tested how sounds were heard in Dealey and concluded that earwitnesses could easily tell the difference between a shot taken nearby and a shot  taken from the opposite side of the plaza.  They theorized it was possible someone on the knoll could be mistaken and think an echo from the pergola represented a shot from behind, but no one involved with these tests was ever fooled by this. As a result, I agree with Lee that a sound or a shot came from west of the TSBD and east of the stockade fence, as that is where a number of earwitnesses believed the shots came from.  It may be worth inspecting the area of the west shipping dock of the TSBD, as this area was open and was apparently ignored by the DPD for some time after the shots.

Cent number two is on Harry Holmes.  He did not disappear into thin air; he was interviewed by Larry Sneed and his story is included in No More Silence. I don't think there's anything fishy about the guy.  In fact, in his interview with Sneed, he says some things about the Oswald interrogation that could be helpful in demonstrating Oswald's innocence.  For example, he tells Sneed that Oswald told Fritz the curtain rods were not for himself, but for one of his co-workers.  In that the Paines had a number of curtain rods in their garage, Oswald may have helped himself to some to give to one of his co-workers.  For this statement, among others, I don't consider  Holmes a suspect.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Pat I also agree there was a sound from the west of the TSBD. I'm suggesting that the event that caused this sound may not have been from there. Much has already been said by Al and others with regards to how people hear sounds that come close upon each other. There is also a factor I haven't seen mentioned here yet with regards to how the human ear differentiates sound. I can't remember the exact words (I'll hunt it down though and post later) but sound diminishes in volume at a greater rate than the distance from the sound origin. Also as decibels drop by a certain amount the ear perceives this drop as greater than instruments would measure the drop at. Also to consider is the tendency of people to look over their right shoulder to look for the location of a sound that comes from behind them, so perhaps a lot of the people who heard this sound behind them and looked over their right shoulder (and saw others do the same) and later located it as coming from the grassy knoll actually were responding to a sound coming from closer to the TSBD as Lee is pointing out. There is a kind of herd mentality to consider here.

As far as our pal Harry goes, of course he didn't disappear. He seemed to in relation to his prominent role at the time of the investigation. Many people with less significant roles came to the front and have stayed there. That's the point I was trying to make. I'll post a more detailed history of what I can find of Harry, which isn't much. I wonder if James or someone has a photo of him?

Edited July 28, 2005 by John Dolva

[John Dolva]

More::

Pat I also agree there was a sound from the west of the TSBD. I'm suggesting that the event that caused this sound may not have been from there. Much has already been said by Al and others with regards to how people hear sounds that come close upon each other. There is also a factor I haven't seen mentioned here yet with regards to how the human ear differentiates sound. I can't remember the exact words (I'll hunt it down though and post later) but sound diminishes in volume at a greater rate than the distance from the sound origin. Also as decibels drop by a certain amount the ear perceives this drop as greater than instruments would measure the drop at. Also to consider is the tendency of people to look over their right shoulder to look for the location of a sound that comes from behind them, so perhaps a lot of the people who heard this sound behind them and looked over their right shoulder (and saw others do the same) and later located it as coming from the grassy knoll actually were responding to a sound coming from closer to the TSBD as Lee is pointing out. There is a kind of herd mentality to consider here.

What was the nature of these tests. Did the participants know what to expect? Were conditions duplicated re crowd noise and emotiuonal content? Were the participants of the tests of the same hearing, age, experience etc. as the witnesses? Were shot sounds generated from the post office offices, roof?

As far as our pal Harry goes, of course he didn't disappear. He seemed to though in relation to his prominent role at the time of the investigation. Many people with less significant roles came to the front and have stayed there. That's the point I was trying to make. I'll post a more detailed history of what I can find of Harry, which isn't much.

I wonder if James or someone has a photo of Harry?

He on the one hand belittled the FBI and on the other was an informant. Why? His description of the events as Hill reached the limo seemed aimed at making Jackie appear hysterical, yet film the film shows her considering circumstances behaving rationally.

He went wandering around the plaza at one point looking for something. He picked up a piece of skull and dropped it again? Dentists study cadavers, surely he would have recognised a body part and realised its significance. (Was he really looking for a bullet?) It'd be interesting to have a photo of him to compare to others in the plaza who picked up things.

[James Richards]

I wonder if James or someone has a photo of Harry? (John Dolva)

John,

Images of Holmes are few and far between. I tried to track one down via the Dallas Morning News once and came up empty.

Sorry.

James

[Robin Unger]

Cancellare image showing a close up of the south knoll car park.

[Pat Speer]

What was the nature of these tests. Did the participants know what to expect? Were conditions duplicated re crowd noise and emotiuonal content? Were the participants of the tests of the same hearing, age, experience etc. as the witnesses? Were shot sounds generated from the post office offices, roof?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

The report is online on the history-matters website. If you're not familiar with the website you should spend a night browsing around. Rex has done a great job. As I remember it, the test basically used two earwitnesses along with the report's author, a professor from Harvard. They fired shots, rifle and pistol, from the knoll and the TSBD, and the blindfolded witnesses had to guess the locations and describe the echoes. The author claimed to have moderate hearing damage himself but still claimed that the location of the shots, no matter where you stood, was readily identifiable the vast majority of the time. He volunteers as well that if the sniper fired from INSIDE the window, it would have helped disguise the shot. This is interesting because eyewitnesses all saw the rifle in the TSBD sticking out of the window. This makes one wonder whether or not people ascribed shots fired from the Dal-Tex or elsewhere to a rifle that wasn't actively firing.

[John Dolva]

From another Topic::

".......... Contrary to popular belief that Reagan was a nice guy, portrayed him as a snitch, an FBI informant in the late 1940's, feeding information to J. Edgar Hoover regarding alleged Communist activities in the Screen Actors Guild and other Hollywood organizations. .............

Summers ::

FBI file 100-382196 contains the lowdown on a minor Hollywood actor—"6'1" tall, weight 175 lbs, blue eyes and brown hair"—named Ronald Reagan. The future president, who was spending as much time on union activity as on acting, was on the board of HICCASP [Hollywood Independent Citizens Committee of Arts, Sciences, and Professions], which the FBI considered a Communist front. His brother Neil, however, was spying on HICCASP meetings for the Bureau, and warned Ronald it would be wise to resign. Instead, Ronald acted as an FBI stool pigeon, too.

..........As the Bureau's Confidential Informant, code number T-10, Reagan took to calling FBI agents to his house under cover of darkness, to tell of "cliques" in the Screen Actors Guild that "follow the Communist Party line." He reeled off the names of the actors and actresses in question and, in an appearance arranged at Edgar's personal suggestion, did so again during a secret appearance before the Un-American Activities Committee."

Harry (Henry?) D. (?) Holmes was FBI informant T7. Does this mean he bacame an informant as early as 1942 (when he became a Postal Inspector) or even earlier? Does that mean also that the Top Secret, illegal, mail opening operations by the FBI, CIA, and the USPO started much earlier than indicated by declassified documents which put the date as sometime in 1952?

Further edit:: Mail (money orders? postboxes?) to/from Dallas was apparently handled in Kansas City until some time before '63, when that part of things moved to Washington. Harry worked as Postal Inspector in Kansas City prior to moving to Dallas in 1948.

Edited July 29, 2005 by John Dolva

[Guest Eugene B. Connolly]

Lee,

I was looking at the photograph on the previous page and did some work on it using The Gimp and Shortcut to Photozoom. I enlarged it and played around with the contrast,brightness,duotones etc., etc and have come to the conclusion that the figure you highlighted is a policeman. There is a badgelike shape on his left chest area. I can also make out a face quite distinctly. He also seems to be holding something in his right hand.

Is that a gun muzzle seen straight on?

I will try and post this soon.

EBC

[Lee Forman]

Lee,

I was looking at the photograph on the previous page and did some work on it using The Gimp and Shortcut to Photozoom. I enlarged it and played around with the contrast,brightness,duotones etc., etc and have come to the conclusion that the figure you highlighted is a policeman. There is a badgelike shape on his left chest area. I can also make out a face quite distinctly. He also seems to be holding something in his right hand.

Is that a gun muzzle seen straight on?

I will try and post this soon.

EBC

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Eugene,

Good eye - I'm really not sure. Would you mind sending me an email through the forum so that I can send you the unenhanced crop, and the scan, as attachments? Then you'll have better quality to start from. Posting images to the forum reduces the quality - plus the loss suffered from the JPEG compression.

I also think that the barrel of a weapon, and perhaps a silencer, can be seen - I tried to 'pull that out' in one of the insets in that photo - you could say I 'cheated,' because I highlighted the area and created a separate layer, which I then enhanced and layered back in. Many times the eyes play tricks, and this is an old polaroid to start with [which I believe has been altered] so I am really not 100%. There are quite a few things in the Moorman of which I am unsure, unfortunately. I'm not really prepared to go into detail - mainly because it's a depressing and disturbing subject.

Here attached is an example of a Railroad Detective, from around the same era, but Chicago. The crop I did for the comparison is poor - sorry. I was unable to find a photo of a Texas / Dallas based Railroad Detective, however it's very possible that a badge would have been included as part of the uniform? The main reason for my assuming 'Railroad Detective' is the eye-witness accounts and some guesswork.

Wish I knew what Lee Bowers had written to Al Navis.

- lee

[Lee Forman]

Sorry - one last comment.

If you examine the Moorman closely, which I have for many countless hours, you can draw up one safe observation: Stating that Gordon Arnold's account is an untruth based upon the Moorman photo is a gross error - That is my opinion.

There is, IMO, more than one individuals in the area of the stairs that has been concealed. This is true for the Muchmore and Nix films as well. If Gordon needs to be to our left of the Railroad Detective [in the direction of the underpass], so that his left ear would have practically been ruptured by the shot, then there is a candidate - to our left, at the base of the tree. If the shot was taken only moments earlier, tracing the trajectory to Kennedy's head, then the man crouched on the stairs [stepman] is also a candidate, and would have had the bullet whiz past his left ear. The phony man [The Phantom] on the stairs, which was added to the photo [and to Muchmore and Nix] may be hiding something behind him? I can only guess that The Phantom may have been painted it to conceal the fact that some individuals were lying down at the time Kennedy was shot in the head, because a shot had already come from the area behind the fence. That wouldn't look good if the shots were supposed to have come from the TSBD?

The attached crop has had some enhancement made to the contrast, brightness, midtones, etc. I also added a tiny bit of blur. The insets represent some best efforts made to 'pull out,' and enhance the man on the stairs - who appears to be present even in the UPI photo. I added the reflection back to his lens. Someone seemed to have 'blacked it out' in this version.

I've worked with Stepman for sometime. Initially I was under the impression that he was making a film - one of the 'other' films, and was part of the operation. I have no idea anymore. He could be Gordon Arnold, an operative, a spotter, or an unknown witness. I don't fully understand the logistics of how a sniper and shooter work together - just guessing, since the trajectory of a shot from the Railroad Detective is almost in a straightline across Stepman's position.

Oh what a wicked web they wove.

- lee

If any lurkers have a genuine, first day, original scan of the unaltered Moorman they'd like to have anonymously 'leaked,' feel free to send me an email through the Forum. Anonymity guaranteed.

[Robin Unger]

[Lee Forman]

Great stuff Robin!

Thanks for sharing that - I had never seen it before.

I created a gif using that Moorman crop. Something is not quite right. By way of comparison, I used my enhanced version [which was not my intention]. Oh well. The 'fedora' doesn't seem to work at all, but the Railroad Detectives hat works great. The area of what I believe to be smoke is completely obliterating anything that could be seen behind it in the 'hatman' crop.

Is Ed Hoffman available by email does anyone know? I'd like to get his impression.

- lee

[Bill Grote]

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

This might be a dumb question, but wouldn't it have been possible for the policeman Mr. Hoffman reported to just to take a look in the switch box for the evidence to confirm or not his story?

[Lee Forman]

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

This might be a dumb question, but wouldn't it have been possible for the policeman Mr. Hoffman reported to just to take a look in the switch box for the evidence to confirm or not his story?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Hi Bill.

I don't know that there are dumb questions - if there were, I'd win a prize.

Ed Hoffman was a deaf mute. He was on the underpass over the Stemmons Freeway, some distance away. He tried to flag the attention of a Policeman and failed. When he tried to communicate what he had seen, the Policeman he spoke with failed to understand him. He first reported what he had seen 'officially' to the FBI in 1967. There is no record of Hoffman's report in the DPD files.

http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/hoffman.htm

Nothing was put in the switch box. It was used as cover for the breakdown man to shield himself from being seen by those individuals on top of the railroad underpass.

Here's an example of the area as it looks today. The remnants of the base of one of the switch boxes can be seen in the background. It would make sense to use that as cover, given the top walkway over the underpass is right there.

- lee

[Robin Unger]

Witnesses on the overpass:

Using Don Roberdeau's plat.

Foster, Potter, Dodd, Miller, Skelton, Reilly, Murphy, Bishop, Holland, Winborn, Johnson, Cowsert, Davis, and (3) Unknown.

Note that nearly all of the witnesses were interviewed together on 3/17/64 in Dallas by Special Agent THOMAS T. TRETTIS JR. & E.J. Robertson

Dodd FBI Testimony.

QUOTE:

FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION

Date 3/18/64

Mr. RICHARD CALVIN DODD, 1216 South Tyler, Dallas, Texas, was interviewed at Lamar and Henning Street n Dallas, and furnished the following information:

Mr. DODD stated he is employed as a track supervisor for the Union Terminal Company, 500 South Houston Street, Dallas, and was so employed on November 22, 1963. On this date, he took up a position on the Elm Street railroad viaduct overlooking the route used by the Presidential motorcade on this date. Mr. DODD stated that when the motorcycle escort and the automobile carrying President KENNEDY approached the area where he was standing his attention was directed on President KENNEDY. He stated he first realized something was wrong when he saw president KENNEDY slump forward and simultaneously heard shots ring out. He stated he did not know how many shots were fired, but that the sounds were very close together. Mr. DODD advised that his attention remained on President KENNEDY; he did not look up and did not know where the shots came from.

Mr DODD stated he did not know LEE HARVEY OSWALD and had never met or seen JACK RUBY.

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

on 3/17/64 at Dallas, Texas File # DL 100-10461

By Special Agent THOMAS T. TRETTIS JR. & E.J. Robertson Date Dictated 3/17/64

http://jfkassassination.net/russ/wit.htm

Edited July 30, 2005 by Robin Unger

[Robin Unger]

Note: the same phrase used more than once

"saw President KENNEDY slump Forward"

FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION

Date 3/19/64

Mr. GEORGE A. DAVIS, 1443 North Beckley Street, Dallas, Texas, was interviewed at 500 South Houston Street, and furnished the following information:

Mr. DAVIS stated he was a signalman for the Union Terminal Company, 500 South Houston Street, Dallas, and was so employed on November 22, 1963. On this date, he took up a position on the Elm Street viaduct overlooking the route taken by the Presidential motorcade. shortly after the motorcycle escort and the Presidential car came into view and was at a point just east of the viaduct. Mr. DAVIS heard a sound which he described as similar to firecrackers exploding. He stated they did not sound like rifle fire because they were not loud enough. All shots were very close together and he stated it was impossible for him to determine the number of shots. He stated his first impression was that someone had played a prank, but then he saw guns in the hands of the Secret Service Agents with President KENNEDY, saw President KENNEDY slumped forward, and the police motorcycle escort manouver swiftly about the area and he realized it was not a prank.

Mr. DAVIS stated his attention was directed to the motorcycle escort and the car in which President KENNEDY was riding, and he saw very little, if any, other activity in the area at that time.

Mr. DAVIS stated he returned to the same spot he had occupied on November 22, 1963, at a later date and from this spot attempted to observe the Texas School Book Depository window from which the rifle shot was reported to have been fired. He stated he was unable to see this window from the position he had occupied on November 22, 1963, because the branch of a tree obscured the vision from this point.

Mr. DAVIS stated he did not know JACK RUBY and had never met or seen LEE HARVEY OSWALD.

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

on 3/17/64 at Dallas, Texas File # DL 100-10461

By Special Agent THOMAS T. TRETTIS JR. and E. J. Robertson Date Dictated 3/17/64

Edited July 30, 2005 by Robin Unger