A Single Answer

by Robert Harris

Probably no crime in history has generated as much speculation, theorizing, and guesswork as the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. This article will not resolve all the questions surrounding the case, but it will provide an accurate answer to what is perhaps, the most fundamental and important of all the issues - the question of whether a single assassin could have been solely responsible for the fatal attack on President Kennedy.

Surprisingly enough, that question will become answerable, due to one important characteristic of the alleged murder weapon, a Mannlicher Carcano rifle that apparently, belonged to Lee Harvey Oswald. As the owner of one of these weapons, I can personally confirm that it is not as bad as some critics have made it out to be. It is reasonably accurate, and easy to fire. In the hands of even a mediocre shooter, and with a little practice, it could certainly be a deadly weapon, entirely capable of delivering a fatal bullet from the 90 yards that separated the alleged sniper's nest from the President, at the instant of the explosive head shot.

       But it does have one rather serious drawback. Originally designed in the 19th century, it has a very stiff bolt action. Even when well lubricated, the act of ejecting a spent cartridge and reloading is awkward and slow. Extensive testing, carried out by FBI firearms experts as well as by the HSCA (House Select Committee on Assassinations), thirteen years later, confirmed that even expert riflemen generally required three or more seconds to reload, aim, and fire the weapon.

By the way, this issue should not be confused with the ancient argument that Oswald couldn't have fired all the shots in the roughly, five and one half seconds, the Warren Commission originally suggested. In more recent times, compelling arguments have been advanced, suggesting that the shots were spread out over a longer time span, more in the range of eight seconds. My own research suggests that this is probably correct, and that undoubtedly, this weapon was capable of producing three shots in such a time span. But the issue here is, whether shots were fired too closely together to have both come from this weapon. To answer that question, we must first determine what its limitations are. Fortunately, a great deal of testing has been done, to precisely resolve that question. 

The following is from the testimony of FBI firearms expert, Robert Frazier. As you look at the times required for these experts to fire three shots, remember that the first one doesn't count, since the weapon was already aimed and loaded when that shot was fired. Therefore, if a series of 3 shots was fired in say, 8 seconds we would conclude that it took an average of 4 seconds to cycle the weapon and fire each shot. Parenthetical comments are mine:

Mr. EISENBERG. And do you have the times within which each agent fired the three shots?

Mr. FRAZIER. Yes, sir. Killion fired his three shots in nine seconds, (4.5 seconds per shot) and they are shown--the three shots are interlocking, shown on Commission Exhibit No. 549.
Cunningham fired three shots--I know the approximate number of seconds was seven. Cunningham's time was approximately seven seconds. (3.5 seconds per shot)

Mr. EISENBERG. Can you at a later date confirm the exact time?

Mr. FRAZIER. Yes, sir.

Mr. EISENBERG. And you will do that by letter to the Commission, or if you happen to come back by oral testimony?

Mr. FRAZIER. Yes, sir.

Mr. EISENBERG. And your time, Mr. Frazier?

Mr. FRAZIER. For this series, was six seconds (three seconds per shot)..¹

Three seconds then, was the very fastest time for any of them. Those tests were conducted on November 27, 1963, five days after the assassination. Despite the fact that the experts were certainly better riflemen than Oswald, their range of times was probably fairly realistic. But by March of 1964, the Warren Commission had concocted a theory that had Oswald firing all three shots in roughly, 5.5 seconds, considerably faster than any of the experts. So, on March 16, 1964, shortly before Frazier was scheduled to testify, he returned alone, to the firing range and after repeated attempts, apparently managed to get his shots off within a scant 4.6 seconds, thus bringing his average down to 2.3 seconds.

As we already know, Frazier's desperate efforts to make the Warren Commission's shooting scenario credible, was not really necessary. But besides giving us an insight into the FBI's prosecutorial mindset, Frazier's final effort in 1964 provided us with a minimal time that was probably much lower than anything we would expect from Oswald or most other riflemen in the real world, and especially those who were more interested in hitting their quarry than in setting speedshooting records.

Frazier described his final efforts in this part of his testimony,

Mr. FRAZIER. I fired three shots in 4.6 seconds at 25 yards with approximately a 3-inch spread, which is the equivalent of a 12-inch spread at a hundred yards. And I feel that a 12-inch relative circle could be reduced to 6 inches or even less with considerable practice with the weapon.

Mr. EISENBERG. That is in the 4.6-second time?

Mr. FRAZIER. Yes. I would say from 4.8 to 5 seconds, in that area 4.6 is firing this weapon as fast as the bolt can be operated, I think.²

Although we will accept the 2.3 seconds as our test standard, please remember that this number is extremely minimal. Even Warren Commission counsel, Wesley Liebeler expressed doubt that the 2.3 second standard was reasonable. This is from a memo he wrote on the subject in 1964,

The figure of 2.3 as a minimum firing time for each shot used throughout chapter 3. The present discussion of rifle capability shows that expert riflemen could not fire the assassination weapon that fast. Only one of the experts managed to do so, and his shots, like those of the other FBI experts, were high and to the right of the target. The fact is that most of the experts were much more proficient with a rifle than Oswald could ever be expected to be, and the record indicates that fact..³

In 1995 I conducted informal tests at my business, videotaping two people with substantial military and firearms experience, dry-firing the Mannlicher Carcano rifle at stationary targets (telephone poles) less than 90 yards away. Their instructions were to fire as rapidly as possible, after acquiring the target in the crosshairs. By replaying the video tapes at the standard 30 fps, it was easy to measure the amount of time they took. In very case, the shooters required over 3 seconds to carry out their assignments. They were able to get their time down to slightly less than 3 seconds, but only after I asked them to fire without aiming or attempting to acquire a target at all.

This fact was corroborated yet again, by the HSCA when they recruited expert riflemen from the Washington D.C. police department to test their own theories about the timing of the Dealey Plaza shots. Based on acoustics evidence that was later discredited, the HSCA had contrived a theory that included two early shots fired by Oswald, within a span of just 1.65 seconds. Fully aware that even experts were unable to operate the weapon that quickly, they theorized that he could have fired faster by flipping the telescopic scope out of his way, and targeting through the iron sight at the end of the rifle barrel. This was a dubious theory at best, since it made little sense for a dedicated sniper to sacrifice the accuracy of a scope, when he had no reason at all to believe he would need to speed-fire the weapon. It made even less sense to imagine Oswald bothering to smuggle the scope into the depository and then remount it on his rifle (The scope, mounted on the rifle would not fit in the bag that he was claimed to have carried it in.), if he didn't intend to use it.

But this became a moot question, when after repeated test firings, eight police sharpshooters and two committee staffers, aiming with both the telescopic scope and without it, were never able to hit their targets twice within that brief time span. There was just not enough time to operate the bolt action and acquire the target⁴ . The obvious conclusion then, is that the experts were correct; no-one, neither professionals, nor certainly, Oswald, was able to get off a successful shot within 2.3 or fewer, seconds. Accurate shots within less than 1.65 seconds of one another, would be beyond the abilities of even world class riflemen.

At this point then, we indeed have a potential method for answering the question of whether the assassination could have been carried out by a single gunman. If shots were fired within less than 2.3 seconds of one another, we can confidently declare that at least two snipers were involved.

But how could such a determination be made? How do we measure with certainty, the elapsed time between the shots? There are no known audio recordings of the attack, and the films taken by bystanders, were silent. In fact, among researchers, there has been universal agreement on the timing of only one shot that day. That was the one that caused the terrible and highly visible explosion of the President's head at Zapruder frame 313.

As it turns out, the problem is not quite as difficult as it might appear, but we are going to need one more tool -  a device to precisely measure the elapsed time between various, visible events that occurred during the attack. That will come in the form of what is probably the single most important piece of evidence in this case - the famous 8mm color film, taken by Abraham Zapruder.

Zapruder was a dress manufacturer who had recently purchased a top of the line, Zoomatic Director series, Bell & Howell movie camera, which he intended to use to film President Kennedy when the motorcade arrived. With the help of Mary Sitzman, an employee whom he had asked to help steady him, Zapruder stood atop a four foot, concrete abutment in front of the pergola in Dealey Plaza, where he captured the entire assassination on film, including the explosive headshot that still shocks viewers today.

Zapruder's view of the crime was so good, that his film became an accepted timing standard for the FBI as well as later researchers. His camera was found to run at a steady rate of 18.3 frames per second. With that knowledge, it is easy to make extremely accurate measurements of the time between various, visible events. For example, to calculate the time that elapsed between say, frame 133 and frame 187, we simply divide the number of elapsed frames, in this case 54, by 18.3. The math is quite simple:

(187-133)/18.3= 2.95 seconds

The Zapruder film has also been used to pinpoint the timing of many of the still photos taken that day. By examining the position of the limousine in a given photo and the orientation of its occupants, experts have been able to associate many of those photos with specific Zapruder frames. Perhaps the most critical of these pictures is one taken by Associated Press photographer James Altgens at precisely the equivalent of frame number 255.

But before we start to pinpoint events down to an eighteenth of a second, it might be useful to understand the general pattern of the shots that witnesses heard that day. Most of the people who heard those shots were quite clear about that and as we will see a bit later, their recollections were fully corroborated by other, very objective evidence.

Earwitnesses

The common "wisdom” among those who have held traditional views, either pro or con, on the conspiracy question, has been that the people in Dealey Plaza were hopelessly confused by the gunshots that day. Certainly, there is a kernel of credibility to that notion, at least in regard to the sources of the shots. For example, there was a good deal of diversity among the witnesses about the locations from which the shots were fired. A small majority seemed to believe that they came from the East end of Dealey Plaza, from the area of the Depository and Daltex buildings, while a slightly smaller number placed their source at the West end, or grassy knoll area. Most witnesses gave a singular response when asked where the shots came from, probably because the question, seemed to encourage that kind of answer.

But when it came to the much simpler question of the number and timing of the shots, these witnesses were remarkably consistent. Most of them reported hearing three shots. Some of those recollections may have been contaminated by FBI investigators who told witnesses that three shells were found in the sniper's nest, or in other ways, suggested that number to them. But, there was little disagreement about the spacing of the shots. The overwhelming majority reported a sequence that could hardly have been the product of government coaxing. They heard a single gunshot, followed by an extended silence, often described as about four or five seconds, and then a flurry of at least two closely spaced shots at the very end.

Because this issue is so important to the ultimate question of conspiracy, we'll be looking at a rather large quantity of testimony and evidence. If it seems we are beating a dead horse here, I can only suggest that this is necessary to overcome false theories about the assassination, that have been repeated so many times, and for so many years, that some students of the case have come to accept them as gospel. I would also urge the reader to carefully examine every citation in this section, for the simple reason, that this is the first time many of these people's statements have been published outside of the musty confines of the Warren Commissions' 26 volumes. These are the people who actually witnessed the attack and heard the shots. For far too long, their nearly unanimous memories of the shooting sequence have taken a back seat to those who didn't like what they had to say.

As we go through these witness accounts, I cannot stress strongly enough how important it is to remember, that these people can only report what they actually heard. Therefore, they can only tell us about audible gunshots. That might not include silenced shots or shots that were nearly simultaneous with one another.

Although it was only mentioned once throughout all its 26 volumes, the Warren Commission to its credit, admitted in its final report,

..a substantial majority of the witnesses stated that the shots were not evenly spaced. Most witnesses recalled that the second and third shots were bunched together.⁵

At one point during the hearings, Warren Commissioner Allen Dulles noted the overwhelming consistency of these witnesses, when he described the ratio of those confirming that shooting scenario in comparison with others,

There has been a certain amount of testimony indicating there was a longer pause between the report of the first shot... and the second and third shots, that is not absolutely unanimous but I would say it is something like 5 to 1 or something of that kind..⁶

Here are some of those peoples' statements:

Eugene Boone,

And we heard what we thought to be a shot. And there seemed to be a pause between the first shot and the second shot and third shots..⁷

Motorcycle officer Clyde Haygood,

Mr. Belin. Were the three spaced equally distant?

Mr. Haygood. No..

Mr. Belin. Was one more close than the other one?

Mr. Haygood. The last two were closer than the first. In other words, it was the first, and then a pause, and then the other two were real close.⁸

Railroad superintendent Lee Bowers, who was well positioned fifteen feet above the ground in the railroad tower behind the Dealey Plaza pergola,

I heard three shots. One, then a slight pause, then two very close together.⁹

Dallas Mayor Earle Cabell whose vehicle was in the motorcade, several cars behind the President,

There was a longer pause between the first and second shots than there was between the second and third shots. They were in rather rapid succession.¹⁰

Mrs. Earle Cabell, who was riding with her husband,

It was in just a fleeting second that I jerked my head up and I saw something in that window, and I turned around to say to Earle, "Earle, it is a shot” and before I got the words out, just as I got the words out, he said, "Oh, no; it must have been a.." the second two shots rang out.¹¹

U.S. Congressman Ralph W. Yarborough,

..by my estimate - to me there seemed to be a longer time between the first and second shots, a much shorter time between the second and third shots.. ¹²

Secret Service agent William Lawson,

...I heard two more sharp reports, the second two were closer together than the first. There was one report, and a pause, then two more reports closer together, two and three were closer together than one and two. ¹³

Deputy Sheriff Roger Craig,

Mr. BELIN. Two or 3 seconds between the first and the second?

Mr. CRAIG. Well, it was quite a pause between there. It could have been a little longer.

Mr. BELIN. And what about between the second and third?

Mr. CRAIG. Not more than 2 seconds. It was, they were real rapid. ¹⁴

James N. Crawford,

..the second shot followed some seconds, a little time elapsed after the first one, and followed very quickly by the third one..¹⁵

Motorcycle Police Officer, Marrion Baker,

..I looked up, as the shots started, I immediately looked up, you know. I was already facing ahead and I just kind of raised, I sighted up, and while I was looking-up, those other two shots came off.¹⁶

Secret Service agent William Greer who drove the Presidential limousine,

The last two seemed to be just simultaneously, one behind the other...¹⁷

Secret Service agent George Hickey in the followup car immediately behind the President,

At the moment he was almost sitting erect I heard two reports which... were in such rapid succession that there seemed to be practically no time element between them.¹⁸

Texas Highway Patrolman, Hurchel Jacks, who drove the Vice-President's car,

I heard a shot ring out which appeared to come from the right rear of the Vice President's car. Mr. Rufus Youngblood, the Secret Service Agent riding in my car asked me what that was and at the same time he advised the Vice President and Mrs. Johnson to get down. He climbed to the rear of the seat with the Vice President and appeared to be shielding the Vice President with his own body. At that time I heard two more shots ring out.¹⁹

Mary Woodward (reporter for the Dallas Morning News)

I heard a very loud noise. And I wasn't sure what it was at that point, and I turned to my friends and asked "what was that? Is some jerk shooting off firecrackers?' And then I heard the second one, and this time I knew what had happened, because I saw the president's motion, and then the third shot came very, very quickly, on top of the second one.²⁰

Victoria Adams, who observed the motorcade from a window in the Texas School Book Depository,

...we heard a shot, and it was a pause, and then a second shot, and then a third shot.²¹

Robert H. Jackson,

I would say to me it seemed like 3 or 4 seconds between the first and the second, and between the second and third, well, I guess 2 seconds, they were very close together...²²

Ladybird Johnson (wife of then, vice-president Lyndon Johnson),

..suddenly there was a sharp loud report; a shot. It seemed to me to come from the right, above my shoulder, from a building. Then a moment and then two more shots in rapid succession.²³

Sheriff's Deputy, C.M. Jones,

..A few short seconds later, I heard an explosion followed in about 3 to 5 seconds later two more explosions.²⁴

Secret Service agent Roy Kellerman, who rode in the front, passenger seat of the Presidential limousine, referring to the time between the last two shots he recalled,

Let me give you an illustration, sir, before I can give you an answer. You have heard the sound barrier, of a plane breaking the sound barrier, bang, bang? that is it.²⁵

Billy Lovelady, standing in the front entrance of the depository,

After he had passed and was about 50 yards in front of us I heard three shots. There was a slight pause after the first shot then the next two was right close together.

Mary Ann Mitchell,

...there were three---the second and third being closer together than the first and second...²⁶

Joe R. Molina.

... Of course, the first shot was fired then there was an interval between the first and second longer than the second and third.²⁷

Luke Mooney.

...the second and third shot was pretty close together, but there was a short lapse there between the first and second shot.²⁸

Joe Henry Rich (Hwy Patrolman who drove the Vice Presidential security car)

We turned off of Houston Street onto Elm Street and that was when I heard the first shot. I noticed a lot of confusion up ahead of me, motorcycle policemen and in the President's car and the President's security car. This Secret Service man in the front seat with me made the remark, "What the hell was that” and about that time I heard two more shots.²⁹

Arnold Rowland,

The actual time between the reports I would say now, after having had time to consider the 6 seconds between the first and second report and two between the second and third.³⁰

Barbara Rowland,

...the second and third were closer than the first and second. ³¹

Edward Shields,

I said, "the President has been shot"; we walked back to the lot and where Tracey was. I heard one shot and then a pause and then this repetition - two shots right behind the other..³²

Special Agent Forrest V. Sorrels in the lead car,

There was to me about twice as much time between the first and second shots as there was between the second and third shots. ³³

James Tague,

About this time I heard what sounded like a firecracker. Well, a very loud firecracker. It certainly didn't sound like a rifleshot. It was more of a loud cannon-type sound. I looked around to see who was throwing firecrackers or what was going on and I turned my head away from the motorcade and, of course, two more shots. ³⁴

Chief Sheriff's Deputy Allan Sweatt,

The President's caravan had just passed and about a minute or two, I heard a shot and about 7 seconds later another shot and approximately 2 or 3 seconds later a third shot...³⁵

Secret Service agent Warren W. Taylor,

In the instant that my left foot touched the ground, I heard two more bangs and realized that they must be gun shots.³⁶ (More on Taylor a bit later)

Bonnie Ray Williams

... I remembered three shots, because there was a pause between the first two shots... The second and the third shot was closer together than the first shot and the second shot.. ³⁷

Linda Willis, the fifteen year old daughter of Phil Willis (responding to a question about the number of shots),

Yes; I heard one. Then there was a little bit of time, and then there were two real fast bullets together. When the first one hit, well, the President turned from waving to the people, and he grabbed his throat, and he kind of slumped forward, and then I couldn't tell where the second shot went. ³⁸

Deputy Sheriff, John Wiseman,

..I heard a shot and I knew something had happened. I ran at once to the corner of Houston and Main Street and out into the street when the second and third shots rang out.³⁹

Secret Service agent Rufus W. Youngblood,

There seemed to be a longer span of time between the first and the second shot than there was between the second and third shot. ⁴⁰

Those closest to the President were nearly unanimous about the shooting sequence. The driver of the followup car, Secret Service agent Kinney was maintaining a distance of just a few feet behind the Presidential limousine. He reported,

I saw the President lean toward the left and appeared to have grabbed his chest with his right hand. There was a second of pause and then two more shots were heard. ⁴¹

Sitting next to him in the front seat, Secret Service agent Roberts reported that the second and third shots were so close that he couldn't tell which of them actually caused the explosive fatal head wound.

I do not know if it was the next shot or third shot that hit the President in the head..⁴²

Standing on the left running board of the followup car behind Clint Hill (much more on Hill, later), Secret Service agent McIntyre reported,

..the Presidential vehicle was approximately 200 feet from the underpass when the first shot was fired, followed in quick succession by two more.⁴³

Since the Warren Commission's primary theories contended that three shots were fired within slightly over 5 seconds, and since the FBI had proven that a bare minimum of 2.3 seconds was required to operate the weapon, the notion that the final shots were closely "bunched” was just not acceptable. Obviously, the commissioners could not admit that any of the shots were bunched closely, unless they were willing to concede that the President was attacked by multiple shooters. They handled this problem by simply declaring that witnesses in general could not be trusted to accurately hear and report gunshots.

But amazingly, the critics never, during all these years, seriously challenged this arbitrary rejection of the Dealey Plaza witnesses. Conspiracy buffs were equally unhappy with these witnesses, who were claiming that the second and third shots were fired well after both the President and Governor Connally had clearly reacted to their first wounds. This would be apparent evidence that Arlen Spector's much despised, "Single bullet theory” was indeed correct - one bullet really did pass through both victims.

So, amidst the countless other suspicions, theories, and accusations hurled by the conspiracy press, almost nothing was said about the Commission's arbitrary dismissal of this small army of critical witnesses. Somehow, both sides of this controversy decided that their own opinions outweighed those of the police officers, sheriff's deputies, highway patrolmen, Secret Service agents, and civilians, who were there and actually heard the shots.

Witnesses we can witness

Some of the photos taken that day, have been firmly matched to specific Zapruder frames. Among the most important of these is a razor sharp picture taken by Associated Press photographer James Altgens, which was determined by experts to have been snapped at precisely, Zapruder frame 255. Using the simple formula we discussed earlier, it is easy to calculate that this photo was taken, (312-255)/18.3 or 3.1 seconds prior to the fatal head wound. Coincidentally, that also happens to be the average time required by FBI experts to reload and aim the weapon.

This photo will become extremely important to our study because a number of visible bystanders in that photo, described carrying out various actions which preceded two gunshots. But, a careful examination of the picture reveals that in each case, at that point in time, those actions, some of which required at least a couple of seconds to perform, had not yet been carried out. One of the clearest examples of this comes from Secret Service agent, Warren Taylor.

Special Agent Warren Taylor

Special Agent Taylor was riding three cars behind the Presidential limousine in the Vice President's security car. At that time he was sitting in the back seat next to the left, rear door. Taylor stated in his original Treasury Dept. report that he first heard a single gunshot.

Our automobile had just turned a corner (the names of the streets are unknown to me) when I heard a bang which sounded to me like a possible firecracker... As a matter of course, I opened the door and prepared to get out of the car. In the instant that my left foot touched the ground, I heard two more bangs and realized that they must be gun shots. ⁴⁴

Taylor would have been just another of many witnesses reporting that the last two shots were bunched closely together, except for that marvelously clear photo by James Altgens. In it, we can see Taylor's status in the VP security vehicle, as he opens⁴⁵ the door. The picture in figure 3 is a cutout from that photograph, with the left, rear door of the car Taylor was in, encircled.

It's easy to confirm Taylor's statement that he pushed the back door open (or further open), in response to the first gunshot, but it is equally easy to see that he has not yet stepped out of the car. He will not hear "two more bangs” until after his "left foot touched the pavement".

Therefore, at this point in time, at least according to Taylor, only one shot has been fired, and two more are yet to come. If he was wrong about this and the government's theories correct, then he made two errors. First, he overlooked an early, high-powered rifle shot, reporting only a single gunshot prior to stepping out of the car. Then he imagined a nonexistent shot at the end. But if he made those two errors, he was in good company. Almost everyone in Dealey Plaza who expressed an opinion about the spacing of the shots agreed with him.

Highway Patrolman Milton Wright

Another confirmation also comes from something we don't see in the Altgens photo. In that same picture (See figure 2) the vice Presidential security car in which Taylor rode, is the last visible vehicle in the motorcade. Altgens gave us a pretty good look at the intersection of Elm and Houston, including the stop light on the northwest corner. It's easy to see that at that instant no other cars have yet come into that intersection. The car Taylor rode in was followed by the Mayor's car, in which Dallas Mayor Earl Cabell and his wife were passengers. The driver of that car, Texas Highway Patrolman Milton Wright only reported hearing the last two shots that day, but he reported hearing both of them after he made the turn onto Elm Street,

The car I was driving had just turned onto Elm Street and approximately 30 feet from the intersection when I heard the first shot. When the second shot was fired I noticed a number of people running away from the Motorcade...⁴⁶

Wright will hear those two shots only after he turns onto Elm, and travels a short distance. But, the Altgens photo proves indisputably, that at Z255 he has not yet made that turn and has not yet entered the intersection of Houston and Elm. So, like Taylor, Wright confirms that at this point in time, two shots are yet to come, at least a second or two after that photo was taken.
 
 

Special Agent George Hickey

In that same photo, it's easy to see Secret Service agent George Hickey who was riding in the back seat of the President's followup car. This is from Hickey's original Treasury dept. report, which was among the best and most detailed, filed by the Secret Service.

After a very short distance I heard a loud report which sounded like a firecracker. It appeared to come from the right and rear and seemed to me to be at ground level. I stood up and looked to my right and rear in an attempt to identify it.. Perhaps 2 or 3 seconds elapsed from the time I looked to the rear and then looked at the President. He was slumped forward and to his left, and was straightening up to an almost erect sitting position as I turned and looked. At the moment he was almost sitting erect I heard two 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. ⁴⁷

The Altgens photo makes it easy to confirm Hickey's claim that he stood and looked to the rear, in response to that first noise. It also makes it clear that Hickey was still turned to the rear as late as Z255, when the photo was taken, and just before he turned back to the front and then heard two gunshots.

Of equal importance is his confirmation that he only heard one report prior to turning around, and two afterward, coming in extreme "rapid succession”. As with other visible witnesses, it is easy to timestamp the first shot as prior to Z255, with at least, two to come after that point. 
 

Special Agent Glen Bennett

Sometimes a witness's errors can be more enlightening than the parts of his story that are correct. Secret Service agent Glen Bennett, who sat in the right-rear seat of the Secret Service followup car, next to Hickey, was cited by Gerald Posner in his book, Case Closed in support of Posner's theory that shots were fired at frames, 160, 224 and 312, placing the first two, noticeably closer together than the last two . Posner argued that Oswald first fired a missed shot, and then a second bullet that passed through both the President and Governor Connally at Z224. At first glance, Bennett seems to corroborate Posner,

At this point I heard what sounded like a firecracker. I immediately looked from the right/crowd/physical area/and looked towards the President who was seated in the right rear seat of his limousine open convertible. At the moment I looked at the back of the President I heard another fire-cracker noise and saw the shot hit the President about four inches down from the right shoulder. A second shot followed immediately and hit the right rear high of the President's head.⁴⁸

At a glance, Bennett's words do seem to be consistent with Posner's theory. But besides contradicting most other witnesses in Dealey Plaza that day, this interpretation presented another problem. Why, if the first two shots were closer together than the last two, as Posner suggested, did Bennett say that the final shot "followed immediately” after the second? He certainly did not describe the earlier shots that way.

Another question arises from his claim that he "saw the shot hit the President” in the back. Obviously, the bullet in flight was not visible to the human eye, and the tiny 4x7 mm. hole would have initially, been invisible on Kennedy's dark suit coat. Of course, several seconds after the bullet struck, a bloodstain appeared, which would have made the wound much darker and easier to see. All of this prompted me to suspect that Bennett really heard pretty much the same shooting sequence that the other witnesses did.

What if, after hearing that first shot, Bennett didn't turn for a couple of seconds? Then, as he did look toward the President, another shot, several seconds after Z224, rang out. This would be the gunshot at Zapruder frame, 285, which as we will see later, probably missed the President. Having heard two reports at that point, Bennett looks closely at President Kennedy, and spots the wound in his back, which has by that time, begun to bleed profusely and has become quite visible. Understandably, he thinks that the shot he just heard, was the one that hit Kennedy.

Fortunately, it isn't necessary to wonder about this issue. James Altgens' famous photo once again, comes to our rescue. By blowing up the portion of the photo where Bennett can be seen in the security car, we can get a pretty good idea of his orientation. Although his facial features are indistinct, Bennett's Secret Service standard issue, black necktie and white shirt make it clear that at Z255, he was still turned to his right, exactly as he is seen in photos and film, a few seconds earlier.
 
 

At Z255 therefore, Bennett is yet to turn toward the front and yet to hear those second and third shots. Like most of the other witnesses, the last two reports he heard were bunched closely together. And like Secret Service agent Taylor, Patrolman Wright, Secret Service agent Clint Hill, and others, Bennett proves that the final shots came well after Zapruder frame 255.

At this point, it should be clear that this large consensus of witnesses in Dealey Plaza were correct. Contrary to theories by either government experts or conspiracy buffs, there was only one audible shot fired, prior to Zapruder frame 255, to be followed by at least two closely spaced or "bunched” shots at the very end. It is almost unbelievable that after 40 years, experts on both sides of the controversy, still labor under the illusion that the pattern was exactly the opposite of what all these people told them.

It is for that reason, that we will continue looking at evidence that is even stronger than the witnesses we have already examined. It is critically important that the reader understand that this question of closely bunched shots is not a theory or speculation. It is an absolute fact, as real and as certain as any conclusion in this case can possibly be.

Clint Hill

Clint Hill, positioned on the left-front running board of the Secret Service followup car, turned out to be the most responsive member of the President's protective team that day, although he only reported hearing a total of two gunshots. For the purposes of our investigation, the question of exactly when he heard these shots becomes extremely important. This part of his original Treasury Dept. report, filed just a week after the attack provides us with a critical clue. He is describing the instant in which he heard the first of the two shots he recalled:

On the left hand side was a grass area with a few people scattered along it observing the motorcade passing, and I was visually scanning these people when I heard a noise similar to a firecracker...⁴⁹

When did Hill hear this shot? He is visible in the Zapruder film from the instant the limousine first appears, at frame Z-133. So, we might hope to make that determination by watching to see if and when he turned to "scan” the crowd on his left, or south side of the road. We can indeed, get a good look at him in the full-width frames of the film in the MPI video, which extends into the area of the sprocket holes.⁵⁰ In that version of the film, we can track him continuously, up to Zapruder frame 248. But throughout all this time it is obvious that Hill is looking either straight ahead or to his right and was never once during those frames, turned toward the left side of the road.

We can also confirm Hill's orientation in photos taken by Phil Willis and James Altgens. The Altgens photo shows him still looking to his right, and the only Special Agent standing on the running boards, who has not yet reacted to the first gunshot. He does not appear again in photos or film, until we see him in the Muchmore film, just as he leaped from the running board of the followup car, in his belated effort to save the President. Hill continues,

The sound came from my right rear and I immediately moved my head in that direction. In so doing, my eyes had to cross the Presidential automobile and I saw the President hunch forward and then slump to his left. I jumped from the follow-up car and ran toward the Presidential automobile.⁵¹

Of course, Hill is describing his desperate effort to get to the President, which can also be seen in the Zapruder, Nix and Muchmore films. This leaves us with the question of when he was scanning the crowd on his left and when he heard what he thought was the first of the two gunshots. He was obviously, not scanning the crowd to his left prior to Z255 when the Altgens picture was snapped, so he could only have looked to his left, sometime after that. A definitive answer to that question, comes when we compare his position just a fraction of second prior to the Altgens photo.

In the wide, MPI version of the Zapruder film, which includes images in the sprocket hole area, we get a good look at Hill, just prior to Altgens snapping the shutter. At that point, he is turned far to his right, in the range of approximately 70-80 degrees. This makes sense, since the motorcade was just then, passing the strange looking "umbrella man", who hiked his large black umbrella, high into the air as the limo approached him. But, in the Altgens photo, just half a second later, Hill is turned much further back to his left. He is still in a rightward orientation, but more in the range of 30-40 degrees. It is obvious then, that at Z255, he was in the act of making a fairly rapid, leftward turn.

It's important to remember, that James Altgens was an Associated Press photographer, using an expensive camera with a very fast shutter speed. It effectively, removed most blurring and motion effects, causing people and objects in his photos to appear frozen. But, we know by comparing Hill's orientation then, with Zapruder frame images, that he was really in the act of turning to his left.

When we understand that Hill was turning at a fairly quick, leftward pace as the Altgens picture was snapped, we also solve another ancient riddle. In that photo, Hill appears to be looking in the general direction of the President. So, the natural question becomes, why didn't he leap from the running board then? How could he have failed to notice the President's obvious signs of distress, which included his elbows held high in the air? Of course, the answer is that he was in the act of turning to his left, and never stopped to examine the President at all.

At the rate he was turning, Hill should have completed his rotation within a fraction of a second, which put him in perfect position to be "scanning” the small group along the left-hand side of the road, which the motorcade was just then approaching. As we will see a bit later, the members of that small group, which included Charles Brehm, Jean Hill and Mary Moorman, will unanimously corroborate Hill's claim that they were indeed, "watching the motorcade passing.." when they heard the first in a series of gunshots. They in turn, will be corroborated by the Zapruder film which shows the President passing directly in front of them at Zapruder frame 285.  

    If there is any remaining doubt about this, Hill provided a conclusive clue, which pinpoints when he heard that shot, in this part of his Warren Commission testimony. Keep in mind, that he began his leap from the running board at about Zapruder frame 310-312.

Representative FORD. Did you see the President put his hands to his throat and chest while you were still on the followup car, or after you had left it?
Mr. HILL. As I was leaving...⁵²

Of course, we know he was mistaken. President Kennedy raised his hands and arms, long before Hill leaped from the running board. But he was totally unaware of the President's distress, prior to turning left and hearing that shot.

Examining later frames in the Muchmore film, we see that Clint Hill jumped from the running board of the followup car and was on the pavement at the equivalent of about Z312-314, almost simultaneous with the fatal headshot at 312-313. Of course, he had to begin that leap several frames earlier; there was certainly not enough time for him to have jumped in response to the 312 shot. He therefore, had to have been responding to a shot that was immediately prior to that - the same one that he mistakenly believed, first wounded the President. As will be seen a bit later, Hill was provoked to jump, by a shot at precisely, Zapruder frame 285, just 1.5 seconds before the explosive bullet that killed the President. Very obviously, he was unaware of the President's distress, prior to that.

There is a very good reason why the Secret Service agents, including Hill appeared to be sluggish that day. Prior to the cluster of gunshots during the final seconds of the attack, there was only a single, audible noise, which was not nearly as loud as some of those that followed, and which really didn't sound like a gunshot at all. A few of the agents, including Hill and Kinney, who drove the followup car, didn't notice it at all.

But after the second (audible) shot, which came at Z285, all hell belatedly broke loose. Hill jumped from the running board; Hickey grabbed his rifle; Bennett shouted "We're hit” and Special Agent Ready, followed Hill, leaping off the right running board. Traditional theories required Hill, Hickey, Bennett and the others to have heard 2-3 (more?) gunshots, and then to have calmly watched the stricken President for a full 5 seconds before deciding to go to work. It's little wonder that the earliest critics were suspicious of the Secret Service.
 

But we get a totally different picture once we understand the timing and nature of the gunshots. Some of the agents heard a single, audible noise, resembling a firecracker. That was followed by several seconds of silence, and then a cluster of closely spaced shots. Prior to that "flurry” at the very end, there was nothing they heard that should reasonably have been interpreted as anything more than a child's firecracker. But when they heard the sound of real gunfire, their responses began instantly.

The Passengers in the President's Limo

It's not surprising that the statements of the people who were closest to the President, would turn out to be among the most valuable to our study. Besides the obvious advantage of being nearest the victims, these people presented us with an even more important resource - their own visibility. By examining them during the attack, it becomes possible to match their testimonies with their actions. For those readers who have believed for many years, that these people were hopelessly confused, it may come as a bit of a shock to discover how accurate they really were. Second, using the same techniques we used to study the Altgens photo witnesses, we can timestamp their visible reactions, relative to the shots they reported.
 

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, we will be able to view the startle reactions of these people to the same loud noise that Dr. Luis Alvarez discovered, had startled Abraham Zapruder at frame 285. That same gunshot provoked Clint Hill to jump from the running board of the Secret Service followup car, and caused every nonvictim riding in the Presidential limousine to react. Not surprisingly, these reactions occurred simultaneously, all five beginning within a scant 1/6th of a single second of one another.

It was in early 1995, and long before I had read Dr. Alvarez's paper, or was even aware of this huge consensus of other witnesses, that Mrs. Connally (unbeknownst to her of course) showed me what happened. I remember reading her testimony, claiming that her husband was hit after she looked back at the President. But watching the Governor's tortured face in the film, it was clear that he was wounded well before she looked back at Kennedy. Obviously, I thought, the poor woman was hopelessly confused, just like so many of the other witnesses. That's when the truth of what happened, hit me. I cannot begin to describe the almost dizzying, heady feeling that overcame me at that instant. For the first time in my life, I knew what happened, or at least an important part of what happened. I could not sleep that night.

I would urge anyone who harbors even the slightest remaining doubts about all this, to make a special effort to study Nellie Connally's statements and visible actions in the Zapruder film. They comprise a Rosetta stone which unravels a major portion of the mystery for us.

Mrs. Connally

Nellie Connally's recollection that her husband was struck by a different bullet than the one that hit the President has long been cited by conspiracy theorists as a refutation to the single bullet theory. But when we look closely at her actions in the Zapruder film, a different story emerges. Her apparent rebuttal was clearly based on a misperception about when her husband was wounded.

Let's first look at the sequence of events that she recalled. This is from her Warren Commission testimony, as she describes the "frightening noise” she heard that day,

Mrs. CONNALLY. ..I heard a noise, and not being an expert rifleman, I was not aware that it was a rifle. It was just a frightening noise, and it came from the right.
I turned over my right shoulder and looked back, and saw the President as he had both hands at his neck.

Mr. SPECTER. And you are indicating with your own hands, two hands crossing over gripping your own neck?

Mrs. CONNALLY. Yes; and it seemed to me there was - he made no utterance, no cry. I saw no blood, no anything. It was just sort of nothing, the expression on his face, and he just sort of slumped down. Then very soon there was the second shot that hit John. ⁵³

Mrs. Connally heard a single noise, which provoked her to turn to her right. Then she describes looking to the rear and seeing the stricken President, whose arms have risen upward. It is only after that, that she hears the second of three shots, which she believed, wounded her husband.

In the Zapruder film, we see her begin to turn to her right at about, Z230. But before turning completely toward the President, she stops briefly, to examine her husband. From the Zapruder side of Elm St. we can see Governor Connally's contorted face and obvious reactions to his wounds, but during those critical seconds, his back is turned to his wife. Unaware that he has been wounded, she continues her turn to the rear, to check on the President.

At frame 246 (above), Mrs. Connally glances briefly at her husband, but can only see his back. She is unaware that he has been wounded, and will later testify that she thought he was only turning to inspect the President. She continues her turn to the rear at about Z249, and can probably see JFK by about Z257 (below). Of course, his arms have risen, exactly as she described in her testimony.

Watching John Connally during these same frames, we can see that in his pain, he twists sharply to his right, coincidentally, leaning in the general direction of the President. He will then turn back to his left, leaning toward the front. Mrs. Connally was aware of his actions, but misunderstood them, as her testimony demonstrates,

John had turned to his right also when we heard that first noise and shouted, "no, no, no,' and in the process of turning back around so that he could look back and see the President - I don't think he could see him when he turned to his right - the second shot was fired and hit him.⁵⁴

Of course, Governor Connally was not turning to check on the President. He had just suffered a massive chest wound, and was undoubtedly, turning and twisting involuntarily. In the Zapruder film, we can see him first begin to swing right, toward President Kennedy at about frame 235. He leans back to his left again by frame 285. During those same frames, his wife remains oblivious to his condition, glancing briefly to the front, (probably in response to Jean Hill who was shouting for JFK to turn for a picture), then back toward President Kennedy.

She never focuses on her husband again until frame 292. At that point, she twists abruptly back toward him, not coincidentally, at the precise instant that Mrs. Kennedy started to spin abruptly toward her own husband. Immediately after that, she pulls her husband down into her lap. Of course, this is when Mrs. Connally incorrectly believed her husband was first hit. As we will see a bit later, Mrs. Connally and Mrs. Kennedy were not the only ones to hear and react to a gunshot at that instant.

There have been speculations by some critics that the sequence of Mrs. Connally looking back at the President and then hearing the second shot, may have happened much earlier. Besides the fact that we can track her movements throughout most of the film (except for a single second while the limo was behind the Stemmons sign), she thoroughly rejects this possibility with the simple words,

I never again looked in the back seat of the car after my husband was shot.⁵⁵

That uncompromising statement, made to both the Warren Commission and later, to the HSCA, provides us with another important timestamp. We know that Nellie Connally turned to look back at the President twice, first at about Z256, and then again at Z283. Therefore, her claim that she never turned to the rear again, if correct, proves that the second shot she heard, came no earlier than Z283. It also confirms that her rapid spin back toward her husband at Z292, had to have been in reaction to that very shot.

Mrs. Connally's story is quite simple. She heard one report, then turned to see what happened, first briefly checking her husband who appeared to also be turning to look to the rear. Then she spotted the stricken President. At that point she has heard one "frightening noise” and seen one victim. There was no logical reason to suspect that her husband was hurt. But then she heard that second shot, and saw (for the first time) her husband's wounds. It was understandable that she thought he was first wounded, then.

We can further confirm her error through the extremely revealing fact that Governor Connally and his wife disagreed on one critical point. The Governor testified,

...I immediately, when I was hit, I said, "Oh, no, no, no"⁵⁶

 Mrs. Connally remembered differently. She testified,

I recall John saying "Oh, no, no, no, no". Then there was a second shot, and it hit John...⁵⁷

Obviously, she thought he was shouting only because the limousine was under fire, and that he was hit after the point when he shouted "Oh, no, no, no". Nellie was not the only one to get this false, but perfectly understandable, impression. As we discussed before, Governor Connally did not fall immediately after being wounded. He first turned far to his right, and then swung back to his left. This sequence occurred during frames Z235-285. It is not surprising that Mrs. Connally whose attention was on the President, and could not see the Governor's face, also thought he was unharmed at this point.

In Mark Lane's documentary film, Rush to Judgment - the Plot to Kill Kennedy, Mr. S.M. Holland, who was viewing the motorcade from the triple overpass, confirmed Mrs. Connally's impressions by making exactly the same error:

The first bullet, the President slumped over and Governor Connally made his turn to the right and then back to the left and that's when the second shot was fired and knocked him down to the floorboard.⁵⁸

Holland was also unaware that the Governor was wounded earlier He confirmed Mrs. Connally's testimony that a shot occurred after the Governor's right-left turning sequence, and just before he collapsed into her arms.

Presidential aide, Dave Powers who was well positioned in the right jump seat of the Secret Service followup car also made this error, believing that the President was hit by the first shot and the Governor by the second:

..the first shot went off and it sounded to me as if it were a firecracker. I noticed then that the President moved quite far to his left after the shot from the extreme right hand side where he had been sitting. There was a second shot and Governor Connally disappeared from sight and then there was a third shot which took off the top of the President's head..."⁵⁹

Many others in this vicinity, got this same, false impression. This is from p. 77 (softback edition), Six Seconds in Dallas,

Linda Kay Willis likewise saw the first and third shots hit the President, but she "couldn't tell where the second shot went(7H498).".  When in November 6, 1966, I asked Linda Kay where the second shot went, she told me that she and her whole family (all present in Dealey Plaza that day) had believed from November 22nd on that Governor Connally had been wounded by the second shot.

Mrs. Connally's recollections about the sequence of events she witnessed, are a classic example of the importance of seeking objective timestampings. She confirms the timing of the final shots in three different ways:

First, she confirmed that the final shots came after she turned toward the President, which she did in the mid Z250's.

Second, she contradicted her husband, claiming that he was hit after he shouted "Oh, no, no, no” again placing the shot after the mid 250's.

And third, she confirmed that this shot came after Z280, when she said that she never looked in the back seat again, after hearing it.

Yet, her subjective opinion of the timing of the shots, placed her among the tiny minority in Dealey Plaza that day, who thought the first shots were closer together than the final ones

Mr. SPECTER. What is your best estimate on the time that passed from the first to the last shot?

Mrs. CONNALLY. Very short. It seemed to me that there was less time between the first and the second than between the second and the third.⁶⁰

It is a well know phenomena, that time seems to slow down for people who are exposed to life threatening situations. Mrs. Kennedy for example, described those terrible few seconds as "an eternity". So, it is not surprising, that when Mrs. Connally discovered that her husband's chest was drenched in blood, time came to a near standstill. The seconds must have seemed like minutes, between that instant and the President's explosive head wound.

Mrs. Connally did not provide the refutation to the "single bullet theory” that conspiracy buffs thought she did, but she provided us with something infinitely more important and credible. She confirmed beyond reasonable doubt, the existence of a gunshot that was fired just a few frames before she reacted. That shot was fired 1.5 seconds prior to the devastating head wound that killed the President. Among the many people who corroborated her, was Mrs. Jacqueline Kennedy.
 
 

Mrs. Jacqueline Kennedy

Mrs. Kennedy's testimony before the Warren Commission appears in places, to be somewhat ambiguous. Part of that may have been due to transcription errors resulting from her extremely soft voice. Nonetheless, her story becomes clear if we take her statements literally and in the order she presents them. She begins by talking about the first noise she heard.

You know, there is always noise in a motorcade and there are always motorcycles, beside us, a lot of them backfiring. So I was looking to the left. 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.⁶¹

Mrs. Kennedy's description of this early sound is strange indeed, but it mimicked that of many others who described this first shot as much different, or weaker than those that followed. As we will see, a number of witnesses, including several Secret Service agents, never heard it at all. But based on measurements of the sound levels generated by the Mannlicher Carcano rifle, as well as witness descriptions of some of the later shots, we know that these rifle reports should been positively ear shattering. We will talk more about this later, but for the moment, let's get back to Mrs. Kennedy. We can easily confirm in the Zapruder film, her recollection that she was "..looking to the left” during this early part of the attack. We see her doing exactly that, during frames just after the limousine turned onto Elm Street.

Based on her description of that first "noise" Mrs. Kennedy certainly heard something at this early point, though she was never convinced that it was a gunshot. In fact, she makes no mention at all of possible gunshots prior to the next part of her testimony where she describes hearing Governor Connally shouting. Mrs. Kennedy continued,

But then suddenly Governor Connally was yelling, "Oh, no, no, no."⁶²

In the film, we see Governor Connally open his mouth to shout in the early Z240's. Mrs. Kennedy's testimony continues, as Warren Commission counsel Rankin asks her a critical question,

Mr. RANKIN. Did he turn toward you?

Mrs. KENNEDY. No; I was looking this way, to the left, and I heard these terrible noises

This is where we have always misunderstood Mrs. Kennedy's testimony. At this point she has already described the early frames in which she was looking at the crowd on her left, and has moved on to describe events several seconds later. As we can easily confirm in the film, this last reference to "looking this way, to the left” describes her position after she turned leftward, away from her husband, and toward Governor Connally, who was indeed, positioned to her left. It was while she was turned to her "left” then, that she heard the "terrible noises” She further confirmed that fact, in the following passage from her testimony,

And it used to confuse me because first I remembered there were three and I used to think my husband didn't make any sound when he was shot. And Governor Connally screamed. And then I read the other day that it was the same shot that hit them both. But I used to think if I only had been looking to the right I would have seen the first shot hit him, then I could have pulled him down, and then the second shot would not have hit him. But I heard Governor Connally yelling and that made me turn around, and as I turned to the right my husband was doing this [indicating with hand at neck]. He was receiving a bullet.⁶³

Clearly, Mrs. Kennedy's original recollection was that she was turned away from her husband when she heard what she believed, was the first shot, because Governor Connally's shouting drew her attention. Of course, we know that John Connally shouted in reaction to being hit, beginning at about Zapruder frame 240. In fact, Mrs. Kennedy's recollection is fully confirmed in the Zapruder film.

As we see in the above images, Jackie was indeed correct, that she reacted to the Governor's shouting by turning to her left and toward him. By Z257, she is looking directly toward Governor Connally. The next part of her testimony also matches perfectly with what we see in the Zapruder film,

And my husband never made any sound. So I turned to the right.

From Z257 to Z289, the first lady's eyes remained fixed on Mr. Connally but suddenly, beginning at Z290, we see her spin quickly to her right, and back toward the President, exactly as she testified, and in perfect unison with Mrs. Connally's reaction as she turned back toward her own husband.

Immediately after that, we see her begin to rapidly duck, as her head drops forward and downward. The traditional "wisdom” here has always been that Mrs. Kennedy was dropping her head in order to inspect her husband. But, a closer look at her reactions, belies that conclusion. The first step in understanding what is happening here, is to look at the speed of her reaction, as it occurred in real time. For those of you who have a good copy of the Zapruder film, I would urge you to watch in real time and notice how rapidly her head drops. Consider whether this really looks like someone gingerly inspecting her spouse, or someone who has been thoroughly frightened.

Another good way to understand what was happening then is to examine Mrs. Kennedy in the film made by Marie Muchmore from the South side of Elm Street. During two adjacent frames in this film, we see the First Lady drop her head a considerable distance, about 30 degrees. Muchmore's camera was found to run at the same 18 fps as Zapruder's, so we know that Jackie's motion occurred in a scant, eighteenth of a single second.

We can also get a good look at Mrs. Kennedy after she has dropped her head, in the relatively sharp, Zapruder frame 312. Clearly, she was looking downward and away from President Kennedy, rather than toward him.

The notion that she was ducking then is further reinforced by the reactions of the other nonvictims in the President's limousine. With the exception of the driver, Special Agent Bill Greer, who was turned to the rear at the time, every one of them can be seen to have dropped their heads, as Mrs. Kennedy did. But Greer made an incredibly rapid turn to the front and back to the rear, beginning within an 18th of a second of the other reactions. In his panic, he then stepped on the brake.

Of course, there is only one plausible explanation for such abrupt reactions. Mrs. Kennedy was hearing the first of what she called, the "terrible noises” Not surprisingly, the sequence of events she described, matched perfectly with the testimonies of her fellow passengers, or at least those who were nonvictims. We can easily follow each part of her testimony, in the Zapruder film, confirming not only the accuracy of her recollections, but her orientation at each described point. Most importantly, we can see that she heard and recalled the same pattern of gunshots that most of her fellow witnesses that day, heard.
 
 

Special Agent Roy Kellerman

ASAIC (Assistant Special Agent in charge) Roy Kellerman, in the front passenger's seat of the Presidential limousine was one of the first to react to the first shot, which was probably fired around Zapruder frame 150. Like some of the other Secret Service agents, his recollection of events was quite detailed, and much of it can be visually confirmed in the Zapruder film. But Kellerman also held another distinction. He was almost certainly, the last person to have ever heard the President speak. This is from his original report, filed just 7 days after the assassination,

As the motorcade completed the main thoroughfare through Dallas, we made a sharp right turn, for about a 1/2 block, then a curved left turn into a slight downhill grade entering an area with little or no spectators. We were still traveling at the normal rate of speed of from 12 to 15 miles per hour when I heard a noise, similar to a firecracker, exploding in the area to the rear of the car..⁶⁴

Notice by the way, that like Mrs. Kennedy and Mrs. Connally, Kellerman does not call this first "noise” a gunshot. He will later testify that it was much different than the sounds of gunshots that followed. He continues,

I turned around to find out what happened when two additional shots rang out, and the President slumped into Mrs. Kennedy's lap and Governor Connally fell to Mrs. Connally's lap.. ⁶⁵

Kellerman heard two shots (He will later testify to "at least” two shots then.) after turning to look toward the back. We know that one of them was the fatal headshot at Zapruder frame 313 after which, the President did of course, "slump” into his wife's lap. Viewing Kellerman in the Zapruder film, he first begins to turn to his left, looking into the back seat, just after Nellie Connally also turned to look back. He appears to be turned far enough to see the President by about Z270. We might reasonably suspect that the second and third shots he spoke of, occurred at some point after that.

We also see that like Mrs. Kennedy and Mrs. Connally, Roy Kellerman responded instantly to the startlingly loud shock wave, by instinctively dropping his head and then raising his left hand up to shield his ear.. We can see this beginning at about Z292-293. Within less than a second, he has returned to his upright position.

This motion began just 1/9th of a second after Jackie Kennedy began to duck, and 1/18th of a second after Mrs. Connally began to twist in a counterclockwise motion, away from the President, and toward her husband. In his Warren Commission testimony, Kellerman was quite explicit in his description of the final shots,

I come right back and grabbed the speaker and said to the driver, "Let's get out of here; we are hit,” and grabbed the mike and I said, "Lawson, this is Kellerman" this is Lawson, who is in the front car. "We are hit; get us to the hospital immediately.” Now, in the seconds that I talked just now, a flurry of shells come into the car.⁶⁶

Later in his testimony, he was asked again about the "flurry",

Mr. SPECTER. Now, in your prior testimony you described a flurry of shells into the car. How many shots did you hear after the first noise which you described as sounding like a firecracker?

Mr. KELLERMAN. Mr. Specter, these shells came in all together.

Mr. SPECTER. Are you able to say how many you heard?

Mr. KELLERMAN. I am going to say two, and it was like a double bang--bang, bang.

Mr. SPECTER. You mean now two shots in addition to the first noise?

Mr. KELLERMAN. Yes, sir; yes, sir; at least.⁶⁷
Of course, the "flurry of shells” included the same two shots that Mrs. Connally heard after she turned to the rear and Mrs. Kennedy recalled after hearing Governor Connally shout. Kellerman was even more explicit in describing the spacing between those shots in this part of his testimony,

Mr. KELLERMAN. Let me give you an illustration, sir, before I can give you an answer. You have heard the sound barrier, of a plane breaking the sound barrier, bang, bang? that is it.
Representative FORD. This is for the second and the third, or the flurry as you described it?

Mr. KELLERMAN. That is right; that is right, sir.⁶⁸

Kellerman has corroborated the fact that there was a flurry of shots at this point in four different ways. First, he stated that he heard two shots after turning to look back and check on the President, which firmly places those reports well after the Z260's. Second, he stated that the final shots were like the closely spaced, double bang of a sonic boom. Third, he described the final shots as a flurry of "at least” two shots.

The most compelling and precise corroboration however, comes from his visible ducking movement (click here to view his reaction), dropping his head rapidly downward by roughly 30 degrees, a fraction of a second after the noise at Z285 which also startled Abraham Zapruder, and was in near perfect unison with reactions by Mrs. Kennedy and Mrs. Connally. As you study Kellerman, pay particular attention to his left hand, as he raises it to shield his left ear from the shrill, 130-140 decibel shock wave of the passing bullet.
 
 

Special Agent William Greer

William Greer, the 54-year-old driver of the Presidential limousine has been the target of critics, practically since the day of the assassination. He was first accused of being an accomplice in the crime by deliberately slowing the limousine in order to make the President an easier target. Years later, in one of the silliest and most outrageous "theories” ever put forward, he was charged with actually turning around and shooting Kennedy himself, with a handgun. Since I have seen a number of people on the Internet posting messages in support of this nonsense, I will take a moment to discuss it.

This theory has been thoroughly debunked by Robert Groden as well as others. The foundation for it rests on a not-too-convincing illusion in the Zapruder film. In frame 313, we can see the glare of the sun reflecting off the top of Kellerman's head. As it happened, the shape of the glare spot and it's height look a bit like Greer is holding a shiny handgun. The effect is even more convincing, since the creator of this hoax used a poor quality copy of the film (claiming it was "enhanced"), to make his case. If there is still anyone out there who believes this nonsense, I would urge him to consider the likelihood that hundreds of witnesses who were focused on the President, as well as Mrs. Kennedy and the Connallys, just didn't happen to notice that Greer turned around and shot the President, while in plain view of everyone. Of course, no witness ever reported seeing or even faintly suspecting such a thing.

As we will see, the other charge, that Greer deliberately slowed the limousine down, is also false. He most certainly did hit the brake, just before Zapruder frame 300, but he did so in a state of panic, just a fraction of a second after being thoroughly startled by the sharp crack of the shock wave at Z285. To understand this, let's go back a few frames. Like Mrs. Connally and Kellerman, Greer responded to the first audible shot by turning to look to the rear. It is difficult to see exactly when this turn was made, though my impression is that it happened just after Z260. But there is no doubt at all that he is looking backward well before Z280.

Greer testified that he didn't turn far enough to see the President, but he recalled seeing Governor and Mrs. Connally. Of course, this matches perfectly with his first turn to the rear. But suddenly, beginning at about Z291-292, he begins an abrupt and extremely rapid counterclockwise movement back toward the front. As Dr. Alvarez and other researchers have determined, by analyzing the speed of the limousine from frame to frame, the limo begins a substantial slowdown just after Zapruder frame 300. This tells us that after Greer turned back to the front, he panicked and hit the brake, although he doesn't hold it down long enough to bring the heavy limousine to a full stop. Like almost everyone else who heard the shots, Greer confirmed that the shooting sequence ended with a flurry of closely spaced reports. This is from his Warren Commission testimony:

Mr. SPECTER. Do you have an independent recollection at this moment of having heard three shots at that time

Mr. GREER. I knew that after I heard the second one, that is when I looked over my shoulder, and I was conscious that there was something wrong, because that is when I saw Governor Connally. And when I turned around again, to the best of my recollection there was another one, right immediately after.

Mr. SPECTER. ..how much time elapsed from the first noise which you have described as being similar to the backfire of a motor vehicle until you heard the second noise?

Mr. GREER. It seems a matter of seconds, I really couldn't say. Three or four seconds.

Mr. SPECTER. How much time elapsed, to the best of your ability to estimate and recollect, between the time of the second noise and the time of the third noise?

Mr. GREER. The last two seemed to be just simultaneously, one behind the other..⁶⁹

It is apparent that the shot at frame Z285 startled Greer, causing him to spin around to the front in a panic. Interestingly, some critics have claimed that his turn at that point was so rapid that it was humanly impossible and therefore evidence that the film was edited or tampered with. In early 1997 I ran some simple tests in which I had someone film me as I turned rapidly in a chair, similar to Greer. The test proved quite conclusively that his turn was not at all impossible, but it most certainly was rapid. The turns I made that matched his performance quite frankly, left me a little bit dizzy.
 

Greer further confirmed the notion that he was startled by this shot, in this part of his testimony where he describes his impressions of the second shot,

Mr. GREER. The second one didn't sound any different much than the first one but I kind of got, by turning around, I don't know whether I got a little concussion of it, maybe when it hit something or not, I may have gotten a little concussion that made me think there was something different to it.⁷⁰

This is an important part of Greer's recollections. First, he confirms that he was turned around when he heard this second gunshot. Since we know he turned to the rear no earlier than Z260, he fully corroborates the recollections of Mrs. Kennedy, Mrs. Connally, Secret Service agent Kellerman, and as most other witnesses who placed the final shots at the very end of the attack.

His statement makes even more sense when we consider his seemingly strange claim that he felt the "concussion” of this shot. The shock wave of a supersonic bullet carries with it, a small but noticeable amount of force, enough in most cases, to blow out a candle and certainly enough to cause a distinct tingling sensation on the skin of anyone who is in close proximity to it. We can easily see that at Z285, Greer was facing the rear, so a supersonic bullet from that direction, and especially one that missed, would generate a shock wave that would certainly have been felt on his face. This was the "concussion” he reported. The slight sting of such a force, combined with it's ear-shattering noise would certainly be more than enough to provoke the rapid, panic reaction we see in the film.

It has been suggested that Greer might have simply gotten confused and was thinking of the explosive Z312-313 shot when he described feeling it's "concussion". But he seems to have eliminated that possibility when he described his uncertainty about, "when it hit something or not". Certainly, after the terrible explosion at Z313 he would have had no doubts at all about whether that bullet had found its target. But as it turned out, the Z285 bullet missed the President and found another victim more than 200 feet away.
 
 

The Shot at Z285

At this point, we have looked at quite a few important clues. One of these is that a very large majority of the witnesses who expressed an opinion about the shooting sequence, said the final shots were bunched closely together. But while this general consensus is important, it fails to provide us with specific knowledge of when the individual shots were fired. We started to zero in on that question when we looked at witnesses who described hearing two shots after carrying out actions that we can see, had not yet happened, until some time after Zapruder frames in the range of 255 to 270. That knowledge alone, makes it virtually impossible that a single assassin, using the Mannlicher Carcano rifle, could have carried out the attack by himself. 

Fortunately however, we have not quite used up all of our resources. The most powerful of these is based on the rather obvious notion that people are startled by the effects of unexpected gunfire. To understand why this can be so revealing, we first need to understand what the occupants of the Presidential limousine were exposed to as the high powered rifle bullets flew into or near the vehicle. In 1978, acoustics experts for the HSCA conducted some very revealing tests using microphones and decibel meters. One of those experts, Dr. James E. Barger, explained how they positioned microphones at varying distances from Oswald's rifle and measured both the shock wave and the muzzle blast it produced. This is from his HSCA testimony,

..the shock wave was measured by a microphone 10 feet from the trajectory of the bullet and the muzzle blast was measured by the same microphone which was at the same time 30 feet from the muzzle... The shockwave has an intensity of 130 decibels. The muzzle blast at 30 feet is more intense. It has an intensity of 137 decibels.⁷¹

For those who are unfamiliar with the terminology here, a "decibel” is a very precise measurement of sound, or loudness. For example, a typical household vacuum cleaner generates about 80 decibels of sound. To the human ear, sound levels double every 10 decibels, so 90db is twice as loud as the vacuum cleaner and 100 decibels is twice as loud as 90. Levels in excess of 110db will destroy most home stereo loudspeakers. 120db is twice as loud as 110 and can result in permanent hearing damage. 130db, the level generated by a Mannlicher Carcano bullet is then, twice as loud as 120. So, if John Kennedy was struck by a bullet from the Mannlicher Carcano rifle, or a similar weapon, then for a brief fraction of a second, Mrs. Kennedy and the others in the limousine, were exposed to precisely that level of ear shattering intensity.

It's also important to understand the difference between a muzzle blast and a shock wave. A muzzle blast is the explosion of a bullet cartridge as a firearm discharges. This is of course, the loudest sound associated with a gunshot. But sound diminishes with distance, so the muzzle blast from a weapon several hundred feet away, would not be nearly as loud as the shock wave near the bullet's path, which is actually generated as it flys at supersonic velocity through the air. So, if such a supersonic bullet passes near someone, its shock wave would probably be the loudest sound he or she heard, and certainly louder than a muzzle blast say, two hundred feet away. This is how Dr. Bargis described the phenomenon,

By the way, for clarification of those listening who may be wondering what a shock wave is, that is the well-known crack sound that you hear when a rifle is fired that precedes the muzzle blast. It is normally almost simultaneous with the bang or muzzle blast, itself. It is similar to the sort of thing you hear when someone cracks a whip and, of course, a very louder and deeper toned example is the sound you hear when an airplane goes by overhead at a greater speed than the speed of sound. It is a sharp, very brief, but very intense sound.⁷²

So, a bullet passing near an individual will be heard almost simultaneous with the bullet's passing, whereas the muzzle blast from a more distant rifle will be heard only after it arrives, at a velocity of about 1100 feet per second. In most cases, the two sounds will be perceived as simultaneous. It is easy to observe the effect of such a sound on the passengers in the President's limousine. Mrs. Kennedy, Special Agent Roy Kellerman, Special Agent Greer, and Mrs. Connally all clearly reacted within a tiny fraction of a second following their exposure to the piercing shock wave that was generated by the fatal bullet at Zapruder frame 312-313.

Of course, these extremely rapid reactions were entirely involuntary. It is simply not possible for the human mind to calculate and then make conscious decisions within 2/9ths of a second. Further, we can see that these reactions were not the result of these people seeing the President struck. Kellerman for example, was turned fully toward the front and could not see him at all. Neither could Mrs. Kennedy who was looking down and away from her husband at that instant. Of equal importance to our study, is the fact that these involuntary, startle reactions must begin within a very short time following the stimulus. This is from the HSCA reports, citing research that very precisely, measured these response times,

Startile reaction times in response to the sound of gunshots were measured in the experimental work of Landis and Hunt in 1939. (31) For "head movement:' "movement of neck muscles,” and "initiation of arm movement,” Landis and Hunt found that the reaction time was 0.06 to 0.2 second (i.e., 1.1 to 3.7 frames).⁷⁴

Of course, Hunt and Landis were examining their subjects from very close range, where they could perceive the earliest and most subtle reactions. Watching from a greater distance in the Zapruder film, we would expect a slightly greater delay in spotting them. But this kind of rapid, involuntary response is entirely different than the "What was that?" kind of reactions we saw during the early part of the attack, and which were spread out over a time frame of 4-5 seconds.

Dr. Luis Alvarez

This principle of startle reactions was the foundation of some revealing scientific analysis of the Zapruder film that was conducted by the Nobel prize winning physicist and consultant to Bell & Howell (the manufacturer of Zapruder's camera) Dr. Luis Alvarez. One of the most brilliant minds of the 20th century, Alvarez was the youngest scientist on the Manhattan project, working on the development of the atomic bomb in 1945. In 1968 he won a Nobel prize for his work in particle Physics. He also filed hundreds of patents on a wide range of inventions. In his spare time, Alvarez solved one of the greatest mysteries in Paleontology, when he discovered the likely cause for the extinction of the dinosaur. But for our purposes, Alvarez's greatest contribution was his brilliant analysis of the Zapruder film.

Alvarez wrote articles in 1966 for Life magazine and in 1976, for the American Journal of Physics, explaining how sharp noises could be detected in film by looking for certain patterns of blurred frames. These telltale series of "angular accelerations" as he called them, identified points at which the camera operator was startled, provoking him to slightly jerk the camera. In his paper, Alvarez talked about his experiences working with a film crew in Africa and their problems trying to film big game hunters, with handheld cameras. In every case, they found blurred frames in the film, immediately following rifle shots. But the blurring disappeared when the camera was placed on a tripod, confirming that it was indeed, the camera operators who caused the problem.

These blurrings appeared in a very distinct and predictable pattern, each separated by 1/3 of a second from the other. Alvarez saw that same pattern following the explosive head wound in the Zapruder film. But this is not the only place where he discovered this pattern. After a long series of relatively clear frames, between Z230 and Z289, he found a substantial blurring in frames 290-291. This was followed by slightly weaker blurs at Z296, a third of a second later, and again at Z302-303, each easily seen in any decent copy of the film. Although the reactions are not quite as strong as those following Z312, they appear in the same telltale, 6 frame or 1/3 second pattern. From this, Alvarez deduced that Zapruder was startled by a sharp noise at Z285.

But this presented a serious problem for Alvarez, who was an unabashed supporter of the Warren Commission. Z285 came just 1.5 seconds before the known shot at Z312, and he was acutely aware that the FBI had determined that a minimum of 2.3 seconds was required to operate the Mannlicher Carcano rifle, as he made clear in his paper,

One of the "boundary conditions” on the timing of the shots (assuming there were three - one from each ejected cartridge) was the FBI's finding that a skilled marksman could not space his shots more closely than 2.3 sec. or 42 frames of Mr. Zapruder's camera, with its measured frame rate of 18.3 per second.