Gunsmoke On the Plaza
The 1974 book Murder From Within by Fred Newcombe may come to an unproved conclusion that Lyndon Johnson organized his predecessor?s murder, but like so many earnest researchers Newcombe waded through the documents and testimony, and registered clues that were totally missed or ignored by the Warren Commission, and even effectively overlooked by the House Select Committee on Assassinations.
Give Newcombe credit; he noticed that at least nine witnesses?and many experienced witnesses no less?smelled the distinctive, telltale scent of gunsmoke in Dealey Plaza immediately after the assassination, including most famously Texas Senator Ralph Yarborough, a World War II veteran. Riding in the motorcade in a car behind the president?s, Yarborough said smelled gunpowder on Elm Street and that it clung to his car throughout the race to Parkland Hospital.
Perhaps engaging in a little journalistic license, a newspaper reported that ?seconds later the [presidential] cavalcade was gone [from Dealey Plaza]. The area still reeked with the smell of gunpowder.?
Later, the Aussie detective Colin McLaren would say he counted 22 witnesses at street level who smelled gunsmoke that day in Dealey Plaza, for his regrettable video that concludes a Secret Service man accidentally shot President Kennedy. But the headcount was a worthy yeoman duty.
JFK assassination researchers, of course, are more than aware that railroad workers on the Triple Overpass (most notably S.M. Holland), and Lee Bowers in the Union Terminal Co.?s two-story observation tower in the railroad parking lot behind the Grassy Knoll, said they saw a puff of gunsmoke concurrent to gunshots, and then smoke lingering in the trees atop the Grassy Knoll shortly thereafter.
The ?sniper?s nest? in the TSBD was about 80 yards from the Grassy Knoll, and downwind that day.
Patrolman Joe M. Smith
But perhaps Dallas Police Department Patrolman Joe M. Smith is the most interesting and best witness, ?best? as he can be assumed to be very familiar with vehicular exhaust and gunsmoke.
Yeah, gun powder smells like exhaust fumes. The odor of gun powder was noticed right after the shots were fired. I see no way that the gun powder could have come all the way down from the sixth-floor window so quickly, especially given the size of the area in which witnesses smelled the odor.
Keep in mind, too, that a number of witnesses also saw gunsmoke coming from a certain area right behind the picket fence on the knoll, and a cloud of apparent gunsmoke is visible in this vicinity in the Wiegman film. It could not have been exhaust fumes, nor could it have come from the steam pipe some 100 feet behind the fence.
As for a diversion, I think it's more likely that the sixth-floor window was the diversion. The gunman made no effort to conceal his presence from outside viewers. Five witnesses saw a gunman in the sixth-floor window. The gunman could have stood farther back from the window, which would have made it harder to see him and would have somewhat reduced the sound of his rifle firing.
