You lawyers sure are dishonest.
Who ever claimed a three-shot witness who initially thought the first shot was a firecracker went on to believe that permanently?
As far as I know, any three-shot witness who said the first-shot was like a firecracker or backfire has always described it as a first impression and that he subsequently realized all three loud reports were gunfire.
Where have I "insisted" all the 2-shot witnesses "forgot" about the first shot or failed to hear it?
You have such poor memory. A legal education might help with fact retention and would also help you understand professional ethics.
You have consistently maintained that Betzner "forgot" about the first loud noise because he thought it was a firecracker and was a "two shot" witness recalling only the two subsequent shots, which is why he thought the shots occurred after his z186 photo. I can't go back very far because of the lost archives on this board but how about this gem from you in January 2018:
"Betzner thinks he heard more than two shots, but could only recall two shots because they related to things he was doing (winding his camera) or witnessing (the head shot). Some "Bunched" shot advocates claim Betzner missed hearing a shot that occurred between his "winding the camera" shot and the head shot. The "early miss" advocates claim the first shot was more likely to be overlooked or not as distinctively recalled as most thought the first shot was anything but a shot ("firecracker" or "backfire") and were concentrating on seeing the motorcade."
You are certainly an "early miss" advocate. One has to ignore Betzner's statement to conclude that he recalled only two shots. He said: "I started to wind my film again and I heard a loud noise." (that's the first shot). Then he said he heard two more shots when he was looking down Elm around the time of the head shot:
When I saw the following I heard at least two shots fired and
I saw what looked like a firecracker going off in the President's car. My assumption for this was because I saw fragments going up in the air. " He is recalling the last two shots after hearing the first.
I may have said something remotely like that in a few posts long ago, but I know for the last few years, I have always said (or "insisted"):
- two-shot witnesses might have understandably lost track of a shot in
their memory (ie: trauma, shock, the last two shots were more vivid
as a memory because they struck and men reacted); - some of the two-shot witnesses acknowledge there were one-or-more
shots but can only reliably describe two because they have something they
recall in conjunction with the shots.
That does not explain why Betzner would think that the shots occurred after his z186 photo or why Willis said his z202 photo was taken an instant after the first shot before the President had time to react. It does not explain why Hughes who stopped filming at very close to z187 (based on the motorcade car positions and frame timings) stated that he stopped filming before the first shot.
You think two-shot witness must lose track of the middle shot because it was near-simultaneous with the head shot.
No. I have never said that. I have never ever suggested there was another shot that was nearly simultaneous with the head shot. I have always maintained that the second shot occurred just after z271 and before JFK's hair flies up beginning at z273. That is not to say that the reverberation of the second shot could not have overlapped with the sound of the third shot. Mary Woodward recalled that the sound of the second shot had not died out before the third shot sounded.
I have just suggested witnesses who did not recall three shots weren't counting shots. There were not many witnesses who said there were ONLY two shots. A number who said they could recall only two but allowed that there could have been another shot e.g. Altgens 7 H 517 who said "I cannot tell you how many shots were in between" the first and last shots; or the Chisms; or Ewell Cowsert; or SA Clint Hill; or SA Paul Landis etc.
Hugh Brennan is considered to be a 2 shot witness but recalled one shot in particular and "definitely heard more than one noise" (FBI report 11/22/63 -Comm. Doc. 5). SA Glen Bennett is also considered a two shot witness based on his incomplete hand notes. But in his 11/23/63 written statement Bennett recalled three loud noises. Doris Burns recalled only one shot (she was inside in a hallway on the 3rd floor of the TSBD) but said (6 H 399) "It must have been the last one because I didn’t hear any more."