The First Shot

[Dan O'meara]

Betzner said the shot he heard after taking his picture was followed by the head shot. Here's my earlier reply:

     As Betzner goes out of the Zapruder film in frame 207, he
     continues to lower his camera and is not looking down.
     So Betzner winding his camera as he hears a shot isn't
     proof of your first shot at ca.Z200.

     Assuming he winds his camera shortly thereafter (post-Z207),
     it might be that the shot he heard while winding the camera
     was the proposed shot in the early-Z220s.

Betzner's WC testimony:

"I took another picture as the President's car was going down the hill on Elm Street. I started to wind my film again and I heard a loud noise. I thought that this noise was either a firecracker or a car had backfired. I looked up and it seemed like there was another loud noise in the matter of a few seconds. I looked down the street and I could see the President's car and another one and they looked like the cars were stopped. Then I saw a flash of pink like someone standing up and then sitting back down in the car."

Here he is describing taking Betzner#3 (as the President's car was going down the hill) roughly equivalent to z186. After taking this picture he states that he had "started to wind my film again and I heard a loud noise". This 'loud noise' is presumably the first audible shot but there is no clear measure of the time between the taking of Betzner#3 and the first shot. The only reason to bring Betzner into things is to demonstrate that there wasn't a first shot before z186. His testimony provides a very rough 'timestamp' as to when the first shot occurred. Nothing more.

[Dan O'meara]

There is a "buffet" of evidence in the JFK assassination that allows people with various theories to pick and isolate witness statements and impressions that support their case. Some of the theories are quite impressive; the Mason Theory presented an ingenious pathway.

 
I think that's really well put, a "buffet" of evidence.

What's striking is that it seems possible to pick several differing 'narratives' and have a range of supporting evidence for each.

The lack of any reaction from Landis, Hickey and Ready I don't think is so easily brushed away. Ready says he immediately turned to his "right rear". We don't see this in Zapruder but we do see this in Altgens6. Ready is obviously recalling the moment accurately as we see it confirmed in Altgens6 and I find it difficult to accept that these specially trained SS agents would take two to three seconds to react to an "explosive noise".
But, as you say, there's more to the case than this point. That's just the particular part of the "buffet" I am selecting from.

[Steve M. Galbraith]

To return to Rosemary Willis: She (for me) is clearly reacting, as shown below, much earlier than Z200 to "something" (assuming the clip below is synchronized with the frames correctly). She completely stops at around Z190 but is looking away from the limo while jogging after roughly Z160. In several interviews she said she was reacting to the sound of a gun shot (she never testified to the WC).

One "problem" is that everyone around her appears not to be reacting at all. It's amazing really. Something got her attention (it couldn't have been her father calling her; he's still taking a photo) but no one else?

[Bill Chapman]

I think that's really well put, a "buffet" of evidence.

What's striking is that it seems possible to pick several differing 'narratives' and have a range of supporting evidence for each.

The lack of any reaction from Landis, Hickey and Ready I don't think is so easily brushed away. Ready says he immediately turned to his "right rear". We don't see this in Zapruder but we do see this in Altgens6. Ready is obviously recalling the moment accurately as we see it confirmed in Altgens6 and I find it difficult to accept that these specially trained SS agents would take two to three seconds to react to an "explosive noise".
But, as you say, there's more to the case than this point. That's just the particular part of the "buffet" I am selecting from.

I'd go with 'smorgasbord' over 'buffet'. Just seems more vivid, far-reaching, somehow. Well, at least somewhat more stylish. And what's wrong with a little flair, eh wot?

But I guess it depends on which side one's bread is buttered..

 

[Dan O'meara]

To return to Rosemary Willis: She (for me) is clearly reacting, as shown below, much earlier than Z200 to "something" (assuming the clip below is synchronized with the frames correctly). She completely stops at around Z190 but is looking away from the limo while jogging after roughly Z160. In several interviews she said she was reacting to the sound of a gun shot (she never testified to the WC).

One "problem" is that everyone around her appears not to be reacting at all. It's amazing really. Something got her attention (it couldn't have been her father calling her; he's still taking a photo) but no one else?

I see her just running alongside the parade, she can't keep up so she stops running. It'd be weird if she followed them through the triple underpass. It's like 'head turns', people pick a spot for a shot in the Z-film and whatever happens around that moment becomes instantly suspicious. She is just running alongside the limo, probably trying to keep up with Jackie, who appears to be watching the little girl running at one point. Maybe she did hear a noise but, as you point out, no-one else reacted to it.

[Dan O'meara]

I'd go with 'smorgasbord' over 'buffet'. Just seems more vivid, far-reaching, somehow. Well, at least somewhat more stylish. And what's wrong with a little flair, eh wot?

But I guess it depends on which side one's bread is buttered..

 

Always adding a touch of class Bill. 

"But I guess it depends on which side one's bread is buttered.."

And finishing off with a hint of mystery.

[Dan O'meara]

To return to Rosemary Willis: She (for me) is clearly reacting, as shown below, much earlier than Z200 to "something" (assuming the clip below is synchronized with the frames correctly). She completely stops at around Z190 but is looking away from the limo while jogging after roughly Z160. In several interviews she said she was reacting to the sound of a gun shot (she never testified to the WC).

One "problem" is that everyone around her appears not to be reacting at all. It's amazing really. Something got her attention (it couldn't have been her father calling her; he's still taking a photo) but no one else?

Just to add a bit more detail to what you were saying Steve. The video below stitches together several clips that have Rosemary running alongside the Presidential limo. At first she is following an older female (possibly her mother/older sister?). Quickly Rosemary overtakes the older female and if you look in the third clip (a close-up from the Z-film) it appears to me that the older female is cupping her hands to her mouth, possibly calling out to Rosemary who is just running off like a headless chicken.