Andrew Mason wrote “there is a lot of other more specific evidence (such as Altgens, Connallys, Powers, Hickey, Bennett, Kinney, Hill, Chisms, Woodward who are quite clear that the third and last shot was the head shot).”
Let’s go through the earliest statements of these witnesses one by one in order of the first statements…
James Altgens (11-22-63 AP bulletin, around 12:39 CST) "President Kennedy was shot just as his motorcade left downtown Dallas. Mrs. Kennedy jumped up and grabbed him. She cried "Oh, no!" The motorcade sped on. Photographer James Altgens said he saw blood on the President's head. Altgens said he heard two shots but thought someone was shooting fireworks until he saw blood on the President. Altgens said he saw no one with a gun." (11-22-63 eyewitness account, presented as an AP dispatch at 6:49 PM. This more detailed account was also published in the 11-25-63 issue of Stars and Stripes.) "There was a burst of noise - the second one I heard - and pieces of flesh appeared to fly from President Kennedy's car. Blood covered the whole left side of his head. Mrs. Kennedy saw what had happened to her husband. She grabbed him exclaiming, "Oh, No!" The car's driver realized what had happened and almost as if by reflex speeded up towards the Stemmons Expressway. There seemed to be utter confusion. One motorcycle officer ran his cycle into the curb, almost falling off. Police came from everywhere as the President's car disappeared from sight. At first, I thought the shots came from the opposite side of the street. I ran over there to see if I could get some pictures. But it turned out to be just more confusion. Police ran in all directions in search of the assassin. I did not know until later where the shots came from. I was on the opposite side of the President's car from the gunman. He might have hit me. The motorcade was moving along in routine fashion until there was a noise like fireworks popping. I snapped a picture of the motorcade at just about that time, still unaware of what was happening. I cranked my camera for another shot. The procession still moved along slowly. Then came the second burst of noise."
Analysis: James Altgens heard two shots, the second of which was the head shot. Thought the shots could have come from the knoll.
John Chism (11-22-63 statement to Dallas Sheriff’s Department, 19H471) “we were directly in front of the Stemmons Freeway sign…When I saw the motorcade round the corner, the President was standing and waving to the crowd. And just as he got just about in front of me, he turned and waved to the crowd on this side of the street, the right side; at this point I heard what sounded like one shot, and I saw him “The President,” sit back in his seat and lean his head to his left side. At this point, I saw Mrs. Kennedy stand up and pull his head over her lap, and then lay down over him as if to shield him. And the two men in the front seat, I don’t know who they were, looked back, and just about the time they looked back, the second shot was fired. At this point, I looked behind me, to see whether it was a fireworks display or something. And then I saw a lot of people running for cover, behind the embankment there back up on the grass.”
Analysis: John Chism heard two shots, the second of which was the head shot. Thought the shots could have come from the knoll.
Marvin Faye Chism was John Chism’s wife and stood beside him and their son Ricky in front of the Stemmons Freeway sign. (11-22-63 statement to the Dallas Sheriff’s Department, 19H472) “As the President was coming through, I heard this first shot, and the President fell to his left. The President’s wife immediately stood over him, and she pulled him up, and lay him down in the seat, and she stood up over him in the car. The President was standing and waving and smiling at the people when the shot happened. And then there was the second shot that I heard…It came from what I thought was behind us and I looked but I couldn’t see anything. The two men in the front of the car stood up, and then when the second shot was fired, they all fell down and the car took off just like that.”
Analysis: Faye Chism heard two shots, the second of which was the head shot. Thought the shots could have come from the knoll.
First Lady of Texas Nellie Connally (11-22-63 press conference by Connally aide Julian Read, as found on youtube) "As Mrs. Connally recalls, just before they reached the triple underpass, the shot rang out, the first shot, and she feels quite sure that it did hit the President. Governor Connally, who was seated here, turned immediately to see what happened, and as he turned, he was struck. The President, according to Mrs. Connally, immediately slumped and Mrs. Kennedy grabbed him. A moment later Governor Connally slumped, and Mrs. Connally grabbed him. Both women grabbed the men almost simultaneously and ducked as much as possible to guard against any possible gunfire following that. Mrs. Connally says the next thing she recalls is the Secret Service man picking up a telephone in the car and getting instructions of "Let's proceed to the nearest hospital." (11-22-63 WFAA report on the approximately 2:00 PM press conference given by Connally aides Bill Stinson and Julian Read.) (Quoting Read, who had just spoken to Mrs. Connally.) “The car had turned to the left on Elm Street and was getting ready to go under the Triple Underpass. At that moment, Mrs. Connally said she heard a shot. Instantly, when she heard the shot, her husband turned to see what had happened and at that instant he too was shot. Mrs. Connally says she believes the first shot was the one that struck President Kennedy in the head. There was a second shot. That shot struck Governor Connally in the back, and coming out of his body in the right chest. There are reports of a third shot and Governor Connally has a wound on his wrist and that could be the result of that third pistol shot, although Mrs. Connally is not certain whether there was a third shot or not. She said immediately after the first shot Mrs. Kennedy grabbed her husband. After the second shot Mrs. Connally grabbed her husband. All four of them ducked down into the car to escape any further fusillade of shots.” (Notes written on 12-2-63, as reprinted in her book From Love Field, 2003) “then I heard a loud, terrifying noise…I turned and looked toward the President just in time to see him clutch his neck and see him sink down in his seat. There was no utterance of any kind from him…I had no sure knowledge as to what the noise was…Quickly, there was a second shot, John had turned to the right at the first shot to look back and then whirled to the left to get another look…John said, “No, No, No,” was hit himself by a second shot and said “My God, they are going to kill us all,” wheeled back to the right, crumpling his shoulders to his knees…I reached over and pulled him to me…Then came a third shot.”
Analysis: Nellie Connally believed there were three shots, the first which struck the President, and the second which struck her husband. She was only vaguely aware of a third shot. Assuming this third shot was the head shot, which rang out as she was pulling her husband down in the car, well, then, it would not be a surprise should she not have heard a shot immediately following this shot
Mary Woodward (11-23-63 newspaper article Witness From the News Describes Assassination written by Woodward for the Dallas Morning News) "We had been waiting about half an hour when the first motorcycle escorts came by, followed shortly by the President’s car. The President was looking straight ahead and we were afraid we would not get to see his face. But we started clapping and cheering and both he and Mrs. Kennedy turned, and smiled and waved, directly at us, it seemed. Jackie was wearing a beautiful pink suit with beret to match. Two of us, who had seen the President last during the final weeks of the 1960 campaign, remarked almost simultaneously how relaxed and robust he looked. As it turned out, we were almost certainly the last faces he noticed in the crowd. After acknowledging our cheers, he faced forward again and suddenly there was a horrible, ear-shattering noise coming from behind us and a little to the right. My first reaction, and also my friends’, was that as a joke, someone had backfired their car. Apparently, the driver and occupants of the President’s car had the same impression, because instead of speeding up, the car came almost to a halt. Things are a little hazy from this point, but I don’t believe anyone was hit with the first bullet. The President and Mrs. Kennedy turned and looked around, as if they, too, didn’t believe the noise was really coming from a gun. Then after a moment’s pause there was another shot and I saw the President start slumping in the car. This was followed rapidly by another shot. Mrs. Kennedy stood up in the car, turned half-way around, then fell on top of her husband’s body. Not until this minute did it sink in what actually was happening. We had witnessed the assassination of the President.”
Analysis: Mary Woodward saw Kennedy respond to the first shot, and not continue calmly waving, so she was mistaken as to the first shot missing. Her recollection that she saw Kennedy slump in response to the second shot, then, is most logically a reference to the head shot. As she heard a shot after this shot, then, it seems clear she heard a shot after the head shot. (This puts her in line with many of the closest witnesses, e.g Brehm, Moorman, Hill, Hudson, Summers, etc.) Thought shots could have come from the knoll.
Glen Bennett (notes written on 11-22-63, 24H541-542) "We made a left hand turn and then a quick right. The President's auto moved down a slight grade and the crowd was very sparse. At this point I heard a noise that immediately reminded me of a firecracker. I immediately, upon hearing the supposed firecracker, looked at the boss's car. At this exact time I saw a shot that hit the boss about 4 inches down from the right shoulder. A second shoot followed immediately and hit the right rear high of the boss's head. I immediately hollered to Special Agent Hickey, seated in the same seat, to get the AR-15. I drew my revolver and looked to the rear and to the left--high left--but was unable to see any one person that could have rendered this terrible tragedy." (11-23-63 report, 18H760) “The motorcade entered an intersection and then proceeded down a grade. At this point the well-wishers numbered but a few, the motorcade continued on down this grade en route to the trade mart. 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 firecracker 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. I immediately hollered “he’s hit” and reached for the AR-15 located on the floor of the rear seat. Special Agent Hickey had already picked-up the AR-15. We peered towards the rear and particularly the right side of the area. I had drawn my revolver when I saw SA Hickey had the AR-15. I was unable to see anything or one that could have fired the shoots.”
Analysis: Bennett’s original notes are a bit odd, what with his saying the head shot was the “second shot.” Did he mean that it was the second shot after the head shot? Or that it was, in fact, the second shot he heard? His report is so garbled, in fact, that we have reason to believe his typed-up report was written by someone else, based upon his notes. Still, when taken at face value, it appears that Bennett believed he heard three shots, with the second one hitting Kennedy in the back, and the third one striking his head.
Sam Kinney (11-22-63 report, 18H732) “The first shot was fired as we were going into an underpass…it appeared that he (the President) had been shot because he slumped to the left. Immediately, he sat up again. At this time, the second shot was fired and I observed hair flying from the right side of his head…I did hear three shots but do not recall which shots were those that hit the President.” (11-30-63 report, 18H730-731) “As we completed the left turn and on a short distance, there was a shot…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. Agent Clint Hill jumped from the follow-up car and dashed to the aid of the President and first Lady in the President’s car. I saw one shot strike the President in the right side of the head.”
Analysis: Sam Kinney heard the second two shots bang-bang, but could not say for sure which one hit the President’s head. Still, his first report indicated that he thought it was the second one, and that the third shot missed. (This was in keeping with many of the closest witnesses.)
George Hickey (11-22-63 report, 18H765) “As 100-X made the turn and proceeded a short distance, I heard what seemed to me that a firecracker exploded to the right and rear. I stood partially up and turned to the rear to see if I could observe anything. Nothing was observed and I turned around and looked at the President’s car. The President was slumped to the left in the car. I heard what appeared to be two shots and it seemed as if the right side of his head was hit and his hair flew forward.” (11-30-63 report, 18H761-764) “Just prior to the shooting the Presidential car turned left at the intersection and started down an incline toward an underpass followed by 679x. After a very short distance I heard a loud report which sounded like a firecracker…I stood up and looked to my right and rear in an attempt to identify it. Nothing caught my attention except people shouting and cheering. A disturbance in 679X caused me to look forward to the President’s car. 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 from the first report and were in such rapid succession that there seemed to be practically no time element between them. It looked to me as if the president was struck in the right upper rear of the head. The first shot of the second two seemed as if it missed because the hair on the right side of his head flew forward and there didn’t seem to be any impact against his head. The last shot seemed to hit his head and cause a noise at the point of impact which made him fall forward and to his left again. Possibly four or five seconds elapsed from the time of the first report and the last. At the end of the last report I reached to the bottom of the car and picked up the AR 15 rifle, cocked and loaded it, and turned to the rear. At this point the cars were passing under the over-pass and as a result we had left the scene of the shooting. I kept the AR 15 rifle ready as we proceeded at a high rate of speed to the hospital.”
Analysis: Hickey, much as Kinney, heard the last two shots bang-bang. While he thought the second of these was the head shot, his recollection that JFK’s hair flew up with the first strongly supports that it was in fact the first of these shots that struck the President’s head.
Texas Governor John Connally (11-22-63 report of CBS News' Walter Cronkite, quoting Connally's aide William Stinson's circa 2:00 PM press conference) (On Connally's response when asked from which direction the shots came) "I don't know. I guess from the back. They got the President, too." (11-27-63 televised interview with Martin Agronsky, transcript printed in the 11-28-63 New York Times.) ”we had just turned the corner, we heard a shot; I turned to my left—I was sitting in the jump seat. I turned to my left to look in the back seat—the President had slumped. He had said nothing. Almost simultaneously, as I turned, I was hit and I knew I had been hit badly. I knew the President had been hit and I said, “My God, they are going to kill us all.” Then there was a third shot and the President was hit again and we thought then very seriously. I had still retained consciousness but the President had slumped in Mrs. Kennedy's lap and when he was hit the second time she said, or the first time—it all happened in such a brief span--she said “Oh, my God, they have killed my husband—Jack, Jack.” After the third shot, the next thing that occurred—I was conscious--the Secret Service man, of course, the chauffeur, had pulled out of the line--they said, “Get out of here…”
Analysis: John Connally heard only two shots—both of which he believed hit the President. He assumed that the third shot heard by others was the shot that hit him and that it had been fired in between the two shots striking Kennedy. But there is virtually no support that a shot was heard between these two shots. That the Connallys were only vaguely aware of the shot striking Kennedy in the head, and recalled this shot mostly in connection with the brain matter that rained down upon them afterwards, supports that with their dive down below the level of the seats for protection at this time they failed to hear the last shot heard by others.
Clint Hill (11-30-63 report, 18H740-745) “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. The noise 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. I heard a second firecracker type noise but it had a different sound—like the sound of shooting a revolver into something hard. I saw the President slump more toward his left. I jumped onto the left rear step of the Presidential automobile. Mrs. Kennedy shouted, "They've shot his head off;" then turned and raised out of her seat as if she were reaching to her right rear toward the back of the car for something that had blown out. I forced her back into her seat and placed my body above President and Mrs. Kennedy. SA Greer had, as I jumped onto the Presidential automobile, accelerated the Presidential automobile forward. I heard ASAIC Kellerman call SA Lawson on the two-way radio and say, "To the nearest hospital, quick." I shouted as loud as I could at the Lead car, "To the hospital, to the hospital." As I lay over the top of the back seat I noticed a portion of the President's head on the right rear side was missing and he was bleeding profusely. Part of his brain was gone. I saw a part of his skull with hair on it lieing in the seat...At approximately 2:45 A.M., November 23, I was requested by ASAIC to come to the morgue to once again view the body. When I arrived the autopsy had been completed and ASAIC Kellerman, SA Greer, General McHugh and I viewed the wounds. I observed a wound about six inches down from the neckline on the back just to the right of the spinal column. I observed another wound on the right rear portion of the skull. Attendants of the Joseph Gawler Mortuary were at this time preparing the body for placement in the casket.”
Analysis: Clint Hill heard only two shots, the second of which was the head shot. The different sound of the second shot, moreover, could have been the bang-bang heard by others, only blurred into one sound.
David Powers, another Kennedy assistant, rode in the middle seat to the right of O’Donnell. (Notes on a 4-8-64 interview with William Manchester, as reported in the TV documentary "The Kennedy Assassination: 24 Hours After," 2009) "I am looking at the Presidential car. His hand was waving and now he put his hands slowly to his throat and slumps towards Jackie. And I say to Kenny 'I think the President's been hit.' Kenny and I not only saw the next one we heard it. We just saw that handsome head get blown off. We heard the shot and we heard the impact of the shot. It was the most sickening thing--like a grapefruit being thrown against a brick wall...At Parkland, I ran up to the Presidential car. His eyes were open. I opened the door and said 'Oh, my God, Mr. President!' I almost expected him to say 'I'm alright' because he never complained. A fragment of the bullet had come out of his forehead. I still get an ache in my head like a toothache where he was hit. I suppose it's just nerves."
Analysis: although Powers would later make statements in which he supported what was then believed to be the official scenario—that Connally was hit by the second bullet--his initial interview with Manchester indicates he had a clear recollection of but two shots—the second of which struck Kennedy in the head.
