Geneva Hine

[Charles Collins]

Just in case there are any doubts about people falling, etc around the intersection of Elm and Houston:

Miss. MITCHELL - I went out the Elm Street entrance of the building and I was on the corner of Elm and Record - I'm sorry, Elm and Houston.
Mr. BALL - Which corner?
Miss. MITCHELL - I knew you were going to ask that and I decided it's probably the northwest corner. I am not good at directions.
Mr. BALL - Let's put it this way-
Miss. MITCHELL - It's the corner diagonally across the intersection from the Texas School Book Depository.
Mr. BALL - The Texas School Book Depository is on the northwest corner; that would put you on the southeast corner.
Miss. MITCHELL - Yes, sir; I was thinking about which corner of the building.
Mr. BALL - The northwest corner of the building and the southwest corner of the intersection, is that right?
Miss. MITCHELL - Yes, sir.
Mr. BALL - Were you near the curb when you were standing?
Miss. MITCHELL - Yes; I was on the curb.
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Mr. BALL - What did you do after that, if anything?
Miss. MITCHELL - Well, looked back around at the crowd, I'm sure, because I expected to see the Secret Service men and police escorts just start pouring everywhere when we decided what the shots were and then looking at the people that were falling on the ground and started milling around and then I went back to the office.

[James Hackerott]

Here is my interpretation of the Geneva Hine view of the motorcade as it begins the turn to Elm, along with the Hughes view of the same time. Her head is essentially touching the window glass. The pilaster bricks (yellow in the sim) limit her westward view.


 

[Gerry Down]

Perhaps Geneva Hines was related to Eddie Piper in that they both picked the worst ways to view the motorcade.

[Charles Collins]

Here is my interpretation of the Geneva Hine view of the motorcade as it begins the turn to Elm, along with the Hughes view of the same time. Her head is essentially touching the window glass. The pilaster bricks (yellow in the sim) limit her westward view.


 

Nice work, as usual James, thanks! There is a set of two windows at that location. Did you choose the southern window or the northern window for your animation? The reason I ask is that I think the outside surface of the post between the windows is inset several inches from the outer surface of the bricks. And I think that this should make a slight difference (improvement) in the view (if you used the northernmost window versus the southernmost window). At any rate, this suggests to me that the window was probably open and that Geneva Hine could have improved her view by sticking her head out only slightly. I haven't found any photographic evidence that conclusively shows one way or another. But, regardless, I think that sticking her head out just a small amount isn't going to be very obvious from the angles of the images that we do have. The Weaver polaroid photo is another one that might show us something. But the detail on it isn't very good either.



If the Powell photo showed only one more floor below its lowest, we could tell if the window was open or not.

[James Hackerott]

Nice work, as usual James, thanks! There is a set of two windows at that location. Did you choose the southern window or the northern window for your animation? The reason I ask is that I think the outside surface of the post between the windows is inset several inches from the outer surface of the bricks. And I think that this should make a slight difference (improvement) in the view (if you used the northernmost window versus the southernmost window). At any rate, this suggests to me that the window was probably open and that Geneva Hine could have improved her view by sticking her head out only slightly. I haven't found any photographic evidence that conclusively shows one way or another. But, regardless, I think that sticking her head out just a small amount isn't going to be very obvious from the angles of the images that we do have. The Weaver polaroid photo is another one that might show us something. But the detail on it isn't very good either.

Thanks Charles, you are right about the northern window. My animation was from the south window. I initially used the north window but did not optimize the location and, at the time, felt the south window gave a better view. Your comment prompted me to maximize her view from the north window and found the best view when she would have her head as close as possible to the north window jamb, with her head at the glass. The view from north window is much improved over the southern window.

I then opened the window and moved her 12” eastward in half inch per frame increments. Her eyes would then be around 6” east of the plane of the window.

[Charles Collins]

Thanks Charles, you are right about the northern window. My animation was from the south window. I initially used the north window but did not optimize the location and, at the time, felt the south window gave a better view. Your comment prompted me to maximize her view from the north window and found the best view when she would have her head as close as possible to the north window jamb, with her head at the glass. The view from north window is much improved over the southern window.

I then opened the window and moved her 12” eastward in half inch per frame increments. Her eyes would then be around 6” east of the plane of the window.

 

That’s awesome James. Thanks again!

Yes, we can only guess what the actual circumstances were. But Geneva said that she volunteered to answer the phones so that the others in the office could go outside to see the motorcade. I imagine that as the time grew nearer, and the noise from the crowd increased, that someone in that office might have opened the only window that was accessible to them. After all, it was a nice day, weather wise, for doing just that. Either way, thanks to your graphics, we now have a much better idea of what she could actually see.   

[John Iacoletti]

She was referring to the lights on the phone if you read her entire comment in context.  She is explaining why she could leave her desk (her job was to answer the phones) and look out the window (i.e. there were no incoming calls because the "motorcade was coming").

Miss HINE. Yes, sir: I was alone until the lights all went out and the phones became dead because the motorcade was coming near us and no one was calling so I got up and thought I could see it from the east window in our office.

Once again, "Richard's" mind-reading skills underwhelm.  She said nothing about lights ON THE PHONE.  And why would people wanting to order school books from across the state of Texas stop calling because a motorcade was coming near her building?

Besides that, Deputy Mooney also mentioned that the power had been cut.

[Mitch Todd]

Once again, "Richard's" mind-reading skills underwhelm.  She said nothing about lights ON THE PHONE.  And why would people wanting to order school books from across the state of Texas stop calling because a motorcade was coming near her building?

Besides that, Deputy Mooney also mentioned that the power had been cut.

This is  Mooney from his 11/23/1963 DCSD report:

"As the elevator started up, we went up one floor and the power to the elevator was cut off"

His WC testimony follows along the same lines:

"It was a push button affair the best I can remember. got hold of the controls and it worked. We started up and got to the second. I was going to let them off and go on up. And when we got there, the power undoubtedly cut off, because we had no more power on the elevator."

So, there was power until Mooney got on the elevator and had ascended from the ground floor to the second. And he said that power cut only for the elevator. He didn't say it was building-wide.

BTW, it should be noted that Mooney didn't enter the building until after 12:40. In sum, there is nothing whatsoever in Mooney's testimony that supports your interpretation of Hines' testimony.

As for "She said nothing about lights ON THE PHONE," it's worth pointing out that she also said nothing about THE BUILDING LIGHTING going out, or about ELECTRICAL POWER BEING CUT OFF, or any number of other things expressed in ALL CAPS. Nor is there any good reason to think that she wasn't referring to lights on the phone. I don't know if you're old enough to remember, but most businesses used multi-line phones with a row of lighted buttons along the bottom. Each lighted button represented one line. When the line was being used, the light corresponding to that line would illuminate. When the call ended, the little light would go out. So there's nothing odd, wrong, or illogical about the interpretation that Hine was referring to the line active lights on the multiline phone right in front of her.