Hi Charles and Dan, MacNeil was actually on the press bus when Couch and Darnell were filming! I agree. The man at the bottom of the steps cannot be MacNeil. I stand corrected! Thank you both for your valuable input! Sincerely yours, Michael
This brings us back to the identification of this man as Bill Shelley.
In what follows I am going to use an estimation of 25 seconds after the head-shot for when the Darnell clip begins. It is an assumption in lieu of an exact timing but cannot be too far from the actual time.
I would like to examine the feasibility of the scenario I outlined in Reply#171, which was my personal opinion of the identification of Calvery on the steps of the TSBD building as shown in the Darnell clip.
From her position marked on the map above, Calvery runs up to the position marked A, where she passes Shelley, who has come from the front steps.
The distance from Calvery's position to the front steps is approximately 150 feet (using Roberdeau's scale). At a modest run of 8mph this distance can be covered in less than 13 seconds. In the 25 seconds allotted she would have to reach point"A", interact with Shelley, then point "B", interact with officer Smith, then reach the TSBD steps.
Shelley, Lovelady and Smith make the point that Gloria was running (I'm assuming the hysterical woman is Gloria). Both her interactions [with Shelley and Smith] appear to be quick - she simply tells Shelley the President has been shot and as soon as she tells Smith that shots were coming from the"bushes" he immediately heads off in that direction.
In the Darnell clip we first see Smith about half way up the Elm Street extension heading towards the bushes that would've been directly behind Calvery's position as she stood on Elm Street. If we can extrapolate Smith's movements "backwards" it seems reasonable to assume he has crossed paths with Gloria some 5 - 10 seconds before the Darnell clip begins.
In the Darnell clip Gloria, wearing a black headscarf and stood about 2 or 3 steps up, appears to be facing a bald-headed man who takes a steps down towards her. This is Lovelady, who recounts his interaction with Gloria while he is on the front steps. It is around this moment that Frazier, stood at the top of the steps, recalls a woman in distress, telling the people on the steps about the shooting, in a "low kind of hollering".
Baker reaches the area near the bottom of the steps towards the end of the clip around which time he reports a woman screaming "They shot that man" or something to that effect.
Shelley, who ran across the street to around point "A", returns to the bottom of the front steps and can be seen in the Darnell clip as he reaches this position - he takes a step or two towards Gloria, then turns to his left, facing down the Elm Street extension towards the railroad.
