Oswald took 10.2 seconds to fire all three shots.

[Charles Collins]

I am a fan of modeling and simulation so really like what you, Charles, and Tom are trying to do to further understand the shooting dynamics.

I have not done anything along the line of the rifle handling so can’t help any, but I did find a Carcano M91/38 (without scope) at an estate auction. Perhaps some day I can experiment with representative handling positions and shooting logistics at a low nook window here at home.

On thing I had thought about, and maybe you guys can comment on, is try to envision what Oswald might be doing leading right up to when the shooting started.

Putting myself in his place I envisioned that, although he knew the motorcade route would come by the depository, he may not have known what the motorcade arrangement was. In that I mean at the time the limo turned onto Houston, he might not have known for sure, exactly what the limo looked like, what vehicle it was to be in line i.e. where positioned in the precession, or where JFK would be seated in that vehicle.

Perhaps it took him a short while, maybe halfway down Houston, to discern all this and locate exactly where his target was, and how JFK was positioned in whatever seat. I have wondered if a time delay for this could contribute to not shooting earlier on Houston which is what many people often ask about.

Now if Oswald was seated on a box at this time, it seems like he would have to lean forward quite a bit to look around the east vertical window casing to examine the motorcade coming down Houston. Alternately, if he stood up from that seated position his body might naturally tend to lean forward a bit giving him a better view of the motorcade coming down Houston in order to make his determinations. I guess either would work, but it seems examining the motorcade would be easier if he was initially standing.

If so, the question then for the first shot is when would he have made a decision to stay mostly standing at that early point, crouch down, or be reseated? I would think that about the time the limo started to turn on Elm, JFK was quite close and the adrenalin would really be kicking in and that might be when he made a decision on an early first shot and how he would proceed, mostly standing, crouching down some in transition to sitting, or sitting.

Perhaps the work you guys are doing will further help determine this.

Also in the Hughes film where motion was seen in the sniper's window, do you guys recall if the motion observed was left/right, up/down, or just some generic motion, and if Oswald was standing at that point given widow sizes would his head have been positioned in the upper window pane as seen from street level?
Thanks for the effort you guys are putting forth here.

Brian, if you run across another of those rifles for sale or want to sell your’s, please let me know via private message.

I am guessing that LHO probably had seen photos of JFK’s motorcades in the newspapers and had a general idea of what to expect. As far as potentially shooting at JFK on Houston goes, that would have given SS agents a chance to see him and shoot back. I believe that LHO set up and executed a very well designed ambush from behind. So, I would guess that an ambush from behind was his plan all along (especially considering the way the sniper’s nest was set up for comfortable shots after clearing the tree on Elm Street).

 When sitting straight up on the seat box LHO was hidden from view from Houston Street (and Hughe’s camera). Just by leaning forward a little bit (same lean angle as for aiming a shot down Elm Street towards the triple underpass) LHO could see down onto Houston Street (and Brennan could see LHO). I believe that is why Brennan thought LHO left his spot in the window several times, but I believe that LHO simply sat up straight and was hidden from view from Brennan’s angle. I have proven all that stuff to myself using my models.

As far as standing to begin with, he didn’t need to do that to get a good view of the motorcade on Houston Street. Sixty feet above the street level versus sixty three feet above street level isn’t going to make a significant difference. Plus he was out of sight to most of the spectators and the motorcade participants in his sitting position, and it makes no sense for him to stand up and expose himself to view. Snipers typically choose to stay hidden as much as possible.

No one to my knowledge is willing to specify where in the window they see the motion. If they did and we could also discern the motion, we might have an idea whether he was sitting or standing. Best evidence that I know of is the witnesses who saw him seconds before the shots and indicated from their descriptions of what they could see of him that he was sitting.

[Royell Storing]

When you say forensic science, do you mean the fact that that kind of bullet always starts tumbling when it exits something soft like a block of ballistics gel or a human neck, and the fact that the entry wound in JBC's back was oblong in shape?

   Are you referencing the same Carcano Ammo that allegedly EXPLODED JFK's head on contact? With respect to Gov Connally, I do believe the physical position of Gov Connally COMPLETELY turned around/180 and fully facing JFK further makes the SBT laughable. At this point in time, Connally has already been shot, resulting in bones broken and his entire body being pierced. Yet, there we see him facing JFK, and he still is yet to make another 180 turn. He does ALL of this with broken bones, a collapsed lung, and a pierced body. Rambo stuff. 

[Charles Collins]

    Your attention should be focused on the angle from the 1/2 open window to the Signal Light/Support Beam. This is what Holland claimed the bullet struck/glanced off of.

By my rough calculations explained in the earlier post, the end of the traffic light mast (where the actual traffic light is hung) is roughly inline with a pseudo Z124 JFK location. Again, others can probably provide more accurate plots of these locations than I can at this point.

[Steve M. Galbraith]

Brian, if you run across another of those rifles for sale or want to sell your’s, please let me know via private message.

I am guessing that LHO probably had seen photos of JFK’s motorcades in the newspapers and had a general idea of what to expect. As far as potentially shooting at JFK on Houston goes, that would have given SS agents a chance to see him and shoot back. I believe that LHO set up and executed a very well designed ambush from behind. So, I would guess that an ambush from behind was his plan all along (especially considering the way the sniper’s nest was set up for comfortable shots after clearing the tree on Elm Street).

 When sitting straight up on the seat box LHO was hidden from view from Houston Street (and Hughe’s camera). Just by leaning forward a little bit (same lean angle as for aiming a shot down Elm Street towards the triple underpass) LHO could see down onto Houston Street (and Brennan could see LHO). I believe that is why Brennan thought LHO left his spot in the window several times, but I believe that LHO simply sat up straight and was hidden from view from Brennan’s angle. I have proven all that stuff to myself using my models.

As far as standing to begin with, he didn’t need to do that to get a good view of the motorcade on Houston Street. Sixty feet above the street level versus sixty three feet above street level isn’t going to make a significant difference. Plus he was out of sight to most of the spectators and the motorcade participants in his sitting position, and it makes no sense for him to stand up and expose himself to view. Snipers typically choose to stay hidden as much as possible.

No one to my knowledge is willing to specify where in the window they see the motion. If they did and we could also discern the motion, we might have an idea whether he was sitting or standing. Best evidence that I know of is the witnesses who saw him seconds before the shots and indicated from their descriptions of what they could see of him that he was sitting.

Charles: The Hughes film was enhanced here:

Go to the ~1:20 mark. It's a short clip. The conclusion was that there was motion in the window about 7 seconds before the first shot is fired. It's hard to make out but it seems that the figure was standing at that point. It's incredibly frustrating because had Hughes continued filming we would have been able to see the shooting.

This was from the PBS investigation "Who was Lee Harvey Oswald?"

[Charles Collins]

Charles: The Hughes film was enhanced here:

Go to the ~1:20 mark. It's a short clip. The conclusion was that there was motion in the window about 7 seconds before the first shot is fired. It's hard to make out but it seems that the figure was standing at that point. It's incredibly frustrating because had Hughes continued filming we would have been able to see the shooting.

This was from the PBS investigation "Who was Lee Harvey Oswald?"

Hughes did stop filming but then he continued filming a few seconds later showing other parts of the motorcade closer to him on Houston Street.

Thanks for the link to the video. I watched it again several times but failed to find anything that indicated he was standing. They give no clue about where specifically in the window the movement was supposed to be located. Did you see any movement in the sixth floor corner window that you are willing to give us the specific location of?

[Brian Roselle]

By my rough calculations explained in the earlier post, the end of the traffic light mast (where the actual traffic light is hung) is roughly inline with a pseudo Z124 JFK location. Again, others can probably provide more accurate plots of these locations than I can at this point.

There seems to be some confusion about the minimum limo miss at ~ z124 I have been talking about and the traffic mast causing the miss at ~z107.

The minimum limo miss is described at this link below with the middle picture representing the limo at ~z124.
 
At this point the limo has significantly passed the traffic mast. This type of minimum miss strike location also matched what Faye Chism said.

This link below was used to estimate the instantaneous rifle deviation, i.e. how far off from being perfectly aimed using the iron sights it would momentarily have to be off target to miss the limo, when the first shot missing the president’s head was estimated at 36”. The picture at the top was found to just to help convey the geometry of the measurement points. The result was that the aim only had to be off target by about a half an inch to miss the limo.

I later made an estimate using oa at 107 ft to get some angle estimates. If it helps, one estimate of the angle down from horizontal at the sniper nest to the trajectory going to limo was about 33.7 deg, and upwards from ground/limo to the nest would be about 32.8  deg.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1hZEgKoRdXBBpzrLArLUZh9JsNA3oIE_E/view?usp=sharing

[Brian Roselle]

Steve, Thanks for posting that Hughes clip.  I'll look over it repeatedly to see if I can discern anything notable.

I'm with you, it was really bad luck the filming stopped when it did. Just a few more seconds and we would likely have answers to a whole slew of questions.