The 1967 CBS Rifle Test: More Evidence Against the Lone-Gunman Theory

[Lance Payette]

I don't happen to think three shots were fired in 5.6 seconds but set forth below is the relevant portion of the transcript of the CBS broadcast. This "could have done it, couldn't have done it" debate is endless. We will never know exactly what occurred. CT hyperbole - "proves!" "impossible!" - is just silly. One point Cronkite makes is, IMO, critical. No one will ever duplicate the adrenaline that had to be pumping through Oswald. The assumption always seems to be that the stress of a situation such as the JFKA would impair performance; in fact, adrenaline can result in faster reaction times and heightened focus, sometimes to an astonishing degree. Lastly, any notion that every clod off the street is a sharpshooter is nonsense; specific statistics are difficult to find, but in one Marine annual rifle qualification I found only 21% qualified as sharpshooters and the percentage typically cited is around 30%. CTers do themselves a disfavor when they resort to the sort of hyperbole they seemingly can't resist.

RATHER: Results varied. A Maryland state trooper made two hits in the
silhouette, one near miss -- in slightly less than five seconds.
Another state trooper's best time was 5.4 seconds. One hit,
two near misses,

A weapons engineer had the best score. Three hits in 5.2
seconds. A technician at the H. P. White Ballistics Laboratory
managed three shots in the fastest time, 4.1 seconds, half a
second faster than the fastest time turned in for the Warren
Commission, but only one hit.

Altogether the eleven volunteer marksmen made 37 attempts to
fire three shots at the moving target. 17 of those attempts
had to be called no time, because of trouble with the rifle.
In the 20 attempts where time could be recorded, the average
was 5.6 seconds.

CRONKITE: From our own tests we were convinced that a rifle
like Oswald's could be fired in 5.6 seconds or less, and with
reasonable accuracy, at a target moving much the same as the
Presidential limousine was travelling away from the Book
Depository's sixth-floor window,

So, clearly, there is no pat answer to the question of how
fast Oswald's rifle could be fired. In the first place, we
did not test his own rifle. It seemed reasonable to say
that an expert could fire that rifle in five seconds. It
seems equally reasonable to say that Oswald, under normal
circumstances, would take longer. But the circumstances
were not normal. He was shooting at a President. So our
answer is: probably fast enough.

[Sean Kneringer]

The target did not slow to a crawl like the limo did in Dallas. If it had, the shooters' results would have improved.

[Jack Nessan]

You must know this is nonsensical and disingenuous. You start with the fringe assumption that your alleged lone gunman fired only two shots, a view that even the vast majority of your fellow WC apologists rightly reject. That's your silly starting point.

To maintain that absurd starting point, you must dismiss/ignore the Aldredge miss and the manhole-cover-grass miss.

You must also float the ludicrous theory that one of your LHO shots supernaturally managed to send a fragment streaking hundreds of feet to hit the curb near Tague and then managed to send a fragment from the curb strike streaking toward Tague to cut his cheek.

No rational, objective person can take this zany stuff seriously.

 M Griffith: "a view that even the vast majority of your fellow WC apologists rightly reject."

I was unaware that you relied heavily on their opinion.

You have already agreed with Josiah that LHO only fired two shots.

Six Seconds Dallas

Josiah: The combination of these factors---- the peculiar accorded treatment accorded CE 543 by the Dallas Police, its inexplicable dent on the dented lip, the sets of three marks on the base absent on the other cases while present on CE 543 and finally its lack of the characteristic chambering mark----suggests that although two of the cartridges case may have been ejected from Oswald’s rifle, the third, CE543, is most likely an extra, unfired shell, and possibly a deliberate fake. Such a conclusion would mate perfectly with the description of events earlier laid down, namely, that only two of the shots fired that day in Dealey Plaza came from Oswald's rifle.”

MGriffith 9/30/25

“Yes, CE 543, the dented shell, could not have been used to fire a bullet on 11/22/63, but this does not prove that only two shots were fired during the assassination.”

Given the trajectories radiated back to the 6th floor window, the bullet and fragments were from a carcano and matched to LHO’s rifle, whoever else you think was shooting missed everything. Where was the second shooter located, and I guess it does not really matter what he was using for a rifle. Apparently, he could not hit his backside with both hands.

Just curious but in this story are both of the shooters stacked up in the TSBD 6th floor window? Only one window was open and only one person was seen shooting from the widow. BR Williams situated directly below the window, stated immediately after the assassination, there were only two shots. Jarmin, likewise, the second shot was the head shot.

 
 

[Michael T. Griffith]

M Griffith: "a view that even the vast majority of your fellow WC apologists rightly reject."

I was unaware that you relied heavily on their opinion.

You have already agreed with Josiah that LHO only fired two shots.

Six Seconds Dallas

Josiah: The combination of these factors---- the peculiar accorded treatment accorded CE 543 by the Dallas Police, its inexplicable dent on the dented lip, the sets of three marks on the base absent on the other cases while present on CE 543 and finally its lack of the characteristic chambering mark----suggests that although two of the cartridges case may have been ejected from Oswald’s rifle, the third, CE543, is most likely an extra, unfired shell, and possibly a deliberate fake. Such a conclusion would mate perfectly with the description of events earlier laid down, namely, that only two of the shots fired that day in Dealey Plaza came from Oswald's rifle.”

MGriffith 9/30/25

“Yes, CE 543, the dented shell, could not have been used to fire a bullet on 11/22/63, but this does not prove that only two shots were fired during the assassination.”

Given the trajectories radiated back to the 6th floor window, the bullet and fragments were from a carcano and matched to LHO’s rifle, whoever else you think was shooting missed everything. Where was the second shooter located, and I guess it does not really matter what he was using for a rifle. Apparently, he could not hit his backside with both hands.

Just curious but in this story are both of the shooters stacked up in the TSBD 6th floor window? Only one window was open and only one person was seen shooting from the widow. BR Williams situated directly below the window, stated immediately after the assassination, there were only two shots. Jarmin, likewise, the second shot was the head shot.

I'm not wasting any more time dealing with your two-shots-only nonsense. The simple fact of the matter is that the 1967 CBS rifle test is further powerful proof that the lone-gunman theory's version of the shooting is impossible and that Oswald did not even remotely have the rifle skills to perform it.

You keep dodging the self-evident implication of the CBS rifle test by citing your zany two-shots-only theory.

For any newcomers, Jack Nessan belongs to a tiny, tiny fringe minority of lone-gunman theorists who argue that the sixth-floor gunman only fired two shots. We know that at least four shots were fired during the assassination. We know this from scientific acoustical evidence, from scientific blur-episode analysis, and from credible and corroborated accounts of extra bullets striking in Dealey Plaza and of an extra bullet being found in JFK's limo after the shooting.

"Extra Bullets and Missed Shots in Dealey Plaza"
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1WRwhDQ9HMydf5pICsHwgtkoNKw0YSO8T/view?usp=sharing

"The HSCA's Acoustical Evidence: Proof of a Second Gunman"
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1KvdvH8gTqFgMn-2vTI5ppg_egWxRKg9U/view?usp=sharing

[Charles Collins]

Two extremely important factors that must be considered when trying to evaluate the results of these types of tests are:

1.  LHO had very fast reaction times according to his brother Robert Oswald. Robert wrote in his book “Lee” that games he and LHO used to play on each other involving faked sucker punches showed Robert that LHO had very fast reaction times. Therefore even though some of the participants in these tests might have been expert marksmen, if they didn’t have very fast reaction times then they were at a huge disadvantage in a test that tried to have them shoot three accurate shots in as short a time period as possible.

2.  LHO reportedly practiced dry-firing his rifle at passing vehicles from his screened porch in New Orleans during the summer of 1963. His view of the street was very limited due to the houses on either side. The vehicles would appear from one side or the other and then very quickly disappear on the other side. I cannot think of a better way to practice for the type of shooting that occurred in Dealey Plaza on 11/22/63 unless it was similar but from an elevated position.

Additionally, the ergonomics of the cramped space of the sniper’s nest afforded very comfortable shots into the “kill zone” just after the limo appeared from behind the oak tree. I have built a full scale model of the window and boxes under the window and the seat box. I have sat in it and aimed at targets at the same angles as Z224 and Z313. An early (missed) shot would have had potential interference from the window sill box and/or the metal vertical conduit closest to the window.

[Jack Nessan]

Two extremely important factors that must be considered when trying to evaluate the results of these types of tests are:

1.  LHO had very fast reaction times according to his brother Robert Oswald. Robert wrote in his book “Lee” that games he and LHO used to play on each other involving faked sucker punches showed Robert that LHO had very fast reaction times. Therefore even though some of the participants in these tests might have been expert marksmen, if they didn’t have very fast reaction times then they were at a huge disadvantage in a test that tried to have them shoot three accurate shots in as short a time period as possible.

2.  LHO reportedly practiced dry-firing his rifle at passing vehicles from his screened porch in New Orleans during the summer of 1963. His view of the street was very limited due to the houses on either side. The vehicles would appear from one side or the other and then very quickly disappear on the other side. I cannot think of a better way to practice for the type of shooting that occurred in Dealey Plaza on 11/22/63 unless it was similar but from an elevated position.

Additionally, the ergonomics of the cramped space of the sniper’s nest afforded very comfortable shots into the “kill zone” just after the limo appeared from behind the oak tree. I have built a full scale model of the window and boxes under the window and the seat box. I have sat in it and aimed at targets at the same angles as Z224 and Z313. An early (missed) shot would have had potential interference from the window sill box and/or the metal vertical conduit closest to the window.

Carlos Hathcock:

"Let me tell you what we did at Quantico. We reconstructed the whole thing: the angle, the range, the moving target, the time limit, the obstacles, everything. I don't know how many times we tried it, but we couldn't duplicate what the Warren Commission said Oswald did". (KILL ZONE, pp. 89-90).

“trying to duplicate the feat of 3 shots in 5.6 seconds on a moving target in a high to low angle. He said after several tries they simply could not duplicate it”

Hathcock was considered one of the best Marine Corp snipers ever.

Contrary to what eyewitnesses stated, this is why there had to be an early missed shot in order to stretch the time required to perform the assassination. 

The cycle time of LHO's carcano was 2.3 seconds per shot as measured by the FBI. The HSCA carcano had a 1.7 second cycle time. There is no telling what the CBS carcano's cycle time might have been. They were all over the board because of how they were repaired and then sent to the US to be sold.

[Jack Nessan]

I'm not wasting any more time dealing with your two-shots-only nonsense. The simple fact of the matter is that the 1967 CBS rifle test is further powerful proof that the lone-gunman theory's version of the shooting is impossible and that Oswald did not even remotely have the rifle skills to perform it.

You keep dodging the self-evident implication of the CBS rifle test by citing your zany two-shots-only theory.

For any newcomers, Jack Nessan belongs to a tiny, tiny fringe minority of lone-gunman theorists who argue that the sixth-floor gunman only fired two shots. We know that at least four shots were fired during the assassination. We know this from scientific acoustical evidence, from scientific blur-episode analysis, and from credible and corroborated accounts of extra bullets striking in Dealey Plaza and of an extra bullet being found in JFK's limo after the shooting.

"Extra Bullets and Missed Shots in Dealey Plaza"
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1WRwhDQ9HMydf5pICsHwgtkoNKw0YSO8T/view?usp=sharing

"The HSCA's Acoustical Evidence: Proof of a Second Gunman"
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1KvdvH8gTqFgMn-2vTI5ppg_egWxRKg9U/view?usp=sharing

Every time one of you Conspiracy guys become trapped by your own logic you make a plea like this post to try and run away and keep spouting your nonsense. 

M Grifffith--”I'm not wasting any more time dealing with your two-shots-only nonsense.” 


What a funny statement, because you have not dealt with it at all. You have not provided a single piece of anything that cast doubt on the fact there was only two shots.

Only because you are unable to prove there was a third shot. I will never waste a second of time discussing your opinion or your half-baked experts as if it was proof of something.

What you are proving yourself to be is a fraud.

Your whole storyline is nothing but fantasy and it is becoming more apparent with each post. Your reaction instead of providing proof is to fall apart and claim the CBS time trial was the proof, or one of your sorry toilet paper exposee’s were somehow proof of something other than an overactive imagination.

Your problem is you have not dealt with it all. Totally unable to provide any proof at all of there having been a third shot. Instead now making the claim that there having been a fourth shot. Both additional shots completely missing all of Dealey Plaza. All of the bullet and fragments were from a carcano. Was everyojne in you fantasy equipped with a carcano?

M Griffith “For any newcomers, Jack Nessan belongs to a tiny, tiny fringe minority of lone-gunman theorists who argue that the sixth-floor gunman only fired two shots. We know that at least four shots were fired during the assassination. We know this from scientific acoustical evidence, from scientific blur-episode analysis, and from credible and corroborated accounts of extra bullets striking in Dealey Plaza and of an extra bullet being found in JFK's limo after the shooting.”

[b]M Griffith--“Yes, CE 543, the dented shell, could not have been used to fire a bullet on 11/22/63, but this does not prove that only two shots were fired during the assassination.”
[/b]
CE 543 proves LHO only fired twice.

You have agreed with Josiah Thompson that LHO only fired twice.

M Griffith --” Jack Nessan belongs to a tiny, tiny fringe minority”

Michael, are you having a difficult time proving your whole theory is not just bogus tripe? 70+ eyewitnesses in Dealey Plaza does not constitutes a fringe minority. I think what it leaves you with is a large group of earwitnesses who stated three shots while standing in an echo chamber. You know "medias influence"

To have a conspiracy you need there to be three shots. The fact there was only two shots erase your whole storyline. I bet you are having a panic attack over this. Years and years and years of wasting your time posting this goofy nonsense is now being flushed down the toilet over a phantom shot that was mistakenly promoted by media coverage. Just like the WC and HSCA stated.

WC Conclusion: "The eyewitness testimony may be subconsciously colored by the extensive publicity given the conclusion that three shots were fired"
 
HSCA Sound Analysis Conclusion:  The buildings around the Plaza caused strong reverberations, or echoes, that followed the initial sound by from 0 .5 to 1 .5 sec . While these reflections caused no confusion to our listeners, who were prepared and expected to hear them, they may well have inflated the number of shots reported by the suprised witnesses during the assassination .  HSCA Earwitness Analysis Report, pgs 135-137
 
HSCA Conclusion: "The committee believed that the witnesses memories and testimony on the number, direction, and timing of the shots may have
been substantially influenced by the intervening publicity concerning the events of November 22 1963"   HSCA Final Report- pg 87