Were all three shots fired in 5.6 seconds?

[Tom Graves]

Alas, no we do not see a disconnect. I was playing on your turf, as we retired former lawyers are inclined to do when we are confident of our client's position. Many the happy motion for summary judgment have I filed that began "Assuming arguendo, for purposes of this motion only, that what the plaintiff claims is in fact true, we are nevertheless entitled to summary judgment because ... blah, blah, blah." My point was simply that since Oswald was in fact a former Marine sharpshooter, why would he not have recognized what your ChatGPT friends deem the obvious difficulty of the shot and why would he have taken it despite the obvious difficulty and greater risks of being seen, blah, blah, blah?

Dear Lance "The Gaslighting Human Pivot" Payette,

Are Marines trained during boot camp how to shoot a bolt-action short-rifle with-or-without a 4X scope at someone who's riding in a car that's accelerating diagonally away from them and at a sharp downward angle from their six-floor window?

-- Tom

[Tom Graves]

SS Agents being unable to, "...look up at Oswald's sixth-floor Sniper's Nest window" ...because they were, "hung over"? 

Dear Sonderführer Storing,

I said, "'hungover' or not."

Perhaps you missed that part.

-- Tom

[Tom Graves]

Oh, dear, now we're getting desperate.

Dear FPL,

The "oh dear" from you I can understand, but I never realized that you were schizophrenic, too.

Thoughts and prayers.

-- Tom

[Jack Nessan]

Good posts Lance. The answer as to the number of shots plays a huge role in understanding the assassination.

You are absolutely right about the early missed shot being nothing more than a bunch of made-up crap trying to prop up a three-shot scenario. ABC Television supported that made up nonsense of Max Holland’s with a one-hour special, absolutely unbelievable. ABC should have fired everyone involved. The whole theory is totally lacking any evidence and relies on sketchy photos and suspect body movement interpretations. The amazing thing is that it completely ignores all of the witness statements. 100% of the eyewitness's state JFK reacted to the first shot, but they never let that fact get in the way of their BS storyline. Apparently, it is much better to interpret the actions of a child. As if she is aware of a shot that no one else can hear. 

The final nail in the coffin of how many shots there were fired was supplied by Josiah Thompson’s observation, as noted in his book Six Seconds In Dallas, about the indentation occurring on the sides of all of the shells except CE 543. The FBI analysis of the shells states that the indentation is from the chamber of the rifle. No indentation on the side of CE 543 proves CE 543 was never fired in the rifle. The CE 141 cartridge only had to be present in the heat expanded chamber to produce an indention on the side of the cartridge.

Pat Speer did an excellent job of compiling witness statements. Below is a list of witnesses and some of Pat’s analysis of their statements from Pat’s site. One thing to remember is that a number of the two shot witnesses would change their stories and add a shot. A number of the first statement were made to the press not a government agency.

A number of the witnesses are the second shot was the headshot followed by another shot (Marilyn Willis for one example), or a second and third shot with no time element between them or words to that effect. I believe SA Hickey is a good example of a changing statement as was SA Bennett. On the plane back to Washington there was an argument between the passengers as to the number of shots having been fired, according to Newsweek's Charles Roberts. Roberts and Merriman Smith were the only news people that were on the flight.

 

Two shot witnesses

Jackie, Nelly, Bill Newman, Gayle Newman, John Chism, Faye Chism, Jean Newman, Charles Brehm, Clint Hill, DPD Chaney, DPD Hargis, Sheriff Decker, Garland Slack, James Altgens, Malcolm Summers, Charles Roberts, BR Williams, Howard Brennan, SA Greer, A Zapruder, Marilyn Sitzman, Charles Hester, Beatrice Hester, SA Glenn Bennet, Ann Donaldson, Peggy Burney, Dolores Kounas, Dave Powers, Kenneth O’Donnell, SA Landis,  Ernest Brandt, James Powell, James Darnell, Hugh Betzner, Seth Kantor, Lupe Whitaker, F Lee Mudd, Ernest Brandt, Milton Wright, James Perry, JW foster, Clemon Johnson, Jack Franzen, Mrs Jack Franzen, Jeff Franzen, Ann Ruth Moore, Mary Hall, Toni Glover

Second shot was the headshot

James Jarmin, Harold Norman, SA Kellerman, Marilyn Willis, SA Kinney, SA Hickey, Mary Woodward, John Templin, Gov Connally, Mary Moorman, SA Emory Roberts, Hugh Aynesworth, Ruby Henderson, DPD Douglas Jackson, Jerry Kivett, Cliff Carter, Thomas Johns, June Dishong, Aurelia Alonzo, Margaret Brown, Georgia Ruth Hendrix

James Altgens was a two shot witness who stated the one thing he could guarantee was there was no shot after the headshot. Altgens was within 20 to 30 feet of the car.

James Altgens  " ......There was not another shot fired after the President was struck in the head. That was the last shot--that much I will say with a great degree of certainty."

[Royell Storing]

Dear Sonderführer Storing,

I said, "'hungover' or not."

Perhaps you missed that part.

-- Tom

   Did NOT miss anything you posted. You raised the issue of the SS possibly being hung over to the point of Not being able to look back/up at the 6th Floor sniper's nest. That's ALL You. If you now want to run away from that, just say so.

[Lance Payette]

My theory was always that CE 543 was Oswald's dry-firing round. You want a shell in the chamber for dry-firing so you don't damage the firing pin, and shells with damaged rims are commonly used since they aren't suitable for reloading. I did exactly this. CE 543 may have been in the rifle when he picked it up at Ruth Paine's and then ejected when he loaded the first live round in the sniper's nest. The frugal Oswald may have never owned more than one box of 20 rounds and used up during practice everything but the three live rounds he had on 11-22-63 (two fired at JFK and one remaining in the chamber). He may have retained the three rounds in the clip for practice in working the bolt (not ideal from a safety standpoint but commonly done), so he would have been equipped to practice both dry-firing and working the bolt.

This is one large problem for my Mafia theory: what sort of conspiracy has him going to Ruth's the night before to retrieve his rifle and three live rounds? Perhaps it all came together at the last minute when JFK's motorcade route was announced, but that strikes me as unlikely. Once you start down the path of theorizing that Oswald was "planted" in the TSBD and JFK's motorcade route was "manipulated" to take him in front of the TSBD, you've expanded the conspiracy way beyond a Marcello hit and are too far into the ozone for me.

[Jack Nessan]

Good summation Lance. There is only one answer to the JFK assassination, and the first paragraph sums it up. 

Additionally, the WC had two different experts testifying about dry firing. You may have already read this article but, Dr E Forest Chapaman wrote a good article on the CE 543 dry firing subject and published it in the New American magazine decades ago. I am not sure why you want to cycle the action with ammo but to dry fire the carcano, the bolt is a cock on opening type, and it is only required to raise and lower the bolt handle to recock it.

The trajectory analysis, wound analysis, and recovered bullet and fragments only support one shooter armed with a carcano. The final sentence summing up the assassination only need be “the media influenced the witnesses into inflating the number of reported shots.” That is a fact that was stated in the conclusions of the Warren Commission, the HSCA, and the HSCA Sound Analysis Report. 

WC Conclusion: "The eyewitness testimony may be subconsciously colored by the extensive publicity given the conclusion that three shots were fired"

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

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

 

Simply put it can be proven that LHO fired just two shots, and that was the end of the story. The rest is just interesting minutia.