CTers: Do yourself a favor and focus on plausibility

[John Corbett]

     The main point that the slick Specter avoids in this WC Q/A, is SPECTER's admittance that 3 SHOTS were fired in a MAX firing time of 5.6 SECONDS. THAT, was a mistake. The appraised difficulty of these 3 shots Never takes into consideration that the 3 shots were fired by the bolt action carcano rifle in only 5.6 SECONDS MAX. The only considerations specifically mentioned are: (1) Range, and, (2) Equipment used. This is typical of these 1 sided WC Q/A's. Especially the Q/A's conducted by Specter. Both the Kellerman and Tomlinson Q/A's are an absolute Railroading. Nowhere close to "fact finding".

I've never seen that Q/A you write about so I won't comment on that. 3 shots in 5.6 seconds was never the conclusion of the WC. They only pointed to it as a possible scenario, dependent upon the missed shot being the second shot. If either the first or third shot was the miss, the entire time for all three shots would have been indeterminant because they could not establish an exact moment when such a missed shot was fired.

I believe we now have a clear consensus among LNs that the first shot was the missed shot based on clues in the Z-film that the WC did not pick up on. We've had the advantage of decades to study that film and millions of eyeballs observing it. I believe if the WC had picked up on these clues, they would have concluded that first shot was the missed shot but since they had no definitive evidence of when the missed shot was fired, that had to at least allow for the possibility the second shot missed and the maximum firing time Oswald would have had would have been 5.6 seconds.

[Lance Payette]

The debate over Oswald's proficiency reminds me of a quote from the late Tim McCarver, former MLB catcher turned announcer. The other announcers were mercilessly ribbing him about how slow he was. He finally interrupted and said, "Lest folks get the wrong idea here, I was a very slow ... MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL PLAYER. In high school, I won a five-county track meet in Ohio." When I look at Oswald's Marine rifle score books, this was not Joe Average with his .22 plinker. His scores at 500 yards were astounding to me. I think the debate over whether he could have made the shots is a non-starter, especially if there were only two shots.

[Michael Capasse]

(December 21, 1956; Camp Pendleton in California)
Oswald score qualified him as a SHARPSHOOTER!!!

Sharpshooter Qualification = 210
Oswald score = 212

  ...3 years later he lost it when he did worse

Question: Do you have a personal knowledge of Oswald's ability with a rifle?

Delgado: It has been said that he was a terrific marksman, but at the range he couldn't prove to me that he was a good shot....
Well, in Oswald's particular case it was quite funny to watch because he would get a couple of discs,
maybe out of the possible ten he would get two or three "Maggie's Drawers". This is a red flag on a long pole and
this is run from left to right on the target itself. You don't see this too often on the firing line, not the Marine firing line....

------------
Mr. DELGADO - "With respect to his rifle. He didn't spend as much time as the rest of us did in the armory cleaning it up.
He would, when he was told to. Otherwise, he wouldn't come out by himself to clean it."

Mr. DELGADO - "He just qualified, that's it. He wasn't as enthusiastic as the rest of us.
We all loved--liked, you know, going to the range."

Mr. DELGADO - "Right; I was in the same line. By that I mean we were on line together, the same time,
but not firing at the same position, but at the same time, and I remember seeing his. It was a pretty big joke,
because he got a lot of "Maggie's drawers," you know, a lot of misses, but he didn't give a darn."

Mr. LIEBELER - Missed the target completely?

[John Mytton]

...3 years later he lost it when he did worse

Question: Do you have a personal knowledge of Oswald's ability with a rifle?

Delgado: It has been said that he was a terrific marksman, but at the range he couldn't prove to me that he was a good shot....
Well, in Oswald's particular case it was quite funny to watch because he would get a couple of discs,
maybe out of the possible ten he would get two or three "Maggie's Drawers". This is a red flag on a long pole and
this is run from left to right on the target itself. You don't see this too often on the firing line, not the Marine firing line....

------------
Mr. DELGADO - "With respect to his rifle. He didn't spend as much time as the rest of us did in the armory cleaning it up.
He would, when he was told to. Otherwise, he wouldn't come out by himself to clean it."

Mr. DELGADO - "He just qualified, that's it. He wasn't as enthusiastic as the rest of us.
We all loved--liked, you know, going to the range."

Mr. DELGADO - "Right; I was in the same line. By that I mean we were on line together, the same time,
but not firing at the same position, but at the same time, and I remember seeing his. It was a pretty big joke,
because he got a lot of "Maggie's drawers," you know, a lot of misses, but he didn't give a darn."

Mr. LIEBELER - Missed the target completely?

Yawn.

Three years later, Oswald didn't intentionally get worse, it's as you quoted "he didn't give a darn" because the part of my post you purposely omitted and are obviously running away from, Oswald was court-martialled twice, spent time in the brig and at the time was just a few months away from defecting to the enemy.

Mr. DELGADO - He just qualified, that's it. He wasn't as enthusiastic as the rest of us. We all loved--liked, you know, going to the range.

BTW Capasse, it's clear that dealing with the evidence with intellectual honestly has never been a priority for you!

JohnM

[John Corbett]

The debate over Oswald's proficiency reminds me of a quote from the late Tim McCarver, former MLB catcher turned announcer. The other announcers were mercilessly ribbing him about how slow he was. He finally interrupted and said, "Lest folks get the wrong idea here, I was a very slow ... MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL PLAYER. In high school, I won a five-county track meet in Ohio." When I look at Oswald's Marine rifle score books, this was not Joe Average with his .22 plinker. His scores at 500 yards were astounding to me. I think the debate over whether he could have made the shots is a non-starter, especially if there were only two shots.

You're points are well taken. Oswald's scores in the USMC showed he was more than capable of making the shots that killed JFK. His score of 212 was just 2 points lower than that of Charles Whitman who two years later killed about a dozen people and wounded many more from the tower on the University of Texas campus. Whitman was much higher up than Oswald and shot people at much greater ranges than Oswald did when he killed JFK.

I missed the announcement of Tim McCarver's passing. Just this past February, I learned of the passing of Mickey Lolich who shared a moment of baseball history with McCarver. Lolich retired McCarver on a foul pop-up for the final out of the 1968 World Series. The photo of Lolich leaping into the arms of catcher Bill Freehan following the final out will live forever in the hearts and minds of long time Tiger fans such as myself.

https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/hPEAAOSw8dBnMXn3/s-l400.jpg

The pre-series hype had been all about the match-up of 31 game winner Denny McLain vs. the Cardinals Bob Gibson who had posted an ERA of 1.12, the lowest since the dead ball era. Gibson beat McLain in both of their matchups but it was Mickey Lolich who stole the thunder from both of them when he pitched his third complete game victory on just two days rest to beat Gibson in game 7.

[Michael Capasse]

Yawn.

Three years later, Oswald didn't intentionally get worse, it's as you quoted "he didn't give a darn" because the part of my post you purposely omitted and are obviously running away from, Oswald was court-martialled twice, spent time in the brig and at the time was just a few months away from defecting to the enemy.

Mr. DELGADO - He just qualified, that's it. He wasn't as enthusiastic as the rest of us. We all loved--liked, you know, going to the range.

BTW Capasse, it's clear that dealing with the evidence with intellectual honestly has never been a priority for you!

JohnM

  with 'Maggie's Drawers' 3 out 10
and 3 years later he did worse.

[John Corbett]

with 'Maggie's Drawers' 3 out 10
and 3 years later he did worse.

3 out of 10 is about 1 out of 3. Oswald got Maggie's Drawers on one of his three shots in Dealey Plaza on 11/22/1963. It seems his shooting that day was in line with the proficiency he showed while in the USMC.