Why Altgens 6 Refutes the Lone-Gunman Theory

[John Corbett]

The problem is that you guys have no bullet that can explain the pre-Z256 windshield damage. But, rather than admit this, it looks like you're going to claim that no such damage existed before Z256.

I don't think any of us can explain things that exist only in your head. We don't hear the voices either.

[Royell Storing]

I think it would be worthwhile to quote more of what Dr. Mantik says about windshield damage in Altgens 6 and in pre-Z256 frames of the Zapruder film:

Roy Schaeffer of Dayton, Ohio, claims first discovery of the windshield damage seen in the Altgens 6 photographs. No one has disputed this. Schaeffer was at the Dayton Daily News when he received the Mary Moorman and the Altgens 6 photographs and removed them from the Thermofax machine at 7:15 a.m., on Saturday, November 23, 1963. He is considered “an expert of the highest order, with intricate knowledge of the newspaper business of the late ‘50s and early ‘60s and beyond.”    Schaeffer, in his unpublished article, “A Matter of a Reasonable Doubt,” claimed that Z-222 shows the windshield hole.

At Z-230, a white dot of reflected light is visible on the limousine windshield. As viewed from the front, this appears just above and to the right of the rearview mirror (Figure 5.3).

Figure 5.3: Z-230. The circle identifies damage to the windshield. Z-230 is a fair representation of the windshield damage I saw on the first generation MPI images at the Sixth Floor Museum in Dallas. . . .

I asked Roy Schaeffer when he had first noticed the windshield damage. Here is his reply in an email to me on October 30, 2021:

Dr. Mantik,

It was near Christmas of 1963, after learning at Willard’s garage of bullet damage to the Presidential Limousine. I then noticed the bullet hole in the Presidential Limousine from looking at the Saturday Evening Post near New Years that year.

I told two editors from the Dayton Daily News that I remember, one Carl Byers, staff writer, and then Lou Rotterman, Washington Bureau Chief. You have to remember Ralph McGill was Pres. of the Atlanta Constitution. I also told later Jim Nickols, writer and friend at the Dayton Daily News. That was as far as it went. At that time, I was an Apprentice.

I didn’t notice the bullet hole on 11/23/1963. My father had been a friend of Humphrey since 1930. Sadly, when my father died in 1968 my mother got rid of all their correspondence. After that, from time to time, I would mention it at the newspaper. As far as going to the outside media, I didn’t until 1991, Channel 22, ABC news, Dayton.

Roy Schaeffer (The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy: The Final Analysis, 2024, pp. 287-289, 343)

Anthony Edward DeFiore discussed the windshield damage seen in Altgens 6 and used to have good-quality enlargements of Altgens 6 on his website that enabled you to see the damage, but his site is no longer active.

Here is a YouTube video titled JFK - Altgens Photo 6 Colorized: Bullet Hole Clearly Visible In Windshield

I should have titled this thread "Why Altgens 6 and Pre-Z256 Zapruder Frames Refute the Lone-Gunman Theory," because the windshield damage is even more visible in the MPI large-frame version of the Zapruder film in a number of frames before Z256. You can get the MPI version on DVD and view it yourself. Here's one link to it:

https://www.mpihomevideo.com/products/image-of-an-assasination-a-new-look-at-the-zapruder-film-dvd

I can see windshield damage in Z227-230 in my copy of the MPI version when I view it on my 55-inch HD flat-screen TV. As Dr. Mantik notes, the damage is especially visible in Z229-230. I do not have the advantage of viewing individual large-format transparencies as Dr. Mantik was able to do at the Sixth Floor Museum, but I can see with my own eyes the damage he describes as being readily visible in Z229-230 on my DVD copy of the MPI digitally enlarged version of the film.

   So Schaeffer has, "...intricate knowledge of the newspaper business..."? So what. This has absolutely Nothing to do with his ability to examine a JFK Assassination Photo hot off  that 1963 "Thermofax machine". Seriously?

[Michael T. Griffith]

A few follow-up points:

I found a video of Doug Weldon's presentation on the windshield damage at the 1999 JFK Lancer conference. In the presentation, Weldon spends some time talking about the damage visible in Altgens 6 while showing an enlargement of Altgens 6 on the jumbo screen (which appears to be about 6 feet tall and 10 feet wide). The segment starts at 1:40:34 in the video.

Doug Weldon JFK Assassination Conference Presentation: Kennedy Limousine

I'm citing Weldon's presentation in part to show that we've known for many years that windshield damage is visible in Altgens 6.

Part of the evidence of a hole through the windshield is the fact that Kennedy had two small holes in his right cheek. Tom Robinson, one of the morticians, noticed the holes and plugged them to keep them from leaking embalming fluid. He didn't notice the holes until he started the embalming process and saw embalming fluid leak through them and saw a slight discoloration them begin to appear in them.

A number of scholars have suggested that small particles from the windshield shot hit Kennedy's right cheek, and that a larger glass fragment hit him in the throat. The glass fragment would have been hard to see on the chest x-rays and could have easily been missed. Also, the glass fragment's range would have been limited, which could explain the damage to the right lung slightly below and to the right of the throat wound.

BTW, Robinson told the HSCA that he saw a small wound in the area of JFK's right temple. No wonder his HSCA testimony was sealed. (It was released by the ARRB in the 1990s.)

[John Corbett]

A few follow-up points:

I found a video of Doug Weldon's presentation on the windshield damage at the 1999 JFK Lancer conference. In the presentation, Weldon spends some time talking about the damage visible in Altgens 6 while showing an enlargement of Altgens 6 on the jumbo screen (which appears to be about 6 feet tall and 10 feet wide). The segment starts at 1:40:34 in the video.

Doug Weldon JFK Assassination Conference Presentation: Kennedy Limousine

Since there is no windshield damage in Altgens 6, that makes the whole presentation irrelevant.

I'm citing Weldon's presentation in part to show that we've known for many years that windshield damage is visible in Altgens 6.

Why do you keep saying "we"?

Part of the evidence of a hole through the windshield is the fact that Kennedy had two small holes in his right cheek. Tom Robinson, one of the morticians, noticed the holes and plugged them to keep them from leaking embalming fluid. He didn't notice the holes until he started the embalming process and saw embalming fluid leak through them and saw a slight discoloration them begin to appear in them.

A number of scholars have suggested that small particles from the windshield shot hit Kennedy's right cheek, and that a larger glass fragment hit him in the throat. The glass fragment would have been hard to see on the chest x-rays and could have easily been missed. Also, the glass fragment's range would have been limited, which could explain the damage to the right lung slightly below and to the right of the throat wound.

Anyone who would come up with something that silly is no scholar. I do like how you throw that word around loosely to try to give these clowns credibility. It isn't working.

BTW, Robinson told the HSCA that he saw a small wound in the area of JFK's right temple. No wonder his HSCA testimony was sealed. (It was released by the ARRB in the 1990s.)

Not surprising given it's proximity to the exit point.

[Mitch Todd]

AP photographer James Altgens took a photograph that destroys the lone-gunman theory: Altgens 6. Everyone agrees that Altgens 6 was taken at right around Z255.

Here's the unsolvable problem that Altgens 6 poses for the lone-gunman theory: It shows damage to the windshield of JFK's limousine. Nobody disputes this fact. The Warren Commission (WC) admitted that the alleged magic bullet of the single-bullet theory (SBT) could not have caused the windshield damage. The WC assumed the damage was caused by a fragment from the head shot. However, the head shot did not occur until Z313.

As an important side note, I should mention that there is strong, mutually corroborating evidence that there was a hole in the windshield. At least eight witnesses in three different locations independently reported that they saw a hole in the windshield. One of the witnesses, a Dallas police officer, actually put a pencil through the hole to confirm it was a hole. Several of the witnesses said the hole appeared to have been made by a bullet that hit from the front. For more information on this evidence, see Doug Weldon's chapter in Murder in Dealey Plaza:

"The Kennedy Limousine: Dallas 1963"

See also Dr. David Mantik's chapter titled "The Frontal Shot Through the Limousine Windshield" in his 2024 book The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy: The Final Analysis (chapter 5).

I am not here to argue over the evidence of a windshield hole. My main point is that regardless of whether the windshield damage was just cracks or was a hole and some cracks, the lone-gunman theory has no plausible explanation for the damage.

WC apologists and mortal-error theorists who acknowledge that a bullet hit the pavement behind the limousine early in the shooting may suggest that a fragment from this bullet hit the windshield. However, this is problematic for a number of reasons.

The windshield damage was 4-6 inches to the left of the rearview mirror (viewing from the back of the limo to the front). In order to hit the windshield at this location, a fragment from the pavement bullet would have had to first miss the riding handles on the back of the limo, then miss JFK and Jackie Kennedy, then miss John and Nellie Connally, and then miss the driver, William Greer.

Furthermore, in the MPI large-format transparencies of the Zapruder film, the windshield damage first appears in Z193 and is plainly visible again from Z215 to Z232 (David Mantik, The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy: The Final Analysis, 2024, pp. 289-291). But the pavement strike occurred well before Z193 -- in fact, it occurred before Z166 (even according to Gerald Posner).

If a fragment had hit the windshield hard enough to crack it so early in the shooting, surely the driver would have noticed it and would have visibly reacted, since no other shots had been fired yet.

But, if the windshield was hit at around Z190, after at least one shot had already been fired, the driver, now nervous and distracted by having heard a rifle shot, may not have noticed the windshield hit, especially if a high-velocity bullet penetrated the windshield from the front.

Clearly, a windshield hit at Z190 could not have been done by a bullet fired from the sixth-floor window, even if we assume the windshield was hit from behind. Clearly, no fragment from the head shot could have caused the windshield damage, since the head shot occurred at Z313. And clearly, no fragment from the Z133-166 pavement bullet could have caused the windshield damage (indeed, WC apologists already have that bullet magically sending a large fragment streaking toward the curb near James Tague over 400 feet away).

If you look carefully at a good copy of Altgens 6, you'll see the complete right edge of the rearview mirror, unbroken, along the left side of the alleged "windshield damage." In fact, the right side of the "damage" is bounded by the mirror on the left and by JFK's shoulder on along the bottom. The only way that could happen is if the mirror and JFK were in the foreground with respect to the "windshield damage." Therefore, whatever the alleged damage is, it's in the background behind the mirror. It's not on the windshield at all. This destroys the idea that the windshield damage occurred before frame 255.

[Steve M. Galbraith]

The assassination researcher Barb Junkarrein addressed the question of the "hole through the windshield" and specifically whether Altgens 6 shows a hole here:

https://educationforum.ipbhost.com/topic/14532-barb-junkkarinens-articlea-hole-through-the-windshield/

Key graf: "Good copies of the Altgens photo show it [i.e., the alleged hole or "spiral nebula" crack] to be not a feature of the windshield. Rather it is a pattern formed by the gathering of fabric in the dress of a woman spectator standing in the background. The Altgens #6 photo demonstrates that the limousine windshield is not damaged at Zapruder frame 255.

[Mark Ulrik]

If you look carefully at a good copy of Altgens 6, you'll see the complete right edge of the rearview mirror, unbroken, along the left side of the alleged "windshield damage." In fact, the right side of the "damage" is bounded by the mirror on the left and by JFK's shoulder on along the bottom. The only way that could happen is if the mirror and JFK were in the foreground with respect to the "windshield damage." Therefore, whatever the alleged damage is, it's in the background behind the mirror. It's not on the windshield at all. This destroys the idea that the windshield damage occurred before frame 255.

To suggest that MTG would ever violate his loyalty oath to Fetzer and his collaborators is like asking a zebra to alter its stripes. The likelihood is negligible.