Mary Woodward said there were 3 shots and the 1st shot missed everything

[Tom Graves]

See next post.

[Tom Graves]

Here's Mary Woodward's 11/23/63 Dallas Morning News article on the assassination:

Four of us from Women’s News, Maggie Brown, Aurelia Alonzo, my roommate Ann Donaldson, and myself had decided to spend our lunch hour by going to see the President.

We took our lunch along—some crackers and apples—and started walking down Houston Street. We decided to cross Elm and wait there on the grassy slope just east of the Triple Underpass, since there weren’t very many people there and we could get a better view.

We had been waiting about half an hour when the first motorcycle escorts came by, followed shortly by the President’s car. The President was looking straight ahead and we were afraid we would not get to see his face. But we started clapping and cheering and both he and Mrs. Kennedy turned, and smiled and waved, directly at us, it seemed. Jackie was wearing a beautiful pink suit with beret to match. Two of us, who had seen the President last during the final weeks of the 1960 campaign, remarked almost simultaneously how relaxed and robust he looked.

As it turned out, we were almost certainly the last faces he noticed in the crowd.

After acknowledging our cheers, he faced forward again and suddenly there was a horrible, ear-shattering noise coming from behind us and a little to the right. My first reaction, and also my friends’, was that as a joke, someone had backfired their car. Apparently the driver and occupants of the President’s car had the same impression, because instead of speeding up, the car came almost to a halt.

Things are a little hazy from this point, but I don’t believe anyone was hit with the first bullet. The President and Mrs. Kennedy turned and looked around, as if they, too, didn’t believe the noise was really coming from a gun.

Then after a moment’s pause there was another shot and I saw the President start slumping in the car.

This was followed rapidly by another shot. Mrs. Kennedy stood up in the car, turned half-way around, and then [crawled out onto the trunk of the limo and crawled back and] fell on top of her husband’s body. Not until this minute did it sink in what actually was happening. We had witnessed the assassination of the President.

The cars behind stopped and several men—Secret Service men, I suppose—got out and started rushing forward, obstructing our view of the President’s car.

Then I started looking around at the stunned crowd. About 10 feet from where we were standing, a man and woman had thrown their small child to the ground and covered his body with theirs. Apparently, the bullets had whizzed directly over their heads.

Next to us were two Negro women. One collapsed in the other’s arms, weeping and uttering what everyone was thinking: “They’ve shot him.”

It still seems like a horrible nightmare.

It will be a real-life nightmare to haunt us all for a long time to come.

. . . . . . .


I have edited her article so that it more closely aligns with what actually happened:


The four of us, myself, Maggie Brown, Ann Donaldson, and Aurelia Alonzo, had been waiting about half an hour on the north side of Elm Street when the first motorcycle escorts came by, followed shortly by the President’s car.

The President was waving to spectators on his right.

Very soon there was a horrible, ear-shattering noise that appeared to have come from behind us and a little to the right. My first reaction, and also my friends’, was that as a joke, someone had backfired their car.

I don’t believe anyone was hit by that first shot.

The President and Mrs. Kennedy looked around [at Z-144], as if they, too, didn’t believe the noise was really coming from a gun.

As the limousine approached us, the President was looking straight ahead, and we were afraid we would not get to see his face. But we started clapping and cheering and both he and Mrs. Kennedy turned and smiled and waved directly at us.

Then after a moment’s pause, there was another shot and I saw the President start slumping in the car.

Instead of speeding up, the President’s car came almost to a halt.

This was followed by another shot. Mrs. Kennedy stood up in the car, turned half-way around, then fell on top of her husband’s body. Not until this minute did it sink in what actually was happening. We had witnessed the assassination of the President.

A Secret Service man got out of the follow-up car and started rushing forward, obstructing our view of the President’s car.

Then I started looking around at the stunned crowd. About ten feet from where we were standing, a man and woman had thrown their small child to the ground and covered his body with theirs. Apparently, the bullets had whizzed directly over their heads. There were three shots altogether.

It still seems like a horrible nightmare.

It will be a real-life nightmare to haunt us all for a long time to come.

As it turned out, we were almost certainly the last faces the President noticed in the crowd.

[Andrew Mason]

The old "if the evidence doesn't fit the theory, twist the evidence to make it fit" approach.

If a theory disagrees with the evidence, the theory is wrong, no matter how smart the person is or how beautiful the idea is.... Richard Feynman.

[Tom Graves]

If a theory disagrees with the evidence, the theory is wrong, no matter how smart the person is or how beautiful the idea is.... Richard Feynman.

"A theory whose 'evidence' consists mostly of eyewitness' and earwitness' statements about something that happened quicky, that was loud, that was startling, that was traumatic, and that happened in an echo chamber like Dealey Plaza ain't worth the paper it's written on." -- Thomas Graves

[Royell Storing]

   Where EXACTLY is Mary Woodward supposed to have been standing on the (N) side of Elm St?
   She claims to have been, "...there on the grassy slope just East of the Triple Underpass...", and then goes on to add, "About 10 feet from where we were standing, a man and a woman had thrown their small CHILD to the ground and covered HIS body with theirs". I'm guessing this is the Newman Family she is taking about. There were 2 Newman kids, (NOT 1), and to my knowledge there was not 4 WOMEN standing within 10 feet of the Newman Family in ANY direction.
    I have a very large map of Dealey Plaza which details who was standing where on 11/22/63. This map also details the make/model of vehicles parked all the way over to Commerce St. Nowhere on this exceptionally detailed map is there a person standing on the (N) side of Elm St designated as Mary Woodward. She and her 3 female companions were certainly NOT standing within 10 feet of the Newman Family as she claims.
   As I recall, Mary Woodward did a short segment on "The Men Who Killed Kennedy" (1988). Is she, like Gordon Arnold, another person that claims to have been inside Dealey Plaza and witnessed the JFK Assassination, but is Not on any JFK Assassination image evidence? 

[Andrew Mason]

"A theory whose 'evidence' consists mostly of eyewitness' and earwitness' statements about something that happened quicky, that was loud, that was startling, that was traumatic, and that happened in an echo chamber like Dealey Plaza ain't worth the paper it's written on." -- Thomas Graves

You forgot the last part of your mantra: “unless it agrees with what I think happened, in which case the witness is reliable and accurate”.

[John Corbett]

You forgot the last part of your mantra: “unless it agrees with what I think happened, in which case the witness is reliable and accurate”.

There is ample evidence that is far more reliable than divergent eye and earwitness accounts, starting with the best evidence of all, Zapruder's camera. Witness accounts are not without evidentiary value but given their inherent unreliability, they must be weighed against more reliable forms of evidence to determine their value.