JFK Assassination Forum

If you know how long a rifle shot in Dealey Plaza would have persisted, then you should provide it along with the source.

There was a large post office building a bit more than 600 feet (188 m measured on Google maps, which is 616 feet) directly south of the TSBD. There were also buildings on the east side over that distance, pavement and concrete structures in Dealey Plaza. There was also the triple underpass about 500-550 feet south west of the SN as well as a railway embankment all along the west side. There were also reflective surfaces in between the TSBD and the underpass. So it was a real reverberation chamber:
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Sound from the 6th floor TSBD would have reflected off all those surfaces and then back to the people standing on the north side of Elm St. where Mary Woodward was.  The sound wave front would have taken a tad more than half a second: .55 seconds (speed of sound at 68F is 1127 fps) to directly reach the Post Office building and a bit more for sound waves reflected from the street, buildings along Houston and other concrete structures.  The sound then would have bounced back off the Post Office building as well as back off the triple underpass and arrived at the ears of Mary Woodward.  So she would definitely have heard the first round of continuous echos (reverberation) for at least 1.2 seconds after the blast.

But the reverberation doesn't just end on that first reflection.  It would have gone back and forth a bit. The reverberations from the first reflection back off the TSBD would have traveled south toward the Post Office building and bounced again of that large surface, arriving at Mary Woodward over the next 1.2 seconds. Same with the sound reflecting from the triple underpass back off the building along Houston and structures in between, although with a bit less travel time.

So unless the sound reflected only one time before ending completely, the reverberations could easily have continued for about 2.4 seconds.

Mary Woodward said that there was a third shot within the period of reverberation of the second shot.  She recalled three distinct shots.  She said she would go to her grave swearing that there were three shots. See this Youtube clip. Her statement begins about 2:50.

That video is unavailable.

No I don't.  And you would know that if you had read those 9 pages I posted.  Not only do I not ignore them, I quote what they said and provide cites.  The fact is there are only three general possibilities of the spacing of three shots and not everyone will recall it correctly. 

There were six people who seemed to recall the reverse pattern: Nellie Connally, William Newman, Gayle Newman, Ken O'Donnell, Cecil Ault and Steven Wilson.  Only the Newmans gave their statements within a short time after the event.  The others were months after. William Newman initially (22Nov63) described only two shots 19 H 490:

• "We were standing at the edge of the curb looking at the car as it was coming toward us and all of a sudden there was a noise, apparently gunshot. The President jumped up in his seat, and it looked like what I thought was a firecracker had went off and I thought he had realized it. It was just like an explosion and he was standing up. By this time ha was directly in front of us and I was looking directly at him when he was hit in the side of the head."

Then in his next statement on November 24 (22 H 842), he said he recalled two shots close together for a total of three. He thought the first two were closer together though.

So one is left with having to assess the evidence.  I not only found the witnesses as to the 1.....2..3  pattern to be clearer and more descriptive and sure, but I also understood that the probability that the distribution of witnesses  was such that it was highly improbable that almost 80% would hear the shots and recall the same distinctive pattern and all agree on the same wrong pattern. If witnesses were generally able to recall the pattern there would be a clear preference for one possibility and the errors would be distributed randomly over the other two possibilities.  If everyone were really confused, one would expect a random distribution over all three possibilities.  This distribution is what one would expect only if the witnesses correctly recalled that the last two were closer:

They would have heard reverberations, not distinct echos.  Mary Woodward also said that the shots were on top of each other and explained that the sound of the second had not completely died out before the third shot sounded.  That may be why so many recalled those two distinct shots being close together. 

At 200 feet, the crack would be heard 77 ms before the muzzle blast and would not be confused with separate shots.

Interesting that McIntyre left the backup car temporarily as it was proceeding under the overpass.

   I see this guy placing his forearms on the concrete rail in front of him. I do Not see him "taking aim" at anything.