BBN Opinion on the Sirens in 1979

[Joe Elliott]

BBN Opinion on the Sirens in 1979

Below is the January 1979 BBN report to the HSCA.

https://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/russ/jfkinfo/jfk8/sound1.htm

Report No. 3947

Analysis of Recorded Sounds Relating to the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy

James E. Barger, Scott P. Robinson, Edward C. Schmidt, and Jared J. Wolf
January 1979
Prepared for:
Select Committee on Assassinations
Bolt Beranek and Newman Inc.
50 Moulton Street
Cambridge, MA 02138

. . .

6. ADDITIONAL RELEVANT SOUNDS ON THE DPD CHANNEL 1 TAPE.
6.1 Bell.
6.2 Sirens.
6.3 Voice and Other Remote Transmissions 2

. . .

6.2 Sirens

The region from 263 to 300 sec of the stuck transmission contains the sounds of a number of sirens. The effect is not that of a microphone being carried on a vehicle with a wailing siren, but rather of many vehicles with sirens coming and going around the microphone.


. . .

In their 1979 opinion, this was not the sound of a motorcycle with its siren on, but the sound of a motorcycle with other motorcycles moving past it with their sirens on. This, of course, is the most reasonable interpretation and is the interpretation that LNers have always adopted.

However, since 1979, we have learned:

•   Officer McLain got the order for officers to escort the Presidential limousine to Parkland. The limousine had just left Dealey Plaza but he raced after it.
•   Officer McLain caught up to the limousine after about one mile of its 3.4-mile journey to the hospital. Obviously, he could not have been too far behind in order to catch up with limousine and motorcycles that were speeding about as fast as they could go.
•   Officer McLain arrived at Parkland Hospital and was the one who helped Mrs. Kennedy release her husband and get out of the limousine.

Clearly, Officer McLain would have had his sirens on. He is not going to be riding by himself at dangerously high speed without his sirens and lights flashing during that first mile. Once he caught up, he would be with the other motorcycles with their sirens on the whole way.

There is no way the motorcycles escorting the limousine on the freeway at up to 75 mph, were running with no sirens, while, at the same time, they were being passed by even faster motorcycles with their sirens on. But that is the scenario needed for the acoustic study to not collapse because of the sirens heard on the Dictabelt.

So, we should not expect to hear other sirens passing him by, and to only hear them over a 36 second period. It would have taken at least 3 to 4 minutes to make the trip to Parkland. And there are no sirens over the course of the last 30 seconds or so over the period when the microphone button was stuck.


So, basically, either Dr. Barger would have to abandon his 1979 opinion on the sirens, or abandon his world-shaking discovery back in 1978. I suspect he has changed his mind on the sirens.

[Joffrey van de Wiel]

How many threads on the acoustical evidence do we really need? Can't you concentrate them all into one? Won't you have the same basic discussion over and over again?

[Joe Elliott]

How many threads on the acoustical evidence do we really need? Can't you concentrate them all into one? Won't you have the same basic discussion over and over again?

Point taken. I will limit the number of new threads.

But I thought this point was worth emphasizing. The argument that LNers have used for at least 28 years, almost certainly 40 years, is that the sirens recorded on the tape, show the motorcycle with the stuck button did not have its sirens blaring. But other motorcycles, with blaring sirens, passed by the motorcycle with the stuck microphone. And this was also the opinion of the BBN back in 1979.

This 1979 opinion of the BBN has for Dr. Barger, I imagine, become something of a problem. The only motorcycle that remotely comes close to matching the profile of a motorcycle with the motorcade with the stuck microphone, is Officer McLain’s. But Officer McLain didn’t promptly park his motorcycle at Dealey Plaza and leave it there, which might allow other motorcycles with blaring sirens to briefly pass by it.

I am curious to know what Dr. Barger’s opinion on this is now. I suspect he has changed his mind about the sirens, rather than abandon his great “discovery”