Hoffman couldn't hear, White didn't hear, Murphy heard.

[Marjan Rynkiewicz]

Hoffman couldn't hear, White didn't hear, Murphy heard.
In this Robin Unger Bell frame (normal_snapshot20111219191702.jpg)(109/208) of the Bell footage we might be looking at
Virgil (Ed) Hoffman sitting on the western concrete barrier near the north-western end of the Stemmons overpass,
21 yd south of the legendary spot (Hoffman's Lookout) where he always said he was sitting.
The JFK limo & Queen Mary have already passed him, passing west of him & below him, heading north on the Stemmons on-ramp, & he is watching the remainder of the motorcade.
The northbound car on Stemmons slowly passing him will have to stop on the end of the queue of cars blocked at the railroad overpass (overpass is 114 yd north of him).
In a later frame we can see that Hoffman is on the far side of that car, ie at the western barrier.
He is sitting almost over the on-ramp. That duznt compute. Officer Murphy's job is to keep gawkers off the overpass, especially in the area over the on-ramp.

[Marjan Rynkiewicz]

In this printscreen of the Bell footage
we can see the top say 30 inches of Officer Murphy standing on the eastern side of the Stemmons overpass.
Our view of him is mostly blocked by the overhead signs.
The JFK limo will pass under him in about 10 sec as it enters the Stemmons on-ramp.
We know its Murphy koz that dark lump duznt appear in early frames, & is seen in later frames.
Murphy appears to be very high up. I am fairly certain that there aint any high curb for him to stand on.
I suspect that he heard the shooting & sirens & he stood high up on his 3-wheeler (did he have a 3-wheeler) to see over the signage.

Murphy heard Oswald's shot-1 at 0.8 sec after Z113, then Oswald's shot-2 5.7 sec later at Z218, then Hickey's shots-123456 5.0 sec later at Z313.
It calculates to 5.2 sec but i had to deduct 0.2 sec koz of the diff in travel times for the sound of shots by Oswald who is further away than Hickey.
Murphy wasn't visible in Bell's footage when JFK's limo was half in shade entering the triple underpass at Z468.
And then Murphy was fully up & visible at Z470 when the limo was 3/4 in shade.
Z313 to Z468 is 55 frames ie 3.0 sec, hence Murphy reacted to the final shots in 2.5 sec (allowing 0.5 sec for the speed of sound).
Yes, Murphy didnt react to Óswald's shots, but Hickey's auto burst finally did the trick.

We can see say 2.5 ft of Murphy over the signage, & the signage is 61 yd away from him, which is 1/5th
of the distance to Bell (308 yd), hence that 2.5 ft gains him say 12.5 ft of extra vertical vision at Bell, but Bell is standing in the peristyle, or in the garden bed in front of the peristyle,
& that 12.5 ft has to be measured down from the level of Bell's camera.
And anyhow Murphy's vision of Dealey Plaza is blocked by the concrete eastern barrier of the triple underpass which is 23 ft high.
Actually, Murphy could see much of Elm St to the left of the signage, but he couldn't see JFK or Hickey in the middle of Elm St at Z313 koz the paling fence
was on his sight-line, plus there are 3 trees on the grassy knoll.
But praps Murphy could see a bit of JFK & Co later further down Elm St, & he climbed onto his 3-wheeler (did he have a 3-wheeler) for a better look.
I reckon that he had a 3-wheeler. Its elementary.




Actually, Robin Unger's gallery of Bell's footage has 56/208 which shows Murphy high up over the signage.
Later, i show that one of Robin's frames shows that later Murphy moves to the western barrier after JFK & Co have passed.

[Marjan Rynkiewicz]

In McIntire's pix we can see Officer White next to the western barrier of the triple underpass over the south side of Main St.
White said that he didn’t hear any shots because of a passing train, but there is no train in sight.
White is 127 yd from Hickey when JFK is at Z313, but 40 yd of that distance is the width of the underpass & i dont think that White could see Hickey at that instant, nor hear apparently.
Notice that Tague or someone is looking -- hmmmm, praps Tague is still hiding behind the pier.
Notice that the Agents on Queen Mary are all looking at Hickey who is holding the smoking AR15 now about 6 bullets lighter.
McIntire is standing in the fork of the road which is the start of the Stemmons on-ramp.  And Officer Murphy is about 10 yd north of him & above. 
And Hoffman tells us that Hoffman is sitting at Hoffmans's Lookout, ie about 50 yd north of McIntire, on the other side (ie the western side)
of the 7 lane Stemmons overpass (back in 1963 it was 3 wide lanes plus 2 wide breakdown lanes).
However we now suspect that at the instant that McIntire clicks his camera Hoffman is driving his Falcon very slowly down the overpass just above McIntire.


[edit 25may2022][Here the overhead signs are 181 ft from McIntyre, the front of the jfklimo is 45 ft closer (ie at 136 ft), the front of the Queen Mary is 25 ft before the signs (ie at 206 ft from McIntyre).]
[The jfklimo must have passed McIntyre & was in the shadow of the overpass before McIntyre rewound his camera, hence his next pix is of the Queen Mary which is say 70 ft behind the jfklimo (ie there is 50 ft of daylite tween the 2 limo's).]

[Marjan Rynkiewicz]

I reckon that that might be Hoffman that we can see standing next to his Falcon,
stopped in the queue blocked at the railroad overpass about 105 yd north of him.

[edit][A closer look at footage tells me that Hoffman's Falcon is still moving & it probly stops a car length further north, hence that there guy aint Hoffman.
Anyhow Hoffman would have gotten out of the far side of the Falcon, the driver's side, & would have dashed over to the western barrier for a close look at the remainder of the motorcade.
Alltho there would at that time still have been a goodly amount of motorcade to be seen exiting the triple underpass.
That there guy is standing at the eastern barrier, & he would like to be on the overpass proper, but Officer Murphy is shooing gawkers away.]

[edit][I had another look at Robin Unger's frames.
I reckon that that there guy was a passenger that jumped out before the Falcon had stopped rolling.
So, Hoffman had a passenger.  Bell's footage is jumpy & blurry & too brief to tell for sure.  But that guy seems to appear at the door like magic.
And he is nowhere to be seen in Bell's earlier footage that i will comment on later.
Unlike the gawker sitting on the western barrier, who can be seen in Bell's earlier footage, as i will show later.
And, if u squint real hard, u can tell that Mr Passenger Man is looking north west at JFK & Co (ie he is looking at the onramp).
 
Of course there is always a chance that that Falcon aint Hoffman's, & that Hoffman's Falcon stopped in the queue some minutes earlier,
& that the gawker sitting on the western barrier is Hoffman.  They would have stopped traffic at the railroad overpass about 5 minutes earlier.
Hoffman has also said that he parked his Falcon on the left shoulder of the on-ramp just north of the railroad overpass at 12:00. 
In another version he said that he parked in the left break-down lane of Stemmons, near Hoffman's Lookout.
Either way i doubt that the cops allowed parking on the on-ramp or on the Freeway (ie before they blocked traffic at the rail overpass).
There were say a dozen gawkers around McIntire when he took his pix, where did they park? 
No, the Falcon in Bell's footage is Hoffman's, & he had a passenger.]

[Marjan Rynkiewicz]

If the guy sitting on the western barrier is Hoffman then why is he calmly sitting there.
A fraction of a minute ago he saw a guy throwing a rifle to another guy near the picket fence. 
Hoffman said that after he saw the hole in JFK's head he ran north towards the railroad overpass waving his arms
trying to get the attention of a police officer (Brown) up on the overpass (93 yd from Hoffman's Lookout) to alert the world to the sniper. 
Running north doesn't make much sense, Murphy was 53 yd away south of Hoffman's Lookout, albeit on the east side, ie across 3 lanes of traffic & 2 breakdown lanes.
Murphy was 37 yd from the gawker sitting on the western barrier.
[edit][Later i show that Murphy had crossed to the west side, & was only 33 yd away from Hoffman's Lookout, & on the same side, ie in the same lane -- & only 15 yd away from the gawker sitting on the western barrier.]
Anyhow at the time of that frame of the Bell film JFK has gone past a while ago & is almost on Stemmons.
So, i ask again, why is Hoffman calmly sitting there?
I doubt that Hoffman (driving the Falcon) saw JFK at all.  But he did catch some of the late commotion in Dealey Plaza, & in the carpark at the paling fence.

So, if that sitting guy (gawker) is Hoffman, then Hoffman exaggerated what he saw, to family & friends & workmates. And, for some reason, according to Duke Lane,
Hoffman's 1967 story involved him seeing 2 guys running out of the rear of the TSBD,
holding something, running north up Houston St & then east up a side street, even tho Hoffman couldn’t see the rear of the TSBD from Hoffman's Lookout.

Anyhow according to Duke Lane that was Ed's story in June 1967 when he was pushed by his niece into giving a talk to her school class.
And then he was pushed by her teacher into making a statement to the FBI.

Then in March 1977 according to Duke Lane Hoffman surfaced again with a new story, & this time his workmates pushed him into seeing the FBI,
& his story was that he saw a guy tossing a rifle to another guy near the picket fence.

[Marjan Rynkiewicz]

Here is Hoffman's falcon slowly approaching Officer Murphy & about 63 yd from where
Hoffman eventually stops a little out of frame, ie near the guy sitting on the barrier (gawker).
This pix is at about Z500, ie say 10 sec after Z313. 
We first see the Falcon at 0:43 in the youtube footage i am looking at at present, at which time the tail of the JFK limo is almost in the shade of the underpass,
which corresponds to Z470 (the limo is fully in the shade in Z471), & we last see the Falcon when it is within inches of stopping at 1:02,
which suggests a span of 19 sec, add to that the 8.6 sec tween Z313 & Z470 & it totals 27.6 sec.
Hence JFK had probly (in 19 sec) reached Hoffman's Falcon before Hoffman got out of his Falcon.
And, i doubt that the paling fence sniper took 28 sec before he played toss the rifle.

When McIntire snaps the pix shown in Reply#2 Hoffman's Falcon is approaching McIntire & Officer Murphy.

If Hoffman were in the right-hand lane he early on might have been able to look down & ahead over the lowish concrete barrier to the
triple underpass to see JFK exiting the underpass, or a bit later when JFK was closer, or a bit later when passing McIntire & Murphy
he could have looked down & directly across to see JFK when JFK was in the location in McIntire's pix.
But Officer Murphy was standing in lane-1 & i suspect that Hoffman must have been in lane-2 at best, in which case he might not have
 been able to see JFK from the driver's seat on the left of the Falcon, or praps he could but only early on when JFK was further away. 
In any case Hoffman could only have seen JFK at a distance, while driving his Falcon, & in any case we know that JFK was mostly covered by Agent Hill & Jackie.
There is no way that Hoffman could have seen JFK's injury. 

So, later, where shown, Hoffman stopped, & got out, & then joined the guy at the western barrier,
& then Ed would have seen the remaining motorcade go past, but he missed JFK & Queen Mary by many seconds.

[Marjan Rynkiewicz]

Where do you see smoke coming from Hickeys weapon?

There are lots of mentions of smoke in Elm St at Hickey's pozzy at Z313, & i reckon that most of the other mentions
of smoke say near the pergola or grassy knoll or picket fence actually refer to Hickey's smoke.
For example the Willis girl said she saw smoke near the grassy knoll, but her sight-line passed throo Hickey.
Holland's sight-line for smoke high up in the trees at the first shot passed throo Oswald's window, it was Oswald's smoke.
Later his smoke related to all of the shots, not just the first, & his smoke got lower & lower & until at fence height, & in the end it was behind the paling fence.

But u of course are referring to my mention of a smoking AR15 in McIntire's pix or at least after Queen Mary has gone throo the triple underpass.
That comment was tongue in cheek.
However after the 4 or 5 or 6 shot auto burst Queen Mary was full of smoke, smell-wise if not vision-wise, & other motorcadians smelled the smoke
all the way to the hozzie, & Officers on bridges along the route smelled it.

[Marjan Rynkiewicz]

Here is an aerial from Freeway Man  by M. Duke Lane. http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/FreeWayman.htm
I drew a fat yellow line showing my estimates of the pozzy of the Falcon & of Bell where Bell first films it.
And a fat yellow line to a few yards further along where the Falcon appears in the pix in Reply#1 & Reply#5.
And a fat yellow line showing the pozzy of the Falcon where we last see it, almost stopped.
The Falcon stopped i reckon 1 car length past its pozzy in the pix in my initial posting & Reply#3.
The Falcon traveled 59 yd.  I usually scale distances based on the TSBD being 98 ft by 98 ft.
Hoffman (if he is the gawker)(or if he is sitting at Hoffman's Lookout)(or if he is in the Falcon) had a good view of the paling fence carpark, but couldn't see the rear of the TSBD.

I drew a thin green line to Murphy's 2 locations.
And to the gawker.
And to Hoffman's Lookout (not vizible from Bell's location koz of a tree in Elm St near the picket fence).
Duke has drawn Hoffman's Lookout in a wrong location in the photo. Duke called it Ed standing (see blue lines)(& Duke drew it between Gawker & Hoffman's Lookout).