Not in Your Lifetime: The Defining Book on the J.F.K. Assassination (46 page)

with Barger, November 1978; HSCA V.645
, op cit.

HSCA VIII, V.652, V.671–, V.592, V.679, HSCA Report, p. 65, and V.674.

27
     HSCA acoustics finding: HSCA Report, p. 1; “beyond reasonable doubt”: HSCA V.583.

28
     Academy of Sciences: Ramsey Report, 1982.

29
     Responsible researchers: e.g., “The acoustic evidence in the Kennedy assassination,” paper by Michael O’Dell, http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/odell/; author’s corr. O’Dell & Paul Hoch, 2012.

2010 book: Donald Thomas,
Hear No Evil
, Ipswich, MA: Mary Ferrell Foundation, 2010.

Further studies: 2013 papers by Michael O’Dell, further analyzing HSCA’s original tests, shared with the author.

Blakey: int., May 3,1989, &
re
witness testimony, Blakey email to Kaiser
et al
., October 12, 2012.

3. How Many Shots? Where From?

31
     Huxley:
Collected Essays
, vol. 8.

Survey of people on number of shots: HSCA VIII.142.

32
     Acoustics specialists: “Firearms Investigation, Identification and Evidence,” Hatcher, Jury and Weller, 1957, p. 420, Secret Service memo March 7, 1964 (S.S. Files 221–229).

Rear right outriders: James Chaney and D. L. Jackson.

Five in the car: Mrs. Kennedy (V.180); Connallys (IV.132, 145); Agent Kellerman (II.74; XVIII.724; II.61) (he believed there were more than three shots); Agent Greer (II.130).

Rear left outriders: B. J. Martin (VI.292); B. W. Hargis (VI.294); and
New York Daily News
,
November 24, 1963.

33
     Moorman: XIX.487; XXII.838; XXIV.217.

Brehm: XII.837.

Newman: XIX.488; XXII.842; XXIV.2; IV.218.

Orr:
conversation with Dallas researcher, November 22, 1963, and subsequently. Orr was never interviewed by any official body.

Acoustics: testimonies of Barger (HSCA II) and Weiss/Aschkenasy (HSCA V).

34
     Blakey summary: HSCA V.690.

Time frame: HSCA V.724.

Two shots sounded like one: Report, p. 87.

Origin of third shot: HSCA VIII.5.

35
     Origin of knoll shot: HSCA VIII.10.

Ford: Article in
Life
magazine, October 2, 1964.

Survey
re
direction of shots: HSCA Report, pp. 87, 90.

Note 1
: The first useful survey on shots was
Fifty-One Witnesses: The Grassy Knoll
by Harold Feldman (San Francisco: Idlewild Publishing, 1965). The author took this, the most perspicacious early work, into account. It agrees, in basic conclusions, with the HSCA findings.

Mrs. Kennedy: V.180.

Governor Connally: IV.132–.

36
     Mrs. Connally: IV.149.

Greer: II.129.

Kellerman: XVIII.724 and II.61.

Left outriders: VI.293 (Hargis) and VI.289 (Martin).

Chaney: unidentified film interview in police station and taped interview for KLIF, Dallas, on record
The Fateful Hours
, Capitol Records.

O’Donnell:
VF
, December 1994, drawing on O’Neill’s biography; and ints. O’Neill and Dave Powers.

Moorman: XIX.497; XXII.838; XXIV.217.

Orr: conversation with Dallas researcher, November 22, 1963, and subsequently.

Brehm: XXII.837.

Newman: XIX.490; XXII.842; XXIV.219.

37
     Book Depository witnesses: manager, William Shelley (VI.328); superintendent, Truly (III.227); TSBD vice president, O. V.
Campbell (XXII.638); vice president publishing company, S. F. Wilson (XXII.685).

Sorrels: XXI.548; (later testimony) VII.347.

Landis: XVIII.758.

Decker: verbatim from police radio traffic recording of November 22, 1963 (as published in JFK Assassination File by Jesse Curry, 1969). (See bibliography.)

38
     Arnold: interviewed by Earl Golz for
Dallas Morning News
, August 27, 1978 (seen by Yarborough)
Dallas Morning News
, December 31,1978); never interviewed by HSCA, interview of Arnold by Golz, May 23,1979.

40
     Railway supervisor: S. M. Holland testimony VI.239–.

Woodward and friends:
Dallas Morning News
, November 23,1963. (Woodward’s position indicated in XXIV.520.)

Chism and wife: XXIV.204, 205.

41
     Millican: XIX.486.

Jean Newman: XXIV.218. Not to be confused with Gayle Newman, mentioned earlier.

Zapruder: CD 87; HSCA Report, p. 89.

Holland: (police statement): XXIV.212; (testimony) VI.239; interview of Holland by Mark Lane (on film) taken from transcript of
Rush to Judgment
, transmitted on BBC-TV, January 29,
1967.

42
     Eight other witnesses: (Frank Reilly) VI.230; (Nolan H. Polton) XXII.834; (James Simmons) XXII.833; (Clemon Johnson) XXII.836; (Andrew Miller) VI.225, XIX.485; (Richard Dodd XXII.835; (Walter Winborn) XXII.833; (Thomas Murphy) XXII.835. (See also HSCA XII.23.)

Bowers: VI.284, testimony of Bowers; and filmed interview by Mark Lane, March 31, 1966; Lane,
op. cit.
, p. 23–.

Gunpowder (Mrs. Cabell) VII.486–, (Yarborough) Feldman,
op. cit.
, unpaginated; (Roberts) Feldman,
op. cit.
, unpaginated; (Brown) VI.233–; (Baker) VII.510–.

43
     Smith: VII.535;
Texas Observer
, November 13, 1963; ints. by author, August 1978; XXII.600.

Moorman photograph: HSCA VI.125–; Zapruder on CBS (Rather error): tape of
KRLD, Dallas CBS affiliate-reel 65A.7 (inventory of tapes of Dallas radio stations, National Archives).

44
     Frames reversed (original error): XVIII.70–; “printing error”: Hoover letter to Ray Marcus, December 14, 1965.

Hargis: VI.293–295; Curry,
op. cit.
, p. 30.

Martin: VI.289.

45
     Harper: CD 1269, p. 5; HSCA VII.24.

“covered with brain tissue”: HSCA Report, p. 40.

HSCA conclusion: HSCA Report, p. 1; HSCA V.690–.

Neuromuscular reaction: HSCA 1.415.

Medical panel supported reaction thesis: HSCA VII.174, 178.

Entrance wound: HSCA VII.176, 107; and HSCA I.250 (brain should have been sectioned); HSCA VII.134; (bullet path) HSCA VII.135.

46
     Guinn tests: HSCA I.507; (testimony) HSCA I.491; int. Dr. Guinn, November 1978;
Analytical Chemistry
, Vol. 51, p. 484A, April 1979.

Note 2
: Dr. Guinn was unable to test one fragment found in the car, part of the copper jacket rather than lead (HSCA I.515). In their analysis, the firearms panel concluded that this was the base of a 6.5-mm bullet and believed it had been fired through the rifle found at the Depository (HSCA VII.369). This, probably, was the fragment referred to by Congressman Dodd in public session as “not easily identifiable as a result of neutron activation tests” (HSCA V.696).

One of the fragments recovered from the floor of the limousine has vanished since 1963 (HSCA VII.366n). In addition, Guinn reported finding one fragment container empty, a can that had apparently contained particles from the car’s damaged windshield. Nor were any samples left from a curb that had reportedly been struck by a bullet. Guinn assumed these had simply been “used up” in earlier FBI tests (HSCA I.196 and letter to author, August 10, 1979). This, at any rate, is the way the HSCA decided to account for the difference in weight and count of fragment material originally listed by the FBI and that handed to
Guinn (HSCA Report, p. 599n33). Clearly, the fragments were, at one stage, at least poorly cataloged and monitored. Some will suspect a more sinister explanation. See also
Note 6
on problems with possible missing fragments in connection with Governor Connolly’s wrist and the magic bullet (later in this chapter).

Ballistics link fragments to gun: HSCA VII.369.

47
     Warren investigators & “magic bullet theory”: Report, p. 105.

Note 3
: Norman Redlich, Warren Commission lawyer, said on March 23, 1965, “To say that they were hit by separate bullets is synonymous with saying that there were two assassins.” (See Inquest by E. J. Epstein, p. 55.)

48
     Helpern: Marshall Houts,
op. cit.
, pp. 9, 59.

Note 4
: Helpern was quoting the Warren Commission description of the bullet. The HSCA firearms panel found it to weigh 157.7 grains, however (HSCA VII.368, 372).

Shaw: int, 1978; and HSCA I.268, 302.

49
     McCloy:
VF
, December 1994.

Boggs: June 11, 1965, interviewed by E. J. Epstein for
Inquest
(p. 148).

Cooper: interview for BBC, produced by author, 1978.

Russell: interviewed by Alfred Goldberg, May 5, 1965, reported in
Inquest
by E. J. Epstein, p. 148; and interviewed in 1970 for
Whitewash IV
by Harold Weisberg, p. 212; see also
New York Times
, November 22, 1966,
VF
,
December 1994.

HSCA on “magic bullet”: HSCA Report, p. 47.

Forensic panel on “magic bullet”: HSCA VII.179.

Ballistics experts: (tests on bullets) HSCA I.411; (bullet fired in rifle) HSCA VII.368.

Guinn test: HSCA I.533.

50
     HSCA sequence: HSCA Report, pp. 1, 46– & HSCA V.690.

Journal of the American College of Surgeons
article: May 1994.

Note 5
:
Case Closed
, a 1993 book by lawyer Gerald Posner (see Bibliography), argued that computer enhancement “settles the question” of the timing of the shots, and that test-firing “provided the final physical evidence necessary to prove the single-bullet theory.”
Posner failed to tell readers in the first edition of his book that the computer work had been done for the prosecution side in a mock trial of Oswald conducted by the American Bar Association. (Gerald Posner,
op. cit.
, pp. 317, 402;
Case
Open
, by Harold Weisberg,
op. cit.
, pp. 57–79; and int. Dr. Angela Meyer of FAA, 1994).

51
     Op. room supervisor/policeman: Audrey Bell, conv. with author, 1978; and Patrolman Charles Harbison, in
Dallas Morning News
, April 3, 1977; int. by Earl Golz, September 1977; and
cf
. Dallas Police property list, released by Dallas Municipal Archives and Records Center, 1992; HSCA VII.156 and Fig. 17, HSCA VII.392; Report, p. 95.

Note 6
: As to doubt whether relevant bullet was found on Connolly’s stretcher, see
Note 3
to Chapter 2. In 1978, HSCA wound ballistics expert Sturdivan did say he felt more was missing from the magic bullet than is accounted for by the surviving fragments and surmised that some had been lost. (HSCA 1.412) Some fragments have indeed vanished since 1963 (see
Note 2
on Guinn tests). Their loss, without proper accounting, fueled suspicion by some researchers that they were maliciously removed.

Finck:
VF
, December 1994.

Connally death/fragment:
ibid
.,
New York Times
, UPI, June 19, 1993.

52
     Jenkins: David Lifton,
op. cit.
, p. 613; and
cf
.

Jenkins HSCA int., memo 002193, released 1995.

Throat merely probed: HSCA int. Dr. Thornton

Boswell, memo 002071, released 1995; (not sectioned) affidavit of FBI Agent James Sibert, October 24, 1978, released with HSCA Agency File no. 002191, in 1995.

53
     McClelland: int., May 4, 1979; Livingstone & Groden,
op. cit.
, p. 394.

Robinson: HSCA int., Agency File no. 000661, released 1995.

Crenshaw:
VF
, December 1994; and Charles Crenshaw
et al
.
, op cit.

Burkley: HSCA int. Burkley (undated), 1977, in AARB MD 19, www.maryferrell.org, & AARB Report, p. 131,
re
reported Burkley belief that there had been a conspiracy to kill the president. Baden: HSCA Report, pp. 80, 604n106.

54
     Mantik, Riley:
VF
, December 1994; and int.

Mantik, 1995.

Note 7
:
More fully, the 2006 study’s findings were that “a conclusion of material evidence for only two bullets in the questioned JFK assassination specimens has no forensic basis… . Although collateral information from the overall investigation might very well narrow the choices, as stand-alone primary evidence, the recovered bullet fragments could be reflective of anywhere between two and five different rounds fired in Dealey Plaza that day.”

The study continues with the somewhat opaque observation that: “Only the near-complete mass of CE-399, the stretcher bullet, precludes the conclusion of one to five rounds. Moreover, the fragments need not necessarily have originated from MC [Mannlicher-Carcano] ammunition.” (
Journal of Forensic Sciences
, July, 2006, Vol. 51, No. 4)

4. Other Gunmen?

56
     Curry: Curry,
op. cit.
, p. 61.

Secret Service man with gun: picture in
The Torch Is Passed
(AP 1964) p. 17; and HSCA Report, p. 606nl55.

Willis: HSCA XII.7; (photographs) HSCA VI.121.

Price: XIX.492; interview of Price by Mark Lane, March 27, 1966; HSCA XII.12.

57
     Bowers: VI.284; filmed interview by Mark Lane, March 31, 1966; HSCA XII.12–.

Smith: VII.535;
Texas Observer
,
December 13, 1963; ints. with author, August 1978 and subsequently.