Was the “bang” of the shots proof of a second gunman ?

One of the pieces of evidence crucial to the Warren Commission’s conclusion of a lone gunman was the sequence of the shots.

The Commission, in its report, stated that the minimum time required to operate the bolt of the CE 139 rifle and fire a shot was 2.25 seconds.

That means that any sound emanating from the rifle as a result of firing around throught it, would also take a minimum of 2.25 seconds.

The speed of sound is affected by temperature, the warmer it is, the faster sound travels. Since it was 70 degrees in Dallas that day, the speed of sound in Dealey Plaza was about 1,129 feet per second ( 344 m/s ).

http://artsites.ucsc.edu/EMS/music/tech_background/TE-01/soundSpeed.html#:~:text=At 21 degrees C

The Timing of the “Bangs”

Suffice it to say that while the position of witnesses in Dealey Plaza was relevent to WHEN the sound of the shots reached their positions. It had no bearing on the number of shots they heard nor did it have any bearing on the sequence of those shots.

For example, if one stood under the sixth floor window of the Texas School Book Depository, one should hear the sounds of the shots spaced apart at a minimum of 2.25 seconds. This is the time the Warren Commission’s expert, FBI Agent Shaneyfelt said it took to fire a shot and cycle the bolt on the CE 139 rifle. ( 5 H 153 )

And if one stood further down on Elm St., one should hear the shots with the same 2.25 second spacing.

The timing of WHEN you first heard the shots would be different because of your position, but the sequence would be the same because the speed of sound was a constant.

Unless of course, the unlikely possibility that the temperature changed drastically between shots.

To prove this point, many of the witnesses described a shot sequence that was incompatable with three shots being fired from the CE 139 rifle. These witnesses were scattered around Dealey Plaza. Yet they described the same shooting sequence with a first shot, a pause and then two shots right on top of each other.

Witness testimony and accounts can be a reliable tool for investigators when those accounts corroborate each other.

What the Witnesses Heard

So what did the witnesses hear ?

In 1966, Mark Lane interviewed Lee Bowers, a railroad employee who had been in a 14 foot tower in the parking lot behind the picket fence. He recreated the sequence he heard:

Patsy Paschall shot her film from the third floor of the old red courthouse. This is what she said she heard:

Newspaper reporter Mary Woodward stood on the north side of Elm St. This is what she heard:

And these are not the only witnesses who heard the first shot, a pause and the last two shots close together. So close, in fact, that they could not have been fired from the CE 139 rifle.

The Ignored Witnesses

Witnesses who were never allowed to testify before the Warrewn Commission included Victoria Adams, who watched the motorcade from an office on the fourth floor of the Texas School Book Depository. She testified that, “we heard a shot and then it was a pause and then a second shot and then a third shot.” ( 6 H 388 )

Witness Bonnie Ray Williams was also inside the Texas School Book Depository on the fifth floor. He testified that, “… there was two shots rather close together. The second shot and the third shot was closer together than the first shot and the second shot, as I remember.” ( 3 H 175 )

Secret Service Agent, Roy Kellerman, who rode in the front seat of the Presidential limo, described the first shot as a firecracker and the last two as shots as “…like a double bang—-bang, bang.” ( 2 H 76 )

Dallas Mayor Earle Cabell told the Commission that, “there was a longer pause between the first and second shots than there was between the second and third shots. They were in rather rapid succession”. ( 7 H 478 ) He reiterated that in this interview:

Those were the witnesses who testified before the Warren Commission and whose testimony the Commission chose to ignore.

And there were other witnesses who the FBI interviewed and whose accounts corroborated those witnesses who testified. The FBI made sure these witnesses were kept off the witness list and never appeared before the Warren Commission.

The Suppressed Witnesses

Witnesses like Carolyn Walther, who stood on the east side of Houston St, just 17 feet from the intersection of Elm. She told the FBI that, “there was a pause after this first report, then a second and third report almost at the same time”. ( CD 7, pg.25 )

She reiterated this in a 1967 interview:

Secret Service Agent George Hickey, who rode in the back seat of the follow-up car behind the President’s limo and reported that he heard, “two reports….in such rapid succession that there seemed to be practically no time element between them.” ( 18 H 762 )

And Mrs. Pearl Springer, who stood with Carolyn Walther on the east side of Houston St.. She told the FBI that, “after the first shot there was a pause and then two more shots were fired close together.” ( CD 7, pg. 26 )

Assistant Press Secretary Malcolm Kilduff was never called to testify before the Commission, but said this in a subsequent interview:

Newsman Robert MacNeil rode in the press bus and described the sounds he heard:

Jim Tague was the third man wounded in Dealey Plaza and his shot sequence corroborated those of the other witnesses: a shot, a pause and then two shots close together.

This is a diverse group of witnesses who positions varied. Some were inside the building. Some were outside but in close proximity of the building. One witness was near the grassy knoll. Another was behind the building in a tower. Another was in the front seat of the limo. One was in the old courthouse. One was in a bus.

But they all heard the same thing; a single shot, then a pause and a double bang for the second and third shots, a proven physical impossibility for a single gunman firing the CE 139 rifle.

Boom, Click-Click

Texas School Book Depository employee Harold Norman was in an open window on the fifth floor, one floor below the “sniper’s window”. He has claimed over the years that he heard three shots evenly spaced and heard the operation of the rifle and even the shells hitting the floor.

I see two problems with Norman’s three-shot, “boom-click-click” sequence. The first problem is that it’s only 3.9 seconds long from the first shot to the last. Three shots in 3.9 seconds ? Even if you don’t start the clock until the first shot, that’s too short a timespan for a single gunman firing three shots from the CE 139 rifle.

The second problem with it is that it does not line up with the Zapruder film. I’ve taken his shot sequence and added to it the Zapruder film to show how ridiculous his shot sequence is:

Echoes ?

If the witnesses were hearing echoes, as some have suggested, why didn’t they hear an echo with the FIRST shot ? They heard the first shot, a noticeable pause, then two distinct shots timed close together. Not one witness reported hearing echoes.

Echoes are reflections of sound. How could Lee Bowers hear an echo when the TSBD building was between his tower and the alleged sniper’s nest ? How did the sound waves penetrate the building to allow him to hear the reflection of the sound ?

And it’s a fact that the farther way you are from the solid object the sound wave hits, the longer it takes for an echo to return to you. So how is it that the witnesses in different locations all heard the same timing ?

Because those witnesses didn’t hear an echo.