What did SS agent Kellerman mean by, "A flurry of shells come into the car?"

[Jake Maxwell]

  At 1:11 PM, UPI transmitted the fact that 3 "bursts" of gunfire were heard by reporters.  Also, "Some of the Secret Service agents thought the gunfire was from an automatic weapon fired to the right rear of the President's car...probably from a grassy knoll to which the police rushed."

Other interesting things are in this teletype which starts at 12:38 PM.

https://static.lib.virginia.edu/JFK/

  I'd like to add that an M-16 at the time could fire up to 15 rounds per second.  I doubt many people could distinguish that many shots in such a short time.  It may sound like a single shot to some (masked by echoes), or "bursts" to others.

That would be right in line with Zapruder's testimony that he thought the shots came from behind him... and in line with Kellerman's description of a "flurry of shots/shells" came into the car... and in line with the various wounds on the president and Connally... and in line with the damage to the windshield and the chrome around it... and in line with Connally's exclamation, "My God, they're going to kill us all!"

[Royell Storing]

That would be right in line with Zapruder's testimony that he thought the shots came from behind him... and in line with Kellerman's description of a "flurry of shots/shells" came into the car... and in line with the various wounds on the president and Connally... and in line with the damage to the windshield and the chrome around it... and in line with Connally's exclamation, "My God, they're going to kill us all!"

          Emphasis being on Connally's "THEY're....."

[Jake Maxwell]

That would be right in line with Zapruder's testimony that he thought the shots came from behind him... and in line with Kellerman's description of a "flurry of shots/shells" came into the car... and in line with the various wounds on the president and Connally... and in line with the damage to the windshield and the chrome around it... and in line with Connally's exclamation, "My God, they're going to kill us all!"

And this would also be in line with the UPI transmission of the following:

THE WOUNDS INDICATED AN AUTOMATIC WEAPON WAS USED.
THREE LOUD BURSTS OF GUNFIRE WERE HEARD BEFORE THE PRESIDENT
AND GOVERNOR FELL.

[John Iacoletti]

Well he had to make something up that Oswald said as he was planting the gun in his waistband and violating his rights.

He made up a lot of stuff...

[John Iacoletti]

When I go to work I don't expect to be punched in the face for absolutely no reason and then to top it off I don't expect some lunatic to try and shoot me.

Isn't storytime fun?  When I go to the movies, I don't expect cops to illegally search me, punch me in the eye, beat me with the butt of a shotgun and arrest me for murder with no probable cause.

[John Iacoletti]

Three shots. No "flurry of shells".
Which supports his testimony where he said the "flurry of shells" were two shots.

Where does he say that the flurry of shells that he described coming into the car was something he heard?

[Bill Charleston]

Maybe the better question is, why is Kellerman the only person who talked about a "flurry of shells"?

I posted links to a couple of other witnesses who said the last two shots were BAM-BAM or BANG-BANG or.....  A significant number of witnesses reported:

BANG     P A U S E  then BANG-BANG

Another significant portion of witnesses reported their three shots heard as BANG   -------   BANG    ------BANG. More evenly spaced.

Kellerman goes on to say that the flurry of shots was TWO shots, and that can be described as BANG-BANG.

ONE explanation for WHY a significant number of witnesses said they heard BANG-BANG is that the last sounds were fired by two separate gunmen.  Another explanation for why people heard BANG-BANG for the last sounds is that it was  due to them hearing an echo of the last shot. If the last shot was caused by an echo, then why didn't the FIRST shot echo too?  There are VERY FEW witnesses who talk about the first shots being close spaced.

CBS news' Cronkite and Rather said they would ask how many shots they heard and in what kind of sequence.  If you listen to this, you'll see that what the witnesses said was heavily edited.  For example, two of the witnesses said they heard FOUR shots but CBS did NOT let them describe the sequence of what they heard.  If you do some more research, you'll find that the witnesses that heard FOUR shots said TWO of them were CLOSELY spaced like BANG-BANG.  So much for CBS reporting the truth.


Of the six witnesses interviewed, ONE clearly heard the last two shots BANG-BANG which is consistent with what Kellerman described hearing.
The two that heard four shots heard two of them close together.  That means that THREE of the SIX witnesses interviewed by CBS heard two of the shots fired BANG-BANG.

Another witness said he heard BANG-BANG-BANG.  That doesn't fit anything unless you consider that he heard the last two fired as BANG-BANG but misidentified them as THREE shots close together.  But what it does mean is that FOUR of the SIX witnesses CBS showed thought that at least two of the shots were fired CLOSELY TOGETHER!

Then Walter Cronkite concludes there is NOTHING to see here because the witnesses' testimonies were all over the place.  But that is NOT true.  What it means to me is that there is one thing common to the majority of these statements:  Two of the shots were fired close together (like BANG-BANG).

Not a valid vimeo URL
As I said earlier, there is a way to PROVE (NOT GUESS, BUT PROVE) that the witnesses who said the last two sounds were BANG-BANG were right!

[Bill Charleston]

Are there any other witnesses that back up his claim?

Kellerman's claim is probably best described as a flurry of shots which he later said was TWO shots.  Kellerman, like MANY other witnesses, is describing the last sounds he heard that sounded like gunfire.

A list of witnesses from Richard Charmin's WORDPRESS blog that said the last two sounds were BANG-BANG (or words like that).  https://richardcharnin.wordpress.com/2014/02/08/jfk-math-analysis-witness-testimony-of-time-interval-between-shots/

1. Special Agent William Greer, the limousine driver, testified that ?the last two shots seemed to be just simultaneously, one behind the other.? [66].

2. Secret Service Roy Kellerman sat next to Greer and was intimately familiar with the sound of weapons. Kellerman testified: ? Let me give you an illustration ? You have heard the sound barrier, of a plane breaking the sound barrier, bang, bang? That is it. It was like a doublebang ? bang, bang.? [67]

3. Special Agent George Hickey (in reference to the second and third shots). ?At the moment he was almost sitting erect I heard two reports, which I thought were shots and that appeared to me completely different in sound than the first report and were in such rapid succession that there seemed to be practically no time element between them.? [80]

4. Special Agent Clint Hill told the Commission that the second noise he heard was different from the first shot ? ? like the sound of shooting a revolver into something hard? almost a double sound.? [69]

5. S.M. Holland carefully watched the motorcade from the railroad overpass. He heard four shots with the third and fourth sounding like a ?double shot.? He thought some of the shots came from behind the fence on the grassy knoll.

6. Deputy Sheriff Roger Craig: ?The first shot ? sort of like it reverberated ? well, it was quite a pause between there [the first and second shots] ? It could have been a little longer [than two or three seconds]? ? Between the second and third shots there was ?no more than two seconds. It was?they were real rapid.? [71]

6. Joe R. Molina, witness ?? Of course, the first shot was fired then there was an interval between the first and second, longer than the second and third.? [72]

7. DPD Seymour Weitzman. ?First one, then the second two seemed to be simultaneously.? [73]

8. Ladybird Johnson. ? ? suddenly there was a sharp loud report?a shot. It seemed to me to come from the right, above my shoulder, from a building. Then a moment and then two more shots in rapid succession.? [74]

9. Secret Service Special Agent Forrest V. Sorrels. ?There was to me about twice as much time between the first and second shots as there was between the second and third shots.? [75]

10. Congressman Ralph W. Yarborough. ?? by my estimate?to me there seemed to be a longer time between the first and second shots, a much shorter time between the second and third shots?

11. Dallas Mayor Earle Cabell. ?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.? [77]

12. Secret Service Special Agent Sam A. Kinney. ?I saw the President lean toward the left and appeared to have grabbed his chest with his right hand. There was a second of pause and then two more shots were heard ? ? [78]

13. Special Agent William A. McIntyre. ?The Presidential vehicle was approximately 200 feet from the underpass when the first shot was fired, followed in quick succession by two more.

14. Special Agent Warren W. Taylor. ?In the instant that my left foot touched the ground, I heard two more bangs and realized that they must be gun shots.? [81]

15. Linda Willis. ?Yes, I heard one. Then there was a little bit of time, and then there were two real fast bullets together. When the first one hit, well, the President turned from waving to the people, and he grabbed his throat, and he kind of slumped forward, and then I couldn?t tell where the second shot went.? [82]

16. Special Agent Rufus Youngblood. ?There seemed to be a longer span of time between the first and the second shot than there was between the second and third shot.? [83] ? ? from the beginning at the sound of the first shot to the second or third shot, happened with a few seconds.? [84]

17. Robert Jackson. ?I would say to me it seemed like three or four seconds between the first and the second, and between the second and third, well, I guess two seconds, they were very close together ? ? [85]

18. Arnold Rowland. ?The actual time between the reports I would say now, after having had time to consider the six seconds between the first and second report and two between the second and third.? [86]

19. Luke Mooney. ?? The second and third shot was pretty close together, but there was a short lapse there between the first and second shot.? [87]

20. Ms. Mitchell (Mary Ann Mitchell). ?? there were three?the second and third being closer together than the first and second ? ? [88]

21. Lee Bowers ?I heard three shots. One, then a slight pause, then two very close together ? also reverberation from the shots.? [89]

22. Jean Hill. ?There were three shots ? one right after the other, and a distinct pause, or just a moment?s pause, and I heard more ? ? And concerning the shots that followed the first three Ms. Hill said they were ?quicker ? more automatic.? [90]

I prefer to hear the witnesses describe what they saw and heard rather than read transcripts.  At 1 min 45 seconds in the YT video, Lee Bowers (#21 in the above list) describes the last two shots as "almost on top of each other."