Assassination 3D animation by Mark Tyler

[Margaret Kelly]

Hello Margaret

I have just published the latest version of the animation.  In the end I moved the Pilot Car forward by 45 seconds which gets it into the 12:27 range as mentioned in your previous post.

Let me know if any other adjustments are required on this, or if anything else needs my attention.

Looks very good Mark. I notice that you did not include the Bell footage though. You have Bell as standing on a concrete plinth as number 59. Is that where he was standing when he took his footage of the motorcade on Houston street?

Also, as a side note, how confident are you that you have the correct position of Altgens when he took the "Altgens 5" photo while standing at the Main/Houston street intersection? (i'm not questioning your positioning of him, just curious as to how accurate you think you were able to get him. To within 3 or 4 feet do you think?)

[Mark Tyler]

Looks very good Mark. I notice that you did not include the Bell footage though. You have Bell as standing on a concrete plinth as number 59. Is that where he was standing when he took his footage of the motorcade on Houston street?

Also, as a side note, how confident are you that you have the correct position of Altgens when he took the "Altgens 5" photo while standing at the Main/Houston street intersection? (i'm not questioning your positioning of him, just curious as to how accurate you think you were able to get him. To within 3 or 4 feet do you think?)

Thanks Margaret.  The early part of the Bell film looks somewhat strange as it was framed rather high, so I didn't use the early part of it as the Limo travelled along Houston Street (only on the turn onto Elm).  I think he was standing on the concrete plinth, as the angles seem to match up relative him looking down the pathway to the TSBD:


Someone helpfully constructed a montage image which shows his position:


The original source of this Bell in this image is the Skaggs photo here:


Yes, I would say that Altgens was within a few feet of where I have him on the map.  With this kind of triangulation the accuracy can never be perfect, but anywhere inside the dark circles should be about right.  The more photos from different angles that I use the more accurate it will be, which is why I am especially confident about the Limo on Elm Street.  We have 4 films, and several photos tracking the car at different points and from different angles in the crucial 15 seconds of the sequence.

In his early "3" photo you can judge the Altgens horizontal position relative to the road markings on Main Street.  Due to perspective, the white lines converge to a vanishing point so we can judge his position reasonably accurately:


For the "Altgens 5" photo that you mention I have assumed he is in the same position because the crowd on the corner was relatively dense as seen from the Bronson photo:


A good reference point I used for triangulating is the "No Parking" sign in front of the ramp entrance:


I also used this to position Orville Nix in a similar position as you can see that sign in his film too:

[Mark Tyler]

Here is the latest release of Motorcade 63 ( version 1.8 ):

https://www.marktyler.org/mc63.html

As well as some fine tuning, I added the paths of: Rosemary Willis; Jay Skaggs; Emmett Hudson; and the man who ran up the knoll steps (I call him "Knoll Runner" in the animation).

Here are the new photos I added:

Bond 1
Grant
Moorman 4
Rickerby 0,1,2
Skaggs 4,5,6
Stoughton

A lot of people have mentioned the dictabelt evidence to me in recent weeks, so I added a large circle to show the time and place that the microphone is calculated to be by the HSCA scientists.  It's quite nice to see in real time where this needs to be.

I had the chance to review Dale Myers work regarding the Towner film frame rate.  Just to recap, in his 2007-2010 paper Myers said that the Towner film was recorded at 22.8 FPS, which is somewhat higher than was to be expected for a camera of that type.  In the end my estimate of the frame rate was very close to his, so I favour his measurements much more than those suggesting that the camera was recording at 18-20 FPS.  The full details of my workings are in appendix C.2 of the handbook:

https://www.marktyler.org/mc63/mc63_handbook.pdf

The animation has been adjusted to account for this higher frame rate which speeds up the Presidential limo as it turns the corner onto Elm Street.

As always, thanks to everyone who has contacted me to help improve the animation.  Cheers!

[Walt Cakebread]

Here is the latest release of Motorcade 63 ( version 1.8 ):

https://www.marktyler.org/mc63.html

As well as some fine tuning, I added the paths of: Rosemary Willis; Jay Skaggs; Emmett Hudson; and the man who ran up the knoll steps (I call him "Knoll Runner" in the animation).

Here are the new photos I added:

Bond 1
Grant
Moorman 4
Rickerby 0,1,2
Skaggs 4,5,6
Stoughton

A lot of people have mentioned the dictabelt evidence to me in recent weeks, so I added a large circle to show the time and place that the microphone is calculated to be by the HSCA scientists.  It's quite nice to see in real time where this needs to be.

I had the chance to review Dale Myers work regarding the Towner film frame rate.  Just to recap, in his 2007-2010 paper Myers said that the Towner film was recorded at 22.8 FPS, which is somewhat higher than was to be expected for a camera of that type.  In the end my estimate of the frame rate was very close to his, so I favour his measurements much more than those suggesting that the camera was recording at 18-20 FPS.  The full details of my workings are in appendix C.2 of the handbook:

https://www.marktyler.org/mc63/mc63_handbook.pdf

The animation has been adjusted to account for this higher frame rate which speeds up the Presidential limo as it turns the corner onto Elm Street.

As always, thanks to everyone who has contacted me to help improve the animation.  Cheers!

Hi Mark, First  allow me to congratulate you on your producing Motorcade 63, and thank you for spending what had to have been many many hours in researching and producing Motorcade 63. 

Please allow me to focus on just one tenth of one second from 12:29: 59  to 12:30:00 ....  You indicate that Tom Dillard snapped his photo of the face of the TSBD at 12:29:59, and the first shot from the window took place at 12:30:00 ....If I'm correct in reading your presentation then Tom Dillard would have had to have captured any gunman who would have been firing a rifle out of the window ( and the rifle definitely would have had to have been OUTSIDE the window) but Dillards photo shows no trace of a rifle or gunman behind that SE corner window.

P.S.    I must be misreading .... Because Dillard didn't take a photo of the TSBD BEFORE the shots were fired   

[Margaret Kelly]

Possible other ideas would be to color JFKs limo black, rather than the same color as all the other cars. This way you can see at a glance more easily what car is JFKs.

Also, the driver of the Queen Mary gave a quick swerve to the right when Clint Hill jumped off to run to JFK. The driver did this in order to move the front of the car out of Clints way so he could run more directly to JFK. I'm not sure how much he swerved the car as the films do not pick this up. It was only probably a slight swerve in terms of trying to represent it on your animation. Off hand i can't remember the source of this info, but i have come across it.

[Walt Cakebread]

Here is the latest release of Motorcade 63 (version 1.7):

https://www.marktyler.org/mc63.html

As well as general tweaking to improve the accuracy (thanks to everyone who helped out this time!), I added a yellow triangle for the Dillard 2 photo (just seconds after the final shot was fired).

Perhaps more importantly, I added the Jack Weaver photo which I calculate as happening at the same time as Zapruder frame Z035 based on the triangulated position of the motorbike turning the corner:





If you look closely, you can see JFK's crooked elbow in Muchmore frame 267 as he pushes his hair back:



The full details are in appendix D.2 of the updated handbook.  Crucially this spell of the Zapruder film was recorded while the Hughes and Muchmore films were also being recorded, which means I have been able to calculate the relative speeds that the films were all recorded at.  For example if the Hughes film was recorded at 18 FPS, then the Zapruder and Muchmore film rates were 18.4 FPS.  If the Hughes film was recorded at 19 FPS, then Zapruder and Muchmore were recording at 19.4 FPS.  We can never know the exact rates, only the numerical relationships between them.

This correlation of different films was possible by matching unique events that were recorded in each of the films, and by doing split second comparisons.  For example I was able to calculate the relative speeds of the Muchmore film and the Hughes film using the front blinking lights on the Presidential Limo.  These observations prove that the Muchmore film was recorded fractionally faster than the Hughes film.

As always, if anyone disagrees with the animation, my calculations, or methodology, please let me know as I am keen to make the work as accurate as possible.

Hi Mark,    If I'm reading the animation correctly.....The shots that are depicted from the SE corner of the TSBD  at 12:30 pass right through the tree....   And Nobody could have fired a rifle through that tree and hit JFK.

FWIW...  I completely agree with your animation at 12:30.....   I created a scale cardboard model of Dealey Plaza many years ago and I used a small tube ( like a soda straw)  to sight down from the sixth floor window to the point where JFK was struck by the bullets that blew out the back of his skull.   I was stunned to find that the scale model tree that I had placed in my model obstructed the view of the Lincoln through the tube from the sixth floor window.    Which is exactly what you depict in your animation.

[Mark Tyler]

Hi Mark, First  allow me to congratulate you on your producing Motorcade 63, and thank you for spending what had to have been many many hours in researching and producing Motorcade 63. 

Please allow me to focus on just one tenth of one second from 12:29: 59  to 12:30:00 ....  You indicate that Tom Dillard snapped his photo of the face of the TSBD at 12:29:59, and the first shot from the window took place at 12:30:00 ....If I'm correct in reading your presentation then Tom Dillard would have had to have captured any gunman who would have been firing a rifle out of the window ( and the rifle definitely would have had to have been OUTSIDE the window) but Dillards photo shows no trace of a rifle or gunman behind that SE corner window.

P.S.    I must be misreading .... Because Dillard didn't take a photo of the TSBD BEFORE the shots were fired   

Thanks Walt.  It has been a lot of work, but it has been worth the effort as I now have a better grasp of the events.

If you check on the web page https://www.marktyler.org/mc63.html and look at the table of photos, the "Dillard 1" photo is listed as happening at 12:30:10.45.  The yellow flash at 12:29:59 is where David Wiegman starts his film and captures the two cars in front of the TSBD:

[Mark Tyler]

Possible other ideas would be to color JFKs limo black, rather than the same color as all the other cars. This way you can see at a glance more easily what car is JFKs.

Also, the driver of the Queen Mary gave a quick swerve to the right when Clint Hill jumped off to run to JFK. The driver did this in order to move the front of the car out of Clints way so he could run more directly to JFK. I'm not sure how much he swerved the car as the films do not pick this up. It was only probably a slight swerve in terms of trying to represent it on your animation. Off hand i can't remember the source of this info, but i have come across it.

Changing the colour of the limo is an interesting idea so I tested out some different colours and decided that the red was probably my favourite:



Black didn't really stand out, so I preferred a bolder primary colour.

A swerve of the Queen Mary is possible, so I shall have a look to see if I can find reference to one.  As you say it's not a large swerve, perhaps mostly due to the bikes on the right hand side (Chaney and Jackson).

One certainty is that several of the Secret Service agents seemed to get off the car soon after Clint Hill.  This is in the testimony and is partially seen in the Nix film as agents on both sides seem to jump off.  They all get back on very quickly, but I think this delays the Queen Mary by a second or two as it departs Dealey Plaza.