Was Hickey's AR15 in burst mode?

[Marjan Rynkiewicz]

MORTAL ERROR 1992 Menninger (& Donahue)
Floyd Boring (& no-one else, except me) suggested that if set on auto then Hickey's AR15 could have fired 2 or 3 shots. 
A plurality of shots accords better with witnesses.
But it amazes me that Donahue & later McLaren both ignored the possibility, or the probability, in fact the certainty, that Hickey fired many shots, i say 5 or 6 shots.
Donahue is wrong, the selector lever has to from SAFE be pushed down a quarter of a turn to SEMI, & then across to horizontal again to AUTO. It aint pushed up to SEMI.
And a simply hurried pull on the selector will i reckon select AUTO mostly. 

[Marjan Rynkiewicz]

Donahue drew the silly traject (with Hickey standing on the seat) to try to duplicate the apparent angle of the head-wound, not to try to prove that the windshield made the head-shot impossible.

Note that in the Plan View Donahue should have JFK's head nearly on the center-line, not hard over to the right of the limo.
Donahue places Queen Mary in line with the JFK limo. It would suit my 6-shot burst better if Queen Mary were off-line a little right of the JFK limo.

[Marjan Rynkiewicz]

JFK THE SMOKING GUN 2013 Colin McLaren.
Colin inexplicably decides that the AR15 is semi-auto, ie fires one shot per squeeze.
And he misses the truth that Hickey fired a plurality of shots.
And he has Hickey crouching up on the seat, no, Hickey was sitting on 2 leather cases.

[Marjan Rynkiewicz]

[Mark A. Oblazney]

More parlor games.  Continue !!!

[Marjan Rynkiewicz]

Here below is wordage from Reply#38 of my other thread re Oswald's Shot-1 Was At Z113, some of the wordage relates to this present thread.

You're so invested in this, you're beyond persuasion. My reality checks are for the benefit of readers.
Tina Towner has been consistent in stating the first shot occurred after she stopped filming, the span ranging from a few seconds to four. You might be thinking of her appearance in "JFK: The Lost Bullet" when they failed to present her timing of the first shot, but had room for things like "My dad recognized the gunshot."

My only memory of Tina re shot-1 is that (i think it was in a modern youtube interview) she said that she wasn’t sure whether just before or just after. I have no knowledge of any other wordage, & i am surprised that she said a few second after or  four sec after.  Back in february i spent a whole day analysing the JFK pozzy relative to the painted white striped lane lines & i found that JFK was on the Carcano to signal arm line at Towner T137, slug hit at T138, sound hit at T139.  And Tina would have "heard" at say T141.  And T142 was her last frame.  A very accurate 3D analysis might show that my geometry calculations were out a foot or two, which would equate to a frame or two.
And i didn’t do an accurate assessment of limo speed etc to calculate when T137-138-139 might have happened in relation to Zapruder's footage, ie if Zapruder had started that sequence earlier.  I simply roughly worked it out based on i think 1 foot of limo travel per Zapruder frame, which gave me Z112-113-114.  Hence that could be a long way out timewise, which aint very important, the main thing being exactly where not when, the where being that shot-1 hit the signal arm, & of course that being the when i suppose.

In Reply#27 i alerted this forum to a new witness Howard Whatley who said that the shot-1 was just as the limo straightened up in Elm St. And he was standing out in the intersection near the north west corner, ie much closer than Moore near the south east corner.

From the Pat Speer site.

From the Pat Speer site.

Line drawing of the Hickey shot from the "Mortal Error" book (flipped for comparison purposes) and superimposed over a Bronson film frame. Agents were seated too low to accord with the "Mortal Error" drawing.

I have drawn proper drawings.  The AR15 needed to be at least 3" higher than the windshield (based on being on level ground).  And i have shown that the AR15 in Donahue's drawing (which is drawn 10" higher than the windshield) would be at chest height on Hickey if Hickey were standing on carpet.
And, nearly forgot, if Queen Mary were braking (which it was) then the front might sink an inch & rear might rise an inch, which brings that there  3" down to praps 1".  However me myself i reckon that the AR15 was at say 10", the 1" being the minimum.

Sorry but the frame presented by Pat Speer is indeed the Bronson frame that corresponds to Z313.

Now, that is the only legitimate concern arising from all of your wordage.  I was thinking yesterday that i needed to have another look at where Z313 sits in the Bronson footage. Months ago i worked out that that Bronson frame was at about Z315.  That’s a tight squeeze but do-able if Hickey fired one shot, ie Hickey would be standing at Z313 & sitting at Z315.  But yesterday i was thinking that my theory that Hickey fired an auto burst of 6 shots needed that Bronson frame to be at say Z329.  I will have to re-visit that stuff.
It would be nice if The 6th Floor Museum made public its superior 2019 copies of the Bronson frames (20 frames).

Kenneth Weissman (KSW Consulting LLC) analysis 2020.
In this Bronson frame, Hickey is about a half-head higher and to camera-right of Bennett, Bennett being the figure above the camera-right crack of the rear door in the superimposed Donahue drawing. A rifle held at Hickey's shoulder level would fire a bullet to Kennedy's skull that would go through the Queen Mary's windshield.
Yes, a website had an arrow for Hickey that pointed to Bennett.

I dealt with this stuff in my Reply#37 in my thread re "was Hickey's AR15 in burst mode?".  Here is the drawing, & today i added the yellow & green lines.  When Hickey was half sitting half standing on the 2 leather cases on the back seat the top of Hickey's head was level with the bottom of the heads of the standing Agents (see yellow ovals). 
I have drawn Bennett's head (yellow oval) level with the top of the windshield, however in photos it was below the windshield (not important here). The Secret Service said that had JFK been sitting in Queen Mary his head would have been 62" above the road, ie 2" above the windshield, ie 9.22" above the level of JFK's head in the JFK limo.  But that was based on Hess & Eisenhardt's estimate of 52.78" for JFK's head in the limo, which is a ridiculously low number (my estimate is 57").
The fat green line shows a possible slug traject clearing the windshield based on Queen Mary dipping a couple of inches due to braking. This in effect lowers the needed elevation of the AR15 to 61", ie 1" above the windshield.

Weissman used a better-quality frame and determined the linear "rifle" features in an earlier frame capture were "some grain clumping".

I dealt with all of this in my thread re "was Hickey's AR15 in burst mode?".  The superior 2019 copy shown by Weissman in fact supports my theory, koz we can see a rapidly swinging upwards AR15, which supports my theory that Hickey was rapidly falling backwards.  And it proves that the AR15 sitting up at 45 deg in the 2017 copy is not an artifact.
The critical thing being that we need to establish very accurately whether that frame was at Z313 (they say) or at Z315 (i said) or at Z329 (to fully support my 6-shot auto burst theory).

Marilyn Sitzman, who steadied Zapruder and would have heard the sound of the camera motor, said:

    "and just as the motorcycles ... started down the hill, he started taking
     pictures then ... There was nothing unusual until the first sound."
You get to dismiss testimony and opinion contrary to your pet theory because authorities were disingenuous.

If 99% of witness wordage is false then no theory survives without dismissing the contrary wordage.  But any such dismissing needs to be logical.  Sitzman appears to me to be one of the better witnesses.  However there were lots of witnesses that heard a very early shot.

And those "heroes" have statues with manure spreaders for pedestals.  It's your theory that's a zero.  You're a pseudo-fence-sitter. Like the "Independent" voter who actually favors one party but are just too lazy or disingenuous to give an answer. They think it makes them more "clever" and "open-minded" than the Decided.

I haven't spent much time studying the LNer versus CTer stuff (so yes i am lazy).  Hickeyians like myself are i suppose CUers, ie we believe that there was a coverup re Hickey.  In effect Oswald was a lone nutter, who fired 2 shots.  And in effect there was a conspiracy, but after the fact.
I think that i am clever, but everyone is cleverer than me at something, I think i am clever at telling  the difference tween truth & camel droppings.
But it all comes down to the Bronson footage.  I will have another look.

[Marjan Rynkiewicz]

Here is a youtube of a Vietnam War Era Training Video: Operation of the M16 (AR15) 32,379 views •May 21, 2017.
At 1:10 & 1:50.  The M16 fired at 700 to 800 rpm, & u can see that it did not spit the spent cases very far away. They go to the right & forward, at praps 60 deg. The spit distance i think depended on the ejector spring.  Modern AR15s spit the spent cases a long long way, i think they have very strong ejector springs to fire at the modern 1200 rpm.
Hickey's AR15 01 would have fired at 400 rpm & probly had soft ejector springs, & spent cases would have ended up in Queen Mary not on the tarmac of Elm St.  Hickey & Co would have pocketed the 4 or 5 or 6 spent cases before reaching the Hozzie. 
The commentator says that it is impossible to fire just one shot when on AUTO.  I wonder what a typical minimum burst might have been.  It might have been say 2 or 3 shots (talking about Hickey's AR15 01 here).  But if an accidental burst (ie like Hickey's burst) it might have been 4 or 5 or even 6 shots (6 would take 0.75 sec).

[Marjan Rynkiewicz]

If Altgens thought that (a) Hill had held the AR15, & that (b) after the last shot Hill had chased & mounted the JFK limo, then that means that Altgens thought that whoever it was that held the AR15 (it was Hickey) must have held it very early on, ie before Hill jumped off Queen Mary.  However we all know that Hill had already jumped off Queen Mary at the time of the headshot, ie at Z313.  Hence Altgens has his timeline a bit awry.  However what is crystal clear is that (if Altgens aint lieing) whoever held the AR15 did so very early on, ie before Z313.

However i dont believe that Altgens saw anyone pick up the AR15.  Had he seen Hickey pick up the AR15 then Altgens would also have seen Hickey fire 4 or 5 or 6 shots.
Altgens was say 45 ft from JFK at the time of the headshot at Z313.  Hickey probly picked up the AR15 at say Z293, ie 20 frames earlier, ie when JFK was say 65 ft from Altgens, at which time Hickey would have been a further 25 ft, ie 90 ft from Altgens.

Altgens had a medium-telephoto lens. We know from the Zapruder frames that Altgens wasn't looking throo the viewfinder during the 21 frames Z339 to Z359 where Altgens is visible.  But he was probly looking throo the viewfinder before then.  Could he see happenings in the left-rear seat of Queen Mary, ie throo his viewfinder.  Especially with Hill (early on at Z293) & McIntyre standing on the running board blocking his view. Especially with Altgens concentrating on JFK.  In Altgens6 at Z255 we can see a bit of Hickey (turning around to look back at the TSBD)(he is a bit left of Hill in Altgens' pix), but at Z295 (ie say 40 ft later) Hickey would have been fully hidden by Hill & McIntyre.

Or, did Altgens indeed see Hickey pick up the AR15, & see Hickey shoot (shot-1 of a 6-shot auto burst would have been at say Z298).  And did Altgens take a pix showing Hickey shooting, that pix then being hidden away or destroyed, & Altgens then being a part of the general coverup (to hide Hickey's accidental homicide).

No, i think that Altgens saw Hickey holding the AR15 as Hickey passed Altgens. He didn't see Hickey pick up the AR15, nor did he see Hickey shoot.
But i have always wondered whether he had taken a pix that showed Hickey shooting (albeit partly hidden by Hill & McIntyre).