Howard Brennan (wearing a steel hard hat) sat on a 3' high cinder block wall on the south west corner of Elm & Houston.
He sat 8' west of the Houston St property line, he sat facing North East towards the center of the intersection. At his 6th floor window Oswald sat 4' west of the Houston St property line. Brennan's eyes were 116' horizontally from Oswald's eyes, & 62' vertically (an angle of 53.5% or 28.1deg)(not important).
When JFK's limo turned left from Houston onto Elm Brennan was in effect the radius point for its turn. When JFK passed by in Houston St his eyes were 50' from Brennan's, 43' turning into Elm St, & 49' at the time of Oswald's shot-1 (at Z113) at which point JFK was 18' past Brennan measured along Elm St.
Brennan's wordage to the Police (Nov22 1963), the FBI (Nov22 1963), the WC (1964), youtube (Sept 1964), & Brennan's book (EyeWitness To History)(1987)(Brennan told his last & final lie in i think 1987) is a disaster of contradictions. Its difficult to decide what he actually saw & heard. One possible version goes like this.
VERSION A. Brennan saw Oswald in the window before JFK arrived. Brennan sat on the wall & was facing the TSBD. When JFK was 50 yards down Elm St Brennan heard what he thought was a backfire, & then he thought it was a firecracker, & then he looked up & saw Oswald aiming a rifle & realised that it had been a gunshot. After a few seconds he saw Oswald fire. Still watching, a few seconds later, he saw Oswald fire again, & he quickly looked & saw JFK's head explode. Brennan looked back to Oswald & saw Oswald slowly stand back & lower the rifle while looking towards JFK & then move away. Brennan jumped off the wall & hid behind a concrete pillar for a while, fearful of further shooting. Soon after Brennan advised the Police that the shooter was on the 6th floor.
VERSION B. As above except that (a) JFK was a few feet past along Elm St when Brennan heard the backfire, & (b) he then saw Oswald aiming the rifle but wasn’t looking at Oswald when Oswald fired, & (c) Oswald didn’t fire again, ie a 3rd shot, & (d) Brennan heard only 2 shots, & (e) Brennan never saw JFK hit by any shot, & (f) Brennan looked but couldn’t see JFK or the limo when Oswald fired his 2nd shot (something was in the way)(it was a bush), & (g) after the last shot Oswald slowly stood back etc.
Here Brennan says he heard 2 shots, but that there might have been a 3rd shot in between that he didn’t hear or that he forgot, Brennan said that perhaps that is why he thought of firecrackers. However Brennan's wordage suggests that there might have been a 3rd final shot, & that this was not fired by Oswald. Brennan said "after the last shot", he didn’t say "after Oswald's last shot". However if he knew at that time that there had been a 3rd shot then the only way he could have known that is if he heard the shot, in which case he would have said that he heard 3 shots. Perhaps later that day he became aware that there had been a later 3rd shot & hence his statement "after the last shot" might make more sense. Hmmm, no, it still doesn't make sense.
VERSION C. The Zapruder film shows us that Brennan didn’t look up towards Oswald, he was looking at JFK the whole time. Zapruder's film starts at Z133 & Oswald's shot-1 was at Z113. Looking at the film frame by frame Brennan's head is visible most of the time. Many frames are blurred but most of the time Brennan's hard hat shows whether Brennan is looking up. In some frames Brennan or his head or his hard hat are out of frame for a short while, too short for Brennan to have quickly looked up at Oswald.
Brennan could have had a quick look at Oswald immediately after Oswald's shot-1 at Z113, before Zapruder started filming at Z133. Whenever i mention Z113 i actually mean the position or the time that JFK would have been at had Zapruder been filming earlier. Anyhow, Brennan had 20 frames to have a quick look, at 18.3 fps that’s 1.1 sec. Not possible. If Oswald fired at Z112 the slug would hit at Z113 & the sound would hit Brennan's ears at Z114. Brennan would have 19 frames to look up at Oswald & then look back towards JFK, which aint possible even if Brennan stared at Oswald for only 1 frame. Brennan could have had a startle reaction in say 3 or 4 frames, but a voluntary reaction such as raising his head would take almost 1 sec at best. Add to that the time spent in shock & horror staring at a man aiming a rifle at JFK.
So, we can see Brennan in Z133, & he finally exits at frame Z207. Perhaps Brennan looked up at Oswald at Z208. This is unlikely, Z208 is 95 frames after Oswald's shot-1 at Z113, which is 5.2 sec, Brennan would not have waited that long. And if Brennan did look up towards Oswald at Z208 then that would be 10 frames before Oswald's shot-2 which was at Z218 (my reckoning)(some say Z224), which is 0.6 sec, in which case Brennan would have seen Oswald fire his 2nd shot, but Brennan when in truth mode said that he didn’t see Oswald fire any of his shots.
VERSION D. So, if Brennan saw Oswald aiming a rifle then he must have looked up after hearing the 2nd shot at Z218. He would have seen Oswald aiming his rifle. And then after Hickey accidentally fires at Z313 Oswald doesn't fire his 3rd shot, he moves away from the window, ie "after the last shot", which was Hickey's shot not Oswald's. That makes more sense. However how did Brennan know that there was a final last 3rd shot? Did he hear it? I don’t think so. Did he learn about it later, before his Police & FBI interviews. Yes, makes sense.
TRUE VERSION E. Oswald moved away from the window immediately after firing at Z218, & Brennan was hiding behind the concrete pillar when Hickey fired at Z313, & Brennan could not hear that shot (which was actually an auto burst of 4 or 5 shots). Oswald saw Hickey fire at Z313, while standing well back. Z313 is 95 frames after Oswald fired at Z218, which is 5.2 sec. Oswald saw the fatal shot, & he knew that he was a patsy.
Zapruder frame Z207 tells us that Brennan could not see JFK or his limo at Z218 because a bush blocks his view, & a concrete pillar blocks his view of the remainder of Elm St up to the underpass. Therefore there was nothing for Brennan to see after about Z217. The show was over, & Humpty, i mean Brennan, was jumping & running & ducking behind a concrete pillar 12' away when Hickey fired. Simple.
