Crowds running towards grassy knoll / Ferrie's library card

[Vincent Baxter]

I recently read a book about the Orville Nix movie and it mentioned an old documentary from the 1980s entitled 'The Day The Dream Died' which I found on YouTube and thought I'd watch (Click here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63FjqTDeajY&list=PLFD58F582EA9F40AD if you feel like wasting an hour watching it).

Amongst the numerous outdated and ill informed subjects mentioned it showed footage of the crowd running towards the grassy knoll and proclaimed this as 'evidence' that there was clearly a shooter there. I've read this theory numerous times before and always found it quite a stupid reason. If true it must be one of the only events in history where men, women and children bystanders have all ran towards an alleged crazed gunman.
Maybe I'm just a coward but if someone was taking open shots and I'd just seen someone get half their brain blown out the last thing I'd do is run towards the direction of where I thought the gunman was. In some cases men dragging their children with them.
I've always wondered what the likelihood was that people intentionally lied about saying they thought the shots came from the grassy knoll in an attempt to look courageous rather than admitting they thought the shots came from elsewhere and that they were running to the knoll for safe cover because they were scared spombleprofglidnoctobunsless?

But anyway, that's just my own musing. What I actually wanted to post about was the topic of David Ferrie's library card which was mentioned in the documentary as being found in Oswald's wallet when he was arrested. It's something that I've read so many conflicting reports about saying it was or it wasn't. What is the official word on that? Was it actually found on him or not and if so, what was the explanation for it being there?

[Gerry Down]

I recently read a book about the Orville Nix movie and it mentioned an old documentary from the 1980s entitled 'The Day The Dream Died' which I found on YouTube and thought I'd watch (Click here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63FjqTDeajY&list=PLFD58F582EA9F40AD if you feel like wasting an hour watching it).

Amongst the numerous outdated and ill informed subjects mentioned it showed footage of the crowd running towards the grassy knoll and proclaimed this as 'evidence' that there was clearly a shooter there. I've read this theory numerous times before and always found it quite a stupid reason. If true it must be one of the only events in history where men, women and children bystanders have all ran towards an alleged crazed gunman.
Maybe I'm just a coward but if someone was taking open shots and I'd just seen someone get half their brain blown out the last thing I'd do is run towards the direction of where I thought the gunman was. In some cases men dragging their children with them.
I've always wondered what the likelihood was that people intentionally lied about saying they thought the shots came from the grassy knoll in an attempt to look courageous rather than admitting they thought the shots came from elsewhere and that they were running to the knoll for safe cover because they were scared spombleprofglidnoctobunsless?

I think what happened there is that Curry, who was in the lead car, thought the shots came from the overpass. He ordered on the radio to get some men into the railroad yard. The police responded and ran there. When the people saw the police running into the railroad yard they ran up the grassy knoll to see what was happening.

[Robert Reeves]

So why did the people attempt to get behind the grassy knoll/fence?

What was the causation for this stampede of ''stupidity''.

Maybe they were just following several cops that appeared to be headed for the knoll/fence.

[Richard Smith]

From the Elm St. perspective, the Grassy Knoll would seemingly be the most likely place for the shooter.  It was in close proximity to where JFK was assassinated and appeared to offer potential seclusion to the assassin.  Given the sound distortions of the shots in that open area, it would be the most logical place to assume that is where the shots came from.  And once some folks started moving in that direction, others would follow sheep-like to see what was going on.  Of course, we know that the backside of the Grassy Knoll is wide open to half of Dallas and no shooter would have positioned himself in that exposed location or could have escaped.  It is the last place any assassin would have chosen.

[Jerry Organ]

So why did the people attempt to get behind the grassy knoll/fence?

What was the causation for this stampede of ''stupidity''.

Maybe they were just following several cops that appeared to be headed for the knoll/fence.

Haygood was the motorcycle officer who ran up the knoll to the rail-bridge:

    "When I first got to the location there, I was still on Houston Street, and in the
     process of making a left turn onto Elm Street I could see all these people laying
     on the ground there on Elm. Some of them were pointing back up to the railroad
     yard, and a couple of people were headed back up that way, and I immediately
     tried to jump the north curb there in the 400 block, which was too high for me to
     get over."

Haygood's run might have influenced some among the masses then coming into the open Plaza area from Main. Also the siren of the departing front of the motorcade would have been heard coming from the area beyond the Underpass.

[Mitch Todd]

I think what happened there is that Curry, who was in the lead car, thought the shots came from the overpass. He ordered on the radio to get some men into the railroad yard. The police responded and ran there. When the people saw the police running into the railroad yard they ran up the grassy knoll to see what was happening.

Or maybe it had something to do with Lawson making a fuss about Holland, Dodd, and the other railroad workers being on the overpass.

SS SA Winston Lawson, 12/1/63 report:
We were just approaching a railroad overpass and I checked to see if a police officer was in position there and that no one was directly over our path. I noticed a police officer but also noticed a few persons on the bridge and made motions to have these persons removed from over our path.

SS SA Winston Lawson WC testimony:
Mr. STERN. What were the instructions that you asked be given to the police who were stationed on overpasses and railroad crossings?

Mr. LAWSON. They were requested to keep the people to the sides of the bridge or the overpass so that-or underpass-- so that people viewing from a vantage point like that would not be directly over the President's car so that they could either inadvertently knock something off or drop something on purpose or do some other kind of harm.

[...]

I noticed a few people along the right-hand side I can recall now, and more people on the right-hand side than out in the center strip median which is there, a grassy center strip. There weren't many people on the left at all. I recall thinking we are coming to an overpass now, so I glanced up to see if it was clear, the way most of them had been, the way all of them had been up until that time on the way downtown, and it was not. There was a small group, between 5 and 10 that looked like workmen. I got the impression, whether it was wrong or not I don't know, that they were railroad workers. They had that type of dress on. And I was looking for the officer who should have been there, had been requested to be there, and I noticed him just a little bit later, that he was there, and I made a kind of motion through the windshield trying to get his attention to move the people from over our path the way it should have been.
 

[Gerry Down]

Or maybe it had something to do with Lawson making a fuss about Holland, Dodd, and the other railroad workers being on the overpass.

SS SA Winston Lawson, 12/1/63 report:
We were just approaching a railroad overpass and I checked to see if a police officer was in position there and that no one was directly over our path. I noticed a police officer but also noticed a few persons on the bridge and made motions to have these persons removed from over our path.

SS SA Winston Lawson WC testimony:
Mr. STERN. What were the instructions that you asked be given to the police who were stationed on overpasses and railroad crossings?

Mr. LAWSON. They were requested to keep the people to the sides of the bridge or the overpass so that-or underpass-- so that people viewing from a vantage point like that would not be directly over the President's car so that they could either inadvertently knock something off or drop something on purpose or do some other kind of harm.

[...]

I noticed a few people along the right-hand side I can recall now, and more people on the right-hand side than out in the center strip median which is there, a grassy center strip. There weren't many people on the left at all. I recall thinking we are coming to an overpass now, so I glanced up to see if it was clear, the way most of them had been, the way all of them had been up until that time on the way downtown, and it was not. There was a small group, between 5 and 10 that looked like workmen. I got the impression, whether it was wrong or not I don't know, that they were railroad workers. They had that type of dress on. And I was looking for the officer who should have been there, had been requested to be there, and I noticed him just a little bit later, that he was there, and I made a kind of motion through the windshield trying to get his attention to move the people from over our path the way it should have been.

Correct. This is what caused Curry to then think the shots had come from the overpass.

[Charles Collins]

The ambush from behind and up high was a smart military type of tactic that took the motorcade security personnel by surprise (as it was intended to do). As stated by others earlier in this thread, the overpass ahead of them was on their minds as the shots rang out. It is in my opinion just that simple.

 LHO was interested in the military at an early age. And was trained by the USMC in infantry tactics. He selected his location as he might have been educated to do in the military. It worked out successfully for him and, by design, also gave him a chance to escape.