Where was George Davis standing?

[Gerry Down]

According to his FBI report:

FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION

Date 3/19/64

Mr. GEORGE A. DAVIS, 1443 North Beckley Street, Dallas, Texas, was interviewed at 500 South Houston Street, and furnished the following information:

Mr. DAVIS stated he was a signalman for the Union Terminal Company, 500 South Houston Street, Dallas, and was so employed on November 22, 1963. On this date, he took up a position on the Elm Street viaduct overlooking the route taken by the Presidential motorcade. shortly after the motorcycle escort and the Presidential car came into view and was at a point just east of the viaduct. Mr. DAVIS heard a sound which he described as similar to firecrackers exploding. He stated they did not sound like rifle fire because they were not loud enough. All shots were very close together and he stated it was impossible for him to determine the number of shots. He stated his first impression was that someone had played a prank, but then he saw guns in the hands of the Secret Service Agents with President KENNEDY, saw President KENNEDY slumped forward, and the police motorcycle escort manouver swiftly about the area and he realized it was not a prank.

Mr. DAVIS stated his attention was directed to the motorcycle escort and the car in which President KENNEDY was riding, and he saw very little, if any, other activity in the area at that time.

Mr. DAVIS stated he returned to the same spot he had occupied on November 22, 1963, at a later date and from this spot attempted to observe the Texas School Book Depository window from which the rifle shot was reported to have been fired. He stated he was unable to see this window from the position he had occupied on November 22, 1963, because the branch of a tree obscured the vision from this point.

LINK: http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/russ/exhibits/ce1424.htm

It sounds like he was standing in the area of the below image. If that is so, then he should have been able to see any assassin firing from the grassy knoll. The fact he didn't weakens the case against a grassy knoll gunman.

[Jerry Organ]

Sitzman view

Z469

Marilyn Sitaman stood behind Zapruder to steady him. She had a larger view than the telephoto lens of Zapruder. She could see the corner of the fence and probably see through some of the bushes to behind the wooden fence. She saw and heard nothing, and reported hearing shots from the Depository.

    " I talked to Marilyn Sitzman, 202 S. Lancaster who said her boss, Abraham Zaprutes, 
      RI 8 6071, had movies of the shooting. She said the shots came from that way and
      she pointed at the old Sexton Building."

          -- Report of Deputy Sheriff John Wiseman, Nov. 23, 1963
             (the Depository was formerly known as the Sexton Building)

Years later, after seeing the "JFK" movie, she allowed for the possibility of a silencer being used for a shot from the knoll.

[Gerry Down]

Sitzman view

Z469

Marilyn Sitaman stood behind Zapruder to steady him. She had a larger view than the telephoto lens of Zapruder. She could see the corner of the fence and probably see through some of the bushes to behind the wooden fence. She saw and heard nothing, and reported hearing shots from the Depository.

    " I talked to Marilyn Sitzman, 202 S. Lancaster who said her boss, Abraham Zaprutes, 
      RI 8 6071, had movies of the shooting. She said the shots came from that way and
      she pointed at the old Sexton Building."

          -- Report of Deputy Sheriff John Wiseman, Nov. 23, 1963
             (the Depository was formerly known as the Sexton Building)

Years later, after seeing the "JFK" movie, she allowed for the possibility of a silencer being used for a shot from the knoll.

Didn't realize there was such a clear view of the exact corner of the picket fence (from the Zapruder film). So we know there was no one at the exact corner. Of course Lane and Holland and the HSCA suggested the shooter might have been about 8 feet from the corner of the fence. Which is convenient as there is a tree blocking that view.

[Jerry Organ]

Didn't realize there was such a clear view of the exact corner of the picket fence (from the Zapruder film). So we know there was no one at the exact corner. Of course Lane and Holland and the HSCA suggested the shooter might have been about 8 feet from the corner of the fence. Which is convenient as there is a tree blocking that view.

Lane's first theory was that one or more of the shots came from the Triple Underpass bridge. Sam Holland originally said it might have been a shot but he didn't see a rifleman.

    "There was a shot, a report, I don’t know whether it was a shot.
     I can’t say that. And a puff of smoke came out about 6 or 8 feet
     above the ground right out from under those trees. And at just
     about this location from where I was standing you could see
     that puff of smoke, like someone had thrown a firecracker,
     or something out, and that is just about the way it sounded.
     It wasn't as loud as the previous reports or shots."

Holland compared the "puff of smoke" to a firecracker, steam and cigarette smoke. Sitzman witnessed a soda pop bottle being broken which might explain the "shot" Holland heard, as well as the indistinct visual event he could never recall with detail (the bottle-breaking was in Holland's line-of-sight). Only in 1966, after being in contact with Mark Lane and Josiah Thompson, did Holland begin to start talking about a rifleman at the fence.


There was only one line of bushes between Sitzman and the back of the fence, which was sunlit and could be seen through openings in the foliage. The fence area to the right of the Zapruder frames show the open area beneath the foliage continuing, then an area with no bushes between Sitzman and the parking lot area.