The Reactions

[Jerry Organ]

One of the early conspiracy books, "Who Killed Kennedy?" (May 1964) by Thomas Buchanan, promoted the idea that the City of Dallas and Texas were behind the assassination. Oswald had been given a job in a "municipal" building (ie: the Texas School Depository Bldg, which is actually a private concern). A Texas oilman was behind the assassination. Officer Tippit (supposedly a right-wing member of the right-wing Dallas Police) fired from the Oswald window while a co-conspirator fired from the rail-bridge. Then Tippit was himself murdered to further frame young Lee. Buchanan based much of his "research" on newspaper articles that he had read while working in France.

Sylvia Meagher wrote one of the most influential books for CTs, called "Accessories After the Fact" in which she argued the Dallas Police were complicit in the assassination and alleged cover-up (though she didn't use the word alleged). Meagher was a NYC "Liberal" with a bias towards the South and conservatives. Penn Jones Jr. wrote of the "big league boys in Dallas".

Dallas, at the time, was largely ruled by the Dallas Citizens Council, a group of several hundred businessmen, most of whom were in banking and insurance. The City Council and Mayor were secondary. The Dallas Citizens Council should not be confused with the segregationist White Citizens Councils. The Dallas Citizens Council weighed the consequences of resisting integration of its schools and produced a film ("Dallas at the Crossroads" 1961) promoting integration, which went ahead in Dallas. The "shadowy" "ultra-conservative" Dallas Citizens Council (even if their measured decisions were mainly meant to ensure prosperity and keeping the races from each others' throats) became the basis for some conspiratorati that the city facilitated the assassination and much of the "cover-up".

The Shaw Trial suggested that the seeds of the assassination could have occurred in another city. Then came the King assassination in Memphis and the RFK assassination in Los Angeles, and it seemed rather silly to blame a city per se. It would be like saying nothing changed in NYC after the murder of Kitty Genovese, in Beantown after the Boston Strangler, and Chicago after Richard Speck. Today's JFK assassination "conspirators du jour" go way beyond the municipal level and the power of one oilman. It's almost quaint that the city was once singled out.

[Marjan Rynkiewicz]

Apart from emotional reactions, it is very interesting to see that very few people dunked or made any sudden move when heard gun shots in the very near distance. Gun shots are very loud, making people to dunk, ley down, search for cover, look at the sound direction... Very few reactions like this after three fun shots.

There were say instant reactions from say 2 public near Oswald at shot-1 & shot-2 (Brennan, Euins)(diving for cover), & say 8 instant reactions from say 10 public near Hickey at shots-3-4-5-6-7 (laying down, running away).
Why weren't there any instant reactions near Oswald at Oswald's supposed shot-3?  Koz there woz no Oswald shot-3.

[Zeon Mason]

It does  SEEM like most of the people were not reacting to 3loud rifle shots in the timely response that we as observers 60 years later,  are speculating they theoretically should have.

One would think the combat veteran Brehm at least would have recognized the very  FIRST loud noise as a rifle shot and have reacted quicker in some way like diving to the ground.

It could be that the 1st loud shot everyone heard was not that different from some previous motorcycle backfires so they may have already been slightly desensitized to a loud noise by that.

However if there were  2 more shots that were equally spaced apart about 3 secs each and the total time was 8-9 secs, then is it not more probable that the Newmans and the 3 men on the GK steps and those women right near the JFK limo should be more animated than they appear to be?

So this suggests the 2/3rd ear witness descriptions of 2 shots very close together was an accurate evaluation and that  3 shots were fired more likely in about just 4.8 secs of time. 

If so, then this might  explain why the reactions which seem delayed are because of the ”shock effect” of an extremely horrifying stimulus being completed in such a short span of time.

This is why imo, 3 shots over 4.8 secs (substantiated by  closest earwitness Harold Normans spacing demonstration)  with the last 2 shots only about 1 sec apart leads to a higher  probability that a semi auto rifle was the murder weapon rather than a bolt action MC rifle which with rate if fire at best only   2.5 secs per shot on average.

Note: there was ONE old guy on the CBS time trial shooting experiment that they CLAIM shot 3 shots with the MC rifle in only 5.1 secs and scored 3 hits on the moving target body ( but missed the head entirely)