Yes that can be true, nobody wants to be wrong.
In the following video Jay Watson who was a reporter and trained to notice details and was in a media follow up car quickly got back to the studio and tells the world within the hour @27:40 that there was three shots.
At another point in the video Bill Newman doesn't recall a third shot but his wife @32:20 recalls three shots.
Also Jerry, Jay's colleague in the follow up car @36:20 recalls 3 shots.
@27:40
Imo in this case the strongest pieces of evidence is the three expended shells found on the floor of the sniper's nest which concurs with the vast majority of earwitnesses.
JohnM
Another good example of what transpired that day that took the JFK Assassination off into the netherworld of the “medias influence”. It started right here with the reading of Merriman Smith’s three shot news flash by Walter Cronkite and perpetuated by Jay Watson. There was a two shot news flash from James Altgens read on ABC television but it lagged the CBS news flash of three shots by about 5 minutes and quickly disappeared. Merriman Smith was an earwitness. James Altgens was an eyewitness. Out of 70 news reporters in Dealey Plaza, Altgens was the only news reporter there that was an eyewitness. Again, he reported there were only two shots. Like Bill Newman, Altgens was within mere feet of JFK’s car.
Jay Watson is the epitome of what occurred. Jay Watson was an earwitness. Bill Newman was an eyewitness. Bill Newman repeatedly told Watson he did not know about a third shot but Watson kept pushing the three shot narrative. He pushed it to the point that Gayle Newman changed to a three shot narrative. She can be seen in the interview video, right before she leaves the set because she is upset, reading the news bulletin in Watson’s hand. Prior to leaving she is agreeing with Bill when she returns to the interview, she is now a three shot witness. Eventually Gayle in her 50th anniversary interview states she never really heard a third shot.
Three shells does not mean there were three shots. Only two of the three shells have the indentation on the side of the shell indicating it was actually fired in the chamber of the rifle.
In Hoovers June 2nd letter to Rankin, Hoover referred to the indentation on the side of the shells as a chambering mark. The same mark is on the unfired shell ejected from the rifle by Det. Fritz. The indentation on the unfired shell would have been the result of an expanded chamber due to heat from having fired the other two cartridges. Josiah Thompson in his book Six Seconds In Dallas notes that the same indentation is present on the other thirty or so shells he observed that had been fired in the carcano by the FBI during testing.
Only CE543 (the shell with the dented lip) does not have the indentation on the side of the shell. It is the shell postulated by the WC in their conclusion as having been used for dryfiring the rifle and was ejected prior to the assassination.
