Oswald took 10.2 seconds to fire all three shots.

[Jack Nessan]

   Generally I like Thompson. But you gotta question how a guy goes from: (1) Frogman, (2) Professor, (3) Best Selling Author, (4) Private Investigator (for decades), (5) Best Selling Author (again). Very strange trail. Also, when Thompson wrote his "Six Seconds In Dallas" blockbuster, he did several interviews for that book. Sitzman, Bill Newman, Skinny Holland, etc. Snippets from those interviews are used in his "Six Seconds........" book. I have read the text of the full interview of Sitzman. It's obvious that the Sitzman interview and most likely every other interview Thompson did for that book was tape recorded. Why have we Not heard these tape recorded interviews? Actually hearing eyewitnesses tell their story is very important in appraising the credibility of the eyewitness. This is especially important with the Sitzman interview. She detailed: (1) running up-n-down the Knoll after getting down from the Zapruder Perch, and, (2) seeing a Black Couple get up/off the bench they were sitting on and running up The Steps as the JFK Limo went under the Triple Underpass. None of this is on a single 11/22/63 image

Like or dislike Josiah and his interviews is not really the issue. He simply made an astute observation of key evidence and documented it with his book. It is not even subject his personal interpretation. An observation verified by the FBI. The question becomes is there a conspiracy to be advanced if there were only two shots? Look at how much time and energy are wasted arguing over the location of a shot no one has ever identified. CBS News, courtesy of Walter Cronkite, read Merriman Smith's news bulletin stating three shots. Minutes later Don Pardo read James Altgen's news flash of two shots having been fired on NBC. Altgens was an eyewitness, Smith was an earwitness. Thompson's observation verifies Altgens was right and Smith was wrong.

[Brian Roselle]

The HSCA dictabelt 4 shot saga was a knee jerk reaction to what was presented late in the hearings by Gary Mack and friends. Since has been proven to be totally false. 

WC Conclusion: "The eyewitness testimony may be subconsciously colored by the extensive publicity given the conclusion that three shots were fired"

HSCA Conclusion: "The committee believed that the witnesses memories and testimony on the number, direction, and timing of the shots may have
been substantially influenced by the intervening publicity concerning the events of November 22 1963"   HSCA Final Report- pg 87

The HSCA Sound Analysis report lists the exact same conclusion but still no real explanation other than they were surprised. This leaves the question why does being “surprised” cause someone to report more shots and not less?

HSCA Sound Analysis Conclusion: The buildings around the Plaza caused strong reverberations, or echoes, that followed the initial sound by from 0 .5 to 1 .5 sec . While these reflections caused no confusion to our listeners, who were prepared and expected to hear them, they may well have inflated the number of shots reported by the suprised witnesses during the assassination . HSCA Earwitness Analysis Report, pgs 135-137


Six Seconds in Dallas is the source of Josiah’s belief only two shots were fired from the Depository. The belief was the result of his observation of marks on the shell casings while filming for Life magazine. The big question is what did the FBI know as Josiah’s observations had also been previously noted and corroborated in the FBI’s analysis of the shell casings, but not to the extent of what Josiah had observed. It is entirely likely this is why the WC and HSCA felt the media influenced the witnesses into inflating the number of shots. Something that is never really explained.

Jack, Thanks for taking the time to pull together the quotes, I hadn’t seen them all, those are good references.

Also, I need to add a follow up note. I said that although I didn’t have his latest book, I thought Josiah now believed in 4 shots with the last one around z327.  I think my recollection was from an article in the San Francisco Chronicle who made a report as he lives in the Bay area. I found a link to an SFC article that talks a little about his current position and new book. Apparently, I was thinking 4 shots where this article says he is actually now thinking 5 shots.

https://datebook.sfchronicle.com/movies-tv/josiah-thompson-is-back-to-tell-us-what-really-happened-to-jfk-in-1963

Maybe his new book readers here can confirm what the Chronicle says:

“The sequence of events, according to Thompson, is that there were five shots fired, in three bursts. First, Kennedy was shot in the back. Then came the fatal shot from the right front. And finally, less than a second later, Kennedy was shot in the back of the head. Thompson postulates that the shots were fired from three different directions.”

Also, “What makes Thompson’s findings a big deal is that, without setting out to do so, he all but proves that there was, indeed, a conspiracy. There had to have been one, by definition, because — according to Thompson — at least three people were involved (unless you believe that three lone assassins woke up that day with the same idea)”

Net, it appears that he now believes in three shooters and 5 shots, not 2 shooters and 4 shots, and uses the acoustics evidence from the Dictabelt as backbone evidence to support his scenario.

[John Iacoletti]

The HSCA dictabelt 4 shot saga was a knee jerk reaction to what was presented late in the hearings by Gary Mack and friends. Since has been proven to be totally false. 

[Royell Storing]

Like or dislike Josiah and his interviews is not really the issue. He simply made an astute observation of key evidence and documented it with his book. It is not even subject his personal interpretation. An observation verified by the FBI. The question becomes is there a conspiracy to be advanced if there were only two shots? Look at how much time and energy are wasted arguing over the location of a shot no one has ever identified. CBS News, courtesy of Walter Cronkite, read Merriman Smith's news bulletin stating three shots. Minutes later Don Pardo read James Altgen's news flash of two shots having been fired on NBC. Altgens was an eyewitness, Smith was an earwitness. Thompson's observation verifies Altgens was right and Smith was wrong.

   Do you hear yourself?  "....is there a Conspiracy to be advanced if there were only two shots?". If there were only 2 shots, how do you explain the 3 Hulls on the floor of the sniper's nest? You have become narrow sighted as you chase your predetermined conclusion. Widen your consideration to include ALL of the facts in this case.

[Tom Mahon]

If there were only 2 shots, how do you explain the 3 hulls on the floor of the sniper's nest?

Factoid: A psychologically disturbed, self-described Marxist sharpshooter by the name of Lee Harvey Oswald killed JFK by firing three shots at him over 10.2 seconds in the echo chamber known as Dealey Plaza.

[Royell Storing]

Factoid: A psychologically disturbed, self-described Marxist sharpshooter by the name of Lee Harvey Oswald killed JFK by firing three shots at him over 10.2 seconds in the echo chamber known as Dealey Plaza.

   So now we are up to 10.2 seconds? Change the elapsed time, change the position of the JFK Limo on Elm St, change the physical posture of a shooter inside the snipers nest. Where does it stop? The alleged Facts are constantly in flux due to 1 shooter/3 shots simply does Not work. Never has, Never will. 

[Zeon Mason]

Looking at Andrew’s last examples of Z frames raises a probability ? of how likely JC having been supposedly hit at Z224 by a 6.5 mm ball nosed bullet passing thru his chest cavity cracking rib bone then thru his wrist and shattering that bone, could have remained erect, let alone turn around to look at JFK for that duration of about 3 secs?

Would it take 3 secs for JC to finally feel pain enough to fall back in Mrs Cs lap?

Or is it more likely that if JC was hit at Z270 or so , the pain would have been more immediately felt in just 0.5 secs and thus JC falling back was closer in sync with that pain?

[Tom Mahon]

So now we are up to 10.2 seconds? Change the elapsed time, change the position of the JFK Limo on Elm St, change the physical posture of a shooter inside the snipers nest. Where does it stop? The alleged Facts are constantly in flux due to 1 shooter/3 shots simply does Not work. Never has, Never will.

Yes, the elapsed time has changed from Tink Thompson's 6.8 seconds (or was it 6?) to Roselle's and Scearce's scientifically established 10.2 seconds. Get over it.

Yes, the limo's position at Oswald's first, missing everything shot at "Z-124" is different from everyone else's hypothesized position. Get over it.

Yes, the physical posture of Oswald changed from his standing and awkwardly leaning forward for his first shot to his kneeling and supporting his left arm on the top box during his second and third shots. Get over it.

Yes, the scenario in which Oswald fired three shots over 10.2 seconds in the echo chamber known as Dealey Plaza is plausible, and it's the only one that can rationally explain 1) How Oswald managed to miss everything with his first shot, 2) Why it sounded so differently from the other two shots to many witnesses, and 3) Why the three hulls found on the Sniper's Nest floor ended up in the locations in which they were photographed.

Get over it.