I see. So these witnesses:
- Betzner taking his photo at z186 and recalling that it was before the first shot;
Betzner said the shot he heard after taking his picture was followed by the head shot. Here's my earlier reply:
As Betzner goes out of the Zapruder film in frame 207, he
continues to lower his camera and is not looking down.
So Betzner winding his camera as he hears a shot isn't
proof of your first shot at ca.Z200.
Assuming he winds his camera shortly thereafter (post-Z207),
it might be that the shot he heard while winding the camera
was the proposed shot in the early-Z220s.
- Rosemary Willis suddenly turning her head from z200-207 toward the TSBD, which she said she did on hearing the first shot (her feet stop at z198, by the way).
You have to allow a few seconds for someone running to fully stop. Or is her skid marks still in Dealey Plaza?
- Phil Willis recalling that his photo was taken an instant after the first shot
Willis would always work in that the shot caused him to snap the picture, as if it was a selling point. He testified at the Shaw Trial:
"Well, after having photographed the President on Main Street and
on Houston Street and then in front of the Depository Building on
Elm Street I cocked my camera for another picture and this loud
shot went off and the first reaction was that could it be a crank or a
firecracker but it was so loud and of such a sound it had to be rifle
so I became alarmed. I was trying to take a picture at the moment
and the reflex from the shot caused me to take one of these pictures."
Willis initially says he had just cocked his camera when he heard the first shot and that he enough time to analyze the shot and that it was only after he became alarmed that he took the picture. Also revealing that Willis before the Commission said the first shot caused Mrs. Kennedy to turn her head from his side of the street to the opposite side (she does this in the Z170s) and that she had already made that head turn in Willis' slide.
- Hughes recalling a pause after stopping filming and the sound of the first shot (this sequence ends with the rear wheel of the president's limo passing where JFK passed at z160 so that looks like about z168 to me).
You're trying to expand the time between when Hughes stopped filming and when he heard the first shot ("about five seconds after I quit taking pictures we heard the shots" Hughes wrote in a letter to his parents). That's probably because the real span between when Hughes stopped filming and when your proposed first shot occurred is about one-second. So you now are trying to move back when Hughes stopped filming from Z185 (Myers) to Z168, about one second. So there's now a two-second span between when Hughes stopped (at Z168 per your claim) and your proposed first shot in the Z200 area. That better relates to the five-second span Hughes described.
But I think you are confusing the point when Hughes stopped filming the limousine and Queen Mary turning onto Elm (about 3.3 seconds before Z133). Myers estimated the stop in filming lasts for 37 frames (about two seconds). When Hughes resumes (about 1 1/4 seconds before Z133), his camera picks up the camera cars along Houston. This is the sequence that ends at Z185.
Sequence | | Frames | | Zapruder Film |
JFK Turning onto Elm | | 87 (4.75 sec) | | 8.1 to 3.3 sec before Z133 |
Stopped Filming | | 37 (2 sec) | | 3.3 to 1.26 sec before Z133 |
Camera Cars on Houston | | 75 (4.1 sec) | | 1.26 sec before Z133 plus 2.84 sec to Z185 |
If Hughes was referring to the stop in filming he made when the Presidential car went out of view, then it is about four seconds to a shot in the Z150s. To your first shot is about seven seconds.
But it Hughes was referring to the stop in filming at Z185, I proposed a scenario where Hughes might not have been alarmed at a first shot in the Z150s, and instead took the hypothetical Z220s second shot for the first shot. That's about 2.25 seconds after Z180, but less than a second to the start of the Z200s.
- And Jack Ready removing his right hand from the front hand-hold as he begins to turn and as he said he did in response to the first shot
He said the first thing he did was turn his head. He didn't say anything about his hands. He could only turn his head so far without having to adjust his handhold for safety.
We need to look for when Ready began his rightward head-turn. To assist newbies, Ready is standing front on the camera-left running board of the large Cadillac following Kennedy's limousine.
were all wrong because their recollections do not fit with the early first shot miss at z150-160 that you hypothesize.
I believe I made an effort to see how well they fit with both our scenarios.
What about all the witnesses who said that JFK reacted to the first shot (20+) by moving left, changing expression, clutching his chest/neck?
"My recollection tells me that I've taken apart your "over 20 witnesses
said that JFK reacted to the first shot" claim before. More than once."
-- Tim Nickerson
Andrew, we've gone though your "reaction" witnesses many times here on the Forum. Many of your witnesses weren't even in a position to see the front of Kennedy's body or his hands, and so forth.
Where are the witnesses who recalled JFK smiling and waving for 2-3 seconds after the first shot? (z150-z207) Where are they Jerry?
Mary Woodward said the President did not react (other than look around) to the first shot and that he "slumped" on the second shot, which was followed by the head shot. You dismiss her because she was "hazy" and had collapsed from shock.[/list]