The First Shot

[John Tonkovich]

On a second look through the photos, Charles, I think I found the woman described by Aynesworth. She's right by the entrance to the jail, which is to say, at the south end of the County Records Building along Houston. She is most easily observed in the Betzner photo of the JFK limo on Houston.

To be clear, I don't have a particular grievance against Aynesworth. When I first started researching this case (about 18 years ago), I was confounded by all the cherry-picking and misinformation caused by cherry-picking. So I decided to create a database per se, in which I compared the statements made by witnesses over the years. I started off with the assassination witnesses, but eventually included sections where I compare the statements of the Parkland witnesses as well. And the bottom line is this--most every witness making more than one or two statements over the years contradicted themselves on one point or another.

But that's not to say that witnesses are unreliable. When there is a consistent pattern within the witness statements--such as the earliest and closest witnesses saying the last two shots were bunched together--which is in direct opposition to the cognitive psychology maxim time slows down during traumatic events--one can bet the farm the last two loud sounds heard by the bulk of the witnesses were bunched together.

As far as the possibility of a shot at 190, it's not just the blur analysis and eyewitness evidence that places the first shot at this time, but the photo analysis. One of the most overlooked facts about the case is that the HSCA photography panel concluded a shot rang out before Kennedy went behind the sign...and that they came to this conclusion before the acoustics panel came to their conclusion a shot at Z-190 was probable. Here's why...





Kennedy's head and arm movements as he heads behind the sign suggest he was hit at this time. They certainly don't look natural. And the failure of Dale Myers etc to acknowledge this and to insist he continued calmly waving at this time is perplexing, to say the least.

Thanks Mr Speer.
SS and FBI both suggested Z207 as first hit. Within days of the assassination.

[Pat Speer]

Thanks Mr Speer.
SS and FBI both suggested Z207 as first hit. Within days of the assassination.

If you haven't looked at Chapter 2b at patspeer.com, you should probably give it a look.

Purvis and I used to hash it out on the Ed Forum. He had it in his head that the SS and FBI were on the up and up, and that the WC came along and dismantled their work.

But Purvis had NEVER bothered to read the FBI and SS memos and reports on this stuff. It turns out that the FBI and SS both claimed the head shot occurred way past Kennedy's position at Z-313, and that Eisenberg and Specter caught them in this charade, and tried to straighten things out, so that their single-assassin solution wouldn't collapse under even the slightest analysis. This is all demonstrated on my website.

In essence, I believe the SS and FBI were concerned the shots were fired too closely together, and that they deliberately moved the head shot (which they believed was the last shot) further down the road so as to give the assassin (whom they believed to be Oswald) more time to fire the shots. They fudged their work. And got caught.

FWIW, when confronted with the FBI internal memos proving the FBI assumed the last shot was the head shot, Purvis claimed they'd all been faked by Specter et al, to cover their tracks. These were the FBI's internal memos, from the FBI's files, which had never been provided the Warren Commission.

I lost respect for Purvis at that point.

We'd been colleagues, of sorts, in that we were at one point the only two researchers pushing there was a shot after the head shot. But I couldn't go along with his claim Specter and Eisenberg and Belin et al were the bad guys in this whole fiasco, and that the SS and FBI were innocent. At the time I wondered if anti-semitism had clouded his thinking, but later came to believe his military background had led him to favor what he interpreted as hard-working men of action over sycophantic lawyer-types. And I can't say I disagree with him in that bias...

[James Hackerott]

On a second look through the photos, Charles, I think I found the woman described by Aynesworth. She's right by the entrance to the jail, which is to say, near the south end of the County Records Building along Houston. She is most easily observed in the Betzner photo of the JFK limo on Houston.

I looked for a large black woman wearing a pink dress in Bell, Hughes and Nix color films. Only the Bell video, from “The Lost “Bullet”, gives a clear enough view of, possibly, such a woman. I stabilized Bell's Houston Street clip, centering on a woman that seems to wear a very faint pinkish dress. She is near where Don Roberdeau shows Aynesworth on the sidewalk towards the SW corner of the DCRB.  After stabilization, 9 frames were combined with stacking software. Stacking (frame addition) improves the signal-to-noise ratio with the aim of strongly increasing the image saturation. The result on my laptop appears pinkish, while on a TV appears a little more orange.

edit: Upon plotting the camera locations of Bell and Betzner both of us are discussing the same woman.

[Walt Cakebread]

I looked for a large black woman wearing a pink dress in Bell, Hughes and Nix color films. Only the Bell video, from “The Lost “Bullet”, gives a clear enough view of, possibly, such a woman. I stabilized Bell's Houston Street clip, centering on a woman that seems to wear a very faint pinkish dress. She is near where Don Roberdeau shows Aynesworth on the sidewalk towards the SW corner of the DCRB.  After stabilization, 9 frames were combined with stacking software. Stacking (frame addition) improves the signal-to-noise ratio with the aim of strongly increasing the image saturation. The result on my laptop appears pinkish, while on a TV appears a little more orange.

Ok, that's all well and good...... I'll not disagree with you.....  BUT?..... Where is Aynesworth?  He doesn't appear to be in the vicinity.

[James Hackerott]

Ok, that's all well and good...... I'll not disagree with you.....  BUT?..... Where is Aynesworth?  He doesn't appear to be in the vicinity.

I don't have any idea what he looked like at that time. Does anyone?

[John Tonkovich]

I see. In your mind, I'm the one off-topic.

Nixon resigned not knowing he would be pardoned. The pardon came a month after Nixon resigned, and after it was explained to Nixon that acceptance would mean "an admission of guilt".

    "At a 2014 panel discussion, Ford’s lawyer during that period,
     Benton Becker, explained an additional element that influenced
     Ford’s decision to issue a presidential pardon: a 1915 Supreme
     Court decision. In Burdick v. United States, the Court ruled that
     a pardon carried an "imputation of guilt" and accepting a pardon
     was "an admission of guilt.” Thus, this decision implied that
     Nixon accepted his guilt in the Watergate controversy by also
     accepting Ford’s pardon.

     Prior to Ford’s issuance of the pardon, Becker was tasked with the
     difficult job of mediating the negotiations between Ford and Nixon.
     Becker said he took copies of the Burdick decision to California
     when he met with former President Nixon, and under Ford’s
     instructions, walked through the decision with Nixon.

     Becker said the discussion with Nixon was very difficult, and the
     former President kept trying to change the subject way from Burdick.
     Finally, Nixon acknowledged Becker’s argument about what the
     Supreme Court decision meant.

     After he left the White House, Ford carried part of the Burdick decision
     with him in his wallet in case someone brought up the pardon. In a
     later interview with Woodward for Caroline Kennedy’s book,
     “Profiles in Courage for Our Time,” Ford pulled out the dog-eared
     decision and read the key parts of it to [Bob] Woodward."

          -- The Nixon Pardon in Constitutional Retrospect
              National Constitution Center, September 8, 2020 ( Link )

                 

Phil Willis was in Dealey Plaza.
Aynesworth. No proof.

[John Tonkovich]

If you haven't looked at Chapter 2b at patspeer.com, you should probably give it a look.

Purvis and I used to hash it out on the Ed Forum. He had it in his head that the SS and FBI were on the up and up, and that the WC came along and dismantled their work.

But Purvis had NEVER bothered to read the FBI and SS memos and reports on this stuff. It turns out that the FBI and SS both claimed the head shot occurred way past Kennedy's position at Z-313, and that Eisenberg and Specter caught them in this charade, and tried to straighten things out, so that their single-assassin solution wouldn't collapse under even the slightest analysis. This is all demonstrated on my website.

In essence, I believe the SS and FBI were concerned the shots were fired too closely together, and that they deliberately moved the head shot (which they believed was the last shot) further down the road so as to give the assassin (whom they believed to be Oswald) more time to fire the shots. They fudged their work. And got caught.

FWIW, when confronted with the FBI internal memos proving the FBI assumed the last shot was the head shot, Purvis claimed they'd all been faked by Specter et al, to cover their tracks. These were the FBI's internal memos, from the FBI's files, which had never been provided the Warren Commission.

I lost respect for Purvis at that point.

We'd been colleagues, of sorts, in that we were at one point the only two researchers pushing there was a shot after the head shot. But I couldn't go along with his claim Specter and Eisenberg and Belin et al were the bad guys in this whole fiasco, and that the SS and FBI were innocent. At the time I wondered if anti-semitism had clouded his thinking, but later came to believe his military background had led him to favor what he interpreted as hard-working men of action over sycophantic lawyer-types. And I can't say I disagree with him in that bias...

Ok, Pat. Z190. Z204. Z207. About one second we're quibbling about.
We'll discuss the two headshots some other time.

[Charles Collins]

I don't have any idea what he looked like at that time. Does anyone?

Here is what he looked like back then. It is from the book we have been discussing "The Reporters' Notes" by Dallas Morning News.



He apparently wore a crew cut. He is rather tall and lanky these days. His face appears fuller in the above photo than it does now. So he might have been a little heavier. I do remember seeing a photo that included him (from behind) as he was with the police searching for LHO in Oak Cliff. He was wearing a dark suit. My guess is that he is the man to the right (camera left) of the lady that you have pointed out. But it is difficult to say for sure because the image isn't clear enough. Good eye there James!