40:44
they noticed you know they stopped they turned their lights outTRANSCRIPT
and then we get this black look at her face like well what do we do now okay oh my god you're killing us all
32:02 just a few side notes from an old sniper there are some things about the mechanics which objective the
32:08 trajectories the physical evidence the documentation
32:13 the weapon what it's like to sit up there and squeeze that trigger knowing you're
32:19 going to end the life experts that have tried it couldn't do it
32:25 and a cop that just smells a rat thank you
32:36 all right mr hoffman are you ready sir
32:45 i thought it would be a good segue to go into mr hoffman after showing this film because mr hoffman
32:50 saw the gunman shooting from behind that picket fence
33:02 you know this place you've all seen this before
33:07 and i was standing let me show you where over here approximately
33:16 on stenon freeway
33:23 straight up there on this bridge and it goes to the left from that picture and um
i was standing on the bridge33:29 there was there were policemen up there as well and um
33:36 i actually had broken my tooth while i was at work and my boss had given me the rest of the day off and i went home
33:42 dad to have my my tooth fixed and i was driving i saw a large crowd of people and i wondered why and i
33:48 remembered that john kennedy was coming for a visit in dallas so um
33:53 you know i felt somewhere that i should stop you know he was visiting in my town i was pretty curious about
33:58 what kind of person jfk was so i came back down around
34:05 i stopped on the center freeway and parked my car
34:11 and there was a lot of traffic going that way you know we saw a lot of people there and i had decided to uh
34:17
stand in the best place i possibly could to see this
34:24 with the road goes up like that as i just pointed and
i was standing there i was standing34:30 high above so i could see over everything and the train tracks went that direction
34:37 and um i was behind the fence here
34:44 okay and um now please change that
34:50 anyway it's pretty this is pretty dark the next one's more clear
34:56 right see now this one's a very clear picture um to show you what it's like
35:04 okay i have already shown you about this in this area
35:11 behind the fence over here that's this area right there
35:16 and the switch box the electrical switch box for the train is this area right here
35:24 now there was a man that was standing right here
35:31 and he was a railroad man he worked for the railroad he ran the electrical box or something of that of that sort
35:37 okay um now
i was standing back this direction and i was waiting for the parade to come
35:43 by you know it was very easy to see from that area because it was supposed to come straight down that street i wanted to look over from the bridge as it came
35:50 under the bridge and watch it go and i could look down that means that um as the car came by
35:57 you know
we had planned clearly my body could be seen from that direction and um i wanted to get a neat picture
36:04 you know a picture of everyone's dreams to get the president coming under the bridge and um
36:13 and anyway i just i didn't know what this man over here was doing that was behind the fence i didn't know where he'd gone or what he was doing but there
36:19 was a pipe that ran along here a large pipe okay
36:26 and also um it really everything was looking kind of strange i didn't know what he was doing
36:32 or where he was going but this man there were two men they met over here and they
36:37 were talking and again he went back over to his post and i didn't know where he was anyway so i was watching the
36:43 happenings and later i saw a picture let me i'll show you how it was
36:50 behind that fence that man was standing there he had a hat on and he was standing there like i am right now
36:57 and he started to bend over as i just did and he picked something up and i saw you
37:03 know i didn't know where he'd gone i saw his head bob and all i could see was his back
37:09 i didn't know what he was doing exactly and so i really didn't pay much attention and later
37:15 i saw him put the gun up over the fence and he was very focused in on what he was doing apparently
37:21 and i wasn't sure what he was doing and i was leaned over the bridge and he was over the fence and
37:29
i thought he went he was smoking you know but after the shot
37:35 i couldn't hear it of course but everyone turned the other direction and it was very easy
37:40 to see from what side he had been shot
37:52 now that man threw the gun over the pipe
38:02 and he was doing something with the gun and it was very quick it was very quick what he was doing he was hurrying and he
38:08 was starting to walk away very quickly and uh this railroad box over here and
38:13 down the tracks he came around like this crossed the tracks
38:21 and at that time everyone was staring of course the shot had happened and this man had scurried
38:28 off out of the picture and i couldn't believe it anyway i was watching and i was waiting for the car to come across
38:33 the other side of the bridge because it was starting to come underneath the bridge and i looked under there
38:39 and i was and i could see
38:44 directly over and i you know i found my heart beating quite
38:50 and really it was it was the truth and his head did fall to the left and it
38:56 was just
obliterated the back of his head was just just blood was everywhere it was just really awful
39:01 and from what i could see i could see the socials the special services around
39:08 the car and his wife before you know she'd been waving of course the crowd and jackie was
39:14 sitting there and candy was sitting next to her and then when it happened he fell over into her lap
39:21 and uh i saw her come up the back of the car
39:28 and he he had fallen down into the seat with his head obliterated the way it was and you could see directly into the car
39:34
from my vantage point and i could see in her pink outfit i could see his head from there39:44 and it was oh my god the experience was just heart-wrenching and then i looked over to where the train was located near
39:50 the bridge under the freeway and the police were standing up there
39:56 they were standing at this area right here where the bridge went
40:10 and at that time the police were just standing there they had not moved and you know
we were all trying to motion to the police
40:16 to i was trying to motion to the police to go after the man that had run away and uh
40:24 there were other special services
40:29
the other car was coming along behind them40:38 and the secret service noticed my hands
40:44
they noticed you know they stopped they turned their lights out40:50 i thought maybe they were trying to um motion to me
40:57
but they all got out of there very quickly of course and uh that man had already gone
41:02 down the tracks by this time you know so um there was no time to let anyone know so
41:08
i ran and got in my car and i drove down towards that direction and i kept looking for where the man had
41:14 gone i and he had disappeared completely no one ever found him so um
41:21 i went to the police department at that time i hurried very quickly to get there and i went into the police department and i
41:27 ran up and i i wrote to them that my uncle was was a lieutenant
41:36 in the police department they said we're sorry he's not here he's out on duty
41:41 what do you want and so uh you know i couldn't get to my uncle
41:48 my uncle could talk to me very easily of course but um so i went back and got in my car
41:53 and i went to my father in grand prairie his home was there it
41:59 was near dallas so i went to my father's home i went on the tollway and i hurried
42:06 and i'm very lucky i didn't get a ticket at that time because i was speeding quite badly and um i went into my father's home
42:16 i went in and i i just screamed i was crying at this time i was just very upset my
42:22 father said what's wrong with you and they came over to me and i explained you know i had a very hard time talking to
42:27 them i was very confused at this time i said i saw the man who shot kennedy
42:34 and they were just in shock at this time they said you saw the man that shot the president
42:39
and they hadn't even heard about the shot yet they hadn't even heard about i said yes he's dead he's been shot his head42:46 has been destroyed he's been assassinated and they said why are you off work so i explained you know
42:52 that i had to go to the dentist and my father said okay you know that he was happy i was all right but they said
42:59 they told me to go home and you know so i went to the dentist at that time
43:04 and got my tooth fixed and uh by that time everyone had heard that jfk had been shot
43:12 and i said please call my uncle at the police station and they told me to wait again till later they said you better go
43:17 home you better go home for a while and um i said please call them now and
43:24 everyone kept trying to tell me to calm down and to wait
43:30 you know i they had heard about the assassination by this time and they said that a man had been caught and i was relieved
43:36 because you know i was deaf and i had at that time there weren't interpreters coming to police stations
43:43 to tell about things like that so i was very proud that uh i had been able to express this so i
43:49 drove home i went in the house and my wife was there and i explained that jfk had been
43:55 assassinated and i had seen it and my wife was very shocked of course as well and we turned the tv on and uh
44:03 we sat down on the sofa to watch and
44:10 i said this is what happened and she she said oh really and we were watching the tv and we were both very nervous and uh
44:16 showed a picture and i was pretty confused at this time
44:22 because the police were watching in this clip the police were just watching
44:28 and i was pretty confused i didn't understand nothing had been said about the person behind the fence
44:35 they had gotten it all wrong they thought it came from a window and i i was very upset
44:44 and so i drove back to my father's house again and went in and i screamed i said no it wasn't a sixth floor window and i
44:51 told them about the man behind the fence and i said please call my uncle at the police station i saw what was involved
44:59 and they said okay you better calm down we'll do that later and um
45:05 they said they would let my uncle know i said okay and the next time
45:14 you know it went for many days the family we have a very big family big family home in dallas
45:20 and uh we had all planned to go down there for
45:25 a family get-together my grandmother and grandfather were there
45:31 and we were all really excited and my uncle i was waiting for my uncle to come so i was very restless at the time
45:39 you know i was very burdened with this information it was really a terrible weight on me and i was ready to
45:45 get it out you know and let my uncle know so i could feel better and i just couldn't sit still i just persisted in
45:51 being antsy so um i was waiting a very long time for my
45:57 uncle to get there and my father was trying to calm me down
46:02 during this time saying it will be okay it will be okay and everyone was shocked that i had seen
46:08 what had happened so i by this time i was sweating i was just so nervous finally my uncle drove
46:13 up and i stood up and i just started running around waiting for him to get in there my uncle got out of the car my dad
46:18 went over to him and they kind of chatted for a while and
46:24 my uncle i saw him say readily and his eyes got enormous at that time and
46:31 i went over to them and they said to calm down again and i said i saw this
46:36 man running off he had the gun and uh
46:42 my uncle asked me how it happened and i explained to him very detailed what how how it happened how the assassination
46:47 occurred from behind the fence and he was enormously shocked and my father was
46:53 in a state of disillusionment he didn't know what to understand
46:58 and my my uncle signs well and uh my family was there and they were all
47:04 just biting their nails and in shock and grief about this
47:12 and they told me that we had better not let anybody know my name because i had seen it and i might be in
47:17 trouble because of that so we agreed on that but my burden had lessened at this point
47:26 and i kept asking myself why why over and over again why did this happen
47:33 because my uncle in a lieutenant in the police department he had experienced many terrible things in his life you
47:39 know he had experienced many of the same type of things and he told me yes i shouldn't think
47:45 anything of it he told me to calm down again
47:50 because i was still bothered by this
47:56 you know we had a little dinner we sat down with the family and we went on you know and
48:02 i just still didn't feel that it was right that they didn't want me to confess this i was a witness i saw what happened
48:10 so then from then on out i just had a terrible
48:16 time sleeping i'd wake up in sweats i'd have bad dreams i'd toss and turn all night i just couldn't sleep
48:21 i just holding this all inside continuing to keep it inside i couldn't do that
48:26 so um you know i thought it would eventually lessen but it was just eating away at me
48:32 on the inside so then in 1967
48:40 i decided i didn't care i felt like i would risk my life for this so
48:46 uh i ignored my family and i went to a friend and i said
48:53 we need to make we need to file something with the fbi and this man was willing to go call the
49:00 fbi for me he said he would be willing to do that and file something with them
49:05 so then later on i went to the fbi i went to the lobby of the fbi and i met
49:12 this woman there and i gave my name ed hoffman and they said oh fine so he called she called the man that was
49:19 supposed to come down to talk to me the agent from the fbi and i noticed the lobby had um
49:29 pictures all throughout the lobby and i was looking at these pictures and i said no no i'm sorry i don't want
49:35 to talk i don't want to talk with i don't want to talk with them i feel
49:40 that it's very dangerous and i don't want the cia to know there were pictures of the c-i-c-i-a all over the
49:47 lobby and i did not want to talk to the cia i wanted to talk to the fbi and she told me not to worry that we
49:52 would be talking to the fbi so i sat down more relieved at that time and the fbi agent came out to meet me and um
50:01 i opened something that was in my pocket oh excuse me the fbi showed me their
50:07 badge and i felt more relieved at that time because i was deaf and i really didn't know you know my
50:14 i've heard all these stories about the cia and i really didn't want to be involved with him at that time so the fbi i was very accepting of that so
50:21 after i had seen his badge we went into his office and sat down and um
50:29 we um established the preliminaries with my name and everything and they wanted to know what i saw so i wrote down and
50:35 illustrated everything i could on a piece of paper and you know his
50:40 expressions were changing as i was doing this and he looked very concerned and then i looked over
50:47 and there was a big mirror all along the wall i noticed that for the first time the
50:52 fbi said don't worry that's nothing and um
50:58 the fbi agent decided that i shouldn't say much more
51:05 he took my paper that i had written down my story and illustrated what happened and about the fence and the gunman
51:11 and he said for me not to say much more and
51:23 he was offering me money and i was very shocked by that i was extremely shocked by that and
51:30 they they wanted to know how much i wanted and i told them no thank you they wanted to give me money to keep me quiet
51:36 and i said i don't want that money i don't know what that's for
51:41 that means you're what are you planning to do with this story it's not necessary to give me money i'm
51:47 a witness and that's all i want it's my truth i can't tell you a lie
51:54 i mean here i am i'm ready to give you the story and uh this is the truth
51:59 and i have to continue in the truth i cannot accept money bribery
52:05 to tell a lie i cannot do that i'm in a stand sure and i'm going to continue with my truth
52:10 and he said okay but he started by saying this he told me to shut up and he looked at
52:15 me very angrily when he said this and i said okay fine and i left his office
52:23 you know first he was very friendly and then he got angry because i wouldn't accept his bribe money and so i left at that time
52:31 as time went on i went back home
52:39 and i thought maybe my father wouldn't know so i went into the house and my uncle not my father excuse me my
52:46 father had a very strange expression on his face as i walked up to him
52:52 and i walked over to my father he said did you go see the fbi
52:59 and i could not lie i mean i just could not lie to my father my father was a very strict man you know i grew up in a
53:05 very strict home and that was how i'd been raised so um i confessed i said yes
53:10 i did i went to the fbi and as gravely as he could he was looking at me and he said
53:16 you know you know best they're going to kill you you know they're going to kill you someday i don't k now when i don't know how but
53:23 this is going to be dangerous for the family and the um my your uncle is very worried
53:30 you know we'd really like you to be able to stay with our family we don't want you to have to do anything strange i said i know but i could i you know i
53:36 have wiped my slate clean i feel much better i've made myself feel better and
53:42 now i can focus on my family this has made me very happy it's been a pleasure for me to be able to express that i said
53:48 i cannot continue with sleepless nights i need to be able to let it out
53:56 he said he told me to be happy with my love for my family and for my children and i said yes i understand that but i
54:02 had to do what i had to do and uh so then at that time i went home
54:10 and robert kennedy had died also by this time you know and i didn't have any
54:15 involvement in that but uh
54:21 i was very nervous i wrote to ted kennedy i wrote him a letter
54:28 and i waited for a very long time and got no response and finally i got a letter back that i read
54:34 and i said think of your brothers kennedy hadn't been paying attention at
54:39 that time you know for their family he had not been paying attention
54:47 and i didn't know what he was planning but uh he didn't really
54:52 he didn't give me any kind of response back in the letter he sent to me and later on my father had died
55:00 and um
55:08 in 1977 i went back to the fbi
55:15 and i was very serious about doing something about this i figured all this time had
55:20 wasted and i needed to let them know again in 77 what had happened so i drove over there i knew what to do
55:26 because i had had experience by that time and the fbi was very friendly and
55:32 nice and sweet and they came out to meet me and you know they took my picture and we went on
55:40 they took a whole lot of pictures at this time and before
55:48 on a billboard it was very low and it was easy to see
55:54 behind the fence you know now they had built a billboard and there were trees there and had all
56:00 grown up in front of that and really you couldn't see anything at that day he said we can't see anything
56:06 you know i'm sorry and um i said i have pictures of the old way
56:11 and the billboard was not there the fence was lower i said i have enough you don't have to worry and i can prove that
56:17 you can see it from there from the bridge and you know i had taken a lot of
56:22 pictures the fbi also took a lot of pictures and we went back to the fbi and i i showed them my pictures and
56:35 the fbi said they could not the rules restricted
56:40 them giving any pictures to me
56:56 hoover at this time
57:08 the fbi had said to me that they were sorry that they couldn't give any of their pictures to me
57:14 because it was in it had been put in the file and sealed and put away also with hoover
57:24 for reasons of confidentiality and they had put that in a fire file and it was sealed and i could not get it
57:31 and the fbi said they understood my concern and they thanked me for coming and i i really thought they were much
57:36 nicer this time at least and i left and i heard nothing from them for a very
57:41 long time until
57:50 a man from a college contacted me
57:57 and a woman stood up someplace as and identified me as a witness as ed
58:02 hoffman and i said yes i do live here and i was very excited about this opportunity
58:08 from the college to be able to be involved and let them know my story first
58:14 and after that it started spreading and i let them know
58:28 that the stories up to now had not been believed and i was a witness and i had seen and you know they could believe
58:34 what they wanted to the government and the political side of it they could believe that but
58:40 i had been very patient understanding about this and
58:54 postner had i had uh sent out his story the year before and i was very upset i said i had
59:01 never talked with that man i had never even met him and
59:08 i had given my story to the fbi and all these groups had lied for his sake
59:14 and i couldn't understand why that had happened and i think it must been have been money
59:19 and business involved and the cia had been involved i'm sure
59:31 and i said that my truth was really what happened and i would not lie about it
59:37 and you know they could decide for themselves and they could look at me however they wanted to but i loved the truth and i wanted them
59:44 to know what it happened for the american public's sake and what will you do
59:49 but thank you all thank you very much [Applause]
1:00:26 you