TX TX - President John F. Kennedy, 46, Dallas, 22 Nov 1963

[everlearning]

Norman Mailer wrote a book titled "Oswald's Tale". He came to the conclusion that Oswald probably did shoot Kennedy for his own reasons but he goes into detail about possible conspiracies which could already have been in existence at the time.

Mailer felt that the Mafia may have put out a contract on JFK and feared that Oswald might have carried out that hit. But instead of Oswald getting away or being killed, here he was on National TV alive and claiming to be "just a patsy".

Mailer's theory is that the Mafia, fearing Oswald would point the finger of blame at them, had him silenced by someone close at hand and able to get into the Dallas Police station: Jack Ruby.

Thats a really great theory. Ruby owned a night club in New Orleans. During that time, that alone gave you a mob connection. I never believed his reason for killing Oswald.

 

[Richard]

Eyewitness account of Secret Service Agent Clint Hill:

MSN

 

[Richard]

In the weeks following the JFK assassination, the FBI conducted a number of tests and studies including a reenactment of the shooting using the alleged Mannlicher Carcano rifle. They did both live firing tests for accuracy and speed as well as using the actual rifle with movie camera attached to film what the assassin would have seen from the 6th floor corner window of the Dallas School Book Depository.

Below is a much-published photo of an FBI car in the street below the window as seen through the rifle's scope:

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Below is photo of the actual rifle with scope which was Warran Commission Exhibit 139. What cannot be readily seen in this and other similar side views of the rifle is how the scope actually appears to the shooter.

The scope was a cheap one made by Tasco in Japan, which had simple cross hairs visible to the shooter inside a (4X18) fixed power viewer. It magnified the target four times from what the naked eye would see. In order for the bolt to clear (not contact) the scope and in order to load the rifle with its enbloc clip, the scope had to be mounted high and offset to the left of the centerline of the barrel. This meant that to use the scope, the shooter would have to raise his head from the stock. This would affect accuracy, speed of handling, and speed of target re-acquisition.

Below is how the scope set-up looked to the shooter. Note that the iron open sights align naturally, while the scope is up and to the left, presenting an awkward shooting situation for the shooter.

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Much has been written regarding the timing of the shots from first to third shot and the time elapsed between shots. The movie film shot by Abraham Zapruder which has been studied closely has provided the most accurate reference for timing. Using varying estimates of between 6 and 8 seconds for the full three shot sequence (taking as a given that there were 3 shots fired and all from rifle exhibit 139) several tests were conducted with the goal of proving that it could be done - that is hitting two out of three targets at the given distances in the allotted time frame. Besides the FBI, CBS conducted a series of tests involving (combined) a total of about 15 riflemen.

In the end, the tests concluded that it could be done but with some difficulty. It was also shown that some of the test shooters could do better using the rifle's iron sights instead of the telescopic one.


LINKS:

The John F. Kennedy Carcano - No. C 2766

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Reclaiming History - Wikipedia

Photos

Photos from the JFK Assassination Records Collection | National Archives