Post by David Von PeinOn four straight nights in late June of 1967, the CBS Television Network
aired a special program entitled "A CBS News Inquiry: The Warren Report",
which was an extensive study and re-investigation of the 1963
assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
During the four-hour probe, CBS interviewed witnesses and evaluated the
I think probe is the wrong word. You meant to type cover-up.
Post by David Von Peinevidence in the case. CBS even went beyond what the Warren Commission did
three years earlier by more accurately re-creating the shooting by firing
rifle shots at a moving target from a specially-built 60-foot-high tower
(to simulate the height from which assassin Lee Harvey Oswald fired his
three shots at JFK from the Texas School Book Depository in Dallas on
November 22, 1963).
Yes, excellent. And then LIED about the test. Their rifles jammed about
1/3 of the time. Oswald's rifle jammed about 1/3 of the time. How did we
learn this fact? Dan Rather? Nope. Walter Cronkite? Never. Only from an
insider who leaked the document:
CBS News has not released the backup documentation for its firing test,
although the relevant information has found its way into the discussion in
other ways, e.g., shortly after they aired, a dissatisfied associate
producer of their 1967 series of documentaries provided the raw data to
several prominent critics of the Warren Commission. It was discussed by
Prof. Josiah Thompson in an appendix to Six Seconds in Dallas (1967) and
Mark Lane in A Citizen's Dissent (1968). Another poster has quoted
extensively from a Village Voice article that appeared in 1992, which
incorporated the same information. I independently verified the accuracy
of his information during the mid-Seventies. In evaluating the results of
the CBS test it is important to bear in mind the distinction between the
following concepts: speed, accuracy, experience, and liberal opportunity
for recent practice with the same model and year Mannlicher-Carcano rifle
that Oswald is alleged to have used. (Of course, CBS was not permitted to
use the actual rifle in evidence.)
Actually, what you saw in the CBS film was their last best try at
duplicating Oswald's feat. It was shot on May 19 and 20, 1967, at the
H.P. White Laboratory firing range in Bel Air, Md. Let me first tell you
about an earlier trial.
On January 31, 1967, at the same location and using the same motorized
track, CBS employed Colonel Edward B. ("Jim") Crossman, USA (ret.) to do
six trials. Presuming that the assassination occured during the Zapruder
interval 210-313 (5.5 seconds), they had him fire at a standard FBI head
and shoulders silhouette target (orange) on a 4-by-4 foot (blue)
background moving at 16 fps from a firing tower platform the same relative
height as the 6th floor of the TSBD. The slopoe of the track approximated
the slope of Elm Street. Remember the colors of the target because they
figure prominently in all the results. Crossman fired clips of three
rounds each six times. Here were the results:
1- 6.54 seconds. 3 hits clustered low and slightly left, all in blue.
2- 6.34 seconds. 2 hits in orange (shoulder), one blue just left of
head.
3- 6.44 seconds. 2 hits in orange at neck, one low in blue.
4- 6.26 seconds. 1 hit orange in neck, 1 blue above shoudler, 1 blue
over head.
5- 6.99 seconds. 1 hit orange in left shoulder, 1 blue just over
shoulder, 1 blue higher
6- 6.20 seconds. 2 hits in orange, 1 blue center low.
Crossman had to take the rifle stock off his shoulder between shots in
order to get leverage because of the sticky bolt action of the rifle (live
Western Cartridge ammo was used in all the tests).
Apparently not content with these limp results, CBS decided to take
another stab at it in May with 11 of the finest marksmen they could find.
As with Crossman, all of them were allowed practice time with the sample
rifle at an indoor range prior to the actual shoot.
Two important points to note are these: First, the person who recorded
the following results was the same person who supervised the tests for CBS
both in January and May 1967, producer Walter Lister, a man who began his
participation in the CBS project with an unswerving faith in the Warren
Report and knew that his bosses were leaning in the same direction. The
January results specify in detail the degree of Col. Crossman's accuracy
within the orange silhouette. In May, however, Lister was content merely
with getting any hits anywhere within the orange silhouette, and he did
not specify to his bosses how good those hits really were (i.e., shoulder,
back, neck, head), except in the single best result that he obtained. If
CBS ever releases the film outtakes, maybe we'll get a chance to see.
Second, in total, the 11 marksmen made 37 attempts to duplicate Oswald's
feat. However, what CBS reported on its 1992 tape (just as they did back
in 1967) was the average time (5.6 seconds) to fire 3 shots at the moving
target ONLY IN THE 20 TIMES OUT OF 37 THAT THEY CHOSE TO "COUNT" AS THEIR
"OFFICIAL RECORD" OF THE TEST. What happened in the other 17 cases?
Either a bullet jammed in the bolt-cycling process, or the balky bolt
action slowed up the marksmen so much that the target completed its run
before they could get off their third shot. Of course, CBS never told its
audience about these problems. The following were ALL the results,
including those 20 attempts that CBS carefully selected to "count" (and
you will notice that Howard Donahue, of "Mortal Error" renown, performed
the best):
1. Al Sherman, Maryland State Trooper
5.0 seconds - 2 hits in orange silouhette, 1 blue low
6.0 seconds - 2 hits, 1 blue high (1st 2 shots in 2.2 seconds)
NO TIME -- bolt jammed at third cartridge
5.2 seconds - 1 hit, two low
5.0 seconds - 1 hit, 2 upper left blue
2. Ron George, Maryland State Trooper
NO TIME -- bolt jammed after 2nd shot; 3rd fired very late
NO TIME -- 3rd bullet jammed
4.9 seconds - 2 hits, 1 blue upper right
3. John Concini, Maryland State Trooper
6.3 seconds -- number of hits unreported
5.4 seconds -- 1 hit in silhouette, 2 blues "just low"
4. Howard Donahue, weapons engineer
NO TIME -- second bullet jammed
NO TIME -- jam after first shot
5.2 seconds - 3 hits in orange silhouette grouped in head area (best
target)
5. William Fitchett, sporting goods dealder
6.5 seconds -- 3 borderline hits, low & left along silhouette border
6.0 seconds -- 1 hit orange, 2 low blue
6.1 seconds -- number of hits unreported
6. Somerset Fitchett, sportsman
NO TIME -- jammed at 3rd bullet
5.9 seconds -- 2 hits, 1 wide left
5.5 seconds -- 2 hits, 1 low
7. John Bollendorf, ballistics technician
6.8 seconds - 2 hits in silhouette, 1 blue low left
NO TIME -- jam after 2nd shot
NO TIME -- jam again
6.5 seconds -- 1 orange hit, 2 near misses blue upper left
8. Douglas Bazemore, ex-paratrooper (Viet vet)
NO TIME -- stiff bolt action
NO TIME -- unable to work bolt fast enough
NO TIME -- just too stiff for him
NO TIME -- 2 shots in 5 seconds; 3 shots in 9 seconds; gives up
9. Carl Holden, H.P. White employee
NO TIME -- bolt jammed after 1st shot
NO TIME -- jammed again
5.4 seconds -- tight group of 3 hits in blue high right
10. Sid Price, H.P. White employee
5.9 seconds -- 1 hit orange, 1 blue, 1 nowhere (missed target completely)
4.3 seconds -- no hits reported
NO TIME -- jam after 2nd shot
4.1 seconds -- 1 hit orange, 2 complete misses (off blue)
11. Charles Hamby, H.P. White employee
NO TIME -- jammed
NO TIME -- jammed
6.5 seconds -- 2 blues close to silhouette, 1 completely missed target
We can safely assume that, in all of these final round tests, the rifle
scope was carefully calibrated and properly fitted. The same was not
necessarily so for the presumed assassination weapon.
I've mentioned speed, accuracy, experience and recent practice (no one has
satisfactorily proved that Oswald took target practice before the
assassination). In the end, one must also consider the difference between
what is theoretically or hypothetically possible under optimum controlled
conditions, and what is reasonably probable and plausible in terms of the
actual circumstances on 11/22/63. To quote Josiah Thompson: "Of the
thirty-seven firing runs only ten (27 percent) were fired in 5.6 seconds
or less. On these runs the marksmen made anywhere from zero to three hits
-- their average was 1.3 hits for every 3 shots fired. Taking into
account all the runs fired in less than 7.5 seconds, the average was 1.2
hits for every three shots fired."
Is this the same as saying that "Oswald's shooting feat was never
equaled?" Well, let's hope that it never is. But so as not to evade your
point, the complete answer is: Within the universe of Mannlicher- Carcano
rifles probably not in theory, but his alleged feat has never been
duplicated with the actual rifle in evidence that he was alleged to have
used. However, to believe that Oswald did what the WC says he did, you
have to believe not only that he was as good as the very best of these
topflight marksmen in his only successful attempt out of three after
indoor practice, but also that Oswald had an extraordinarily lucky day
without his rifle jamming on him. CBS tried to be both the judge and jury
for the rest of the country. Now that you have the information, judge for
yourself.
-roger-
Post by David Von PeinThe entire four-hour program can be viewed at the link below, including
the original CBS commercials....
http://JFK-Archives.blogspot.com/2011/05/cbs-news-inquiry-warren-report.html