Post by John CorbettPost by John CorbettEarlier I posed a question to Don Willis whose insistence the assassin
fired from the fifth floor of the TSBD is based solely on a few witnesses
who misremembered that the shooter had fired from a wide open window. The
southeast corner window on the sixth floor was open about halfway while
the windows below were fully open. Given that the windows on both floors
are only about a foot off the floor, does it make sense that someone who
wanted to watch the motorcade would only open the window about halfway as
the one on the sixth floor was. Wouldn't it more likely to be someone who
only needed to open the window far enough to have a clear line of sight to
the limo on Elm St. His rather surprising response was that Oswald fired
from a wide open window on the FIFTH floor because he wanted to be
seen.
Don's response is rather surprising given that his whole premise has been
that the investigators moved all the forensic evidence from the fifth
floor to the sixth floor because they wanted to create the illusion that
the shooter had fired from the sixth floor. Never mind that he has never
offered a logical explanation for why they would want to do that. The
obvious question is if they wanted to create the illusion the shooter
fired from the sixth floor, why would they want him to be seen firing from
the fifth floor. As with all of Don's other beliefs, this one makes no
sense.
I look forward to Don's explanation for this apparent conflict in his
fable. It should prove to be quite entertaining.
Sorry to disappoint. Let's just note that the author of the above can't
quite come to grips with the fact that the window which news photographer
Bob Jackson used to illustrate how wide the supposed "sniper's nest"
window was open was, in fact, open just as far as it could possibly have
been, not "halfway", Corbett's favorite misleading word.
You completely side stepped the point of the thread which was the conflict
you have created for yourself by telling us your shooter wanted to be seen
on the fifth floor while his co-conspirators would move all the forensic
evidence to the sixth floor. Your avoidance pretty much is a concession
that you have no answer to the dilemma. I'll give you one more crack at
it. Simply put, if your conspirators moved evidence up one floor to make
it seem like the shots were fired from the sixth floor, why would they
want their shooter to be seen on the fifth floor. It would appear you are
stumped.
The key: The baffling, pre-assassination antics of the sniper. Witnesses Ron Fischer, Carolyn Walther, and Howard Brennan all described a man behaving very strangely for someone who was about to shoot the President. Fischer could even see his "sport shirt and slacks" and said that he was "laying down there or in a funny position anyway";
Asked and answered. A man sitting on the box at the sixth floor window and
leaning down to look out the open portion of that window would put his
rump and head at the same level, giving him the appearance of lying down.
Brennan said that the man "sat sideways", at one point, "on the window sill";
The box and the sill are approximately the same height - both are about a
foot off the floor. Sitting on the box, or squatting or kneeling at the
window, puts your rump at the same level as the window sill.
Mrs. Walther said that the man was "leaning out the window with both his hands extended outside the window ledge".
No one else saw anything like this, to my knowledge.
The shooter-in-waiting not only found himself in the public eye--he seemed to seek it out. Why was he not, instead, doing his best to conceal himself?
You have no evidence the shooter was doing anything to seek out attention.
Answer: Because the Dallas Police would, a short time later, need an APB re a slender white male.
This is you in full CT mode, making assertions you can't prove and can't
come close to establishing. Why did the DPD *need* an All Points Bulletin
for a slender white male? They didn't. You simply beg the question and
assert what you need to prove.
Oswald's weapon would still be found in the Depository shortly after the
assassination. It would still be traced to being shipped to his PO box
overnight. He would still be wanted for the assassination within 24 hours
of the assassination. What was the *need* for an APB shortly after the
assassination? There wasn't one.
And they were not going to get a witness description to that effect either during or immediately after the shooting--when the gun could be pinpointed and gunfire could be returned--when the man would all but disappear into the shadows.
What LEO saw the weapon in the window in time to return fire? No one.
Despite your claims to the contrary, Howard Brennan was situated to
observe that man shortly before and during the shooting. Fischer and
Edwards saw that man about a minute or 30 seconds before the
assassination.
The APB material would have to be gathered BEFORE the shooting.
You've asserted the need for this. Your evidence for this is lacking.
And it could come from no one and nowhere else. Yes, the key to the assassination of President Kennedy lay in the minute or two before the assassination. And that minute or two of performance art betrays coordination, coordination between this high-wire artist and, at least, the Dallas Police. No performance, no Fischer, Walther, and Brennan, no basis for the APB, even in retrospect.
Best to ignore the photos of the depository facade prepared expessly, I maintain, for the Warren Commisson. Trust more to belatedly pubished material like the Powell slide. And note, here, that Brennan (counsel David Belin's star witness) testified that he did not see anyone in the fifth-floor end window, the window which purported witness Harold Norman was supposed to have occupied. The Powell reflects Brennan's testimony; the Dillard telephoto shot does not.
The Powell photo was determined by the HSCA to have been taken up to about
two minutes after the shooting.
HSCA Volume 6, page 109, paragraph 248:
https://www.history-matters.com/archive/jfk/hsca/reportvols/vol6/html/HSCA_Vol6_0058a.htm
See the above conclusion along with HSCA Volume 6, page 115, paragraphs 265-269:
https://www.history-matters.com/archive/jfk/hsca/reportvols/vol6/html/HSCA_Vol6_0061a.htm
The Powell photo is taken after the shooting by as much as two minutes
later. Of course the men aren't at the windows on the fifth floor. By
then, according to their own testimony, they had moved to the western end
of the Depository to see what happened to the Presidential Limo.
Then, note that, although Brennan came to think that he saw the shooter on the sixth floor, he maintained that that window was open wide, "just like the windows on the fifth floor, immediately below". Fischer echoed Brennan when he testified that he could not have seen as much of the man if the window were not fully open.
Brennan's claim only makes sense if the shooter was on the sixth floor.
The window on the fifth floor below was open.
If the shooter was on the fifth floor, Brennan's recollection would mean
the windows on the FOURTH floor were also fully open. But those windows
were closed. And that's the case whether one uses the Dillard or Powell
photos.
For instance: https://www.history-matters.com/archive/jfk/hsca/reportvols/vol6/html/HSCA_Vol6_0060b.htm
And: https://www.history-matters.com/archive/jfk/hsca/reportvols/vol6/html/HSCA_Vol6_0059b.htm
Norman's striking absence from the end window on the fifth floor--in testimony (Brennan) photography (the Powell slide), and Norman's own account (at least until the next Tuesday, Nov. 26th; before that, he seems not to have made any statement at all about the fifth floor)--Norman's absence leaves a vacancy. A suspect at a wide-open end window--described in the respective testimonies of Brennan, Fischer, and Bob Edwards--handily fills that vacancy.
But I've pointed out some problems with that, which you ignore.
Fischer saw boxes in the window around the guy he saw. No boxes are
visible in the fifth floor SE corner window. Boxes are visible in the
sixth floor SE corner window. Edwards admitted he miscounted the floors,
starting with the second floor. Brennan put the shooter one floor below
the top floor - the building had seven floors, which puts the shooter on
the sixth.
The three men were photographed on the fifth floor. They testified they
were during the shooting.
And Bob Jackson, Underwood, and Dillard affirmed they saw those men one
floor below the window Jackson indicated.
Ah. Show us the photographs that were suppressed. Of course, you have no
such evidence. This is again an argument you advance without any evidence.
The infamous "sniper's nest", on the sixth floor, would absorb the world's attention. A photo of a rifle on the fifth floor would have to be squelched, or there might seem to be TWO "sniper's nests".
Except there is no photo like that, and the Hughes film shows no such
development. It does appear to show men in the fifth floor windows:
http://youtu.be/gxFWV4zexJk
The sniper's pre-12:30 antics in the window rule out the sixth floor--no assurances there for a shooter, whose window-sill antics could have been photographed, and the photographs published--no problem, at least for the assassination organizers.
You're still assuming what you need to prove ... the existence of "the
assassination organizers".
Hank
