It's like shooting fish in a barrel. They are usually very poorly informed and very angry.

I suggest that I am neither poorly informed nor angry. Gaeton Fonzi was a committed ideologue, and the HSCA hiring him as an investigator was an intellectual joke.

That would make you an exception to the rule.

If you say so.

But rather than expending your time to hurling partisan invective at a dead man who is no longer able to defend himself, your energy would be more profitably devoted to learning something about the issues you are so passionately interested in.

This is such an awesome post. "If only people would take the time to learn something they would see that my position is correct! Just avoid every credible study ever done and focus on the few that have access to TRUTH!"

That's correct. They said that, for their model to work, the transmitting motorcycle, which they said must have been HB McLain's, had to be 120 to 140 feet behind the limousine. McLain said he was much further back than that, and I think there are photographs indicating it was more like 250 feet.

But when McLain heard the recording, he denied that the transmission could have come from his machine in any case. He said the engine note was very distinctly that of one of the police department's three-wheelers, not a two-wheeler like his. He said the sounds were quite different and could not be confused. Also, the transmission was on Channel 1, but the motorcade vehicles were using Channel 2. There is no crowd noise, whereas actual transmissions from the motorcade in Dealey Plaza featured crowd noise. The motorcade's sirens are not heard for about two minutes after the supposed 'shots', and they audibly approach and pass the transmitting microphone at speed, with the characteristic 'Doppler drop' in tone.

So the transmitting machine appears not to have been in the motorcade. The rider can be heard calmly whistling to himself, after the 'shots'. McLain said he was not in the habit of whistling, but an officer on one of the three-wheelers positioned between Dealey Plaza and the Trade Mart was well known for it. The motorcade of course passed that officer's position en route to Parkland.

That's amusingly sanctimonious. I did promise to read one of the di eugenio books, which I will do. Which one would you prefer to defend, or are you ambivalent as between them?

After your weirdly unmotivated personal attack against Gaeton Fonzi, I find it ironic you are now accusing me of being sanctimonious.

For people who don't recognize the name, Gaeton Fonzi was an investigative journalist who was hired by Congress to do what he does: investigate.

The Miami Herald's obituary notes that Fonzi "wrote more than 100 feature articles as senior editor of Philadelphia Magazine, wrote countless stories for publications nationwide, was the editor of Miami Magazine and the senior editor at Gold Coast Magazine." Unspoken is how unusual it is for a journalist of his stature to engage the Kennedy assassination as a subject with the vigor and doggedness that Gaeton Fonzi applied.

Fonzi's first inkling that something was wrong with the Warren Report came in 1966 when he was a writer for Philadelphia Magazine, and a law graduate student named Vincent Salandria convinced Fonzi ro read Salandria's landmark essays on the JFK medical evidence (see here and here). Intrigued but unconvinced, Fonzi decided to interview Arlen Specter, the Warren Commission staff lawyer who had conducted most of the interviews related to the medical evidence and was credited with the creation of the so-called Single Bullet Theory.

In The Last Investigation, Fonzi describes his interviews with Specter in detail, and how his expectations that Specter would easily explain the discrepancies raised by Salandria dissolved into literal hand-waving by this otherwise brilliant former Warren Commission attorney. Fonzi sums up the interview thusly:

"After those interviews with Arlen Specter, my belief in that Government would never be the same."

Fonzi authored a book about his experiences working on this case: The Last Investigation which is well worth reading to give you an idea about how these allegedly 'credible investigations' are conducted.

I have already demonstrated that one of these 'credible studies' cited in this thread is full of crap. Far from avoiding it, I demolished it.

Maybe you don't mind being lied to, but others may be more selective.

Of course, none of this hand-waving does anything to address the issues that the gunshots recorded on the dictabelt match the film, and match the acoustic fingerprint of the location as determined by world class experts in acoustics.

Unless your theory is that on the same day in Dallas another shooting occurred in some location that exactly resembled Dealey Plaza and the shots were timed exactly like the Kennedy murder?

Coincidences happen, but I think you're taking this beyond the pale of sanity.

I think it's pretty clear that people with a strong opinion on this will never change their stance.

With that in mind, do you have any cool stories you can share about your father and the investigation? Doesn't necessarily have to relate to the consipracy aspect, I just think it'd be cool to hear about what was going on during that time period.

Edit: Directed at Howard if that's not obvious

My father was reported to have hit on Marina Oswald after interviewing her. It's one of the things Phil Shenon asked me about when interviewing me for his book ("A Cruel and Shocking Act"). I refused to speculate to Shenon, but I am pretty sure I know the answer.

My father had varying amounts of respect for various of the other lawyers on staff, a couple of whom he found to be fairly spineless, and two of which became lifelong friends. He said it was the most intense period of his life, bar none.

One funny anecdote: he took some materials with him while traveling up to New England, where I was living as an infant with my mom and brother. The materials were classified, and some guy behind him on the plane reported him to the FBI. They investigated, and he was cleared of any significant wrongdoing but warned not to do it again.

There are no gunshots on the Dictabelt recording. The random blips picked out by the 'analysts' overlap with Sheriff Bill Decker saying, 'Hold everything secure until the homicide and other investigators get here,' which was about 90 seconds after the actual time of the shooting. The transmission was on the wrong channel and cannot have originated from the motorcade. Officer McLain said he had not even turned into Dealey Plaza at the time of the shooting, which would destroy the analysts' model even if Officer McLain's motorcycle were the origin of the transmission, which it cannot have been for multiple reasons.

The spacing of the Dictabelt blips cannot be made to match the Zapruder film.

The twelve-strong panel convened by the National Academy of Sciences to review the acoustic analysis, on behalf of the Department of Justice and at the instance of the House Select Committee itself, concluded that the analysis was fatally flawed and worthless. The panel included two Nobel laureates.

This analysis makes no sense. The sounds on the recording only line up with shots IF the source of the sound was 100 feet or so behind the limousine. If the source is physically elsewhere, then there is no linkage at all between the two.

This acoustic analysis has been entirely and thoroughly debunked. It has no technical merit whatsoever.

It's pretty close though. I was expecting it to be like a half mile away. When you go to the 6th floor and look out the window, there's an X on the road showing where he was shot.

Looks like he leans forward as his head explodes and then Jackie pulls him back (and to the left).

Yes, the first shot would be about 190 feet (over half a football field) if it came from the Book Depository.

So, pretty close.

When you shoot someone in the head all those nerves get scrambled and start
crossfiring. I've seen head shots make creatures do some spectacular convulsions and jumps.

Again with this BS disparaging top acoustical experts. The impulses on the recording were not 'random' as you idiotically assert.

You seem to have convinced yourself that if you repeat this lie often enough, you will find other noobs who will agree with you.

Since the recording was voice activated the time elapsing between recorded sections is not continuous. This and other technical issues probably explains why two world class acoustical teams were assigned to work on the tape and not some random dude on the internet.

There were two channels in operation, with much crosstalk between channels because one of the motorcycles' radio was open. So another of your assertions falls flat due to your ignorance.

Since there were 13 motorcycles in Dealey Plaza at the time of the murder, these kind of quibbles are not very important since the actual gunshots recorded fit the events in Dealey Plaza.

This is simply a false assertion.

Among the flaws in this finding, none of these people seems to have come up with an explanation of how 'random static' can not only match the timing of the shots in Dealey Plaza, but exhibit the acoustical fingerprint of that unique location.

This is pushing the notion of 'just a coincidence' too far.

The actual finding is that the gunfire whose source was on or near the 'Grassy Knoll' can be matched with the fatal head shot, which appears to come from the Kennedy's right.

^^^

It's unclear what -if anything - this is supposed to mean.

The scientific teams at BBN and Queens College do not seem to have had any difficulty linking the gunfire recorded on the tape to the Dealey Plaza location or films of the murder.

This is false.

The BBN report finds four shots, if the motorcycle channel was being recorded from between 120 and 160 feet behind the limousine. If the motorcycle channel is not being recorded from that location, their analysis falls apart. Other sound on the recording suggests it was from a different place entirely.

I think Oswald could have been 1 mile away and I would believe he made that shot before I believe a conspiracy that killed the POTUS stayed this under wraps for over 50 years. Someone one would have talked.

Yea, that's not far at all for a rifle. Friend of mine killed a deer from farther than that with an open scope 30/30 at like 11 or 12 years old. I'd wager that everyone I know that hunts has also hit one from farther.

Also, moving in a straight line away from an elevated shooting position doesn't change the shot much.

Yea, it's not like the motorcade is moving around trying to avoid potential snipers.

BTW- If you ever go to Dallas, the JFK museum is a must see. It is fantastic and not morbid at all. There's a sense of awe and all that stuff when you look out that 6th floor window. Pretty surreal to be honest.

I agree. It really does a good job of understanding the layout, including the infamous grassy knoll. Very worthwhile if you're ever in Dallas.