Post by Rob Caprio on Jul 25, 2022 20:37:17 GMT -5
All portions ©️ Robert Caprio 2006-2024
media.npr.org/assets/img/2013/01/07/oswald072way_custom-29193fbe090a5248aa65888a6856dd13a5c3b62c.jpg
paperlessarchives.com/FBI-Photo-of-Oswald-Mannlicher-Carcano-rifle_resize.jpg
The Warren Commission (WC) claimed that Lee Harvey Oswald (LHO) fired three shots at President John F. Kennedy (JFK) on November 22, 1963. They further claimed that two of the shots hit JFK – one in the base of the neck and one in the head.
The shooting that occurred on November 22, 1963, was a spectacular example of shooting if it was accomplished by one person as the WC claimed. Of course the person would have to have been someone other than LHO as he was not an expert shooter.
This post will look at early media comments regarding this issue.
**************************************
Ed Wallace worked for the New York World-Telegram and Sun and on December 4, 1963, he wrote an article about the alleged murder weapon and the alleged assassin. He wrote the following in his article.
Quote on
Plans of a sane person to kill two people in a moving automobile would have ruled out a bolt-action weapon altogether, and especially an inferior rifle of the type used. Three shots could have been fired in five seconds with the war surplus weapon the assassin used, a 6.5-mm Carcano, but combining this with such murderous accuracy was a stroke of fate. (Ed Wallace, New York World-Telegram and Sun, December 4, 1963)
Quote off
It is amazing that Mr. Wallace could admit that the alleged murder weapon was an “inferior rifle” and then say it was capable of firing three shots in five seconds. The New York Times on November 27, 1963, said that a firearms expert attempted to duplicate the feat using a similar rifle. He was firing at a stationary target that was only 50 feet away , and still he could only get three shots off in 11 seconds on the first attempt and in 8 seconds on the second attempt.
Life claimed that the director of the National Rifle Association, Clayton Whyte, Jr., “fired an identical-make rifle with an identical sight against a moving target over similar ranges for Life last week. He got three hits in 6.2 seconds.” What Life failed to mention was the accuracy of the three shots by Mr. Whyte.
Another question that is not asked from what I have read over the years is, why did LHO, according to the WC, work the bolt after the fatal third shot?
Quote on
There was a live round in the firing chambers…We can only speculate on his [LHO’s] reason for working the bolt and putting a forth bullet in the firing chamber. (Dallas Morning News, December 10, 1963, quote from a police investigator.)
Quote off
This is another overlooked point in this case (arrest report timed 11 minutes before the arrest, the lack of an arrest warrant being obtained before LHO was arrested, etc…). Why would LHO take the time to work another bullet into the chamber if the third shot had hit JFK in the head as claimed? Wouldn't his priority be getting off the sixth floor?
We have seen in this series already that LHO was at best an average shooter while he was in the U.S. Marines. Four years would elapse before the assassination took place, and as we have seen previously in this series there is zero evidence showing tbat LHO ever practiced or used a rifle. That is four years without ever using a rifle. To add insult to injury, the last rifle that LHO used was the American M-1 which was an semi-automatic rifle. There was NO bolt to operate. The difference in operating a M-1 and a Carcano is similar to the difference between driving a manual and automatic transmission.
Here is what some rifle experts thought of the alleged shooting feat.
Quote on
…a group of the nation's most knowledgeable gun experts, meeting in Maryland at the time of the shooting, agreed that considering the gun, the distance, the angle and the movement of the President’s car, the assassin was either an exceptional marksman or fantastically lucky in placing the shots. (New York Times , November 25, 1963)
Quote off
Given his lack of familiarity with the bolt-operation and total lack of use of a rifle for four years the WC’s claim would have to fall into the fantastically lucky category. To give us a more clear picture of how fantastic this shooting feat would have been let's return to Ed Wallace's article.
Quote on
Detectives and policemen have emptied their guns at assailants, at fist-fighting range, and all shots missed.
Hunters carrying the finest telescope-sighted rifles miss broadside shots at standing deer within a range accessible to a rock.
The shots which killed the President and wounded the Governor of Texas, were fired from a range of 75 to 100 yards. There were six people in the open automobile, into which three shots were at chosen, moving targets. Only the two people an assassin would want to kill were hit – and in vital parts of their bodies .
Slightest variations in sighting, the precise instant of trigger pull, movements of the rifle and movements of the intended victims, conditions of sunlight and shadow, uniformity of ammunition used—these and countless other conditions and variables could have changed the deadly moment to produce misses, or minor wounds. (Ed Wallace, New York World-Telegram and Sun, December 4, 1963)
Quote off
This sums up the lunacy of the official claim. It is easy to forget that there were other people in the limousine and two of them were women. And yet, we are asked to believe that an average shooter, at best, like LHO could totally miss the limousine with one shot, but then have the precision to hit neither women next to the targets. Sure.
The Mannlicher-Carcano (M-C) that was claimed to be the murder weapon certainly did not have one of the “finest telescopic” sights either. In fact, it is questionable that the telescopic sight was even operable. A number of WC defenders have conceded that the iron sights might have been used, but this would have made the shots even more difficult. No, if LHO was going to pull of what even first-rate marksmen couldn't do he would have needed a first-class rifle, one of the finest scopes and lots of practice. Based on the evidence presented LHO had none of this going for him.
The National Rifle Association expert told the New York Times that a man had to be “well-practiced” in the use of the M-C to achieve the extraordinary proficiency shown by the assassin.
Meanwhile, LHO who “as marines go…was not highly regarded as a rifleman.” (New York Times, November 23, 1963) And yet, he supposedly accomplished what the top experts in the world could not do under better conditions. He supposedly used an old crappy rifle to do it too.
Ed Wallace summed it up in his article.
Quote on
Gun devotees cannot agree that marksmanship was the fatal ingredient in the chemistry of Lee Harvey Oswald. He used a strange gun; there is no evidence he had done any practicing; he was an unstable figure on a mission that would shake the nerves –and trigger finger—of a much cooler man. (Ed Wallace, New York World-Telegram and Sun, December 4, 1963)
Quote off
It is interesting that Mr. Wallace uses the word “mission”. Was LHO supposed to be on a mission? This is the part that WC defenders ignore all the time. LHO would have been firing at the POTUS and this would have required extra special nerves. The WC never showed that he possessed them.
We again see comments by experts that call into question the claims of the WC and raise additional doubt, thus, their conclusion is sunk.
media.npr.org/assets/img/2013/01/07/oswald072way_custom-29193fbe090a5248aa65888a6856dd13a5c3b62c.jpg
paperlessarchives.com/FBI-Photo-of-Oswald-Mannlicher-Carcano-rifle_resize.jpg
The Warren Commission (WC) claimed that Lee Harvey Oswald (LHO) fired three shots at President John F. Kennedy (JFK) on November 22, 1963. They further claimed that two of the shots hit JFK – one in the base of the neck and one in the head.
The shooting that occurred on November 22, 1963, was a spectacular example of shooting if it was accomplished by one person as the WC claimed. Of course the person would have to have been someone other than LHO as he was not an expert shooter.
This post will look at early media comments regarding this issue.
**************************************
Ed Wallace worked for the New York World-Telegram and Sun and on December 4, 1963, he wrote an article about the alleged murder weapon and the alleged assassin. He wrote the following in his article.
Quote on
Plans of a sane person to kill two people in a moving automobile would have ruled out a bolt-action weapon altogether, and especially an inferior rifle of the type used. Three shots could have been fired in five seconds with the war surplus weapon the assassin used, a 6.5-mm Carcano, but combining this with such murderous accuracy was a stroke of fate. (Ed Wallace, New York World-Telegram and Sun, December 4, 1963)
Quote off
It is amazing that Mr. Wallace could admit that the alleged murder weapon was an “inferior rifle” and then say it was capable of firing three shots in five seconds. The New York Times on November 27, 1963, said that a firearms expert attempted to duplicate the feat using a similar rifle. He was firing at a stationary target that was only 50 feet away , and still he could only get three shots off in 11 seconds on the first attempt and in 8 seconds on the second attempt.
Life claimed that the director of the National Rifle Association, Clayton Whyte, Jr., “fired an identical-make rifle with an identical sight against a moving target over similar ranges for Life last week. He got three hits in 6.2 seconds.” What Life failed to mention was the accuracy of the three shots by Mr. Whyte.
Another question that is not asked from what I have read over the years is, why did LHO, according to the WC, work the bolt after the fatal third shot?
Quote on
There was a live round in the firing chambers…We can only speculate on his [LHO’s] reason for working the bolt and putting a forth bullet in the firing chamber. (Dallas Morning News, December 10, 1963, quote from a police investigator.)
Quote off
This is another overlooked point in this case (arrest report timed 11 minutes before the arrest, the lack of an arrest warrant being obtained before LHO was arrested, etc…). Why would LHO take the time to work another bullet into the chamber if the third shot had hit JFK in the head as claimed? Wouldn't his priority be getting off the sixth floor?
We have seen in this series already that LHO was at best an average shooter while he was in the U.S. Marines. Four years would elapse before the assassination took place, and as we have seen previously in this series there is zero evidence showing tbat LHO ever practiced or used a rifle. That is four years without ever using a rifle. To add insult to injury, the last rifle that LHO used was the American M-1 which was an semi-automatic rifle. There was NO bolt to operate. The difference in operating a M-1 and a Carcano is similar to the difference between driving a manual and automatic transmission.
Here is what some rifle experts thought of the alleged shooting feat.
Quote on
…a group of the nation's most knowledgeable gun experts, meeting in Maryland at the time of the shooting, agreed that considering the gun, the distance, the angle and the movement of the President’s car, the assassin was either an exceptional marksman or fantastically lucky in placing the shots. (New York Times , November 25, 1963)
Quote off
Given his lack of familiarity with the bolt-operation and total lack of use of a rifle for four years the WC’s claim would have to fall into the fantastically lucky category. To give us a more clear picture of how fantastic this shooting feat would have been let's return to Ed Wallace's article.
Quote on
Detectives and policemen have emptied their guns at assailants, at fist-fighting range, and all shots missed.
Hunters carrying the finest telescope-sighted rifles miss broadside shots at standing deer within a range accessible to a rock.
The shots which killed the President and wounded the Governor of Texas, were fired from a range of 75 to 100 yards. There were six people in the open automobile, into which three shots were at chosen, moving targets. Only the two people an assassin would want to kill were hit – and in vital parts of their bodies .
Slightest variations in sighting, the precise instant of trigger pull, movements of the rifle and movements of the intended victims, conditions of sunlight and shadow, uniformity of ammunition used—these and countless other conditions and variables could have changed the deadly moment to produce misses, or minor wounds. (Ed Wallace, New York World-Telegram and Sun, December 4, 1963)
Quote off
This sums up the lunacy of the official claim. It is easy to forget that there were other people in the limousine and two of them were women. And yet, we are asked to believe that an average shooter, at best, like LHO could totally miss the limousine with one shot, but then have the precision to hit neither women next to the targets. Sure.
The Mannlicher-Carcano (M-C) that was claimed to be the murder weapon certainly did not have one of the “finest telescopic” sights either. In fact, it is questionable that the telescopic sight was even operable. A number of WC defenders have conceded that the iron sights might have been used, but this would have made the shots even more difficult. No, if LHO was going to pull of what even first-rate marksmen couldn't do he would have needed a first-class rifle, one of the finest scopes and lots of practice. Based on the evidence presented LHO had none of this going for him.
The National Rifle Association expert told the New York Times that a man had to be “well-practiced” in the use of the M-C to achieve the extraordinary proficiency shown by the assassin.
Meanwhile, LHO who “as marines go…was not highly regarded as a rifleman.” (New York Times, November 23, 1963) And yet, he supposedly accomplished what the top experts in the world could not do under better conditions. He supposedly used an old crappy rifle to do it too.
Ed Wallace summed it up in his article.
Quote on
Gun devotees cannot agree that marksmanship was the fatal ingredient in the chemistry of Lee Harvey Oswald. He used a strange gun; there is no evidence he had done any practicing; he was an unstable figure on a mission that would shake the nerves –and trigger finger—of a much cooler man. (Ed Wallace, New York World-Telegram and Sun, December 4, 1963)
Quote off
It is interesting that Mr. Wallace uses the word “mission”. Was LHO supposed to be on a mission? This is the part that WC defenders ignore all the time. LHO would have been firing at the POTUS and this would have required extra special nerves. The WC never showed that he possessed them.
We again see comments by experts that call into question the claims of the WC and raise additional doubt, thus, their conclusion is sunk.