Post by Gil Jesus on Sept 6, 2022 8:52:29 GMT -5
By Gil Jesus (2022)
"The various tests showed that the Mannlicher-Carcano was an accurate rifle and that the use of a four-power scope was a substantial aid to rapid, accurate firing." (Report, pg. 195)
Both of the above points are lies. The Mannlicher-Carcano was NOT an accurate weapon and the scope did NOT enhance its speed or accuracy. For any test designed to recreate performance to be valid, all of the conditions that existed in the original performance must exist in the test.
Otherwise, you're measuring apples against oranges.
Three tests were done for speed and accuracy, two by the FBI and one by the Army. All three tests showed that the rifle was unable to perform at the level of speed and accuracy attributed to it by the Warren Commission.
The FBI Tests
"It is a very accurate weapon. The targets we fired showed that". (FBI firearms expert Robert Frazier's testimony in 3 H 411)
The targets, however, proved that that was a lie. The first FBI test was done on November 27, 1963. It tested the rifle at distances 15 and 25 yards because, according to testimony from one of its firearms experts, Robert Frazier, the facility to test rifle at long range was not available.
The tests were conducted for speed and accuracy. (3 H 402)
Three FBI experts fired the rifle at 15 yards. Charles Killion fired three rounds in 9 seconds and Cortlandt Cunningham did it in 7 seconds. Frazier completed the sequence in 6 seconds.
Killion's 3 hits were 2 1/2 inches high and 1 inch to the right. Cunningham's 3 shots were 4 inches high and 1 inch to the right. Frazier's 3 shots were the same as Cunningham's, 4 inches high and 1 inch to the right. (3 H 403 - 404)
Frazier was the only participant in the test at 25 yards. In this test, Frazier fired two sets of three shots.
In his first set, he fired three rounds in 4.8 seconds, but his shots were 4 inches high and 1 to 2 inches to the right, same as it was at 15 yards. (3 H 404)
In his second set, he fired three rounds in 4.6 seconds, but 1 shot was an inch high and the other two were 4-5 inches high. (Ibid.)
The short distance tests showed that, even with the scope, the rifle missed the aiming point by almost a half of a foot.
It wasn't until almost 4 months later, on March 16, 1964, that the FBI was able to test the rifle at long range. This test was conducted with a target at 100 yards and the only shooter once again was Robert Frazier.
I refer to this test as the second FBI test because it wasn't done at the same time and date as the short distance test.
In this test, Frazier fired four sets of 3 shots.
In his first set, he fired the three shots in 5.9 seconds, but was 5 inches too high.
In the second set, he fired the shots in 6.2 seconds, but was 4 inches high and 3-4 inches to the right.
In his third set, he fired the shots in 5.6 seconds, but he was 2 1/2 inches high and 2 inches to the right.
In his final set, he fired the three rounds in 6.5 seconds, but was 5 inches high and 5 inches to the right. (3 H 405)
The long distance test conducted by the FBI proved that the further the target, the more a shooter missed what he was aiming at. What was a 2 1/2 to 4 inch miss at 15 yards, was a 4-5 inch miss at 100 yards.
In total, 3 FBI agents fired 27 rounds from the CE 139 rifle and not one round hit where they were aiming at.
The results of these tests proved that the rifle was NOT accurate and that Frazier lied under oath when he testified that it was.
Undaunted by the results of the FBI's tests, the Commission did what it usually did when the FBI's evidence did not give it the results it desired: it turned to a second opinion.
In this case, it turned to the US Army.
The Army Tests
Because the FBI's tests had proven that the CE 139 rifle was inaccurate weapon, the Commission needed results proving otherwise. For that it turned to the US Army's weapons testing facility at the Aberdeen Proving Grounds. The man who supervised the testing was Ronald Simmons, Chief of the Weapons Evaluation Branch of the Ballistics Research Laboratory of the Department of the Army.
For the sake of being brief, I'll refer to these as the "army tests".
The Army's testing of the CE 139 rifle was done on March 27, 1964, eleven days after the FBI tests showed that the rifle could not have committed the crime.
The first test they did was a dispersion test. This is a test to measure the distance between or the "spread" of bullets fired at a target.
To minimize the dispersion or "spread" of the bullets, the testers used a "machine rest". (3 H 443)
It was under these conditions, firing the rifle in a machine rest, that Simmons called the CE 139 rifle, "quite accurate" (Ibid.), something the Commission quoted in its Report (pg. 194), but failed to reveal under what circumstances the comment was made.
It's hard to image any rifle not being accurate when set up in a rig like that.
In fact, when comparing the accuracy of the rifle in a machine rest with its accuracy in the hands of a master rifleman, the rifle was anything but accurate.
The dispersion of the bullets on the targets of 240 and 270 ft show a wide spread. (grey circle, below)
Not only was the dispersion wide on the second and third targets , almost half of those shots missed the target.
But having the rifle in a machine rest wasn't the only advantage the Army shooters had that a shooter from the sixth floor did not have.
Advantage # 1: Skill Level
For its test, the Commission used three riflemen rated as Master ( the highest rating ) by the National Rifle Association. These were not men who grab a rifle and take pictures in their backyard, making believe they're something they're not. These guys were the real deal.
Two were civilians employed by the US Army as gunners and the third was on active duty. ( 3 H 445 )
And their skill level was far superior to Oswald's. In addition to being rated as Master riflemen, all three had experience in national shooting match competitions sponsored by the NRA. (3 H 450)
In comparison, they were major league and Oswald was bush league.
On May 6, 1959 Oswald participated in a his final qualification test. In that test, he qualified "marksman" with a low reading of 191. The bare minimum to qualify was 190. (red boxes below)
Lt. Col. A.G. Folsom Jr. Head of the Records Bureau of the Marine Corps., reported to the Commission that, "a low marksman qualification indicates a rather poor shot".
Lt. Col. Folsom's understanding of Oswald's rating was verified by Sgt. Nelson Delgado, Oswald's Sergeant, who described how poor a shot Oswald really was.
Skill Advantage: Riflemen.
Advantage # 2: Firing At Stationary Targets
Another advantage the Commission's shooters had was that they were firing at stationary targets placed at 175, 240 and 270 ft. rather than at a moving target.
Simmons told the Commission that in his opinion, the moving of the target would have no effect on the accuracy of fire because Kennedy was moving away from the rifle and was "exposed to the rifleman at all times". (Ibid.)
But this is not true. Anyone who has fired a rifle before knows that shooting at a moving target requires establishing a "lead". You must keep the gun moving with the target, in the same direction but in front of it, maintaining your "lead" as the target moves and then pull the trigger while you're continuing to move the gun.
This is called follow-through and it's necessary to hitting a moving target. If you stop the gun and lose that lead, you will miss.
This is a special skill that you can't learn from shooting at stationary targets in competitive events.
A target moving away from you would normally require a "lead" above it, not below it. A rifle firing as much as 5 inches high and 5 inches to the right would have required the shooter using it to aim his crosshairs just above Kennedy's left shoulder in order to hit his head.
We will never know what skills these riflemen had at shooting at moving targets. How much time it would have taken to fire three shots and how accurate those three shots would have been will remain one of those mysteries of the case.
The fact remains that shooting at a stationary target gives a shooter an advantage in speed by not having to reacquire the target and the "lead" between shots.
Speed Advantage: Riflemen
Advantage # 3: Time of first shot
The Commission concluded that because of the leaves on the tree outside the TSBD, the gunman's view from the sixth floor was obstructed until Zapruder frame 210. (Report, pg. 105) Kennedy's reaction is apparent at Z225, some 15 frames or 0.8 seconds after he emerges from behind the tree.
This means that a gunman firing from the sixth floor had only .8 seconds to aim, lead the target and fire the first shot.
But the riflemen in the Commission's test were allowed to take as much time as they pleased aiming at the first target. (3 H 445)
This advantage would be for accuracy. The shooter takes his time aiming for the first shot, when it's fired he can see where it hits and make an adjustment in his aim for the subsequent shots.
And the first shot will always be the most accurate.
Accuracy Advantage: Riflemen
Advantage # 4: Number Of Attempts
Three riflemen were given two attempts each with the CE 139 rifle. In total, 6 attempts were made and 18 shots were fired. In addition, the shooters were allowed 2-3 minutes each to work the stiff bolt back and forth before firing. There is no evidence that Oswald fired the rifle before November 22, 1963 and on that date, he allegedly only got one attempt of 3 shots.
Familiarity Advantage: Riflemen
Advantage # 5: Height
While a shooter firing from the sixth floor would have been firing from a height of 60 feet, the Commission's shooters fired from a height of only 30 feet.
Lowering the height from which the rifleman fires lowers the distance the bullet has to travel to the target. Using this calculator, where a is the height of the 6th floor in feet ( 60 ) and b is the distance of the head shot (240) we get a distance of 247.39 feet the shot has to travel.
www.google.com/search?q=hypotenuse&oq=&aqs=chrome.0.69i59i450l8.1463681633j0j15&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
But at a height of 30 feet, that distance comes down to 241.87. Not a big difference, but a difference nonetheless. And any shortage in distance is an advantage in time.
Timing Advantage: Riflemen
The Test Results
In spite of all the advantages the shooters had in this test, riflemen Staley and Hendrix were unable to complete the three-shot sequence in less than 6.45 seconds. Staley's best was 6.45, Hendrix's was 7 seconds flat. (3 H 446)
Since their times were not anywhere near the 5.6 seconds the Warren Commission concluded was the firing sequence, I'll avoid critiquing their accuracy. Suffice it to say that they could not duplicate Oswald's alleged performance.
However, the third rifleman, Miller, was able to fire three shots within the Commission's 5.6 timeframe, albeit his accuracy was way off.
In his first attempt, Miller was able to fire three rounds in 4.6 seconds and his second attempt, 5.15. But he missed the second shot on both attempts. This is what his scorecard looked like:
Miller was the best for speed, but he missed the "target" twice and nearly missed it on his last shot.
As a result, Miller's performance, while as fast as or faster than that of the Commission's lone gunman, it could not match his alleged accuracy.
And for accuracy, we need to look no further than the scope.
The Defective Ccope
When the FBI fired the rifle in November of 1963, it found that the shots were all high and to the right from the aiming point. But because the shots were so closely grouped together, it never occurred to the FBI experts to try to sight the rifle in.
When they did the long distance test at Quantico, they DID try to sight the rifle in and found that adjusting the windage (horizontal adjustment) turret on the side of the scope moved the elevation (vertical) adjustment as well. (3 H 405)
This made the scope impossible to sight in and the FBI was left with sighting in the rifle "approximately". They test fired the rifle and found that "the shots were not landing in the same place, but were gradually moving away from the point of impact". (3 H 405)
Frazier was unable to tell the Commission exactly when this defect occurred but the fact that the rifle was firing high and to the right when the Bureau fired it for the first time indicates it was damaged prior to the November 27th testing.
Frazier testified that this defect could be compensated for by merely aiming the crosshairs low and to the left ( 3 H 407 ), meaning that a shooter wishing to shoot Kennedy in the head would have to aim just over his left shoulder.
When Ronald Simmons testified before the Warren Commission, he made no mention that the windage adjustment was interferring with the elevation adjustment. He admitted that his people could not sight the rifle in and introduced two shims, one for the elevation and one for the azimuth (windage). (3 H 443)
As it turned out, the shims were not an advantage, especially after 58.3 yards ( 175 ft ). The shims appeared to make the shots miss low and to the left.
The second and third targets (240 and 270 ft, respectively) showed a wide dispersion and 5 of the 12 shots missed the target completely.
Conclusion
One of those flunkies the Commission called on was Marine Master Sergeant James Zahm, who told the Commission that Oswald's training and the equipment he used made him capable of committing the crime. (11 H 309)
But Zahm was neither an expert on Oswald, the scope or the rifle. He had never spent time on a firing range with Oswald. He had never test fired the rifle or tried to sight in the scope.
His opinions were based on the use of a scope that was NOT defective and he was never shown the targets that were shot at.
How anybody could consider that this rifle, with this scope was an accurate weapon is beyond me. The targets presented as evidence indicates that the Commission's experts were liars or had no idea.
The FBI targets in particular show where the shooters were aiming at and where the bullets hit.
Frazier's own testimony was that even at 15 yards, the rifle fired 2 1/2 to 4 inches high from where they aimed it. (3 H 404) At 25 yards, it was 4-5 inches high. At 100 yards, it was 2 1/2 to 5 inches high.
An accurate weapon, sighted in correctly, hits where you aim it.
The Army installed shims to try to sight the rifle in. They used unmarked targets displaying shoulder and head only and gave no direction to their shooters where to aim. (3 H 445)
How does one measure accuracy and omit having a common aiming point? How does one measure how far off the bullet was without a reference point?
Were they aiming for the head? Center mass ? Were they all aiming at the same spot or someplace else?
The Commission never asked. And it never heard from the Army shooters who participated in the test.
The Commission used riflemen with superior skills firing at stationary targets.
They were able to take as long as they wanted for the first shot, even though a shooter from the sixth floor would have only .8 seconds to fire the first shot.
They got more attempts and more shots (the FBI's Frazier got 7 attempts and 21 shots ) than was attributed to Oswald. And they fired from a tower that was lower than the sixth floor, shortening the distance the bullet had to travel to the target.
In spite of all of these advantages, advantages that Oswald did not have, six gunmen took 15 attempts and fired 45 shots from the CE 139 rifle and failed in every attempt to hit what they aimed at.
And there is no evidence that Oswald was any more proficient in the operation of this weapon than they were.
In fact, there's no evidence that Oswald fired as many or more shots through this weapon than Robert Frazier did.
And Frazier never hit what he aimed at.
Which brings us to the defective scope. The evidence indicates that the scope was defective on November 27, when the FBI first tested the rifle and it fired high and to the right.
No evidence exists to show that the scope was damaged after the assassination or while in the possession of the Dallas Police.
Absent that evidence, we must assume that the condition of the scope when received by the FBI was the same condition it was in at the time of the assassination.
The scope was defective as it would not allow you to sight the rifle in. The FBI couldn't sight it in and the Army couldn't sight it in.
Six expert riflemen took 15 attempts and fired 45 shots from the CE 139 rifle and failed in every attempt to hit what they aimed at.
But Oswald hit two out of three.
This rifle, with this scope, was not accurate enough to kill President Kennedy. The rifle tests proved that.
"The various tests showed that the Mannlicher-Carcano was an accurate rifle and that the use of a four-power scope was a substantial aid to rapid, accurate firing." (Report, pg. 195)
Both of the above points are lies. The Mannlicher-Carcano was NOT an accurate weapon and the scope did NOT enhance its speed or accuracy. For any test designed to recreate performance to be valid, all of the conditions that existed in the original performance must exist in the test.
Otherwise, you're measuring apples against oranges.
Three tests were done for speed and accuracy, two by the FBI and one by the Army. All three tests showed that the rifle was unable to perform at the level of speed and accuracy attributed to it by the Warren Commission.
The FBI Tests
"It is a very accurate weapon. The targets we fired showed that". (FBI firearms expert Robert Frazier's testimony in 3 H 411)
The targets, however, proved that that was a lie. The first FBI test was done on November 27, 1963. It tested the rifle at distances 15 and 25 yards because, according to testimony from one of its firearms experts, Robert Frazier, the facility to test rifle at long range was not available.
The tests were conducted for speed and accuracy. (3 H 402)
Three FBI experts fired the rifle at 15 yards. Charles Killion fired three rounds in 9 seconds and Cortlandt Cunningham did it in 7 seconds. Frazier completed the sequence in 6 seconds.
Killion's 3 hits were 2 1/2 inches high and 1 inch to the right. Cunningham's 3 shots were 4 inches high and 1 inch to the right. Frazier's 3 shots were the same as Cunningham's, 4 inches high and 1 inch to the right. (3 H 403 - 404)
Frazier was the only participant in the test at 25 yards. In this test, Frazier fired two sets of three shots.
In his first set, he fired three rounds in 4.8 seconds, but his shots were 4 inches high and 1 to 2 inches to the right, same as it was at 15 yards. (3 H 404)
In his second set, he fired three rounds in 4.6 seconds, but 1 shot was an inch high and the other two were 4-5 inches high. (Ibid.)
The short distance tests showed that, even with the scope, the rifle missed the aiming point by almost a half of a foot.
It wasn't until almost 4 months later, on March 16, 1964, that the FBI was able to test the rifle at long range. This test was conducted with a target at 100 yards and the only shooter once again was Robert Frazier.
I refer to this test as the second FBI test because it wasn't done at the same time and date as the short distance test.
In this test, Frazier fired four sets of 3 shots.
In his first set, he fired the three shots in 5.9 seconds, but was 5 inches too high.
In the second set, he fired the shots in 6.2 seconds, but was 4 inches high and 3-4 inches to the right.
In his third set, he fired the shots in 5.6 seconds, but he was 2 1/2 inches high and 2 inches to the right.
In his final set, he fired the three rounds in 6.5 seconds, but was 5 inches high and 5 inches to the right. (3 H 405)
The long distance test conducted by the FBI proved that the further the target, the more a shooter missed what he was aiming at. What was a 2 1/2 to 4 inch miss at 15 yards, was a 4-5 inch miss at 100 yards.
In total, 3 FBI agents fired 27 rounds from the CE 139 rifle and not one round hit where they were aiming at.
The results of these tests proved that the rifle was NOT accurate and that Frazier lied under oath when he testified that it was.
Undaunted by the results of the FBI's tests, the Commission did what it usually did when the FBI's evidence did not give it the results it desired: it turned to a second opinion.
In this case, it turned to the US Army.
The Army Tests
Because the FBI's tests had proven that the CE 139 rifle was inaccurate weapon, the Commission needed results proving otherwise. For that it turned to the US Army's weapons testing facility at the Aberdeen Proving Grounds. The man who supervised the testing was Ronald Simmons, Chief of the Weapons Evaluation Branch of the Ballistics Research Laboratory of the Department of the Army.
For the sake of being brief, I'll refer to these as the "army tests".
The Army's testing of the CE 139 rifle was done on March 27, 1964, eleven days after the FBI tests showed that the rifle could not have committed the crime.
The first test they did was a dispersion test. This is a test to measure the distance between or the "spread" of bullets fired at a target.
To minimize the dispersion or "spread" of the bullets, the testers used a "machine rest". (3 H 443)
It was under these conditions, firing the rifle in a machine rest, that Simmons called the CE 139 rifle, "quite accurate" (Ibid.), something the Commission quoted in its Report (pg. 194), but failed to reveal under what circumstances the comment was made.
It's hard to image any rifle not being accurate when set up in a rig like that.
In fact, when comparing the accuracy of the rifle in a machine rest with its accuracy in the hands of a master rifleman, the rifle was anything but accurate.
The dispersion of the bullets on the targets of 240 and 270 ft show a wide spread. (grey circle, below)
Not only was the dispersion wide on the second and third targets , almost half of those shots missed the target.
But having the rifle in a machine rest wasn't the only advantage the Army shooters had that a shooter from the sixth floor did not have.
Advantage # 1: Skill Level
For its test, the Commission used three riflemen rated as Master ( the highest rating ) by the National Rifle Association. These were not men who grab a rifle and take pictures in their backyard, making believe they're something they're not. These guys were the real deal.
Two were civilians employed by the US Army as gunners and the third was on active duty. ( 3 H 445 )
And their skill level was far superior to Oswald's. In addition to being rated as Master riflemen, all three had experience in national shooting match competitions sponsored by the NRA. (3 H 450)
In comparison, they were major league and Oswald was bush league.
On May 6, 1959 Oswald participated in a his final qualification test. In that test, he qualified "marksman" with a low reading of 191. The bare minimum to qualify was 190. (red boxes below)
Lt. Col. A.G. Folsom Jr. Head of the Records Bureau of the Marine Corps., reported to the Commission that, "a low marksman qualification indicates a rather poor shot".
Lt. Col. Folsom's understanding of Oswald's rating was verified by Sgt. Nelson Delgado, Oswald's Sergeant, who described how poor a shot Oswald really was.
Skill Advantage: Riflemen.
Advantage # 2: Firing At Stationary Targets
Another advantage the Commission's shooters had was that they were firing at stationary targets placed at 175, 240 and 270 ft. rather than at a moving target.
Simmons told the Commission that in his opinion, the moving of the target would have no effect on the accuracy of fire because Kennedy was moving away from the rifle and was "exposed to the rifleman at all times". (Ibid.)
But this is not true. Anyone who has fired a rifle before knows that shooting at a moving target requires establishing a "lead". You must keep the gun moving with the target, in the same direction but in front of it, maintaining your "lead" as the target moves and then pull the trigger while you're continuing to move the gun.
This is called follow-through and it's necessary to hitting a moving target. If you stop the gun and lose that lead, you will miss.
This is a special skill that you can't learn from shooting at stationary targets in competitive events.
A target moving away from you would normally require a "lead" above it, not below it. A rifle firing as much as 5 inches high and 5 inches to the right would have required the shooter using it to aim his crosshairs just above Kennedy's left shoulder in order to hit his head.
We will never know what skills these riflemen had at shooting at moving targets. How much time it would have taken to fire three shots and how accurate those three shots would have been will remain one of those mysteries of the case.
The fact remains that shooting at a stationary target gives a shooter an advantage in speed by not having to reacquire the target and the "lead" between shots.
Speed Advantage: Riflemen
Advantage # 3: Time of first shot
The Commission concluded that because of the leaves on the tree outside the TSBD, the gunman's view from the sixth floor was obstructed until Zapruder frame 210. (Report, pg. 105) Kennedy's reaction is apparent at Z225, some 15 frames or 0.8 seconds after he emerges from behind the tree.
This means that a gunman firing from the sixth floor had only .8 seconds to aim, lead the target and fire the first shot.
But the riflemen in the Commission's test were allowed to take as much time as they pleased aiming at the first target. (3 H 445)
This advantage would be for accuracy. The shooter takes his time aiming for the first shot, when it's fired he can see where it hits and make an adjustment in his aim for the subsequent shots.
And the first shot will always be the most accurate.
Accuracy Advantage: Riflemen
Advantage # 4: Number Of Attempts
Three riflemen were given two attempts each with the CE 139 rifle. In total, 6 attempts were made and 18 shots were fired. In addition, the shooters were allowed 2-3 minutes each to work the stiff bolt back and forth before firing. There is no evidence that Oswald fired the rifle before November 22, 1963 and on that date, he allegedly only got one attempt of 3 shots.
Familiarity Advantage: Riflemen
Advantage # 5: Height
While a shooter firing from the sixth floor would have been firing from a height of 60 feet, the Commission's shooters fired from a height of only 30 feet.
Lowering the height from which the rifleman fires lowers the distance the bullet has to travel to the target. Using this calculator, where a is the height of the 6th floor in feet ( 60 ) and b is the distance of the head shot (240) we get a distance of 247.39 feet the shot has to travel.
www.google.com/search?q=hypotenuse&oq=&aqs=chrome.0.69i59i450l8.1463681633j0j15&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
But at a height of 30 feet, that distance comes down to 241.87. Not a big difference, but a difference nonetheless. And any shortage in distance is an advantage in time.
Timing Advantage: Riflemen
The Test Results
In spite of all the advantages the shooters had in this test, riflemen Staley and Hendrix were unable to complete the three-shot sequence in less than 6.45 seconds. Staley's best was 6.45, Hendrix's was 7 seconds flat. (3 H 446)
Since their times were not anywhere near the 5.6 seconds the Warren Commission concluded was the firing sequence, I'll avoid critiquing their accuracy. Suffice it to say that they could not duplicate Oswald's alleged performance.
However, the third rifleman, Miller, was able to fire three shots within the Commission's 5.6 timeframe, albeit his accuracy was way off.
In his first attempt, Miller was able to fire three rounds in 4.6 seconds and his second attempt, 5.15. But he missed the second shot on both attempts. This is what his scorecard looked like:
Miller was the best for speed, but he missed the "target" twice and nearly missed it on his last shot.
As a result, Miller's performance, while as fast as or faster than that of the Commission's lone gunman, it could not match his alleged accuracy.
And for accuracy, we need to look no further than the scope.
The Defective Ccope
When the FBI fired the rifle in November of 1963, it found that the shots were all high and to the right from the aiming point. But because the shots were so closely grouped together, it never occurred to the FBI experts to try to sight the rifle in.
When they did the long distance test at Quantico, they DID try to sight the rifle in and found that adjusting the windage (horizontal adjustment) turret on the side of the scope moved the elevation (vertical) adjustment as well. (3 H 405)
This made the scope impossible to sight in and the FBI was left with sighting in the rifle "approximately". They test fired the rifle and found that "the shots were not landing in the same place, but were gradually moving away from the point of impact". (3 H 405)
Frazier was unable to tell the Commission exactly when this defect occurred but the fact that the rifle was firing high and to the right when the Bureau fired it for the first time indicates it was damaged prior to the November 27th testing.
Frazier testified that this defect could be compensated for by merely aiming the crosshairs low and to the left ( 3 H 407 ), meaning that a shooter wishing to shoot Kennedy in the head would have to aim just over his left shoulder.
When Ronald Simmons testified before the Warren Commission, he made no mention that the windage adjustment was interferring with the elevation adjustment. He admitted that his people could not sight the rifle in and introduced two shims, one for the elevation and one for the azimuth (windage). (3 H 443)
As it turned out, the shims were not an advantage, especially after 58.3 yards ( 175 ft ). The shims appeared to make the shots miss low and to the left.
The second and third targets (240 and 270 ft, respectively) showed a wide dispersion and 5 of the 12 shots missed the target completely.
Conclusion
One of those flunkies the Commission called on was Marine Master Sergeant James Zahm, who told the Commission that Oswald's training and the equipment he used made him capable of committing the crime. (11 H 309)
But Zahm was neither an expert on Oswald, the scope or the rifle. He had never spent time on a firing range with Oswald. He had never test fired the rifle or tried to sight in the scope.
His opinions were based on the use of a scope that was NOT defective and he was never shown the targets that were shot at.
How anybody could consider that this rifle, with this scope was an accurate weapon is beyond me. The targets presented as evidence indicates that the Commission's experts were liars or had no idea.
The FBI targets in particular show where the shooters were aiming at and where the bullets hit.
Frazier's own testimony was that even at 15 yards, the rifle fired 2 1/2 to 4 inches high from where they aimed it. (3 H 404) At 25 yards, it was 4-5 inches high. At 100 yards, it was 2 1/2 to 5 inches high.
An accurate weapon, sighted in correctly, hits where you aim it.
The Army installed shims to try to sight the rifle in. They used unmarked targets displaying shoulder and head only and gave no direction to their shooters where to aim. (3 H 445)
How does one measure accuracy and omit having a common aiming point? How does one measure how far off the bullet was without a reference point?
Were they aiming for the head? Center mass ? Were they all aiming at the same spot or someplace else?
The Commission never asked. And it never heard from the Army shooters who participated in the test.
The Commission used riflemen with superior skills firing at stationary targets.
They were able to take as long as they wanted for the first shot, even though a shooter from the sixth floor would have only .8 seconds to fire the first shot.
They got more attempts and more shots (the FBI's Frazier got 7 attempts and 21 shots ) than was attributed to Oswald. And they fired from a tower that was lower than the sixth floor, shortening the distance the bullet had to travel to the target.
In spite of all of these advantages, advantages that Oswald did not have, six gunmen took 15 attempts and fired 45 shots from the CE 139 rifle and failed in every attempt to hit what they aimed at.
And there is no evidence that Oswald was any more proficient in the operation of this weapon than they were.
In fact, there's no evidence that Oswald fired as many or more shots through this weapon than Robert Frazier did.
And Frazier never hit what he aimed at.
Which brings us to the defective scope. The evidence indicates that the scope was defective on November 27, when the FBI first tested the rifle and it fired high and to the right.
No evidence exists to show that the scope was damaged after the assassination or while in the possession of the Dallas Police.
Absent that evidence, we must assume that the condition of the scope when received by the FBI was the same condition it was in at the time of the assassination.
The scope was defective as it would not allow you to sight the rifle in. The FBI couldn't sight it in and the Army couldn't sight it in.
Six expert riflemen took 15 attempts and fired 45 shots from the CE 139 rifle and failed in every attempt to hit what they aimed at.
But Oswald hit two out of three.
This rifle, with this scope, was not accurate enough to kill President Kennedy. The rifle tests proved that.