THE KENNEDY FILES FILE #2

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THE AUDIO RECORDING

Many people are familiar with the Zapruder film and some even know of the other photographic evidence in the Kennedy assassination. These will be covered in future issues. A lesser known item is an audio recording of the shots.

Behind and to the left of Kennedy's car was a policeman riding a motorcycle. Apparently, his microphone's "push-to-talk" button was stuck in the on position and a recording machine at Dallas police headquarters taped the entire assassination. The Warren Commission turned the recording over to the FBI who claimed to find nothing which resembled gunshots. Then it was given to Dr. Lawrence Kersta of Bell Telephone Acoustics & Speech Research Laboratory who said there were "six nonvoiced noises." The Warren Report did not reveal his test results. Interestingly, the original tape has disappeared from the National Archives.

THE 1978 ANALYSIS

In May, 1978, The House Select Committee on Assassinations turned the recording over to Dr. James Barger of Bolt, Beranek and Newman who had previously examined the infamous Watergate tapes. The firm had only a short time to analyze the sounds as the Committee was entering its final months. The tape was filtered and digitized so that repetitive noises such as engines could be removed and wave-forms could be produced. They found at least six impulses (and possibly as many as nine) which could have been gunshots.

The Committee, based on the Zapruder film, set a certain time frame that the shots had to fit within. All six impulses occurred at the at the correct time. The sounds also matched patterns of gunfire recorded through a radio system similar to the Dallas police depart-ments. The former Chief Counsel of the Assassinations Committee, Robert Blakey, has said on several occasions "There were six or seven shots on the tape." Of course, Oswald could not have fired near this many shots in the 5.6 second period that most experts agree on (based on the Zapruder film). Also, only three empty cartridges were found at Oswald's supposed firing spot.

Next, BBN recommended firing test shots in Dealey Plaza to see if they matched any of the six impulses. By setting up microphones at various positions and firing from different places, unique acoustic finger-prints could be taken. Each combination of positions would result in a unique spacing of the shot's noise and echoes.

MICROPHONE LOCATION

One thing that made the measurements more difficult was the use of stationary microphones rather than moving ones such as the one which originally recorded the shots. When the scientists studied the 26 echoes for each shot and computed the location of the original micro-phone, it resulted in an accuracy within one foot. One set of data matched better than 95% as the position of the open mike and it was the location of motorcycle policeman H.B. McLain.

McLain was then interviewed and estimated that he was "about 150 feet" behind Kennedy. The acoustic evidence showed the open mike was 154 behind the car when the third shot was fired. Photographs also show McLain to be in this position at the time. The sound experts also stated that the mike was on the left side of the motorcycle and pointed toward the ground. McLain confirmed this along with the fact that he frequently had open mike problems. The tape also contained the sounds of the motorcycle quickly accelerating about 30 seconds after the last shot, then slowing, idling, and disappearing. This matches what is known to have happened following the shooting, with the recording ending as McLain flipped on his siren and thereby closed the microphone.

THE SNIPERS' NESTS

A major mistake with the reenactment was that shots were only fired from two locations: the Texas School Book Depository and the grassy knoll. Other locations were ignored although there has been much evidence that three or more gunmen may have participated. The first and sixth impulses did not match gunfire from either of the two tested locations and so were dismissed by the Committee. They did carefully word the report to state that they did not match the two tested firing spots rather than stating that they were not gunshots. They could have been gunshots fired from other positions. The first impulse is 1/2 second before the second. The sixth is 7/10 of a second after the fifth. If the two are indeed shots, then there were at least 3 and possibly 4 gunmen! Interestingly, there is very possibly a seventh shot on the tape. At one point another mike was keyed and caused a heterodyning on the tape. This is at the point that the Zapruder film shows Kennedy react to a possible hit to his back.

Of the four impulses that the Committee accepted as gunshots, the third matched gunfire from the grassy knoll. Because of the echo patterns, it had to come from the grassy knoll and not from elsewhere, such as an engine backfiring. The grassy knoll shot was also pre-ceeded by an N-wave (supersonic shock wave) which proved it was a gunshot (bullets are supersonic). Experts stated that there was better than a 95 percent chance that there was a shot from the grassy knoll.

Although Chairman Stokes privately admitted that they knew the head shot came from the front, no one on the Committee was willing to admit publically that the fatal shot had been fired by someone other than Oswald. They decided to claim that the third shot (the grassy knoll shot) was a miss and that Oswald had fired the fatal head shot. When the recording was synchronized with the Zapruder film, though, this claim did not match perfectly with the other shots. When the grassy knoll shot was synchronized with the head shot everything fell into place. Still, the Committee would not admit that the third shot was the head shot.

Even when the third shot is considered to be a miss and that the other three were hits, then another problem arises: the first and second shots are only 1.66 seconds apart. Therefore, Oswald couldn't have fired the first two because of the speed required. Of course, much evidence shows that Oswald wasn't even on the sixth floor of the Depository and various guns seem to have been spotted by people that day. Was another man firing a quicker rifle from the sixth floor?

ODDITIES

A very strange and suspicious sound also appears just before the end of the tape: an electronic beeping in Morse code for "victory." Where did this originate? We'll probably never know for sure but Jim Hicks appears in Dealey Plaza photos with a radio and admitted his role in the assassination to Jim Garrison. Possibly he was the com-munications man for the snipers as some researchers believe. He certainly resembles the man who the CIA supposedly photographed at the Soviet embassy in Mexico City two months BEFORE the murder using Oswald's name. Not long after talking to Garrison, Hicks was locked away in a military hospital for the insane.

Evaluations of the tape show that more than one microphone was open during the shooting. Actually, four may have been keyed which leads one to wonder if there was an attempt to disrupt police communications at the crucial time.

PROBLEMS WITH THE RECORDING

Dr. Barger's examination of the tape found two 60 hertz hums on the recording. The original copy should have had one hum. Two hums show that it is a copy of the original. Where did the original recording disappear to? Researchers believe the tape was tampered with which unfortunately gives critics reason to question the authenticity of the recording. There is a second police department recording of a second channel. A policeman's voice can be heard on both tapes saying the same thing. On the second tape it is apparent that he didn't say it until about one minute after the shooting. On the first (and im-portant tape) it appears just after the shooting. Critics claim this proves the tape is not a recording of shots at all but of some other noise. The problem with this is that the shots scientifically match the shots fired for the Committee's test. They can be nothing but shots and can not have been fired from anywhere except the Depository and grassy knoll. They also can not have been recorded anywhere but the motorcycle following the president' car.

Why does the statement appear at the wrong place on the tape? The secret probably lies in the two 60 hertz hums. In the CIA's cover-up, the tape was taken and something was removed that was incriminating. A new copy was made which resulted in the second hum and the timing descrepancy. The CIA didn't realize that the tape contained the shots since they apparently don't stand out if you're not looking for them. They most likely edited out a policeman saying something about one of the other gunmen.

Critics have also been quick to point out the sound of a carillon bell on the recording about seven seconds after the final shot. When the Committee looked for such a bell in 1978 they couldn't find one. The FBI even pointed this out in a report. Of course, just because the bell couldn't be found in 1978 doesn't mean it wasn't there in 1963. A news broadcast from Dealey Plaza on the first anniversary of the murder picked up the bell. Also, a tape still exists of a carillon bell which a bank twelve blocks from Dealey Plaza was using to play "Hail to the Chief" as Kennedy was driven through Dallas. The bell could be heard all over Dallas, including at Dealey Plaza.

CONCLUSION

So, in the end we are left with four impulses that are definitely shots. In addition there are possibly three more. The four proven shots breakdown as follows:

Shot 1 - School Book Depository Shot 2 - School Book Depository Shot 3 - Grassy Knoll Shot 4 - School Book Depository

Although it is still not known by the average man on the street, the Assassinations Committee decided that there was a second gunman and that he did indeed fire from the grassy knoll. It's apparent that this unknown gunman fired the fatal head shot which the government still wants us to believe Oswald fired. Of course, Oswald may have been involved, but then again maybe he was just a patsy like he claimed. Whatever his role was, it's time for the government to help track down the others that were involved.