After having watched a brilliant movie, "Now You See Me 2", I had a thought.

Something that had slipped my mind for many years, but something there was apparently a lot of on Nov. 22, 1963 in Dallas.

Magicians and illusionists rely on an old trick called 'sleight of hand', followed by a bit of 'now you see it, now you don’t' action.

Some fast moves, some fast talking, just a pinch of distraction, and voilà! It’s done. And you never saw how it happened.

It’s called misdirection.

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Epileptic Seizure

There was a case of an epileptic seizure that day that unintentionally drew the attention of a number of people. Police officers included.

The man, Jerry Boyd Belknap, apparently never checked into the hospital. But he did pay his $15 ambulance bill later on.

Belknap worked part-time in the mailroom of the Dallas Morning News.

http://jfk-archives.blogspot.nl/2010/06/jerry-belknap.html

For many years some researchers, probably spurred on by Jim Garrison and Oliver Stone, felt this epileptic seizure was staged, and that it was meant to draw attention from areas where the ‘teams’ were setting up.

Well this isn’t true, since Mr. Belknap wasn’t epileptic at all. He had fainting spells, which were a result of being struck by a car some years earlier. He was apparently so excited to see the President, that he forgotten to take his medication that day.

As unintentional as it was, it might have worked to the advantage of the conspirators nevertheless, as it may have given them a bit more time to set up and get into place unseen.

But that event made me think, because it seemingly worked a bit in the favour of the ‘teams’.

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Umbrella Man 

Then there was ‘Umbrella Man’, Louie Steven Witt. He certainly got the attention of the Secret Service detail.

And for many years he became a focal point for investigations. “Did he shoot the President in the throat with a gun hidden in the umbrella?”

That sort of thing.

He even appeared at the HSCA (House Select Committee on Assassinations) hearing in 1978 to clarify why he opened his umbrella, and he even brought his umbrella to the hearing to demonstrate it was a regular umbrella.

To some researchers, myself included, that wasn’t enough.

Because he was never questioned by the Dallas Police, the FBI, the Secret Service, or was even called as a witness to testify before the Warren Commission, some felt he was able to conceal the reason for opening the umbrella on a warming, sunny day.

But he told Mr. Genzman, of the HSCA, the following:

 

Mr. GENZMAN – “Why were you carrying an umbrella that day?”

Mr. WITT – “Actually, I was going to use this umbrella to heckle the President's motorcade.”

Mr. GENZMAN – “How had you gotten this idea?”

Mr. WITT – “In a coffee break conversation someone had mentioned that the umbrella was a sore spot with the Kennedy family. Being a conservative-type fellow, I sort of placed him in the liberal camp and I was just going to kind of do a little heckling.”

Mr. GENZMAN – “Are you saying you were going to use the umbrella as a symbol for the purpose of heckling?”

Mr. WITT – “I think that would cover it.”

 

. . .

 

Mr. GENZMAN – “You testified that you were opening the umbrella to use it as a symbol hoping to catch the President's eye?”

Mr. WITT – “Yes, sir.”

Mr. GENZMAN – “Could you elaborate further as to the type of symbol you thought you were applying?”

Mr. WITT – “I just knew it was a sore spot with the Kennedys; I just knew the vague generalities of it. It had something to do with something that happened years ago with the senior Joe Kennedy when he was Ambassador to England.”

 

. . .

 

Mr. GENZMAN – “What happened next? I believe you testified that you were moving forward opening your umbrella as the motorcade was approaching you?”

Mr. WITT – “Yes. As I moved toward the street, still walking on the grass, I heard the shots that I eventually learned were shots. At the time somehow it didn't register as shots because they were so close together, and it was like hearing a string of firecrackers, or something like that. It didn't at that moment register on me as being shots.”

Mr. GENZMAN – “Did you react in any way?”

Mr. WITT – “No. I continued to move forward and finally got this umbrella up in the air. I think by the time I got the thing up in the air I was over and possibly standing on the retaining wall.”

 

[ this last paragraph was a blatant lie, because in the Zapruder film (at frame 206) he already had his umbrella open, and was pumping it in the air, at the time Kennedy was shot in the throat ]

 

Mr. FAUNTROY – “Mr. Witt, is it your testimony that at no time did the Dallas police or the FBI contact you about your presence at Dealey Court Plaza at this time?”

Mr. WITT – “No. In later years--after all this came up, I have always wondered why they didn't, but no one ever--so far as I know, no one ever made any attempt to find out who I was or why I was there.”

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[ as an assassination witness he should have been heard at all costs – they should have at least taken down his name and address for later interviewing – after all, he just witnessed the murder of his President ]

 

Mr. Witt almost had me convinced, until he bungled by saying he finally got the umbrella up in the air AFTER the shots.

I realize things may have happened so fast that to some people it may have seemed like it was all instant, in a flash-like.

But Witt had 15 years to sit down and recall how things went that afternoon, to focus on the event in his head.

Kind of slow it down and study it in his mind. And he didn’t.

Sorry, Mr. Witt … I still think you were signaling the shooters. <sarcasm intended>

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The three tramps

Then there were 'the three tramps' who were arrested and paraded in front of the book depository. You know: Holt, Harrleson and Rogers.

Their arrest was never official, their names never filed. Bogus.

Misdirection.

It got conspiracy researchers tied in a knot, debating endlessly about who they were and why they were there.

There were actually three more tramps who were arrested. Actual tramps. Their names DID go on file, only to be discovered in a box of de-classified files in a basement of a Dallas Police station in 1992. There could have been more similar arrests that many of us don't know of.

I once read that the arrest of the three tramps that went on file was done to cover up the the arrest of the three tramps that didn’t.

And that if that is the case, the first three tramps had to have been part of the plot.

And then, of course, came the mention by L. Fletcher Prouty that he spotted Gen. Ed Lansdale in the famous ‘three tramps picture’.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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My belief in the whole three tramps thing went out the window.

They were probably part of a clever piece of misdirection to keep investigators from focusing on the actual grassy knoll shooter(s).

If they had actually been suspects in any way, wouldn't the arresting officers have held their weaons a little less casually?

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But so many other strange things seemed out of place, that they took a little bit of attention away from what was actually going on.

Like how no one seemed to notice that Kennedy had been shot in the throat until he seemed distressed.

Or how no one noticed he had been shot until he began to slump. And then the kill shot. That kill shot was sure noticed!

But wasn't it odd that everyone seemed to notice the "backfire"?

That muffled first shot that missed the car completely and hit the bystander James Tague?

Even Tague didn't know he had been wounded until a cop told him minutes later that his cheek was bleeding, and then suddeny he began to tell everyone the last shot must have wounded him.

There was confusion on top of confusion.

And this continued on during the aftermath. When information began to trickle out to the public.

"A riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma." Such a fantastic quote by Winston Churchill.

Look at it now. 50+ years later. Still so many riddles. The web has become entangled with deceitful information.

It may take a magician to find the truth of what happened that day in November of 1963.

It may take a magician to notice more misdirections.

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Rifle witnesses

Another misdirection was the sighting of the rifle barrel in the 6th floor ‘sniper’s nest’.

Bob Jackson, Amos Euins, James Worrell, and Howard Brennan all said to have seen a rifle there, or ‘a piece of pipe’, as Euins called it.

Tom Dillard photographed a man standing in the 6th floor ‘sniper’s nest’ 30 seconds after the shooting, but according to the Warren Commission, at this time Oswald would have been hurrying towards the north-west corner of the building to wipe down the weapon, and hide it before racing down the stairs there. I, however, spotted someone in the 7th floor window, directly above the ‘sniper’s nest’.

At the time Oswald was already on the 2nd floor being spotted by Baker and Truly, someone else is on the 6th floor moving boxes around.

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Actually firing from that window would seem dangerous unless you had a man doing the shooting who looked a lot like Oswald.

After all, he was the one they were trying to set up.

Someone like John Thomas Masen, for example, who handled firearms for a living.

Otherwise you would risk a shooter who didn’t look like Oswald to be seen, which would destroy any chance of setting up Oswald as the patsy. Of course it’s more than possible that the Oswald look-alike was just there to draw attention to that particular window whilst the shots were being fired from elsewhere in the building. Or from, perhaps, the roof.

Stick a piece of pipe out that window at the time the shots are being fired and people will believe it’s a rifle, which would in turn cause them to tell the police that the shots had come from there. It's a clever idea.

What no one counted on was that the timing was a bit off, because the Lee Oswald we know was seen downstairs by witnesses at a time the ‘sniper’s nest’ was being constructed. When boxes were being moved.

 

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The Dillard/Powell photos shows how the configuration of the boxes changed considerably between approx. a minute before the shooting and a minute after the shooting. Since it couldn’t have been Oswald after the shooting, it most likely wasn’t Oswald before the shooting either, which means it was obviously someone else.

Since Bonnie Ray Williams had gone down to the 5th floor to be with Junior Jarman and Harold Norman, it only leaves John Thomas Masen.

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James Powell

James Powell was an Army Intelligence officer (for the 112th MIG?) and was at Dealy Plaza at the time of the shooting.

He took a famous picture of the TSBD, and later found himself trapped inside that building when the police sealed it off minutes after the shooting. Why was he in the building? If the 112th was told to stand down that day, like Col. Prouty apparently said, why was Powell at Dealey Plaza anyway? http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?/topic/7809-james-w-powell-in-dealey-plaza/

According to Powell, he went into the TSBD to use the phone.

As for the reason for him being at Dealey Plaza in the first place … he said he really wanted to go see the President.

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Since the attention was drawn to that window, this is where the empty Carcano shells were planted. And next to the stairs the matching Mannlicher-Carcano rifle, which Masen could have easily provided.

Masen makes his way down the stairs as soon as Baker and Truly are on the roof, the shooter, probably after hiding the rifle in the Hertz sign, most likely already moved down to the 7th floor by then, then Masen leaves the back of the TSBD via the loading dock, and gets in the waiting Rambler, spotted by Deputy Roger Craig.

Amos Euins said he saw the shooter in the 6th floor window and that he had a bald spot on his head. He could see the bald spot as the man aimed down. However he couldn’t tell what colour the shooter was. In one interview he says it was a coloured man, but he told the WC it was a white man. He changed his story like Howard Brennan and Bob Jackson did. So he wasn’t quite sure what he saw.

It all happened so fast. It could have just been a reflection from the window.

So did he or didn’t he see the barrel of a 30.06 Mauser? Or did he actually just see a pipe of some kind?

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So I got bold one day, went through my list of names, looked at my list of scenarios, then looked back and forth at pictures of Dealey Plaza and all the buildings we know.

Where? Who? How? With what? How many? What if?

Those familiar questions that keep us so busy.

Well, why not? So many people have hatched their theories … here is one I feel is plausible because it explains so much:

 

Team 1:      Texas School Book Despository

It was imperative to have shots coming from that general direction. People needed to hear it from there to believe that only Oswald could have been the assassin. He was the assigned patsy, so only he could be blamed. Everything else depended on that.

The high angle gave the team a birds-eye view, but slightly less time for aiming. The shots had to be more perfect from up there.

But that high angle did make it possible for Governor Connally to be wounded by just one bullet.

A separate bullet from the one that got Kennedy in the back.

 

Lee Harvey Oswald – 1st floor lunchroom        

Patsy. He helped plan the event, and most likely told the others how to get to and from the upper floors unnoticed.

John Thomas Masen – 6th floor

Look-alike. He was there to make sure there was movement in that south-east window, which would later be dubbed the 'sniper’s nest’.

He supplied the Mannlicher-Carcano found by the stairs, and planted the bullet cartridges.

The Mexico City Oswald – roof

Shooter. Rifle of choice: 7.65 Mauser. This rifle was later found on the roof, and a 7.65 bullet was dug up from the grass in the meridian.

 

Three shots were fired from here. One hit Kennedy in the upper back, one hit Connally, the other missed the car and impacted the grass of the meridian between Elm and Main streets. Masen made his way to the waiting Nash Rambler on Houston Street, ‘Mexico Man’ left in another direction. Both could have only used the North West staircase all the way down to the loading dock in the rear of the building.

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Team 2:      Dal-Tex building

From a low angle the trajectory would be flatter and longer.

The slightest change in direction from the target provided aiming issues for the shooter.

 

Jim Braden – rooftop

Radio. He would have a key look-out position, and be in communication with the other radio men.

Charles Nicoletti – 2nd floor

Shooter. From slightly lower and behind the fire escape, having his rifle rest on a window sill.

Larry Florer – elsewhere

Spotter. Someone had to keep an eye on the hallways. After all, the Dallas Sheriff’s Office was located in the building too.

 

Two shots were fired from here. One hit Kennedy in the back, the other missed Kennedy as he began to slump. This bullet impacted the inner frame of the windshield. Braden and Florer were both arrested and briefly questioned. Both were riding the same elevator and apparently looking to use a phone. Nicoletti managed to slip away unseen.

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Team 3:      Grassy Knoll

From the front, the target would only be getting closer, which would increase the impact. But it also gave the shooter(s) less time to aim. Hence the need for a back-up shooter. Just in case.

 

Jack Lawrence – near the pergola

Shooter. A former Army marksman who left his car parked behind the picket fence, and who was a bad car salesman working for a Mercury dealership since 10/63.

Larry Crafard – in the middle

Spotter/radio. Did odd jobs for Jack Ruby for room and board, and was most likely the man Julia Ann Mercer saw carrying the guncase up to that area at 11:30 am that day.

Roscoe White – Elm Street side / Fort Worth turnpike sign

Shooter. Former Marine and now police officer since 2 months prior to the assassination, he also helped fake Oswald’s backyard photo’s.

 

Both Lawrence and White fired a shot. Most likely both with a silenced weapon, as suggested by Zapruder's secretary, Marilyn Sitzman.

One shot was the obvious head shot. Since White would’ve been wearing his uniform, he was probably the one dubbed ‘badge man’ along Elm Street. Almost directly in front of the limo.  This left Lawrence shooting from a position closer to the pergola.

He either got Kennedy in the chest, or also took the head shot. Lawrence and Crafard went down the manhole with both rifles.

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The next time you think of "A Nightmare on Elm Street", don't think of Freddy Krueger, but think of John F. Kennedy.

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