As you can see by the diagram above, if there was a shooter on the grassy knoll, he didn’t make the kill shot. His angle would have made an exit wound on the left side of Kennedy’s head. Basically, ear to ear. As has been fully documented, Kennedy’s head wound was lateral, from the back to front, or front to back, depending on your orientation and beliefs. So if there were a second shooter he would have to be positioned at or near the railroad overpass in front of the motorcade. But that causes other problems too. If a shooter or shooters were positioned at the railroad overpass they don’t have a lateral angle either. In fact, a careful study of the angles will show that that the kill shot could only have been accomplished from behind.
I’ve always thought there could have been a shooter from the grassy knoll. Now, I am not so sure. There are the eye witness reports of Secret Service agents shooing people away from the area; there is the Newman family standing on the curb, seen later in photos on the grass covering their children claiming they heard shots over the heads (from the knoll); there is Senator Yarbrough’s comments on smelling gun smoke from the knoll; two of Kennedy’s aids said they heard shots from the knoll; eight men on the railroad overpass said they saw smoke coming from the trees in the knoll; there is the photograph of the motorcycle cop climbing over the short wall there as if he was in pursuit of a suspect; Zapruder claiming he heard shots from his right as he filmed the assassination; there are the photos and films of throngs of people rushing up the stairs to look behind the fence after the shooting.
From all of this, it is easy to conclude that something is going on there. The grassy knoll is deeply ingrained in the lore of the Kennedy assassination. In the end, it may turn out to be a straw man of conspiracy belief that leads many astray. So when I say the shooter there missed, I really mean if he were there to begin with, he would have missed, as he couldn’t have gotten the right angle for Kennedy’s fatal head wound. That applies to you, Mr. Files and your claim of being the grassy knoll shooter.
But even with the missing angle there is still the multiple witness testimony of hearing, seeing, and smelling something taking place on the knoll. Could someone have been there firing blanks as a diversion? I find it hard to believe all of these witnesses are mistaken. As Vince Bugliosi wrote in Reclaiming history, find me 10 witnesses that are all wrong. There are more than 10 witnesses here. That salient image of the Newman’s laying on the curb protecting their children means something. A parent does not do that lightly; there is a sense of fear in their faces from the danger they had just experienced and survived. It’s not fakery.
Of course, you can still have more shooters than just Oswald that have the right angle for the kill shot. There is another good position—the Dallas County Records Building, on Huston street. This location provides a bee-line to the limousine as it passes on Elm Street. Jim Mars in Crossfire, tells of a technician working on an air-conditioning unit atop of this very same building. On the roof he spots a large caliber spent cartridge. It’s weathered and has apparently be lying there for years. It also shows signs of being crimped to allow the use of a sabot, an insert used to allow the use of a smaller caliber bullet. This would allow for a higher velocity and higher impact shot. This piece of evidence was found years after the assassination and of course was never entered into evidence by the FBI. Proof of another shooter?
So here again we have another black hole. Loads of witnesses to an event that doesn’t add up. As with issues like this involving the Kennedy assassination one has to weigh all of the facts and try to draw a conclusion from it. And sometimes it’s just not possible.
Sources: Google; Mars, Crossfire; Buglosi, Reclaiming History