Crossfire: The Plot That Killed Kennedy (14 page)

By the time the presidential limousine was approaching the underpass,
Holland was standing just in front of Officer Foster. He told the commission:

And the motorcade was coming down in this fashion, and the President
was waving to the people on this [north] side [of Elm]. . . . the first
report that I heard . . . was pretty loud . . . and the car traveled a few
yards and Governor Connally turned in this fashion, like that, with his
hand out and . . . another report rang out and he slumped down in his
seat . . . [then Kennedy] was hit again along . . . in here.... I observed it. It knocked him completely down on the floor . . . just
slumped completely over . . . I heard a third report and I counted four
shots . . . There was a shot, a report. I don't know whether it was a
shot. I can't say that. And a puff of smoke came out about six or eight
feet above the ground right out from under those trees.

Holland said the first two or three shots seemed to come from "the
upper part of the street," followed by others of "different sounds, different reports.''

In a 1966 filmed interview, Holland was even more specific:

I looked over to where I thought the shot came from and I saw a puff of
smoke still lingering under the trees in front of the wooden fence. The
report sounded like it came from behind the wooden fence. . . . I know
where the third shot came from-behind the picket fence. There's no
doubt whatsoever in my mind.

Due to Holland's credibility and clear description of what he saw, the
Warren Commission Report accurately stated:

According to S. M. Holland, there were four shots which sounded as
though they came from the trees on the north side of Elm Street where
he saw a puff of smoke.

Having mentioned the smoke in the trees, the report went on to conclude:

In contrast to the testimony of the witnesses who heard and observed
shots fired from the Depository, the Commission's investigation has
disclosed no credible evidence that any shots were fired from anywhere
else.

The clear implication by the Warren Report is that Holland was mistaken in believing shots came from behind the wooden picket fence.
However, the testimony of the other railroad workers on the Triple
Underpass-none of whom were asked to give testimony to the Warren
Commission-corroborated Holland's version of the assassination. The
only account of what they saw is in FBI reports made during March 1964.
These reports are sketchy and seem very incomplete in view of the
questions that these men should obviously have been asked.

James L. Simmons, a Union Terminal car inspector, was in the group
on the Triple Underpass. In his FBI report, it merely states:

... when the President's car started down Elm Street he heard three
shots ring out. President Kennedy slumped down in his seat and appeared to have been hit by a bullet. . . . Simmons said he thought he
saw exhaust fumes of smoke near the embankment in front of the Texas
School Book Depository building.

During a 1966 filmed interview, Simmons's account is much clearer:

As the President's limousine rounded the curve on Elm Street, there was
a loud explosion . . . It sounded like it came from the left and in front
of us, towards the wooden fence. And there was a puff of smoke that
came from underneath the trees on the embankment directly in front of the
wooden fence. ... I was talking to Patrolman Foster at the time and as
soon as we heard the shots, we ran around to [behind] the picket fence .. .
There was no one there but there were footprints in the mud around the
fence and footprints on the two-by-four railing on the fence .. .

Railroad workers who also saw smoke off to their left included Nolan
H. Potter, Richard C. Dodd, and Clemon E. Johnson.

Simmons was quoted in his FBI report as seeing smoke near the
Depository, yet he plainly stated later that it was in front of the Grassy
Knoll fence. There is no mention of smoke in Dodd's FBI report, yet in a
later filmed interview, he plainly stated: "Smoke came from behind the
hedge on the north side of the plaza."

In 1966 interviews in Dallas, both Walter L. Winborn and Thomas J.
Murphy-who were among the railroad workers on the Triple Underpassconfirmed seeing smoke in the trees on the Grassy Knoll.

It would be most interesting to talk to the other people who stood on the
Triple Underpass that day. Perhaps they, too, saw the smoke, but this
sighting was left out of their reports-if any report was made.

Further corroboration of the smoke came well into the 1980s, when a
frame from TV news film was analyzed by assassination researchers. NBC
photographer Dave Weigman was riding in the seventh car in the motorcade. Hearing shots, Weigman started filming even before the firing stopped.
He then jumped out of the convertible and ran up the Grassy Knoll with
his camera still operating. Because of all this motion, his blurred and jerky
film was overlooked as assassination evidence until recently. However, in
one clear frame, which depicts the presidential limousine just entering the
Triple Underpass, a puff of smoke is clearly visible hanging in front of
trees on the knoll-exactly where Holland and the other railroad workers
claimed to have seen it.

It has been well established that there was no other natural source of smoke in that area that day. FBI reports attempted to show that it may
have come from police motorcycles but none were on the knoll at the time.

Warren Commission apologists for years have tried to argue that modern
rifles do not smoke. This is an error, since a recently oiled rifle or
deficient ammunition certainly can cause white smoke during firing. This
was made clear to this author in the summer of 1978 when the House
Select Committee on Assassinations fired rifles in Dealey Plaza in connection with their acoustical studies. Visible puffs of smoke were common.

And considering the slightly gusting breeze from the north that day, the
idea that smoke drifted over Elm Street from the knoll is most plausible. It
is now obvious that many people that day saw this puff of smoke drifting
down from the knoll-also recall those witnesses who said they smelled
gunpowder in the lower end of Dealey Plaza. However, it is equally
obvious that the authorities, particularly the FBI and the Warren Commission, did not want to hear about it.

Sam Holland also was supported in his testimony that shots came from
the knoll by fellow railroad workers Richard Dodd, James Simmons, and
Thomas J. Murphy.

Another railroad worker, Royce G. Skelton, supported the statements of
Sheriff Decker and others who saw one of the first bullets strike the
pavement near Kennedy's car.

In an affidavit signed the day of the assassination, Skelton stated:

I was standing on top of the train trestle where it crosses Elm Street with
Austin Miller. We saw the motorcade come around the corner and I
heard something which I thought was fireworks. I saw something hit the
pavement at the left rear of the [President's] car, then the car got in the
right-hand lane and I heard two more shots. I heard a woman [say] "Oh
no" or something and grab a man inside the car. I then heard another shot
and saw the bullet hit the pavement. The concrete was knocked to the south
away from the car. It hit the pavement in the left or center lane .. .

Austin Miller, standing next to Skelton on the Triple Underpass, also
mentioned this errant bullet in his affidavit that day. Miller stated:

I saw a convertible automobile turn west on Elm off Houston
Street. It had [proceeded] about halfway from Houston Street to the
Underpass when I heard what sounded like a shot [then in] a short
second two more sharp reports . . . One shot apparently hit the street
past the car. I saw something which I thought was smoke or steam
coming from a group of trees north of Elm off the railroad tracks.

Dallas policeman Earle Brown was standing on the catwalk of a railroad
bridge crossing over Stemmons Freeway located just north of the Triple Underpass. Because of his location, Brown said he was unable to get a
clear view of the motorcade. He told the Warren Commission: ". . .
actually, the first I noticed the car was when it stopped . . . after it made
the turn [onto Elm Street] and when the shots were fired, it stopped."

Commission attorney Joseph Ball asked, "Did it come to a complete
stop?" Brown replied: "That I couldn't swear to." "It appeared to be
slowed down some," offered Ball, encouraging a subtle change in Brown's
testimony. Brown responded: "Yes, it slowed down."

Brown said the first indication to him that something was wrong was
when a large flock of pigeons suddenly flew up from a grassy low area
between him and the Underpass. He said: ". . . they heard the shots
before we did because I saw them flying up . . . then I heard these shots
and then I smelled this gunpowder . . . It come on . . . maybe a couple of
minutes later. "

Brown said the gunpowder smell seemed to come from the direction of
the Depository. However, the Grassy Knoll was almost in a direct line
between the officer and the Depository.

But the one assassination witness who singlehandedly caused more concern
within the 1963-64 federal investigation than anyone else was Jim Tague,
who was the third man wounded in Dealey Plaza on November 22, 1963.

James Thomas Tague, like Jean Hill and Mary Moorman, was not
planning to see Kennedy. Shortly after noon that day, he had driven
downtown to take a girlfriend (later his wife) to lunch.

As Tague drove his car east on Commerce Street, he found himself
stopped in the traffic that was halted at Houston Street due to the arrival of
the presidential motorcade. The hood of his car was just poking out the
east side of the Triple Underpass. Tague got out of his car and stood by the
underpass on a small concrete median separating Commerce and Main to
watch the motorcade.

In an interview with this author, Tague said when the shots were fired,
he immediately thought, "Who's the nut throwing firecrackers?" However, after hearing more shots, he realized what was happening and ducked
behind the corner of the underpass. He said the shots were coming from
the area of the Grassy Knoll "behind the concrete monument."

Tague was watching a policeman run up the Grassy Knoll with a drawn
pistol when another policeman came up to him asking, "What happened?"
"I don't know," mumbled the shocked Tague.

Dallas motorcycle patrolman Clyde A. Haygood had been riding back
in the motorcade on Main Street approaching Main when he heard a shot,
then a pause followed by two shots close together. He gunned his three wheeled motorcycle up on Houston and turned on Elm in time to see
people pointing toward the Grassy Knoll and the railroad yards.

Haygood said he got off his cycle on Elm Street just below the Grassy
Knoll and went up into the railroad yards but saw nothing suspicious
despite quite a number of people in the area. He said he returned to his
motorcycle after speaking to a man he believed to be a railroad detective.

Haygood told the Warren Commission:

At that time some people came up and started talking to me as to the
shooting . . . one came up . . . and said he had gotten hit by a piece of
concrete or something, and he did have a slight cut on his right cheek,
upper portion of his cheek just to the right of his nose.

Haygood said just then another witness came up and told him the first shot
had come from the Texas School Book Depository. Using the call number
142, Haygood radioed the police dispatcher and asked that the Depository
be sealed off. He also mentioned a man who had been wounded by flying
concrete.

Tague and the policeman walked into the plaza a bit and encountered a
man, who was sobbing, "His head exploded!" This man apparently was
Charles Brehm.

Moments later Deputy Sheriff Eddy Walthers arrived and, pointing to
Tague, said, "You've got blood on your face."

In his report that day, Walthers, who was standing with the other
deputies in front of the Sheriff's Office, stated:

I immediately went to the Triple Underpass on Elm Street in an
effort to locate possible marks left by stray bullets. While I was looking
for possible marks, some unknown person stated to me that something
had hit his face while he was parked on Main Street . . . Upon examining the curb and pavement in this vicinity I found where a bullet had
splattered on the top edge of the curb on Main Street . . . Due to the fact
that the projectile struck so near the underpass, it was, in my opinion,
probably the last shot that was fired and had apparently went high and
above the President's car.

Tague said he called the Dallas FBI office later that afternoon, to tell
them about the bullet striking the curb, but "they didn't want my testimony about the stray bullet." Apparently no one else wanted to hear about
the extraneous bullet either. There was no mention of the incident in the
news accounts at the time nor was there any investigation of the bullet
mark on the curb until the summer of 1964.