Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Hidden in Plain Sight - Did a Secret Service Agent Accidentally Shoot JFK?
Medium True Crime ^ | Oct. 8, 2017 | Bonar Menninger

Posted on 11/22/2019 9:52:46 AM PST by Hot Tabasco

early 1989, I was working as a business reporter in Washington, D.C., and interviewing a private investigator for a story about his company. At the end of our conversation, he casually mentioned he’d done some research into the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

“Oh yeah?” I said, in an ironic, indifferent way. “So who killed him?” He said: “Well, I think this gunsmith in Baltimore, a guy named Howard Donahue, figured it out.” The private eye showed me a magazine article from 1977 and as I read it, my skepticism began to fade. Within a week, I was heading to nearby Towson, Maryland, to meet Donahue in person.

Donahue’s Dealey Plaza odyssey began 21 years earlier. The World War II veteran was a firearms specialist who’d testified as an expert witness in multiple shooting cases. He was also a well-known marksman. That’s why he’d been recruited to take part in a CBS News reenactment of the shooting in the spring of 1967.

The network wanted to know if Lee Harvey Oswald’s Italian military-surplus, bolt-action rifle really could have been fired three times with two hits on a moving target in less than six seconds. Donahue proved that it could. Of the 11 shooters participating in the experiment, only Donahue exceeded Oswald’s performance by scoring three hits in 4.8 seconds, well under the 5.6-second maximum....

(Excerpt) Read more at medium.com ...


TOPICS: Chit/Chat; Conspiracy; History
KEYWORDS: 19631122; baltimore; carlosmarcello; dallas; dealeyplaza; howarddonahue; jackruby; jfk; mafia; maryland; no; nonext; oswaldwasapatsy; secretservice; texas; towson
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 81-100101-120121-140 ... 201-214 next last
To: 9422WMR

“The bullet was flying at 3,300 feet-per-second when it slammed into the back of Kennedy’s head, 21 feet away, and disintegrated.”

Disintegrated.


101 posted on 11/22/2019 12:14:43 PM PST by Celerity
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 63 | View Replies]

To: mfish13

Yes, Oswald acted alone, but the time and place was perfect for some other party or parties to act on their disputes with the Kennedy Administration.................


102 posted on 11/22/2019 12:16:05 PM PST by Red Badger (Against stupidity the gods themselves contend in vain...................)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 99 | View Replies]

To: Lagmeister

Oswald qualified with open sights over 200 yards. Next, there is a picture of the second building and no person with a rifle there.


103 posted on 11/22/2019 12:16:28 PM PST by mfish13 (Elections have Consequences.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 35 | View Replies]

To: TECTopcat

Been there. It’s a small right space.


104 posted on 11/22/2019 12:17:54 PM PST by gcparent (Justice Brett Kavanaugh)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 39 | View Replies]

To: ifinnegan

not an AR 15. The Secret Service had M-14’s.


105 posted on 11/22/2019 12:18:16 PM PST by mfish13 (Elections have Consequences.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 42 | View Replies]

To: combat_boots

The route was not change in the last minute. This was the normal parade route.


106 posted on 11/22/2019 12:22:49 PM PST by mfish13 (Elections have Consequences.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 74 | View Replies]

To: Michael.SF.
Thanks.

No problem. I understand fully about not wanting to read something when I just want them to get to the point.

It is a rather long read (so says they guy that actually read Bugliosi's book), so I may go back and finish it.

Yes, it is a rather long read, and I have to admit I didn't finish it. I read just enough to convince myself that there may actually be something to this theory.

When I started, I thought it was just more nonsense, but after learning some details of information I had never previously heard, I now put this theory into the plausible category.

107 posted on 11/22/2019 12:24:14 PM PST by DiogenesLamp ("of parents owing allegiance to no oither sovereignty.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 97 | View Replies]

To: Artcore

Read the article. It’s a very plausible explanation. The scenario presented is that LHO shot Kennedy and Connally first, but then the fatal final shot came from the accidental discharge of a Secret Service agent’s AR-15 when he fell over in the following car.


108 posted on 11/22/2019 12:24:28 PM PST by Alberta's Child ("In the time of chimpanzees I was a monkey.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 57 | View Replies]

To: Alberta's Child

SS had M-14’s not AR 15’s.


109 posted on 11/22/2019 12:26:43 PM PST by mfish13 (Elections have Consequences.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 108 | View Replies]

To: plain talk
No sale here. Either Oswald made the head shot or someone from the front shot him. No need to invent yet another absurd theory that someone else shot him from behind.

I thought the statement that the entrance wound in the back of Kennedy's skull being only 6 mm in diameter was compelling. The Carcano rifle rounds were 6.5 mm before they were fired, but the article claims they expand to 6.75 mm from the force of the charge propelling them.

How does a 6.75 mm round leave a 6 mm hole?

On the other hand, the Secret Service agent behind Kennedy had an AR 15 which fires 5.6 mm rounds, and which would then conceivably leave a 6 mm hole.

Seems like that would be a pretty compelling bit of evidence that Oswald didn't make the killing head shot.

110 posted on 11/22/2019 12:29:45 PM PST by DiogenesLamp ("of parents owing allegiance to no oither sovereignty.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 96 | View Replies]

To: MeneMeneTekelUpharsin

Perhaps the explanation lies in a disturbing little detail that may or may not be true. The author says the SS agent who may have been the culprit was only on the presidential detail for a few months before the assassination, and wouldn’t have been assigned the responsibility for the AR-15 under normal circumstances ... but was given this responsibility because the veteran SS agents on the detail were hung over after a night of heavy drinking.


111 posted on 11/22/2019 12:32:17 PM PST by Alberta's Child ("In the time of chimpanzees I was a monkey.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 70 | View Replies]

To: mfish13
SS had M-14’s not AR 15’s.

I find it implausible that a professional gunsmith and one of the expert witnesses called to testify in the Warren Commission and who spent ten years researching the matter, would not know the difference between an AR 15 and an M-14.

Unless you have proof to the contrary, if the Donahue guy said they had AR 15s, i'm going to believe him.

112 posted on 11/22/2019 12:34:01 PM PST by DiogenesLamp ("of parents owing allegiance to no oither sovereignty.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 109 | View Replies]

To: dfwgator

Good points.


113 posted on 11/22/2019 12:42:55 PM PST by karnage
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 80 | View Replies]

To: DiogenesLamp

Photographic evidence. There is a photo of the SS with a M-14 clearly out in the trailing car as it comes out of the triple overpass. At the 6th Floor Museum. Sorry.


114 posted on 11/22/2019 12:43:42 PM PST by mfish13 (Elections have Consequences.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 112 | View Replies]

To: Red Badger

115 posted on 11/22/2019 12:48:10 PM PST by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 84 | View Replies]

To: dfwgator

She’s one of my favs!............................JUDYISM!..............


116 posted on 11/22/2019 12:50:25 PM PST by Red Badger (Against stupidity the gods themselves contend in vain...................)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 115 | View Replies]

To: Hot Tabasco

I read this when it came out. The best thing about Menninger’s book is he discussed the 1968 (?) recreation of the shoot in Maryland for a TV station. They built a Dealey Plaza style track, had a car with silhouettes at the right height, location of Kennedy and Connelly, timed it at 6.6 seconds which the Zapruder film said was the time (more on that in a minute). They brought in 10 marksmen to see if they could get off 3 shots in 6.6 seconds with a M-C rifle.

All 10 got off 6 shots, as I recall about 6 of them got two hits, and the last shooter, who fired in a rainstorm, got three hits. However later it was discovered that the Zapruder film was erroneously calibrated, and that the real time Oswald had was 10 seconds.


117 posted on 11/22/2019 12:54:47 PM PST by LS ("Castles made of sand, fall in the sea . . . eventually" (Hendrix))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: DiogenesLamp

Measurements might not have been precise. That doesn’t bother me. If one believes the head shot came from behind then Oswald likely did it.

My problem is I have never been able to watch the Zapruder film and feel convinced the shot came from behind based on how his head reels backwards. Perhaps the car was speeding up at the exact moment the head shot was delivered. Dunno.


118 posted on 11/22/2019 1:00:56 PM PST by plain talk
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 110 | View Replies]

To: mfish13
Is it a photograph of Secret Service agent Hickey?

Again, I don't see someone making this sort of mistake by announcing a particular man shot Kennedy with a particular gun. The idea that he didn't even get the gun correctly identified seems implausible to me.

So perhaps you have a photograph of one of the Secret Service agents carrying an M-14, but unless it is Hickey, it doesn't quite disprove the man's claim.

Perhaps it is unlikely that one Secret Service agent would carry one thing, and another would carry a different thing, but I have no knowledge on what they would or would not have done in 1963.

On the other hand, if you are correct about this, the whole story is a ball of crap.

119 posted on 11/22/2019 1:08:34 PM PST by DiogenesLamp ("of parents owing allegiance to no oither sovereignty.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 114 | View Replies]

To: mfish13
People claim this photo is an image of Hickey holding an AR 15. The file is even named Hickey-ar-15_jfk.jpg .


120 posted on 11/22/2019 1:17:45 PM PST by DiogenesLamp ("of parents owing allegiance to no oither sovereignty.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 114 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 81-100101-120121-140 ... 201-214 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson