Replies

And no one says they heard a very loud rifle report from behind them.

I count 39 witnesses, including Zapruder himself, who heard one or more shots from the grassy knoll area. Like every good JFK researcher, I have them ready to go:

1. Victoria Adams

"She believed the sound came from toward the right of the building, rather than from the left and above as it must have been according to subsequent information disseminated by the news services."

(Warren Commission Document 5, p.39, 24 November 1963)

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=35#relPageId=398

2. Danny Garcia Arce

"To the best of my knowledge there were three shots and they came from the direction of the railroad tracks near the parking lot at the west end of the Depository Building."

(Warren Commission Hearings, vol.22, p.634, 18 March 1964)

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=1317#relPageId=664

3. Virginia Baker

"It sounded as though these sounds were coming from the direction of the Triple Underpass, and looking in that direction after the first shot she saw something bounce from the roadway in front of the Presidential automobile and now presumes it was a bullet bouncing off the pavement."

(Warren Commission Document 5, pp.66f, 24 November 1963)

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=10406#relPageId=69

4. Jane Berry

"Everyone was very excited and no one seemed to know where the shot had come from. It sounded as if it had been fired from a position west of where she was standing."

(Warren Commission Document 5, p.42, 24 November 1964)

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=10406#relPageId=45

5. Charles Brehm

"Brehm seemed to think the shots came from in front of or beside the President. He explained the President did not slump forward as he would have after being shot from the rear."

(Dallas Times Herald, 22 November 1963, p.1)

6. Ochus Campbell

"Campbell says he ran toward a grassy knoll to the west of the building, where he thought the sniper had hidden."

(Dallas Morning News, 23 November 1963)

7. Faye Chism

"It came from what I thought was behind us."

(Warren Commission Hearings, vol.19, p.472, 22 November 1963)

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=1136#relPageId=490

8. John Chism

"I looked behind me, to see whether it was a fireworks display or something. And then I saw a lot of people running for cover, behind the embankment there back up on the grass."

(Warren Commission Hearings, vol.19, p.471, 22 November 1963)

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=1136#relPageId=489

9. Harold Elkins

"I immediately ran to the area from which it sounded like the shots had been fired. This is an area between the railroads and the Texas School Book Depository which is east of the railroads."

(Warren Commission Hearings, vol.19, p.540, 26 November 1964)

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=1136#relPageId=558

10. Ronald Fischer

"[The Shots] appeared to be coming from just west of the School Book Depository Building. There were some railroad tracks and there were some railroad cars back in there."

(Warren Commission Hearings, vol.6, p.195, 1 April 1964)

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=35#relPageId=205

11. Buell Wesley Frazier

"Well to be frank with you I thought [the sound] come from down there, you know, where that underpass is."

(Warren Commission Hearings, vol.2, p.234, 11 March 1964)

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=38#relPageId=242

12. Dorothy Garner

"I thought at the time the shots or reports came from a point to the west of the building."

(Warren Commission Hearings, vol.22, p.648, 20 March 1964)

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=1317#relPageId=678

13. Jean Hill

"Mrs. Hill stated she heard from four to six shots in all and believes they came from a spot just west of the Texas School Book Depository Building."

(Warren Commission Hearings, vol.25, p.854, 13 March 1964)

14. S. M. Holland

"When they got just about to the Arcade I heard what I thought for the moment was a fire cracker and he slumped over and I looked over toward the arcade and trees and saw a puff of smoke come from the trees and I heard three more shots after the first shot but that was the only puff of smoke I saw. … But the puff of smoke I saw definitely came from behind the arcade through the trees."

(Warren Commission Hearings, vol.19, p.480, 22 November 1963)

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=1136#relPageId=498

15. Ed Johnson

"Some of us saw little puffs of white smoke that seemed to hit the grassy area in the esplanade that divides Dallas’ main downtown streets."

(Fort Worth Star–Telegram, 23 November 1963, p.2)

16. Dolores Kounas

"It sounded as though these shots were coming from the Triple Underpass. … She stated it did not sound like the shots were coming from that [TSBD] direction but rather from the Triple Underpass."

(Warren Commission Hearings, vol.22, p.846, 24 November 1963)

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=1317#relPageId=876

17. Paul Landis (Secret Service Agent)

"My reaction at this time was that the [fatal] shot came from somewhere towards the front."

(Warren Commission Hearings, vol.18, p.759, 17 November 1963)

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=1135#relPageId=773

18. Billy Lovelady

"I heard several loud reports which I first thought to be firecrackers and which appeared to me to be in the direction of Elm Street viaduct just ahead of the Motorcade. I did not at any time believe the shots had come from the Texas School Book Depository."

(Warren Commission Hearings, vol.22, p.662, 19 March 1964)

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=1317#relPageId=692

19. Austin Miller

"I saw something which I thought was smoke or steam coming from a group of trees north of Elm off the Railroad tracks."

(Warren Commission Hearings, vol.19, p.485, 22 November 1963)

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=1136#relPageId=503

20. A.J. Millican

"I was standing on the North side of Elm Street, about half way between Houston and the Underpass. … I heard three shots come from up toward Houston and Elm right by the Book Depository Building, and then immediately I heard two more shots come from the Arcade between the Book Store and the Underpass, and then three more shots came from the same direction only sounded further back."

(Warren Commission Hearings, vol.19, p.486, 22 November 1963)

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=1136#relPageId=504

21. Luke Mooney (Deputy Sheriff)

"Well, that was — from the echo of the shots, we thought they came from that direction [the railroad yard]."

(Warren Commission Hearings, vol.3, p.283, 25 March 1964)

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=39#relPageId=291

22. Thomas Murphy

"Murphy said in his opinion these shots came from a spot just west of the Texas School Book Depository Building."

(Warren Commission Hearings, vol.22, p.835, 17 March 1964)

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=1317#relPageId=865

23. Jean Newman

"The first impression I had was that the shots came from my right."

(Warren Commission Hearings, vol.19, p.489, 22 November 1963)

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=1136#relPageId=507

24. William Newman

"I thought the shot had come from the garden directly behind me, that was on an elevation from where I was as I was right on the curb. I do not recall looking toward the Texas School Book Depository. I looked back in the vacinity [sic] of the garden."

(Warren Commission Hearings, vol.19, p.490, 22 November 1963)

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=1136#relPageId=508

25. Kenneth O’Donnell

"I was surprised to hear O’Donnell say that he was sure he had heard two shots that came from behind the fence."

(Thomas P. O’Neill, Jr., Man of the House: The Life and Political Memoirs of Speaker Tip O’Neill, Random House, 1987, p.178)

26. David Powers

"Dave Powers was with us at dinner that night, and his recollection of the shots was the same as O’Donnell’s."

(Thomas P. O’Neill, Jr., Man of the House: The Life and Political Memoirs of Speaker Tip O’Neill, Random House, 1987, p.178)

27. Roberta Parker

The shot sounded to her as though it had come from a cement memorial building to the north of the Texas School Book Depository on Elm Street. She looked in that direction but saw nothing that she could relate to the shot. During this time, she heard two additional shots and in looking around, glanced at the Texas School Book Depository building which was directly across Elm from her.

(Warren Commission Document 205, p.504, 16 December 1963)

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=10672#relPageId=507

28. Frank Reilly

"He saw two cars turn on Elm toward the underpass and at this time heard three shots which he thought came from the trees west of the Texas School Book Depository."

(Warren Commission Document 205, p.29, 18 December 1963)

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=10672#relPageId=32

29. Arnold Rowland

"Well, I began looking, I didn’t look at the building mainly, and as practically any of the police officers there will tell you, the echo effect was such that it sounded like it came from the railroad yards. That is where I looked, that is where all the policemen, everyone, converged on the railroads."

(Warren Commission Hearings, vol.2, pp.180f, 10 March 1964)

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=38#relPageId=188

30. Edgar Smith

"I thought when it came to my mind that there were shots, and I was pretty sure there were when I saw his car because they were leaving in such a hurry, I thought they were coming from this area here, and I ran over there [railroad tracks] and back of it and, of course, there wasn’t anything there."

(Warren Commission Hearings, vol.7, p.568, 24 July 1964)

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=41#relPageId=578

31. Joe Marshall Smith (Police Officer)

"I heard the shots and thought they were coming from bushes of the overpass."

(Warren Commission Hearings, vol.22, p.600, 16 July 1964)

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=1317#relPageId=630

32. Forrest Sorrels (Secret Service Agent)

"I looked towards the top of the terrace to my right as the sound of the shots seemed to come from that direction."

(Warren Commission Hearings, vol.21, p.548, 28 November 1963)

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=1138#relPageId=572

33. James Tague

"Yes; I thought they were coming from my left."

(Warren Commission Hearings, vol.7, pp.556f, 23 March 1964)

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=41#relPageId=566

34. Roy Truly (Superintendant of TSBD)

"I thought the shots came from the vicinity of the railroad or the WPA project [the concrete structure], behind the WPA project west of the building."

(Warren Commission Hearings, vol.3, p.227, 24 March 1964)

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=39#relPageId=235

35. Harry Weatherford

"I heard a loud report which I thought was a railroad torpedo, as it sounded as if it came from the railroad yard."

(Warren Commission Hearings, vol.19, p.502, 23 November 1963)

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=1136#relPageId=520

36. Seymour Weitzman

"I ran in a northwest direction and scaled a fence towards where we thought the shots came from."

(Warren Commission Hearings, vol.24, p.228, 23 November 1963)

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=1140#relPageId=246

37. Otis Williams

"Just after the Presidential car passed the building and went out of sight over the Elm Street embankment I heard three loud blasts. I thought these blasts or shots came from the direction of the viaduct which crosses Elm Street."

(Warren Commission Hearings, vol.22, p.683, 19 March 1964)

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=1317#relPageId=713

38. Mary Woodward

"She stated that her first reaction was that the shots had been fired from above her head and from possibly behind her. Her next reaction was that the shots might have come from the overpass which was to her right. She stated, however, because of the loud echo, she could not say where the shots had come from, other that they had come from above her head."

(Warren Commission Hearings, vol.24, p.520, 6 December 1963)

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=1140#relPageId=538

39. Abraham Zapruder

"I also thought it [the shots] came from back of me."

(Warren Commission Hearings, vol.7, pp.571f, 22 July 1964)

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=41#relPageId=581