Posted on 11/01/2003 11:59:35 AM PST by sinkspur
Network debunks conspiracy theories with digital re-creation
Using a computer-imaging process roughly akin to video games, ABC News has constructed a forensic tableau that it says proves Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone in assassinating President John F. Kennedy.
"What it does is prove unequivocally that Oswald was the only person in Dealey Plaza that day to fire," ABC anchor Peter Jennings said this week.
The digital reconstruction, created for the upcoming Nov. 20 special Peter Jennings Reporting: The Kennedy Assassination Beyond Conspiracy , was the result of a decade of work by author and animator Dale Myers.
Using maps, blueprints of Kennedy's limousine, measurements, about 500 photographs and each frame of the 16mm amateur film shot by Abraham Zapruder in Dealey Plaza, Mr. Myers created a virtual reconstruction of the assassination that can be viewed from multiple viewpoints.
The technique is based on new imaging technology and is beginning to be applied as an evidentiary tool in courtrooms. ABC said Mr. Myers' assassination reconstruction was independently evaluated and endorsed by other forensic analysts.
By viewing the assassination from multiple perspectives, it is an "inescapable conclusion" that the shots that killed Kennedy and wounded Texas Gov. John Connally came from Oswald's perch in the former Texas School Book Depository, said Tom Yellin, executive producer of the special.
In the video re-creation, only Kennedy and Connally are shown in the open limousine they rode in Nov. 22, 1963. "It will be shocking to people to see it. It is not our intent to shock people or use this gratuitously," Mr. Jennings said.
"But in order to have people understand the point we're making that Oswald acted alone in Dealey Plaza that day, to use this to prove what we are able now to prove this technique is indispensable," he said. "I am amazed how the animation invokes the real event."
Although the Warren Commission concluded in 1964 that Oswald acted on his own, the Kennedy assassination has been the focus of conspiracy speculation for four decades and has spawned about 500 books. Part of the reason for the public's suspicion is because of government secrecy that for years shrouded details of the event, Mr. Jennings said.
I have believed Oswald acted alone ever since seeing a very thorough Nova special on it years ago... but it is idiocy to say that it can be "unequivocally" proven that Oswald was the only gunman. Suppose there were others who missed? How does one disprove that?
I bought one of those kits. It looked sort of like a manta ray stretched lengthwise. To their credit, the box the model came in did stipulate something about the design being supposition.
You've hit the nail on the head, and that's why American blacks are all convinced that a giant government conspiracy killed King, not a loser with a junk rifle, either.
It's what really drives most conspiracy theories; the refusal to believe terrible things can be done by insignificant people, or can occur by accident; the cause of the tragedy has to psychologically match the victim, or the effect.
Same goes for Pearl Harbor; such a disaster HAS, in the minds of the kooks, be caused by an evil conspiracy by Roosevelt, when in fact we know it was an unfortunate combination of mistakes and blindless and lack of communication within the US military establishment. However, that explanation isn't nearly as exciting as the Roosevelt explanation.
Ever shot a watermelon?
The unanswered question to me is if Oswald was acting on behalf of someone else. Jack Ruby's actions seem completely inconsistent with his dubious character , and I have to wonder if he was hired to take out Oswald.
Those are not the only questions, or even the most important ones. More relevant is this one: Why would the government conceal the truth, and, forty years later, continue to cover it up?
Answer that question, with proof, and a whole lot of other mysteries would be solved as well.
Yeah, I do, but I really haven't seen anything that compels me to be disbelieve that Oswald did it. A few years ago, I visited the plaza and went up to the sixth floor, etc. I was amazed by how much smaller it all looked than it looked on the television.
It's been nearly forty years now and I guess it's gonna soon be like the question of whether Hitler survived the war. ;-)
Standing about 15 feet to the right of the depository window (the actual spot is an exhibit area encased in glass, so you can't stand there) it's not a huge amount of distance from the window to the spot where JFK was hit (which is still marked by an 'X' on the street, and visible from the window). Consipiracy theorists make this out like it's a tough shot, but, based on my very average skill with a rifle, I'd guess that any fairly average shooter could hit a slowly moving target as big as a pie plate about half the time from this distance, even with a crummy Italian rifle.
What I found most striking about my visit was the experience of seeing the famous 'grassy knoll' area first-hand, the spot where many conspiracy theorists say a second gunman fired from. I stood at the spot behind the wooden fence on the 'grassy knoll.
What struck me was the very short distance from this spot to the cement bench at the memorial to my left where Zapruder and his secretary stood--it's a clear, unobstructed distance of no more than about 20 feet or even less. It would have been almost impossible for Zapruder or his secretary NOT to notice a gunman from this distance, much less hear the sound of a gunshot, perhaps even from a gun with a suppressor. In fact, after I returned from my trip I did some Net research and found that Zapruder's secretary strongly insisted she neither heard nor saw a second gunman at this spot--having been there, I can now see why.
Not wanting to stir up the tin-foil crowd here, just wanting to share my impressions. To me, this was an example of where there's no substitute for 'being there.' And having visited the site, it seemed very plausible to me that Oswald acted alone, and could have readily made that shot. Even if he was as poor a shooter as is claimed, he only had to get 'lucky' once.
I'd be interested in hearing the impressions from others here who have been to the site. Did your visit make some of the alternative theories seem far less plausible as it did with me? Do you agree or disagree with the observations I made about my visit there?
Maybe for a split second, but the force of the shot drives his head violently backward along with the contents of his skull. The trunk of the limo was covered with brain/blood etc.., and the motorcycle cop on the left rear of the limo was covered with same.
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