John F. Kennedy

This article examines the dictabelt evidence relating to the assassination of John F. Kennedy. John F. Kennedy, 35th (1961–1963) President of the United States was assassinated in Dallas, Texas on November 22, 1963. Many aspects of his assassination have been investigated. Less well-known is a dictabelt recording from a police officer's motorcycle that was escorting Kennedy’s motorcade. Download high resolution version (800x1062, 161 KB)Picture of John F. Kennedy Scanned from 1964 Warren Commission report (Government printing office) File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Download high resolution version (800x1062, 161 KB)Picture of John F. Kennedy Scanned from 1964 Warren Commission report (Government printing office) File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... For other uses, see JFK (disambiguation) or John Kennedy (disambiguation). ... 1961 (MCMLXI) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1963 (MCMLXIII) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... The President of the United States (unofficially abbreviated “POTUS”) is the head of state of the United States. ... President Kennedy, with his wife, Jackie, and Texas Gov. ... Dallas redirects here. ... ... November 22 is the 326th day (327th on leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1963 (MCMLXIII) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1917 Dictaphone advertisement A Dictaphone is a sound recording device most commonly used to record speech for later playback or to be typed into print. ...

In December 1978, the House Select Committee on Assassinations had prepared a draft of its final report which concluded that Oswald had acted alone. However, after hearing testimony regarding the dictabelt recording, they quickly changed their findings and concluded a second gunman had fired a fourth shot at Kennedy (it was claimed that a fourth shot could be heard on the dictabelt). G. Robert Blakey, chief consul of the HSCA, later said, "If the acoustics come out that we made a mistake somewhere, I think that would end it." Despite serious criticism of the scientific evidence and the HSCA's conclusions, speculation regarding the dictabelt and the possibility of a second gunman has persisted. The U.S. House of Representatives Select Committee on Assassinations was established in 1976 to investigate the John F. Kennedy assassination and the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. ... Professor G. Robert Blakey, the nation’s foremost authority on the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization Act (RICO), has served on the Notre Dame Law School faculty for more than 20 years, from 1964 to 1969 and since 1980. ...

The dictabelt does not contain audible gunshots, but investigators compared "impulse patterns" on the dictabelt to the recordings of the firing of another Carcano rifle in Dealey Plaza. Based on this, Bolt, Beranek and Newman concluded that there was a 50% chance of a fourth shot originating from the knoll. Mark Weiss and Ernest Aschkenasy of Queens College concluded the probability was 95%. Lee Harvey Oswalds Model 91/38 Carcano short rifle, in the US National Archives Carcano is a series of Italian bolt-action rifle military rifles. ... Bolt, Beranek and Newman (now called BBN Technologies) is a high technology company that provides research and development services. ... Queens College, Queens College or Queens College is the name of more than one institution, see: Queens College, Cambridge Queens College, Charlotte Queens College, Hong Kong Queens College, London Queens College, New York Queens College, Nassau The Queens College, Oxford Queens College was the...

The HSCA concluded the recording originated from the motorcycle of H.B. McLain, who testified before the committee that his microphone was often stuck in the open position. However, McLain did not hear the actual recording until after his testimony, and upon hearing it he adamantly denied the recording originated from his motorcycle. He said that the other sounds on the tape do not match his movements. Sirens are not heard on the tape until over two minutes after the shooting; however, McLain accompanied the motorcade to Parkland Hospital immediately after JFK was shot, with sirens blaring the entire time. Parkland Memorial Hospital is a hospital located at 5201 Harry Hines Boulevard in Dallas, Texas. ...

Other audio discrepancies also exist. Crowd noise is not heard on the dictabelt recording, despite the sounds generated from the many onlookers in Dealey Plaza. The toll of a bell is heard on the recording, leading some to suggest that it is the replica of Liberty Bell at the Trade Mart (JFK's intended destination) and that the recording is from a motorcycle at that location and not Dealey Plaza. The Liberty Bell is an American bell of great historic significance, located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. ...

The adult magazine Gallery published a plastic record of the dictabelt recording in its July 1979 issue. Ohio rock drummer Steve Barber listened to that recording repeatedly and heard the words "Hold everything secure" at the point where the House Select Committee on Assassinations had concluded the assassination shots were recorded. However, those words were spoken by Sheriff Bill Decker about a minute after the assassination, so the shots could not be when the HSCA claimed. State nickname: The Buckeye State Official languages None Capital Columbus Largest city Columbus (largest metropolitan area is Cleveland) Governor Bob Taft (R) Senators Mike DeWine (R) George V. Voinovich (R) Area  - Total  - % water Ranked 34th 116,096 km² 8. ... The U.S. House of Representatives Select Committee on Assassinations was established in 1976 to investigate the John F. Kennedy assassination and the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. ...

After the FBI disputed the validity of the acoustic evidence, the Justice Department paid for the National Academy of Sciences to review it. A panel of scientists headed by Dr. Norman Ramsey issued a report in 1982 which agreed with Barber and determined that there was no compelling evidence for gunshots on the recording and that the HSCA's suspect signals were recorded about a minute after the shooting happened. Official FBI Seal The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is a Federal police force and intelligence agency which is the principal investigative arm of the United States Department of Justice (DOJ). ... The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) is a Cabinet department in the United States government designed to enforce the law and defend the interests of the United States according to the law and to ensure fair and impartial administration of justice for all Americans. ... President Harding and the National Academy of Sciences at the White House, Washington, DC, April 1921 The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a corporation in the United States whose members serve pro bono as advisers to the nation on science, engineering, and medicine. ... 1982 (MCMLXXXII) is a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

An analysis published in the March 2001 issue of Science & Justice by Dr. Donald Thomas uses a different Dallas policeman radio transmission synchronization to prove that the National Academy of Sciences panel was in error. Thomas's scientific conclusion, very similar to the HSCA scientific conclusion, is that the gunshots impulses are real to a 96.3% scientific certainty. Thomas presented additional details and support in the November 2001 [1] and September [2] and November [3] 2002 issues. Science & Justice is a British forensics journal. ...

In 2003, an independent researcher named Michael O'Dell reported that both the National Academy and Dr. Thomas had used incorrect timelines that, when corrected, showed the impulses happened too late to be the real shots, even with Thomas' alternative synchronization. In addition, he showed that, due to a mathematical misunderstanding and the presence of a known impulse pattern in the background noise, there never was a 95% or higher probability of a shot from the grassy knoll. Dealey Plaza (Warren Commission exhibit #876) Dealey Plaza, (pronounced deal-ee) in Dallas, Texas, United States, is famous as the location of the John F. Kennedy assassination on November 22, 1963. ...

A November 2003 analysis paid for by the cable television channel Court TV responded that the gunshot sounds did not match test gunshot recordings fired on Dealey Plaza any better than random noise. In December 2003, Thomas responded by pointing out what he claimed were errors in the November 2003 Court TV analysis. Courtroom Television Network LLC, more commonly known as Court TV, is an American cable television network owned by Time Warner and Liberty Media that launched on July 1, 1991. ...

References

• Stokes, Louis (Chairman, House Select Committee on Assassinations). (29 March 1979). Report of the Select Committee on Assassinations of the U.S. House of Representatives.
• Ramsey, Norman F. (Chairman, Committee on Ballistic Acoustics, National Academy of Sciences). (1982). Report of the Committee on Ballistic Acoustics.
• Posner, Gerald (1993). Case Closed, Random House. ISBN 0-679-41825-3. (pp. 238-242, unraveling of acoustic evidence in JFK conspiracy finding)
• Thomas, Donald B. (14 June 2000). Echo correlation analysis and the acoustic evidence in the Kennedy assassination revisited. Science & Justice 2001 41, 21-32.
• Thomas, Donald B. (17 November 2001). The acoustical evidence in the Kennedy assassination.
• Thomas, Donald B. (September 2002). Emendations.
• Thomas, Donald B. (23 November 2002). Crosstalk: Synchronization of Putative Gunshots with Events in Dealey Plaza.
• O'Dell, Michael. (2003). The acoustic evidence in the Kennedy assassination.
• Berkovitz, Robert. (19 November 2003). Searching For Historic Noise: A Study of a Sound Recording Made on the Day of the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
• Thomas, Donald B. (December, 2003). Impulsive Behavior: The CourtTV - Sensimetrics Acoustical Evidence Study.