WHY DID SO MANY WITNESSES BELIEVE SHOTS CAME FROM THE GRASSY KNOLL?

QUESTION TO PONDER #8. 


Why did so many witnesses believe shots came from the "Grassy Knoll"?

Robert Groden writes in The Killing of A President (1993):

"The police officers who rushed the (Grassy) Knoll in response to the shots were aware the fatal shot had come from the top of the hill.  A crowd of more than 200 went along with them to help pursue the assassin...."

Photographs show that a number of people going up the Knoll after the shooting.

Dallas Police Officer Joe Smith later said:

"I heard the shots and thought they were coming from the bushes or the overpass.  This woman came up to me and she was just in hysterics.  (She said:) 'They're shooting at the President from the bushes.'"

*Reasonable Doubt, by Henry Hurt (1985).

Hurt says that of the witnesses, "32 placed the origin of the shots at the Texas School Book Depository" while 51 witnesses said the shots came from the Grassy Knoll.  

These 51 included 2 Secret Service agents riding behind JFK's car & police officers. 

Why did so many witnesses in Dealey Plaza believe shots came of the "Grassy Knoll?"  


Could it just possibly be because they did?

                              Dealey Plaza
                              Dallas, Texas
                 Photo by Brodie319 (2003)*


*The Grassy Knoll is at the far left.