HEARING GUNSHOTS IN DEALEY PLAZA

February 25, 2013

HEARING GUNSHOTS IN DEALEY PLAZA

Knoxville, Tennessee (JFKASSASSINATION) Today we continue our look at "Enemy of the Truth:  Myths, Forensics, & the Kennedy Assassination" by Sherry P. Fiester.

                     www.sherryfiester.com

The book, published by JFK Lancer Productions & Publications, Inc. of Southlake, Texas,  includes a Foreward by Jim Marrs, & is available at www.amazon.com & www.jfklancer.com.

Chapter 2:  EAR WITNESSES

Today we begin a discussion of Chapter 2 & "The Sounds of Gunshots."

Sherry begins this chapter with these words....

"The cornerstone of the JFK assassination conspiracy originates in witness statements concerning gunshots originating from the Grassy Knoll."

                        The Grassy Knoll
                 North side of Elm Street
                          Dallas, Texas
         Photo by BenFrantzDale (2005)

Yet, Sherry continues, those same witnesses believed they heard shots from no less than THREE different locations in Dealey Plaza...

The Texas School Book Depository
The Picket Fence atop the Grassy Knoll
The Triple Overpass

Ms. Fiester then gives us some valuable insight into the hearing process.

She says that there are 2 types of hearing:  Spatial or 'learned' & Pattern or 'innate.'

Spatial sound, Sherry writes, "provides identification of a sound source within a few degrees of precision & in a fraction of a second."

But the DISTANCE a person is located from the source of sound can DISTORT the ability to "detect sound location."

We hear a helicopter, for example, but have to look up & "scan the sky" to find its precise location.

Sherry writes...

"SEEING THE SOUND SOURCE ALWAYS IMPROVES THE ACCURACY OF AUDITORY LOCALIZATION."*

*JFKASSASSINATION NOTE:

This reminds us of Bill Newman's comments in the aftermath of the assassination when he said that while he believed the shots came from behind him (on the grassy knoll) since he was looking directly at JFK when the shots were fired, he did not SEE the shooter or his exact location.

Sherry goes on to tell us that seeing something with our own eyes is always superior to what we hear with our own ears.

When the auditory & visual conflict, we always select the visual.

Ms. Fiester then discusses the components of a gunshot: 

mechanical action 
muzzle blast 
supersonic shock wave.

She writes that the sounds of gunshots may be distorted by "subsonic ammunition, suppressors & muzzle flash protectors."

The weather, such as wind, can also distort sounds as well as environmental factors like the high rise buildings around Dealey Plaza.

We will continue Chapter 2 in our next post with Sherry's discussion of the HSCA findings on SOUND LOCALIZATION & a rundown of some of the eyewitnesses, where they were positioned, & what they heard on November 22, 1963,