Clint Hill said he only heard two shots during the DP attack. If we
could figure out when he actually heard those shots, and which one he
overlooked, we would be that much closer to understanding what
happened, and particularly, the shooting pattern.
Fortunately, Hill gave us several critical clues. This is from his
original treasury dept. report, as he described the first of the two
shots he heard:
"On the left hand side was a grass area with a few people scattered
along it observing the motorcade passing, and I was visually scanning
these people when I heard a noise similar to a firecracker..."
Hill gives us two clues here. First, he tells us that he was looking to
his left and scanning a small group in a grassy area when the first of
those two shots was fired.
All we have to do then, is to look at him in the Zfilm and try to
figure out when he turned to his left to scan those people. But here,
we run into a problem. I have looked at him in extreme blowups in the
MPI DVD and cannot see him ever doing such a thing.
Now granted, Hill does get a bit blurry in some of those early frames,
so perhaps we might imagine him making a quick, leftward glance that we
can't see. But fortunately, we get a good look at him in frames
Z160-161 and Z224, the two areas where 'nutters and many other
researchers believe early shots were fired. Hill is very obviously, not
turned to his left, and not scanning any people over there, at those
points.
But we lose him for some time, in even the wide version of the Zfilm,
by about Z250. In fact, the Z255 Altgens photo is our last glimpse of
him until after he jumps from the running board, almost simultaneous
with the Z312 head wound. Therefore, if Hill's recollection was
correct, then it would seem that he must have turned to the left,
scanning that small crowd, and then hear the shot, after Z255.
The other clue in that same paragraph, is that Hill described the
people he was scanning as "observing the motorcade passing.", at the
instant he heard that shot. His description of "a grass area with a few
people scattered along it.." really doesn't sound like the larger crowd
at the intersection of Houston and Elm. After the limo passed them, and
two men just south of them, the motorcade passed in front of Brehm and
his son, Babushka lady, Jean Hill and Mary Moorman.
Interestingly, the limo does indeed, pass in front of that group,
beginning at Z285 when it comes directly between Zapruder and Brehm.
More interestingly perhaps, Brehm, Jean Hill and Moorman, unanimously
described the first of a series of shots just as the limo passed in
front of them.
So, if Hill and these other witnesses were correct, then their
testimonies would certainly corroborate a gunshot at Z285.
Another powerful clue about when Hill actually turned to scan the crowd
on his left, comes from comparing his position in the Altgens (Z255)
photo with his position in the wide version of the Zapruder film, a
third of a second earlier. As late as Z-249, Hill is turned sharply,
almost 90 degrees, to his right, probably examining the strange looking
"umbrella man" whose umbrella was hiked far above his head.
In the Z-255 photo, he is still in a rightward orientation, but at a
much smaller angle. During less than a third of a second, he has spun
roughly 45-60 degrees back to his left, or toward that same small crowd
on the south side of Elm St, that the President's limo would soon pass.
That puts Hill in perfect position to be "scanning" that crowd, just
before being startled by the Z-285 shot.
But Hill's most powerful clue comes from an error. This is the critical
part of his WC testimony:
Representative FORD. Did you see the President put his hands to his
throat and chest while you were still on the followup car, or after you
had left it?
Mr. HILL. As I was leaving. And that is one of the reasons I jumped,
because I saw him grab himself and pitch forward and to the left. I
knew something was wrong.
(unquote)
Of course Hill was mistaken in claiming that Kennedy first reacted at
the same time he jumped from the running board. That happened much
earlier. But this confirms two extremely important points.
First, he was unaware that the President was injured until just
before Z312, when he leaped onto the pavement. This is consistent with
our view of him in the Altgens photo, where he is the only man on the
running boards who has not reacted to the first audible shot. It also
explains why he did not jump off the running board earlier than about
Z310-312.
And second, Hill heard that first of two shots immediately before Z312.
None of Hill's testimony makes sense until we understand that there was
a gunshot at Zapruder frame 285, and that he recognized no shots until
that point. This is what provoked him to leap from the running board.
After that shot, we see near-simultaneous reactions by Mrs. Kennedy,
Mrs. Connally, SA Kellerman, SA Greer, and Jean Hill, as well as
Zapruder's startle reaction that resulted in a series of blurred
frames.
Hill's was the 7th.
Robert Harris
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