Stamped right on the barrel of the rifle was 7.65 Mauser. And that’s when [deputy sheriff Seymour] Weitzman said, ‘It is a Mauser,’ and pointed to the 7.65 Mauser stamp on the barrel ... Well, the shells we found came from the 6.5 Italian rifle - the two don’t relate ... found at the south-east corner. Male witness, recorded interview
Oswald worked in the building where the murder weapon – a German-made Mauser rifle – was discovered. CBS television
cf.
From Dallas we have heard that the definite identification has been made of the type of rifle used in the assassination of President Kennedy – it was not a Mauser as I’ve been reporting through most of yesterday and today, but an Italian Mannlicher-Carcano manufactured in the Italian town of Carcano. CBS television
What I couldn’t really believe that someone else mentioned was the car had after that first shot had come practically to a stop. And later on on looking back on it I could not believe how well-trained secret service people reacted so slowly – I would expect that from ordinary human beings but I would have expected they would have reacted much quicker. Female witness, recorded interview
But there was a problem. FBI sharpshooters test-fired Oswald’s rifle. A Mannlicher-Carcano like this one – they established it took at least 2.3 seconds before shots – the time to shoot, work the bolt, shoot again – and that doesn’t allow time to aim. Film of the assassination taken by Abraham Zapruder shows that there's too short an interval between the shots on Connally and Kennedy. Sylvia Chase, KRON reporter, JFK: An Unsolved Murder, 1990
A whole crowd of witnesses ran up the grassy knoll toward the fence, many saying that they were certain a shot had come from there. ibid.
I ran up to the Presidential car. His eyes were open. I opened the door and said, ‘Oh my God, Mr President.’ I almost expected him to say, ‘I’m all right.’ because he never complained. A fragment of the bullet came out of his forehead. Dave Powers, special assistant, Manchester Papers
I said, ‘My God, they’re going to kill us all.’ Governor John Connally
I am convinced beyond any question of doubt that the first shot fired did not hit me. Then I was hit. Governor John Connally
Unquestionably, when the first shot was fired I recognised it as a shot. I thought nothing else but it was a rifle shot. I turned to my right. I had time to think; I had time to react. And I turned to my right to look over my right shoulder ... I was in the process of turning to look over my left shoulder. I was at about the point where I was looking straight forward again. When I felt the impact of the bullet that hit me. But I know I wasn’t hit with the first shot. Then I was hit. Governor John Connally, televised interview
We heard a shot. I turned to my left. I was sitting in the jump seat. I turned to my left to look at the back seat. The President had slumped. He was sitting up. Almost simultaneously as I turned I was hit, and I knew I’d been hit badly. Governor John Connally, interview from hospital bed
I realised that there was a bullet hole in the windshield. Dr Evalea Glanges, Parkland Hospital
Charles Taylor junior, the secret service agent who had accompanied Samuel Kinney in driving the vehicle to the White House garage from Andrews Air Force Base, noted in his report that of particular significance just left of centre of the windshield was a small hole from which it appeared that bullet fragments had been removed. Professor Doug Weldon, criminal justice attorney, specialist JFK Limousine
It was a good clean bullet hole right through the screen from the front ... This had a clean round hole in the front and the fragmentation coming out of the back. George Whitaker, glass laminator B Building, Rouge Ford Motor plant
There are five suspect sounds on the recordings that have the acoustical signature of gunfire. Dr Donald Thomas, ten-year study of acoustics
I had jumped out by that time and was running with the police; they thought the assailant had fled over to the railroad track. Male police officer, television interview
A shot came right past my left ear ... At least a second shot was fired over my head ... I decided to go ahead and let him [man dressed as rozzer] have the film. I gave it to him ... Three days later I was in Alaska and I didn’t come back to the United States for about eighteen months. Gordon Arnold, standing by picket fence
Well there was a Dallas police officer running up the grassy knoll to the picket fence, so I immediately assumed the motorcade had left by then. And I immediately assumed that he knew something about the shots or he wouldn’t have been headed for the picket fence. So I followed him. Male witness, televised interview
And when he [Dallas rozzer Joe Marshall Smith] got up into the knoll he smelt gun smoke. And he also encountered a man who presented what Smith said were secret service credentials. Josiah Thompson, author Sixty Seconds in Dallas
At autopsy they see this bullet wound which appears to be an entry wound in the upper shoulder area. Dr [James J] Humes probes the wound with his pinky and apparently could feel the end of the tack of a bullet. ibid.
I focused on what happened in Dealey Plaza because it seemed to me that is the threshold question. ibid.
Shots came from three directions. ibid.
Garrison had spoiled all the thing. ibid.
We were just in front of the triple underpass on Elm Street at the edge of the curb ... The president jumped up in his seat. I thought it had scared him. I thought it was a firecracker ... And then as the car got directly in front of us a gunshot apparently from behind us hit the President in the side of the temple. No, not on the viaduct itself but on top of the hill, the mound. Bill Newman, eyewitness televised interview, cited The Lost JFK Tapes: The Assassination
I got out about a half an hour earlier to get myself a good spot to shoot some pictures. And I found a spot – one of these concrete blocks they have down there near that park near the underpass. And I got on top there. There was another girl from my office; she was right behind me. And as I was shooting, as the President was coming down from Huston Street making his turn, it was about a half way down there [Elm Street] and I heard a shot. And he slumped to the side like this. Then I heard another shot or two – I couldn’t say whether it was one or two – and I saw his head practically open up – all blood and everything. And I kept on shooting. That’s about all. I feel sick. Abraham Zapruder, live television interview: the Zapruder film purchased by Time magazine and not shown to American public for twelve years
Anybody trying to approach it from all possible directions would have to say well it sure looks like a shot from the front. How do we explain this? Paul Hoch, assassination researcher
One of those shots came from behind the picket fence. And there’s no doubt in mind. There never will be. Because I was on the spot; saw the smoke. S M Holland, witness
Here is the man we call badge-man ... His waist is right at the top of the picket fence. Jack White, analyst of Mary Mormon picture of picket fence
We later learned that Arnold was wearing this Army cap that had a slight point at the top and a medallion on the right-hand side that said US Army and it’s exactly what we see in the [Mormon] photograph. We also know that Gordon Arnold was filming this scene with a movie camera, and that’s exactly what the photograph shows. Jack White
We realised that this person was probably wearing a police uniform ... This guy was an impostor. I got chills then. Gary Mack, analyst of Mary Mormon’s picture of picket fence
He [Lee Bowers] testified at the Warren Commission and told them that when Kennedy appeared in Dealey Plaza there were two men behind the fence that he could see. And these two men were in the one position for the whole time, before, during and after the shooting. Gary Mack on testimony of railwayman Lee Bowers working behind picket fence; Lee died in mysterious car accident two years after assassination
The FBI started the investigation right away and they had all these reports – over fifty reports from eye-witnesses saying at least one of the shots came from that area ... If badge-man was firing, it was badge-man’s shot that struck the President in the head; that means that the medical evidence has been altered. Gary Mack
I saw two men who looked suspicious over there in the car park. I saw a man standing here [the picket fence] wearing a black hat and a blue jacket. I saw a puff of smoke and thought it was a cigarette but it wasn’t. He had a gun and he walked towards the railroad. He tossed the gun to the second man, turned and straightened his jacket, adjusted his cap and walked casually away. The man with the striped shirt – the railroad shirt – walked over to the electrical box with the gun. He took the gun apart; he put it in a toolbox. He then walked slowly away in the direction of the railway track. Ed Hoffman, deaf-mute not interviewed by Warren Commission
Over fifty known eye-witnesses believe that there was a gunman up on the grassy knoll. But the police quickly focused their attention on the book depository. The police were in the building within ninety seconds. In the south-east corner of the sixth floor, three spent cartridges were found lying closely together against the wall near a half-open window that overlooked the cavalcade route. Assassination of President Kennedy: Coup d’Etat
Today the doctors are still unanimous in describing a large exit wound in the back of Kennedy’s head. ibid.
One forty-five slug was found on the south side of Elm Street. Outside on the grass. Male witness, recorded interview
And when we got down there near this cover, we were standing there and I looked down – manhole cover – and I saw this piece of dirt raised up like a ground-mole would, but it didn’t go down, it went across the ground, under it, and I bent over and I traced it for several foot back and a policeman appeared and traced it with me and I said, ‘What in the world is this? It’s like a ground-mole hole, but I’ve never seen one so long.’ And he said, ‘That’s where a bullet went through. And it travelled quite a ways back but it did not come out of the ground.’ And I said, ‘It didn’t come out?’ And he said, ‘No, it’s still in there.’ And as we went back to see where it had come from, there was this nick there on the kerb. And just then all the motorcycles came one time from under 183. Female witness, recorded interview