BILLINGS, Mont., Oct. 22, 2013 /PRNewswire/ Lee Harvey Oswald only fired two shots at President Kennedy on November 22, 1963, according to a new book, PHANTOM SHOT. This is different than the conclusion reached by the Warren Commission, which determined that he fired three shots. Most assassination researchers have argued that Oswald could not have fired three shots in less than six seconds and hit his target twice. Because he could not have fired all three shots, the reasoning goes, there had to be a second gunman, and thus a conspiracy.
The Commission said that most witnesses heard three shots. However, it all but ignored the testimony of dozens of eyewitnesses who only heard two shots. They include Jackie Kennedy, John Connally, Abraham Zapruder, Secret Service Agent Clint Hill, and Bonnie Ray Williams, who was sitting at an open window one floor beneath the sniper's nest.
Within hours of the shooting, many two-shot witnesses changed their stories to incorporate a third shot. They did so because of the nonstop reporting by the press that three shots had been fired. This caused witnesses to believe they must have failed to hear one. Fortunately, many of them gave statements only moments after the shooting, before they could be influenced by the three-shot groupthink. PHANTOM SHOT analyzes their statements in detail.
The Warren Commission had no explanation for how Oswald could have made two of the most deadly accurate shots of all time, and yet missed everyone and everything with a third shot. The shot did not strike any of the occupants of the presidential limousine, the car itself, the motorcycle cops riding next to it, the spectators lining Elm Street, or anyone else. No trace of a third bullet was ever found, nor was there any medical or ballistics evidence of more than two bullets. If a third shot was fired, it vanished into thin air. The Commission did not speculate on what happened to it, but only said that it "missed." In reality, there was no third shot. It was a phantom shot.
The two-shot theory is a game-changer insofar as the JFK assassination is concerned. No longer do you have to believe that in order for Oswald to have been the sole assassin, he had to have performed the superhuman feat of firing three shots in less than six seconds and making two of them count. With his old, bolt-action rifle, that was near impossible. Expert marksmen over the years have largely been unable to replicate that. But firing only two shots in that amount of time was very doable. Oswald would have had plenty of time to aim and shoot.
The simplest solution is usually the correct one. One shooter. Two shots. Two hits. No misses. That is the simplest explanation for what happened on November 22, 1963.
PHANTOM SHOT is available on amazon.com, barnesandnoble.com, and other online bookstores. For additional information, visit the website www.phantomshotjfk.com. Author Mike Majerus may be reached at (406) 690-7311, or by Email.
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SOURCE Mike Majerus
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