Bill Greer - a key witness
Bill Greer, the driver of the President's limousine, is another five star witness. He was a Secret Service agent, trained to keep a sharp eye and ear out for trouble. And his testimony about the spacing of the shots was corroborated by the others in the limousine, as well as the large consensus of witnesses throughout Dealey Plaza.
More important however, is that we can see his reactions in the Zapruder film. It is the combination of what he said and what we see him do, that provides the most powerful corroborations of all.
Greer said he heard a "noise" after the limo turned onto Elm St. which he did not recognize as a gunshot,
"Well, when we were going down Elm Street, I heard a noise that I thought was a backfire of one of the motorcycle policemen."
He reported hearing no other shots, prior to the very end of the attack - more from his testimony.
"Mr. SPECTER. To the best of your ability to recollect and estimate, how much time elapsed from the first noise which you have described as being similar to the backfire of a motor vehicle until you heard the second noise?
Mr. GREER. It seems a matter of seconds, I really couldn't say. Three or four seconds."
And this is how he described the second and third shots that he heard,
"Mr. SPECTER. How much time elapsed, to the best of your ability to estimate and recollect, between the time of the second noise and the time of the third noise?
Mr. GREER. The last two seemed to be just simultaneously, one behind the other"
It is easy to see Greer react to both of the shots at frames 285 and 312, in an identical manner - by spinning from the rear to the front at enormous speed - so fast, that some Warren Commission critics thought his turns were physically impossible (they weren't, as I was able to confirm). I posted this Zapruder film segment, to show Roy Kellerman ducking in reaction to each of the two shots, but you can just as easily, see Greer's reactions, spinning in perfect tandem with Kellerman ducking. (This animation needs to load and will only run properly, the second time it cycles.)
http://jfkhistory.com/duckstwice.gif
Dr. Luis Alvarez, a brilliant, Nobel prize winning physicist who analyzed the frames from the Zapruder film, determined that in his panic, Greer inadvertently lifted his foot from the gas, causing the limo to slow down. He also concluded that both Greer and Zapruder were reacting to a loud noise at precisely frame 285 which he speculated, was a siren. Today, pretty much everyone on both sides of the conspiracy debate, agrees that no sirens were heard then. And the witnesses, both in and out of the limo, made it very clear that the noise they were hearing, was a gunshot - not a siren.
But Greer made a statement which seems to contradict his testimony regarding the spacing of the shots. He said,
"I knew that after I heard the second one, that is when I looked over my shoulder, and I was conscious that there was something wrong, because that is when I saw Governor Connally."
It's hard to be precise, but in the Zapruder film, we see him turn to his right to look to the rear at approximately frame 268-270, well before 285 and 313. If he heard a second shot earlier than that, the last two were certainly not "simultaneously, one behind the other", as he stated. So, which is correct?
In addition to the overwhelming consensus of the other witnesses, Greer provides us with conclusive evidence to resolve this issue. As we can easily see in the Zapruder film, he actually turned to the rear twice - once before and once after frame 285. So either way, he did as he said, turning "after I heard the second one". But the clincher comes in this paragraph,
"The second one didn't sound any different much than the first one but I kind of got, by turning around, I don't know whether I got a little concussion of it, maybe when it hit something or not, I may have gotten a little concussion that made me think there was something different to it."
Greer's statement that he was turned around when he heard that second shot, makes it easy to determine whether he was hearing a shot at 223 or at 285, the two candidates for the second shot that he was referring to. Although his face is a bit indistinct then, it is easy to see from the position of his tie, that at 223, he was still turned to the front.
http://jfkhistory.com/greer223.gif
But at 285, he is indeed, turned to the rear, exactly as he said he was, at that time.
http://jfkhistory.com/greer285.png
The "concussion" he felt, could only have been the shock wave of the passing bullet, a phenomenon that is both heard and felt by people who are near the path of a supersonic bullet. There is just just no other plausible explanation for it.
It was in 1993 that another brilliant physicist, Dr. Michael Stroscio Phd, suggested that the noise at 285 was the shot that missed the President and went on to strike the pavement, causing James Tague's minor wound. Keep in mind, that the "angular acceleration" he describes at frame 290, was the reaction to the noise/shot at 285.
"Since the angular acceleration pattern beginning at frame 290 is consistent with that expected from a shot from the general direction of the Texas Schoolbook Depository (TSBD) it may be that the jerking episode starting at frame 290 is associated with the bullet which caused the fragment that struck James Tague in the cheek.. a projectile moving to the west at the time of frame 290 would have likely caused a direct shock-wave interaction with A. Zapruder's camera; this is entirely consistent with the angular acceleration pattern commencing at frame 290."
And of course, Tague himself, said it was the second shot that caused him to be nicked by a tiny piece of debris.
"Mr. LIEBELER. Did you hear any more shots after you felt yourself get hit in the face?
Mr. TAGUE. I believe I did.
Mr. LIEBELER. You think you did?
Mr. TAGUE. I believe I did.
Mr. LIEBELER. How many?
Mr. TAGUE. I believe that it was the second shot, so I heard the third shot afterwards."
So the evidence is quite consistent that the "concussion" Greer felt from the second shot, was the shock wave of the bullet that went on to strike the pavement, where it shattered, causing a tiny piece of debris to nick Tague, and a larger chunk of lead (perhaps the entire bullet core) to strike the Main St. curbing, where it left a smear of lead.
So, to sum things up so far. Greer said he heard a solitary, early noise, followed by a delay, and then closely bunched shots at the end of the attack, pretty much like everyone else who commented on the shots, said.
And he felt the "concussion" of the passing bullet from the second shot. In the Zapruder film, I have found no visible evidence of anyone being hit at frame 285. So, it seems that this shot missed everyone, but did indeed, go on to cause Jame Tague to be nicked in the cheek, causing a tiny trickle of blood.
As one of my earliest critics, Cary Zeitlin used to say, "For a conspiracy theory to be true, it must be coherent. All of the pieces must fit.".
As we have seen repeatedly, he was absolutely correct.