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EPIPOLAR GEOMETRIC ANALYSIS OF AMATEUR FILMS RELATED TO ACOUSTICS EVIDENCE IN THE JOHN F. KENNEDY ASSASSINATION By Dale K. Myers © 2007-2010 Dale K. Myers All Rights Reserved |
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The following is a TEXT ONLY version of this report. To download the complete report, including all exhibits, click: HERE.
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"...if it can be shown that there was no vehicle or person with a police radio near the trajectory where I found it to be, then, that is impeaching evidence." [1] Dr. James Barger, Lead Scientist, BBN, 2001 "If you could prove to me that there was no police officer in the place where he had to be, you would falsify [the acoustics evidence]." [2] G. Robert Blakey, Chief Counsel, HSCA, 2003 Summary In 1979, the House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) concluded that there was a “high probability that two gunmen fired at President John F. Kennedy,” and therefore, Kennedy was “probably assassinated as a result of a conspiracy.” [3] Their conclusion, which contradicted the 1964 Warren Commission’s conclusion that Lee Harvey Oswald alone killed President Kennedy, was based largely on an acoustical analysis of an eight-second segment of a Dallas police recording made of radio transmissions presumed to have originated from a motorcycle within the presidential motorcade. Although the static-filled recording contained no audible sounds that could be distinguished as being gunshots, two acoustic research groups – James Barger, Scott Robinson, Edward Schmidt and Jared Wolf of Bolt, Beranek and Newman, Inc. (BBN), and later, Mark Weiss and Ernest Aschkenasy of Queens College (WA) – concluded that the recording contained four impulse sounds, which they believed were probable gunshots. According to these experts, three of the “gunshots” originated from the southeastern-most sixth floor window of the Texas School Book Depository, while a fourth “gunshot” originated from the southeast corner of the stockade fence atop the grassy knoll. The probability of a grassy knoll shot was believed to be 95 percent. [4] The acoustic experts predicted that the motorcycle with the open microphone was located 120 to 140 feet behind the presidential limousine at the time of the shooting. After a limited review of the photographic record, the HSCA identified the motorcycle officer with the open microphone as Dallas police officer H.B. McLain, who the committee alleged was “in the approximate position of the transmitting microphone, as indicated by the acoustical analysis,” and therefore was responsible for transmitting the gunshot sounds. [5] The importance of the HSCA’s acoustic evidence cannot be over emphasized. It is the only hard, physical evidence ever offered in support of a conspiracy over the course of the nearly four-and-a-half- decade assassination debate. Without it, there is no credible reason to believe that anyone other than Lee Harvey Oswald fired shots at the Kennedy motorcade. It is equally important to recognize that the conclusions of the HSCA acoustic experts hinge on a very basic assumption – a police motorcycle, with an open microphone, was transmitting the sound of the shots from four very specific locations at the time of the assassination. In order for the HSCA’s acoustic evidence of conspiracy to have validity, a police motorcycle must be present at the four specific locations and times predicted by the acoustic analysis. If there is no motorcycle at the location and times predicted by their analysis, their conclusions are, by default, invalid – plain and simple. This research paper documents the use of computer technology, epipolar geometry,* and nine amateur 8mm films of the assassination to construct a synchronized photographic record of the shooting and determine the validity of the HSCA’s acoustic evidence of conspiracy. The result is a definitive photographic record of the last 40-seconds of President Kennedy’s life that demonstrates that no police motorcycles – including, Officer H.B. McLain’s – were near the area designated by the HSCA’s acoustic experts, and consequently, the committee’s acoustic evidence of a conspiracy in the Kennedy assassination is invalid. *Epipolar geometry describes the geometric relationship between two optical systems viewing the same subject and can be used to locate points or objects in space.
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