[Ray Mitcham]

TESTIMONY OF (some of the) EYE-WITNESSES WHO THOUGHT SHOTS CAME FROM OTHER THAN TSBD

Danny Garcia Arces - Shots came from railroad track yards. 

Mrs. Donald Sam Baker - Shots came from railroad yards;not possible to come from the TSBD. 

Mrs. A. G.(Jane)Berry- Thought shots came from west of her position. 

O. V. Campbell - Thought shots came from railroad yard to west of the TSBD.“The shots came from the grassy area down this way in the direction the parade was going, in the bottom of that direction.” 

Mrs. Charles Thomas (Avery) Davis - Thought shots came from triple underpass. 

Mrs. John T. (Elsie) Dorman) - She was on the 4th floor of TSBD and thought shots came from Records Building. 

Mr. and Mrs. Jack Franzen - Thought shots came from area adjacent to TSBD. 

Buell Wesley Frazier - Thought shots came from railroad overpass. 

Dorothy Ann Garner - shots came from west of TSBD (she was on 4th floor or TSBD)

Bobby W. Hargis - Believes shot came from right front (grassy knoll area) - from overpass

Mrs. John Hawkins - Thought shots came from railroad yards adjacent to TSBD. 

Mrs. Jean Lollis Hill - Thought shots were coming from the knoll, just west of the TSBD. 

Postal Inspector Harry D. Holmes - Thought shots came from crowd. 

Mrs. Yola D. Hopson - Did not think the sound (of the shots) came from the TSBD. 

Emmet Joseph Hudson - Shots came from behind and above him; from rear, high. (He was on steps leading up knoll)

Mrs. George Andrew Kounas - Thought shots came from the west. 

Secret Service Agent Paul E. Landis Jr. - 1st shot came from behind and over right shoulder; 2nd shot came from right   front and hit President's head. 

Billy Nolan Lovelady - Thought shots came from the knoll of from across the street. 

Judith L. McCully - From right side of arcade building.

Austin Lawerence Miller - Shots came from his left (he was standing on the triple underpass).A railroad worker standing on the overpass said “I saw something which i thought was smoke or steam coming from a group of trees to the north side of Elm Street. 

A. J. Millican - Shots came from the pergola.Joe R. Molina - Shots came from west side (he was on steps of TSBD. 

Thomas J. Murphy - Shots came from spot just west of TSBD.Said the shots “came from a tree to the (President’s) immediate right.” and he saw smoke  “in that tree.. up there where the concrete facade is located. 

Mrs. P. E. Newman - Shots came from her right (west). She was halfway from TSBD to Stemmons Freeway sign. 

William E Newman, Jr. - Shots came from "garden" directly behind Newman (he was standing at east end of pergola) 

Mrs. William V. Parker - First shot came from pergola. 

J. C. Price - Assumed shots from Triple Underpass. 

Frank E. Reilly - Shots came from trees at west end of pergola on north side of Elm. (He was standing onTriple Underpass). 

Mrs. A. L. Rowland - Shots came from railroad yard. 

W. H. (Bill) Shelly - Shots came from west (he was on TSBD steps) 

Police Officer Edgar Leon Smith, Jr. - Shots came from railroad yard or grassy knoll area. 

Police Officer Joe Marshall Smith - Thought shots came from Elm St.extension, bushes of the overpass. 

Secret Service Agent Forrest Sorrels - Shots came from knoll;'top of terrace to my right. ““Turned around to look at the terrace part [Grassy Knoll] there,  because the sound came as though it came from the back and up in that direction” To the right and back. That is about the only way I can express it. And, as I said, the noise from the shots sounded like they may have come back up on the terrace there. And that is the reason I was looking around like that when the first shot.” 

James Thomas Tague - Shots came from bushes at pergola. 

Roy S. Truly - Shots came from west of TSBD. Deputy Sheriff Harry Weatherford - Shots came from railroad yard. 

County Surveyor Robert M. West - Shots came from NE quadrant of Dealy Plaza. 

Lupe Whitaker - Shots came from west of TSBD. 

Otis Neville Williams - Came from direction of Triple Underpass.

Steven F. Wilson - Shots came from west end of building or pergola; not above. 

Mary Elizabeth Woodward - Possibly came from overpass.stated her “first reaction was that the shots had been fired from above her head. her next reaction was that the shots might have come from the underpass which was to her right.”She never  looked at any time towards the TSBD building...About ten feet away a man and his wife had thrown a small child and were covering his body with theirs; apparently the bullets had whizzed directly over their heads” 

Abraham Zapruder - Shots came from in back of him.“Some of them were motorcycle cops..and they were running directly behind me, of course, in the line of the shooting. I guess they thought it came from right behind me.. I also thought it came from back of me.”.. between the underpass and the building 

Deputy Sheriff Harold Elkins was standing close to the crossroads at Main Street and Houston Street.“I immediately ran to the area from which it sounded like the shots had been fired. This is an area between the railroads and the Texas School Book Depository which is east of the railroads.”  

Victoria Adams was watching the motorcade from a window on the fourth floor of the Texas School Book Depository. She believed the sound came from toward the right of the building, rather than from the left and above as it must have been according to subsequent information disseminated by the news services. 

Charles Brehm (not called to testify by the W.C.)  told the Dallas Herald times that he “seemed to think that the shots came from in front of or beside the President. The President did not slump forward as he would have had been shot from the rear.” 

Patrolman E.V. Brown “Smelled gunpowder in the air whilst he was on the Underpass. 

John Arthur Chism (Not called to testify by W.C.)  told the FBI that he was standing on the curb “in front of the concrete memorial on Elm Street, which is just east of the triple underpass” and he was “of the opinion that the shots came from behind him” “I looked behind me, to see whether it was a fireworks display or something. His wife swore “ It came from what I thought was behind me.”

Faye Chism was  standing with her husband close to the Stemmons Freeway sign on the north side of Elm Street.“It came from what I thought was behind us.” 

Richard Dodd (not called to testify by the W.C.) said that  the smoke came from “behind the hedge” 

Jack Faulkner, Sheriff’s office,(not called to testify by the W.C.) said “I asked a woman where the shots came from, and she pointed towards the concrete arcade on the east side of Elm Street, just west of Houston Street,” 

Ronald Fischer was standing on the southwest corner of the crossroads at Houston Street and Elm Street, just opposite the TSBD.
Mr Belin : Where did the shots appear to be coming from?
Mr Fischer :They appeared to be coming from just west of the School Book Depository Building. There were some railroad tracks and there were some railroad cars back in there.
Mr Belin :And they appeared to be coming from those railroad cars?
Mr Fischer :Well, that area somewhere.  

Ed Hoffman, who was deaf, was standing on Stemmons Freeway, about 200 yards to the west of Dealey Plaza. He claimed to have seen two men in the railway yard behind the fence on the grassy knoll, followed by a puff of smoke among the trees, and finally one of the men passing a rifle to the other, who disassembled it, packed it in a bag, and made his escape while the first man went back to the fence. Sam Holland "I am a signal supervisor for the Union Terminal and I was inspecting signal and switches and stopped to watch the parade. I was standing on top of the triple underpass and the President's Car was coming down Elm Street and when they got just about to the Arcade I heard what I thought for the moment was a fire cracker and he slumped over and I looked toward the arcade and trees and saw a puff of smoke come from the trees and I heard three more shots after the first shot but that was the only puff of smoke I saw. I immediately ran around to where I could see behind the arcade and did not see anyone running from there. But the puff of smoke I saw definitely came from behind the arcade through the trees. “There was a shot, a report.I don’t know whether it was a shot. I can’t say that. And a puff of smoke came out about six or eight feet above the ground right out from under those trees. There were definitely four reports... I have no doubt about it. I have no doubt about seeing that puff of smoke and heard the report  from under those trees.. The puff of smoke definitely came from behind the arcade to the trees.” 

Ed Johnson, a reporter for the Fort Worth Star–Telegram, was in the press bus, a few car–lengths back in the motorcade, and described his experiences in the next day’s paper:The shots snapped out in the brisk, clear noon air.Some reporter said, “My God, what’s that? It must be shots.”The caravan kept wheeling on, picking up speed.Some of the White House reporters yelled for the bus driver to stop. He kept on going, heading toward the Stemmons Expressway.Some of us saw little puffs of white smoke that seemed to hit the grassy area in the esplanade that divides Dallas’ main downtown streets.(Fort Worth Star–Telegram, 23 November 1963, p.2)  Clemmon Johnson (not called to testify by the W.C.)  stated that “white smoke was observed near the pavilion.”

Cheryl McKinnon. As we stood watching the motorcade turn onto Elm Street, I tried to grasp every tiny detail of both President and Mrs Kennedy, “How happy they look,” I thought. Suddenly, three shots in rapid succession rang out. Myself and dozens of others standing nearby turned in horror toward the back of the grassy knoll where it seemed the sounds had originated. Puffs of white smoke still hung in the air in small patches. But no one was visible. 

Luke Mooney, a deputy sheriff, was standing on Main Street, on the edge of Dealey Plaza. He was one of the officers who found the rifle hidden under boxes on the sixth floor.Mr Ball : Why did you go over to the railroad yard?Mr Mooney : Well, that was — from the echo of the shots, we thought they came from that direction. 

Doris Mumford, who at the time of the assassination was 36 years old and living in Richardson, a few miles north of Dallas.  Karen Moore, her daughter,  writes that her mother was standing near William Newman,[on the North side of Elm Street] and “heard three shots, they came from behind her, and she saw the life leave the President’s face.” 

Mr Arnold Rowland :”Well, I began looking, I didn’t look at the building mainly, and as practically any of the police officers there will tell you, the echo effect was such that it sounded like it came from the railroad yards. That is where I looked, that is where all the policemen, everyone, converged on the railroads.” 

James Simmons (not called to testify by the W.C.) thought he saw exhaust fumes or  near the embankment.smoke …the sound of the shots “came from the left and in front of us, towards thew wooden fence and there was a puff of smoke that came from under the trees on the embankment.”

L.C.Smith,  Sheriff’s office. (not called to testify by the W.C.)“Just a few seconds later, I heard the first shot, which I thought was a backfire, then the second shot and third shot rang out. I knew then that this was gun shots and everyone else did also. I ran as fast as I could to Elm Street just West of Houston and I heard a woman unknown to me say the President was shot, in the head, and the shots came from the fence on the North side of Elm. I went at once behind the fence and searched also in the parking area.”   

Seymour Weitzman was one of the police officers who discovered the rifle on the sixth floor of the TSBD. At the time of the shooting, he was on the corner of Main Street and Houston Street.I ran in a northwest direction and scaled a fence towards where we thought the shots came from.  Walter Wimborne (not called to testify by the W.C.) “there was a lot of smoke ….from out of the trees to the left.” “ he described it as  “a little haze..it looked like it was 3 to 10’ long and about 2 to 3’ wide.. right underneath those tress.