Date: 1996-12-25,18:59 From: ROBERT HARRIS Subject: Clint Hill Special agent Hill, positioned on the left-front running board of the Secret Service followup car reported hearing only two gunshots that day. What is critical, is the question of which two he really heard. This is part of his original Treasury Dept. report, filed just a week after the assassination, "On the left hand side was a grass area with a few people scattered along it observing the motorcade passing, and I was visually scanning these people when I heard a noise similar to a firecracker..." Clint Hill is visible throughout most of the early part of the Zapruder film. In fact, in volume 18 of the Warren Commission report, there is a photo section which displays black and white z-frames extending all the way into the area between the film's sprocket holes. In these wider frames, we can see Hill almost continuously, up to about Z-248. From the time Hill appears on Elm St. it is obvious that he is looking only to his right. We never see him looking to his left at all. Hill continues, "The sound came from my right rear and I immediately moved my head in that direction. In so doing, my eyes had to cross the Presidential automobile and I saw the President hunch forward and then slump to his left. I jumped from the follow-up car and ran toward the Presidential automobile." We can also confirm his orientation in photos taken by Phil Willis and James Altgens. Altgens took a picture at the equivalent of Zapruder frame, 255 which shows Hill still looking to his right, and the only Special Agent standing on the running boards, who has not yet reacted to the first gunshot. We can see the relaxed look of Hill's face, as well as that of his left hand at that instant. Hill is clearly oblivious to the first shot. This leaves us with the question of when Hill heard what he thought was the first report. We know that he could not have been scanning the crowd on his left prior to Z255 when the Altgens picture was snapped, so it had to have come after that. Hill provides us with another clue in this part of his Warren Commission testimony, in which Gerald Ford is asking him when he first saw the the President react: -------------------------------------------------------- Representative FORD. Did you see the President put his hands to his throat and chest while you were still on the followup car, or after you had left it? Mr. HILL. As I was leaving... -------------------------------------------------------- This is the definitive statement. We know that Clint Hill jumped from the running board of the followup car at about Z312-313. We also know that there was not enough time for him to have jumped in response to the 312 shot. He therefore had to have been responding to a report prior to 312. Hill thought the President¹s *first* reactions occurred as he was jumping off the running board! He obviously thought JFK had been wounded just before that. Of course, the Z285 shot came just 1.48 seconds before Z312. There is a very good reason why the SA¹s, including Hill appeared to be ³sluggish² that day. Prior to the cluster of three gunshots during the last two seconds of the attack, there was only a single report. Most of the agents simply were not certain whether this was a backfire, a firecracker, or a gunshot. Their immediate reponse was to frantically scan DP in search of the source. A few of the agents, including Hill and Kinney simply did not notice the first shot at all. After the second shot, all hell belatedly broke loose. Hill jumped off the running board; Hickey went for the rifle (no, he didn¹t shoot it); Bennett shouted ³we¹re hit², and Ready followed Hill in jumping off the right running board. Traditional theories required Hill, Hickey, Bennett and the others to have heard 2-3 (more?) gunshots, and then to have calmly watched the sticken President for a full 5 seconds before deciding to go to work. It is little wonder that the earliest critics were suspicious of the Secret Service. We can understand their reactions once we understand the shooting sequence. There was a single shot, followed by several seconds of silence, and then a cluster of three closely spaced shots. Almost all of the DP witnesses who had an opinion, reported a sequence which fit into this scenario, though a few only heard the second and third, or second, third and fourth shots. Robert Harris -- You are totally objective or you are dishonest. There are no other alternatives. JFK Assassination Home Page: http://www.thuntek.net/~rharris/jfk.html FTP site: ftp://thuntek.net/pub/users/sub/rharris/