Here are some of my own random thoughts about Max Holland's 2011
National Geographic documentary, "JFK: The Lost Bullet":
1.) Assassination researcher Max Holland attempted to bolster his "11
second" shooting timeline with an interesting discovery: A possible
bullet hole in a portion of the metal traffic-light frame which hung
above Elm Street on 11/22/63 when President Kennedy was assassinated.
The traffic-light defect can be clearly seen in the November 27, 1963,
Secret Service re-enactment film (photo below). Now, whether that
traffic-light defect was caused by a bullet fired from Lee Harvey
Oswald's rifle, no one can say for sure (not even Max Holland). But it
is an intriguing discovery nonetheless.
http://www.washingtondecoded.com/.a/6a00d834523b6869e20153930d7bce970b-800wi
http://dvp-potpourri.blogspot.com/2010/01/1963-secret-service-film.html
2.) Via laser beam technology, the "Lost Bullet" researchers re-staged
the Single-Bullet Theory. The laser-beam "shooter" wasn't on the sixth
floor exactly, but instead was perched outside the sniper's window on
a crane or cherry-picker device that hoisted him six floors above Elm
Street. His "shot" lined up (generally) with the SBT shot.
Although it would have been nice to see some more details of this
"SBT" part of the program, which was very brief, and only showed the
"victims" (the stand-ins for JFK and Connally) in tight close-ups, and
I really couldn't tell if the men were lined up correctly in the car;
and I couldn't really tell whether they had Connally turned far enough
to his right. And there was no indication of where the "laser shot"
would have exited on JFK's body. So this segment, while okay, could
have been better, IMO.
3.) Some assassination figures who haven't been seen in decades turned
up for the "Lost Bullet" filming in Dealey Plaza, including 63-year-
old Amos Euins, who was a key witness on 11/22/63, as he actually got
a look at the gunman on the sixth floor of the Depository, and he saw
the rifle in the window, which Euins said resembled a "pipe" to him.
It's good to see Amos again. And, boy, he looks great at age 63 too.
I'd swear he was in his 40s or early 50s.
Former Secret Service agent John J. Howlett and Dealey Plaza witnesses
Tina Towner and James Tague also made appearances. And Max Holland &
Co. definitely want America to believe that Tague was wounded by
Oswald's FIRST shot, although Tague (at least prior to 2011) always
maintained he wasn't stung in the face by the first bullet. He always
said it was a later shot that struck him.
4.) A detailed digital restoration of several of the assassination
films was done for the program, including the films taken by Abraham
Zapruder, Robert Hughes, Tina Towner, Mark Bell, and Elsie Dorman.
(And, perhaps, the Orville Nix film too. I can't recall if they said
the Nix film was actually digitally enhanced or not, but maybe it
was.)
And while the restoration of the films was nice to see (albeit in very
choppy, interrupted segments--a few seconds here, then a few seconds
there), I can't really see where it actually aided Mr. Holland's cause
in coming to his unique conclusion that Oswald's first (missed) shot
struck the traffic light PRIOR to Zapruder frame 133 (i.e., prior to
the time when Zapruder resumed filming the motorcade after briefly
stopping his camera).
In fact, the film that helped Holland by far the most wasn't an
"assassination" film at all. It was, instead, the film taken by the
U.S. Secret Service on November 27, 1963, during a filmed
reconstruction of the shooting in Dealey Plaza (the film which shows
what appears to be a possible defect, or hole, in the traffic light
structure).
5.) A pretty large mistake was made by the narrator near the start of
the 1-hour "Lost Bullet" show, when he said that both lone-assassin
believers and conspiracists alike agree on the fact that just TWO
bullets struck President Kennedy and just ONE bullet struck Governor
Connally.
I don't know where the "Lost Bullet" script writers got their
information, but as we all know here on these Internet forums, there
are many, many conspiracy theorists who believe that JFK was struck by
more than just two bullets on November 22nd.
In fact, from my online experience, the vast majority of conspiracists
who participate regularly in Internet discussions firmly believe that
a MINIMUM of three shots struck JFK's body; and many of those CTers
also think Connally was hit at least twice. (And if you happen to be
in league with James H. Fetzer, then you believe that a total of SEVEN
bullets struck the two victims -- 4 bullets hit Kennedy and 3 hit
Connally -- which is an absolutely ridiculous scenario, of course.)
6.) The "Lost Bullet" producers tried to pass off an audio clip of
NBC's Tom Pettit describing the shooting of Oswald as actually being a
description of the frenzied scene in Dealey Plaza after JFK was shot.
An interesting piece of deception there. No big deal, of course. But
it certainly wasn't accurate.
Overall, I think "JFK: The Lost Bullet" was just a "so-so"
documentary. Not too bad. But certainly not great either. The restored
film clips were nice to see, especially the Dorman and Towner films,
which looked really crisp and sharp. But it didn't look to me like the
Zapruder Film was any clearer or sharper than the 1998 MPI restored
digital copy that I own, or the stabilized version that I have on one
of my webpages (below):
http://www.box.com/shared/7n9bertqjo
And the laser-beam test that was done from the approximate (but not
exact) position of where Lee Harvey Oswald was firing from was also
fairly good, but, as mentioned, I would have liked to see some more
details of that laser test, particularly from a variety of camera
angles, to confirm the correct alignment of the two limo victims.
I can hear the conspiracy theorists' complaints about that SBT laser
test now -- "They didn't have the angles right at all!" -- "The wounds
are in the wrong places altogether!" -- "They didn't fire any REAL
bullets into the stand-ins!" -- "They didn't even go INTO the building
to do the test! They were perched on a crane OUTSIDE the sixth floor!
So this test is worthless!" -- Etc., etc.
Max Holland's "11 second" and "Traffic Light" theories could possibly
be accurate. Nobody can know with 100% certainty, of course. And since
Max is attempting to fill in a gap concerning the shot that MISSED the
limousine's occupants, it becomes a very difficult (if not impossible)
task to really "prove" anything beyond all reasonable doubt regarding
the timing of Oswald's first shot and what happened to that bullet
after it left LHO's Mannlicher-Carcano rifle.
Holland didn't address the problem that his theory has with respect to
one very important timing issue -- that being: John Connally's
"timing" of that first shot. More about that can be found in this 2007
post of mine:
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.assassination.jfk/msg/df7ca678545b1bff
David Von Pein
November 20-21, 2011