John F. Kennedy

This article examines the dictabelt evidence relating to the assassination of John F. Kennedy. John F. Kennedy, 35th (1961–1963) President of the United States was assassinated in Dallas, Texas on 22 November 1963. Many aspects of his assassination have been investigated, including a dictabelt (or Dictaphone) worn by a policeman escorting Kennedy’s motorcade on a motorcycle.

The adult magazine Gallery published a plastic record of the dictabelt recording in its July 1979 issue. Ohio rock drummer Steve Barber listened to that recording repeatedly and heard the words "Hold everything secure" at the point where the House Select Committee on Assassinations had concluded the assassination shots were recorded. However, those words were spoken by Sheriff Bill Decker about a minute after the assassination, so the shots could not be when the HSCA claimed.

After the FBI disputed the validity of the acoustic evidence the Justice Department paid for the National Academy of Sciences to review it. A panel of scientists, headed by Dr. Norman Ramsey, issued a report in 1982 which agreed with Barber and determined that there was no compelling evidence for gunshots on the recording and that the HSCA's suspect signals were recorded about a minute after the shooting happened.

An analysis published in the March 2001 issue of Science & Justice by Dr. Donald Thomas used a different Dallas policeman radio transmission synchronization to prove that the FBI-hired National Academy of Sciences panel was in error. Dr. Thomas's scientific conclusion, very similar to the HSCA scientific conclusion, is that the gunshots impulses are real to a 96.3% scientific certainty. Dr. Thomas presented additional details and support in November, 2001 [1], September, 2002 [2], and November, 2002 [3].

In 2003, an independent researcher named Michael O'Dell reported that both the National Academy and Dr. Thomas had used incorrect timelines that when corrected showed the impulses happened too late to be the real shots, even with Thomas' alternative synchronization. In addition, he showed that, due to a mathematical misunderstanding and the presence of a known impulse pattern in the background noise, there never was a 95% or higher probability of a shot from the grassy knoll.

A November, 2003 analysis paid for by the cable television channel Court TV, responded that the gunshot sounds did not match test gunshot recordings fired on Dealey Plaza any better than random noise. Dr. Thomas soon responded in December, 2003 by pointing out what he claimed to be errors in the Court TV analysis.

See also

• Assassination of John F. Kennedy

References

• Stokes, Louis (Chairman, House Select Committe on Assassinations). (29 March, 1979). Report of the Select Committee on Assassinations of the U.S. House of Representatives.
• Ramsey, Norman F. (Chairman, Committee on Ballistic Acoustics, National Academy of Sciences). (1982). Report of the Committee on Ballistic Acoustics.
• (pp. 238-242, unraveling of acoustic evidence in JFK conspiracy finding)
• Thomas, Donald B. (14 June, 2000). Echo correlation analysis and the acoustic evidence in the Kennedy assassination revisited. Science & Justice 2001 41, 21-32.
• Thomas, Donald B. (17 November, 2001). The acoustical evidence in the Kennedy assassination.
• Thomas, Donald B. (September 2002). Emendations.
• Thomas, Donald B. (23 November, 2002). Crosstalk: Synchronization of Putative Gunshots with Events in Dealey Plaza.
• O'Dell, Michael. (2003). The acoustic evidence in the Kennedy assassination.
• Berkovitz, Robert. (19 November, 2003). Searching For Historic Noise: A Study of a Sound Recording Made on the Day of the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
• Thomas, Donald B. (December, 2003). Impulsive Behavior: The CourtTV - Sensimetrics Acoustical Evidence Study.