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Post by Michael Capasse on Mar 24, 2019 11:14:48 GMT -5
These pictures are from the Bell film & The Nix film. Both show a passenger train behind the pergola at the time of the assassination.
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Post by Michael Capasse on Mar 24, 2019 11:15:07 GMT -5
The Betzner picture is masked by a hanging tree branch.
compare to Willis 5
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Post by Michael Capasse on Mar 24, 2019 11:15:24 GMT -5
from LAST TRAIN FROM DEALEY PLAZA by FRED T. NEWCOMB
This photograph (Willis5 is the 2nd picture below), which was used in several Commission exhibits, unaccountably does not show the train!
Note the grillework of the pergola. The background was removed by retouching: the train is missing and the horizon is bleached out. The grilles are crooked and distorted due to this doctoring. When viewed in color, the sky is white behind the pergola, but blue in the tree branches.
Below pictures come from the Bond slides moments after (showing the train) and Willis 5 (without) - notice the distortions in the grille on Willis 5
And compared to Betzner:
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Post by Michael Capasse on Mar 24, 2019 11:15:52 GMT -5
The Witnesses: A free-lance photographer, Al Volkland, told critic David S. Lifton that a switch engine with a string of cars, which had just been sitting idly, suddenly started up–seconds before the shooting. According to a Commission affidavit, a witness, J. C. Price, stated, "I saw one man run towards the passenger cars on the railroad siding after the volley of shots." Another witness, Ronald B. Fischer, told the Commission that he too spotted the train seconds after the shots were fired. 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. From where I was standing, I couldn't see the cars themselves until I had run across the street and up the hill. Mrs. Jean Hill described for the Commission a man running from in front of the west end of the Depository "toward the railroad tracks." A newsman, Robert McNeil, reported to NBC that immediately after the assassination he saw police chase "what they thought was the assailant through several trains standing on the tracks." Victoria Adams (TSBD worker)Mr. BELIN - East is here. East is towards Houston, and west is towards the railroad tracks. You went east or west? Towards the railroad tracks or towards Houston Street? Miss ADAMS - I went west towards the tracks. Mr. BELIN - How far west did you go? Miss ADAMS - I went approximately 2 yards within the tracks and there was an officer standing there, and he said, "Get back to the building." And I said, "But I work here." And he said, "That is tough, get back." I said, "Well, was the President shot?" And he said, "I don't know. Go back." And I said, "All right." In addition, a prestigious photographic analysis firm, Itek Corp., noted the train directly behind the pergola in its report (which was critical of Commission critics) of May 18, 1967 on Nix's film.
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Post by Michael Capasse on Mar 24, 2019 14:22:45 GMT -5
RE: Betzner 3 | it brings me to this:
Could this be part of a train car?
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Post by Michael Capasse on Mar 24, 2019 14:24:02 GMT -5
How does a train on a dead end line suddenly appear and disappear in less than a moment?
Are the trains used as a veil - or to block access to the railroad yard during and after the shooting? or the escape?
Why did the WC avoid so many pictures?
from LAST TRAIN FROM DEALEY PLAZA by FRED T. NEWCOMB
The presence and timing of the pergola train suggests not only a careful and complicated plot, but one conceived at a high level. Indeed, who had the power to order a trains? Second, who could have had its movements coordinated to the time of the assassination 1.) to enable the assassins to escape and 2.) to set up diversionary trains (passenger and freight) both for the purposes of photographic analysis and "arrests"?
The train could have picked up assassins from the pergola and grassy knoll areas before it departed. In addition, assassins stationed in any buildings at the head of Elm St. could have had time to board this train because the tracks were only within a few feet of the Depository.
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Post by Tom Sorensen on Mar 24, 2019 15:01:08 GMT -5
I wonder where in the yard the three tramps were picked up....diversion?
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Post by Michael Capasse on Mar 24, 2019 15:05:44 GMT -5
HI Tom - yes, IMO diversion - they're in a box car on the lower spur - see in the picture above there is another spur line below this one Newcomb explains it like this: LAST TRAIN FROM DEALEY PLAZA by FRED T. NEWCOMB Another train was parked at the back of the yards, some 210 feet behind the pergola. This train coincided in alignment with the pergola train, which was some 50 feet directly behind the pergola. In effect, the pergola train would block the view of the parked train for any photographer in a position such as Miss Bond's. When the pergola train departed, the parked train could then be used to "explain" Three Tramps
Another diversion may be the 3 "arrested" men Sgt. D. V. Harkness of the Dallas Police Dept. told the Warren Commission that he pulled some tramps and hoboes from a long freight train in the yards and took them to the station. He added that 2 long freight trains that were leaving the yards were shaken down. Some people were arrested, taken to the police station, and questioned. The Warren Report makes no mention of them or what happened to them.
This is not the pergola train. First, Harkness refers to a freight train. Second, he went to the yards approximately 15-20 minutes after the assassination occurred. The pergola train left within 5 minutes after the shooting, allowing no time for a search.
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Post by Tom Sorensen on Mar 24, 2019 15:57:51 GMT -5
Interesting....but something else crossed my mind....Lee Bowers was in the yard tower:
He would oversee train movements and does not mention anything to people like Mark Lane about strange train or switcher movements.
The engineer and crew must conform to certain rules....involving yard towers and such. Escape by train sounds way too elaborate.
There was a level crossing further up Houston (west of TSBD) so an escape car would have no problem escaping the yard via Houston st.
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Post by Michael Capasse on Mar 24, 2019 16:20:06 GMT -5
I think - At the least it's all diversion and blocking views -
There is a train, then there is no train, on a dead-end line, at that time.
Here's some more from Newcomb... Lee E. Bowers. Jr, seems to be a keyman in diversionary activity. Bowers was in a railroad signal tower overlooking the tracks behind the grassy knoll during the assassination. Supposedly, he was in charge of all rail traffic in the yards. Bowers told the Commission that he saw 3 automobiles enter the yards within a half hour before the assassination; one he claimed entered "7-9 minutes before the shooting."
In terms of time, it is doubtful that the pergola train was rushed into position moments before the shooting. Therefore, the pergola train would have blocked any automobile entry into the yards. Furthermore, Bowers described 2 men behind the fence on the grassy knoll. His testimony is questionable because the pergola train would have blocked his view of the area. Bowers was 14 feet from the ground in his tower; the train's height was also 14 feet.
Regarding the 3 arrested men, Bowers, in an interview with critic Mark Lane, mentioned stopping a freight train opposite his tower and seeing the shakedown of 3 "winos" by police. He claimed that the freight was surrounded by "possibly 50 policemen with shotguns and tommy guns." No police had tommy gum that day; they either had service revolvers or pump shotguns. Secret Service men had automatic weapons, but, according to the Warren Report, no Secret Service men left the Presidential motorcade. And the WC must leave out the pictures.
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