Why Did the Earwitnesses to the John F. Kennedy Assassination Not Agree About the Location of the Gunman?

Dennis Mcfadden

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.763432

Abstract

Earwitnesses to the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy (JFK) did not agree about the location of the gunman even though their judgments about the number and timing of the gunshots were reasonably consistent. Even earwitnesses at the same general location disagreed. An examination of the acoustics of supersonic bullets and the characteristics of human sound localization help explain the general disagreement about the origin of the gunshots. The key fact is that a shock wave produced by the supersonic bullet arrived prior to the muzzle blast for many earwitnesses, and the shock wave provides erroneous information about the origin of the gunshot. During the government's official re-enactment of the JFK assassination in 1978, expert observers were highly accurate in localizing the origin of gunshots taken from either of two locations, but their supplementary observations help explain the absence of a consensus among the earwitnesses to the assassination itself.

Highlights

I believe that the psychoacoustics work done during the re-enactment was helpful in clarifying the earwitness testimony from the day of the assassination
We identified some of the misperceptions that could arise for observers at various locations in Dealey Plaza
For those of us on the psychoacoustics team, the partial re-enactment was a welcome opportunity to apply our lab-based knowledge to a real-world problem of enduring international interest

Summary

Introduction

I believe that the psychoacoustics work done during the re-enactment was helpful in clarifying the earwitness testimony from the day of the assassination. “expert” listeners knowing that the gunshots could originate from only one of two locations were quite accurate in identifying the source.

Results

Conclusion