SIGHTINGS


 
Lasers Fired In John
Kennedy Murder Reenactment
By Harihar Krishnan
9-5-98
 
 
DALLAS (Reuters) - A film crew used laser beams Thursday to retrace the path of the bullets that killed President John Kennedy in 1963, in a reenactment to test the official theory that Lee Harvey Oswald was the lone assassin.
 
"We haven't come here with any agenda. We are just trying to use modern technology to help establish the facts," said Dan Goldman, producer of "The JFK Assassination Files" documentary, being made by Associated Television International and to be shown on the TNT cable channel in November.
 
His television crew fired laser beams with the same angle and trajectory as the bullets Oswald allegedly fired from the sixth-floor window of the Texas School Book Depository as Kennedy's limousine drove through Dallas' Dealey Plaza on Nov. 22, 1963.
 
But other laser beams were fired from key vantage points on the so-called grassy knoll and two other buildings that conspiracy theorists have claimed were where Kennedy's real killers opened fire.
 
For added authenticity, the producers used an exact replica of the dark blue Lincoln Continental that carried Kennedy through Dallas.
 
The car contained two life-sized foam mannequins in the seats occupied 35 years ago by Kennedy and then-Texas Gov. John Connally, who was wounded in the shooting.
 
The documentary team hired ballistics and firearms experts to examine data collected from the laser beam experiments to see if the results validated the government investigation of the assassination.
 
The Warren Commission concluded that Oswald acted alone when he killed Kennedy, but the report has been widely criticized, with many historians, including some who believe Oswald was the lone killer, saying key questions remain unanswered.
 
Among those advising the documentary is Robert Groden, a conspiracy theorist who has written several books on the subject.
 
"We are doing this to determine the accuracy of the single-bullet theory. As far as I'm concerned, the Warren Commission was a total cover-up. I say there was more than one shooter and Oswald was not one of them," Groden said Thursday.
 
But the documentary producers said Groden's involvement was only part of their effort to include all points of view.





SIGHTINGS HOMEPAGE