Free Crossfire: The Plot That Killed Kennedy by Jim Marrs Page B

photographs as the
motorcade approached from the south curb of Elm. Altgens told the
Warren Commission:
    I made one picture at the time I heard a noise that sounded like a
firecracker.... I figured it was nothing more than a firecracker because from my position down here the sound was not of such volume
that it would indicate to me it was a high-velocity rifle.... It sounded
like it was coming up from behind the car . . . who counts fireworks
explosions? I wasn't keeping track of the number of pops that took place, but I could vouch for No. 1 and I can vouch for the last shot, but
I cannot tell you how many shots were in between. There was not
another shot fired after the President was struck in the head. That was
the last shot-that much I will say with a great degree of certainty.

    One of Altgens's photos was taken just seconds after the first shots were
fired and showed a slender man standing in the doorway of the Depository.
Many people have claimed the man was Lee Harvey Oswald.
    In the May 24, 1964, issue of the New York Herald Tribune magazine
section, there was an article regarding Altgens's photograph. This article
raised the question:
    Isn't it odd that J. W. Altgens, a veteran Associated Press photographer
in Dallas, who took a picture of the Kennedy assassination-one of the
witnesses close enough to see the President shot and able to describe
second-by-second what happened-has been questioned neither by the
FBI nor the Warren Commission?
    On June 2, 1964, Altgens was interviewed by FBI agents. The agents
reported: "He recalled that at about the instant he snapped the picture, he
heard a burst of noise which he thought was firecrackers . . . he then
turned the film in his camera . . . when he heard another report which he
recognized as a gunshot."
    Near Altgens on the grassy triangle in the lower part of Dealey Plaza
were a handful of people, all the closest witnesses to the actual assassination. Only a couple of these witnesses testified to the Warren Commission
and one of the closest was never identified until years later when she was
interviewed by an assassination researcher.
    Charles Brehm, along with his five-year-old son, had watched the
presidential motorcade turn onto Houston from near the Depository building. Then, holding his son, Brehm ran across Elm and stationed himself
halfway between Houston and the Triple Underpass on the grassy triangle
south of Elm. In a 1966 film documentary, Brehm stated:
    I very definitely saw the effect of the second bullet that struck the
President. That which appeared to be a portion of the President's skull
went flying slightly to the rear of the President's car and directly to its
left. It did fly over toward the curb to the left and to the rear.
    Brehm said the piece of skull landed in the grass not far from his location.
He told the FBI some days later that "it seemed quite apparent to him that
the shots came from one of two buildings back at the corner of Elm and
Houston Streets. Brehm also said "it seemed to him that the automobile
almost came to a halt after the first shot," but he was not certain.
    Brehm, an ex-serviceman with experience in bolt-action rifles, was probably the closest witness to the fatal head shot. He was not called to
testify to the Warren Commission.

    Two significant home movies were made of the assassination other than
the famous Zapruder film. One was made by Mrs. Maria Muchmore, who
had moved from a position near Main and Houston to the center of the
grassy triangle behind Brehm. She caught the final and fatal head shot to
Kennedy and the disappearance of the limousine into the Triple Underpass
on the frames of her film.
    Further behind Muchmore, across Main Street, Orville Nix captured the
entire assassination sequence. It is the Nix's film that most clearly shows
the presidential limousine coming to a brief halt with its brake lights on
prior to the fatal head shot. Also in the Nix film are