All language subtitles for JFK.The.Smoking.Gun.2013.720p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DDP5.1.H.264-GINO

[Gunshot]

- [Man]: It appears as though
something has happened

in the motorcade route.

Something, I repeat, has
happened in the motorcade route.

There's numerous people
running up the hill.

- What transpired that day
in Dallas, Texas,

is one of the most contentious
mysteries of our time,

setting off a hailstorm
of criticism

and endless
conspiracy theories...

- You don't smell gunpowder
unless you're upwind of it.

- I was not struck
by the first bullet.

- The first thing that
flashed through my mind

was that he had fired.

- ...leading one man on
a 25-year quest for the truth.

- You know what
your critics say.

They say this is absurd.

They rank it with
the Tooth Fairy,

"bottom of the barrel"
kind of theory.

You know you're gonna
get a lot of criticism

when you publish
this theory.

- Of course, but those people
don't know anything

about firearms, ballistics
or bullet performance.

- Now a second investigator is
determined to solve this murder.

- If you go into a crime scene,

and you're trying to work out
what's actually going on,

invariably, you'll find out
through your witnesses.

They'll solve it for you.

- Who killed President
John F. Kennedy?

- [Man]:
The policeman says:

"No, you cannot come here!
You cannot come in here!"

- And have these 2 experts
finally found the smoking gun,

hidden in plain sight all along?

[Crowd cheering]

The broad facts of the most
famous assassination in history

are simple.

- [Man]: The usual welcoming
committee presents Mrs. Kennedy

with a bouquet of red roses.

- It is a routine
visit to Dallas

on the presidential
campaign trail.

The sun is shining,
the people are welcoming,

and the top of the presidential
limousine is down.

- [Man]: The president's car is
now turning onto Elm Street

and it will be only
a matter of minutes

before he arrives
at the Trade Mart.

- At 12.30 p.m.,
shots are fired.

[Gunshot]

[Gunshots]

President John F. Kennedy
is mortally wounded,

and Texas Governor John Connally
is seriously wounded.

- [Man]: It was definitely
the president's car.

We can see the
First Lady's pink suit...

- Move, move, move!

- Both men are rushed

to nearby Parkland Hospital.

A half hour later,

President Kennedy
is pronounced dead.

- [Man]: The president of
the United States is dead.

- Just 45 minutes after
the assassination,

Kennedy's suspected killer,
Lee Harvey Oswald,

murders a police officer

before being arrested
in a Dallas movie theatre.

President Kennedy's body
is flown to Washington

for the autopsy.

- [Woman]:
I solemnly swear...

- [Johnson]:
I solemnly swear...

- Vice-President Lyndon Johnson
takes the oath of office

onboard the plane.

Two days later,
Dallas club owner Jack Ruby

shoots and kills Oswald in
an underground parking lot.

[Gunshot]

- [Man]: He's been shot!
He's been shot!

- The next day,

President Kennedy is buried
at Arlington Cemetery.

That's where the accepted facts
of the Kennedy assassination end

and the mystery of
what actually happened begins.

In response to
widespread suspicion

that Lee Harvey Oswald was
part of a greater criminal plot,

President Lyndon
Johnson appoints

Supreme Court Chief Justice
Earl Warren to investigate.

- Lee Harvey Oswald's
Carcano rifle...

- Over the next 10 months,
in closed court sessions,

552 witnesses give testimony
to the Warren Commission,

resulting in an 888-page report
released to the public.

Yet 50 years later,

President Kennedy's murder
is still shrouded

in suspicion, mystery
and conspiracy theories.

The majority of Americans
still do not believe

that Lee Harvey Oswald
was a lone gunman.

How can a crime
that is witnessed

by hundreds of people
at the scene,

filmed by at least 30 of them,

watched by millions
on television,

and more documented than any
other assassination in history

remain so unresolved?

Many people have tried
to come up with an answer,

but few with the crime-solving
pedigree of Colin McLaren.

After spending 18 years
in the Australian Police Force

investigating the country's
most baffling crimes,

he makes a surprising discovery

when he turns his formidable
skills on the JFK case.

- I learned that
no other career detective

had ever undertaken
a cold-case study,

a forensic analysis of
all of the evidence,

all of the testimony,

and I wanted to be the first.

- Colin McLaren is one of

the most celebrated undercover
detectives in Australia.

During the '80s and '90s,

He was responsible for one of
the largest undercover stings

in Australia's history,

one that sent
11 mafia bosses to prison.

His time undercover
has taught him

to solve crimes from the inside.

This makes him uniquely equipped

to see things other
investigators may not.

He turns his attention to
the most famous one in history.

- One thing I had to do is
I had to see the crime scene.

Once I got there,
it was quite like a time warp.

There was the book depository,
the 6th floor window.

There was the underpass,
the infamous grassy knoll.

They're all there.

Once you turn from
Houston Street onto Elm Street,

which is the last
of the motorcade,

it bends to the left

as you go down this
quite pronounced gradient.

It sort of snaked along.

It was a seriously unusual
and difficult terrain

to get off a shot
or two or three.

I looked up at the 6th floor
of the book depository.

I had great trouble
understanding

why 2 dozen
Secret Service agents

hadn't seen a man with a gun.

Other witnesses,

I'd found 10 that had seen
a man with a gun

or a man or an image
from that window,

yet the Secret Service
agents missed it.

I then went into the book
depository on the 6th floor.

It was eerie.

It was a bit daunting, really,

because as a detective,
I've been to many crime scenes,

but this is the holy grail
of all crime scenes.

This is the most unsolved of
all crime scenes in the world.

To be standing within it,

I got an enormous sense of...

"understanding" is probably
the best word,

and it was very unsettling,

but it was also very helpful
for me to be there.

Oswald's perch was
much smaller, much tighter

than I ever imagined from all
of the photographs I studied.

All he had to brace himself was
a couple of cardboard cartons

as he fed his clunky,
World War II bolt-action weapon

with ammunition

and took aim.

[Gun cocking,
bullet shell clinking]

Let's not forget
one very important factor:

The adrenaline, the pressure,

the nerves he must of felt
as he sighted up the president.

The thing that struck me most
about this case,

that even after 50 years,

with the majority of the
American people rejecting

the Warren Commission findings,

it's those findings
that stand today,

and that is, that a lone nut
named Lee Harvey Oswald

fired 3 shots in less
than 6 seconds and killed JFK.

Then Jack Ruby kills Oswald.

There was no conspiracy,
and both men acted alone.

- Colin is well aware
he's not the first person

to seriously question the
Warren Commission's findings.

In 1967, CBS put these
findings to the test.

- [Man]: CBS News has a tower
and target track constructed

to match exactly the heights
and distances in Dealey Plaza.

The target, a standard
FBI silhouette,

moved by electric motor
at 11 miles an hour,

approximately the speed of
the presidential limousine.

11 volunteer marksmen took turns

firing clips of 3 bullets
each at the moving target.

- One of the main questions
the CBS special asks:

Is it physically possible

to fire 3 rounds
in 5.6 seconds or lessm

using the antiquated Manlicher
Carcano bolt-action rifle

Lee Harvey Oswald had used?

- It is a clumsy weapon to bring
to that sort of a fight.

Lee Harvey Oswald, let's be
honest, he had a bit of junk.

It was army surplus,
it's incredibly heavy,

and it's prone to jamming.

The sights, of course,
weren't aligned properly.

- The credibility of
the Warren Commission's findings

rest on this test.

- [Man]: A weapons engineer
had the best score:

3 hits in 5.2 seconds.

- His name is Howard Donahue.

It takes him 3 tries,

but thanks to his efforts,

CBS concludes
that it's plausible

to fire the 3 shots on target
in less than 5.6 seconds.

- Here we have an
outstanding ballistics man

who did that controlled test.

However, it was his 3rd attempt,
so he has a few rehearsals.

Lee Harvey Oswald,
he was on the fly.

He had his gun out and he was
pointing it and he was shooting.

He had no rehearsals,

and he was riddled
with, obviously,

adrenaline and pressure,
nerves and probably fear.

So I can't accept

that he could get 3 away
in that amount of time at all.

- Neither could Howard Donahue.

In addition to being
the best marksman,

he was also a ballistics expert,

and his test on CBS news

launches him into
a personal investigation

that would become an obsession.

Donahue's quest to re-examine
the Kennedy assassination

forms the basis

of Colin McLaren's modern
forensic investigation.

- Howard Donahue was
a ballistics expert.

If he hadn't done what he did,
I wouldn't be here today.

- After participating in
the CBS rifle tests.

Howard Donahue doubts

that Lee Harvey Oswald could
fire 3 shots in 5.6 seconds.

What begins as a nagging doubt

turns into a 25-year obsession

to reveal the truth
about JFK's assassination.

- He started to just dig.

He would find an inconsistency
and didn't understand it.

He just had that kind of mind.
He wanted to understand.

- Howard Donahue was a highly
decorated bomber pilot

in World War II.

Born in Upstate New York,

he grows up
in Baltimore, Maryland,

where he lives
until his death in 1999.

- My father was around guns
all his life,

from when he was 11 and got
that first .22-calibre rifle,

he always had a gun.

- As a child,
Colleen Donahue is immersed

in her father's
enthusiasm for guns

and obsession with
JFK's assassination.

- He was always
hunting and fishing

and just loved the outdoor life.

And then, of course,
as he got older,

he qualified as an expert
marksmen and had a gun shop,

and he was a gunsmith
and expert witness in court.

- After the CBS special airs,

a popular men's magazine
of the era asks Donahue

to write an article backing the
Warren Commission's findings.

- He was approached
by True Magazine,

which was one of
the top men's magazines

in the United States
in the '60s.

It featured a lot of outdoor,
hunting and fishing stories,

and true adventure.

And they wanted him
to write a story

based on his involvement
with the CBS special,

but basically looking at
the Warren Commission

and concluding
why it was accurate.

And so, Howard said:
"Yeah, I'd like to do that."

- Bonar Menninger is
a Kansas-based journalist

who chronicled
Howard Donahue's search

to uncover what happened
in Dallas.

- His mission was to focus on
the empirical evidence,

to not concern himself with
the various conspiracy theories,

but really bear down
on the ballistics,

on the trajectory of the shots,

the way the bullets performed,

the wounds they caused,

and see where that led.

- First, Donahue
looks at ballistics.

The Warren Commission found
that Oswald fired 3 shots.

His first shot, which became
known as the single bullet,

passed through Kennedy's neck,

wounding him and
Texas Governor John Connally.

Oswald's 2nd shot
missed entirely,

and his 3rd shot hit JFK
in the head and killed him.

Donahue decides to examine
each of the 3 shots.

What the commission determined
to be Oswald's first shot

is probably
the most contentious.

The Commission found that the
bullet struck President Kennedy

at the base of his neck,
just to the right of his spine,

exited his throat below
the Adam's apple,

struck Governor Connally beneath
and behind his right armpit,

shattered 4 inches
of Connally's 5th rib,

exited below his right nipple

and crashed through
his right wrist,

before finally lodging 2 inches
deep in Connally's left thigh.

For many critics
of the Warren Commission,

the 2 men's position in
the presidential limousine

rule out the
single-bullet theory.

The critics find it preposterous

that a bullet slanting down from
the right rear of the President

could pierce his throat,

make a sharp right turn,

and enter the extreme right side
of Connally's back.

Initially, Donahue
is inclined to agree

that the Commission's single-
bullet theory is improbable.

Then he discovers Connally
and his wife, Nelly, are riding

in jump seats.

These seats were not
in a direct line

with the president
and Jackie's places

in the back seat of
the limousine.

The jump seats were close
to the centre of the car,

and much lower than the bench
seats the Kennedys rode in,

which means that Governor
Connally was sitting much lower

and farther inboard
than it appeared.

Donahue places Connally where
he was actually sitting.

With his body turned,

the bullet's trajectory
lines up perfectly.

To Donahue,

the slug's seemingly
impossible dogleg turn

now makes perfect sense.

Donahue makes
an amazing discovery.

He proves that
the Warren Commission's

often ridiculed
single-bullet theory

is in fact correct,

despite the fact that

the commission got the shot's
trajectory completely wrong.

But another inconsistency

in the Warren
Commission's findings

continues to puzzle Donahue.

The commission's critics argued

that the bullet
that hit Kennedy and Connally

was too pristine
to have ripped through 2 men.

- A bullet in fact was found
at Parkland hospital

which was considered likely

to have been
from Governor Connally.

It was found on a stretcher,

and the bullet was
relatively intact,

and critics said:

"Well, how could a bullet
have gone through 2 men

"and caused so many wounds

"and not been damaged?"

Howard went down to the
National Archives in Washington

and looked at the bullet
with a jeweller's loop.

And to his trained eye,

the bullet, in fact, was
deformed and not pristine.

This contention that the bullet
was perfect was a fallacy.

- This is further proof
to Donahue

that the Warren Commission's
single-bullet theory

was correct.

But does the bullet
match the gun?

Firearms expert FBI agent Robert
Frazier answers that question

before the Warren Commission.

- Mr. Frazier, I now hand you
Commission Exhibit 399

which is a bullet,

which was found at
the Parkland Hospital

following the
assassination.

Are you familiar
with this exhibit?

- Yes, sir.

This is a bullet
which was delivered to me

in the FBI laboratory
on November 22.

- And did you
examine this exhibit

to determine whether it been
fired in Exhibit 139,

Lee Harvey Oswald's
Carcano rifle?

- Yes, sir.

- And what was
your conclusion?

- It was. Exhibit 399 was
fired from the rifle, 139.

- The FBI test showed that
the marks on the bullet

matched the chamber of
Lee Harvey Oswald's rifle.

That's equivalent
to fingerprints.

- That is to the exclusion
of all other rifles?

- Yes, sir.

- Arlen Specter,
assistant counsel

for the Warren Commission
is credited

with conceiving the commission's
single-bullet theory.

- Did you hear shots?

- Many critics of the report

believe Specter
geared his questions

to continuously support
this theory.

Donahue agrees that the
single bullet struck the 2 men,

but he wonders

if that was actually
the first of the 3 shots

as the commission found.

Donahue recalls

Governor Connally's frequent,
public disagreements

with this key finding.

- I am convinced
beyond any doubt

that I was not struck
by the first bullet.

I know that I heard
the first shot,

that I turned to my right
to see what was happening.

Seeing nothing, I was in the
process of turning to my left,

and I was struck
by a 2nd shot.

The 3rd shot struck
the president,

but did not strike me.

And as I said earlier,

this testimony was presented
to the Warren Commission,

that they chose to disagree
with my interpretation

and my memory of
what had occurred.

- Donahue discovers
that the testimony

of senior Secret Service
agent Roy Kellerman

also contradicts the
commission's order of shots.

Roy Kellerman was riding
in the front seat

of the presidential limousine.

He describes what he heard
after the first shot.

- There was a report like
a firecracker, and a pop!

As I turned
my head to the right

to view whatever it was
or see whatever it was,

I heard a voice
from the backseat,

and I firmly believe
it was the president:

"My God, I'm hit!"

And I turned around and he's
got his hand up like this.

- Indicating right hand
up toward his neck?

- That is right, sir.

- How could President
Kennedy say this

if that first shot had cut
through his throat and windpipe

the way the commission
said it did?

And if that first shot didn't
strike the president,

where did it go?

- Why did the
Warren Commission say

that the first shot hit JFK
in the back of the neck?

There is ample corroborative
evidence from many witnesses

that saw the first shot hit
the pavement and ricochet off.

- Virgie Rachley
was a bookkeeper

at the book depository.

In her Warren
Commission statement,

she said she saw a bullet
bouncing off the roadway.

- So you were standing
directly in front

of the Texas School Book
Depository Building?

- Yes.

- Tell me what you saw.

- Well, after he passed us,

then we heard a noise,

and I thought it
was firecrackers,

because I saw a shot or
something hit the pavement.

- What did it look like
when you saw it?

- Well, as I said, I thought
it was a firecracker.

It looked just like you could
see the sparks from it.

- Is it possible that a fragment
from this ricochet bullet

struck Kennedy,

causing him to exclaim:
"My God, I'm hit!"

before he was shot through
the neck by the 2nd bullet?

Donahue thinks so,

and is now convinced
that the Warren Commission

got the order of
the first 2 shots wrong.

- As he progressed, more and
more inconsistencies emerged,

and he asked himself
more and more questions,

and then he just...

You can't stop.

- In his forensic investigation
of JFK's assassination,

Detective Colin McLaren
examines the evidence

that ballistics expert
Howard Donahue uncovered

some 40 years earlier.

Donahue believes

the Warren Commission's
single-bullet theory is correct,

but that it got this
bullet's trajectory wrong.

Donahue also believes that
the Warren Commission was wrong

about the sequence of the shots.

[Three gunshots]

His investigation deepens.

He turns his attention
to the bullet

that delivered JFK
a fatal head shot.

[Men talking, indistinct]

Dr. James Humes is the
pathologist in charge

at Bethesda Naval Hospital.

He conducts the
President's autopsy

just a few hours
after his assassination.

[Men talking, indistinct]

When Humes testifies before
the Warren Commission,

he is asked to describe the
damage the 3rd shot inflicted.

- The 3rd obvious wound at
the time of the examination

was a huge defect over
the right side of the skull.

This defect involved both the
scalp and the underlying skull,

and the brain
substance protruding.

- According to Humes' testimony,

the wound extended 10-12 cm
back to front,

from just behind the president's
ear to above his hairline.

This enormous wound
is a total mystery.

One bullet pierces the bodies of
2 men and emerges in one piece,

yet the bullet
that hit Kennedy in the head

explodes in a hail of lead.

Why did these bullets
perform so differently?

- I will refer back
to the X-rays,

which we had
previously prepared.

These disclosed to us
multiple minute fragments

of radio-opaque materials.

These tiny fragments
were seen dispersed

through the substance
of the brain.

- Approximately how
many fragments

were observed, Dr. Humes,
on the X-ray?

- I would say between 30 and
40 dust-like particle fragments.

- This is not the work of
a full-metal-jacket bullet.

This more the work of
a frangible bullet

that is designed to
explode violently upon impact.

- If Oswald fired both shots,
how can this be?

Why would he use 2 different
kinds of bullets?

- My father knew as
a ballistics expert

that you don't get one shot
that goes straight through

and one shot
that blows right up

from the same gun
and the same ammo.

It's just that
isn't how it works.

But this seemed
to be something

that everybody was
either overlooking

or just not talking about,

and that was a glaring
omission to him

and he realized that this
was the key to the whole thing.

- Colin McLaren wants to see

the difference
in bullet performance,

starting with
a full-metal-jacket bullet

that Oswald used in his
Manlicher Carcano rifle.

- This is a full metal
jacket round.

It's a Carcano 6.5-mm round.

It's designed for warfare.
It's designed to travel.

That is, if a soldier gets
hit with something like this,

it will go straight through
the body of the soldier,

giving him a chance
to go to hospital

and then eventually go home and
be eliminated from the warfare.

- Ready to fire!

Firing!

- Straight through.

- Colin, I think we're seeing

a typical full-metal-jacket
drive through.

Drills a hole,
clean as a whistle.

- This is a .223 frangible
hollow point round,

and being a frangible round,

it's designed to
explode upon impact,

and the results
are devastating.

- Range is going hot!
Ears and eyes.

Ready to fire.

- Donahue has concluded

that the bullet which struck
Kennedy in the head

is inconsistent with
the ammunition used

in Oswald's rifle.

He now focuses on the size

of the entrance wound
in Kennedy's skull.

- This wound in the
right posterior region

was the measurement
that I gave before,

I believe 15x6 mm.

- According to
the autopsy report,

the diameter of
the entrance wound is 6 mm,

and the bullet tunnels
for 15 mm before fragmenting.

- Howard talked to pathologists,

who told him that a bullet wound
in the skull always makes a hole

slightly larger than
the diameter of the bullet.

- But Oswald's Carcano bullets
are 6.5 mm in diameter.

If the shot had come from
Oswald's Carcano rifle,

the entrance wound in JFK's
skull would have to be

at least that diameter
or bigger.

If the entrance wound
is only 6 mm in diameter,

it's simply impossible
for a 6.5 mm Carcano bullet

to have impacted JFK's skull.

- Once again, Howard had
identified something

that nobody else seemed
to tumble to,

in terms of the implications
of this evidence,

but it's pretty significant.

- Donahue concludes that
the kill shot was caused

by an exploding frangible bullet
from another weapon.

If so, why were 3 spent
Carcano shells found

at Lee Harvey Oswald's
sniper perch?

- The advocates of
the lone-gunman theory

will always mention
the 3 spent casings

that were found
in Oswald's perch.

One of them was away
from the other two,

and Howard Donahue explains
the single one perfectly.

It was dented and probably
used as a chamber plug.

Could you just show us
how that's done, Pierre?

- Sure.

- That is to stop
moisture and grit

from getting
into the chamber.

- Evidence from
the crime scene indicates

that Oswald may have ejected
this chamber plug

before taking his sniper
position at the window.

[Bullet clinking]

It's compelling evidence that
Oswald fired only 2 shots.

So if the fatal head shot
didn't come

from Lee Harvey Oswald's rifle,

where did it come from?

Donahue now revisits
the shot's trajectory

to see if he can find
the answer.

The Warren Commission calculated
the head shot came down

at a declination of
just under 16 degrees.

- The trajectory from
the book depository

was 16 degrees down

and about 6 degrees
right to left,

based on the midline
of the vehicle.

Even if the entrance wound

and Oswald's position lined up,

that right to left trajectory
would have suggested

that the exit wound
would have been

somewhere in his left side
of his face,

maybe his forehead, his nose,

and not the upper right
portion of his skull.

- Donahue decides to conduct
his own trajectory tests.

He uses the Warren Commission's
autopsy exhibits

to determine the bullet's
entrance and exit points.

He drills the exit hole,

and hopes to trace the line of
trajectory back to its source.

[Blowing]

Donahue slides a dowel
through the skull

to line up the trajectory

with the position of
President Kennedy's head

at the time of the 3rd shot.

He determines that the shot
was fired behind JFK,

but from a much lower angle

than the 6th floor window
of the book depository.

- Howard couldn't believe it.

Howard believed that it was
absolutely impossible

for the trajectory from
Oswald's sniper position

to have caused the wound that
Kennedy suffered in his head,

based on where the autopsy
physicians placed

the entrance wound

and where the exit wound was

on the upper right side
of his head.

It didn't make sense.

- Donahue has applied
basic ballistic science

to conclude beyond all doubt

that the Warren
Commission is wrong.

He is now convinced that there
must have been a 2nd shooter

in Dealey Plaza that day.

Based on his analysis
of the head shot,

Howard Donahue believes that
a 2nd gunman fired the shot

that killed John F. Kennedy.

He believes that the 3rd shot
could not have come

from the 6th floor of
the book depository.

The only explanation
Donahue can accept

is that the head shot
had to have come

from somewhere behind and
to the left of the president.

[Talking, indistinct]

Seeking answers, Donahue meets
pathologist Dr. Russell Fisher,

Maryland's chief
medical examiner.

Fisher has been appointed
by the Attorney General

to re-examine JFK's autopsy,

and he reveals startling
new information

about the President's
head wound.

- Dr. Fisher told him that the
entrance wound as mislocated.

- It's much higher, maybe
4 inches in this area here.

- 4 inches higher? Huh!

- At the autopsy in Bethesda,

it was down here by
the occipital protuberance,

which is that bony bump
on the back of your skull,

but in fact,
Dr. Fisher's panel found

that it was 4 inches higher

and an inch to the right
of the midline.

- A big difference.

- The doctors in the autopsy

must have misplaced the location
of the entrance wound.

There can be
no other explanation.

- Armed with
this new information,

Donahue can now trace back
the trajectory of the fatal shot

based on the entrance wound's
correct location.

[Blowing]

What he discovers comes
as a complete shock.

- He got out his drawings
and he traced that line back,

and he found that it went
over the left rear seat

of the Secret Service
follow-up car

that contained a number of
agents riding closely behind

the presidential limousine.

- I'm standing in the exact spot

where JFK suffered
his fatal head-shot wound.

And with fresh information
and new photographs,

Howard Donahue made
a sensational discovery

that helps you
understand this case.

He followed the line of
trajectory from that fatal wound

and he discovered
that it didn't emanate

from high up on the 6th floor
window of the book depository.

In fact, it was
lower down behind me,

where the secret service
follow-up car is.

- Donahue writes
to the Secret Service

and asks for the names

of the agents who rode
in the follow-up car,

what weapons they carry, and
what calibre those weapons are.

The Secret Service replies

that they do not disclose
the types of weapons they use,

other than agents are issued
.38-calibre revolvers.

The letter writer adds

that Secret Service agents
fired no shots

at the time of
the assassination.

While Donahue looks at
the Warren Commission report

from a ballistics viewpoint,

Colin McLaren studies it
with a detective's eye,

and he finds eyewitness evidence
of gunfire at street level.

- There was 10 witnesses that
claim to have smelled gunpowder

at the time of the shooting
at street level.

- Dallas Patrolman Earle Brown
is standing on a railway bridge

looking down at the motorcade as
it races to Parkland hospital.

- I heard those shots, and
then I smelled this gunpowder.

- You did?

- It come on, oh, I'd say
a couple minutes later or so.

At least, it smelled
like it to me.

- That day, the wind was blowing
at 15 miles an hour

away from Patrolman Brown,

that is, toward
the book depository.

So for him to have
smelled gunshot residue,

it would have had
to have drifted up

as the motorcade went
underneath him,

and that's what he told the
Warren Commission, exactly that.

Dallas mayor Earle Cabell
and his wife, Elizabeth,

are sitting in a convertible

4 cars back from the
presidential limousine.

- Well, I turned around
to say to Earle:

"Earle, that was a shot!"

And just as soon
as I got the words out,

the two 2nd shots
rang out.

- Do you remember
anything else?

- I was acutely aware
of an odour of gunpowder.

- With the wind at 15 miles
per hour from the southwest,

as it was exactly on
the November 22, 1963 --

and I was really
pleased to have that

as part of my
crime-scene analysis --

I came to fully appreciate

how people in the motorcade
at street level were adamant

that they smelled gunpowder.

More, I could even
understand completely

that the gunpowder couldn't have
come from the 6th floor window,

not with the wind blowing
in Lee Harvey Oswald's face.

- To Colin McLaren,
the testimonies from witnesses

who smelled gunpowder
at street level

are strong evidence
of a 2nd shooter.

One of these witnesses
was Senator Ralph Yarborough,

riding with Vice-President
Lyndon Johnson

in an open Lincoln

directly behind the
Secret Service follow-up car.

Yarborough is a war veteran

with over 50 years'
experience with firearms.

- I've hunted all my life,

and I've handled all kinds of
weapons in the army.

I knew they were rifle shots,
and there were three of 'em.

A second or two later,
I smell gunpowder.

I always found that strange,

because, being familiar
with firearms,

I never could see how I could
smell the powder from a rifle

in that high building.

You don't smell gunpowder

unless you are upwind of it,
and it blows in your face.

- The trajectory of
the 3rd shot leads back

to the Secret Service
follow-up car.

The Secret Service denies

that any of their guns
were fired that day,

yet 10 witnesses smelled
gunpowder at street level.

- I was acutely aware
of an odour of gunpowder.

- If a 2nd gun was fired,
whose was it?

Veteran police detective Colin
McLaren researches this mystery.

He discovers that
in the wake of the shooting,

Dallas policemen interview
witnesses at Dealey Plaza.

- Any detective who's worked
a lot of crime scenes

will tell you the really
best way to solve any crime

is through your witnesses.

Don't look too far,
look on the ground,

keep it on the ground,
keep it at street level

and keep working your witnesses.

They'll solve it for you.

- Sheriff Bill Decker is
a Dallas law enforcement legend.

Decker is one of the cops

who ran down the glamorous
bank robbers, Bonnie and Clyde,

in the 1930s.

He's a Texas maverick,

and he runs a crack team
of detectives his way.

After the shooting,

Decker orders his men to scour
Elm Street and Dealey Plaza

for witnesses.

By day's end,

Decker's men pull in
several dozen witnesses,

many claiming to have
seen the shooting.

- If you go into a crime scene

and you're trying to work out
what's actually gone on,

invariably, you'll find out
through your witnesses.

Of course, you've gotta grab
them at the very start

while they're hot,
and commit them to paper.

The Dallas sheriff's office

found the best type
of witness,

those that saw something
on the day

and were prepared
to make statements

before they could be corrupted
from outside influences.

- For Colin McLaren,
the eye-witness testimony

is the key to solving the
most famous crime in history.

- I heard at least
2 shots fired.

- 22-year-old Hugh Betzner

is standing alongside
the motorcade,

taking photographs.

- I also saw a man in either
the president's car,

or the car behind his,

pull out what looked
like a rifle.

- Hugh Betzner is just
one of the people

to see a gun at the scene.

McLaren discovers
that there are others.

Senator Ralph Yarborough
is in the motorcade.

He also states

that he saw a Secret Service
agent pull out a rifle.

- I heard 3 shots, no more.

All seemed to come
from the right rear.

Some of the Secret Service men
looked backward

and to the right,

in the general direction

from where the explosions
seemed to come from.

One Secret Service man sitting
down in the car ahead of us

pulled out an automatic
rifle or weapon

and he looked backward.

- McLaren wonders
why this evidence

of a rifle a mere 4 metres
behind the president

was not investigated.

He digs deeper.

Dallas mayor Earle Cabell is
travelling in a convertible,

4 cars behind the
presidential limousine.

- Would you describe what you
saw or heard, please, sir?

- I heard the shots.

There was a longer pause
between the first and 2nd shots

than there was between
the 2nd and 3rd shots.

- You didn't in fact know
who had been hit, I take it?

- No, we couldn't tell.

We could tell, of course,

that there was confusion in
the presidential car, activity.

The Secret Service men
ran to that car.

From out of nowhere, appeared
one Secret Service man

with a submachine gun.

His attention seemed to be
focused up toward the building.

- All of these witnesses
see a rifle at the crime scene.

So why did the Secret Service
not disclose its presence

in their letter
to Howard Donahue?

Even Secret Service Agent
Winston Lawson testifies

that he saw a fellow agent
holding a rifle.

- But I also noticed
right after the reports

an agent standing up with an
automatic weapon in his hand,

and the first thing that
flashed through my mind

was that he had fired,

because this was the only weapon
I had seen up to that point.

- Who is that agent?

What Howard Donahue now realizes

is that his suspected
2nd shooter

has been hidden
in plain sight all along,

inside the Secret Service
follow-up car.

Only one camera captures
that agent at the scene

with an assault rifle
in his hands.

His name is mentioned
several times

during the Warren Commission.

- Howard came to a passage

that describes an Agent Hickey

with the AR-15,

pointing it around aimlessly
around the plaza,

or something to that effect,

and Howard saw that reference,
and he was stunned.

- Agent Winston Lawson
rides in front of the president

in the lead car.

He gave a sworn statement
about what he saw.

- I noticed Agent Hickey
standing up in the follow-up car

with the automatic weapon.

I first thought
he'd fired at someone.

- From other Warren
Commission testimonies,

Donahue identifies that weapon
as an AR-15 assault rifle.

- The AR-15 fired
the kind of bullet

that he believed hit Kennedy
in the head,

that ruptures and cause
a massive lethality.

- When Donahue went through
the Warren Commission reports,

he found 11 witnesses

that could put the AR-15
in the hands of George Hickey,

two of them at the time of
the 3rd shot, the final shot.

- Did you hear shots?

- Yes, sir.

- How many?

- Three shots.

And then we saw the car
coming with the president,

and as it passed underneath me,
I looked right down,

and I could see this
officer in the back.

He had this gun and
he was swinging it around.

It looked like
a machine gun.

And the president
was all sprawled out.

- Howard Donahue believes

he's finally identified
the 2nd shooter.

He decides to take his
controversial discovery public.

- Howard had been approached

by a reporter with
the Baltimore Sun

about doing a story.

It appeared as a 2-part
Sunday magazine article

in the spring of 1977.

- In the article,

Donahue reveals his
groundbreaking theory,

but does not name George Hickey
as the 2nd shooter.

- For the first time in years,

the Baltimore Sun
Sunday edition sold out.

But at the same time,
there was a blip and then...

Poof! It was gone.

Now it's back into the ether.

And I think there was
the anticipation

that once this cat's
out of the bag,

there's no turning back,

but it didn't happen that way.

- Ballistic science expert
Howard Donahue believes

he has proven that
the 2 bullets which struck JFK

could not have come
from the same gun.

He identifies Secret Service
Agent George Hickey

in the presidential
follow-up car

as the 2nd shooter.

Through forensic analysis of
the witness statements,

Colin McLaren agrees
with Donahue's theory.

He now examines the behaviour
of the Secret Service

at Parkland Hospital directly
after the shooting.

- [Man]: Just now we've received
reports here at Parkland

that Governor Connally was shot
in the upper left chest,

and the first unconfirmed
reports say

the president was hit
in the head.

- By all accounts,

the 2 hours at Parkland hospital
were sheer pandemonium.

- The lead car,
the president's limousine,

and the Secret Service follow-up
car arrive at Parkland

at 12:36 p.m.,

6 minutes after
the 3 shots were fired.

Senator Ralph Yarborough
is among those

in this bloody motorcade.

- I walked up to the car,

where Mrs. Kennedy was still
there on the back seat,

lying there with
her head bowed over,

covering her husband's head,

his blood running down her leg
and on her clothes,

and twice saying:

"They've murdered my husband.
They've murdered my husband."

It's the most tragic sight
of my life.

- Move, move, move!

[Lamp buzzing]

- Secret Service
agent George Hickey,

armed with his AR-15 rifle

receives orders to protect
Vice-President Johnson

at the hospital.

- Which room?

- One.

[Sobs]

- Go here.

- [Doctor]:
Now, lift.

We need blood pressure!

- Secret Service agent Roy
Kellerman calls Washington.

- We have an incident
here now, sir.

The president and
the governor have been shot.

We're at the emergency room at
the Parkland Memorial Hospital.

- Once Hickey helps to secure
Johnson in the hospital,

he returns the AR-15
to the follow-up car.

He is then asked by one of
the President's aides

to find a priest.

- [Man 1]:
A priest has been ordered.

Emergency supplies of blood also
being rushed to the hospital.

[Sobbing]

- [Man 2]:
Just a moment.

We have a bulletin coming in.

We now put you directly
to Parkland hospital

and KBLX news director
Bill Hampton.

- [Hampton]: The President of
the United States is dead.

President Kennedy
has been assassinated.

It's official now.
The president is dead.

[Women sobbing]

Women here in shock,
some have fainted.

[Elevator bell dinging]

There's only one word to
describe the picture here,

and that's grief,
and much of it.

- Texas law requires that
an autopsy be performed

before the body can be
shipped out of state.

Dr. Earl Rose is the Dallas
County Medical Examiner.

He is well aware of the law

and is adamant about
protecting all evidence

from the crime scene.

But Agent Roy Kellerman
wants to take JFK's body

to the president's hospital
near Washington.

- The body cannot leave
this hospital

until after an autopsy
has been performed.

- This is the body of the
President of the United States,

and we're gonna take it
back to Washington.

- No, that is not the way
things are done.

When there's a homicide,
we must have an autopsy.

- Well, he's going with us.

- The body stays.

- My name's Roy Kellerman.

I'm Special Agent in charge

of the White House detail
for the Secret Service.

We're taking President Kennedy
back to the capital.

- You are not taking
him anywhere.

There's a law here, and
we are going to enforce it.

- Kennedy's personal doctor,
Admiral George Burkley,

also argues with Dr. Rose.

- Mrs. Kennedy is gonna
stay exactly where she is

until this body is moved.

We can't have that.
We are removing this body.

Now, this is the President
of the United States,

and there should be
some consideration

in an event like this.

- Now, that doesn't matter.

You can't lose the
chain of evidence.

- My friend, that part of
the law can be waived.

Now either you move
or we run it over you.

- The Secret Service escorts
the president's body

from Parkland Hospital

and loads the casket
aboardAir Force One.

On the plane,

Lyndon Baines Johnson
is sworn in as president.

- [Woman]: ...the Office of the
President of the United States.

- [Johnson]: The Office of the
President of the United States.

- I was struck by
the heavy-handed manner

in which the Secret Service
and the presidential aides

removed the body from Dallas.

Was it simply
a panicked reaction

to the chaos of the moment

or was it more a deliberate
attempt of a cover-up

of what happened earlier
that day in Dealey Plaza?

- To get inside the motives

behind the secret
service's actions,

McLaren retraces their steps
leading up to the assassination.

As Kennedy and his entourage
drive through Dallas,

Secret Service agents
are entrusted

to protect the president and
the First Lady at all costs.

President Kennedy has made
83 trips in the past year alone.

It had become common
on the Kennedy detail

to log an average of
80 overtime hours each month.

During the Texas trip,

the Secret Service detail
is working double shifts.

The past 3 days have been brutal
with no end in sight.

[Laughing]

The night before
the assassination,

a number of the Secret Service
agents go out on the town.

Secret Service agents
are a dedicated,

close-knit band of brothers.

The downsides of the job are
long hours, endless pressure

and lots of time away from home.

Heart attacks, alcoholism

and even suicide are
occupational hazards.

[Talking, indistinct]

- The Secret Service agents put
JFK to bed just after midnight,

and then, for some
strange reason,

they went bar hopping,

and they were seen to be
in the company

of "scantily clad women",

as the Warren Commission
called it,

strippers, in other words,

and the drinking went on
till just after 5:00 a.m.,

before they went back
to their rooms

to prepare themselves
for a 7:00 a.m. start.

The bar hopping must have added
some serious overture

to the following shift.

Probably hungover,

certainly not in
their best performance.

- When later questioned
by Chief Justice Warren,

the head of the
Secret Service, James Rowley,

defends his agents.

- Some people in the crowds
saw a man with a rifle

up in this building from which
the President was shot.

Now, don't you think that if a
man went to bed reasonably early

and hadn't been drinking
the night before,

he would be more alert
to see those things

as a Secret Service agent,

than if they stayed up

until 3:00, 4:00 or 5:00
in the morning?

- Yes, he would.

But there are situations

where a man comes in from
a trip at 1:30 in the morning,

and he has to be up
at 3:30 or 4:00

and be ready to go out at
a 5:00 o'clock departure,

then would go
that whole day

until 1:00 or 2:00
in the morning.

- Don't you think that

they would've been
more alert, sharper,

had they not been
doing these things?

- Yes. Yes, sir,

but I don't believe

that they could've prevented
the assassination.

- Agent George Hickey, whose
primary role was as a driver,

was already in Dallas preparing
the cars for the motorcade.

- George Hickey was
a 40-year-old

who started at
the Secret Service

only 4 months previous to
the fatal day at Dealey Plaza.

He in fact was gazetted
or attached to the garage,

that is, to polish the cars,
check the oil and water

and prepare it for
the President and the motorcade.

- George Hickey was not
in the bar,

getting drunk the night before.

- That had to have been
the reason that George Hickey,

who was, at that stage,
just a driver,

to have to step up,
take the AR-15

and take the sniper role
on the follow up car.

A set of responsibilities
totally foreign to him.

- In the days immediately
after the assassination,

the Secret Service agents are
ordered to write statements

about their actions that day,
including George Hickey.

- The last shot seemed
to hit his head

and cause a noise at
the point of impact,

which made him fall forward
and to his left again.

At the end of the last shot,

I reached to the bottom
of the car

and picked up the AR-15 rifle,
cocked and loaded it,

and stood partway up
in the car and looked about.

At this point the cars were
passing under the overpass,

and as a result, we had left
the scene of the shooting.

I kept the AR-15 rifle ready

as we proceeded at a high rate
of speed to the hospital.

- George Hickey's version
of what happened is interesting.

He claims that
he had hold of the AR-15

just as they were going
underneath the underpass.

Yet, you've got 11 different
witnesses who gave testimony

that say very clearly
he had hold of the weapon

at the time of the 3rd shot.

That is, of course,
back on Dealey Plaza.

Interestingly again,
is that of those 11,

7 of them are
Secret Service agents.

- Another eyewitness saw
a completely different picture

than the one Hickey portrays.

Sam Holland is standing
on top of the underpass

at the time of the shooting.

[Telephones ringing]

Holland gives a sworn statement
to the Dallas Sherriff's office.

- Yeah, after the first shot,

the Secret Service man raised up
in the seat with a machine gun

and then he dropped
back down in the seat.

- Agent Roy Kellerman confirms

that this weapon is
in the motorcade

in his Warren
Commission testimony.

- We have an AR-15.
It's out of its case.

It won't be shown,

It could be laying on the floor,
but she is ready to go.

- "Ready to go" means
that the assault weapon

is cocked, loaded,
one up the spout

and safety on.

In the case of George Hickey,

all he would've had to have done

was flip the safety,
point and shoot.

- But that's not what
Agent Hickey claims

in his written statement.

- I reached to
the bottom of the car

and picked up the AR-15 rifle,
cocked and loaded it,

and stood partway up
in the car and looked about.

- Why did Hickey say he cocked
and loaded the AR-15

when Kellerman testifies
it was ready to go?

Earl Warren confronts Secret
Service Chief James Rowley

about the use of assault rifles
in the motorcade.

- Well, I am
thinking this:

as you go along
in the motorcade,

you have men who are scanning
the buildings along the route,

don't you?

- Yes, sir.

- They have sub machine guns
in one of their cars?

- No.

- Warren knows
from other testimony

that this is not true.

- For security reasons,
I'd like to....

- Rowley evades the question.

- We have no machine guns now.

- I thought I just heard this
in the record here

that they had some kind of guns.

- We had some weapons,
new weapons, yes, sir.

- So, here we have a situation

where the latest weapon
in the Secret Service arsenal,

the AR-15, is withdrawn
immediately after.

- By his own admission, Secret
Service Agent George Hickey

had a powerful assault
rifle in hand

as shots rang out in Dallas
on November 22, 1963.

- At the end of the last shot,

I reached to the bottom
of the car

and picked up
the AR-15 rifle.

- But eyewitnesses
contradict this statement.

- You've got 11 different
witnesses who gave testimony

that say very clearly
he had hold of the weapon

at the time of the 3rd shot.

- If the fatal shot
was fired by Hickey,

the behaviour of the Secret
Service becomes more intriguing.

Why did they refuse
to allow an autopsy

to be performed
at Parkland hospital in Dallas?

Air Force One touches down

at Andrews Air Force Base
outside Washington

at 5:58 p.m.

The streets have been cleared

for a beeline run to Bethesda
Naval Hospital 28 miles away.

JFK's personal physician,
Dr. George Burkley,

is also the head of
Bethesda Naval Hospital.

Burkley has arranged for the
hospital's chief pathologist,

James Humes,

to conduct the autopsy.

Humes and his team know
their efforts here tonight

will be critical to
any criminal proceedings

against the crime's perpetrator.

J. Edgar Hoover has appointed
two FBI agents

to stay with the body
through to embalmment.

Both James Sibert
and Frances O'Neill know

their controlling boss expects
a thorough report

on everything that happens
in the autopsy room.

The medical investigators
must log all forensic samples

and maintain a sound chain
of custody of the exhibits.

Typically, autopsies
are conducted

by a small pathology team,

but this is no ordinary autopsy.

- Here we have an autopsy

where there's at least
30 people inside the suite --

representatives of the army,

the navy, the air force, the
FBI, technicians, pathologists,

all working in this massive
crush to get the autopsy done,

arguing, talking over
each other.

The head pathologist, Dr. Humes,
even stated in evidence

that he wished he could have
chucked them all out.

- Just stay back
a little bit please.

- It was like trying to do
delicate neurosurgery

in a three-ring circus.

- 30 years after
the JFK assassination,

the Clinton administration

initiates the Assassination
Records Review Board

to release documents
relating to the shooting

and conduct interviews
about JFK's autopsy.

Colin McLaren has
access to vital information

that was not yet declassified

during Howard Donahue's
investigation in the 1970s.

By the early '90s,
most Americans still believe

the truth about the
assassination had not been told.

This public sentiment

increased with the release of
the filmJFK by Oliver Stone.

In response, Congress
passed the JFK Records Act,

which led to
the ARRB interviews.

- In 1995, the ARRB
subpoenaed all records

to do with the Dallas trip
from all agencies involved.

They wanted to
inspect all the books.

Unfortunately,

the Secret Service
destroyed their documents,

all their records,
the week earlier.

Of course,
why would they do that?

- Did the Secret Service
have something to hide?

From the outset,

McLaren sees basic forensic
practices being ignored.

Secret Service agent
Roy Kellerman's clothes

are spattered with
JFK's brain matter.

- Their clothing should
have been bagged up

and treated as exhibits.

They were witnesses to one
of the worst crimes in history,

and they should have
been treated as witnesses.

They should never
have been there,

yet they stayed
for the duration.

- Despite the chaos
in the autopsy room,

the pathologists
agree that a bullet

penetrated the lower region
of the president's neck,

just below the collar
line, at the shoulder.

- JFK's neck wound
was very neat.

The entry was
only 7 mm in diameter,

which suits a 6.5 mm
full-metal-jacket round.

- At the Parkland
Hospital in Dallas,

Governor Connally
receives treatment

for a similar neat, clean wound.

- Dr. Humes,
you should take this.

- News reaches the
Bethesda autopsy room

that a 6.5 mm
full-metal-jacket bullet

has been found on Governor
Connally's hospital trolley.

Humes and his team mentally tick
off their first missing bullet.

JFK's headshot wound is
a different story altogether.

The round responsible for it

clearly hit the president
in the back of the head,

causing a massive wound
130 mm in diameter.

Humes concludes the head wound

is the result of
a bullet that's exploded.

- The left cerebrum
was disrupted

by the explosive
force of the missile

as it entered near there.

I didn't need
a neuropathologist

to see that the
man's brain was blown.

- Do you have
any recollection now

about radio-opaque objects

being in or appearing
in the X-rays?

- Yes, in the skull.

There were some
little, tiny fragments

of radio-opaque material,

which we thought
to be bullet fragments.

Very fine, sort of,
granular-looking material,

went almost as far forward
as the frontal bone.

- [Man]:
We need to clear the room!

- X-ray technician Jerrol Custer

carries out the
instructions of Dr. Humes.

- [Man]: Thank you,
Custer. It's all yours.

- Thank you!

Good!

Clear!

- Once Custer has
taken an X-ray,

he rushes upstairs to
his photographic laboratory

to process the exposures

and bring them back for
the pathologists to view.

Jerrol Custer testifies
that the autopsy room

was the scene of loud debate

and that he witnessed
the doctors being harassed.

- The commotion level
was astronomical.

The decibel level
was extremely high.

You had to scream
at people at times.

[Men talking loudly, indistinct]

- Custer's superior, Dr.
John Ebersole approaches him.

- [Gunn]:
The first time you were asked

not to discuss the autopsy,

that was which time?

- [Custer]: In the morgue.
- OK, in the morgue.

And that was on
the night of the 22nd?

- On that night.

- OK, and who was it who
asked you not to speak of...

- Dr. Ebersole.

He made it clear I was
not to speak of this.

- If you could,

convey the sense of the
words that he gave you

as best as you can.

- "Keep your mouth shut."

- OK, that's
perfectly blunt.

- Investigator Colin McLaren
has uncovered testimony

supporting ballistic expert
Howard Donahue's theory

that Secret Service
Agent George Hickey

fatally shot President
Kennedy in the head.

He's revealed
astonishing evidence

of a cover-up by
the Secret Service.

Now, with access
to declassified records,

McLaren discovers the true
extent of the Secret Service

interference in the autopsy.

- John Stringer was in charge
of all the photographers.

It was his job
to keep it under control,

yet what he saw
was a complete mess.

He was complaining
of all of the chatter,

the talking,
the pushing, the crush.

- Stringer takes
multiple photographs,

mostly of JFK's head wound.

A young photographer named
Floyd Reibe works with Stringer.

Reibe testifies that
he took around 100 shots

on 8 or 9 separate film rolls.

They are crucial evidence.

- When you finished with
one roll of 35-mm film,

what did you
do with that?

- I took it out
of the camera

and gave it to one of the
Secret Service agents there.

- Did you ever see
that film subsequently?

- No.

- As far as
you are aware,

did either you
or Mr. Stringer

leave the autopsy room
with any exposed film?

- No. No, you couldn't have
got out of there with that.

They even took-- We had
one or two cassettes,

they weren't even exposed
yet, and they took that too.

I had a film, a 35-mm
film roll in my pocket.

It wasn't even used, and
they took that as well.

They took every
bit of film we had.

[Men talking, indistinct]

- The FBI records

show that 22 colour rolls

and 18 black-and-white
rolls were taken.

Their care is entrusted
to the Secret Service.

FBI Agent Frank O'Neill

recalls handing the
film to Roy Kellerman.

O'Neill later testifies
that the Secret Service head

promised to forward a copy
of all photographs to the FBI,

but never did.

The chain of evidence
stops with Agent Kellerman.

Reibe himself never saw
the photographs he took.

- He mentioned at the ARRB

that he believed that
images went missing.

Even though he attended
a public hearing on that,

he couldn't find those
images or photographs ever.

He mentioned how
the Secret Service

and different people in
that room were interfering.

- All right, I'm
gonna check the...

- [Custer]: There was a 4-star
general in there and a civilian,

who I took to be Kennedy's
personal physician.

- And were this general and
this person in civilian clothing

giving directions
to Dr. Ebersole?

- Correct. Absolutely!

- What kind of directions
were they giving to him?

- In a sense,
the Kennedy family

would not like you to
pursue this path any farther.

- Would you like her to come in?
- No, wait!

- I'm just saying in a couple
of minutes they'll be here.

- I've got the White
House on our backs.

What are we
supposed to do?

- All right!
You have 5 minutes!

- Let me put it this
way, plain and simple.

The autopsy was something
that had to be done.

It didn't have
to be done correctly.

It just had to be done
for record purposes only.

Finding out the
facts... Forget it!

- Dr. Humes completes
the autopsy,

dissatisfied with the result,

his work interrupted
by all the commotion.

He stores the president's
brain in a stainless-steel pail

for further forensic analysis,

but that never happens.

- [McLaren]:
The pathology slides

that were created by Dr. Humes

were handed up
to the Secret Service,

and he stated
he never saw them again.

If everything in the autopsy
suite was on the up and up,

you would have had a
cause of death sorted out

within about 3 or 4 hours.

The pristine bullet

would have been matched
to the neck wound of JFK.

The head wound, well,

there would have been
a greater understanding of that.

All the exhibits would
have been bagged, labelled

and a proper continuity

and signatures would
have taken place.

But unfortunately,
none of that happened.

- Dr. Humes?

- Yes?

- Do you mind if I have
a quick word with you?

- Well, I do mind if...

- Shortly after the autopsy,
Dr. Humes' boss, George Burkley,

informs him that Robert Kennedy
wants his brother's brain.

- He asked me would
I give him the brain,

which I promptly
handed to him in a pail.

Then the mystery really begins,

because what happened
after that, I don't know.

What George Burkley
did with the brain

is the mystery of the century.

And why I so easily acceded
to his wishes, I don't know,

other than he was talking
about Bobby and the family

and what they want.

- I need you to make X-rays

of fragments of the
president's skull with those...

- Days after the autopsy,

Dr. Ebersole returns from
a meeting at the White House

with the Secret Service.

He has a strange request
for Jerrol Custer.

- Did Dr. Ebersole say anything
to you about metal fragments?

- He gave me 3 or 4 different
metal fragments varying in size,

and he asked me to
tape them to the bones.

- And did you tape
them to the bones?

- Yes, sir.

- Custer's explosive testimony

is evidence of a
complex cover-up

orchestrated by
the Secret Service.

He says that he was
asked to manufacture an X-ray

that would obscure detection of
an explosive, frangible bullet

by placing full-metal-jacket
bullet fragments

on JFK's remains.

- Did Dr. Ebersole ask you

to tape the metal
fragments to the bones

after he returned
from the White House?

Are you able to
say with certainty?

- Absolutely. When he walked in,
it was the first thing he said:

"I want these bone fragments

"X-rayed with these
metal fragments taped."

- There was no doubt
that Jerrol Custer

was asked to falsify an X-ray.

And he did what his
boss had asked him to do,

even though he would regret
it for the rest of his life.

- Well, that was
the most traumatic.

After I signed the gag order,

I was told that if anything,
no matter what got out,

it would be the
sorriest day of my life,

and I would spend most of
my time behind prison walls.

- A few days later,

photographers Floyd
Reibe and John Stringer

are approached by
a Secret Service agent.

- You mentioned something
related to a secrecy oath?

- Well, we were told that this
was classified information

under the National
Security Act,

and we had to
read it and sign it.

And if we talked about
it to anybody at all,

well, we'd be court martialed.

- John Stringer, whose exposures
were confiscated at the autopsy

by the Secret Service,

is also forced
to sign a gag order.

- Virtually everybody in
that autopsy suite that day

was forced to sign a gag order.

- For top-detective
Colin McLaren,

the Warren Commission's
investigation

of the Kennedy
assassination

raises more questions
than it answers.

- From what I'd learned about
the goings on in Dealey Plaza

and the autopsy suite
and the Parkland hospital,

I wanted to go through

the Warren Commission
reports once more

just to see if there was
anything that I'd missed,

and there was.

- As McLaren scours
the Warren Commission,

he discovers that
some vital witnesses

from the autopsy
were never called,

and that in his view, pivotal
evidence was disregarded,

most crucially
the autopsy notes

of FBI agents James Sibert
and Francis O'Neill.

McLaren discovers that
Assistant Counsel Arlen Specter

meets with the 2 agents,

and asks them if they had made
any notes in the autopsy suite.

The agents reveal that they did,

and that senior Secret
Service Agent Roy Kellerman

took possession of all
photographs and X-rays.

He promised they would
be made available to the FBI

upon request.

Almost all of these
X-rays and photographs

are never seen again.

- Did you see any FBI or Secret
Service agents taking notes?

- Oh, that's right:
Sibert and O'Neill.

I could swear they were
writing a book that night,

writing it down.

- But Assistant Counsel Arlen
Specter tells a different story.

- In a memo written by Specter,

he stated there was no notes
made by Sibert and O'Neill.

Was this a misunderstanding by
Specter or was it in fact a lie?

Either way, Sibert and O'Neill

weren't called to the Warren
Commission or their notes.

Why?

- Two months into
the commission hearings,

X-ray technician Jerrol Custer

has a preliminary interview
with Counselor Specter

outside the courtroom.

- There's little doubt

that Custer's observations
in the autopsy

and his story of falsifying an
X-ray for the Secret Service

would have been
explosive evidence

at the Warren Commission.

- Custer tells Specter his story
and waits to be summoned.

Specter never calls him.

Senator Ralph Yarborough

is also keen to testify
at the Warren Commission.

He was directly behind Secret
Service Agent George Hickey.

- One Secret Service man sitting
down in the car ahead of us

pulled out an
automatic weapon or rifle,

and he looked backward.

I smelled gunpowder.

It clung to the car nearly
all the way to the hospital.

- In the commission's
executive-sessions memorandum,

Chief Justice Warren demanded

that Yarborough
be called to testify.

He never did.

- Why Warren's order
was not obeyed is a mystery.

Although he was
the head of the inquiry,

McLaren believes he
was not always in control,

and that the commission
willfully avoided

interviewing key eyewitnesses.

- It's not known

whether Arlen Specter
spoke to any of the agents

from the follow-up car.

Only one of those
agents in the car

gave evidence to
the Warren Commission.

Depending on your point of view,

that is either very
neglectful or very telling.

- After a 9-month investigation,

the Warren Commission
is drowning in paper.

With no modern
criminal analysts

and no computer systems,

it is possible that some
evidence goes unnoticed.

But Colin McLaren

has access to modern
cross-referencing databases.

With his detective expertise,

he uncovers several witnesses

whose crucial testimony
has gone unanalysed until now.

- [McLaren]: If an analyst had
reviewed the witness statements,

he would have seen how often
3 shots had been mentioned,

also how often
"smelling gunpowder"

was said by the witnesses

especially close
to the motorcade.

He would have
linked these snippets

with other evidence
from witnesses

that saw a Secret Service
agent stand up with a firearm,

and then fall backwards.

Unfortunately, this
all went unnoticed

by the Warren Commission.

I came to realize that the
Warren Commission themselves

weren't interested
in finding the truth.

In his examination of
the massive Warren Report,

Colin McLaren
sees an investigation

that is uninterested
in finding the truth.

It's the only logical
conclusion McLaren can make,

given the exclusion
of so many eyewitnesses

who gave testimony at
the Dallas sheriff's office.

- The 2 men in the
front of the car stood up,

and when the second
shots were fired,

they all fell down,
and the car took off.

- Was Marvin Faye Chism
talking about the follow-up car

when she saw 2 men stand
up and then fall backwards?

We'll never know. She
was never asked to testify.

- I saw a flash of pink,

like someone was getting up

and then sitting
back down in the car.

- Well, the flash of pink

could have been
the AR-15 muzzle blast

or gunshot residue,
a number of things,

but nobody asked.

- I also saw a man in
either the president's car

or the car behind his

pull out what
looked like a rifle.

- Mr. Betzner took 3 photographs

which were seized and
sealed by Decker's men,

however Betzner himself was
never called to the commission

nor were his photographs.

- Jean Hill is a bystander

who is only 6 metres
away from JFK

at the time of
the assassination.

- I saw the president grab
his chest and fall forward,

and I think I saw a few men
in plain clothes shooting back.

- Jean Hill was
called to testify

at the Warren Commission.

She mentioned that she thought
the agents were firing back.

Arlen Specter never persevered,

never asked her why
or what made her think that.

He changed the subject.

Why wouldn't he want to
know what she meant by that,

that the agents
were firing back?

Sheriff Decker
was in the lead car

looking back towards
the follow-up car.

His observations could
have been very important

to the Warren Commission.

Unfortunately,
he was never called.

If ever there was a
blatant omission of evidence

by witnesses,

the motorcade
itself would be it.

Behind the follow-up car,

was another 12 vehicles at
the tail end of the motorcade.

Of the 12 vehicles,
all but one was open top.

They contained members of the
press as well as dignitaries,

and they're all facing forward.

However, the Warren
Commission didn't call them all.

They only called six,

and of that six, four smelled
gunpowder at street level.

Why didn't the Warren
Commission call them all?

- For McLaren,

the Warren Commission Report
is a document of omission,

witnesses who aren't called,
testimony that isn't heard,

questions that aren't asked
and evidence that is ignored.

McLaren concludes that the
US government is covering up

Secret Service Agent
George Hickey's fatal shot.

But why did Hickey shoot the
president of the United States?

Ballistic expert Howard
Donahue has a simple answer.

- Agent Hickey reached
down on the seat beside him,

grabbed the AR-15 to
bring it to his shoulder,

he flipped off the safety,

and at that time
he fell over backwards

and the gun went off,

striking President Kennedy
in the back of the head.

- Was there a
conspiracy to kill JFK?

Howard was agnostic about that.

What he did do

was show that it couldn't
have come from the grassy knoll

because there's
no entrance wound

on the front of Kennedy's face

and no exit wound on the back.

And it couldn't have
come from the overpass

because there was
12 other people up there.

What Howard proved,
in my view,

was that Oswald
didn't fire that shot,

and most likely it was
fired by Agent George Hickey

from the follow-up
car, accidentally,

in the panic of the moment.

You know, in the chaos of
combat, he's trying to respond.

He's trying to do his job.

He's probably already
acquired Oswald visually.

He's gonna return fire
and fate intervenes.

[Exhaling]

It's sad.

I mean, it's sad for him,
and it was sad for the country.

It was a tragedy.

- What good would
it do admitting

that one of the
Secret Service agents

had fired a shot accidentally
and hit the president?

- Because it would clear up what
is the great national mystery,

and it would be
a simple explanation

to what is a very
complex question

that still bedevils
every American.

- Well that's the reason

that we have produced
the book Mortal Error.

- 25 years after Donahue
began his investigation,

author Bonar Menninger

discovers the ballistic
expert's controversial theory.

He writes a book

based on Donahue's scientific,
but provocative conclusions.

Mortal Error is published
by St. Martin's Press in 1992.

The book names George Hickey
as the second shooter,

who accidently, tragically,
shot the president.

- When Howard and I
started on this project,

the first thing I did

was write a certified
letter to George Hickey,

and I never heard from him.

And then, when we
were getting close

to finishing the book,

I wrote him again,

and I explained to
him that, you know:

"You really need to talk to me

"because this thing,
it's coming."

And then the publisher
wrote him and, again, zero back.

- George Hickey's signature
on the registered mail receipts

proves he received the letters,
but he does not respond.

- My reaction to reading
Mortal Errorwas profound,

and it was one of the finest,

if not the finest true
crime book I've ever read.

His ballistics was outstanding.

It was faultless
and beautifully explained.

It actually caused me to want
to jump in with Howard Donahue

at some point in my
future and help him out.

- ButMortal Error
does not fly off the shelves,

does not cause a public uproar,
and quickly fades into oblivion.

- He was disappointed,
I believe,

that the book didn't
do better than it did,

but people were more interested

in the Umbrella Man and
ice bullets and grassy knolls.

People seemed to want something

that was still
mysterious and unknown,

and his theory
was ballistics and math,

which is not very sexy.

- Three years after the
publication ofMortal Error,

George Hickey files 4 lawsuits

against Howard Donahue,
Bonar Menninger

and St. Martin's Press.

Why he waited
so long is a mystery.

- If I was so maligned by an
allegation of using an AR-15

and causing a mortal error

to the president
of the United States,

I'd be on to it in days,
but he waited over 2 years.

And that, in itself,
is interesting.

- The suit was
ultimately dismissed

because of the
statute of limitations.

He had waited too long to file,
and the judge threw it out.

- In 1996, a paperback
version is released,

Hickey sues again.

In 1998, the lawsuit
is settled out of court.

- In lawsuits, no matter
how frivolous a claim,

you have to answer it.

And it just kept
going on and on and on

and costing my
father and St. Martin's

a lot of money
and a lot of time.

- They just made
a business decision:

"We've spent too much
money fighting these lawyers.

"We're just gonna
end this thing."

- If it did go to court,

the whole process would
have been open to discovery.

The entire file on the AR-15,
even incident reports,

Secret Service documents
for that particular shift,

that particular crew.

That could have been devastating

for the Secret Service
and for George Hickey.

- [Bonar]: Howard continued
to pursue an audience

for his story and the book

and continued to look for
evidence that would support it,

but for all
intents and purposes,

it was the end of the road.

- Howard Donahue
dies one year later,

his theory all but forgotten.

Howard Donahue's 25-year
quest to expose the truth

inspires Colin McLaren

to investigate this
famous murder mystery

and prove Donahue's
remarkable theory.

Both men agree that the
third shot that hit Kennedy

was the result
of a tragic accident.

- I really believe
this is what happened.

- Three shots are fired.

The first is by
Lee Harvey Oswald.

It misses, but a ricocheting
fragment of the bullet

hits the president,

causing him to say:
"My God, I'm hit."

At the sound of gunfire,

Agent George Hickey turns to
look up at the 6th floor window.

Oswald fires again.

The second bullet
enters the president's back

and exits his neck,

hurtling forward into
Governor Connally's back

and exiting through his chest.

Hickey picks up the
AR-15 to return fire

and flicks off the safety.

As the follow-up
car lunges forward,

he loses his balance and
accidentally pulls the trigger.

The presidential car is
rushed to Parkland hospital

and a massive cover-up begins.

This forensically
constructed account

has long been supported

by previously ignored
eyewitness statements.

- I saw the president grab
his chest and fall forward,

and I think I saw a few men
in plain clothes shooting back.

- After the first shot,

the Secret Service man raised up
in the seat with a machine gun.

- Both Donahue and McLaren
find that 11 people

are able to put the assault
rifle in George Hickey's hands

at or before the
time of the third shot.

Seven of the eleven are Hickey's
fellow Secret Service agents.

- McLaren and Donahue
also identify 10 people

who testify that they smelled
gunpowder at street level

at or around the
time of the shooting.

- You don't smell gunpowder
unless you're upwind of it,

and it blows in your face

- To McLaren, the behaviour
of the Secret Service agents

at Parkland hospital

is evidence they knew
one of their agents shot JFK.

Documented accounts of
physical and verbal threats,

and the determination to
prevent an immediate autopsy,

despite the law,
speak to a cover-up.

- Now, either you move,
or we run it over you.

- The autopsy in
Bethesda, Maryland

is also suspicious to McLaren.

- Mind your own business!

- Overcrowding in the room,

the Secret Service's
constant interference,

the pressure-cooker autopsy,

lost photographs,
falsified X-rays,

and the missing brain

of one of the most
famous men in history

all point to conspiracy.

- If we talked about
it to anybody at all,

well, we'd be court martialed.

- Finally, there is the
Warren Commission itself,

with its unsummoned
witnesses, unheard testimonies,

unanswered questions
and unpresented evidence.

Colin McLaren believes
the Warren Commission

had their shooter
conveniently dead.

They had their murder weapon.

They had a
plausible forensic account

of a 3-bullet assassination.

Case closed.

George Hickey
never takes the stand

to be cross-examined
about his statement.

He never speaks publicly
about the assassination.

He dies in 2005.

- I think, if my father
could see George Hickey now

and say something,
he would say:

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry
for what happened to you."

He arrived at this conclusion
through facts, evidence,

and just his
knowledge of ballistics,

and unfortunately
it lead to Mr. Hickey.

But it was never his intention
to paint him as a bad guy

or disparage him in any way,

and he had great
sympathy for Mr. Hickey.

- It's tragic that
John Kennedy's life

had to end in that way.

And in a way,

it's almost like he's continued
to die through the years,

because he just hasn't
been able to rest in peace.

And I would, for his sake --

'cause I admired
him very much --

for his sake,

I would like to be able
to see this thing resolved

once and for all
and put to rest.

- Understanding the real
cause into the death of JFK,

isn't about
blackening the name

of any individual
or organization,

it's about the truth,

and supplying a definitive
answer to the American people,

an answer no more complex
than a tragic accident colliding

with a foolhardy
assassination attempt.

Maybe it's time
to see the smoking gun,

and then to quietly
close the door

behind history's most talked
about and debated crime scene.