Monday, June 29, 2015

OFFICER H.B. McLAIN DIES

DALLAS POLICE OFFICER H.B. McLAIN DIES

Dallas, Texas (JFKASSASSINATION) Retired Dallas Police Officer and Dallas County Sheriff's Officer H.B. McLain passed away on June 25, 2015.  Officer McLain, according to an obituary published in the Dallas Morning News, died with his family by his side.

A friend described the officer as a "country boy," and another wrote..."I have more respect for this man than virtually anyone..."

On November 22, 1963, Officer McLain was riding in President John F. Kennedy's motorcade through the city.  He testified before the House Select (Stokes) Committee on Assassinations that at the time of the shooting in Dealey Plaza he was positioned on Houston Street, half-way between Main and Elm Streets.

Officer McLain said that he only heard one shot and that he..."just looked up the street and the only thing" (he saw) "was a bunch of pigeons (flying) out behind the School Book Depository."

The officer, who was riding a Harley-Davidson motorcycle, also testified that he witnessed fellow officer Bobby Hargis going up the grassy knoll in the aftermath of the shooting.

At the time of the tragic event, Officer McLain was a 26 year veteran who was serving as an accident investigator.  He was assigned to ride in the motorcade "in the general vicinity of Vice-President Johnson's car."

Officer McClain is well known among JFK assassination researchers because the House Select Committee on Assassinations (1978-79) concluded that it was his open microphone that picked up the sounds of the gunshots and were recorded on a police dictabelt.

The Committee found that the recording provided evidence of gunshots from two different directions.  Professor Josiah Thompson, who wrote Six Seconds In Dallas, argues that the sound of the shots on the dictabelt match reactions to shots seen on the Zapruder film.

JFK Facts provides information about this controversial topic.  It reports that Larry Sabato does NOT believe the recording includes the shots while radiologist Dr. Randolph Robinson of Cookeville, TN believes it does.

SOURCES

"Remembering H.B. McLain:  A Witness To History," by Meredith Yeomans, NBC 5 News, June 27, 2015, www.nbcdfw.com/

"Testimony of Police Officer H.B. McLain, Dallas Police Department, Dallas, Texas," www.jfkassassination.net/

www.jfkfacts.org/





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