Commission Exhibit No. 477
Position of Howard L. Brennan on November 22, 1963. (Photograph taken on March 20, 1964, and marked by Brennan during his testimony to show the window (A) in which he saw a man with a rifle, and the window (B) on the fifth floor in which he saw people watching the motorcade.)
Near the Depository
Eyewitnesses testified that they saw a man fire a weapon from the sixth-floor window. Howard L. Brennan, a 45-year-old steamfitter, watched the motorcade from a concrete retaining wall at the southwest corner of Elm and Houston, where he had a clear view of the south side of the Depository Building.[C3-1] (See Commission Exhibit No. 477, [p. 62].) He was approximately 107 feet from the Depository entrance and 120 feet from the southeast corner window of the sixth floor.[C3-2] Brennan’s presence and vantage point are corroborated by a motion picture of the motorcade taken by amateur photographer Abraham Zapruder, which shows Brennan, wearing gray khaki work clothes and a gray work helmet, seated on the retaining wall.[C3-3] Brennan later identified himself in the Zapruder movie.[C3-4] While waiting about 7 minutes for the President to arrive, he observed the crowd on the street and the people at the windows of the Depository Building.[C3-5] He noticed a man at the southeast corner window of the sixth floor, and observed him leave the window “a couple of times.”[C3-6]
Brennan watched the President’s car as it turned the corner at Houston and Elm and moved down the incline toward the Triple Underpass. Soon after the President’s car passed, he heard an explosion like the backfire of a motorcycle.[C3-7] Brennan recalled:
Well, then something, just right after this explosion, made me think that it was a firecracker being thrown from the Texas Book Store. And I glanced up. And this man that I saw previous was aiming for his last shot.
* * * * *
Well, as it appeared to me he was standing up and resting against the left window sill, with gun shouldered to his right shoulder, holding the gun with his left hand and taking positive aim and fired his last shot. As I calculate a couple of seconds. He drew the gun back from the window as though he was drawing it back to his side and maybe paused for another second as though to assure hisself that he hit his mark, and then he disappeared.[C3-8]
Brennan stated that he saw 70 to 85 percent of the gun when it was fired and the body of the man from the waist up.[C3-9] The rifle was aimed southwesterly down Elm Street toward the underpass.[C3-10] Brennan saw the man fire one shot and he remembered hearing a total of only two shots. When questioned about the number of shots, Brennan testified:
I don’t know what made me think that there was firecrackers throwed out of the Book Store unless I did hear the second shot, because I positively thought the first shot was a backfire, and subconsciously I must have heard a second shot, but I do not recall it. I could not swear to it.[C3-11]
Brennan quickly reported his observations to police officers.[C3-12] Brennan’s description of the man he saw is discussed in the next chapter.
Amos Lee Euins, a 15-year-old ninth grade student, stated that he was facing the Depository as the motorcade turned the corner at Elm and Houston. He recalled: