Mr. Belin. Would you describe what you saw and heard then?
Mr. Holmes. As it came out of Main Street, the President was sitting on the right in the back seat. His wife was on the left. Governor Connally, whom I also recognized, was sitting on the right of the middle seat.
Mr. Belin. Were you looking with the aid of any optical instrument?
Mr. Holmes. I had a pair of 7½ x 50 binoculars. They were acknowledging the applause of the crowd and kind of waving, but not standing up. This is a short block.
Mr. Belin. From Main to Elm?
Mr. Holmes. To Elm is really not more than a good full block, but the motorcade turned north on Houston and went to Elm and turned left on Elm where it started on a downgrade to what we refer to as a triple underpass. As it turned in front of the School Book Depository, I heard what to me sounded like firecrackers, and it was my recollection that there were three of them.
I had my binoculars on this car, on the Presidential car all the time. I realized something was wrong, but I thought they were dodging somebody throwing things at the car like firecrackers or something, but I did see dust fly up like a firecracker had burst up in the air.
Mr. Belin. Where did you see the dust?
Mr. Holmes. Off of President Kennedy and I couldn't tell you which one of the cracks of the firecracker resulted in this.
Mr. Belin. Do you have any recollection of the amount of time that elapsed between each of the three sounds?