...cont'd from JFK PICKET FENCE COINCIDENCE

Below is the story of picket fence witness Sam Holland, the railroad signal supervisor who was standing on top of the Triple Underpass at Dealey Plaza on November 22nd, 1963 when JFK was assassinated. Holland heard gun shots and saw smoke coming from behind the picket fence; saw footprints pacing back-and-forth behind the picket fence and saw mud on a car's bumper where the shooter had tried to clean his muddy shoes. Holland told his story to the Sheriff, to the FBI, to the Warren Commission and in interviews to conspiracy-theory researchers. Born in 1906 Holland was 57-years-old in 1963. He died, age 69, in 1975. He was a true American hero -- unsung -- for bravely telling the truth about what he saw the day the powers-that-be killed JFK.

All the best,
Jackie Jura

"I am signal supervisor for the Union Terminal, and I was inspecting signal and switches and stopped to watch the parade. I was standing on the top of the triple underpass and the President's car was coming down Elm Street, and when they got just about to the arcade, I heard what I thought for a moment was a firecracker and he slumped over and I looked over toward the arcade and trees and saw a puff of smoke come from the trees and I heard three more shots after the first shot but that was the only puff of smoke I saw. I immediately ran around to where I could see behind the arcade and did not see anyone running from there. But the puff of smoke I saw definitely came from behind the arcade to the trees. After the first shot the President slumped over and Mrs Kennedy jumped up and tried to get over in the back seat to him and then the second shot rang out. After the first shot the Secret Service man raised up in the seat with a machine gun and then dropped back down in the seat. And they immediately sped off. Everything is spinning in my head and if I remember anything else later I will come back and tell Bill Decker."

My occupation is Signal supervisor for Union Terminal Railroad. I have been employed by Union Terminal since 1938. On Friday, November 22, 1963 I left my office and walked up to the underpass.

I arrived up there, I guess, about a quarter until 12, and I would identify each person that came up there that he worked at the Union Terminal and department so-and-so.... There was a few up there that I didn't -- that I didn't recognize myself. The policeman was checking them as they came on top of the underpass. I think everyone was checked by some person. I would estimate that there was between 14 to 18 people. When I first saw the motorcade it was coming down Main and turned off of Main onto Houston. I was standing roughly in the middle of the overpass over Elm street... I observed the motorcade when it turned off of Main Street onto Houston Street and back on Elm Street.

There was two young ladies right across from the [Stemmons Freeway] sign. And the President was waving to the people on the north side of Elm Street. And Mrs Kennedy was looking in the southern direction. And about that time the President pulled forward and put his right hand up and just stood like that momentarily. Mrs Kennedy was still looking off, as well as I could tell. And that was the first report that I heard. It was pretty loud, and naturally, underneath this underpass here it would be a little louder, the concussion from underneath it, it was a pretty loud report, and the car traveled a few yards, and Governor Connally turned to his right. And another report rang out and the President he slumped down in his seat, and about that time Mrs Kennedy was looking at the girls standing -- now one of them was taking a picture, and the other one was just standing there, and she [Jackie] turned around facing the President and Governor Connally. In other words, she realized what was happening, I guess. Now, I mean, that was apparently that -- she turned back around, and by the time she could get turned around he was hit again along in here [indicating]. It knocked him completely down on the floor. Over, just slumped completely over.

I heard a third report and I counted four shots and about the same time all this was happening, and in this group of trees on the north side of Elm Street. There was a shot, a report, I don't know whether it was a shot. I can't say that. And a puff of smoke came out about 6 or 8 feet above the ground right out from under those trees. And at just about this location from where I was standing you could see that puff of smoke, like someone had thrown a firecracker, or something out, and that is just about the way it sounded. It wasn't as loud as the previous reports or shots. They were so close together. The third and the fourth. It could have been the third or fourth, but there were definitely four reports. I have no doubt about it. I have no doubt about seeing that puff of smoke come out from under those trees either.

I made a statement that afternoon in Sheriff Bill Decker's office, and then the Sunday following the Friday, there were two FBI men out at my house at the time that Oswald was shot. I told them that I heard distinctly four shots -- I was certain. At the time I made that statement, of course, I was pretty well shook up, but I told the people at the sheriffs office, whoever took the statement, that I believed there was four shots, because they were so close together, and I have also told those two, four, six Federal men that have been out there that I definitely saw the puff of smoke and heard the report from under those trees. I realized those were shots.

Immediately after the shots was fired, I run around the end of this overpass, behind the fence to see if I could see anyone up there behind the picket fence. There was this sea of cars in there and there wasn't an inch in there that wasn't automobiles and I couldn't see up in that corner. I ran on up to the corner of this fence behind the building. By the time I got there there were 12 or 15 policemen and plainclothesmen, and we looked for empty shells around there for quite a while, and I left because I had to get back to the office. I didn't give anyone my name. No one didn't ask for it, and it wasn't but an hour or so until the deputy sheriff came down to the office and took me back up to the courthouse. He had to find me and find where I was. He didn't know me, and I don't know who told me they wanted me over at the courthouse, so, I went back up there with him and made out the statement before they found out the results on the shots, or before that Oswald had even shot that policeman. I was making out the statement before that, so, it was immediately after the motorcade had passed through there.

The only thing that I remember now, that I didn't then, I remember about the third car down from this fence, there was a station wagon backed up toward the fence, about the third car down, and a spot, I'd say 3 foot by 2 foot, looked to me like somebody had been standing there for a long period. I guess if you could count them about a hundred foot-tracks in that little spot, and also mud upon the bumper of that station wagon. And at approximately the same location as the car and the trees was where I saw the smoke -- would probably be the same location.

Now, the reason I didn't think so much about that at the time, was because there was so many people out there, and there was law enforcement officers and I thought, well, if there is anything to that they would pick that up, or notice it, but it looks like someone had been standing there for a long time, because it was muddy. And if you could have counted them, I imagine it would have been a hundred tracks just in that one location. I saw mud on the bumper in two spots. As if someone had cleaned their foot, or stood up on the bumper to see over the fence. Because, you couldn't very well see over it standing down in the mud, or standing on the ground, and to get a better view you could [stand on the bumper]. They searched all the cars in that location. This [wiping off mud or standing on the bumper] occurred to me immediately when I saw it there. I thought about it that night.

In fact, I went to bed -- it was about a week there I couldn't sleep, much, brother, and I thought about it that night, and I have thought about it a lot of times since then. No; I didn't go back [to look at that site or look at the station wagon] that afternoon, because I spent the rest of the day in the county jail office over there, but a number of your Federal Agents went out there then and Secret Service men. It was just a beehive. In a matter of a few minutes.

This is the first time that I have discussed it, that I remember. I thought that the officers would take care of it because there were so many there, I thought they would take care of everything, and a layman didn't have any business up there, and I went on back to my office.

I ran behind the picket fence immediately after the shots were fired and went up to behind the arcade as far as you could go. I passed where this station wagon was but I turned around, see, and went to searching in there for empty shells, and three or four agents were there then and that is when I walked back to the car there and noticed the tracks there in one little spot. The cars they were parked pretty close to the fence, and I came up in front of the cars and got over to the fence and then walked back down looking around, just like the rest of them. I came behind the station wagon maybe 3 or 4 minutes after I got up there, and 3 or 4 minutes after I got up to the end of the fence. Yes, this is an area in which cars are regularly parked. It is a parking area for the sheriff's department and people over to the courthouse. They park in there. Sheriff's department parks in there. District attorneys' cars park in there. It is railroad property, but they let them park in there and save that 25 cents. Don't put that down. Might get in trouble.

Now, do you want to know about the two policemen that were riding in that motorcade and one of them throwed the motorcycle down right in the middle of the street and run up towards that location with his gun in his hand. To the location where I saw the puff of smoke. And another one tried to ride up the hill on his motorcycle and got about halfway up there and he run up the rest of the way on foot. This is at the time that the shots were fired. Two motorcycle policemen who were in the motorcade, and one of them throwed his motorcycle down right in the middle of the street and ran up the incline with his pistol in his hand, and the other motorcycle policeman jumped over the curb with his motorcycle and tried to ride up the hill on his motorcycle, and he -- tipped over with him up there, and he ran up there the rest of the way with his [pistol in his hand]---

No, I didn't see anything further involving those two. I ran around, I was going around the corner of the fence when that happaned. No, nothing further came of that, that I observed. No, I did not talk to them. No, nothing else occurs to me. That is about all of it. If I have been of any help, I am tickled....

watch Witness Sam Holland behind Picket Fence, 1966 interiew with researcher/author Mark Lane, YouTube (...From the footprints and all indication he was standing right here...they were fresh as it had been raining that morning...footprints mud on these two-by-fours...there was mud on the bumper of the station wagon...and there was only two sets of footprints that I could find that left this station wagon and went behind the white chevrolet car and they were setting over there...)

watch Witness Sam Holland takes Mark Lane on tour, YouTube (route from top of Triple Underpass to footprents behind the picket fence)

watch Witness Sam Holland on top of Triple-Underpass, 1966 interview with researcher/author Mark Lane, YouTube (...about that time there was a third report...it came from the picket fence...and about that time there was a fourth report almost simultaneously...the third report wasn't as loud as the first report or the third report...overe there under that green tree you could see a little puff of smoke...it looked like steam or cigarette smoke...it was about 8 or 10 feet off the ground...15 foot this side of that tree...I immediately run around to the spot where that shot came from...

watch Witness Sam Holland interview 1966, with author/lawyer Mark Lane, YouTube (...I looked over to where I thought the shot came from and I saw a puff of smoke still lingering under the trees in front of the wooden fence...the report sounded like it came from behind the wooden fence...I know where that 3rd shot came from...it came from behind the picket fence close to the little plaza...there's no doubt whatsoever in my mind...and the statement I made in the sherrif's office immediately after the shooting...and the statement I made to the Warren Commission...and I made it very plain there was no doubt in my mind that there was definitely a shot fired from behind that picket fence...)

Rush to Judgement, by Mark Lane (A critique of the Warren Commission's enquiry into the murders of President John F Kennedy, Officer J. D. Tippitt and Lee Harvey Oswald)

S. M. (Skinny) Holland, SpartacusEducational (...born in 1906, died in 1975. When he was 32 years old he began working for the Union Terminal Railroad. Holland, who lived in Irving, Texas, eventually became a supervisor for railroad track and track signals for the company....)

JFK The Last Dissenting Witness, by Bill Sloan with Jean Hill (The Lady in Red)