Why Piper Was the Sniper's Nest Shooter

This is Part 3, somewhat edited, of my intended talk at the 2011 JFK Lancer Conference. Parts 1 & 2 are in the threads "A Candle Burned on the Table" and "Frazier and his Step-Father" on p. 12 of the JFK topics.


(photo- front view of Eddie Piper)
https://reopenkennedycase.forumotion.net/gallery/ASSASSINATION/JFK-WITNESSES-SUSPECTS/Front-view-of-eddie-Piper-pic_9.htm

Let's forget about what the Elderly Negro or Eddie Piper may or may not have been wearing up in that sniper's nest at 12:25. One might raise all the "Yeah, but's" known to man, but that will not slow the ruthless hunt up the tree of knowledge. The king of the tigers, defending his wounded cubs, fears no onslaught any human may muster. He is master of all he surveys.

It's well-known that Arnold Rowland described a plaid, probably red & green, "very bright" shirt color. Piper denied owning or even wearing one when the FBI sequestered him on March 23, 1964.

One person giving his word for it means nothing in this homicide case. Corroboration is required, and corroboration itself must distill readily into the 5 principles of the scientific method: Look, Measure, Test, Record, Demonstrate; coupled with Rudyard Kipling's Who? What? Why? Where? When? And Piper's 1st-floor alibi fails miserably on these counts.

We must focus on the unclothed head, in the description comparisons. Rowland said he observed a fairly dark-complexioned Negro, "bald or practically", with a face "very wrinkled, or marked in some way". Further details of "very slender, very thin, 5-8 to 5-10, "possibly 55", round out a stunningly accurate description of the man in this FBI photo.


(photo- Hughes film as limo starts rounding Houston/Elm turn)
http://www.jfkassassinationgallery.com/displayimage.php?album=8&pos=4

Rowland was standing near the bottom right of this film frame, and noticed the old-timer casually occupying the nest. The young man glanced up there every minute or so between 12:15 and 12:25. He noticed him missing after that. What was it, in particular, up there in the direct sun, that was responsible for giving the impression this old black guy was "marked in some way"? The FBI repeatedly tried to get him to forget about this guy.

In the crowd at the corner, at the left side of the Depository entranceway, in a white windbreaker, stood Amos Euins, just 14. Not 5 minutes after the assassination Euins told a Dallas TV station's news director, upon being distinctly asked- and this was notated by a local traffic sergeant- that it was a black man who'd shot from the nest.

Euins was brought to the Sheriff's and held there until 8 PM. The Affidavit they produced quoted him as saying, "I saw him shoot twice. Then he stepped back behind some boxes". And then a direct contradiction- aka flat-out lie- "This was a white man".

A week later, "he could not tell" the FBI anything about the man. Two more weeks and "he was sure this man was white" and added that "he could also see a bald spot". I had to wonder whether he was feeding us good guys a cryptogram, about a spot on a bald head.


(photo- Piper profile, facing left)
on p. 21 of http://www.reopenkennedycase.net/gilbride-2.html where a dark half-dollar sized age spot can be discerned a few inches above the ear

We see such a spot in this FBI profile, but with the camera aimed directly below it, the glare reduces its color-tone. In natural light it would look darker, and it is either a birthmark or an age spot.

In his testimony, given soon after his family was threatened via phone, Euins took the middle road and got the Sheriff's affidavit off his back: "I didn't actually say it was a white man. I said I couldn't tell".

Couldn't tell what? When did he say that? He said that to the FBI a week after the assassination. But in the Sheriff's Office, he didn't say that "he couldn't tell". We know that before he stepped into the Sheriff's, he could tell. He told KRLD-TV's James Underwood that the shooter was a black man. Yet when Euins stepped out, his affidavit reported that the shooter was a white man. The Sheriff's Office had produced an affidavit that was a blatant contradiction of what Euins had seen with his own eyes.

The eyewitness detail that hit home in his testimony was how the shooter looked "down towards my way, and then he fired again". There wasn't a punto of doubt in my mind that this shooter was a black man.

Another item: Euins explained how "All I got to see was the man with a spot in his head" and he demonstrated this by bowing his own head for the lawyer. "I could see the spot on his head".

Another: while shooting, this sniper was almost completely prone, with his weapon extended well over 2 feet beyond the 6th-floor window. And this- after initially- after the limousine had made that sharp turn- Euins had seen only a pipelike object. This told me the sniper was no professionally-trained marksman, who wouldn't have moved while trying to hit a moving target. This particular sniper was more like a quail hunter, crawling forward in the brush, and it turned out that Eddie Piper had grown up on a farm in Manor, Texas, just outside of Austin, and was just 7 months older than Lyndon Johnson.

Now, I've listened to Amos Euins' interview with the House Select Committee investigators. And we've never known, for instance, that Euins watched the motorcade with a companion who ran away as soon as the shots went off. And Euins said he brought a little camera with him, but couldn't remember how it got lost. Did this other kid take off with it? That's what I suspect.

The big problem I have with IDing Piper as that shooter in the nest is his glasses- he said he wore them all the time, and there weren't any witnesses who said anything about seeing glasses up in that sniper's nest. And nobody reported a scope on that rifle. So I had to wonder whether Piper's eyes were even OK enough to try to hit someone in an open car.

But it seems that there were several missed shots. A 4-inch scar on the north sidewalk of Elm, 5 eyewitnesses reporting sparks on the street pavement, even the possibility of a hole in the Stemmons sign. Coupled with the mystery of Lieutenant Day, once he'd walked down the Depository front steps, carrying an Italian carbine- a Mannlicher-Carcano- and telling a reported that the weapon used in the assassination was a "British .303". Which was the type of weapon owned by Wesley Frazier.

So, not only is there uncertainty whether Piper's rifle might have belonged to a fellow employee. We don't even know the caliber of the bullet slug which Governor Connally's emergency surgeon said was still in his leg, right on TV that afternoon. One good guess is 30-odd-3.

In sum, Eddie Piper accurately matches the description of the "elderly Negro" seen by Arnold Rowland in the sniper's nest window 5 minutes before the assassination. And Amos Euins' description of a black shooter with a spot on his head correlates with this elderly Negro, who was described as having a face that was marked in some way.

In a Depository building where the warehouse foreman, William Shelley, admitted to being CIA; where the warehouse employee directly beneath the sniper's nest, Harold Norman, has been identified as CIA by a reputable researcher; where the co-worker who drove Oswald to work that morning, Wesley Frazier, shut off the power to the elevators 10 minutes after the assassination; where another employee, Jack Dougherty, admitted to being on the 6th floor only minutes before and minutes after the assassination, and also admitted to bringing the west freight elevator down moments after the shooting- a descent that couldn't have happened until his supervisor, Roy Truly, and Officer Marrion Baker were ascending the stairs- In a circus like this, is it really so far-fetched to picture janitor Eddie Piper as the shooter in the sniper's nest? Show me a better alternative.