Really stupid question

It seems to me that the timeline of the assassination originates from the clock displayed on the Hertz sign atop the TSBD - as stupid a question as this may seem - was the accuracy of that clock ever checked and confirmed?

I don't know the answer to your question but I did talk to Greg last year about the official time of the assassination.

The Secret Service was originally operating from the very specific time of 12:32pm as the time of the shots and this time appears in many of their reports that they prepared when defining the timeline.

Thanks Lee - I was just wondering about it because it seems to be the timestamp used as the fundamental timing of the shots and, of course, everything that followed thereafter - if you consider how tightly Oswald's supposed "escape" via the bus and taxicab etc. was crammed in, it seems that a few minutes later, say, could make quite a difference...???

ianlloyd wrote:Thanks Lee - I was just wondering about it because it seems to be the timestamp used as the fundamental timing of the shots and, of course, everything that followed thereafter - if you consider how tightly Oswald's supposed "escape" via the bus and taxicab etc. was crammed in, it seems that a few minutes later, say, could make quite a difference...???

The timing is crucial as we both know. Why the SS were operating from such a very specific time is anyone's guess. If the Hertz clock was the instrument used to time events then I cannot understand why for weeks and months they would be 2 minutes out.

I've struck the bus and taxi rides from the narrative, Ian. They did not happen. Regardless of the time of the assassination.

FWIW, Arnold Rowland's watch read time one minute previous to what showed on the Hertz clock (II, p. 168). He's reset his watch whenever he was in the neighborhood. He strikes me as a really punctilious young man, and I'd venture to say that his watch time was the accurate one.

I don't know where the SS got their time measure, but 2 minutes is starting to get to the point where the town should have had it fixed. I always try to use Z-313 as 12:30:00 when estimating elapsed time.