On to the Fancy Footwork
The preceding “DURING: Part 1: The Operational Specs” outlined the complex, diverse, timed elements needed for this op to succeed, along with proofs we can trace through sequential freeze-frames of the NBC film footage.
Startlingly, we can indeed prove everything on film — step-by-step, on-site, trackable visuals. Only with the exception of military security standing down and the plane‘s tires shot out. That was the reporting of professional newsmen. The left tire was behind the cameraman so it would not show up in his film anyway. And by the time any of the victims had appealed for help to military security on site, the NBC cameraman had already been killed.
The proofs relating to footwork and positioning are, however, recorded on film. Six gunmen whose moves were all pre-set in relation to each other for reasons of logistics, timing, and spatial layout of the required attack formation.
All The Standard Depictions Have Been Fiction
As a preliminary, the reader has to forget whatever they have seen before. I mean that the standard depictions, anywhere, at any time, in any movie, documentary or special, have ALL BEEN FICTION. Shooting in a line; standing and shooting from the trailer bed; a chaos of bodies tumbling off the trailer.
FICTION. Never happened that way. It happened this way, exactly as filmed by NBC.
How They Did It; Tracing the Moves [2], [3-1], [3-2], [3-3], [4-1], [4-2], [5]
Let us now look at how this was done. First things first as per the film itself: the gunman who moved out in front of the long tractor-trailer to fire a diversionary shot into the air. He is coded in GREEN.
The First Gunman to Fire [3-1], [3-2] & [3-3]:
GREEN – FRONT GUNMAN: Will wind up in POSITION 6 of the SQUAD DIAMOND, at the backward point of the rear guard triangle.
First, we should reiterate (see “Eyewitness Identifications?: The FBI Report Versus the On-Site NBC Film Footage“) that this clearly dark-skinned black man was, according to “eyewitnesses,” supposed to be white, fair-skinned, blond Stan Gieg, the driver sticking up from out of the real Jonestown tractor.
That was because the defector-victims (who were by then mostly all boarded on the smaller plane) had seen Stan on the real Jonestown tractor-trailer earlier — that’s all. Not during the attack. Nor did they realize that there was an additional tractor-trailer on the airstrip. Not ever. They assumed that the tractor-trailer from Jonestown had launched the attack. It was never anything more than an assumption nor do any of the eyewitness reports claim face-to-face i.d.’s.
(One eyewitness alone, Jim Cobb, claimed i.d.’s based on seeing a killing as it happened — but by his own words, from fifty yards away and fleeing in the other direction! Ludicrous on its face; but if he actually did “see” the killers, then why did he not note the eighteen-inch height discrepancy ruling out the three he fingered, much less the lead assassin’s head-to-toe military camouflage? Even more: As we will demonstrate with “The Master Schematic,“ Cobb’s line of vision to the assassin would have been blocked by the body of the plane!)
Now let’s look at that front gunman. The dark-skinned black man in front of the tractor. Why is he doing a light-footed sprint sideways? Why is he moving away from the shooters disembarking off the back of the trailer? Why is he firing not at the victims at all, but at right angles to the victims? Why does he lift his rifle and shoot up into the air? There is nothing there to hit!
Why does he then keep dancing to his right but keeps facing towards his left? Keeps facing towards the disembarking gunmen? First to fire the diversionary shot; and then to again lift his rifle into a holding position? Why does he wind up in that holding position, gun upwards, statue-still, not aimed towards the victims, motionless, not firing, as the gunmen disembark in fierce and rapid motion from the back?
Diversionary Move Explains All This
O.k. It’s called “diversionary.” Like if someone were about to pick your pocket, they would have an accomplice diverting your attention by let’s say, bumping into you in the street. Your attention is diverted to one side so you miss the pickpocket coming in from the other side.
Nor is this is a move that is ever just done spontaneously on the spot. It’s pre-planned because the culprits have to coordinate.
Now be in the victims’ location opposite the parked tractor-trailer. You hear a shot and look to the diversionary gunman in front of that long tractor-trailer; so you don’t notice the gunmen disembarking from the back, the ones who be will then be headed towards you.
If it takes you a few seconds to focus (“Where did that shot come from?”), there’s the same gunman now standing like a statue with his gun pointed upwards into the air. A few more seconds of diversion as you wonder who is that guy and why did the shot come from there?
Note: Now the front gunman can just stand there and fold into formation on cue. He just can’t do it right away. His set-up and diversionary shot took just a couple of seconds. The disembarking gunmen needed about six seconds, not two. And that’s just to disembark. They still have to complete the formation as they move to their right to then center the formation opposite the victims.
I.e., the disembarking gunmen could not just disembark front-and-center because in the 5-6 seconds that would take, the victims could see them moving straight at them and flee! They had to disembark from the back and then move to front-center. So the diversionary gunman up front provides them with those needed seconds of time.
Meanwhile, that front gunman has to remain facing them because he will be headed back their way. Once the lead assassin (position 1 of the squad diamond) has marked the center of the advancing formation which will fall in front of the two soldiers still sitting in the trailer.
Also remember, this film is lopped off. There are still many seconds to go. The lead triangle that has now disembarked from the back is headed right-diagonal-forward. It still has to get there and then the two stationery soldiers will hop over the rim of the trailer straight ahead. Only then can the gunman in front of the tractor-trailer fold into the back of the formation as Position 6. Until then he has to just hold.
That is why he is waiting. He did his job with the diversionary shot from the wrong direction, to the wrong direction. He is now stationed in his diversionary slot (to be spotted by anyone wondering, “Where did that shot come from?“) until the lead assassin hits center and forward-charge, opposite the victims, and is headed straight towards the Congressman.
Thus was there a lightning-speed assassination even though that one soldier’s job was to fire that diversionary shot and then just stand there motionless in a hold position for several seconds.
Note something else telling about the front gunman’s sequence of moves: Time was of the essence here; every nanno-second counted. The diversionary shot into the air had to be fired right out of the gate, so to speak, as it gave the signal to disembark from the back of the trailer. It gave the signal by sound.
Well, not a problem. This was such a skilled rifleman that he fired that shot on the run! But then he danced a couple of more steps to his right before straightening up and again lifting up his rifle, this time into a statue-still pose.
Why didn’t he just move to his final position, then lift the rifle and fire, then just stand there? Well, then the shot would not be fired right off and the disembarkation from the back would have been delayed.
But another reason too. The diversionary shot served its function, which was to trigger the disembarkation from the back. But then the gunman went on to position himself a little further ahead of the tractor. Why?
That’s simple. That very long vehicle, the tractor-trailer, was also a visual obstruction. That front gunman had to move far enough to his right that he could see when the lead triangle of shooters had landed out in front of the two gunmen still waiting in the trailer. He needed to see when to stop posing with his rifle in the air and move into formation. He moved forwards those few steps more for the simplest reason: so that he could see.
Lead Triangle of the Squad Diamond Disembarking from the Back ([4-1, 4-2])
To make this easier to follow, what I have done is to COLOR-CODE the gunmen disembarking from the back of the trailer (i.e., into the lead triangle of the SQUAD DIAMOND) into YELLOW (right flank assassin), RED (lead assassin) and BLUE (left flank assassin).
I have assembled 32 freeze frames in sequence from the on-site NBC film footage. These were selectively chosen (albeit in strict time sequence) to plot out the successive elements of the disembark.
YELLOW will move into position 2 as the RIGHT FLANK ASSASSIN of the lead triangle. RED will move into position 1 as the LEAD ASSASSIN. BLUE will move into position 3 as the LEFT FLANK ASSASSIN of the lead triangle.
YELLOW – RIGHT FLANK ASSASSIN: This assassin has already disembarked when the NBC camera focuses on the attack vehicle. You cannot see his head and body yet. They are hidden behind the trailer rim because he is very short. You can just see his feet.
In the lead triangle, he lands out closest to the trailer. All he has to do is to wait for the lead assassin to disembark and set the formation’s center, fold into his right flank position, and advance forward with the lead triangle as a whole.
Thus his motion is just a slow simple two-step emerging from behind the trailer. Left foot step to the left, right foot close; left foot step to the left, right foot close. Watch his feet.
But note something else: This assassin is short enough to be able to stand up straight throughout his emergence from behind the trailer because the trailer’s rim is higher than his head. He doesn’t crouch. When he emerges from behind the trailer, his shoulders are open and outstretched and his neck is straight up.
That allows for an accurate measure of the humongous HEIGHT DISCREPANCY between him and the lead assassin who is abnormally TALL. This is more precisely measured in the section, “There Was No Bob Kice,” detailing how the team of assassins included NO ONE from Jonestown.
The verifiable height discrepancy between assassins 1 and 2 was a key factor in determining the impossibility of a match against the list of alleged assassins from Jonestown. Thus I’m designating it “a universal exclusion,“ because NO ONE from Jonestown was that tall.
Also note that he, like the left flank assassin, is dressed in civilian clothing –light shirt, dark trousers. Designed to be “from Peoples Temple.” To not be pegged as military or CIA.
RED – LEAD ASSASSIN: His was the greatest athletic challenge. He had to set the pace and speed, with maximum aerodynamic efficiency, decisive direction and intimidating force. Once the assassins have disembarked, there are but scarce seconds to be sure that the Congressman is slain; then flee!
He had to leap forcefully onto a hard landing off the back of the trailer, with a deep bend; then swerve at right angles to his right. Then he had to rotate his rifle high over his head in a steep circular motion with the rifle’s sites finally landing into position, move his lead triangle onto a rightward diagonal towards the front of the trailer, locate the Congressman perfectly in his rifle sites, charge forward and kill him in the first blast of gunfire.
Note that if these assassins had just disembarked in a line in the order of 3 (BLUE farthest from the trailer), 1 (RED mid-way from the trailer, but designated as “1“ since he leads the charge), then 2 (YELLOW closest to the trailer), they would both be wasting precious time and lose momentum.
To put that another way, note that assassins 2 and 3 have to wind up parallel; with assassin 1, the lead, advancing first. So if they just disembarked in order of which one had to be the farthest away from the trailer (being assassin 3), assassin 3 would have to wait for disembarkation of all three, plus the advance of assassin 1, the lead, before advancing. And run-stop-run, much less having to track the direction and speed of the guys next to you, just slows everything down. It’s aerodynamically inefficient.
The lead assassin also had to be a) in front of the formation; b) turning the steepest curve of the three; c) charging ahead of his right and left flank; d) setting center formation for the other two; and e) be building to maximum momentum in those precious few seconds.
Thus he is off the trailer prior to the left flank assassin because he most needs the edge on timing. Even a split-second could be the difference for success.
Note that this team also had to perfectly shoot out at least one tire of the would-be-departing plane! (as reported). They could not let that plane take off, even after the killings, for two reasons: If the Congressman was not instantly slain, he had to be grounded with no possibility of escape. Second: If a plane flew out, others might then come in, people who might interfere with the deaths at Jonestown. Rather keep the wounded survivors waiting all night and throughout the next morning (which is exactly what they did) even should any of the wounded die, than to risk that.
(Note: The essential PRE-PLAN of this was that the Congressman had to be grounded for the kill. Because apparently the smaller Cessna plane which was already ready to taxi, did take off. That was not preventable; but then again, it also did nothing to speed in the MEDEVAC! Jackie Speier, the Ryan aide on site, reported that it was twenty hours before help arrived, even though Georgetown to Jonestown was only about an hour‘s flight. The government’s own official log accounts for seventeen hours of that deliberate delay.)
But also note that shooting out the plane’s tires HAD to have been pre-planned. This operation had to be practiced, brutal and quick, with no risk of leaving that key move to chance. They had to plan to divert some gunfire from the victims to the relatively small plane wheels, when to do it, whose job it was, and with cracker-jack shots. Neglecting to do it could have been costly.
BLUE – LEFT FLANK ASSASSIN: This is most interesting. He had the most ground to cover because his designated position was the furthest out.
But that also gave the steepest angle of cut-back: off the trailer, straight ahead, then having to curve around to his right from the widest point out; then an additional 45 degrees (90 + 45 = 135 degrees )to join the lead triangle headed diagonally towards the front of the trailer; to then be joined by positions 4-6 as the rear guard.
Now, if we plot his entire trajectory following disembarkation, the only way to do this in a continuous motion (i.e., to not lose momentum) is a wide curve-around. That is why by the time the film was lopped off at the 5-6 second mark, assassin 3 had run off-screen! Obviously he has to curve around (to be headed towards the victims — “duh”). We don’t see that because the film was lopped off, but a wide curve-around was the only way to go. Furthermore, that curve around had to be WIDE because the triangle as a whole had to clear the back of the trailer. If it was too close in, the rhythm and vision of Assassin 2 would be curtailed.
So this is what the left flank assassin did: He gave himself a running start off the trailer, not immediately stooping and swerving like the lead assassin had to do; but instead running straight ahead.
Then, to avoid any collisions or missteps on the ground, what happened was a PASS-THROUGH:
In other words, the lead assassin (position 1) and left flank assassin (position 3) had both disembarked straight-line straight-ahead. “Single file” so to speak.
But the lead assassin upon his disembark, had to immediately swerve right angles to his right to set the center of the lead triangle’s forward charge. Which was headed back towards the side of the trailer but also out front, i.e., in a trajectory towards the victims.
Thus by the time the lead assassin had swerved around and right-diagonally forward, that also cleared the way for the left flank assassin (position 3) to pass through behind the lead assassin (whose path forward needed to remain clear) and in front of the right flank assassin inching out from behind the back of the trailer.
As is also trackable on the film footage, Assassin 3, the left flank assassin, took a running start off the back of the trailer. That gave him the momentum to run straight ahead prior to curving around. The Lead Assassin, by contrast, gained his momentum by leaping down with a deep knee-bend, like a spring — first down, then springing up.
We can track the PASS-THROUGH in frames 18-26 of “Disembarkation of Lead Triangle of the Squad Diamond” [4-2].
Then, after Assassin 3 runs off-screen (since the NBC cameraman only had so wide a lens), he would have to swerve around and charge back on the right-diagonal-forward in tandem with the lead assassin. It was the only direction to go!
This Had To Have Been Pre-Planned and Practiced
That the left flank assassin knew exactly when to disembark, to do the pass-through, and then did not stop and turn, but rather made a wide continuous swerve-around, just shows the professional training at work here!
No one does this without pre-planning and practice!: Namely, if Assassin 3 ran off the back of the trailer too soon, he could collide with the Lead Assassin who had not yet cleared his leap-down disembark to charge forwards. If he ran off the back of the trailer too late, he could miss folding into his left flank position in time to be in perfect position by the time the lead triangle advanced.
Also note that the gap between frames when the front gunman is in a HOLD position, namely frames 19-32, covers the time of the PASS-THROUGH of Assassin 3 in back of Assassin 1 and in front of Assassin 2. Don‘t forget that PASS-THROUGH, as that is a keynote of this planned, practiced, professional op. No one improvises that on the spot, no way no, how.
What does “pre-planning” mean if not this? But o.k. Take six guys and try all this ad hoc in your own backyard (no loaded guns please!) No instructions, no coordination, maintain total silence (as they did). Get it right in record time first try.
You may get the point! There is no way that ad hoc vigilantes did this. These were pros.
BROWN – THE TWO “extra” gunmen sitting in the trailer: (positions 4 & 5 in [2] & [5].)
There for no reason? Just along for the ride? But then why would everyone else be headed towards the victims in a wide-open, dangerous, risky terrain?
Why are they waiting? How do they know to wait, not move? What are they waiting for?
Again, remember that this film was lopped off prior to firing at the victims. It shows only the first part of the operation, which was the gunman in front firing a shot to divert attention as the lead trio disembarked from the back.
Even an untrained reader can readily spot the lead assassin, who by the end of this short film clip has leapt ahead of the two on each respective flank, to drive the formation right-diagonal-forward.
The gunmen still in the trailer are stationery just because it is not yet their turn to disembark. As soon as the lead triangle of the squad diamond cuts right-diagonal forward to land both opposite the victims and in front of them, then all they need to do is to jump over the rim of the trailer into Positions 4 & 5 of the Squad Diamond. Position 6 (the diversionary gunman up front) will then fall in as the rear guard.
Let’s Now Put it All Together
This isn’t rocket science. It’s not even like there is a choice of directions where to go — forward-charge towards the victims!. And we know where the victims were, especially the prime victim, Congressman Leo Ryan. We can SPOT their location because the film footage itself ([2]) reveals the overhead left wing of the plane. I.e., the cameraman is under that left wing and the boarding area is immediately on his left. (The inset photo taken facing the plane verifies the left wing and passenger boarding hatch locations.)
Trajectories of Gunmen to Victims [5]
Now. Since there is certainty about which direction these gunmen were headed, namely towards the victims; and moreover, we can even SPOT where that was by the location of the NBC cameraman, we can now plot trajectories onto what came next.
In other words, since we know for sure where the gunmen began, and we know for sure where this ended, namely with a straight-line slaying of the Congressman, then it is not speculative the route they traveled. Moreover, since these few seconds of film reveal coordination, practice and control to split-second certainty, with a dead Congressman just seconds later, we know that they didn’t just suddenly wind up in a jumble of six men wildly firing forwards! We know that.
The three gunmen on our right are advancing to front-and-center forward-charge. The gunmen still stationery in the trailer by the end of the 5-6 seconds of film footage can then disembark over the rim of the trailer. The front gunman will then cut sharply to his left to fold in at the back.
Thus, how the trajectories had to fall into place is shown on the panel, “How the Assassins Completed the Squad Diamond” [5].
Summary of Panels
DURING: Logistics and Execution
Part 1: The Operational Specs
[1]: Original, Uncut Footage Showed a Brutal Professional Hit; Shortened Version Still Shows “Enough”
[2]: How Did the Assassins Disembark?
[6] The Role of the Guyana Airways Pilot
[7] Was There A CIA Handler on Site?
[8] The Great Noise Diversion
Part 2: Tracking the Footwork
[3-1] [3-2] & [3-3]: The Gunman in Front of the Tractor
[4-1] & [4-2]: The Gunmen Disembarking from the Trailer
[5] Putting it All Together