Steve Barber
2018-07-05 23:22:44 UTC
The following audio clips are a portion of the Dallas police radio voice traffic, channel 1, for November 22, 1963. The time is 12:28. It is the beginnings of the 5.5 minute stuck open microphone sequence that took place before, during, and after the assassination of President Kennedy. A person who posts under the name "Gknoll" claims that there is some funny business going on with the police dispatcher, Murray Jackson, and that "someone"( not necessarily a police officer, according to him) told Murray Jackson " Murray, keep your mic off" just after the microphone became stuck in the open position. The microphone became stuck in the open position just as--or after--Dallas police officer F. G. Woodrow (His call number that day was 38) contacted the police dispatcher to report a pedestrian problem at Market Hall near the Trade Mart where President Kennedy was to make a speech. Officer Woodrow's transmission reads as follows (Here is a link to the audio clip):
(Officer Woodrow) 38!
Dispatcher: 38.
38: Might tell some of those people involved handling this deal out here at Market Hall that there's people walking across Southbound Stemmons here in front of the Marriott Hotel and all the way down south.
Dispatcher: 10-4 38. You still enroute to court?
38: 10-4
Approximately 11 seconds pass when an unidentified officer(we can't hear a call number identifying himself) keys open his mic and utters a transmission that is garbled and accompanied with heavy, constant background noise, making it extremely difficult to understand except for the final words of the transmission. "Gknoll" claims that he can hear the words "Murray, keep your mic off" within the garbled transmission. There are two words and two words only that are legible and they occur as the last two words at the end of the transmission
In the audio clip below, titled "C-1 Transmission 12:28 11-22-63", I open the clip with Officer Woodrow's complete transmission. It is the entire transmission by F.G. Woodrow as it was recorded on 11/22/63. No filtering or any type of enhancement or speed change has been added. The segment is repeated twice.
Everything you just heard following the twice repeated Woodrow transmission is filtered. The remaining segments are the same complete Woodrow transmission featuring slowed tempo without altering the true pitch of the voice. I decreased the speed of the actual tempos and added filtering to the recording primarily to enable the listener the chance to hear the last two words spoken--which are unmistakably clearer than the rest of the transmission. These are words which "Gknoll" claims are the words "mic off " as in "Murray, keep your mic off". You will notice that there are three very distinct syllables within the two words spoken by Officer Woodrow. As the audio file continues, after having decreased the natural tempo to allow the listener a chance to clearly hear the three syllables, I then gradually speeded up the tempo until it reaches natural speed, then gradually increase the tempo speed so it is playing too fast.
Do you hear the words "Mic off"? They are not there. There are too many syllables within those two words, which, according to "Gknoll" are "Mic off".
Audio file #2: Within this audio file, you will be listening to the clearest words in the transmission, which are the final two words spoken during the transmission by Officer Woodrow. The first portion transmission which "Gknoll" insists is "Murray keep your" have been removed, leaving only the words he insists are "Mic off". This file is filtered, with different tempo changes added to this final portion of the transmission in question. There are also unfiltered segments included to which I applied the same methods, i.e. playing the last words from the transmission unfiltered at slightly slower tempo, regular speed and then gradual increased tempo . You will notice that clearly, there are unmistakably three syllables, not two. You will also notice that as I increased the tempo, it reaches the point where it sounds like the words spoken sound like the words "rock and roll". In other words, you are clearly hearing three syllables, not two words as in "Mic off".
In my opinion, the words spoken during the radio transmission by F.G. Woodrow is in regard to the pedestrian problem at Market Hall (see above transmission).
(Dallas Police Radio Transmissions audio Source for the clips above can be found here):
When "Gknoll" posted his theory here at this newsgroup last year, he posted mp3's of the transmission made by Officer Woodrow, suggesting that the words spoken are "Murray, keep your mic off". I contested and this led to a long, sometimes heated "discussion" between the two of us. I am no amateur when it comes to the contents of this recording.
In 1978, when I first began listening to the Dallas police recordings, and having heard this particular transmission over and over and over because it was thought by Gary Mack (the researcher who brought the Dallas police recording of channel 1 to the attention of the HSCA) that 7 gunshots immediately followed the transmission "10-4" by Officer Woodrow, when the officer responded to the dispatcher's "10-4" after he radioed in about the problem at Market Hall.
I did not own or have access to any copies of the Dallas police recordings at the time. What I had was what was included as a small segment during a local Dallas radio program on which Gary Mack was a guest, and on which he played the complete segment of the police recording that he thought contained the gunshots that killed President Kennedy. This included the entire F.G. Woodrow transmission and beyond .It was a cassette tape that I'd purchased from M&A Book Dealer's' (now defunct) who specialized in books and audio tapes regarding the JFK assassination.
According to Gary, the first "gunshot" came instantly after Officer Woodrow made the transmission "10-4", in response to the dispatcher. I spent a lot of time listening to that section of the recording, trying to hear the "gunshots", and therefore listened to the radio transmission by Officer Woodrow because the supposed 7 gunshots overlap the section of the recording regarding the transmission made by Officer Woodrow. I became extremely familiar with the F.G. Woodrow transmission.
Once "Gknoll" posted MP3's (in an attempt to convince readers of what he could hear) I challenged him by pointing out that I thought him to be in error-- and that the transmission was regarding Market Hall. "Gknoll" firmly disagreed and then repeatedly posted and re-posted his MP3's of Officer Woodrow's transmission, using poor quality recordings to make his point. I then took it upon myself to use my high quality, digitized recordings (which I'd received from Norman Ramsey and Paul Horowitz ) to try to show "Gknoll" that the transmission is in regards to Market Hall. In doing so, I did what is now common practice, using today's technology in law enforcement (when recordings of this nature become evidence of interest and have to be subjected to filtering and speed adjustment procedures to aid in deciphering otherwise indecipherable speech). "Gknoll" became irritated, and would have none of it. I was trying to make it easier for both he and the listener(whoever they may be) to be able to hear the transmission with ease. Why? Because "Gknoll" expected the listener to be able to hear the words "Murray, keep your mic off" by forcing them to listen to *HIS* poor quality MP3's as well as listen to the transmission played at regular speed and less than a second in length. He didn't want anyone to listen to the MP3's I made, and made it perfectly clear. He claimed that I was "desperate" and that his interpretation of the transmission must be a "threat" to me, otherwise, I wouldn't be making enhanced recordings to prove my point to "get them to sound the way [I] want them to sound. The whole I diea is to make it easy--as easy as possible for listener's to be able to grasp the point, not make it as difficult as possible.
Things escalated and became outrageous with his accusations becoming more and more ridiculous. I stopped wasting my time. No one was responding to anything being "discussed" in the newsgroup regarding the recording other than Tony Marsh, and I thought it was stupid to carry on with the "Gknoll" charade. Things abruptly ended, and faded into oblivion. It came up again just two-three mopnths ago months ago, and here we go again. What it all boils down to is, "Gknoll" doesn't want anyone to be able to decipher what is on the channel 1 recording. If he did want people to be able to hear what he claims is there, he would be elated to have the recording enhanced and so forth in an attempt to help the listener hear what is happening. He doesn't want people to know that he has been challenged by someone who has spent years and years analyzing top quality copies of the recordings, and who discovered something on the recording in 1980 that "altered history" as they say. He insists that I am trying to bully my way around , living off " 15 minutes of fame" ("Fame"??? Really?!! Hardly!!!) that by my not agreeing with him that it's "Murray, keep your mic off" I am being "stubborn", and such. Hogwash! If I was/am wrong, I will admit it.
As far as I am concerned, it's case closed. The transmission is not "Murray keep your mic off" because the last two words of the transmission contain too many syllables. Period. End of story. I will never waste my time with "Gknoll" again.
Steve Barber June 30, 2018
(Officer Woodrow) 38!
Dispatcher: 38.
38: Might tell some of those people involved handling this deal out here at Market Hall that there's people walking across Southbound Stemmons here in front of the Marriott Hotel and all the way down south.
Dispatcher: 10-4 38. You still enroute to court?
38: 10-4
Approximately 11 seconds pass when an unidentified officer(we can't hear a call number identifying himself) keys open his mic and utters a transmission that is garbled and accompanied with heavy, constant background noise, making it extremely difficult to understand except for the final words of the transmission. "Gknoll" claims that he can hear the words "Murray, keep your mic off" within the garbled transmission. There are two words and two words only that are legible and they occur as the last two words at the end of the transmission
In the audio clip below, titled "C-1 Transmission 12:28 11-22-63", I open the clip with Officer Woodrow's complete transmission. It is the entire transmission by F.G. Woodrow as it was recorded on 11/22/63. No filtering or any type of enhancement or speed change has been added. The segment is repeated twice.
Everything you just heard following the twice repeated Woodrow transmission is filtered. The remaining segments are the same complete Woodrow transmission featuring slowed tempo without altering the true pitch of the voice. I decreased the speed of the actual tempos and added filtering to the recording primarily to enable the listener the chance to hear the last two words spoken--which are unmistakably clearer than the rest of the transmission. These are words which "Gknoll" claims are the words "mic off " as in "Murray, keep your mic off". You will notice that there are three very distinct syllables within the two words spoken by Officer Woodrow. As the audio file continues, after having decreased the natural tempo to allow the listener a chance to clearly hear the three syllables, I then gradually speeded up the tempo until it reaches natural speed, then gradually increase the tempo speed so it is playing too fast.
Do you hear the words "Mic off"? They are not there. There are too many syllables within those two words, which, according to "Gknoll" are "Mic off".
Audio file #2: Within this audio file, you will be listening to the clearest words in the transmission, which are the final two words spoken during the transmission by Officer Woodrow. The first portion transmission which "Gknoll" insists is "Murray keep your" have been removed, leaving only the words he insists are "Mic off". This file is filtered, with different tempo changes added to this final portion of the transmission in question. There are also unfiltered segments included to which I applied the same methods, i.e. playing the last words from the transmission unfiltered at slightly slower tempo, regular speed and then gradual increased tempo . You will notice that clearly, there are unmistakably three syllables, not two. You will also notice that as I increased the tempo, it reaches the point where it sounds like the words spoken sound like the words "rock and roll". In other words, you are clearly hearing three syllables, not two words as in "Mic off".
In my opinion, the words spoken during the radio transmission by F.G. Woodrow is in regard to the pedestrian problem at Market Hall (see above transmission).
(Dallas Police Radio Transmissions audio Source for the clips above can be found here):
When "Gknoll" posted his theory here at this newsgroup last year, he posted mp3's of the transmission made by Officer Woodrow, suggesting that the words spoken are "Murray, keep your mic off". I contested and this led to a long, sometimes heated "discussion" between the two of us. I am no amateur when it comes to the contents of this recording.
In 1978, when I first began listening to the Dallas police recordings, and having heard this particular transmission over and over and over because it was thought by Gary Mack (the researcher who brought the Dallas police recording of channel 1 to the attention of the HSCA) that 7 gunshots immediately followed the transmission "10-4" by Officer Woodrow, when the officer responded to the dispatcher's "10-4" after he radioed in about the problem at Market Hall.
I did not own or have access to any copies of the Dallas police recordings at the time. What I had was what was included as a small segment during a local Dallas radio program on which Gary Mack was a guest, and on which he played the complete segment of the police recording that he thought contained the gunshots that killed President Kennedy. This included the entire F.G. Woodrow transmission and beyond .It was a cassette tape that I'd purchased from M&A Book Dealer's' (now defunct) who specialized in books and audio tapes regarding the JFK assassination.
According to Gary, the first "gunshot" came instantly after Officer Woodrow made the transmission "10-4", in response to the dispatcher. I spent a lot of time listening to that section of the recording, trying to hear the "gunshots", and therefore listened to the radio transmission by Officer Woodrow because the supposed 7 gunshots overlap the section of the recording regarding the transmission made by Officer Woodrow. I became extremely familiar with the F.G. Woodrow transmission.
Once "Gknoll" posted MP3's (in an attempt to convince readers of what he could hear) I challenged him by pointing out that I thought him to be in error-- and that the transmission was regarding Market Hall. "Gknoll" firmly disagreed and then repeatedly posted and re-posted his MP3's of Officer Woodrow's transmission, using poor quality recordings to make his point. I then took it upon myself to use my high quality, digitized recordings (which I'd received from Norman Ramsey and Paul Horowitz ) to try to show "Gknoll" that the transmission is in regards to Market Hall. In doing so, I did what is now common practice, using today's technology in law enforcement (when recordings of this nature become evidence of interest and have to be subjected to filtering and speed adjustment procedures to aid in deciphering otherwise indecipherable speech). "Gknoll" became irritated, and would have none of it. I was trying to make it easier for both he and the listener(whoever they may be) to be able to hear the transmission with ease. Why? Because "Gknoll" expected the listener to be able to hear the words "Murray, keep your mic off" by forcing them to listen to *HIS* poor quality MP3's as well as listen to the transmission played at regular speed and less than a second in length. He didn't want anyone to listen to the MP3's I made, and made it perfectly clear. He claimed that I was "desperate" and that his interpretation of the transmission must be a "threat" to me, otherwise, I wouldn't be making enhanced recordings to prove my point to "get them to sound the way [I] want them to sound. The whole I diea is to make it easy--as easy as possible for listener's to be able to grasp the point, not make it as difficult as possible.
Things escalated and became outrageous with his accusations becoming more and more ridiculous. I stopped wasting my time. No one was responding to anything being "discussed" in the newsgroup regarding the recording other than Tony Marsh, and I thought it was stupid to carry on with the "Gknoll" charade. Things abruptly ended, and faded into oblivion. It came up again just two-three mopnths ago months ago, and here we go again. What it all boils down to is, "Gknoll" doesn't want anyone to be able to decipher what is on the channel 1 recording. If he did want people to be able to hear what he claims is there, he would be elated to have the recording enhanced and so forth in an attempt to help the listener hear what is happening. He doesn't want people to know that he has been challenged by someone who has spent years and years analyzing top quality copies of the recordings, and who discovered something on the recording in 1980 that "altered history" as they say. He insists that I am trying to bully my way around , living off " 15 minutes of fame" ("Fame"??? Really?!! Hardly!!!) that by my not agreeing with him that it's "Murray, keep your mic off" I am being "stubborn", and such. Hogwash! If I was/am wrong, I will admit it.
As far as I am concerned, it's case closed. The transmission is not "Murray keep your mic off" because the last two words of the transmission contain too many syllables. Period. End of story. I will never waste my time with "Gknoll" again.
Steve Barber June 30, 2018