Silencers, Sniper Rifles and the CIA

[Bob Prudhomme]

Gary Mack would have referred to the de Lisle Carbine as a handgun for the simple fact this weapon fired .45 ACP pistol ammunition at subsonic velocities (830 fps muzzle velocity) making it, essentially, a handgun with a long barrel and stock.

That wasn't the context of the conversation Bob. It was the use of silencers in general. And Gary jumped to the conclusion that it would have to be a handgun.

Which as Carol shows is not the case.

At 830 fps muzzle velocity, it might as well be a handgun.

Bob, you are missing the point.

I never mentioned the Lisle Carbine in my discussion with Gary.

We were talking about silencers in general. Gary assumed you could only use a silencer with a handgun.

I knew you could use them with rifles since I had read about Werbell's work.

I understand what you are getting at, Jim. I just wanted to point out that, in order to truly silence a weapon, it is necessary to sacrifice the flat trajectory of a supersonic weapon, such as a rifle, and settle for the inaccuracy of a subsonic pistol round, such as was fired from the de Lisle carbine. If Werbell was producing 100% silenced weapons, he would have been facing the same problem.

IMHO, I believe silenced weapons were used in the assassination to make it impossible to accurately locate the source of some of the shots. The Altgens 6 photo below is, I believe, proof of the use of at least one suppressed rifle.



Note that the attention of the four standing SS agents is drawn to the right side of the follow up car. I believe a bullet has just passed the heads of the agents on the right side of the car, travelling on its way from the mid-floors of the Dal-Tex Building on its way to JFK's back. If this shot were suppressed, there would be no sound made by the muzzle blast, but the bullet itself would be making a sharp crack as it broke the sound barrier. How audible would it be? Perhaps audible enough to make the SS agents look around, but not be noticed by the crowd on the sidewalk.