S. M. (Skinny) Holland
Posted: Mon Feb 13, 2012 12:43 am
S. M. (Skinny) Holland was born in 1906. When he was 32 years old he began working for the Union Terminal Railroad. Holland, who lived in Irving, Texas, eventually became a supervisor for railroad track and track signals for the company.On 22nd November, 1963, Holland watched the motorcade of President John F. Kennedy from the overpass in Dealey Plaza. He said that when Kennedy was shot he saw a puff of gunsmoke under the branches of a tree on the grassy knoll.Holland later gave evidence to the Warren Commission, who reported: "According to S. M. Holland, there were four shots which sounded as though they came from the trees on the north side of Elm Street where he saw a puff of smoke... No one saw anyone with a rifle. As he ran through the railroad yards to the Depository, Patrolman Foster saw no suspicious activity. The same was true of the other bystanders, many of whom made an effort after the shooting to observe any unusual activity. Holland, for example, immediately after the shots, ran off the underpass to see if there was anyone behind the picket fence on the north side of Elm Street, but he did not see anyone among the parked cars."He told the television programme, CBS: The Warren Report: "Just about the time that the parade turned on Elm Street, about where that truck is - that bus is now, there was a shot came from up-the upper end of the street. I couldn't say then, at that time, that it came from the Book Depository book store. But I knew that it came from the other end of the street, and the President slumped over forward like that and tried to raise his hand up. And Governor Connally, sitting in front of him on the right side of the car, tried to turn to his right and he was sitting so close to the door that he couldn't make it that-a-way, and he turned back like that with his arm out to the left. And about that time, the second shot was fired and it knocked him over forward and he slumped to the right, and I guess his wife pulled him over in her lap because he fell over in her lap. And about that time, there was a third report that wasn't nearly as loud as the two previous reports. It came from that picket fence, and then there was a fourth report. The third and the fourth reports was almost simultaneously. But, the third report wasn't nearly as loud as the two previous reports or the fourth report. And I glanced over underneath that green tree and you see a - a little puff of smoke. It looked like a puff of steam or cigarette smoke. And the smoke was about - oh, eight or ten feet off the ground, and about fifteen feet this side of that tree."S. M. (Skinny) Holland died in 1975.