Charles Brehm
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Charles F. Brehm (1925-August 8, 1996) was a witness to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy within Dealey Plaza in Dallas Texas on November 22, 1963.
Charles F. Brehm and his 5-year-old son Joe were standing in the Dealey Plaza north infield grass, a few feet south of the south curb of Elm Street, across the street from Abraham Zapruder and the Dealey Plaza grassy knoll. They can both be clearly seen in the Zapruder film.
Brehm was a World War II veteran who served in the United States Army Rangers and fought on D-Day. He later also served in the Korean War.
When the Presidential limousine turned from Main Street onto Houston Street Brehm and his son watched from that intersections northwest side. After watching the turn, Brehm and his son quickly ran northwestward across the "north infield grass" towards the south curb of Elm Street to catch another glimpse of the President. They were standing close to the south curb directly across the street from Bill and Gayle Newman and their two boys, about 20' northeast from close assassination witnesses Jean Hill, and Mary Moorman as the limousine rounded the 120-degree slow turn from Houston Street onto Elm Street. The movie filming "babushka lady" was standing nearby to Brehm's right backside.
Brehm said President Kennedy was approaching him and only 30' away when his son then started to wave to President Kennedy, and the President started to wave back, then Brehm heard the first shot he remembered hearing. President Kennedy did not start waving until Zapruder film frame Z-173, which was after live oak tree branches and foliage had already temporarily hidden the President from Z-162 to Z-208 from being seen by anyone in the Texas School Book Depository's sixth-floor window.
Brehm stated to the FBI that "he could see the President's face very well, the President was seated, but was leaning forward when he stiffened perceptibly" and "seemed to stiffen and come to a pause" when the first shot Brehm remembered hearing was also the first shot that impacted the President and the President reacted immediately to being impacted.
When the President was 15' to 25' away, and had just passed, Brehm remembered hearing a second shot that struck President Kennedy in the head. Brehm watched the President's "hair fly up," "ripple," and "bits of brain and bone went flying" and "then roll over to his side" then President Kennedy "slumped all the way down."
The location of Brehm's November 22, 1963 written Dallas police voluntary affidavit statement is currently unknown.
In the 1966 video documentary Rush to Judgment while speaking of the blood cloud and the bits of brain and bone matter that Brehm saw flying in the air when the President's head exploded, Brehm stated he was specifically attracted to watch a piece fly towards himself, "over in the area of the curb where I was standing." ... "It seemed to have come left, and back." ... "Sir, whatever it was that I saw did fall, both, in that direction, and, over into the curb there."
Charles Brehm was behind and to the President's left when the President's head first exploded.
On November 22, 1963 while still standing within Dealey Plaza, and only minutes after the assassination, Brehm was quoted by a reporter as saying that Brehm, "seemed to think the shots came from in front of, or, beside the President."
In his November 24, 1963 FBI statement and during the 1987 Showtime cable-tv mock trial, The Trial of Lee Harvey Oswald, Brehm testified that the shots came from either the Texas School Book Depository or the Dal-Tex building.
In 1988, Brehm told author Larry Sneed, "After the car passed the building coming toward us, I heard a . . . surprising noise, and (the President) reached with both hands up to the side of his throat and kind of stiffened out . . . And when he got down in the area just past me, the second shot hit which damaged, considerably damaged, the top of his head. . . . That car took off in an evasive motion . . . and was just beyond me when a third shot went off. The third shot really frightened me! It had a completely different sound to it because it had really passed me as anybody knows who has been in down under targets in the Army or been shot at like I had been many times. You know when a bullet passes over you, the cracking sound it makes, and that bullet had an absolute crack to it. I do believe that that (third) shot was wild. It didn't hit anybody. I don't think it could have hit anybody. But it was a frightening thing to me because here was one shot that hit him, obviously; here was another shot that destroyed his head, and what was the reason for that third shot? That third shot frightened me more than the other two, and I grabbed the boy and threw him on the ground because I didn't know if we were going to have a 'shoot-'em-up' in this area."
Just like many other supporting witnesses, Brehm stated he remembered hearing another shot after the President's head had already exploded.
Charles Brehm was not called to testify publicly in front of the Warren Commission, but he did supply a deposition.
