◆ SpookStack

sured from approxim @, the middle between me marks on the. bridge to the perpendiculary in front of the car." (Rote: The "two marks on the bridge" were made on the rub rail by the wheels as the car went over--the right front wheel first, then the left. . This was because of the angle of the bridge to the road.) The hor~ izontal distance the automobile hurtied from the bridge, then, was =. 36 feet, which increases the ¢stimated speed even of trat of In- spector Kennedy, who was generous enough to allow for a ten per cent variance and estimated the speed, in his opinion, at °20-22 &. miles ner hour." _——. - ee eee ne But that isn't all there is to it. When it left the bridge, the car trav- eled throuch air: then it struck water, vhich reduced its speed and the distance it would have traveled otherwise before hitting the bottom of the cond, Had C . this further distance been only three feet, the speed must be adjusted to about - 96-1/2 miles per hour, based on considerations taken into accouzt thus far. Ve can fix this as the minimum speed thusly, that conjecture being accepted: ; The vertical drop was eight feet, Kr. Farrar said, but the photogrenh of the bridge on page 121 of The Inquest at slack tide forces the canclusion that this was only to the weiter. There wes another shy six feet to go through water, totalling 1: feet, probably less a few inches. Now then, from ose of tne first laws we learn in physics, the Law of Falling Bodies, we know thzt during the first second of fall the vertical distance traveled is 16 feet (if wind resis: tence-is rot > factor. and it certcinly was rot here). Had this been 4 dry gu. ly, the time lapse during the fall would have been seven-eighths of a second. But the cushioning effect of the water that reduced the horizontel distance at- ‘so offsets this time fragment, vertical moment considered 2s well, So that we may reasonably conjecture that the time between bridge end pone botton was within a negligible fraction of one second. lr, Farrar's measured 36 feet and _ “She additional subjunctive three, totalling 39, gives us the estinted 26-1/2 .” “ites per hour, which is 39 feet per second, oo. C : In its totality, the prodlem is complex, ageravated by unzyoidable in- ~, exact measurerents, Still iurtner corments anu oDservetions will be made in x ° subsequent section, where presentation will be more opportune. ce ne cee mr ee ET nee oe eee ~- . —_ - > PERJURY No. 3 (p. 7) .Mr. Kennedy stated that at no time after he tumed onto the unpaved Dike Road had he realized he had made a "wrong turn” (un- til just the moment before going off the bridge). Yet, he admit- ted he knéw the road from the -cottage (where the cook-out was held) to the ferry was paved. He also admitted having become “generally aware sometime" while on Dike Road that it was unpaved. Accord- ingly, therefore, he had to know that he was not on the way to the ferry, which he said was his immediate destination. ; - See further discussion concerning both Dike Road and the bridge in a later section. PERJURY No. 4 (p. 7), The Senator relied strongly on darkness to support his ali- bi. First, it was “an extremely dark night", which prepares the