Symposium on the Devil.

[barracuda]

...I will fucking cut you.

Ouch. That's gonna leave a mark.

[streeb]

What about Bill Wyman, though? No wonder he hit the bottle.

Lack of feelers notwithstanding, Bill had the busiest pocket rocket by all accounts. Incredible, really. Just another depthless Stones mystery, I guess.

[justdrew]

Patty Bredahoff is the girl's name...
from here

But Bibb was willing to give quite a detailed account of what's on the film, as he sees it. For one thing, the film shows Hunter making at least two charges on the stage during the forty-five minutes before his stabbing. Many others did the same that afternoon.

Then the camera picks up Hunter some eighteen or twenty rows out in the front-stage audience. (According to Rolling Stone's eyewitness account, the incident began at stage left, with an Angel grabbing Hunter's head, then punching him, then chasing him into the crowd, then knifing him in the back, as Hunter ran. It would be at this point that Hunter would appear back in the crowd, about to pull his gun. Which is what happens. Sheriff's detectives investigating the killing believe -- based partly upon photos subpoenaed from Rolling Stone -- that Hunter was at stage left, and was chased back to where the Maysles cameras pick him up.)

A pair of white men, one of them an Angel, run by Hunter, the black man. The Angel apparently brushes his arm. It looks as if Hunter is trying to brush something away where the Angel bumped him. He makes a face at the stage (perhaps a grimace), sticks out his tongue, and, as the lights catch his eyes, they look glazed.

With his right hand he reaches within his lime green suit coat -- the look on his face is extremely agitated -- and pulls a dark object out of his pocket. Simultaneously, he begins lurching forward, but unevenly, so it's difficult to tell what he's doing.

Six or eight Hell's Angels, who are standing at the front of the stage, start toward him, forming what looks like a protective football cup in reverse. A semi-circular cup facing Hunter.

A white girl in a white knit overblouse grabs Hunter's right arm, and appears to be shouting at him. There is a soundtrack, but none of this can be heard, for the Stones are into "Sympathy for the Devil" at high volume. (The girl is evidently Hunter's girl friend, Patty Bredahoff, who affirms that she was wearing a white knit overblouse. She has been instructed to give no interviews by the sheriff's men, and is following orders. Except to tell Rolling Stone that she has no recollection of tugging at Hunter's arm.)

Hunter brushes the girl aside. She grabs his left arm. He keeps on walking, dragging her forward.

The Angels begin to close in on him.

"It seems," says Bibb, "to last a thousand years, but it's maybe only five seconds."

For one fleeting moment, Hunter brings his right arm across the girl's white dress, in the camera's line of sight. There seems clearly to be the outline of a gun, though there's no detail on the object itself.

For that moment, the girl is the center of the action, frantically trying to pull Hunter away.

The crowd steps back.

Behind the semi-circle of Angels, between the stage and their backs, another Angel appears. Another of the cameras catches him reaching down to pick something up. It glints.

This Angel is wearing an orange bandanna around his neck -- probably a handkerchief knotted at his throat-and full Angels' colors. (Meaning that he is a full brother, not a prospective joiner; it was the "prospects," as they are called, who were responsible for a good portion of the earlier violence.)

A few frames later it is clear that he is holding a long silvery knife.

Suddenly he leaps through the air, over the backs of the other Angels, like a halfback slicing through the line.

His arm sweeps up to its highest reach, knife in hand, the knife once again clearly visible.

In one sweeping arc, the Angel grabs Hunter's right hand with his (the Angel's) left, spinning Hunter around so that he is facing away from the Angel, away from the stage--and--down comes the long knife, plunging deep into Hunter's right shoulder blade. The Angel rides Hunter to the ground, knifing him at least once more on the way down, midback. It's a classic street-fighter's move, beautifully executed.
===

Bibb's next movie he produced was 73's year of the woman, followed by his last production credit, Pumping Iron.

[compared2what?]

Patty Bredahoff is the girl's name...

Thanks! They were playing "Under My Thumb," not "Sympathy for the Devil." This was Rolling Stone's reporting error, and it has lived on for all eternity.

Maybe...I don't know. It really doesn't look to me as if he is stumbling. And I therefore feel uneasy about the stumbling/had-been-fighting-with-the-Angels narrative. If there is a consensus view that I am wrong, I'm open to hearing it. But watching it without the suggestion of a description directing my eyes, it looks to me as if he hurtles into the frame from the left and hits the ground in a roll that ends in a shooter's stance. Patty Bredahoff tries to get in his way, but fails. It happens very, very fast. But that's how it looks to me.

He sure as hell does look like he's not in his right senses when you see him in the crowd for the first time. Though I don't know that I'd say he looks agitated in a picking-a-fight way.

I'm going to add a poll on this "stumbling" point.

[justdrew]

well I'm screening the DVD tonight maybe tomorrow, will cap a few frames...

[justdrew]

anyone know who this guy is? one of the SF based organizers talking early in the film.

[AhabsOtherLeg]

And another thing!

It's how Hunter moves that looks unusual to me. But I don't know how trained shooters move. Does anyone else see anything of note about the series of maneuvers by which he gets to where he ends up?

Um, not being snarky here, but it doesn't take a highly skilled shooter to go from pulling a out a gun to lying on his back with a knife in him. That's a pretty simple manouver if your intended target is heavily guarded by knife weilding men, and the guards are already getting antsy, and are mostly on drugs as well. I don't know if I'm missing something, but does he really go into a crouch? And, crucially, does he ever have both hands on the gun? I can't make it out for all the people around who are already reacting (as Jagger appears to) before the gun is even visible. I haven't read the whole thread yet, but I just thought I'd say that now.

I reserve the right to change this opinion, though.

A trained shooter with a pistol stands in a semi crouch with his legs unusually far apart, and braced, with both hands on the gun, which is held in a direct line from the shoulders. The head is brought down to sight along the pistol, rather than the pistol being raised to the eyeline. I'm no expert, but that's what I hear. It is an unusual stance, and would be noticed.

I didn't see that with Meredith in the clip or the enhanced pictures so far, though.

[compared2what?]

Nope, he has one hand on the gun, but before he goes down he is standing with legs braced, slightly bent, and arm fully extended in line with shoulder, etc. Looks like his center of gravity is where it should be.

I didn't mean where he ends up on the ground.

I meant where he ends up when he gets tackled -- ie, about to shoot. And also how he gets there. It looks like he gets past Patty B. by hitting the ground and rolling under her reach before getting into stance just described. The ordinary thing to do would just be to push her aside. But it's very quickly done, and hard to tell in what order things happen.

justdrew -- I don't know who that is from the pictures, but I might if I saw the movie again. Any other details on him?

[Et in Arcadia ego]

He had already been stabbed once before he returned into the camera's field of view at the end. What you see here is the end of the assault against him, not the beginning.

The initial contact is not present on this footage.

[AhabsOtherLeg]

Weirdest things I noticed so far is that Brad Pitt was doing his Kalifornia act way back then, at 6:13 in the original vid, and that Americans on drugs do not recognise requests or commands issued in English unless they are spoken in an American accent. They might listen to Jagger when he's singing, but when he talks it might as well be the sound of rain on a rooftop. Something to bear in mind if I ever visit the Great Satan!

Great thread, though. I'm learning loads. Wasn't even alive back then, but I can feel it anyway, like a Jungian archetype in my "racial" memory. But mediated, now, I suppose... Very mediated...

Still, it looks fun, apart from all the fighting and shooting.

This later Stones vid doesn't suggest to me that anybody got mIck to shut up. With a mouth like his, it would take a Nuke! I like this one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9hNlJVhvEc

He's a "Sir" now, though. We won't be hearing anything good out of him again, 'cept the Oldies.

[AhabsOtherLeg]

He had already been stabbed once before he returned into the camera's field of view at the end. What you see here is the end of the assault against him, not the beginning.

The initial contact is not present on this footage.

I did wonder, just from Jagger's pre-reaction. You could see he knew something big was happening at that spot in the crowd shortly before what was shown of Meredith Hunter. If there was already fighting, and he'd already been stabbed, then the pulling of the gun would be a defensive move, albeit one that ensured his death.

[AhabsOtherLeg]

Nope, he has one hand on the gun, but before he goes down he is standing with legs braced, slightly bent, and arm fully extended in line with shoulder, etc. Looks like his center of gravity is where it should be.

I didn't mean where he ends up on the ground.

I know you didn't. I suppose I was being snarky, a bit. But I can't even make out enough in the film to see what you are describing. Even in the frame where his arm is fully extended, apparently pointing towards Jagger, it looks to me like it is (momentarily) braced against the side of another moving person, and it looks like he is not only standing fully upright but struggling to do so, because he is being jostled by both the crowd in general and restrained by his own girlfriend. Not the kind of position a trained assassin would put himself in - unless he was meant to get caught, or was another Squeaky Fromme making a Gerald Ford-style fiasco attempt.

That's just how I see it, but I'll need to watch again.

[compared2what?]

Unintentional double-post deleted.

[compared2what?]

Nope, he has one hand on the gun, but before he goes down he is standing with legs braced, slightly bent, and arm fully extended in line with shoulder, etc. Looks like his center of gravity is where it should be.

I didn't mean where he ends up on the ground.

I know you didn't. I suppose I was being snarky, a bit. But I can't even make out enough in the film to see what you are describing. Even in the frame where his arm is fully extended, apparently pointing towards Jagger, it looks to me like it is (momentarily) braced against the side of another moving person, and it looks like he is not only standing fully upright but struggling to do so, because he is being jostled by both the crowd in general and restrained by his own girlfriend. Not the kind of position a trained assassin would put himself in - unless he was meant to get caught, or was another Squeaky Fromme making a Gerald Ford-style fiasco attempt.

That's just how I see it, but I'll need to watch again.

I have no argument with another viewpoint. I can't tell what the hell is going on. That's why I'm asking.

[compared2what?]

He had already been stabbed once before he returned into the camera's field of view at the end. What you see here is the end of the assault against him, not the beginning.

The initial contact is not present on this footage.

Wait. What? I believe you, but what is your source for this?