Im a skeptic when it comes to "eyewitness" accounts. As we have seen with any major event (Plane crash, murder, meteor, earthquake etc) everyone has a differing account of what it looked like, how it sounded, what happened and so on. Oral history is often molded by personal opinion, experience, culture, and elaboration as it is passed from one person to the next. Even firsthand accounts can be muddled by time, external influences, and personal bias. Maybe someone DID see something, but without a photo, a fiber, a tree scrawled with "AE + FN 1937" etc, we cant be sure. We are seeing a great example lately as I live near the Ferguson area of St. Louis. New "eyewitness testimony" is surfacing every single day, so many that it makes me wonder how anyone will be able differentiate between fact and fiction. I imagine that it must be alot like the immediate days after 7-2-37. Testimony coming from all sides with no way to prove whether its the truth or just hearsay
Im not quick to dismiss someones recollections, but Im also not quick to believe everything I hear. Being from Missouri, I kind of have to go back to our cheesy motto: "Thats a lovely story. But I wont believe it 'till you show me."