EVALUATING
THE MISSING FILM EVIDENCE IN THE ASSASSINATION OF PRESIDENT KENNEDY
Before evaluating the film evidence it is imperative
an inventory of the existing film is made, their chronology and provenance
established, as well as compiling a list of the missing films and determine
what became of them.
While the original film taken by Orville Nix is
probably the most significant missing film, there are others. The late Rich
DelaRosa claimed to have seen a motion picture of the assassination that is
different than the Zapruder or Nix films or any other now in the public domain.
A number of other people have described a similar
film, and this film is mentioned in the court records of Bray v. Bendix case,
in which a former Bendix employee claimed to have been visited by some men in
suits and ties who claimed to represent JFCOTT – Justice for the Crew of The
Thresher, the nuclear submarine that went down with all hands on April 10,
1963. The men said that the Secretary of Navy was responsible, though Bendix
was accused of making parts for the Thresher that failed. The evening the
Thresher went down is the date Lee Harvey Oswald stands accused of taking a
shot at General Walker, and there has been speculation that, like the Odio
incident, this incident was to create a false motive for Oswald to shoot at
Connaly, former Secretary of Navy. For some reason the plantiff (Bray) wanted
to introduce the film of the assassination into evidence, but apparently it
wasn’t allowed.
In addition, NPIC official Dino Brugioni said that
the existing Zapruder film does not represent – especially the head shot
sequence, the film that he worked on at NPIC over the weekend of the
assassination.
So there are multiple reports of existing films that
are not in the public domain or on the official record.
VIDEO
TAPE OF THE ASSASSINATION?
I believe there was a videotape taken of the
assassination, possibly more than one, as the FBI agent who tried to tie up the
loose ends in Dallas in the months after the assassination (Gemberling),
investigated a report that someone who was visiting the Dallas IBM office late
in the afternoon of the murder or the day after, claims to have seen a moving
film of the assassination on a television. Since none of the known films were made
available to broadcast TV stations that early in the proceedings, it has been
suggested it was a closed circuit TV videotape. In checking the history of
video it was possible for IBM to have such capability in 1963.
Adding to the suspicious surrounding IBM, Johnny
Brewer, the Jefferson Avenue shoe salesman, who had previously sold a pair of
shoes to Oswald, saw Oswald acting suspiciously in front of his store and
followed him to the movie theater. Though it isn’t mentioned in his statement
or testimony, Brewer later said that when he left the store there were three
IBM employees inside, though it wasn’t clear whether they were customers or
friends just stopping by.
Adding to the possibility that a videotape of the
assassination was made, a man named Steve Osborn testified at a public hearing
of the Assassinations Records Review Board (ARRB) right after Beverly Oliver.
Oliver, a personal friend of Jack Ruby, described how her Kodak movie camera and
film were seized by the FBI and have since disappeared. Oliver said her camera
was given to her by Lawrence Taylor Roscoe, who manned the Kodak booth at the
Dallas State Fairgrounds, a hotbed of assassination shenanigans.
As we shall see, the CIA’s Hawkeye Works graphics plant
at Kodak’s Rochester, New York headquarters was where the U2 and satellite
photos were processed before being sent to the National Photo Interpretation
Center (NPIC) at the Navy Yard in Anacosta, Washington, DC for analysis. And
that’s where the Zapruder film was on two separate occasions in the days and
nights after the assassination.
While Beverly Oliver has been the subject of much
debate, the ARRB should have investigated Lawrence Taylor Roscoe, his work at
the Dallas State Fairgrounds and his job at Kodak, but apparently didn’t
bother.
FORT
HOOD SIGNAL CORPS VIDEO MONITORS
In addition, the ARRB should have taken Steve
Osborn’s testimony seriously, as it could lead to a videotape of the
assassination taken by a US Army security and intelligence Signals Corp unit
out of Fort Hood, Texas.
The Review Board spells it Osborne when he spells it
Osborn.
As Osborn told the Review Board:
The
gentleman I spoke with proceeded to tell me he was in the Army Station in Fort
Hood, in Clean, Texas. On the day of the assassination his group, a
communications group, was assigned the task of observing and videotaping the
presidential motorcade as it moved through the Plaza. This unit had no similar
assignment in any other Texas city during the President's visit, and they were
only to tape that portion of the motorcade as it proceeded through Dealey
Plaza.
Now
if this event actually occurred, if it actually happened, it makes their
activity highly suspicious and adds new questions to the assassination,
particularly with reference to the possible foreknowledge of the assassination
of intelligence personnel.
In
my conversations with this gentleman, I asked questions of a technical nature
trying to discovery how their assignment was accomplished. After discovering
that the camera signals were transported by wireless means back to the control
studio, which was actually a semi-tractor-trailer, I found myself doubting that
this type of equipment was available in 1963.
I
knew that ham radio operators have been sending television signals easily for a
number of years, and I had also participated in that hobby. I also knew that
videotaping was still in its infant years in 1963. I started to research
available equipment to see if this story had any possibility of being true.
I
have another handout that I would like to give you. Now that we know that
equipment existed in 1963, and I can tell you a little bit about the equipment,
if you would like, in the question and answer, I can relate his entire story,
the following information was obtained over approximately three separate
conversations with this individual. I had extracted a verbal consent to get his
story on videotape, like any good researcher would, but when the time came for
doing so, his attitude on the matter had completely reversed and I am only left
today with the recollection, you know, the notes that I had taken from the
conversation and the subsequent information by my independent investigation.
This
military communications group had several cameras stationed around the Plaza.
The signals from the cameras were sent back to a semi-tractor-trailer acting as
a mobile studio parked a short distance from the Plaza. Each camera had a
preview monitor and videotape machine associated with it inside the trailer
recording the view of each camera. There was no sound recorded in this
assignment.
Each
videotape position had a single person responsible for its proper operation.
Each position these men occupied was shielded from the others so that they
could only see the preview for their individual camera. Each man saw the
assassination occur from a different perspective of their monitors.
About
15 minutes after the assassination, a group of men appeared who identified
themselves as FBI agents. These agents seized all the equipment used to
videotape the motorcade. Each man was put on a bus which had been summoned to
the scene and they were all driven back to their base. Upon their arrival, they
were simply told to forget it.
Finding
that there was equipment available in 1963 that would do this made it easier
for me to accept the story I have just related to you. Several things have made
me believe that this group was an intelligence unit.
First,
the gentleman would not give me the name of his unit.
Secondly,
this individual advised me that his 201 file was inaccessible.
Thirdly,
he offered his opinion as pertaining to the reason his group was sent there,
which would probably have been in line with the responsibility of an
intelligence unit.
Fourth,
having reflected on his story and what I have what I have additionally
discovered, I am impressed that he realizes that he probably said more things
to me than he should have revealed. At one point, he mentioned to me that he
was allowed by a letter from the military to discuss some things in relation to
his duties on the day of the assassination, but I believe he probably went
further than he was allowed.
All
these things collectively make me believe that this unit in Dealey Plaza was an
intelligence unit. Still, one important step in my investigation was to find
some additional evidence that the event occurred. You should know that there is
some possible photographic evidence of this communication group being in Dealey
Plaza that day, and I would be happy to provide you with further information on
that if time allows at the end of my presentation.
Some
requested things I would like to see the Board do, obviously what was recorded
on this videotapes would be of invaluable aid to a serious study of the
assassination, as well as cast more suspicion on the intelligence community. An
attempt should be made by the Board to locate the tapes and request that
another government agency attempt to get the exact electrical format determined
and a video machine constructed to bring their images to view. Duplication to
modern day formats would then make the tapes available publicly.
So
far as locating the videotapes are concerned, the Dallas Field Office of the
FBI and the Bureau Headquarters may have information or be in possession of the
tapes. If there remains an estate of the late J. Edgar Hoover, they may have
some information or be in possession of the tapes themselves.
If
the men who seized the tapes were not real FBI agents, then CIA, military
intelligence and other splinter groups of the intelligence community should be
checked.
….
Finally, I would like to make a comment in relation to the Board's mandate. One
of the problems that certain individuals in our government have had with the
idea of releasing all the assassination records is that to do so may compromise
methods employed by the various intelligence agencies in their covert
activities. At first glance, we may take this to mean that it may make it
difficult for them to use these techniques in the future if they are made known
to the general public, but I would encourage the Board to consider that it may
be that many of these covert methods were used to carry out the assassination
of President Kennedy, whether by Americans or some other government.
I
have found considerable circumstantial evidence of more than a few intelligence
techniques used in the assassination that may not be generally known. But if
this assassination was accomplished by Americans from the intelligence
community, they have not only betrayed the citizenry of this country by taking
from them their President, but they have betrayed their agencies and the U.S.
public by making it necessary to uncover and publicly expose their methods in
order to bring satisfaction to the American people in this matter.
Regarding
locations where you might find documents supporting this activity, I would
suggest beginning with the records at Fort Hood… END Osborn Testimony
Complete
Osborn testimony:
While I don’t believe the ARRB followed up on Mr.
Osborne’s testimony, or bothered to look into the Intelligence and Surveillance
Units stationed at Fort Hood at the time, I did, and found that there were a
number of intelligence units in Texas, including the 104th Military
Intelligence Battalion, the 112th MI, 488th MI and 504th
MI, whose motto was “In God We Trust, All Others We Monitor.”
Both Beverly Oliver’s experimental Kodak camera,
given to her by Lawrence Taylor Roscoe, and the film of the assassination that
it contained, as well as the military unit’s videotapes, were confiscated by
agents who identified themselves as FBI agents. Oliver said that she was told
by Roscoe that the film taken by her camera had to be processed by Kodak at
Rochester, as it was a new, experimental model and type.
Note: The AARB spells it Osborne when he spells it
Osborn, and Beverly Oliver in her book spells Roscoe’s last name as RONCO, rather
than Roscoe, and a photo of them can be found at:
In the same vein, the FBI would not have the
capability of playing a videotape of the assassination taken by and confiscated
by the military, but IBM did have that capability, and that would explain the
origin of the video of the assassination seen on TV at the IBM office shortly
after the assassination.
Steve
Osborn on Nix Image
Osborn evaluated an image in the Nix film who he
says could be filming the assassination.
Osborn: For those that may be interested in some of
my JFK research, here is a part of what I presented last month at a conference.
…
The
video is an excerpt from one small area of the Nix film showing an 'object'
known in the JFK research community as the "Classic gunman image."
Studied
by the House Select Committee on Assassinations (Photo Panel) in the 1970s,
they stated, “After examining the enhanced image, the Panel concludes that the
so-called classic gunman object was not a gunman. …there is no evidence of
human flesh tones in the ‘head’ and ‘hands’…in the enhanced image, the shadow
pattern above and to the right of the object is seen to be connected to the object
itself.”
Insofar
as they reported publicly, the Panel charged with examining the Classic Gunman
Image only reported on what Nix filmed on the object during the assassination
(the first part of this video). A few seconds after the assassination, Nix was
filming the reaction of people scrambling up the grassy knoll, and this
‘object’ now looks upright. There are NO public comments from the Panel about
this object on the later frames of the Nix film-we don’t know if they were
studied (insofar as I am aware).
The
picture of the camera equipment is from a 1962 Dage Electronics catalog of
wireless video equipment that was available in those days. The biggest customer
of Dage in the early 1960s was the US Government, mostly NASA, but also other
branches. I found a member of a video unit of the US Army Signal Corps that was
in Dealey Plaza on the day of the assassination. The video is the only
photographic evidence I've found of their presence that day. The description of
the House Committee Panel that there were no flesh tones would jibe with the
'object' using one of these cameras with the through-the-lens view finder; the
object connected to the subject itself would jibe with the 2 GHz transmitter
pack as the ensemble was designed to be used by one person.
According to my
source, there were three to four of these cameramen throughout the Plaza that
day. The evidence does not conclusively indicate that this Signal Corps Unit
used the Dage equipment, but only shows that what they did that day was
technically possible with the equipment available in 1962.
The
still picture with the circle is a more enhanced version of the 'object' which
I am not able to duplicate with what I have available to use. It would be wise
to have the 'object' studied in the later frames of the Nix film to confirm it
is human and to try to identify the equipment being used. Of course, the
government would have to admit that they really have the original Nix film
whereas they've been claiming that it has been 'lost' all these years (Nix's granddaughter
would be very interested as she is pressing the government for its release to
the family).
The
equipment and video tapes made in the portable studio (consisting of a Diamond
T tractor and trailer combination) were seized by the FBI 15 minutes after the
assassination while the Corps unit members were standing next to the truck,
talking about what they had just witnessed and filmed. They were bused back to
their base (Ft. Hood) and told by their commanding officer to "forget
it."
(BK NOTES: To see the enhanced Nix film image go to
Steve Osborn’s Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/JFKPI )
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