More Than One JFK Assassin
James Henry Graf
Note: This web page uses Zapruder Film frames from the Combined Costella Edit, produced by John P. Costella, Ph.D. They are taken, with permission and with much gratitude, from a table on the web site of Assassination Research, Inc., an electronic journal for advanced study of the death of JFK edited By James H. Fetzer, Ph. D., the Editor of Assassination Science.
A half-century has passed since the murder of President Kennedy. Unanswered questions persist, often conveniently ignored by those who insist that Lee Harvey Oswald, and only he, committed the crime.
A decade ago, an ABC-TV production Beyond Conspiracy featured the late Peter Jennings in a patronizing two-hour lecture that used computer-generated animations supposedly based on exhaustive study of the crime scene, taking into account all the photographs available. This production presented a slanted view of the character and personality of Lee Harvey Oswald in endorsing the official Warren Commission conclusion that Oswald acted alone, using the Mannlicher-Carcano rifle found on the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository Building. His motivation, according to the broadcast, stemmed from a lifetime of leftist political views and his own personal insecurity and delusions of grandeur. We who suspect a conspiracy (that is, about 80% of the American public) were told that our suspicion is based on a psychological need to believe that one "lone nut" could not have planned and committed this awful atrocity.
The smug Mr. Jennings made me so angry that I decided to post a few observations concerning details and mysteries that the production simply ignored. Though far less knowledgeable regarding the assassination and less skillful than most others who have studied the Zapruder Film, I hope this page makes a contribution. This current version elevates to prominence what I consider to be my most significant observation.
A Shocking Profile
The Combined Costella Edit of Zapruder film frames includes images found in the area where the film sprocket holes are located. I noticed something startling in the lower, roughly triangular sprocket area of Frame Z-419. The limousine, carrying a mortally-wounded President, is approaching the Triple Underpass, but what is this image, much closer to Abraham Zapruder and below the normal frame edge?
It looks like a human face with grossly distorted features or a Cubist painting that presents a frontal view superimposed on a lateral view. I brought it up in Micrografx Picture Publisher 10 and, through trial-and-error, eliminated as much as possible of the distorted frontal view, clearly revealing the features of a man with his hair parted on the left.
Here is a version of the sprocket image that I altered to show how the image relates to its context.
The same man appears also in the sprocket area of Frame Z-420. He has turned slightly to his right and is ducking down. The twig that obscured his neck in Z-419 is now at eye-level.
I am not an expert in photographic imaging, nor have I any scientific expertise whatever. Permit me, however, to offer my hypothesis regarding this image.
I believe this is the image of a person who was looking roughly in the direction of Zapruder's camera -- looking perhaps past Zapruder to some more distant point. Noticing Zapruder panning in his direction and not wishing to be photographed, he drew his head sharply back, turned very quickly to his right, bowed his head, and ducked out of sight. Who was he, and why did he behave that way?
The Trembling Sign-Post
Within the first few years after the assassination, Life Magazine published individual frames from the film made by the late Abraham Zapruder. I noticed that one of these showed the Stemmons Freeway sign apparently vibrating, while the rest of the image was stable. I don't remember exactly which frame so impressed me.
This vibration, however, is clearly visible in the inter-sprocket area of Frame Z-212 of the Costella Edit. The left sign-post appears wider than its counterpart and is more blurred than the rest of the frame.
The widening and blurring of the left post remain, perhaps even increasing, in Frame Z-213.
By Frame Z-216, however, both posts look the same.
Over the years, many have claimed that if a bullet hit the sign, it could not have come from the same gun that injured the President, who shows signs of injury less than a second later in Frame Z-225. This could also be the case if a bullet struck the left post of the stanchion. I share that suspicion. Mr. Jennings would probably say that it's all in my mind.
A Cranium and a Profile
In JFK: The Case for Conspiracy, F. Peter Model and Robert J. Groden called attention to Frame Z-413 of the Zapruder film, which appears to show the back of an assassin's head at its lower edge. The House Select Committee on Assassinations concluded that this man was definitely not hiding in the foliage directly in front of Zapruder, but had to be some distance away. Some have since identified this as one of the three men standing on the steps leading to the pergola.
Slightly above and to the right of that cranium shape, however, apparently farther away from the camera and with foliage in between, is the profile of a strong-chinned young man in a peaked cap or helmet, looking upward toward the right as the limousine passes behind him. Seen indistinctly in Frame Z-411, he appears clearly at the bottom of Z-412.
We find him also in Z-414.
I am not aware that any authority has noted this man. Who was he? The right-side motorcycle escort seems to have been lagging behind the limousine at that point. Officer Clyde Haygood, who heard the shots on Houston Street, rode his motorcycle to the Grassy Knoll, dismounted and searched the area, appears not yet to have reached this spot.
Who were these men? Does this page display the images of assassins? I don't know how many others have seen and reported these faces since that awful day in Dallas. If, indeed, others have called attention to them, it is safe to say that not enough attention was paid.