& LIGHT City Pages 11/20/91 ii Building myths, burying mistakes by Steve Perry

n November 21, 1903, three days after John Kennedy's essasaination and a Oday after 's mur- der, acting attorney general Nicholas Katzen- bieft sat down to draft a memo for Lyndon Johnson. The investigation had scarcely begun, but on that Monday morning when it was clear that the case would never go to trial. Karzen- bath wrote to Johnson aide Bill Moyers: "The public must be satisfied that Oswald was the assassin; that he did not have confederates who art gill at large: and that the evidence was such that he would have been convicted at mill." That document is arse of many thousands in the film of Harold Weisberg. a former reporter and Senate investigator whom Esquire has called "the dean of assassination re- searchers." In Weisberg's view, the Kamen- barth memo became the blueprint for of policy: Make the anaurnation look like the work of an unstable loner to forestall ember- rinsing questions about why intellnenee agen- cies failed to uncover a plus. Working out of his home in Frederick. Maryland, the 78- year-old Weisberg has written several books on the CM and amassed more than a qua, Harold Weisberg, "the dean of assassination researchers," says well never know who conspired to kill Kennedy because the ter.million papa of prey iously secret files government never wanted to know. obtained under the Freedom of Information Act. Hardly anyone ever comes to look at involving (pick two or three) Russums. Cuban reason is very simple. The government never what he's got. "The people who write con- exiles, the CIA, nee-Nazis, the police, going to tire himself, no he fired Batley. spiracy theories aren't Interested," he says. investigated the case, and never intended to_ And in firing him. he said that Baxley had the US. military. and a banoseaual nng- That may seem impossible to believe, but "They're only interested in what they can Weisberg got n bootlegged copy of the script been infiltrated onto the staff by the CIA to That gets to tome of the many records I got torture into seeming to support preconcep- and dispatched it to Washington Post reporter wreck the investigation. Well, nobody infil- liens of their own invention. For the most under the Freedom of Information Act_ With trated Bexley. Everybody on the staff had George Lamina. A story lambasting the proj- the crime not actually investigated, private pan these records have not been looked at. ect followed, and it proved the fast of many. objected to him, and Garrison hired him any- And I make them available to everybody. investigators have nothing on which to pro- I Medved Weisberg on the phone last week ceed. We don't have any real leads. There The most recent and egregious case is that for an hour-long talk on Kennedy, Stone, and Do you think Garrison's investigation was of Oliver Stoma" are too many theories that ought be reason- onto anything of merit? the dim prospects for our ever knowing any able. and you can't begin to eliminate from It was Weisberg who started the avalanche more than we "mow now. No. He made it all up is he went And of bad pre-release publicity for Stone's them. It is and in ell probability will remain he never proved whin he mode up because JFK. an unsolved crime. which to set to open the week before Chnsb City Page,: he couldn't. I can't remember a single thing Then hats, been a number of in the 1960, you played a role In trying mar When he heard that Stone planned to sew bIN0b On the GLEIVIII001.1017 014.r the past that is factual and has any relevance that he base his movie on a book by former to convince Jim Carman his investigation brought to light. New 10 or /J years. theoridng various conspir- was on the wrong track Could you tell me Orleans district attorney —a man You've objected to the nay Ohl, Smit octet. Are any of them worthwhile? about your dealings with hint. and when e whose rambling investigation of the Kennedy yew wen/ about putting together and promoting Weisberg: There hasn't been a book thet knew he was otrbose? case led him to speculate about conspiracies I can remember that hasn't been ii.twed The his movie It was right slier the election in 1968. I Stone has been propagandizing. saying that was in Dallas, and he insisted I come back all of the evidence is withheld at least wad • The to New Orleans. While I was there, I found 25SaliSlaliS) Were really !booting at Plaza—behind the- fence umtha grassy 2039, and some of it may be withheld longer. Connally (there's even an evidence-bite to knell, in buildings behind the president, in out be was going to mark the fifth suasive, What about the quaver-million pages 1 have! go with IN' one' Oswald mistakenly wrote racy of the anassMation by charging two peo- the sewers---end they were all killed later And others have more. Mark Allen, for exam- a letter to Connally after he'd stepped dawn - ple with being grassy knoll assassins. One that night when a plena carrying them away *, has continued along the same lines as Secretary of the Navy. complaining was of exploited over the Gulf of Mexico; Edger Eugene Bradley, who was then have with the same lawyer I used, and he's the dishonorable discharge from the Mm • Ferries its the executive branch had the West Ceast representative of the right- gotten a lot of information. Some of it pret- rineS Oswald got after he defected to Rus- Kennedy killed bac-attic he was going to wing New Jersey preacher Carl McIntire, and ty significant. But nobody given a damn. They sia); pull us out of Vietnam Gook Sir this te fig- the other was a mart named Robert Parin want theories only. Conspiracy sells, and that's • The assassin(s) were really sliming to ure in the Oliver Stone movie); well, t knew Perrin had killed himself in '62. all they care about. miss; • The SoViets decided as a manor of Cold Garrison's staff had tried to talk him out At the same lime that Oliva says these • The astaSSMS(9) were really shooting War policy that it just made good sense ro of this, and they couldn't. And they asked records are being suppressed he knows damn nn the orders of Lyndon Johnson. out to wipe OM the president of the UnIten States; me to do the work that would make it Impos- well I have them and that I make them avail- wreak vengeance oe the much-loathed • Riabt.vatng oil millionaires opposed to sible for him to proceed. Among the things able to everybody. Including him. Yet he Kennedy': Kennedy's tied stains sympathies had him .0 found were dla morgue book that showed Says everything is suppressed by the gov- • A papier-mache thee was placed in killed; the day In 1962 when Perrin died, and the ernment. panicularly the CIA. If he says that, Des/dyne:In to provide a sniper's nest, and • it was a'llomosexual plot to =dime a hospital records that show his admission alter how can you trust anything he says? And is was removed after the shouting; notoriously heterosexual icon; taking poison_ I put together an investigative frankly I don't_ Except one. He said he was • There were between seven and nine report that said [Garrison investigator] 13111 • Kennedy hart 't 7.1IF dead scared to The New York Times. and he ought different shooters Katmai) around Dealey Bosley was going out and fending back to to be. Garrison what Garrison wanted—what Gam- 11 there any way to generalice about chat inn himself had made up. Garrison wasn't Weisberg to page 14 Weisberg from page 1I print some of the things that were true. you've found in that quarter-million pages of Do you think the material you have holds material? any clues about who else was involved? It's very simple. The government knew No. They didn't want that information, so beyond question that there had been a con- if they heard of it they didn't use it. Let spiracy, and it lied. The government's own . me give you an example. This is one of the records disclose that it was a crime beyond records that was secret until I obtained it. the capabilities of any one man. There are There was an engineer named Bronson in other factors—for instance, that Oswald's rifle Dallas who had both a Leica and a very didn't have the capability of firing that many good quality 8mm camera with him. He shots within the time period. This alone is called the Dallas office of Eastman-Kodak enough to tell you they knew better. But and he called the FBI on Monday morning, they lied. You could understand that for the three days after the crime. An agent named first few days, when people in Washington Newsom went there and came back and filed on a higher level had to be concerned with a report. He said the pictures didn't show whether there were gonna be other evil events the building where the shots were fired. Actu- —was there going to be an effort to over- ally there were 87 different pictures of that throw the government, from within or with- one window. He said one picture did show out? Were they going to try to assassinate the car at the precise time the president was any other people? But once it became clear killed, but they couldn't use it for identifi- that wasn't going to happen, there's no excuse cation purposes. Translation: Nothing he had for the government's dishonesty. showed Oswald with a smoking gun. The Does the coverup lead you to believe that still pictures showed the president being elements in government were involved in a killed, and showed the positions of all the conspiracy, or just that they wanted to cover occupants of the car, and it showed a lot of up their failure to detect it in advance? people in the background people who were I think it's the latter entirely. Some peo- witnesses. So what does it say about the FBI ple believe there are three parts to a con- when they dismiss these pictures? spiracy and they're all one: You first have Do you have any hunches about what hap- the conception, then you have the execution, pened that you'd be willing to voice public- then you have the coverup. But coverup is ly? the way a bureaucracy works. It doesn't have I'll tell you in general terms only—that to have any connection with the crime itself. people who wanted to change policy are And from what I know, it has no connec- responsible for it. Back in 1966, when I tion. wrote the epilogue to my second book, I There are a couple of lines of popular thought we might approach this like lawyers: speculation I wanted to ask you about. Has Qui bono? But before too long I realized the paperwork you've uncovered document- that wasn't true. There were just too many ed any of the alleged connections between people who could have seen benefit for them- and Oswald? selves. The only thing you can use that line No, and there's no reason to believe there of thinking for is perhaps to eliminate some was any. people. Did the Ruby file suggest to you any con- Those who talk about the crime being nections between Ruby and other potential committed by some group that could bene- parties to a plot? fit have no basis for picking out that group No. Nor is there any real reason to think and eliminating the others. They can say it's that Ruby was connected in any way at all reasonable, but they can't say it's proven. to the mafia except on his own efforts. To tell the people it is proven is to deceive Nobody would have trusted Ruby with any- the people. That's what I think Oliver Stone thing. He was sick in the head. You couldn't is doing. cP

. 7 Gra; 10 City Page. I/20/91 rh447"11-4 SNAG 0WS Do computer- enhanced photos capture a second JFK assassin?

by Miles Moffeit

n the spithilloor museum in the old Texas School Book Depository, tourists wind through slick exhihiiu detailing the saga of President John F. Kennedy's. Life and death. Among the neatly packaged evidence, most of which concerns Warren Connissian-senc- tinned suspect Lee Harvey Oswald, a meager pampa of wall apace goes Tersely ignored. A few lints of text stand out with haunting clari- ty 'A group of wane-sae said gunshots came from the grimy knoll" In compincyspeak, they cell him "Badge Man." The suspicion that there may have been anorber killer lurking on the greasy knoll has clawed at JFK researchers for nearly 30 years. Phantom or fart the greasy lomat gun- Mon reilleLnA one of the murkiest figures in ItOeat history, Now, however, leading assas- sination !taunters lay they are closer than ever to coating a second assassin OW or the shadow. of Dealny Plaza. Their breakthrough centers on advances in Gayle Nix Jackson points to the spot in her grandfather's home movie where "Badge Man" Is supposed to be. computer imagery enhancement that May pro- rick the link between two fragile pieces of estate company in 1963. She had come down. find figures in addition to Rashes of light, Zoom camera to Capture the president greet- evidence a grainy Polaroid and a mysteri- town to lake pictures of a policeman she It is believed that the original Nix film will ing the downtown crowds. Stopping an the ously missing flint. knew who was going to be in the nee. reveal the gunman seen in the Moommn grassy infield soul!' of Elm, he staked out "I sow it right away." recalls Dallas's death! motorcade. Now living in Gainesville, photo, as well as a Dallas his vantage point and Let hit :11111 toll while KXAS-TV Channel 5 film archivist Gary Tease, Moorman declines to be interviewed, soldier who claims he heard and 'felt" a bul- Kennedy's motorcade slowed to a crawl en Meek of the lint tame he saw Badge Men. preferring to let Mack speak on her behalf. let pass by him while filming, lam the knoll, Elm Street. "It was eerie how it jumped ma as me" Since their discovery of Badge Man, the the mouercede's fateful turn onto Elm Street. Nix heard the shots ring out hot kept hie Mock had been studying a slide enlarge- researcher have also done little to publicize Verification of either Arnold or Badge Man viewfinder trained an the president. shakily merit of a Polaroid picture depicting Kennedy their work. Instead. Mack. White. and fellow in the photos could be enough to reopen the capturing the shooting sequence. After the being struck in the head against the back- researcher Robert Orden (a Pennsylvania- Kennedy probe, Mack thinks. tragic events had unfolded. Nix found him- drop of the grassy knoll. What drew aleck's based photo analyst whose enlargement made Tho problem is. the original Nix film. which self among only three people who had record- eye to the imposing image prnjrteti tar hi. It possible for Mack to sea Badge Men for Oradea think, will reveal SO parcent more ed the shooting on movie film. office wall was a figure in the background- the first time nine yens ago) have quietly detail thanavailable copies, is missing. A aft-spoken and patriotic men. Nix hur- dicrugh hazy, it appeared to be o rifleman but essiduously searched fur sew ways to riedly turned his film over to the Dallas office holding hie arms upright in firing posture, a bring out images in the photograph and in fter working en ell-night shift on of the FBI the day after the assamination. flesh of light obscuring parts of hit face . other aims—through radiation methods, new- November 22, 1963, air conditioning When the camera and film were returned Foui- Mack and a fellow researcher, graphic artist fangled darkroom techniques, end digital com- Aengineer ambled down to days later, cornea springs had been removed Jack While, rushed to enhance the image puter analysis. with his trusty Kaystona Auto Photo tome Ii even more, adjusting the contrast and bright- Mack says he feels that all his yeah of ness and later adding color to some copies. tenacity are close to paying an: "You con Afler months of sequestering themselves in safely say I'm closer to a breakthrough than sad, but that's What it's come to." Nelson. a darkroom. the image unfolded dramaticel- I have ever been," he eays. Although he 3 professor of history- at Drake University ly. The figure look on frightening features: declines to comment on the details, he con- Hey! That Guy in in Des Moines; is talking about the true a gammen apparently wearing dark clothing firms that he has worked our an arrangement believers he's eneinmierel in studying the with s shiny mark on his ail chest and pas, with a Japanese news organizalian to help 35,3591ntiOtt CentiOVerS) For the past 20 sibly a patch on his 1:11 shoulder. Most finance advanced computer enhancements of the Papier-Mache years. Ibis's taught a popular course tin lac detectable were the outline, of panions of both the Moorman photo and another mete abject for the past 15.1 his face and hairline. The term of tight dis- of the Badge Man puede every tat as impor- Tree Has a Gun! "A good Mind," concedes Nelson, "can persed from the center like a flesh from a tant_ The significance of ongoing research, write a plausible account of almost any gun muale. however, may hinge on whether that piece— Kennedy conspitity scenario they wish. If's Many researchers agree the image Tcwrn- the original of an assassination film AOC by Wacked-Out Plc had a out of.encrnim- testament bin a man clad in a Dallas Police Depan- now-deem-ad Dana, engineer Orville Ma- to the Amoridan that the relative rase meat uniform. The shiny mark an the left nn be found. Theories of Coming .up . with plausible theories breast in consistent with the location of a Of all :GUIS, the most damning evidence hasn't deterred More ambitious souls from badge. and die patch above it resembln • may exlm in the horn film taken by Nix. preon's position with regard to the hreadeakingly implausihle ones, Nelson police department decal. Taken together, the who captured the assassination sequence while Kennedy assassination iv almost cites same OF the mate memorable theories patterns march ihe design of a Dallas police standing between Mein and Elm streets, about Alike a TeligiOuS conviction." says he's come across through the years: officer's uniform in 1963. 75 feet team where stead. Charles Nelson. le stands above dispute. • The mamm(s) were really shooting at The Polaroid was taker by Mary Moor- In enlargements of reproductions of the Nix You don't nerd evidence anymore. It's Jackie; - man, who was a receptionist for an area real film, Meek and ether researchers any they Photo FBI tampered with the film. "He got a motion dimly lit basement of the U.S. Postal Annex. He says Nix, who died in 1972, believed the ly recalls watching a copy of the film in picture projector out of his locker and showed all of us the pictures he had taken," DeGaugh altered, Nix said. and the film ribbon appeared to have been missing because the footage skipped as about whether that was the original they gave and his son turned the film over to FBI. out why the Dallas office kept film four sparked questions ever since the elder Nix says. "I remember [Nix] saying at the time camera rolled." days when everything else was being sent to that he believed the pictures had some frames us." Says Orville Nix Jr., "We still can't figure Washington, D.C. There's still some question Jr., who accompanied his father on the trip agreement that the film would eventually be a bit naive when they entered into verbal sold his film to UPI for S5,009. Orville Nix to New York sell the film, says they were returned to the family. "We didn't realty know what we were doing," he says. "We ness. Jackson first inquired about getting the her father run the family tax consulting busi- value was." eight hours a day, phoning sources around we weren't aware of what the film's real were small-town types in the big city and ducting her own full-time detective work, daughter, has spent the past two years con- the world while her brothers and sisters help (The film, the third to cap- of the verbal agreement. UPI officials delayed that they did not know where the, film was. for two years, she says, ultimately admitting film back from Tommy DeGaugh, a friend of Nix's, vivid- The government's handling of the film has Soon after the assassination, Orville Nix Gayle Nix Jackson, 33, Nix's grand- from page 10 UPI in 1988, reminding them the assassination. Orville Nix Jr. with a photograph of his father, who took one three home movies turethe actual shooting, was bought by UPI has since been shut down. possession of the vault bank," Jack- box in the Clinton Trust Bank, near UPI's UPI, in a letter to the Nixes. "Certainly some and is also missing.) UPI officials ranging of a key to the safety deposit box in ques- office in New York City, 1976. That bank son is checking property transfer records successor institution must have come into from Senior Vice President Milt Capps to through the New York secretary of state's the original was placed in a safety deposit wrote Alexander Bock, former treasurer for former managing editor Burt Reinhardt say tion, although I am aware of its existence," "I am certain I was never in possession I "I mean they don't took very good here. I'm ness for a long time, I've seen it happen." office in case it recovered the safety deposit guessing that someone might have just taken key or turned it over to another bank. the figure in foreground is Gordon Arnold. the other in front of fence. Mack believes the pergola (a few feet north of Badge Man), the stockade fence close to south leg of the picket fence the tape home with them. Being in this busi- Arnold says he was standing in front of n addition to Badge Man, Mack and White say they have found two other figures in the Moorman photo—one standing behind "I really feel sorry for UPI," says Mack. on the knoll when he heard — ------

ERIN MAYES shots and dived to the ground. Having been British documentary shown last month on in U.S. Army training at the time, Arnold House Select Committee on Assassinations him the Mary Moorman blowup. removed the film. Arnold also claims that, recorded a gunshot fired from the northern is certain it came from over his left shoul- says he recognized the sound of gunfire and knoll vicinity. Arnold says that after the before the shooting, a man sporting badge der. In Select Committee on Assassinations, which Arnold is driven to tears when Mack shows approached him, asked for his camera, and acoustic findings of the late-1970s House shooting, two armed police officers the Arts & Entertainment cable network, mittee interrogate him. He left for Alaska return until years later. ruled that a motorcycle officer's open mike burst of gunfire. Commission, nor did the investigative com- and identified himself as a police officer. approached him behind the stockade fence must interesting turns of events in the ongo- ments expose the "smoking gun." Mack says he seems to be depicted in the Moorman he has recently detected an image in a copy said the photograph deserved more scrutiny. scant reference to the Moorman photo, shortly after the assassination and did not ing investigation stilt lie ahead. gola. It is in the same location where Arnold photo. The researcher reasons that the Nix Arnold was never questioned by the Warren Gary Mack maintains that recent enhance- and'behind the wall extending from per- of the Nix film in front picket fence says he was standing, the same area where throwing himself to the ground following a film may have captured Arnold as he was Badge Man is also consistent with the The Nix family, meanwhile, believes the While the made only The Men Who Killed Kennedy, City Pages 11/20/9113 Photo 10 page 14 They are a Photo from page 13 Hunt, who testified on JFK films before the confident that Mack and Groden's work could House Select Committee on Assassinations. yield dramatic results. "It isn't magic, though. The available tech- Groden, who worked as Oliver Stone's nology really can't be explained well for technical adviser on assassination-related pho- public consumption. There is more comput- tos, has taken recent trips to Washington, ing power and various mathematical model- D.C., to follow up on Gayle Nix Jackson's ing that can prove whether images are there." leads that the original might be in the Nation- Hunt says computer programs do not add al Archives. All he left with were duplicates, anything to the image but "rearrange it for however. For Groden, the Nix original also the human eye," similar to the strategy Gro- represents the smoking gun, if its quality has den uses in his darkroom. been maintained. He says there are at least Some of the most advanced computer photo three questionable figures on the grassy knoll enhancement is used in space exploration. It in various pictures, and most laymen can relies on digital processing of pictures. While recognize them. "Anyone with an open mind an ordinary photograph is an analogue rep- can see there are people on the grassy knoll," resentation (recorded in gradation of tone and he says. "But with the original [Nix film], color), computer programs reproduce it with I can prove to everybody that there is some- digital elements. With various breakthroughs thing. If the original film is 100 percent of in mathematics and microelectronics, dra- its capability, I can possibly gel 50 percent matically more information can be gleaned more detail...You lose information with each from a photograph or videotape. generation of copy." "Thankfully, there are lots of people in "In copies [of the Nix film] I have various areas of technology that have worked with," Groden continues, "I see three expressed interest in my project," Mack says. suspect images—one a man crouched in a "Mainly because this is such a controversial military position; I also see shadows against subject." the white wall. Gordon Arnold may be one Mack and Groden say they would prefer of the figures. I see not just shadows but to believe the Nix film is not being with- skin tone, and there's nothing in the area held from the public to shield its damaging that would have cast a shadow." contents, although they still suspect there are Groden says he hopes the computer always officials seeking to deodorize the enhancement work Mack has arranged will "official" government probe. corroborate what he has found recently. "If • Mack says the ultimate verdict will come this firm finds it, without any knowledge of after the scientists currently working with the what I've done, then it would be important Dallas photos reveal their findings. "I think independent verification," he says. we might be 80 to 90 percent there," says Bobby Hunt, a leading research engineer Mack. "I have no timetable for the end of in the field of image processing at the Uni- the project. Almost nine years after discov- versity of Arizona, says computer enhance- ering Badge Man, I am amazed that I don't ment capabilities have improved dramatically. have a definitive answer yet. But I'm con- "It's advanced by a factor of four," says fident it's coming." CP