CRITIC OF WARREN COMMISSION DISPUTES FILM TIMING OF ASSASSINATION SHOTS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP74-00297R000800010002-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 23, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 14, 2013
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: December 8, 1966
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

NEW. YUi K IPUZ
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Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2013/05/14: CIA-RDP74-00297R000800010002-4
Critic of Warren Commission
Disputes Film Timin
By PETER IUHSS
A critic of the Warren Com-
mission contended yesterday
that a key timing for the assas-
sination of President Kennedy
should have been reckoned at
3.5 seconds. instead of 5. The
contention evoked new, although
mainly private, rebuttals.
The sequence involved the
points in time between which
the commission held President
Kennedy and Governor John B.
Connally. of Texas had been
as the lone assassin. A shortened
.time, Mr. Weisberg held, would
require a second assassin firing
,since Oswald's rifle required
4.6 seconds for three shots-or
call for an earlier shot.
A shortened time would re-
quire a second assassin firing-
since Oswald's rifle required 4.6
seconds for three shots-or call
for an earlier shot.
. The timing interpretation was
,offered by Harold Weisberg in
4us second book on the case,
'Whitewash II," which he pub-
xished privately yesterday, and
in an interview.
The book reproduced a Fed-
eral Bureau of Investigation re-
port of an interview with
? Abraham Zapruder that said
'oA Mr. Zapruder's movie camera.
which took films of the assas-
sination, had been set to operate
at 24 frames a second. This
would be 30 per cent faster
,than the rate the F.B.I. later
used in its analysis-18.3 frames
a second.
Mr. Weisberg also cited F.B.I.
'testimony, included in supple-
mental volumes of the Warren
report, that a filmed re-enact-
!meht 'took only 3.5 seconds.
Private . rebuttals in official
quarters held yesterday that
the, variation came from diffi-
iculty in duplicating what hap-
pened, and that this had been
that Mr. Lovelady, supported by
and from thefigure reported by1 t%vo other men, testified he was
the F. B. L" (the person resembling Oswald
In Dallas, meanwhile, Mr.ywho was photog p
Zapruder, a manufacturer of doorway during the he as inain a
[.women's dresses, said, in rc-? contended -
'nsc to a rc orter's Ition. Mr. Weisberg contended
s
I. p p query that "the man in the picture
about the F.B.I. report in 'Mr..
cannot have been Lovelady,"
s ne that h'
{hell be Weisberg', had book,
er been ine1and.stressed that Mr. Lovelady
tervicwcd by an F.B.I. man. ?~had said he was wearing a
"I sent that camera, down to. striped shirt on the fateful day.
Washington twice to be . In Washington, the F,B.I. re-
trained from comment on the
"peeped,' Mr. t 18cr said, (issues raised by Mr Weisberg.
"and it was set at 18-something, But a check of testimony showed
1
8.3 or 18.6 frames a' second. I Ithat Lyndal L. Shaneyfelt, F.B.I.
don't
was 24 remember ever saying it, photographic expert, had testi-
The berg cwasnnumbercdlrfied how the slower o
Mr. F.B.I.
a had been calculated bytthe
File DL 89-43, dated Dec. 4, aocncy.
1963, and credited 'to Agent The Zapruder camera, Mr.
Robert M. Barrett. , camerafelt testified, and other
cameras relied on, had been
M ism 53-czr-old
r Wcisber
y
that Mr. Zapruder's clear. filml
became blurred at Frame 1901
and for several frames there-1
after, and suggested the ama-
teur photographer had come
under 'stress after seeing the
President wounded. . .4
In Dallas, Mr. Zapruder saids
a "certain amount of fuzziness"!
was inevitable with the tole-;
photo position he was using. ,
"Possibly I could have jogged
the camera when the President'
was hit," he said, "but I was,
panoraming when It happened,'
and this would make It a little
unclear." ..r ;
-He noted the film has.-,-s-
continuous motion,'- instead;Of,'
an ~sto
Y, PF.a~i..:....i..:,a::..,.~t~,
k,
loaded with film and had then
Hyattstown, Md.,, writ.. He been used to
says, he was a staff member Photograph a clock
of ? a Senate civil liberties in-with a large sweep-second
'
-- -.~ land in'.aeveral 'tests -'at--the
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2013/05/14: CIA-RDP74-00297R000800010002-4
of Assass nation Shots
scribed by the people who used
the cameras."
The Zapruder cariiera, he went
"was found to run at an
average speed of 18.3 frames
per second."
The average was understood
to take in different sections of
the film from the beginning,
when it was tightly wound, to
the end, where it would be.
getting run down,
It was Mr. Shaneyfelt who
supervised the re-enactment on
May 24. 1964, in Dallas for rep-
the F. B. I. and the Secret Serv-
Iic(,.
In his book, Mr. Weisberg
disputed the positioning of cars
and photographing points used
In the reconstruction, and noted
that the use of a car different
from the Presidential limousine
had required an asknowlcdged
adjustment because stand-ins
for the President and Gov. John
B. Connally Jr. were sitting 10
inches higher than in the orig-
inal case.
The film sequence Involved
starts at Zapruder Frame 223
and ends at Frame 313, which
shows President Kennedy being
fatally shot in the 'head. The
commission, headed by Chief
Justice Earl Warren, held that
A