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James W. Powell in Dealey Plaza


Guest Mark Valenti

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Guest Mark Valenti

It's well known that James Powell, an Army Intelligence agent with the 112th, was in Dealey Plaza on 11-22-63, and that he took a famous photo of the TSBD within a minute of the shooting.

What may be less well known is his testimony given in the 70's, after he had moved to California and worked for a furniture company. There are many aspects of his testimony that are unusual.

Among the quotes:

“I ran security investigations for security clearances on both military and civilian personnel that worked, for instance, on missile bases or wherever. We were trained in investigative photography, both from the standpoint of taking actual pictures of – well, let’s say we were expected to go out and photograph spies, or whatever, or follow suspected people that we were suspicious of doing something involved with the military against us. We were trained to be able to seek these people out, to photograph, to cover, to do surveillance on them, that type of thing."

** Why was he not working that day?

"I asked for time off, a leave of absence from my regular duties so I could see the motorcade, so I could go out to the airport and see the President. And I was hoping to get a few pictures. But I don’t remember specifically how long before. I’d say in the neighborhood of a week probably."

** Did anyone else in his office ask for time off that day?

"To be very honest with you, no. That’s surprising when I think about it. I know others were there, they were on duty, or they were working the normal things that they do and did not ask for time off to do this."

** What did he do at Love Field?

Took pictures. “Probably three or four as they came off the plane. And I was a pretty good distance away, and unfortunately without a telescopic lens.”

** Why did he leave Love Field and go to Dealey Plaza?

"I wanted to get downtown. The motorcade route had been published in the papers so you knew where the President was going to go. So I went downtown and I think I…Well, I’m trying to remember where I parked. If I’m not mistaken, I parked in the regular parking lot where we parked our government cars, which was near the Rio Grande Building, and then walked a few short blocks away to where the motorcade was going to be coming down Elm Street. I stationed myself there waiting for the motorcade to come by.

** Was he driving his own car that day?

"That’s a good question. I honestly can’t say. Probably was."

** Where was he when he started taking pictures?

"When I took the pictures I was back here – again, I honestly can’t remember if these things have published the main streets, but it was one of the east-west streets. The motorcade was coming down, I was approximately a block away, over here which is off this sketch, okay, taking photographs of the motorcade as it went by. Once it went by me, I…You know I WAS on Main because I went one block back to Elm Street and I was coming down this way and I was almost at this intersection when the motorcade came around and started down Elm Street, down the hill. I was probably half way down the block when I heard the shots fired."

** Why did he suspect that the shots came from the TSBD?

"I knew that when I got to this intersection, there were people pointing up at the TSBD indicating that they had heard shots coming from there."

** Did more than one person indicate that shots came from the TSBD?

"People, yes. More than one person. A couple. At least one pointed up at the building, and another standing near that person – I think this gentleman corroborated that. I crossed the street to the TSBD and walked on down."

** Where did he go first?

"There were, there were police officers, a few police officers there that had just been around the area, plus some – at least a couple – from the sheriff’s department that were there. Sheriffs. In group, we kind of went to the parking area behind because there were, again, a lot of civilians standing around watching the motorcade coming down who’d said they thought they heard someone running through that area. So we all went together back there but didn’t see anything obvious, other than the stampede…So I left the group and went back to the TSBD, it being the closest building that looked like it might have a phone in it, and went in there to call my office.

** Does he recall whether he showed (ID) to anyone in the time he was walking around behind the TSBD in the vicinity of the railroad yard?

"I recall that I, basically recall that I did. Because the officers were curious as to why I was joining them and I just flashed my credentials to show them and that was sufficient at the time and I put them back. I had my camera and so forth. We all sort of walked together back to that area behind the building. But then I left them in place."

** So he might have said “I’m James Powell, I’m a special agent?

"I’m a special agent with military intelligence. And show my credentials. It seemed like the logical thing to do at the time. It worked that time. It didn’t work the second time, but anyway, when I was coming out the building, but that’s something else altogether."

** What happened next?

"I went back to the TSBD and I went inside to use the phone to call my office and tell them what had happened. I went in there, made one phone call, came back out. There was a gentleman standing there who claims to have seen shots fired from a window above and I talked to him briefly. But then another policeman came up – he looked like a fairly high ranking policeman, he got out of a car, like a chief or whatever – and literally took the guy away from me. I told him I was interviewing him, showed him my credentials, but he had authority which superceded mine because this was his town."

"After that I went back into the TSBD to call my office again and when I came back down there were more police and sheriffs there with firearms, with shotguns, and they were detaining everybody that was in the building at that point. They were pretty well convinced that something had happened directly from that building and they wanted to make sure they had everybody who came out of there."

*** How long after the last shot was the (TSBD) picture taken?

"I’d say less than five minutes. A few minutes. Because I was only a hundred feet or so away from that intersection, and ran down there after I heard the shots. And someone pointed at the building and I wheeled around and took the picture, so it was a matter of moments."

** When he was interviewing the person outside the TSBD who was then taken away by the police, did he take notes?

"Yes. I started taking notes. I did. Don’t ask me what happened to them. At this moment I don’t know. We didn’t get very far along. Didn’t even get the gentleman’s name.

** Did he recall someone from local law enforcement, named Jack Revill?

"This is interesting. I’ll be again very candid with you, I don’t recollect the name."

To sum up, James Powell was trained in military investigations, surveillance of spies and performing detail-oriented work.

And yet -

He doesn't remember where he parked his car.

He doesn't remember if he was driving his own car or a government car.

He doesn't remember exactly how long after the final shot he took the famous photo.

He doesn't remember what happened to notes he took from a vital witness.

Also, it's curious that he drove all the way to Love Field to snap photos - and then drove all the way to Dealey Plaza to snap more photos. But at neither place did Powell, who took photographs for a living, position himself at an advantageous location to take the best photos. Rather, his locations at the airport and in DP seem haphazard and particularly ineffective.

AND...

There has only been ONE photo of his released. What happened to the others he took at Love Field and in Dealey Plaza?

MV

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POWELL, JAMES W. Special Agent, 112th INTC Group, 912 Rio Grande Building, Dallas, Texas, reside at 4049 Herschel Ave, Apartment 5, Dallas. On 22 November 1963, at POWELL MEMO - MEMORANDUM FOR THE RECORD

aproximately 1225 hours, I was standing at the corner of Austin Street and Main Street, Dallas, where I had just taken a picture of the late President John F. Kennedy and his wife as they passed in the motorcade. Hoping to get one more picture, I ran one block back to Elm Street, and down Elm towards the intersection of Elm Street and Houston Street. As I approached this intersection, at approximately 1228 hours, and was about one block away, Kennedy’s motorcade was just turning West off Houston Street. At this point, I heard at least two loud explosions, which I assumed could either have been shots from a firearm or some sort of fireworks. Several people in the crowd, which was at the intersection to view the motorcade as it passed, pointed up at the Texas School Book Depository (TSBDB), 411 South Elm Street. I took a photograph of the building at that instant. Several policeman, men from the Dallas County Sheriff’s Office, and newspapers and television reporters, were rushing toward the railroad switching yard behind the TSBDB. I followed them in order to learn what had happened. One of the television reporters, whose name I did not get, said that he heard that someone had fired a gun at Kennedy. I rushed back to the TSBDB, through the lobby, and into the first-floor office. There I heard Pearce Almond (phonetic), a newscaster fro WFAA Television Station, Dallas, who was telephoning his office. Almond said that he heard that Kennedy had been fired at and hit, and that the shots had may have come from the TSBDB. Almond had just talked with a construction worker supposedly witnessing the accident. I went upstairs to the second floor and telephoned my office. I reported what I had heard to Let. Col. Roy H. Pate, Region Commander. I then returned to the first floor, where I met and interviewed the aforementioned construction worker, an employee of Wallace Beard, Oil and Gas Building, Dallas. I did not have time to get the man’s name because the Dallas Police had to talk to him. I was able to learn from this man that he saw someone fire shots from approximately the sixth floor of the TSBDB, and that one of the shots hit Kennedy. This man said that Kennedy grabbed his chest and slumped forward, as the motorcade continued towards Stemmons Expressway. Kennedy’s wife, the man told me, attempted to jump out of the car. This was all the information I was able to obtain from this source. I rushed to the same telephone I had previously used and called my office to report this information. When I returned to the lobby of the TSBDB, I was met by policeman and men form the Dallas County Sheriff’s Office, some of whom were carrying shotguns. I identified myself with my credentials, but, along with everyone else in the building, I was detained. One of the law enforcement officers telephoned my office in order to further verify my identity. I gave them my name, the fact that I am a special agent with the United States Army Intelligence Corps, my business and home addresses, and my business and home telephone numbers. I was not allowed to leave the lobby of the building at that time. It was then approximately 1300 hours. I was released at 1345 hours and returned to my office.

James W. Powell

22 November 1963

Robert Warn?? – signature

POWELL. Interviw. Continued

p. 4

POWELL: Yeah….

WRAY: Something that’s not clear to me. Were you married at the time of the assassination?

POWELL: No.

WRAY: But you were married…..

POWELL: Shortly thereafter.

WRAY: Shortly thereafter.

POWELL: I got married in 1964.

WRAY: Let me now turn to the events around the 22nd of November, 1963. Do you recall when or how you learned that the President was going to visit Dallas? Did you learn the day before, two days before, a week before, a month before? Do you have any impression of how long before you learned about that?

POWELL: To be very honest with you, no. I’m sure like everyone else I read it in the paper and heard about it. It was interesting enough that I asked for time off, a leave of absence from my regular duties so I could see the motorcade, so I could go out to the airport and see the President. And I was hoping to get a few pictures. But I don’t remember specifically how long before. I’d say in the neighborhood of a week.

WRAY: Do you recall any discussion with other members of the 112th in anticipation of the presidential visit? Other people that were going to try to time off to go see it, or anything else that anybody was going to be doing in connection with that? With the visit?

POWELL: To be very honest with you, no. That’s surprising when you think about it. I know others were there, they were on duty, or they were working the normal things that they do and did not ask for time off to do this.

WRAY: Do you recall any discussion, or activities of the 112th was going to do related to providing security for the president?

POWELL: No. Not at all.

…………’

p. 5

POWELL: Oh yes.

WRAY: And did you have any sense at the time of where the shots came from?

POWELL: Not – no I didn’t.

WRAY: You just sort of heard them from the direction….

POWELL: I knew that when I got to this intersection, there were people pointing up at the Book Depository Building indicating that they had heard shots coming from there.

WRAY: If I could ask you, when you say “people,” you mean more than one person?

POWELL: People. Yes. More than one person. A couple. At least one pointed up at the building, and another standing near that person – I think this gentleman corroborated that. I crossed the street over to the Book Depository Building and walked on down. There were, there were police officers, a few police officers there that had just been around the area, plus some – at least a couple – from the sheriff’s department that were there. Sheriff’s. In group we kind of went to the parking area behind because there were, again, a lot of civilians standing around watching the motorcade coming down who’d said they thought they head, that they thought they heard running through that area. So we all went together back there but didn’t see anything obvious, other than just this stampede. Nobody carrying a gun or anything like that. So I left the group and went back to the Book Depository Building., it being the closest building that looked like it might have a phone in it, and went in there to call my office.

WRAY: Le me back up one point. You took a photograph….

POWELL: Of the window. Yea, I did. You’re right. I should have mentioned that.

WRAY: When?

POWELL: When someone pointed up at the building and said they’d heard shots coming from up there, I wheeled around with my camera and took a picture of the building at that moment.

WRAY: After taking the picture, when you went by the School Book Depository, and went with the policemen or sheriffs or whoever out toward the railroad yard, I guess, and back there, you said a moment ago – I understood you to say that somebody had said they’d heard someone running there? Is that your recollection?

Page 8

POWELL: Yes, that’s my recollection, that someone was running through there. But we all walked back through there and didn’t see anybody at that point, so whoevfer might have was long gone.

WRAY: Do you recollect anyone saying that they heard shots from that direction?

POWELL: No. Not really. It’s possible. It’s been a lot of years back. And I did not stay around at that….reading and seeing what you hear now, there was that theory. But I have to say No right now.

WRAY: Okay. Let me ask you this question. Were you carrying your special agent ID?

POWELL: Yes, yes.

WRAY: Do you recall whether you showed that to anyone at the time you were walking around behind the School Book Depository in the vicinity of the railroad yard? I mean, to stop and ask people anything, did you show them that identification?

POWELL: I recall that I, I basically recall that I did. Because the officers were curious as to why I was joining them and I just flashed my credentials to show them and that was sufficient at the time and I put them back. I had my camera and so forth. We all sort of walked together back to that area behind the building. But then I left them in place.

WRAY: When you show somebody the credential, how would you identify yourself verbally? You’d say….

POWELL: Well, I’m Jim Powell and I’m with the, with the military intelligence corps.

WRAY: Would you say that you were a special agent?

POWELL: Yes.

WRAY: So you might have said, I mean something like, “I’m James Powell, I’m a special agent…”

POWELL: I’m a special agent with military intelligence. And show my credentials. It seemed like the logical thing to do at the time [laughs] It worked that time. It didn’t work the second time, but anyway – when I was coming out of the building, but that’s something else altogether.

xxxx

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It's well known that James Powell, an Army Intelligence agent with the 112th, was in Dealey Plaza on 11-22-63, and that he took a famous photo of the TSBD within a minute of the shooting.

What may be less well known is his testimony given in the 70's, after he had moved to California and worked for a furniture company. There are many aspects of his testimony that are unusual.

Mark, wasn't this Powell's testimony to the ARRB in 1996?

Interestingly enough, on 3/24/95, Richard Trask, author of Pictures of the Pain, told the ARRB:

"I would be very interested to find out more about James Powell, who was a special agent for the Army Intelligence Corps who, when the assassination was over, was interviewed by both the FBI and the Secret Service and came up with two different versions of what he saw and what happened at the assassination scene.

He was, within a very short period of time, on the corner facing the southeast corner of the school book depository and took one photograph of it. I want to know why there's only one photograph, where he was.

He claims in one of the statements that he was a half-block away. Why did he have a camera, did he take more pictures, and so forth. He was also active, apparently, in the searching of the building itself.

It could be that there is simply a very easy answer to that, but it was a red flag that stuck up at me when I was looking at the information about the Dealey Plaza photographers."

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Mark, wasn't this Powell's testimony to the ARRB in 1996?

[/indent]

I'm sorry, Mike, you are correct, it was in '96, not the 70's.

I hadn't seen Powell featured in a topic on this web site so I thought it would be a good idea to revisit his situation.

Might also be worth noting that besides Powell, James Worrell was another person who went first to Love Field and then raced to Dealey Plaza to see the motorcade.

And it just so happened that Worrell also played a role in events surrounding the TSBD, claiming to have seen a rifle aiming from a window, and also a man running from the back of the building.

Interesting that two men were first at Love Field, both raced to Dealey Plaza and allegedly became important witnesses to controversial aspects of the day's events.

MV

Mark...a very interesting observation. I had never made the connection.

Jack

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Didn't the one, published, uncropped Powell photo show the silhouette of a face on one of the 6th floor N/W windows?

Nevertheless, the Powell photo seemed to be of high quality and in color, therefore it would be interesting to dig up the other photos he took.

Or perhaps they reveal something which is once again a matter of "national security" and will remain unpublished.

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as a writer I'm looking for connective tissue between story elements that can make sense.

I think various elements can sometimes be laid on a plumb line, helping a linear tale to emerge.

MV

Mark:

Mull on the connective tissue of what follows below re: Powell and Oswald, and tell me if you think a linear tale emerges....

If you take a close look at the accompanying photo [sorry for the quality, but I'm barely competent with a scanner], you'll see two red circles. The top one identifies the building in which Powell worked, the Rio Grande Building on Elm St. where the 112th MIG was situated.

The bottom circles shows a bus, purportedly driven by Cecil McWatters with one LHO aboard. For those who have always wondered why LHO walked east to catch a westbound bus, it should be noted that LHO reputedly boarded that bus within a block of the 112th MIG offices. This could be written off as entirely coincidental, were it not for the 112th MIG's apparent prior knowledge of LHO/AJH, as stipulated by Col. Robert Jones in his HSCA testimony. Draw whatever inferences you choose.

More to the point, however, is that the photo below was one of two reproduced in Robert Groden's "The Search For LHO," both of which depict that same bus making its way along Elm St. toward the TSBD.

Both photos were taken by Stuart L. Reed, who also snapped at least one shot of the TSBD and a number of shots of LHO being arrested and escorted outside the Texas Theatre [also contained in "TSFLHO"].

The quality of Reed's photos is remarkably good, suggesting that if he was an amateur photographer, he was quite gifted. More pertinent, however, is that it seems Stuart Reed snapped the TSBD not long after the assassination, as well as Oswald's getaway bus with Oswald on it, and the subsequent arrest. Had Reed been a news photographer in Dallas, one could easily attribute his ubiquitous omnipresence at all the hotspots that day to his connections with local police and members of the press. Yet, it appears Reed had no such source of immediate inside information.

In a case already claustrophobic with coincidences, we seem to have yet another synchronicity. A private citizen photographed the building from which the assassin's bullets were purportedly fired, the very bus on which the purported assassin made his getaway [in two photos, as though trailing its progress], and the purported assassin's capture. The odds of this happening randomly are no doubt beyond the norms of statistical probability.

Reed's photos [or at least copies of 14 JFK-related slides] seem to have found a repository at the Southeastern Louisiana University, and I think Reed devoted himself to running the family's sod farm in New Jersey in the interim. He would have been in his mid-20's in 1963, as I recall, and I think he may have been serving an active military hitch at the time, but cannot remember anything specific. I believe others here know something more about Stuart Reed, and I'd welcome any additional details about this remarkably lucky photographer.

Edited by Robert Charles-Dunne
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  • 3 months later...
... Might also be worth noting that besides Powell, James Worrell was another person who went first to Love Field and then raced to Dealey Plaza to see the motorcade.

And it just so happened that Worrell also played a role in events surrounding the TSBD, claiming to have seen a rifle aiming from a window, and also a man running from the back of the building.

Interesting that two men were first at Love Field, both raced to Dealey Plaza and allegedly became important witnesses to controversial aspects of the day's events.

... and important to note that, in at least one of the two instances if not both, "allegedly" is a key word.

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  • 3 years later...

http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/russ/infojfk/jfk6/hscoth.htm

HSCA FINAL REPORT

4. CONCLUSIONS

  1. Evidence of changes in the open sixth-floor window of the Texas School Book Depository is visible. The changes are of types:
  2. (1) There is an apparent rearranging of boxes within 2 minutes after the assassination....

http://74.125.93.132/search?q=cache:vTvL0AQTQt8J:karws.gso.uri.edu/jfk/the_critics/griffith/Where_was_Oswald.html+Photos+of+Sixth+Floor+Window+Powell&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=uslast

shot was fired at President Kennedy;

The WC's own reenactments of Officer Baker's encounter with Oswald indicated that it occurred no more than 75 seconds after the shots were fired. There is no way Oswald could have done everything the Commission said he did and still have made it to the lunchroom in time to be seen by Baker and without being seen by Truly. Additionally, we should keep in mind that the men watching the motorcade from fifth-floor windows beneath the sniper's nest said they heard no movement above them after the shots were fired, and they were separated from the nest only by thin plywood floor boarding that had cracks between the planks. One of them said he could hear a rifle bolt operating and shells hitting the floor above them during the shooting--yet, again, these men heard no movement above them after the shots were fired. This report accords with the finding that boxes were being moved in the sniper's window within two minutes of the assassination (see below); it also agrees with the eyewitness account of a law clerk from a nearby building who said she saw a man in the sixth-floor window about four to five minutes after the shots were fired. The law clerk was a woman named Lillian Mooneyham. She told the FBI that she saw a man standing a few feet back from the sniper's window four to five minutes after the shooting.

Photos taken of the sixth-floor window less than two minutes after the shooting show the boxes being REARRANGED (5:53). This fact was detected by the photographic experts retained by the House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA). I quote from the HSCA testimony of photographic expert Dr. Robert R. Hunt:

Mr. FITHIAN. I would like to ask the staff to put up JFK F-153. As I understand it, Doctor, this is a picture that was taken a few seconds after the shot; is that correct? Dr. HUNT. I am not sure until I see the picture. Which one are you referring to? Mr. FITHIAN. I believe that is the one of the---TSBD? Dr. HUNT. Oh, yes, right. Yes; in answer to your question, THAT WAS TAKEN A FEW SECONDS AFTER THE LAST SHOT WAS FIRED. AT LEAST THAT IS DILLARD'S TESTIMONY TO THE WARREN COMMISSION, I BELIEVE.

Mr. FITHIAN. Now, directing your attention to that particular exhibit, the photograph in the area of the sixth floor window, the open window, there seems to be a change in the configuration of the boxes. How did the photo panel account for this?

Dr. HUNT. The change in configuration of the boxes with respect to what, with respect to another window view?

Mr. FITHIAN. No, with respect to other photos that you analyzed.

Dr. HUNT. OK. Probably the one most pertinent to that would be exhibit which is showing next to it at the moment--I am not aware of the exhibit number for it--but that shows the same window, TAKEN APPROXIMATELY ONE TO TWO MINUTES AFTER THE FIRST PICTURE WHICH WE TALKED ABOUT, the one taken by Dillard on the right, the one by Powell on the left. You are correct in perceiving that there is something which we could ascribe to a change in the configuration of the boxes. For example, the picture on the right, we see only two boxes, one at the left of the window sill and just a corner of the one peeping up at the right of the window sill. Whereas, in the picture, the enlarged picture, for example, on the left, we see not just the two boxes; you can still see, for example, on the left there is the same small box at the left, there is the same corner peeping up at the right. But now we have two or three other boxes, apparently rising up in between them. There are two possible explanations, I guess, for that, that the panel considered. One is that we are seeing boxes which are in the room, but because of our perspective, our line of sight, is different, we are seeing different boxes than were visible in the other picture. The second explanation is that there has been physically a movement of the boxes in the room during the time which elapsed between the taking of those pictures.

Mr. FITHIAN. All right. Now there is no way that we can know which it is?

Dr. HUNT. There are ways of eliminating or narrowing down the possibilities between those two choices. For example, given the geometry at which you are viewing, and given the apparent sunlight on the boxes, you could probably guess how far into the room those boxes do lie. For example, if you look at the two boxes which appear to have been introduced in the picture on the left, they appear to be in full sunlight, which means they must not lie too far inside the room because this was high noon, in November; the sun angle is simply not that low in Dallas at high noon in November to shine sunlight very deep into the room. So they can certainly not be too far behind the plane of the window; and THAT WOULD THEREFORE TEND TO RULE OUT THE POSSIBILITY THAT WE ARE LOOKING AT THE BOX WHICH LIES IN ONE POSITION IN THE ROOM AND IS SIMPLY TENDED TO BE VIEWED IN DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE FROM TWO DIFFERENT VIEWING POINTS.

Mr. FITHIAN. You say it rules that out?

Dr. HUNT. It tends to rule it out, yes. It does not rule it out completely, because we lack what is usually referred to as the analytical information, from the position of the two photographers to precisely plot the positions of those boxes by stereoanalysis techniques.

Mr. FITHIAN. WELL, IF IT GENERALLY TENDS TO RULE THAT OUT, THEN IT SEEMS THIS COMMITTEE WOULD BE LEFT WITH ONLY ONE CONCLUSION, AND THAT IS, THAT A BOX WAS ACTUALLY MOVED.

Dr. HUNT. THAT WOULD BE MY ONLY PERSONAL CONCLUSION, THAT SOMEBODY OR SOMETHING MOVED BOXES AROUND IN THAT ROOM DURING THE TIME OF TAKING OF THOSE TWO PICTURES. (4 HSCA 422-423, emphasis added)

Indeed, the Committee's photographic panel eventually came to the following conclusion: "There is an apparent rearranging of boxes within 2 minutes after the last shot was fired at President Kennedy" (6 HSCA 109). The photographic panel went into more detail in its report:

Examination of both the Dillard and Powell photographs of the sixth floor windows shows an open window with deep shadows in the region behind it. The deep shadows indicate the film was underexposed in these regions; that is, too little light reached the film or a clear recording of any details in the room behind the window.

A number of enhancement processes were applied to the photographs in order to bring out any details obscured within the underexposed regions. They were as follows:

(1) Photographic enhancement (using photo-optical and photochemical techniques) of the underexposed regions of the Dillard photograph undertaken at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT).

(2) Autoradiographic enhancement of the underexposed regions of the Dillard photograph at Stanford Research Institute, Inc. (SRI).

(3) Computer enhancement of the underexposed regions of the Powell photograph at the University of Southern California and the Aerospace Corp. In addition, the Dillard photographs were scanned and digitized for possible computer enhancement. Nevertheless, no such enhancement was performed because the Panel decided that the autoradiographic technique had more potential for success.

The photographic and computer processes made visible details that had been obscured in the underexposed regions of the photographs. Both the photographic enhancement by RIT and the autoradiographic enhancement by SRI revealed a feature in the fifth floor window immediately beneath the sixth floor window. Figure IV-1 (JFK exhibit F-153) shows one of the. original Dillard photographs, and figure IV-2 is an autoradiographic enhancement. The detail revealed by the processing appears to be a circular light fixture hanging from the ceiling of the fifth floor room, with a light bulb in the center of the fixture.

In the enhanced Powell photograph additional details became visible on the boxes in the windows. (See figure IV-3, JFK exhibit F157.) Nevertheless in neither photograph did the processing operations reveal any sign of a human face or form in the open sixth floor or adjoining windows.

The Panel concluded that the light fixture revealed in the fifth window served as a "benchmark" against which the sixth floor enhancement could be judged. . . .

Although human faces or forms were not visible in the enhanced photographs, inspection of figures IV-2 and IV-3 reveals a difference in the boxes visible through the sixth floor widow. in the Dillard photograph, only two boxes are immediately visible, one each to the left and right of the window frame. Nevertheless, the Powell photograph shows several additional boxes. There are two possible explanations for this difference:

(1) The Powell photograph may reflect only an apparent change in the boxes; the different angle from which Powell viewed the depository may have caused a different set of boxes within the room to be framed within the window;

(2) The boxes were moved during the time that elapsed between the Dillard and Powell photographs. Since the precise positions of Dillard and Powell at the time of the photographs were unknown, it was not possible to calculate precisely the region within the sixth floor room that would have been visible to each photographer. In the Dillard photograph, the two to the left and right of the window frame appear to be in the full light of the Sun, with no shadows cast on them by the frame of the partially opened window. In the Powell photograph, it also appears that the boxes are in full sunlight, with no shadow cast on them by the window frame.

A simple trigonometric calculation shows that the two boxes at the left and right lie approximately 6 inches from the plane of the window (see appendix A). If full sunlight is falling on the additional boxes in question in the Powell photograph, they must also lie close to the plane of the window.

For this reason, THE PANEL CONCLUDED THAT THE ADDITIONAL BOXES VISIBLE IN THE POWELL PHOTOGRAPH WERE MOVED DURING THE INTERVAL BETWEEN THE DILLARD AND POWELL PHOTOGRAPHS. (6 HSCA 110-115, emphasis added)

WC defenders cite the claims of Dale Myers, a private researcher who asserts that the apparent movement of boxes is in effect an optical illusion. But the photographic panel considered the argument on which Myers makes this claim--and rejected it. Oswald could not have been the one moving the boxes because he was seen on the second floor by Baker and Truly less than 90 seconds after the shots were fired (5:53). So, who was moving the boxes around less than two minutes after the shooting? Who was the man seen in the sniper's nest by the law clerk from a nearby building just a few minutes after the shots were fired? Whoever it was, it could not have been Oswald.

Edited by William Kelly
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I realize this post doesn't add anything factual to the discussion...just conjecture...but It sounds to me like their is a pretty logical reason for Powell to be at both Love field and then at DP. If there had been failed previous attempt(s) at a setup (or even if not actually), an observer would be needed at the motorcade starting point to report back that things were going according to plan. Obviously they couldn't just set up shop in DP and hope that the motorcade came through in a certain order/with the right driver/etc. They probably had spotters along the route as well.

If Powell were actually at Love to take pictures, wouldn't he have a camera setup with long range zoom to get the good shots? On the other hand, any camera helps a person fit in with the crowd.

Once the motorcade was successfully underway - Powell would know he could beat it to DP and be there to verify the end-game. He may not have even been directly involved in the plan - other spotters may have been there for the operational part. He may have been there to report back to his boss (and then up the chain). He would have had plenty of time to stop along the way at a phone booth to call in to his boss that things looked to be going as planned from the airport, get to DP, verify the shooting took place, and call in the results. He probably wasn't 100% sure of the final success (target was terminated) though. Just my humble guess.

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David,

I think pretty much everyone agrees that Powell testified honestly and that he wasn't on official assignment that day, but he did work for Army Intelligence, who were normally on security duty when the President was in the neighborhood, and his unit on stand-down, though there is information that other units were there officially.

What's significant about Powell is that he took a picture of the Sixth Floor TSBD Sniper's Nest window within minutes of the assassination, and within a minute of a photo Tom Dillard took. Since nobody is contending these were altered in any way, they clearly show what the guy that the court clerk from across the street said she saw two to four minutes after the assassination, when Oswald was known to be on the second floor.

These two photos, which no one yet has claimed to be altered, positively prove that there was someone in the Sniper's Nest altering the boxes within minutes of the crime, providing not only an alibi for Oswald, but another, unknown suspect that should be identified.

The Powell-Dillard Photo proof of conspiracy was known to the HSCA and passed on to the Justice Department, yet, there has never been any action by anyone to even try to identify the person visibly seen in the Sniper's Nest whose handiwork moving boxes about is scientifically proven by the two, independently taken photographs taken by Dillard and Powell.

If there is a fault in this reasoning, exonerating Oswald and pinpointing a new suspect, I'd like to hear it.

While I was going to detail the facts here, Michael Griffith already has done so, so I'll quote him. Thanks Mike.

Bill Kelly

http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/russ/infojfk/jfk6/hscoth.htm

HSCA Photo Panel

4. CONCLUSIONS

  1. Evidence of changes in the open sixth-floor window of the Texas School Book Depository is visible. The changes are of types:
  2. (1) There is an apparent rearranging of boxes within 2 minutes after the last shot was fired at President Kennedy;

http://74.125.93.132/search?q=cache:vTvL0AQTQt8J:karws.gso.uri.edu/jfk/the_critics/griffith/Where_was_Oswald.html+Photos+of+Sixth+Floor+Window+Powell&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

http://74.125.113.132/search?q=cache:rcelu...]

The WC's own reenactments of Officer Baker's encounter with Oswald indicated that it occurred no more than 75 seconds after the shots were fired. There is no way Oswald could have done everything the Commission said he did and still have made it to the lunchroom in time to be seen by Baker and without being seen by Truly. Additionally, we should keep in mind that the men watching the motorcade from fifth-floor windows beneath the sniper's nest said they heard no movement above them after the shots were fired, and they were separated from the nest only by thin plywood floor boarding that had cracks between the planks. One of them said he could hear a rifle bolt operating and shells hitting the floor above them during the shooting--yet, again, these men heard no movement above them after the shots were fired. This report accords with the finding that boxes were being moved in the sniper's window within two minutes of the assassination (see below); it also agrees with the eyewitness account of a law clerk from a nearby building who said she saw a man in the sixth floor window about four to five minutes after the shots were fired. The law clerk was a woman named Lillian Mooneyham. She told the FBI that she saw a man standing a few feet back from the sniper's window four to five minutes after the shooting.

Photos taken of the sixth-floor window less than two minutes after the shooting show the boxes being REARRANGED (5:53). This fact was detected by the photographic experts retained by the House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA). I quote from the HSCA testimony of photographic expert Dr. Robert R. Hunt:

Mr. FITHIAN. I would like to ask the staff to put up JFK F-153. As I understand it, Doctor, this is a picture that was taken a few seconds after the shot; is that correct? Dr. HUNT. I am not sure until I see the picture. Which one are you referring to? Mr. FITHIAN. I believe that is the one of the---TSBD? Dr. HUNT. Oh, yes, right. Yes; in answer to your question, THAT WAS TAKEN A FEW SECONDS AFTER THE LAST SHOT WAS FIRED. AT LEAST THAT IS DILLARD'S TESTIMONY TO THE WARREN COMMISSION, I BELIEVE.

Mr. FITHIAN. Now, directing your attention to that particular exhibit, the photograph in the area of the sixth floor window, the open window, there seems to be a change in the configuration of the boxes. How did the photo panel account for this?

Dr. HUNT. The change in configuration of the boxes with respect to what, with respect to another window view?

Mr. FITHIAN. No, with respect to other photos that you analyzed.

Dr. HUNT. OK. Probably the one most pertinent to that would be exhibit which is showing next to it at the moment--I am not aware of the exhibit number for it--but that shows the same window, TAKEN APPROXIMATELY ONE TO TWO MINUTES AFTER THE FIRST PICTURE WHICH WE TALKED ABOUT, the one taken by Dillard on the right, the one by Powell on the left. You are correct in perceiving that there is something which we could ascribe to a change in the configuration of the boxes. For example, the picture on the right, we see only two boxes, one at the left of the window sill and just a corner of the one peeping up at the right of the window sill. Whereas, in the picture, the enlarged picture, for example, on the left, we see not just the two boxes; you can still see, for example, on the left there is the same small box at the left, there is the same corner peeping up at the right. But now we have two or three other boxes, apparently rising up in between them. There are two possible explanations, I guess, for that, that the panel considered. One is that we are seeing boxes which are in the room, but because of our perspective, our line of sight, is different, we are seeing different boxes than were visible in the other picture. The second explanation is that there has been physically a movement of the boxes in the room during the time which elapsed between the taking of those pictures.

Mr. FITHIAN. All right. Now there is no way that we can know which it is?

Dr. HUNT. There are ways of eliminating or narrowing down the possibilities between those two choices. For example, given the geometry at which you are viewing, and given the apparent sunlight on the boxes, you could probably guess how far into the room those boxes do lie. For example, if you look at the two boxes which appear to have been introduced in the picture on the left, they appear to be in full sunlight, which means they must not lie too far inside the room because this was high noon, in November; the sun angle is simply not that low in Dallas at high noon in November to shine sunlight very deep into the room. So they can certainly not be too far behind the plane of the window; and THAT WOULD THEREFORE TEND TO RULE OUT THE POSSIBILITY THAT WE ARE LOOKING AT THE BOX WHICH LIES IN ONE POSITION IN THE ROOM AND IS SIMPLY TENDED TO BE VIEWED IN DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE FROM TWO DIFFERENT VIEWING POINTS.

Mr. FITHIAN. You say it rules that out?

Dr. HUNT. It tends to rule it out, yes. It does not rule it out completely, because we lack what is usually referred to as the analytical information, from the position of the two photographers to precisely plot the positions of those boxes by stereoanalysis techniques.

Mr. FITHIAN. WELL, IF IT GENERALLY TENDS TO RULE THAT OUT, THEN IT SEEMS THIS COMMITTEE WOULD BE LEFT WITH ONLY ONE CONCLUSION, AND THAT IS, THAT A BOX WAS ACTUALLY MOVED.

Dr. HUNT. THAT WOULD BE MY ONLY PERSONAL CONCLUSION, THAT SOMEBODY OR SOMETHING MOVED BOXES AROUND IN THAT ROOM DURING THE TIME OF TAKING OF THOSE TWO PICTURES. (4 HSCA 422-423, emphasis added)

Indeed, the Committee's photographic panel eventually came to the following conclusion: "There is an apparent rearranging of boxes within 2 minutes after the last shot was fired at President Kennedy" (6 HSCA 109). The photographic panel went into more detail in its report:

Examination of both the Dillard and Powell photographs of the sixth floor windows shows an open windows with deep shadows in the region behind it. The deep shadows indicate the film was underexposed in these regions; that is, too little light reached the film or a clear recording of any details in the room behind the window.

A number of enhancement processes were applied to the photographs in order to bring out any details obscured within the underexposed regions. They were as follows:

(1) Photographic enhancement (using photo-optical and photochemical techniques) of the underexposed regions of the Dillard photograph undertaken at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT).

(2) Autoradiographic enhancement of the underexposed regions of the Dillard photograph at Stanford Research Institute, Inc. (SRI).

(3) Computer enhancement of the underexposed regions of the window photograph at the University of Southern California and the Aerospace Corp. In addition, the Dillard photographs were scanned and digitized for possible computer enhancement. Nevertheless, no such enhancement was performed because the Panel decided that the autoradiographic technique had more potential for success.

The photographic and computer processes made visible details that had been obscured in the underexposed regions of the photographs. Both the photographic enhancement by RIT and the autoradiographic enhancement by SRI revealed a feature in the fifth floor window immediately beneath the sixth floor. Figure IV-1 (JFK exhibit F-153) shows one of the. original Dillard photographs, and figure IV-2 is an autoradiographic enhancement. The detail revealed by the processing appears to be a circular light fixture hanging from the ceiling of the fifth floor room, with a light bulb in the center of the fixture.

In the enhanced Powell photograph additional details became visible on the boxes in the windows. (See figure IV-3, JFK exhibit F157.) Nevertheless in neither photograph did the processing operations reveal any sign of a human face or form in the open sixth floor or adjoining windows.

The Panel concluded that the light fixture revealed in the fifth window served as a "benchmark" against which the sixth floor enhancement could be judged. . . .

Although human faces or forms were not visible in the enhanced photographs, inspection of figures IV-2 and IV-3 reveals a difference in the boxes visible through the sixth floor widow. in the Dillard photograph, only two boxes are immediately visible, one each to the left and right of the window frame. Nevertheless, the Powell photograph shows several additional boxes. There are two possible explanations for this difference:

(1) The Powell photograph may reflect only an apparent change in the boxes; the different angle from which Powell viewed the depository may have caused a different set of boxes within the room to be framed within the window;

(2) The boxes were moved during the time that elapsed between the Dillard and Powell photographs. Since the precise positions of Dillard and Powell at the time of the photographs were unknown, it was not possible to calculate precisely the region within the sixth floor room that would have been visible to each photographer. In the Dillard photograph, the two to the left and right of the window frame appear to be in the full light of the Sun, with no shadows cast on them by the frame of the partially opened window. In the Powell photograph, it also appears that the boxes are in full sunlight, with no shadow cast on them by the window frame.

A simple trigonometric calculation shows that the two boxes at the left and right lie approximately 6 inches from the plane of the window (see appendix A). If full sunlight is falling on the additional boxes in question in the Powell photograph, they must also lie close to the plane of the window. For this reason, THE PANEL CONCLUDED THAT THE ADDITIONAL BOXES VISIBLE IN THE POWELL PHOTOGRAPH WERE MOVED DURING THE INTERVAL BETWEEN THE DILLARD AND POWELL PHOTOGRAPHS. (6 HSCA 110-115, emphasis added)

WC defenders cite the claims of Dale Myers, a private researcher who asserts that the apparent movement of boxes is in effect an optical illusion. But the photographic panel considered the argument on which Myers makes this claim--and rejected it. Oswald could not have been the one moving the boxes because he was seen on the second floor by Baker and Truly less than 90 seconds after the shots were fired (5:53). So, who was moving the boxes around less than two minutes after the shooting? Who was the man seen in the sniper's nest by the law clerk from a nearby building just a few minutes after the shots were fired? Whoever it was, it could not have been Oswald.

http://74.125.113.132/search?q=cache:rceluODzRAEJ:mcadams.posc.mu.edu/russ/wcexhibits.htm+Lyndal+L.+Shaneyfelt&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

Edited by William Kelly
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Bill, I think I disagree with your assessment.

I believe Powell WAS on assignment on 11-22, and the only reason that his

photos became known is that he was one of the persons trapped inside the

TSBD when it was finally sealed by the police. ALL OF HIS OTHER PHOTOS

except the 6th floor window were SUPPRESSED. It would be interesting to

see all of this other pix.

Jack

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