Beverly Oliver

[Pat Speer]

Pat, here is Beverly’s description of the shooting sequence:

I couldn’t really say how long I was waiting for the President to arrive, but it wasn’t very long. The whole plaza was just filled with static electricity. You could feel it in the air, and it made the hairs on the back of your neck just stand right up. There’s just no way to properly explain it… I took my camera out and took footage of the nearby buildings and people to make sure it was working. You could tell the President was approaching from the roaring of the crowd as it got near. I began filming again just before the President’s car turned, and as it made the turn from Houston onto Elm I heard “bang-bang.. bang” a little to the right of where I was standing. I don’t know if they still have them, but I thought it was one of those little poppers that people throw and they explode. Like the size of a gumball. And I actually thought to myself, “Who in their right mind would throw one of those down here today?” Then as the limousine got a little past me I heard “ba-boom”, just deafeningly loud. And I saw the whole back of the President’s head just explode. It looked like someone threw a bucket of blood out the back of the car. And then I saw Jackie on the back of the car reaching out for what I thought at the time was a piece of the President’s skull. Then the car disappeared beneath the overpass… I did see Roscoe White on the grassy knoll. He was just to the right of the steps. I couldn’t tell where he was coming from. I assumed he was just over there to talk to people. I certainly recognized him, and we made eye contact and I’m sure he recognized me as well. He was used to seeing me in different hair colors, so I’m sure he didn’t have any trouble recognizing me… I couldn’t say whether the second set of sounds I heard was one shot and an echo, or two shots fired almost simultaneously. The sound seemed to originate just to my left, but I couldn’t say for certain where any of the shots came from… I heard what I thought were the poppers just after the president had made the turn onto Elm. The car behind him was still on Houston.

And in response to the Zapruder film:

“I certainly believe I saw the back of his head come off, and I believe the film does show what I saw – the back of his head exploding… I suppose there is a chance it wasn’t the back of his head, but I do not believe so. How else would a piece of his skull ended up on the trunk of the car?

When I asked if there was anything in the film that lead her to believe it had been doctored, she responded with a no.

Thanks, Josh. Great job.

My only question: Did you LAUGH when she told you she saw Roscoe White on the knoll?

Edited March 20, 2012 by Pat Speer

[Christopher Hall]

I am going to read Beverly Oliver's book more for the part of it which relates to her deceased husband's involvement with the Dixie Mafia than for the JFK assassination portions.

[Richard Hocking]

Josh, thanks for taking questions and posting the answers from your interview with Beverly. Much appreciated!

[Josh Cron]

Thanks for the kind words everyone. Happy to do it.

Haha Pat, I would have liked to, but I kept it to myself.

I forgot to ask her the last time she had seen the Zapruder Film. Unfortunately I found myself surprised when she told me she believed the film did show the back of Kennedy's head explode, and stumbled a bit on my follow-up questions.

Len, people give strippers presents every day, haha. Why a Kodac employee would have an experimental camera from Yasicha is beyond me. Beverly had the same question. It seems an odd lie to tell though, doesn't it? Why not just say she got the camera from a Yasicha employee if she was lying?

Edited March 21, 2012 by Josh Cron