The Identification of Gloria Calvery in Zapruder and Darnell

[Sandy Larsen]

Introduction

Two or three years ago Tommy Graves and I did a good deal of work in trying to identify Gloria Calvery in the pre- and post-assassination Dealey Plaza films. We eventually had a couple of breakthroughs that led to our finding her whereabouts, both before and thirty seconds after the shooting.

Unfortunately our work was spread across multiple threads, making it hard to follow by forum members. At around that time Photobucket hijacked all of it's users' photos, including mine, making it hard to consolidate and document our work.

This has been a big problem for me. Many times I've needed to refer to images and other material contained in our work, and each time I've had to rummage through my bookmarks and files looking for them. I'm tired of doing that. So what I've decided to do for now is summarize our work in this thread, and then add to it whenever time permits.

Note that since we did our original work, new material has surfaced that makes the identification easier. I need to point that out lest somebody says, "Hey, that wasn't such a difficult thing to do!"

I want to thank a few people whose work made mine and Tommy's job easier: Chris Davidson, Bart Kamp, Robin Unger, and Bob Prudhomme. (Note that this doesn't necessarily mean that these guys endorse our conclusions.)

 

Edited May 20, 2019 by Sandy Larsen

[Sandy Larsen]

The Identification of Gloria Calvery in the Zapruder Film

From her FBI affidavit, we know approximately where Gloria Calvery was standing during the presidential parade. And we know that she was standing with three of her workmates: Carol Reed, Karen Hicks, and Karen Westbrook. Here's a photo of all of them together, along with a few others, taken in the TSBD building around Christmas time:

 

(Note that Carol Hughes stayed in the building during the motorcade.)

Notice how tall Gloria Calvery and Karen Westbrook are compared to the other two women they were with. And notice that, of the two tall women, one is slender and the other is wide. So all we need to do is look for four young white women standing together, with two of them being noticeably taller than the other two, and with one of the tall women being wide. And we need to focus on only the area they said they were standing,

The FBI has made this easy for us because they asked the four women where they were standing during the motorcade. I don't recall now their specific answers, but I do recall that what they said corresponds roughly with a location not too far from the Stemmons sign.

With those criteria at hand, let's look for the four women in these Z-film frames:

 

 

(Ignore the red arrow in this bottom photo. It was once thought that that was Gloria Calvery)

We find the four coworkers within a matter of seconds. The only group of four women standing together, where one is tall and slender and another is tall and wide, is the one pointed to by the red arrow in the top photo. That woman is Gloria Calvery (tall and wide), the two to her left are Carol Reed and Carol Hicks (not necessarily in that order), and the one to their left is Karen Westbrook (tall and slender). Interestingly they are all wearing headscarves whereas very few of the other women are. It's not uncommon for friends to dress alike. Especially young women.

If anybody can find another group of four women who match the known criteria, I'm all ears. (Though I'm confidant nobody can.)

And therefore we identify the woman pointed to by the red arrow as being Gloria Calvery.

If you are thinking to yourself that that wasn't such a difficult identification to make, Let me just note that we didn't have that Christmas photo when were doing our search. In fact, I was extremely happy when forum member Denis Morissette made us aware of that photo earlier this year. It served to corroborate the work we had done. (Imagine how I would have felt had it turned out that Gloria Calvery was short. Or if the number of short and tall women in the group were different from two and two.)

In my next post I will show where Gloria Calvery was about 45 seconds later in the Darnell clip, and will explain how we know it is her.

 

Edited May 22, 2019 by Sandy Larsen

[Sandy Larsen]

The Identification of Gloria Calvery in the Darnell Film

The following graphic is a frame from the Darnell film taken about thirty seconds after the shooting. The inset is from the Zapruder film before the shooting and shows Gloria Calvery and her three coworkers watching the motorcade. It has had the color removed so that comparisons between the two films can be made.

 

 

Tommy Graves and I ultimately determined that Gloria Calvery and one of her coworkers as seen in Zapruder are the same as the two shown here in Darnell.

How do we know that these are the same two women in each film? Well, I can't go through the whole process of our discovery right now, as it was very involved and was posted across multiple threads years ago. But I will describe briefly what we did.

To begin with, note that one of Gloria Calvery's companions is wearing all white, including the headscarf. I call her Woman in All White. We know that Woman in All White must be either Karan Hicks or Carol Reed because those are the two shorter women, and Woman in all White is a shorter one.

The first step was to determine whether or not there was more than one woman in Dealey Plaza, wearing all white including a white scarf. Because if it turned out there was only one such woman during the procession, then that would mean that the one that was filmed later in Darnell must be the same as the one we know to be Gloria Calvery's companion in Zapruder (Carol Reed or Karen Hicks).

Since all four women were wearing scarves, I decided that it would be a manageable task to search for all four due to our focusing only on women with scarves. But our highest priority was Woman in All White because she was so easy to spot.

Here are the three research threads we used to search for matches of women wearing headscarves. The first one is a list of scarf-wearing women photographed before the shooting, the second one a list of scarf-wearing women photographed after the shooting, and the third one is where we looked for and found matches between the two lists:

   http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/topic/23598-tsbd-women-in-scarves-pre-assassination-collection/

   http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/topic/23599-tsbd-women-in-scarves-post-assassination-collection/

   http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/topic/23600-tsbd-women-in-scarves-prepost-assassination-matches/

 

I searched through numerous photos and frames looking for women in all white. I think that Robin Unger must have looked too because he found one woman who at first looked like she was wearing all white, but then we discovered she wasn't in another frame of the film.

Ultimately we determined that there was only one woman in all white, including headscarf, during the motorcade. And so it was established that in all likelihood the Woman in All White seen in the Darnell film was indeed one of Gloria Calvery's companions.

The next step was to look for a woman in Darnell matching the Gloria Calvery in Zapruder. Right away we saw that the woman standing right next to Woman in All White in Darnell matched Gloria Calvery... at least from the waist up. As anybody can see, she is wearing a dark top and has either a dark headscarf or dark hair.

Two questions remained. First, was this woman in Darnell wearing a headscarf, and second, was this woman wearing a grayish skirt like Gloria Calvery was.

I have software that allows me to single step though animated GIF (video) frames. So I stepped slowly through the frames hoping that a view of the girl's bottomwear would open up. (Not to take all the credit myself, Tommy did the same.) We got very lucky in that a small number of frames do indeed show the girl's bottomwear. And they DO match Gloria Calvery's skirt! (This is pointed out in the first photo of this post.)

The one thing we could never do is determine if the girl in Darnell was wearing a dark headscarf, or just had dark hair. However, we had a lucky break that compensated for that deficit. In you single step though Darnell, you will discover that not only is Woman in All White (Karan Hicks or Carol Reed) still climbing the stairs, but she is pulling up on the arm of our tentative Gloria Calvery.

The following frame from Darnell shows that Woman in All White has her left arm wrapped around something very dark. It is Gloria Calvery's right arm. (Unless you prefer to believe she was carrying a dark clipboard or something to the presidential parade.)

 

 

 

In the following animated gif you can see Woman in All White pulling on Calvery's arm as she continues to climb the stairs. She actually lifts her arm up and pulls on it. She really wanted Gloria to go with her, but Gloria was busy talking to Billy Lovelady.

 

 

 

This to me is as good a find as determining that the tentative Gloria Calvery was wearing a scarf. Because odds are high that Woman in All White (Karan Hicks or Carol Reed) was pulling on the arm of one of her motorcade companions. And of those three companions, only Gloria Calvery's colors (shades of gray, I should say) match.

And therefore we conclude that the girl we tentatively identified as Gloria Calvery is indeed Gloria Calvery.

 

Edited May 20, 2019 by Sandy Larsen

[Sandy Larsen]

[reserved]

[Sandy Larsen]

I recall a couple of forum members questioning if it really can be seen that Woman in All White (WIAW) is pulling up on Gloria Calvery's arm. Well here are a couple more observations that support that claim.

1. WIAW's free right arm swings as she climbs. Her other arm doesn't swing at all... because it is holding onto Gloria Calvery's arm.
2. As WIAW pulls on Calvery's arm, Calvery is resisting so much that WIAW begins to twist and tilt down toward her.

 

 

[Adam Johnson]

Did Oswald have his ID bracelet on his right hand??? The gif seems to show a clear flash on the right arm/wrist of prayer man. Possibly some type of jewellery?

[Denis Morissette]

As for the Christmas photo you posted I was the one who published it. I purchased 2 of them and they were made available for free the following week by the 6FM. 

Gloria Holt’s brother confirmed to me that the crying lady in the Darnell film is her sister.

[Sandy Larsen]

23 minutes ago, Denis Morissette said:

As for the Christmas photo you posted I was the one who published it. I purchased 2 of them and they were made available for free the following week by the 6FM. 

 

Thank you so much Denis for posting that photo. It is making it a lot easier to convince people that we have correctly identified Gloria Calvery in the films.

 

23 minutes ago, Denis Morissette said:

Gloria Holt’s brother confirmed to me that the crying lady in the Darnell film is her sister.

 

Thanks for that information as well.

I didn't mention in my presentation (the first three posts) that before we could figure out where Gloria Calvery was, it was necessary to prove that certain Zapruder spectator identifications that had been accepted for years were in fact wrong. I wasn't greatly involved in that work, but I know that it was Tommy Graves who made the important breakthroughs. He was the one who correctly identified Gloria Holt and others. What her brother told you corroborates what he had already found.

I just located the thread where Tommy Graves presented his work:
 

 

Here is your (Denis Morissette's) corroboration of the Gloria Holt identification:

 

 

[Paul Jolliffe]

Sandy,

Your gif and analysis certainly go a long way towards proving that Lovelady was on the steps of the TSBD for a bit after the shots. And, of course, then he can't be walking with Bill Shelley westward down the Elm Street extension at the same time. It certainly appears that Gloria Calvery had her conversation with Lovelady on the steps of the TBSD, not out on the island.

In your gif, is Bill Shelley visible anywhere?

[Jim Hargrove]

Paul,

Did Lovelady say anywhere he talked to Gloria Calvery a few moments after the hit?  In his first day affidavit, Bill Shelley said he ran across Elm and talked to her before going back inside the building.  From this image, Shelley’s conversation with her must have happened very quickly, if it is true at all.

Thanks to Sandy for all this hard work putting this evidence together.

[Paul Jolliffe]

29 minutes ago, Jim Hargrove said:

Paul,

Did Lovelady say anywhere he talked to Gloria Calvery a few moments after the hit?  In his first day affidavit, Bill Shelley said he ran across Elm and talked to her before going back inside the building.  From this image, Shelley’s conversation with her must have happened very quickly, if it is true at all.

Thanks to Sandy for all this hard work putting this evidence together.

Jim,

Yes, Lovelady did indeed identify Gloria Calvery as the "girl who ran up to us and told us the president had been hit" in his taped interview with the HSCA. The relevant section on Youtube begins at around the 29 minute mark.

 

[Jim Hargrove]

Thanks, Paul.  I missed it.

[Jim Hargrove]

Sandy,

Megathanks for all the hard work you did on this, but I do have one quick question about your methodology.  You apparently base your 11/22/63 ID’s on the body types of Gloria Calvery, Carol Reed, Carol Hicks, and Karen Westbrook and the premise that all four women stood together in a line along the parade route.  Is there evidence that they stood together in their testimonies or elsewhere?

Thanks again for what you have done here!  Assuming you are correct, and it sure looks like you are, this puts to rest a whole lot of BS about Shelley and Lovelady.  Clearly, they both went back into the TSBD soon after the shots rang out. 

One more question.... Since there exists that infamous clip that people say shows Shelley and Lovelady walking away from the TSBD, do you think any kind of intel-style faking could have been involved here?  If John Butler happens to read this, his input on this question would be appreciated.

For a third and perhaps final time, thanks again Sandy!!

[Sandy Larsen]

10 hours ago, Paul Jolliffe said:

Sandy,

Your gif and analysis certainly go a long way towards proving that Lovelady was on the steps of the TSBD for a bit after the shots. And, of course, then he can't be walking with Bill Shelley westward down the Elm Street extension at the same time. It certainly appears that Gloria Calvery had her conversation with Lovelady on the steps of the TBSD, not out on the island.

In your gif, is Bill Shelley visible anywhere?

 

Paul,

One thing I should have pointed out earlier is that the conclusion of this analysis is consistent with first-day affidavits (FDA) of those on the top step. I believe that FDAs are much more likely to be trustworthy than later testimony. Though admittedly they can be brief and leave out details that come out later.

Lovelady didn't say he left the steps in his FDA. And Darnell sure makes it look that way. However, I think it's possible that he left the steps and ran toward the limo as it dropped out of view. I've seen Frazier say that Shelley, Lovelady, and others did that. But if so, Lovelady obviously returned when he saw the limo was gone. Because we see him right there on the steps in Darnell, though no longer on the top landing.

I personally believe that Lovelady did leave the steps and then returned.

I believe that Shelley did the same. In his FDA he said he crossed over to the concrete island, bumped into Gloria Calvery there, and then returned. He then went inside and called his wife. This is consistent with Darnell and also with what Frazier said.

In summary, I believe that both Shelley and Lovelady ran toward the limo as it dropped out of view. Shelley bumped into a running Gloria Calvery at the concrete island and they ran back to the steps as she told him what had happened. Shelley then went off by himself and Calvery told Lovelady what happened. We see her doing that in Darnell.

By the time of their WC testimonies, both Lovelady and Shelley were saying that they stayed on the TSBD steps till Gloria arrived... a direct contradiction to Shelley's FDA. And that it took her three minutes to get there. I don't believe it. I believe their FDAs and Darnell.

Your question is an excellent one... where is Shelley in Darnell? For a long time I've thought he was inside headed for a phone to call his wife. But according the Andrej Stancak, Shelley can be seen in Darnell. (In fact, Andrej believes that Shelley hadn't even left the steps yet when photographed by Darnell, something I adamantly disagree with.)

Andrej says that Bill Shelley is the guy in Altgens 6 whose profile we see just to the right (our right) of Lovelady. He's wearing a dark suit and tie.

 

And in Darnell Shelley is the guy at the very top-right in this image:

 

 

The guy does seem to be about the right height for Shelley. But I have to wonder how his dark suit coat as seen in Altgens 6 looks so light in Darnell. Also, Shelley was slender whereas this guy looks a little pudgy in Altgens 6.

Regardless, if Andrej is right about this guy being Shelley, it is my opinion that after bumping into Gloria Calvery at the concrete island, he returned and resumed his former position on the steps before going inside and calling his wife.

 

Edited May 22, 2019 by Sandy Larsen

[Sandy Larsen]

7 hours ago, Jim Hargrove said:

Paul,

Did Lovelady say anywhere he talked to Gloria Calvery a few moments after the hit?  In his first day affidavit, Bill Shelley said he ran across Elm and talked to her before going back inside the building.  From this image, Shelley’s conversation with her must have happened very quickly, if it is true at all.

Thanks to Sandy for all this hard work putting this evidence together.

 

Jim,

As you said, Shelley said in his first-day affidavit that he crossed the road and bumped into Gloria Calvery there. Lovelady never mentioned Calvery till he gave his WC testimony.

It was for the WC that Shelley's and Lovelady's stories became identical. They both said that Gloria Calvery arrived at the steps 3 minutes after the shooting, and that is when they left the steps together. In addition Lovelady said that he spoke with Calvery there at the steps. Shelley didn't say that. (Only those last two sentences are consistent with Darnell.)

 

Shelley's first-day-affidavit has him crossing the road and bumping into Calvery there. Whereas his WC testimony has him crossing the road AFTER Calvery arrived at the steps.