The Killing Floor

[James DiEugenio]

Every once in while, Kennedys and King gets something really remarkable from our readers.  This one is a video representation by Rich Negrete. 

To my knowledge, its his first film--and I hope its not his last.  Its a kind of visual adaptation of The GIrl on the Stairs, but it actually goes beyond that book.

Considering its his first film, its moderately skillful for an amateur production. Plus its  clear, simple and straightforward in its presentation. As anyone can see, it took a lot of work to do something like this, in both collection and assembly.

Rich Negrete deserves a round of applause. 

https://www.kennedysandking.com/john-f-kennedy-articles/the-killing-floor

 

 

[Paul Brancato]

Surely he does. With timeline details 

[Greg Doudna]

I just saw it. Fact-based, somber, does not overreach, powerful.

There is a surprise at the end, after telling of the response Barry Ernest received to his attempt to obtain the original stenographer's tape of the Belin deposition of Victoria Adams in Dallas on April 7, 1964, to check for suspected tampering in the record of Adams' testimony. Ernest received a puzzling reply that no stenographers' tapes of April 7, 1964 could be found even though others exist and are archived. That is told at the close of Barry Ernest's book, The Girl on the Stairs.

Then the surprise starting at 1:41:47, which is not in The Girl on the Stairs. Narrator Negrete tells that Barry Ernest tried again, submitting a different request framed a different way, hoping to get at the elusive primary evidence. This time Ernest received a response from a different archivist of materials which included a document, which had not been supplied to Ernest in response to his first request. My transcription of Negrete in the film, as the camera pans slowly over the cover page of the document:

"The pristine evidence [original stenographer's tape] had not only been lost for eternity, but now Barry Ernest had been made aware of its exact fate. It read, 'Deposit of Proceedings Held at Dallas, Texas, Tuesday, April 7, 1964', the date of testimony that is key to our entire story, and the status of its contents. 'Stenotype master tape, Master sheets, carbon and waste turned over to Commission for destruction'."

[Bill Fite]

very well done -- thanks

[Joe Bauer]

Remarkable.

[James DiEugenio]

Thanks and I agree with you all.  

Telling point about who actually destroyed the tape is it not?

I wonder if it was Belin?

 

Edited October 14, 2022 by James DiEugenio

[James DiEugenio]

BTW, I have to accent, I think this is Negrete's first film.

In other words, he learned as he went along.

What a travail.

[Pat Speer]

2 hours ago, James DiEugenio said:

Thanks and I agree with you all.  

Telling point about who actually destroyed the tape is it not?

I wonder if it was Belin?

 

I suspect that many of the tapes were destroyed, and that this wasn't an isolated incident. I remember for sure that the tapes for the 1-22 session in which the WC discussed the possibility Oswald was an agent were supposed to be destroyed...by Warren's supposed bodyguard, Elmer Moore. 

[Paul Brancato]

This is groundbreaking - seriously. Pat - the 1/22 tapes of the WC discussing Oswald as a possible agent - wow. 
 

[Roger Odisio]

Remarkable film.  But one thing bothered me, that doesn't lessen the powerful impact of all that Negrete says.

It's the acceptance of the second floor lunch room encounter as if it really happened, rather being a concoction by the WC to try to place him where he could have been after shooting from the 6th floor.

In his first interrogation, Oswald said he went to the second floor to buy a coke to have *with* his lunch  He then ate his lunch on the first floor.  Then he went outside to see the P parade.

So where is there room for Oswald to be confronted by Truly and Baker getting a coke on the second floor *after* the murder?  Did he eat his lunch after the murder?  Or maybe he was lying about his whole alibi.

But presumably Negrete and Ernest (and I) don't believe either version.  They have established thru the original testimony of the women, before it was changed, lied about, or ignored, that Oswald never came down those steps after the murder.

So believe the lunch room encounter fabrication if you want--that Oswald with a coke ran into Truly and Baker on the second floor *after* the murder.  If he wasn't on the 6ht floor when the shots were fired and didn't come down those stairs after the murder, it doesn't matter.  He wasn't an assassin.

The film would have been cleaner and stronger if Negrete had deleted references to the lunch room encounter and stuck to the straightforward story.  It's still a blockbuster.

Next up for Negrete?  Looking into the Darnell film to finish the job of establishing where Oswald was at the time of the murder.

 

 

 

 

[Matt Allison]

I enjoyed it. My one criticism, and it's because I'm an audio guy, is that it needs more consistent dialogue levels between scenes, as there is a fair amount of scene editing. But a very admirable job, especially for a first effort.

[Benjamin Cole]

Just painful to watch the know-it-alls dismiss even the possibility of a plot to assassinate JFK, at the start of the film. 

Maybe it was plot of mid-level CIA-related guys from the Miami CIA station. That is still a plot. 

There had to have been at least a second gunman in DP that day. The shots strike JFK and JBC too quickly to have been issued by a single-shot bolt-action rifle. 

Great documentary, kudos and more. 

 

[Matt Allison]

I've never read The Girl on the Stairs but if I'm understanding this video correctly, Dorothy Garner puts a giant dent in the WC version of LHO going from the 6th floor to the lunchroom. 

[David Von Pein]

20 minutes ago, Matt Allison said:

I've never read The Girl on the Stairs but if I'm understanding this video correctly, Dorothy Garner puts a giant dent in the WC version of LHO going from the 6th floor to the lunchroom. 

Only if a person wants to believe that Dorothy Garner had her eyes fixed on the TSBD staircase every single second just after the assassination.

From a 2014 discussion:

"Why in the world would anyone think Dorothy Garner had her eyes transfixed on the STAIRS every single second immediately following the President's assassination? How silly would that be, considering what had just happened outside those fourth-floor, SOUTH-SIDE windows just moments earlier? Why would she (or anyone) have kept a vigil on the staircase? Therefore, since it makes no logical sense to think that Garner (or ANYBODY ELSE) had their eyes peeled on those stairs every second, Oswald could have easily been on that 4th-floor landing for a matter of--what?--five seconds and not been seen by anyone who was on the same floor. Or do conspiracy theorists REALLY want to contend that Dorothy Garner never took her eyes off those stairs between 12:30 and 12:32 PM? That's incredibly silly to believe that's the case (even if she DID catch a glimpse of Truly and Baker)." -- DVP; Oct. 2014

http://jfk-archives.blogspot.com/Adams & Styles

 

Edited October 15, 2022 by David Von Pein

[Matt Allison]

Because Garner says she saw Truly and Baker come up after hearing Adams and Styles go down the stairs.

That shrinks the window of time in which LHO would have been able to get from the 6th floor to the lunchroom unnoticed.