The ‘Classic Gunman’ image that Jones Harris and Jack White saw in the Nix film was debunked; not only by ITEK and Los Alamos Scientific Photographic Labs, but by the House Select Committee on Assassinations. Their findings on the Nix film ‘Classic Gunman’ image stated:
…the most probable explanation is that the image is a chance pattern of sunlight on the structure behind the retaining wall. The Panel’s conclusion was strengthened by an observation at the Aerospace Corp. that in one frame the “right arm” of the object disappears, only to reappear in the next frame. Such behavior would be virtually impossible for a person, but is conceivable for tree branches casting a shadow pattern on a wall. 303
This finding in 1978 didn’t stop a documentary being made ten years later that included the Nix film revealing a gunman on the knoll among other conspiracy questions. The documentary was called, The Day the Dream Died and aired in Europe.304 It was filled with distortions and misinformation but it did encourage yet another generation of viewers who knew nothing of the Nix Film to begin questioning the American government again. It also inspired American film director Oliver Stone.
It hadn’t stopped Jones Harris either. Still believing in all the testimony he had gathered through personally financed interviews, Harris went to Honest Joe’s Pawn Shop to interview Rubin Goldstein. No ‘on the record’ interview had ever been made with Goldstein. Forrest Sorrels never documented his visit with Rubin Goldstein, though Goldstein’s son remembers the visit.305
Harris had come from New York and stayed in Dallas with a friend of his, a member of the Masons, who had told him to be very careful as “people disappeared in Deep Ellum all the time.” 306 Deep Ellum, as is still called today, is a variation on the street name of ‘Elm.’ It is the Uptown section of Dallas today, but in the early 1960s, it was the area of speak easys, pawn shops, and dive motels.
Harris heeded his warning. He went to meet Rubin Goldstein unannounced but before he could begin the interview, Goldstein had to deal with a customer. So Harris began to look around the shop. As he walked towards the back, there he saw on a clothes tree several Dallas Police Department trousers, shirts, and even a white motorcycle helmet. Knowing it was illegal for any pawn shop to sell police uniforms, Harris immediately left without obtaining an interview.307 Seeing the police clothes was enough for him to know that this wasn’t a place in which he should be standing. In later years, another witness, Beverly Oliver, the alleged ‘Babushka Lady’ (so named because of the scarf she’s seen wearing the day of the assassination) offered more to the Honest Joe sighting, though her testimony hasn’t always been the most credible.308 Jones Harris related to Adele Edisen:
According to Beverly Oliver, she said she ran up to the grassy knoll after the shooting and saw “Geneva White’s husband there.” He was dressed in a dark shirt, no hat, and policeman’s trousers and with no gun - pistol. That would be Roscoe White who had been recently hired (in October of 1963) by the Dallas Police Department as a photographer and clerk. He was not yet a policeman, but was in training to become one, and did in 1964. He had no legal right to wear a police uniform, but his getup very much resembled a policeman’s uniform. He could have obtained his costume from Honest Joe who bought used uniforms from policemen who were retiring or quitting. Roscoe White, a former Marine, was an expert gunman and is known to have practiced shooting, according to his son, Ricky. It is believed that he was also connected to the CIA, and his proximity to the location of the Honest Joe wagon on the grassy knoll is mighty suspicious.309
Oliver’s statement reinforces the uniforms Jones Harris saw in Honest Joe’s Gun & Pawn Shop. Unfortunately, as the years pass, memories become foggy; the attention some people get from the media is intoxicating, thereby lending fragile egos the impetus to embellish and then, some witnesses are caught in outright lies.310
In later years, researcher Dave Perry would find the Roscoe White story bogus, discovering that Roscoe White was in North Dallas at the time of the Assassination.311 Still, many witnesses claim that Roscoe White was on the grassy knoll. Roscoe White’s son, Rickey White said in 1990, that his father was the second gunman on the grassy knoll. Many thought Roscoe White to be the gunman in the classic gunman position of the Nix film.
Of course, the gunman on the running board of the Honest Joe’s Edsel could have been someone else, hiding in plain sight: and it could be shadows as has been evidenced. Honest Joe could have been doing what he always did when business was slow: driving around in his unique car to drum up business. But there were other sinister things seen in the Nix film, as well as witnesses who saw shooters, puffs of smoke, and people running away from the knoll. For instance, Ed Hoffman312 saw someone in a business suit behind the wooden stockade fence. His revelation was later debunked by many including researcher M. Duke Lane.313 Ironically, DPD officer J.C. White testified before the Warren Commission that he couldn’t hear the shots due to a loud freight train. Mr. Lane’s article cites the “no train” seen as evidence that Ed Hoffman was lying. If Hoffman was lying, then was DPD Officer White lying as well?
There were other theories of sinister ‘shadows’ in the Nix film. Among them: Black Dog Man, Running Man, Blue Suit Man, and Shadow Man. There never seems to be an end to the figures in the shadows that can be seen in the Nix film. That so many believe shots came from there is also of great interest. Are there really that many mistaken people in the world? Could one of these sinister shadows actually be the gunman who hit the president with the small throat shot? Or a shot in the right temple that is still debated today?
*****
THAT SO MANY BELIEVE SHOTS CAME FROM THERE IS ALSO OF GREAT INTEREST. ARE THERE REALLY THAT MANY MISTAKEN PEOPLE IN THE WORLD? COULD ONE OF THESE SINISTER SHADOWS ACTUALLY BE THE GUNMAN WHO HIT THE PRESIDENT WITH THE SMALL THROAT SHOT?
Acoustical evidence from witnesses is varied as well. More shots were heard even after the fatal head shot; according to some witnesses there were as many as seven. James Tague was hit by cement or a glancing bullet.314 Even the House Select Committee found during their hearings that the acoustical evidence pointed to a gunman approximately ten feet west of the southern corner of the picket fence.315 The irony of that HSCA finding is that this was the last time Orville Nix‘s camera original film was seen. Some of the HSCA consultants later published books with films that had never been seen by the public. One could question how secure the evidence was as these committees convened.
Or maybe as Orville always knew, his film did show there was a gunman on the colonnade area. Maybe it did become one more piece of evidence that needed to be destroyed to keep the ‘Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone’ story going. The truth is that unadulterated photographic evidence does not lie. It has no bias, no agenda, no subjectivity. It is pure.
Moses Weitzman believes this purity is the reason the Nix film is missing. He believes this because in his work with UPI and Reese Schonfeld, he saw an image that has never been discussed. It was an image seen behind the “stockade fence” and was not a visual mirage of shadows and lights. He called this image, “Red Bandana Man.”
Could this be a shooter or another trick being played on the viewer’s mind by the light, shadows and leaves?
Thankfully, researchers today are still looking at the photographic evidence, including the Nix Film. With technology becoming more sophisticated all the time and easier to obtain, theories that were debunked in the past have proven true. Likewise, truths have been found to be lies. Some of them include:
• A note professed to have been written by Oswald to a “Mr. Hunt” (either Texas oilman H.L Hunt or CIA agent E. Howard Hunt) came to the HSCA’s attention. Later, the note was found to be a Soviet forgery in order to promote Kennedy assassination disinformation.316
• The Rickey White Story.
• Beverly Oliver’s profession of “finding” her original “Babushka Lady’s” film. The photos she used as evidence at a 1999 Dallas Conference were of the Nix Film.317
• The
motorcade route was changed.318
• Zapruder was only paid twenty-five thousand dollars in 1963 for his film.
On the other side of the coin, there are theories that were once debunked that have now proven to be true. They include:
• The media was at times and still is manipulated by the government.319
• The CIA used mind-conditioning on Americans from 1950-1979.320
• The CIA obfuscated records, withheld records, and lied to every committee studying the assassination since 1964.321
• Oswald was in Mexico before the assassination.322
• The presidential limo did slow down during the assassination, as seen in the Nix and Muchmore film.323
• US officials destroyed evidence.324
We can criticize Oliver Stone for rolling several conspiracy theories into one dramatic piece of entertainment: his movie JFK. But the truth is, without his movie, the ARRB would have never been formed and the truth about the CIA would have never been found. Stone made an icon out of Jim Garrison, the District Attorney from New Orleans, though some would disagree with his heroic character. But, like Jim Garrison, even our fallen president had his foibles, as do all humans.
Maybe one of the answers to finding the truth is to be more transparent and fearless in our own lives, thereby forcing our government to do the same. Orville Nix lived by that credo and taught his family to do so, as well. He shared his disappointments, as well as his successes, with his family, thereby living a life of truth. He never faltered from his belief that the shots came from the stockade fence. As I grew older and he shared his fears with me, I’m ashamed to admit that I laughed at him and called him “paranoid.” I regret that to this day. He wasn’t being paranoid. He was sharing his truth and, in that, his transparency. If we don’t care, how can we expect our leaders to care? They are but a reflection of us. Orville Nix was truthful and transparent; but his experience in taking the film of the assassination made him fearful. Fear is a mighty control. Fear is what keeps a person from being all they can be. Fear handicaps a person and stunts their success and happiness. Fear magnified Orville’s self-perceived inadequacies. No prisoner at Guantánamo Bay should have been subjected to the fear Orville Nix lived with during the last years of his life. No torturer could have done better. How many witnesses still alive today feel the same way Orville Nix did?
I know a few.
In contrast, John F. Kennedy lived his life fearlessly. He faced health issues that many of us could have never overcome. He wasn’t afraid to defy his father’s views on World War II and Hitler. After becoming president, he wasn’t afraid to bring Jimmy Hoffa and the Mafia to hearings to detail their crimes. He stood up to his one-time friend Allen Dulles and threatened to “splinter the CIA” after the Bay of Pigs fiasco.325 It wasn’t that John F. Kennedy feared his emotions, not at all. He was steeped in them. Kennedy was much like Asquith, a character from one of his favorite books, Pilgrim’s Way.326 The author, John Buchan wrote of Asquith, “He disliked emotion, not because he felt lightly but because he felt deeply.” 327
CHAPTER
TWENTY
THE MEDIA AND THE LIES
“And so it is to the printing press--to the recorder of man’s deeds, the keeper of his conscience, the courier of his news--that we look for strength and assistance, confident that with your help man will be what he was born to be: free and independent.”
John F. Kennedy328
Who is the keeper of our memories? Who is in charge of writing history? During the late 1950s and early 1960s - print media was. The media developed the ‘Camelot’ theme of the JFK administration, then sat back and proudly admired their creation and, in doing so, lured the American public and the world into the charming fantasy they created. Readers were eager to enter that realm and bought every magazine and newspaper that showed the Kennedy family. During JFK’s administration, Jackie Kennedy graced the cover of Life magazine at least three times a year. She was on covers from Vogue to Sports Illustrated to magazines in Peru. Enduring Cold War school drills, McCarthyism, and the fear of all things ‘red’, the public needed an escape. Camelot fit the bill. But then, November 22, 1963 happened. There was no escaping the horror of the day, the untimely murder of a beloved young president and the grief of his beautiful grieving wife left to care for two small children. It is well documented that the Kennedy administration would often send letters of ‘thanks’ to writers of articles in newspapers and magazines that they liked, and letters of “what?” to questionable interviews in the press.329 As stated earlier, Joseph Kennedy ensured that Henry Luce wrote well of his son John every time Life magazine published an issue. But after the assassination, who was in control of the media? Who is in control today? Noam Chomsky states it is the ‘corporate media.’330 What is that? The big corporations, Chomsky says, control our media through their control of advertising. Those corporations, though, should have no particular interest, as a group, in covering up a presidential assassination. But that is exactly what the media has done since 1963.
Operation Mockingbird was a campaign created by the CIA to influence the media.331 Begun in the 1950s, it recruited leading American journalists into a network to help present the CIA views. It also funded student and cultural organizations, like the one George Joannides funded for the Cuban student newspaper of the DRE after the assassination.332 It also used leading magazines and newspapers as fronts including: The New York Times, CBS, and Time/Life. Operation Mockingbird worked to influence not only foreign media and political campaigns, but American activities and mindsets as well.
Orville Nix learned how demeaning the media could be in 1967, when, against his wife Ella’s wishes, he agreed to do an interview for a national CBS special on the JFK assassination and the Warren Commission Report.333 Always a fan of Walter Cronkite, he had hoped to meet the iconic CBS reporter during the interview. He also was excited to take his grandchildren to the place that had changed his life. By this time, Gayle was almost ten years old and Cindy and David were seven and six respectively. They were old enough to see their grandfather interviewed and enjoy a media experience. When Ella learned the grandkids would be accompanying their grandfather, she happily agreed to let Orville do one last interview.
“What are you going to say to Walter Cronkite?” Ella asked her husband.
“I’m going to tell him what I saw. I’m going to tell him the truth,” Orville replied. “I’m going to take my camera too and take pictures of the day.”
In May of 1967, Orville Nix and his three grandchildren drove down to Dealey Plaza to meet the press. Orville was chain-smoking and since the author, Gayle was the oldest, she got to ride in the front seat. As we neared the Plaza, Orville reminded us to ‘mind our manners’ and ‘be quiet’ during the interview. He then promised us all ice cream if we acted nicely. Orville was wearing another new suit that day; the kind that changes colors from light brown to blue in the light. He also had on a new Fedora and tie. He was quite an imposing site with his 6’6” frame and tailored clothing. As he approached the center of Dealey Plaza, in the grassy part where he had stood when he took the film between Main and Elm, Bernard Birnbaum334 walked up to greet him.
“Hello Mr. Nix, so nice to see you again.” Birnbaum shook his hand. He had met Orville earlier in the year. Orville had allowed Birnbaum to use his camera for the CBS Warren Commission production.
“So these are your grandkids, all blonde, eh?” He smiled at us all and shook each of our hands. We felt quite mature. “If you don’t mind kids, I’m going to talk to your grandpa for a few minutes, but you can stand over there and watch how the television cameras work.” Mr. Birnbaum was a kind man and he made quite an impression on us, and not just because of his strange accent. My younger brother David was so mesmerized he didn’t even run around the grassy area or fight with my sister or me. We noticed there weren’t any other children within sight, which made us feel all the more special. Later, before the show aired, he sent each of us a letter t
elling us how helpful our grandfather was in producing the CBS Special Report.335 None of us had ever received a letter in the mail before, and we all felt quite important.
Orville had noticed there were no other children at the filming as well, and worried that he may have upset the CBS men by bringing his. He worried only for a split-second though…he wanted to share this experience with his grandchildren.
A few minutes later, a lady came and powdered my grandfather’s face. He smirked and we laughed. He winked and said, “Don’t tell your Granny that I had make-up on.” We all laughed at his secret. Just then, a man we recognized from the nightly local news, Eddie Barker, appeared.336 He too introduced himself and as kids, we felt like movie stars.
One of the key conclusions the 4-part series would confirm was that Lee Harvey Oswald was a lone gunman. The other proved there was no conspiracy, which meant the shots all had to come from the Texas School Book Depository. The series was recorded to ensure the American public believed the Warren Commission’s findings and “that there was no evidence that there was a conspiracy.”
When it was time for Orville’s interview, the interviewer, Eddie Barker, asked his name and then, after asking several questions in regards to his location during the parade asked:
“Where do you believe the shots came from Mr. Nix?”
“From the fence area, over there” Orville replied.
The director immediately yelled, “Cut!”
Orville wasn’t sure what it meant, but he knew everything had stopped. “Let’s start again,” the director barked. “At the time of the assassination, where did you think the shots came from Mr. Nix?”
The Missing JFK Assassination Film Page 19