Oswald in the doorway: the blog of the Oswald Innocence Campaign, by Ralph Cinque

The Zapruder Film: Unreliable as per Mary Moorman

by Ralph C. Cinque

The Zapruder film cannot be considered an accurate display of Mary Moorman's actions on Elm Street during the motorcade, and it should be dismissed. 

There were and are many prominent JFK researchers who have disputed the authenticity of the Zapruder film, including Jack White, Doug Horne, Jim Fetzer, John Costella, David Mantik, and more. 

The removal of frames to hide the slowing and stopping of the limo is the most commonly cited alteration, but also frequently cited is the disassociation of the background from the foreground, where the spectators on the grass seem to be out of sync with the Kennedys. This most certainly applies to Mary Moorman.

We first get a good look at her at Z-292 where the limo has not reached her yet, but she has her camera up and trained on the Kennedys.

  Mary continues to track the Kennedys until they are even with her, such as at Z-300.

The above frame is most often displayed as Mary taking her famous picture, but had she taken it here, the Kennedys would have been centered in her picture (which they are not in the Moorman photo), and she would have captured very little of JFK and mostly Jackie's back. So no, she could not have taken it here.

But, after this frame, and for the rest of Mary Moorman's appearance in the Zapruder film, she remains fixed in that same position.

  
I captured the above frame from the Image of an Assassination DVD which I own. My goal was to catch the last complete rendering of Mary Moorman before she passes out of view. It was Robin Unger who correctly identified this as Z-309. Notice that Mary Mooman is in the same position she was in Z-300. The Kennedys have passed her, but she still has her camera up, frozen in the same position. This is untenable. First, it doesn't take that long to take a picture. Second, she most likely would have taken it before they reached her in order to capture their faces. Why shoot the back of their heads? Third, if they had passed her, and she had not yet taken the picture, surely she would have continued to track them. There is no way to make sense of this.

Now we will jump to Z-315 which is when the Moorman Photo was taken. It is also our last view of Mary Moorman in the Zapruder film.

This too was made by me from the Image of an Assassination DVD, but it was a different version. They have four versions, and in this version the frame numbers are listed. Be aware that I added fill light in order to illuminate Mary. You can see that she is in the sprocket area of the film here, which usually appears very dark. 

But, she is in the same position as she was before, still ignoring the Kennedys and pointing her camera straight ahead. 

I think we should and must assume that this is a dissociation resulting from the film having been tampered with. And since it was tampered with, there is no basis to use the Zapruder film as an accurate record of Mary's actions during the motorcade. 

What does that leave us with to study Mary Moorman's actions? It leaves the Muchmore film and the Nix film. I would never have the confidence to say that they are pristine and untampered with because all of these images fell into government hands. But, they seem to be free of the kind of gross incongruities that we see in the Zapruder film. 

And what's interesting is that where the Muchmore film ends in what it shows of the lower Elm Street happenings, the Nix film starts. So, one should watch Muchmore first and then Nix to see it in sequence.

But, as far as the Moorman photo is concerned, I am very sure it was taken during the Muchmore film not the Nix film. By the time Nix got his camera pointed over there, the Moorman photo was already taken.

It means that the Muchmore film is the only resource there is for viewing, from a distance, the actual taking of the Moorman photo.

And in my opinion, this frame from the Muchmore film coincides closely with the taking of the Moorman photo. If it is not the exact frame, it is definitely very close to it. This is approximately, if not exactly, when the Moorman photo was taken. And I believe that Babushka Lady took it.