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

Personal to Robert Harris

Robert, you keep referring to Mary Moorman and when she lowered her camera from her face, but that's not the issue. The issue is: when did she press the shutter? A Polaroid, like every other still camera, captures just a tiny, infinitesimal split-second in time. 

I put up this link to an interview she did in 2013. Go to 8:28, and you'll hear her say that she took her picture as she heard the first shot, and then she heard two more shots, which she described as "Pow-Pow".  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgNF-sPW8YI

How long does it take to take a picture? We're talking about the time it takes to snap the shutter. Once you've done it, you've captured your picture. Your split-second in time captured on film is now over. And it was after that that she heard two more shots, Pow-Pow.

Maybe you should listen to it more than once because towards the end, the interviewer starts dancing the two-step- trying to reconcile what Mary was saying with the known facts about the photo, including that it was taken after the final shot. He very cleverly didn't say that it was taken after the final shot. What he did say is "Most people agree that there were three shots, but not the three shots you are talking about." That rattled Mary, who started talking about how fast a second is. Actually, it's not that fast. You have to say "one thousand one" to get through a whole second. According to officialdom there was about 5 seconds between the first shot and the last shot. So, that's: "one thousand one, one thousand two, one thousand three, one thousand four, one thousand five." That much time passed between the first shot and the last shot. The Moorman photo was taken 2/9 second after the last shot, but Mary said that she took her picture at the time of the first shot. Simultaneous with it is what she said.  

So, how did the interviewer solve that problem? By assuming that Mary didn't hear the first two shots at all, that she was deaf to them, that what she took to be the first shot was actually the third and final shot. But, if that were true, then what were the other two "Pows" that Mary heard? She specifically ruled out motorcycles backfiring, and you know it wasn't firecrackers.

So what were they? What did Mary hear? What was the "Pow-Pow"? 

It was the shots. We need to take Mary at her word, which was that she took her photo simultaneous with the first shot. That means that she could NOT have taken the Moorman photo, which was taken by Babushka Lady.   



Interviewer: The first noise, that we now know was a shot, when did that occur in relation to your picture?"

(RC: the operative word is FIRST)

Mary: I heard that when the camera was still up in my face. I heard the noise. I heard the sound.

Interviewer: Had you taken the picture yet? 

Mary: At the same time. Simultaneous. 

Interviewer: Photographic evidence does confirm that this picture was taken within 2/9 of a second of the shot.

(RC: No. That is not correct. It was 2/18 of a second after the last shot. The Moorman photo has been correlated to Zapruder 315, and the last shot, the fatal head shot, occurred at Zapruder 313. So, the Moorman photo was taken after the final shot. This guy goes back and forth between talking about the first shot and the last shot without distinguishing them.)

Interviewer: Did you hear a second shot? 


Mary: Yes, immediately. 

(RC: Mary already took her picture by then. So she said.) 

Mary: It was like: Pow. Pow-Pow. 

(RC: Note that this is exactly what she told me (for which Robert Harris accused me of altering the screen capture) except that she used "Bam" instead of "Pow" in describing it to me.) 

Mary: After the second shot, I was looking at this man, and I thought to myself, 'I saw his hair jump.'

(RC: So, she'd already taken her picture, right?)

Interviewer: Did it seem like he got hit by the first and second shots?

Mary: Well, I'm not sure about the second shot except that I did see something happen to him.

(RC: Presumably, she had lowered her cameara at that point and was looking at him directly. SHE WAS THROUGH TAKING HER PICTURE!)

Interviewer: Was there a following shot?

Mary: Yes, I heard three shots.

Interviewer: Let's review the most widely accepted belief, which is that the first shot missed, and it was followed by a second shot which hit JFK in the back, and then there was a third shot, the fatal head shot, which is depicted in the Moorman photo. So, I guess you didn't hear the first two shots?

(RC: What?? Why would he assume that? She wasn't deaf. She was only 29 years young, and her hearing was fine. She said, as she has always said, that she took her photo at the time of the first shot, and then she heard two more shots. She has said that repeatedly and consistently. She said she HEARD three shots total. So, how can he suggest that she didn't hear the first two shots?


What we have here is a guy who is trying to reconcile Mary's account with the known facts about the Moorman photo, but it can't be done. You can't get a square peg into a round hole, and you can't get this to work either. Mary said that she heard three shots, which she depicted as Pows or Bams. Three of them. So, if this guy's contention is true,  that what Mary thought was the first shot was actually the third and final shot, then what in tarnation were the sounds she heard afterwards? They sounded like shots to her. So, what were they? What was she mistaking for two more shots?  

She wasn't mistaking anything. She heard two more shots because there were two more shots. That's two more shots AFTER she took her picture. 

The Moorman photo is not the photo that Mary Moorman took. They must have gotten rid of her photo because it captured something that they didn't want the world to see.