DAVID VON PEIN SAID:
Here's an interesting e-mail conversation I had with Gary Mack on
January 8th, 2010:
Subject: Yet ANOTHER camera original Zapruder film
Date: 1/8/2010 2:44:15 PM Eastern Standard Time
From: Gary Mack
To: David Von Pein
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Hello Dave,
I am continually astonished at how little the alterationists know about the Zapruder film and its history. Now, led by Doug Horne and others, they are whining about needing a test film from the Zapruder camera to see if its images have the same camera artifacts as the assassination film. Their “thinking” is that the test film won’t match and that will prove the original film is a fake. But many such original reels exist and most, if not all, have been available at the National Archives for decades!
The alterationists didn’t know, until I told Duncan MacRae, that the Zapruder camera was used by the FBI for re-creations in Dealey Plaza on May 23-24, 1964, and that the resulting film reels are at NARA II in College Park, MD. The films presumably contain similar intersprocket images and artifacts as those in the assassination film. (The extremely poor quality You Tube version of one of the reels is not an accurate representation of its image quality.)
How could the alterationists not know that? The man the FBI assigned to investigate and analyze the assassination films, Lyndal Shaneyfelt, testified that he used the original Zapruder, Orville Nix and Marie Muchmore cameras. There are news films and photographs showing those cameras sitting atop the Zapruder pedestal the day of the test!
Nor, apparently, do the alterationists know about other test reels shot with the Zapruder camera within days and years of the assassination. As noted in The Sixth Floor Museum’s Zapruder chronology, the FBI first borrowed Zapruder’s camera on December 4, 1963, for testing. “On December 20, the bureau concluded, ‘This camera when operated at normal ‘run’ speed operates at 18.3 frames per second.’ This ‘clock’ was later used to determine the timing of specific events as seen in the film.”
The timing test, which was duplicated by Bell & Howell in December 1966, involved loading the camera and filming a clock with an accurate second hand, then counting the number of frames that were exposed over specific times. Barring any peculiarity with the lighting on the clocks, all such test reels will certainly reveal the same intersprocket images and artifacts as Mr. Zapruder’s famous film.
What all this means is that when Zapruder’s camera was still in the same condition as the day of the assassination, and when Kodachrome II film and processing were easily available, government and private company investigations of the operating characteristics yielded multiple test reels that can be studied and measured.
There was no need in 1996 for the ARRB to borrow Zapruder’s camera for use in Dallas, nor was there a need in 2000 for Rollie Zavada to use it for his follow-up study of the original film. There was no need because test films already existed and they are available for examination in one form or another.
And yet, the alterationists remain completely ignorant of their existence. Amazing!
Gary Mack
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Subject: Re: Yet ANOTHER camera original Zapruder film
Date: 1/8/2010 10:19:39 PM Eastern Standard Time
From: David Von Pein
To: Gary Mack
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Gary,
Thanks--yet again--for another detailed e-mail message. Your knowledge regarding various aspects of the JFK assassination continues to astound me.
But, like you said, it's rather remarkable that the "alterationists" who think the Zapruder Film is a fake and a fraud wouldn't have taken the time to find out about all of the various test films that were shot with Abraham Zapruder's Bell & Howell camera.
And equally as remarkable is something that occurred just this week (on January 3, 2010) when conspiracy theorist extraordinaire David Lifton posted this message at John Simkin's Education Forum, with Lifton saying he was not able to find any reference at all to the test films shot with Zapruder's camera when he (Lifton) looked up Lyndal Shaneyfelt's Warren Commission testimony. And Lifton was SPECIFICALLY SEARCHING for references to Zapruder's camera when he was going through Shaneyfelt's testimony, too!
It wasn't until I posted this follow-up message on Duncan MacRae's forum regarding Zapruder's camera positively being used by Shaneyfelt for test films, which is a message that Duncan was nice enough to paste into this thread at the Education Forum, that Lifton finally was able to confirm for himself that Zapruder's camera was, in fact, utilized for test films in Dealey Plaza in May 1964.
And it took me less than 30 seconds of searching time to find that reference to the Zapruder test films in Shaneyfelt's testimony (at 5 H 162), too. (Perhaps Mr. Lifton has never heard of "Internet word search tools" before.) ~shrug~
Anyway, Gary, thanks again for the e-mail. I always appreciate and benefit from the information you pass along.
Regards,
David Von Pein
January 8, 2010
