Oct
17
This article was orginally posted on Oct. 17 2015. It has been in part re-written, re-edited and updated in Sept. 2024.
In March 2015, Gary Mack sent a few members of the Education Forum a PM which contained some info on the Darnell & Wiegman films, I quote from the PM Darren Hastings received (third post from the top), and I quote from his post: NBC owns the original Wiegman film but when producers of JFK: Death in Dealey Plaza asked them for it 12 years ago (at my request), NBC could only locate a 1960s-era video tape of it. We wound up using, I think, a 1963/1964 theatrical newsreel version held by UCLA.
NBC took the original Wiegman and Darnell films from the Dallas NBC affiliate to New York following the assassination weekend. Whether the network still has the original Darnell film is unknown, but as a former employee I know the affiliate does not have it or a copy. Nor does Jimmy Darnell.
Fortunately, a first-generation 16mm copy print was made in Dallas over that weekend and it is in the Museum’s collection; however, the Museum cannot do anything with it until copyright issues are resolved. It’ll happen, and sooner rather than later.
Then in Sep 2015 I happen to see this NBC5 news segment from roughly two years prior, I speculate that it was because of the 50th anniversary. In this video Gary Mack, at that time the curator of the Sixth Floor Museum, visited the archives of NBC5 in East Fort Worth. Mack had a close relationship with the channel. He used to work for KXAS (as the network was named before it became NBC5), starting in 1981, according to the NYT, where part of his job was to manage and preserve the station’s film archives and its coverage of the assassination and its aftermath.
The video shows Mack of the 6th Floor Museum going into a room in a basement of NBC 5, where various boxes are standing on shelves which contain WBAP (later to become KXAS) film spools of the JFK Assassination and above all its aftermath, looking at this makes me think about all the excuses TV corporations and disinfo agents spread about the films being hard to find or ‘locked away’ when the video clearly shows that the films are just placed in a box without any serious form of preservation and identification present.
My and a handful of others’ quest has always been to find the best possible versions of the Dave Wiegman and Jimmy Darnell films. It has been challenging to say the least.
Then UNT Libraries posts a press release, which now has been removed from their website, and replaced with this page where they state that they will house the complete news archive from NBC5/KXAS (formely WBAP) from 1950 – 2012 and that the UNT Library will digitise all this material.
Following this I contacted the UNT Library on Sept 7 2015 and conversed with Morgan Gieringer, I asked her about the films and if there was an inventory list of them.
I quote from her reply: KXAS made a prior agreement with the 6th Floor Museum in Dallas to donate all JFK related news footage to the museum. You will need to contact them with this inquiry.
After getting this message the first thing I did was to contact the 6th Floor Museum through Twitter and asked them if they had these films. To which I got the following reply.
I contacted MG again and asked: another email from me, just when I thought and you probably as well the matter was closed, but the funny thing is that when I asked the 6th floor museum whether they had the KXAS film collection and they denied they had any of it.
So now I have a dilemma as I have no idea now who to approach.
Do you have any documentation or links that show that the material did go to the 6th floor museum?
Do you have any type of inventory list?
To which she replied on Sep 14: Interesting…. Could you possibly give me the name of the person you spoke with at the 6th floor museum? I am working on obtaining an inventory from KXAS of the film which was transferred to the museum.
Since it was a response through Twitter it was not possible to ascertain who exactly wrote that message to me. I relayed this to her and also asked her about the inventory list.
She replied to me again that same day: I do not know how long it will take to get the inventory from KXAS. In the meantime I suggest that you email the collections curators at the museum directly. The person responding to their twitter messages may just be uninformed, or the collection may be uncatalogued, but they absolutely do have the KXAS footage.
On Oct 1st 2015 I emailed Megan Bryant and asked her about this discrepancy.
She replied on Oct 9: Our social media response that we do not have the WBAP (now KXAS) / NBC5 films in our collection here at The Sixth Floor Museum was accurate. By now you have probably heard directly from the station, as I let them know about your inquiry. That material is still maintained by the station and is managed by NBC Universal Archives. It is searchable online here.
It is regrettable that you were misdirected by the UNT Library, but we have since made sure they are aware that the material in question is not in our collection.
I contacted NBC 5 as well and Sharla Alford assistant to the News Director/Custodian of Records got back to me promptly telling me that the University Of North Texas or the 6th Floor Museum has got all the JFK Assassination related film material from KXAS.
I replied and asked her if she could provide an inventory of the films, to which I got a reply from Brain Hocker, who is the VP of programming, research and digital media at NBC5.
He forwarded me to their online archive instead containing all the video screeners that were beamed across the nation that weekend and just after. Video, exactly the low resolution is not worth the bother, as the HD documentaries that have shown snippets of these films are in a larger resolution than what was offered to me. Furthermore the Darnell film was nowhere to be seen and the Weigman film was shown 3 times, and only once did it show the front of the TSBD.
I replied asking them (Brian Hocker at NBC5 and Megan Bryant at the 6th Floor Museum) several questions:
1/The film reels are clearly shown in the NBC5 news item, as shown above, just dormant in some boxes on a shelve in the basement at NBC5 archives, so where are they now?
2/Why are they not being digitised at ENT since everything else from that period of KXAS is?
3/Where are the original Darnell and Weigman films?
4/Can we get some high resolution still scans of the 1st gen. Darnell film that is at the 6th Floor Museum?
Then in August 2024 the Sixth Floor Museum issues a press release about the Darnell film. Furthermore the museum shares the film for public viewing.
Dennis Morrisette posts at the education forum (5 posts from the bottom) that Stephen Fagin has replied to his email: Thanks for your e-mail. We know there has been some interest in the Museum’s recent YouTube upload, and we are so pleased to be able to finally share the Darnell film online considering the researcher interest over the years. To clarify, the Museum does not have the camera original Darnell film. To our knowledge, if that film still exists, it is with NBC in New York. What we have is a print of the film that originally came to the Museum as part of the G. William Jones Collection back in 2006. Since the Museum did not have the rights from the local NBC affiliate (NBC 5 / KXAS-TV) to use the WBAP-TV footage in the Jones Collection, we were not able to do anything with the films without KXAS’s permission for specific projects. This changed only recently when NBC 5 / KXAS-TV generously donated their assassination-related footage to the Museum—and included rights to the WBAP-TV footage already in the Museum’s Jones Collection, which includes our print of the Darnell film. The late Gary Mack speculated that our copy of the Darnell film was a first-generation print of the film and shared this belief with researchers many years ago. I was twice asked about this same print of the Darnell film at JFK Lancer conferences, and I noted at that time that we could not be certain that it was a first-generation print. That is still the case. So, again, this is the same print that has been in the Museum’s possession since 2006. We simply now have the rights to share it publicly. What we put online is an excerpt from the digitization of the film, so the quality is as it appears. It is the same transfer that researchers were previously able to view by appointment in the Museum’s Reading Room.
Ok so what can we ‘discover’ in that film that wasn’t in view before in earlier versions?
I managed to see Otis Wiliams still being on the steps. Something I could not see In previous Darnell versions, it was nothing more than a highlighted blurry blob. Now you can see Williams, wearing his white shirt and tie has at the time Darnell filmed the Marrion Baker run remained in the same position as he has been in the Altgens 6 photo
and the Dave Wiegman film.
Oct
03
Stan Dane’s book is out and I am jealous, the man is a machine!!!!
Stan, it’s a fabulous piece of work and a welcome addition to JFK Assassination research. Anyone whois interested in JFK assassination research should get this, I mean $ 9.00, it’s a steal.
Get it!!!!
Buy the Kindle edition HERE
Print editions to follow.
Sep
30
Rob Clark did a podcast about a year ago on Prayer Man, click to listen.
Listening to it, and considering it is a year old it is missing a few bits of research. I will try and straighten a few things out if you intend to listen to it.
Prayer Man was captured by Dave Weigman and Jimmy Darnell, and not by Malcolm Couch, his swerve to the right with his camera did not go as far as the TSBD steps, but the Couch film is an asset nevertheless as it shows William Hoyt Shelley and Billy Nolan Lovelady walking away towards the parking lot behind the knoll. This is an important fact to know as it helps reduce the possible candidates of who Prayer Man actually is.
Sean Murphy deserves the large part of the credit of creating Prayer Man, but the exact moment of discovery at this time, is hard to ascertain, that is because the JFK Lancer forum where this possibly happened has gone offline, the Education Forum hopes to reinstate it later, Summer 2016, so they say. It was supposed to be sorted in November this year but they have added at least 6 months on top of it.
The real discoverer of Prayer Man is Richard E Sprague (more about him when my essay is out) who mentioned the man hidden in the shadows, when he saw Dave Weigman’s film. He mentioned it in the late 60’s already. His correspondence with Harold Weisberg and Richard Benarbei shows this.
Rob Clark makes good mention of the basic issues such as the first day affidavits of Baker, Lovelady and Shelly which do not correspond with the Warren Commission testimony.
He then talks about Bill Shelley, and the identification of him and the pictures that are around. This is where he is wrong. His identity has been solved with the many pictures and the statements that are available of him. Shelly also said he escorted and was at the police station giving statements with Danny Garcia Arce and Bonnie Ray Williams.
Then he makes the statement that he cannot see Billy Lovelady in Dave Weigman’s film, well here he is Rob :) And that is and Prayer Man and Billy Nolan Lovelady together.
Regarding Will Fritz’s interrogation notes it is not that simple, one needs to add James Bookhout’s and Harry D Holmes reports and testimony into account as well, and a different picture starts to emerge (again this site will show the hows etc in due course).
Jack Dougherty is brought up as well, and rightly so, to this day a very shady character with not much info available about him. His statements were so iffy, and Roy Truly told everyone not to pay too much attention to him as he was mildly retarded, yeah sure Roy. The Warren Commission wanted to grill Jack Dougherty big time as they did not believe what he was saying, well if the W.C. wants to seriously question someone then something is really amiss……
Rob Clark brings up a valid point that all TSBD employees should have been photographed when their testimony was taken, it would have helped of course.
Then Rob cannot believe that Oswald was standing there all that time while the shooting was going on and after and not being seen or recognised or mentioned in any of the testimony. He makes a mention of Lee Harvey Oswald getting change on the 2nd floor as per Robert Groden’s story, which has been disproved the minute it came out in his book. Jim Marrs tried to flog this one as well, but there is no evidence whatsoever that this actually happened. Nor did Oswald ever make a mention of it.
Can Buell Wesley Frazier be believed asks Rob, well no……
Rob is right to doubt the bus ride, the cab ride and the timings involved since they are not possible.
Could it be a stranger he asks, which has been disproved. Nor does it hold 100 employees, 79 at the most. The Warren Commission got 73 statements in the end.
The identification of the African American guy en-profile is not Otis Williams but Carl Edward Jones. Otis Williams and his pot belly stands in the center above Maddie Reese in Altgens 6.
Overall not a bad attempt at discussing this but there is a lot missing, and I mean a lot, and as mentioned I will paste it all here on this site hopefully very soon.
Sep
30
Harold Weisberg. Pic courtesy of The Weisberg Archive.
Of all the researchers in the JFK Assassination case I probably regard Harold Weisberg the highest, granted he made some mistakes (doorman being LHO and leaking the first draft of the JFK movie script to a buddy of his at the Washington Post) but for those ‘mistakes’ he made up with his tenacious efforts of digging things up by either going to the National Archives in Wa., or by issuing FOIA or even go to court, together with Jim Lesar.
He found Carolyn Arnold’s (now known as Carolyn A. Johnston) statements. It was also his doing that Earl Golz found and interviewed her in 1978. Carolyn Arnold provided Lee Harvey Oswald an alibi.
Here is a fabulous interview on Barry Earnest’s site The Girl On The Stairs, this interview from 1999 still stands the test of time. His view is realistic and above all he doesn’t get carried away like the many other researchers.
Harold Weisberg’s archive is a treasure trove, not only for the documents he dug up but also all his correspondence, be it to government agencies but also fellow researchers. And then there are the letters where he lets rip on some of these fellow researchers, boy oh boy….
If you want to start digging then Weisberg’s archive is a great place to start, only thing is it may you a little while……don’t say I did not warn you.
His archive has helped me heaps with trying to piece all this together, and if you have a serious interest in this case I suggest you get the Whitewash series for starters. Terrific reads.
Sep
21
Bernie Laverick made a video with Greg Parker’s words combined with his guitar playing and the many pix of Lee Harvey Oswald.
Well done Bernie!
Sep
19
The venue is the Mercure, Spring St, Melbourne.
Dates Sat 21 and Sun 22
Time 8:30 am to 4:30 both days.
Speakers include: Gokay Hasan Yusuf, Gayle Nix Jackson, Vince Palamara, Colin Crow and many others.
More details about the ROKC conference by clicking this link.
Sep
14
This is the moment of Lee Harvey Oswald being charged with shooting President JFK at the press conference, which was in reality nothing but a farce.
Check out the facial expressions he shows, which to me shows at first utter disbelief followed up by “I am being thrown under a bus here”.
I will place galleries in this post from various angles, conclude for yourself.
Sep
05
I amended the graphics as I wanted to know how many of the TSBD employees stated whether they had seen any strangers inside or on the front steps of the TSBD. That strengthens Prayer Man is a TSBD employee only more.
The graphics speak for themselves, the stranger on the steps scenario is dead in the water.
Update Sept 6th. I have added Roy Truly now as well stating he saw no strangers.
Update Sept 10th, also Avery Davis saw no strangers either which completes the entire list of people present on the front steps.
