• CONCERNING THE FAMOUS BAC

    From Billy Lawter@RICKSBBS to All on Wednesday, October 28, 2026 07:39:00
    TRANSCRIPT OF AN INTERVIEW WITH MR. BRIAN MEE

    CONCERNING THE FAMOUS BACKYARD RIFLE PHOTOGRAPHS

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    Introduction
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    On Tuesday, 16 August, 1994, I met with Mr. Brian Mee in my home
    for the better part of three hours to discuss the famous backyard
    rifle photos, which seem to show Oswald wearing a pistol belt
    and holding a rifle in one hand and some radical newspapers
    in the other hand. There are three backyard photographs
    currently in evidence. They are labeled CE 133-A, B, and C.
    Each shows the Oswald figure in a different pose. Although the
    Dallas police said they found two negatives, one for A and one
    for B, only the B negative is known to exist. An important
    backyard snapshot was discovered in the late 1970s when the House
    Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) was conducting its
    investigation. This photo, known as 133-A, DeMohrenschildt, is
    much clearer than 133-A and was printed full negative.

    Prior to our interview, I supplied Mr. Mee with a 22-page extract
    from the file PHOTOS.ZIP, which at the time was available on
    CompuServe's JFK Assassination Forum. This file contains the
    HSCA testimony of two members of the Committee's photographic
    panel, Calvin S. McCamy and Cecil W. Kirk, who testified in
    defense of the backyard pictures. I also supplied Mr. Mee with
    sections on the photos from two books that dispute their
    authenticity.

    Our meeting ran about 2 hours and 55 minutes, give or take a
    few minutes. I recorded all but about 15 minutes of it on
    audio cassettes. I had obtained two 60-minute tapes and one 30-
    minute tape for the interview, never thinking that it would go
    beyond two and a half hours. Three or four of those non-recorded
    minutes resulted from the "Pause" button on the recorder not
    being released after the audio tape had been paused while we
    viewed a video segment. (At other times, however, the tape was
    left running while we watched a video segment.) The remaining
    unrecorded minutes occurred toward the end of our meeting, when I
    ran out of cassette tape. When this happened, I took careful
    notes.

    I should make it clear at the outset that we did not examine
    copies directly from the National Archives. Of course, we did
    not study the original photos and the 133-B negative either.
    Just about the first thing Mr. Mee asked me when he came through
    the door was if I had access to the originals, and if I had my
    own copies from the National Archives. Mr. Mee stated that in
    some cases he would be unable to provide a firm judgment due to
    the nature of the copies we had available to examine.

    I will say, though, that in his video White uses copies of good-
    quality reproductions of the backyard photos that he obtained
    from the National Archives. I used the freeze-frame function on
    my VCR and also made several long video segments of the photos
    from Jack White's video. We viewed these on my 19-inch color TV,
    which has a very high-quality picture. Additionally, I made
    available to Mr. Mee an enlarged copy of 133-A from a fairly good
    reproduction in Matthew Smith's book JFK: THE SECOND PLOT. Our
    other source for copies of the backyard photographs was Robert
    Groden's book THE KILLING OF A PRESIDENT. Mr. Mee felt that in
    several cases the copies I was able to show him enabled him to
    reach firm conclusions. On the other hand, as mentioned above,
    he also made it clear that he could not provide a firm opinion on
    certain issues due to the nature of these copies and to his not
    being able to view the original materials.

    For the sake of convenience and organization, I placed subject
    headings in the 22-page extract that I provided to Mr. Mee.
    All testimony from PHOTOS.ZIP pertaining to these subjects
    was included. The headings were as follows: "On Using Frame Edge
    Markings and Scratches for Authentication"; "Frame Edge Markings
    on 133-A (DeM) and the 133-B Negative"; "Imperial Reflex
    Scratches on the Backyard Photos"; "Photogrammetry and the
    Backyard Photos"; "Lines in the Chin Area?"; "The Shape of the
    Chin"; "Varying Exposure Analysis and Faked Shadows"; "Digital
    Image Processing"; "Nose Shadow vs. Body and Rifle Shadows";
    "Duplicating the Nose Shadow?"; "Change of Expression?";
    "Backyard Measurements and Stereo Pairs"; "Answering Jack White";
    "General Comments"; "McCamy on the Possibility of Fakery."

    Mr. Mee stated that the opinions he expressed were his own, and
    that he was not speaking on behalf of any government agency.

    The reader will notice that during the interview I read several
    lengthy sections from Kirk and McCamy's testimony. I explained
    to Mr. Mee before we went on tape that I would be reading
    extensively from the extract in order to provide those who
    would read this transcript with the necessary context and
    background.

    There is one issue about which I would like to further consult
    with Mr. Mee, and that is his theory of how the backyard photos
    could have been faked. In explaining his theory, he drew
    diagrams and referred to them throughout his explanation. This
    was the only point in our interview when I wished I had video
    taped it as well as audio taped it. The reader might find it
    somewhat hard to follow Mr. Mee's explanation without being able
    to see the diagrams to which he was referring. I should say,
    however, that I think one can still get the general idea of what
    Mr. Mee was saying on this subject.

    Following my interview with Mr. Mee, I spoke with other
    professional photographers and photo lab technicians, as well as
    with serious, experienced amateur photographers. They did not
    know that the questions they were answering were related to the
    Kennedy assassination. I posed my questions in relation to a
    hypothetical photo of a doll in someone's yard. When it came to
    the issue of water spots and the nearly straight line that
    runs across Oswald's chin, I simply asked what the chances
    were that the edge of a water spot would form a nearly straight
    line. Some of the people with whom I consulted included the
    following:

    * Mr. Konrad Mandl, a professional photographer and photo
    lab technician, and a certified member of the British Institute
    of Professional Photography.

    * Miss Davette Johnson, a professional photographer and photo
    lab technician, and a computer graphics technician.

    * Mr. Jerry Finzi, professional photographer

    * Mr. Mark Loundy, professional photographer.

    * Mr. Arthur Kramer, a professional photographer who has taught
    photography at the collegiate level. In addition, Mr. Kramer
    wrote a column for MODERN PHOTOGRAPHY magazine for 20 years
    called "The View from Kramer."

    * Mr. Steven Newbould, a photo lab technician at the Harrogate
    Photographic Laboratories, Harrogate, England.

    All of the professionals and serious amateurs with whom I spoke
    corroborated Mr. Mee's views on the issues about which I asked
    them.

    For example, Mr. Mee expressed considerable skepticism about the
    photographic panel's claim that the irregular line across the
    chin was actually the edge of a water spot. This line, as it
    appears in Jack White's video, is nearly straight, and Mr. Mee
    said this was one of the reasons that he doubted the panel's
    assertion. Miss Johnson told me that in all her years in
    photography she had never seen the edge of a water spot form a
    nearly straight line. Mr. Mandl said it would be unusual for the
    edge of a water spot to form a nearly straight line. Similarly,
    Mr. Kramer stated that such an occurrence would be "unlikely."

    Mr. Mee disputed the photographic panel's claim that a vanishing
    point analysis could explain the conflicting shadows in the
    backyard photos. I did not discuss this subject with Miss
    Johnson or Mr. Mandl, but I did question my other photographic
    sources on the issue, and their responses were quite revealing.
    I asked them if a vanishing point analysis could explain why the
    facial and body shadows on my hypothetical doll did not fall in
    the same direction. I asked them to assume that the facial
    shadows fell straight down, but that the body shadows fell off in
    approximately a ten o'clock position (which is what we see in the
    backyard snapshots). Every single one of them insisted that the
    described shadow variations were not possible without two
    different light sources, and none of them expressed the view
    that the variant shadows could be explained by a vanishing point
    analysis.

    Mr. Mee said that the film grain patterns in the backyard photos
    could have been matched if the forger knew what he was doing and
    took care to match the film speed. Mr. Mandl agreed that a
    skillful forger could match film grain patterns in a composite
    picture. Mr. Newbould said he believed that grain patterns could
    be matched in a fake photo, but he added that he wanted more
    information before commenting further on my question. Mr. Mandl
    and Mr. Newbould were the only two persons that I asked to
    comment on this topic.

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    Mr. Mee's Qualifications
    ------------------------

    Mr. Mee is a professional photographer and photo lab technician.
    He has worked in photography for 18 years. He has worked as
    photographer and photo lab technician for the U.S. Government for
    the last ten years. Among other things, Mr. Mee has studied and
    had on-the-job training in negative retouching, print
    development, shadows, and negative analysis.

    In addition, he has had technical courses in color print
    development and color negative development at the Winona School
    of Photography, which is affiliated with the Professional
    Photographers of America School. He has also had courses in
    automatic printing and in using computer video analyzers at the
    KODAK School of Photography in Rochester, New York.

    Mr. Mee asked me to make it clear that the views he expressed
    were his own, and that he was not speaking on behalf of any
    government agency.

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    Transcript of Interview
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    [Mr. Mee and MTG watch a segment on the DeMohrenschildt photo
    from Jack White's video FAKE: THE FORGED PHOTO THAT FRAMED LEE
    HARVEY OSWALD. The segment is about the DeMohrenschildt photo
    and how its superior detail and clarity indicate that it was
    taken with a different, better camera.]

    MTG. All right, the thing about the DeMohrenschildt photo not
    being a copy of 133-A because it has much better detail and a
    larger background. Does that make sense?

    MR. MEE. It wouldn't be a copy of 133-A if it had more detail
    because, if anything, the reverse would be true, since you always
    lose, you never gain, when you copy something. You lose detail,
    definition, and contrast is built up. You start to lose your
    gray tones, which hold most of your detail, and it starts to go
    into shadow or [tape unclear]. So, it wouldn't be a copy.
    The DeMohrenschildt photo would not be a copy of 133-A.

    MTG. Could it have been printed off of the negative of 133-A,
    even though it has better contrast and everything? I mean, Jack
    White seems to think that because the DeMohrenschildt photo
    has such better quality, that it must have been made with a
    better camera. Is it logical to assume that it was taken with
    a better camera?

    MR. MEE. There are two possibilities that come to mind. That is
    one of them--that it was done with a better camera. The other
    one is that it was an earlier copy of the negative and that 133-A
    is a second- or third-generation copy. To say that the
    DeMohrenschildt photo was done with a better quality camera is
    possible, and, it is likely, in this situation, the more probable
    of the two choices.

    MTG. Let me just see how we're sounding so far.

    [Audio tape is stopped, rewound some, and then played back to
    check sound quality. Mr. Mee and MTG then watch Jack White video
    segment on how the frame edge markings and scratches could have
    been produced.]

    MTG. Your comments on that?

    MR. MEE. One comment is on the theory that you an oval cutout
    area was filled in with a figure. Cutting an oval out and then
    inserting a body and then a head--I think that would be just too
    difficult to accomplish without leaving tell-tale signs. You're
    allowing too many areas where your tampering can be detected.
    You're multiplying your suspected area by a whole bunch, as
    opposed to just putting the head on and [tape unclear]. That
    would be a little bit easier to do. That could be done. But
    when you have to retouch such a large area, I think that would be
    picked up. It would leave too many tell-tale signs. I wouldn't
    really agree with that.

    MTG. So, then, the first way that White suggested, of making an
    exposure with just the edge markings on it, and then combining
    this with the composite photo. . . .

    MR. MEE. Yes, that could be done. It's feasible to do something
    like that. The process of the sandwiching, though, might be a
    little difficult to hide. This is not to say that it couldn't
    be done, but then you'd be dealing with another negative and
    probably with different characteristics.

    But, the idea that a negative was shot that just had the edge
    markings on it, and only the edge markings--something like that
    would be difficult to achieve.

    If you took the film and wound it across the IR camera without
    making an exposure, and then developed that negative, you'd have
    a clear type of, well, what we call an overlay, which you could
    combine with a picture, instead of actually shooting any type of
    picture through the IR camera. You see, otherwise, as soon as
    you--even with the cap on--as soon as you open that up, you're
    still going to get some type of traces of a different negative.

    Now you could sandwich them together, and, again, we're talking
    about making a print, and then working with that print and then
    copying it. So that's a possibility. Something along those
    lines. I wouldn't go so far as to say that's how they did it,
    but it could have been done in this fashion.

    MTG. So they, possibly, took some film, dragged it across the
    film plane aperture, but did not snap a picture? Then, they
    took the film out and that would have given them an overlay?

    MR. MEE. Yes, that would give you an acetate overlay, a clear
    film. Once you develop it, since it hasn't been struck by
    light, it will come out clear. So then, you could place your
    composite onto the acetate overlay and make a print and then copy
    the print with a different camera. It would be possible to do
    that.

    MTG. So what would. . . .

    MR. MEE. But there's one thing: Keep in mind that if you
    copied the print with the IR, you would have multiple streaks and
    edge marks. And you would probably have a shadowing type of
    effect, or a ghosting type of effect, where you'd get one and
    then another one close by. Even if they had tried to drag the
    film through the camera again exactly as they had done before, I
    think you would still be able to pick up slight variations in the
    marks with a microscope.

    MTG. Okay.

    [Mr. Mee and MTG view Jack White video segment on the fact
    that the photographic panel omitted the nose, earlobe, and chin
    measurements in the backyard photos from its Penrose study.]

    MTG. Comments?

    MR. MEE. Just pretty much what I said last time. You don't do
    that kind of a study and then leave out relevant measurements.
    I'm surprised that the chin measurement wasn't considered. The
    guys on that panel knew that the chin in these pictures was a
    disputed area, according to the other articles that you gave me.

    MTG. Oh, yes. They knew. The chin had been disputed for a long
    time before that.

    MR. MEE. Uh-huh. Well, that just makes it harder to understand
    how they could have left it out when they did their calculations.

    MTG. Could they have done this because the chin, and the other
    things, threw off the total measurements too much?

    MR. MEE. Let me put it this way: I don't know why they would
    have left out ANY measurements, especially the chin, of all
    things.

    [Mr. Mee and MTG then view Jack White video segment on the
    idea that the DeMohrenschildt photo was somehow produced without
    the IR camera negative, and that the backyard photos could have
    been made prior to being made with the IR camera.]

    MTG. Any comments on that?

    MR. MEE. It's quite possible.

    MTG. So the DeMohrenschildt picture indicates that the backyard
    photos could have been made before they were made with the IR
    camera and that a better camera was used? I mean. . . .

    MR. MEE. I think I know what you're getting at. When you
    start talking about high-quality cameras, you're talking about
    the lens not as much as the camera, and you would use a high-
    quality lens to copy things, because you want to try to reduce
    the aberrations and the contrasts, and all the things that go
    with an inferior-quality lens when you're copying. You're
    already losing something. You don't want to lose anything else.
    So you use the best type of lens that you can get. So, that's
    consistent with what would be normal practice if you had a
    picture that was being worked on. You would copy that picture
    with a more expensive camera, to preserve as much of the quality
    as possible.

    And, with the edge markings, you're talking about more of an
    original type of negative, or rather an original type of a print
    from a full negative. That's not to say that would be
    the original print, or the original negative. You could take
    a print and copy it, and you would still get the edge markings,
    but it would be printed full negative, as in the case of the
    DeMohrenschildt photo. That would be the only difference,
    whereas with the other pictures you might not be seeing the
    full print.

    During that time [the 1960s], they would do a certain amount of
    cropping on the edges. This is done quite often with automatic
    printers. You'll look at the picture and say, "Wait a second.
    Why is this person's hand cut off, when I can see it on the
    negative?" So that's pretty customary.

    MTG. How much of the picture on the negative would one usually
    expect to be cropped? I mean, like, if you were going to give a
    percentage, would you say it would be cropped 20 percent? Ten
    percent?

    MR. MEE. Well, you can't really say, because it depends on the
    format. It depends on a lot of factors. It depends on the
    machine you're using. It depends on the enlarger you're using,
    and the operator who's using it. It gets back to format. For
    example, say you've got a 35mm negative. To get a 35mm print,
    full negative--for instance in a 7 X 10. . . . [pauses] But most
    people don't have 7 X 10 frames; they have 8 X 10 frames. So,
    what has to happen is that it has to be blown up so that the 7
    goes to an 8, but then you have to cut off the edges. In that
    situation, you would cut off about 20 percent of the picture. So
    that's one example of how cropping can come into play. There are
    a lot of variables. It's hard to say.

    MTG. Okay. So now. . . .

    MR. MEE. I would say that normally, when you're copying a
    picture, you'll want to crop in enough to where you can't see the
    edging. Your attempt is to try to get in as much of the original
    picture as possible, if you're trying to get the fullest picture
    possible without the edging.

    To get in as much as possible, you'd cut it really close. You'd
    want to crop it enough so that you couldn't see whatever was on
    the edges. You wouldn't want to be able to see the edging of the
    picture which has a texture and has fibers in it.

    MTG. Before we move on to other areas, am I right in saying
    that it is your position that the presence of the frame edge
    markings and the scratches alone is not absolute proof of the
    backyard photos' authenticity?

    MR. MEE. Right. I'm not convinced that those markings prove
    that the photos weren't doctored.

    MTG. Okay. The next area, then.

    [Mr. Mee and MTG view Jack White video segment on Oswald's
    expression in the backyard photos. White's view is that the
    person in the picture could not have gone from the smile
    to the frown without noticeably moving surrounding facial
    muscles.]

    MTG. Any comments on that?

    MR. MEE. Well, I don't think that's a significant piece of
    evidence. Every person is different. The degree that you're
    smiling or frowning can be ever so subtle. The facial muscles
    don't have to change that much. They [the other muscles]
    wouldn't necessarily be noticed in these photographs.

    Granted, if he had a big grin, it would change a lot of different
    things. It would change smile lines, the way the light hits him,
    what kinds of shadows would be created. Or, if he had a big
    frown. The difference in expression in those two photographs
    appears to be ever so slight, but it's hard to tell without
    looking at enlargements of the originals. It's possible that the
    frown or the smile was retouched. Both could have been
    retouched.

    MTG. The HSCA photographic panel said that the different
    expressions--the smile and the frown--showed that this was not
    the same head pasted onto separate photographs.

    MR. MEE. Right. Well, it's possible that the mouth was
    retouched. The heads in the photos could be the same head. But,
    I don't think that that argument alone is a strong argument for
    saying that the same head appears in all the photos. There are
    other things that are more compelling as evidence that the same
    head was used. The mouth could have been retouched.

    Or, there could have been more than one photograph taken of his
    [Oswald's] head, and then those pictures could have been used in
    the photos. You could use two heads just as easily as you could
    use one. But that wouldn't change the problems with the lighting characteristics, the shadows. If two photos of the head were
    used, they were photographed in one setting, and with the head in
    the same position in each picture.

    MTG. Right. Oh, by the way, it's interesting that Kirk and
    McCamy criticized Jack White's use of overlays, but in order to
    detect the smile and the frown they themselves used overlays.

    MR. MEE. Yeah. [Mr. Mee smiles noticeably as he says this.]

    MTG. Okay, let's see. Where's my copy of the extract? Oh, yes.
    I'd like to ask you about the two other things that were
    mentioned as evidence that the same head was not used, namely the
    differences in the eyes and the puffing of the lower lip in the
    frown. The argument is that this is more evidence that the
    heads aren't all the same.

    MR. MEE. Well, you could make that argument. I'm not ruling out
    the possibility that two heads were used. The differences in the
    eyes would indicate that more than one photo of the head was
    used. But, from looking at these photographs here, it's hard for
    me to tell. [Mr. Mee points to the mouth and the eyes, and then
    pauses to examine the photos.]

    Could we look at that segment again? What I want to see is that
    part that shows the head enlarged.

    MTG. Sure.

    [The portion of the video segment showing the head enlargements
    is replayed twice. Mr. Mee then looks at the book copies of the
    photos again.]

    MR. MEE. I can see a slight difference in the eyes. But, you
    can't say that these things couldn't have been retouched either.
    I really wish. . . .

    MTG. Including the. . . . Oh, I'm sorry.

    MR. MEE. No, go ahead.

    MTG. Including the eyes? The eyes could have been retouched?

    MR. MEE. The eyes could have been retouched. But, on the other
    hand, when you're looking at a negative, and you're trying to
    determine which photo goes with which negative, one of the things
    you look for is the subtlety of the smile, because it can change,
    ever so slightly. So, it's possible that more than one
    photograph of Oswald's head was used.

    It's hard to tell from the pictures I'm looking at here. If I
    had the originals, I could make a better determination. After
    looking at the enlargements on the video, and at all these
    copies [of the photos] again, my guess would be that two pictures
    of the head were used, and that the head was photographed at
    around noon. But, when the one head was put on at a tilt, the
    nose and eye shadows were overlooked. That [the idea that two
    head pictures were used] would be the more logical assumption.
    But, again, this isn't to say that the mouth and eyes couldn't
    have been retouched enough to create these differences. I'd
    really have to look at the originals.

    MTG. Okay. McCamy also brought up the fact that the lower
    lip. . . .

    MTG. Okay. We got cut off there. I was going to ask you about
    the puffing out of the lower lip.

    MR. MEE. Yes. That really doesn't say a whole lot in terms of
    whether or not there's been retouching or if more than one photo
    of the head was used.

    MTG. Okay. I've got another segment I'd like to show you.

    [Mr. Mee and MTG view Jack White video segment on the stance
    of the figure in the backyard photos.]

    MTG. Okay. The problem with the center of weight and also with
    the stance when the figure is reversed--any comments?

    MR. MEE. Well, I'm not sure exactly what Mr. White's trying to
    say by pointing this out. Granted, the figure is standing there
    in an awkward position, regardless of the head. The head here
    doesn't seem to have any bearing on how this person is standing.
    Maybe that's what he's trying to point out.

    But the nature of photography is that you're catching the subject
    in an instant. And to say that people stand or walk around all
    the time in complete balance is not feasible. We see people off
    balance in photographs all the time. He [the figure in the
    backyard photos] could have been shifting his weight, or starting
    to walk, or taking a step backwards. There are a lot of
    different things that he could have done to make his stance look
    odd. It does look odd, mind you. Certainly it does look odd.
    But I don't know that you can say that the stance is not natural.

    MTG. What about the claim that the figure's center of gravity
    lies outside his weight-bearing foot? If this is actually the
    case, what would that mean?

    MR. MEE. Well, to me it is a moot point. People don't always
    stand perfectly balanced. You see this all the time. I don't
    know exactly what the suggestion is here. If it's that the body
    was retouched in some way, I'd have a problem with that. I don't
    know why, if someone went to such lengths to fake these
    photographs--I don't know why they would need to retouch the legs
    or the upper body.

    [Mr. Mee and MTG view Jack White video segment on the conflicting
    body shadows.]

    MR. MEE. Can we watch that segment again?

    [Video segment is shown several times.]

    MTG. Comments?

    MR. MEE. Well, something is definitely wrong with the body
    shadows. I don't see quite the difference that Mr. White does,
    but I do see a difference. I don't know that I would say that
    one body shadow is right at ten o'clock and that the other one is
    right at twelve o'clock.

    MTG. Well, I think he's phrasing the differences in terms
    of approximations. In other words, he's not saying that one's in
    a perfect ten o'clock position and that the other's right at a
    twelve o'clock position. Let's watch the segment again.

    MR. MEE. Okay.

    [Video segment is reviewed again.]

    MTG. You see what I mean?

    MR. MEE. Right. Okay. And, as I said, I can see that there's a
    difference in the body shadows. They seem to have been made
    at different times of the day.

    Now, if I you wanted to make every possible allowance for body
    movement or camera movement, or both, I could see how you could
    perhaps say that the time difference between these pictures was a
    matter of minutes, several minutes, as far as when the body
    shadows were made. I could see how you could reach this
    conclusion.

    MTG. Uh-huh.

    MR. MEE. Now, the shadows cast by the head and the neck in
    133-A--they look odd to me.

    MTG. How so?

    MR. MEE. Well, the shadow of the neck looks too narrow. And the
    head--I don't know if its shadow should angle off that much, when
    it doesn't do that in B or C. The shadow cast by the neck is
    thicker in B and C too. These could be real shadows, mind you,
    but they do look a little off to me.

    MTG. Uh-huh.

    MR. MEE. It's hard to say, though. It would really help if I
    could look at the originals. Again, they could be real shadows.
    I'm just saying that looking at them here, they do seem a little
    strange.

    [Mr. Mee and MTG view Jack White video segment on the fact that
    in 133-C the body shadow runs up onto the fence, whereas the
    body shadows in A and B don't.]

    MTG. Comments?

    MR. MEE. Well, to say that these photographs were taken within
    seconds of each other, I think, is impossible. There's just too
    much variance in the directions in the body shadows. They [the
    body shadows] have definitely changed positions.

    Now, about that C photograph--and, again, this is without looking
    at the original--but what could cause that [the shadow running up
    onto the fence] would be if the figure were a little farther
    back. You've got to consider any lean, too. The weight shift
    here [in 133-C], so that he's leaning back more, could cause
    the shadow to go up onto the fence. It wouldn't take that much
    of a shift or lean to make it go up onto the fence. I don't
    think that's an unreasonable amount. I mean, you can see this
    for yourself by standing in front of a bright light. You can see
    how much you can change the length of your shadow just by leaning
    a little bit.

    MTG. Okay. So the body shadow on the fence, that is, the head
    going up onto the fence, could be due to a slight shift or lean?

    MR. MEE. Right. And, by the way, I think the suggestion that
    two different people were used, wearing the same clothes, is
    really unlikely. I don't think they would have used two
    different bodies, especially ones that were different heights.

    MTG. Right. That makes sense.

    [Mr. Mee and MTG view Jack White video segment on the blurriness
    of the right-hand fingers in 133-A.]

    MTG. Okay. On the blurriness of the fingers on his right hand.

    MR. MEE. Well, yeah, that's the way it appears. But that could
    have been caused by a couple different things. He could have
    been moving that hand. Or, light might have been reflecting off
    the newspaper and into the shadow areas of the hand, which would
    take away some of the detail around the fingers. If his hand
    were slightly angled, just ever so slightly, and with the
    reflection from the newspaper, that would make the fingers look
    stubby too. Those are more likely possibilities. I don't know
    why a retouch artist would have tampered with anything in that
    area.

    MTG. Yeah, you'd think they would have had the guy just hold the
    newspapers, and so they wouldn't have to do any retouching there.

    MR. MEE. Right.

    MTG. Okay. Now, in this next segment. . . . Well, let's take
    a look at it.

    [Mr. Mee and MTG view Jack White video segment on White's finding
    that when he enlarged the figure in 133-A to match Oswald's
    height of 5 feet 9 inches, the length of the rifle was too long,
    and that when be brought the rifles to the same size, to match
    the alleged murder weapon's official size of 40.2 inches, the
    figure appeared to be six inches too short.]

    MTG. Okay. What are your thoughts on this?

    MR. MEE. The person's height could be different, and that would
    be another indication of fraud in these photos. I don't know
    why they would have used a stand-in who was so much shorter than
    Oswald, though. You'd think they would have gotten someone who
    was about Oswald's height.

    MTG. Along that line, one of the Oswald impersonators was
    said by two or three witnesses to be quite a bit shorter than
    Oswald.

    MR. MEE. Huh. That's interesting. Well, I'd have to examine
    Mr. White's methodology more closely before I reached any
    conclusions here, though. When you're doing these kinds of
    comparisons, you've got to figure in other factors, like
    whether or not there was any tilting of the camera, how the
    person was standing, the relationship to other objects in the
    picture, that sort of thing. But. . . .

    MTG. Does the figure look like it's leaning or tilted very much?

    MR. MEE. Well, I was just about to say that the figure doesn't
    look like he's leaning to the point that it would be that hard to
    determine the height. He appears to be standing pretty much
    straight up. Now, you don't know exactly how the camera was
    being held, but I wouldn't guess that it was held way off
    balance, to look at these pictures.

    [Phone rings. Tape recorder is placed on pause. After MTG
    hangs up the phone, the interview is resumed but the recorder is
    accidentally left on pause. After about a minute, MTG realizes
    that tape recorder is still on pause.]

    MTG. Okay. We had a little snafu there. Let me ask you
    this again. What is your opinion of Jack White's work overall?

    MR. MEE. Well, overall, I'd say it's pretty good. I don't agree
    with some of it. I think he's reading too much into certain
    things. But, in general, I think he's on the right track. I
    mean, from everything I've seen so far, from all the copies and
    everything that I've looked at so far, I would say he's made some
    valid arguments.

    MTG. Well, you know that British photographic expert mentioned
    in the video, Jeffrey Crowley, looked at White's work and was
    quite impressed with it.

    MR. MEE. Uh-huh. Yeah, I remember that. I mean, the guy [Jack
    White] does make some mistakes, but overall he makes a pretty
    good case.

    MTG. Okay. Fair enough.

    [Mr. Mee and MTG view the Jack White video segment on the
    conflict between the backyard figure's chin and Oswald's chin,
    and on the line that goes from one side of the neck, across the
    chin, to the other side of the neck.]

    MTG. Okay. I think I'll bracket the issue of the shape of the
    chin. I've got a lot of pictures of Oswald, going clear back
    into his junior high or high school days, and they all show him
    with a sharp, cleft chin. I know in his testimony, McCamy said
    he found some pictures of Oswald as a youth in which his chin was
    a little broader and slightly flat. Even Congressman Fithian
    wasn't convinced, and I haven't found that to be the case at all
    in the photos that I have of Oswald as a youth. This isn't the
    issue anyway, since the backyard photos supposedly show Oswald
    as an adult. And all the photos of Oswald as an adult show
    him with a sharp, cleft chin. I'd like to return to the
    issue of the chin later when we discuss McCamy's claim that
    the edge of the chin disappears in shadow.

    MR. MEE. Okay.

    MTG. I'd also like to hold off on discussing the line across
    the chin until we review McCamy's argument that it was caused
    by a water spot. All right?

    MR. MEE. That's fine.

    MTG. I just wanted to show you that segment to provide some
    background for when we get to those issues in a few minutes.

    MR. MEE. All right.

    [Mr. Mee and MTG view Jack White video segment on the conflicts
    between the nose shadow and the neck and body shadows, and
    on the non-movement of the nose shadow even when the head is
    tilted.]

    MTG. Comments?

    MR. MEE. Well, I think this is the area where you get into the
    most convincing evidence that these photographs have been
    doctored--the lighting characteristics. You can see in these
    photographs that the nose and eye shadows do not match the neck
    shadow. They don't match the shadow that falls down from the
    body either. They don't match. We only have one sun, and that's
    the problem. Even if we had two suns, their light still could
    not produce the differences in the shadows in the backyard
    photos. And I think that all the things that that panel [the
    photographic panel] cited to substantiate these photos aren't
    nearly as important as the shadow characteristics.

    MTG. I was going to ask you about that later, but as long
    as we're on the subject. . . . Now, McCamy, instead of dealing
    with the problems in the shadows themselves, appealed to a
    vanishing point analysis. He never actually got around to
    explaining why the nose and eye shadows drop straight down,
    while, on the other hand, you have a big patch of light on the
    left side of the neck; and why you have the body shadows in A and
    C falling at about a ten o'clock position. Instead of dealing
    head-on with those problems, he appealed to a vanishing point
    analysis. We'll get into this more later, but for right now I'd
    like to ask you if you think that an analysis of that kind can
    overrule what you're able to see in the photos themselves as far
    as the contrasting shadows?

    MR. MEE. No, not at all. The shadows themselves, the different
    angles that they show, their shape, the areas that they should
    cover but don't--these have got to be dealt with directly. No
    form of analysis is going to convince me that those shadows are
    not different shadow groups.

    MTG. Okay. Now. . . .

    MR. MEE. Let me give you a little background on why I say this.
    There are a lot of ways to alter shadows in photography. But in
    this situation, where the figure was outdoors, during the day,
    and where there was only one light source, there is just no way
    that all the shadows in these photos could have occurred at the
    same time of day.

    Now, it could be argued that the reason there is more light on
    the neck in 133-A is that you're getting a reflection off the
    newspaper, but in B and C the newspaper is out to the side,
    and. . . .

    MTG. The patch of light is still there. . . .

    MR. MEE. It's still there. It's still consistent. And that
    shouldn't be. Most of the neck on both sides should be in
    shadow, to be consistent with the eye and nose shadows.

    And the nose shadow should not stay in that V-shape, coming
    straight down onto the upper lip, when the head is tilted. Now,
    with the tilt of the head here, you wouldn't see a big difference
    in the nose shadow, but you would see some difference. The shape
    and the angle would change. It [the nose shadow] shouldn't look
    like that with the head tilted.

    [Mr. Mee and MTG view Jack White video segment on two unnatural
    bulges in the backyard photos, one in the neck in 133-A and the
    other in the post in 133-B, and on the fact that these bulges are
    parallel to each other.]

    MR. MEE. Can we see that again?

    [Video segment is replayed several times.]

    MTG. On the bulges. Any comments on the bulges and on the fact
    that they're parallel to each other? Could it be that a
    retoucher might have goofed on the neck, spotted it, and then
    decided to move the goof to the post in the hope that if he
    moved it to a background image it would be less noticeable?

    MR. MEE. Even good retouchers sometimes make small errors. I
    can see the bulges. I can see what he's [Mr. White's] talking
    about here. This goes along with the theory that these are
    composite photographs and that they would have required
    retouching.

    MTG. Now, in the photographic panel's report. . . . Well, the
    panel apparently had a hard time explaining the bulge in the
    post. The theory that the panel put in writing was that the
    indentation was an optical illusion caused by the shadow of a
    twig. . . .

    MTG. Okay. Let's go over that again. I'm going to read
    the explanation given by the photographic panel:

    What could be perceived as an indentation in the
    post in CE 133-B is believed by the undersigned to
    be an illusion resulting from the location of a
    shadow of a branch or a leaf along the edge of the
    post.

    Okay, and you said you have a problem with that.

    MR. MEE. Well, the problem I have with that, keeping in mind
    the angle of the body shadows and others, is that a branch or a
    leaf here would have been struck by sun coming from around a four
    o'clock position. Therefore, a branch or leaf shadow here would
    fall in about a ten or eleven o'clock position, and so I don't
    think the bulge here could have resulted from a natural shadow.
    With the sun coming in from a four o'clock angle, I don't see how
    that bulge could have been caused by the shadow from a branch or
    a leaf. The angle's not right. Can we look at the part about
    this in the video again?

    MTG. Sure.

    [Video segment is replayed. Afterwards, Mr. Mee then examines
    the book and xeroxed copies of the photos again.]

    MR. MEE. No, I don't see how that bulge could have been caused
    by a shadow from a branch or a leaf. I don't see it. The shadow
    angle would be wrong. The sun's in the wrong position to do
    that. I'd like to see the originals, though. For a small detail
    like this, you want to look at the original photos. But from
    what I can see here, I really don't think this bulge was caused
    by any kind of a branch or a leaf shadow--not with the sun
    shining the way it is in these pictures.

    What about the bulge in the neck? How do they explain it? I
    didn't see that discussed anywhere in the extract.

    MTG. No, Kirk and McCamy didn't deal with that. There's nothing
    about it in that file [PHOTOS.ZIP]. I don't know if the panel's
    report deals with it either. I don't think the panel tried to
    explain it. If they had offered an explanation, I think Groden
    and Livingstone would have tried to answer it. I could be wrong,
    though. It's kind of hard to believe they wouldn't have tried to
    explain this, but I don't know. I still haven't gotten a copy of
    the panel's report. So I really don't know.

    MR. MEE. Okay. Well, that neck bulge needs to be explained. It
    doesn't look natural, and it's parallel to the bulge in the post.
    It disappears in 133-B, but then you have an indentation in the
    post [in B].

    MTG. Uh-huh. In his HSCA testimony, Jack White suggested that
    the forger's knife slipped and caused the post bulge. Could
    something like that have caused the bulge in the neck?

    MR. MEE. Possibly. Something's definitely off there.

    MTG. Oh, I wanted to ask you about McCamy's explanation of the
    indentation in the post.

    MR. MEE. All right.

    MTG. Let me read it here. He was referring to a computer
    printout that was produced by digital image processing.

    Our inspection of this leads us to believe that
    the apparent indentation is simply a shadow,
    because if you look very carefully, you can see
    the post running through that area, and this is
    just a slight darkening. So that was merely a
    shadow.

    MR. MEE. No, I don't think that's consistent with the direction
    of the sun in the pictures. It's not consistent with the way the
    bulge looks.

    MTG. So, just to summarize, you're saying that the sun,
    according to the body shadow, isn't in a position where it
    could cause a shadow that would produce the indentation
    in the post?

    MR. MEE. That's how it looks to me.

    MTG. Just to let you know, to my knowledge the panel never
    identified which leaf or branch could have possibly caused such a
    shadow. They simply said the bulge COULD have been caused by the
    shadow from a leaf or a branch, but they didn't say which leaf or
    branch.

    MR. MEE. Okay.

    [Mr. Mee and MTG view Jack White video segment on the fact that
    a patch of sunlight on the side of the house beside the post
    holding the stairway does not change shape in any of the backyard
    pictures, indicating that the camera making the photo did not
    move horizontally. This patch of light is to the left of the
    post and is roughly parallel with the figure's right elbow.]

    MTG. Now, on the non-movement of that one shadow underneath
    the stairway. If it doesn't change shape or position, even
    though the pictures were supposedly taken with a hand-held
    camera, what does that say? I'm asking this because, supposedly,
    she [Marina] took the first picture. Snap. Then, Oswald came,
    took the camera from her, advanced the film, handed it back to
    her, and then went back to where he was. She then had to and
    position the camera again. And then this process was REPEATED
    for the third picture. So how could that patch of light not
    change in some way?

    MR. MEE. The possibility that that patch of light would stay
    in the same position and maintain the same shape after all that
    movement is remote. You'd need a tripod, and even then you'd
    have to be careful. Can we see that again?

    [Video segment is replayed several times.]

    MR. MEE. I think I can see what he's talking about, but can we
    look at that a couple more times?

    [Video segment is replayed two more times.]

    MR. MEE. Okay, let me take another look at these pictures really
    quickly.

    MTG. Oh, sure. Take your time.

    [Mr. Mee studies pictures for approximately one minute.]

    MTG. Do you see what he's talking about?

    MR. MEE. Yes. I would agree with that.

    MTG. So wouldn't that be almost impossible using a hand-held
    camera, especially given the way that these pictures were
    supposedly taken?

    MR. MEE. I would say it would be nearly impossible. The chances
    of something like that happening would be astronomically small.

    MTG. All right. . . .

    MR. MEE. Even if you were using a modern camera, one that would
    automatically advance the film after each shot, and were taking
    a series of pictures, your chances of achieving that effect
    would be low. They'd be better, but still very low.

    MTG. All right. Now, if I'm not mistaken, I think we have just
    one more segment.

    [MTG starts to play the video tape and then realizes there are no
    more video segments.]

    MTG. Nope. That was it. That was the last of the segments.

    MR. MEE. All right.

    MTG. Okay. Now, a little while back, I got a message on
    CompuServe from a gentleman named Paul Burke. In reference to
    Jack White's secondary method for producing the frame edge
    markings on the photos, he said, "Copying a photo assembled from
    a group of photos as you and others have postulated using the
    Imperial Reflex camera has a problem. Its focus ability, if any,
    is limited, so the master montage would have to be large, a
    couple of feet or so," which you said last time you didn't argue
    with. . . .

    MR. MEE. Right.

    MTG. Okay, and then he continues, "and it would have all sorts
    of granular discontinuities between the segments making it up,
    such as sharp lines for the cuts, etc., etc."

    MR. MEE. Well, I'd have to know more about the scenario he
    has in mind. What are we talking about here? I mean, how
    were the first pictures taken? What was in them? How many
    copies are we talking about?

    The appearance of your final product will depend on several
    factors. It's going to depend on things like the quality of your
    original photos, the camera, the enlarging equipment and
    materials, and the retouching. There are a lot of things
    that would come into play.

    As far as size goes, it probably would be a rather large
    photograph in this scenario. Your composite--it would have to be
    a rather big picture. With the lighting in these pictures [the
    backyard photos], I would guess that they used medium-speed film.
    But there are so many things you'd have to establish first before
    you made a judgment. And, also, the farther down the line you go
    from your original, the more quality you're going to lose.

    MTG. Okay. . . .

    MR. MEE. Another thing--these pictures ARE grainy. I'm talking
    about A, B, and C. They are not that sharp. They do have a
    lot of texture and grain to them. Plus, you've got that
    tell-tale line running across the chin, and the other things
    [i.e., the bulge in the neck in 133-A and the indentation in the
    post in 133-B].

    MTG. All right. This thing about the chin, the line across the
    chin in 133-A. Now, in the extract, we read that McCamy was
    POSITIVE that the line that runs from one side of the neck to the
    other, crossing the chin--that that line was caused by a water
    spot. The panel as a whole, however, did not go this far. In
    the report it says that the cause of the lines has not been
    definitely determined. But I wanted to ask you what you thought
    of McCamy's explanation?

    MR. MEE. Well, I was reading through that, and I had some
    problems with it. The. . . .

    MTG. Okay. So you said you had some problems with McCamy's
    explanation, with his claim that the irregular line across
    the chin was caused by a water spot. This is the line that
    Jack White mentions as well.

    MR. MEE. Well, there are a couple things. One thing is the
    sheer coincidence that this line just happens to fall in the chin
    area; that this one edge of this one particular water spot is
    supposed to have left deposits in such a way as to form a line
    that coincidentally starts at one side of the neck, crosses the
    chin, and then ends at the other side--right where Oswald's head
    could have been attached to the body. I mean, this would be a
    good place to join a head to a body in a composite, in the chin
    area, and here we have a line in that region, and it's supposed
    to be a water spot.

    The other problem I have with what he says has to do with
    his statements about the line as a photographic image.

    MTG. Now, this is just before he starts talking about water
    spots. You're talking about where he says the line isn't a
    photographic image.

    MR. MEE. Right.

    MTG. Again, that line is the one that Jack White discusses in
    the video, the one that starts off on one side of the upper neck,
    crosses the chin, and then goes to the other side of the neck.

    MR. MEE. Right.

    MTG. Just to give us some context here, why don't I go
    ahead and read exactly what he said about the line.

    MR. MEE. Okay.

    MTG. Let's see. . . . Here it is. This was McCamy.

    Now that fine line is actually too fine to be a
    photographic image. The photographic image is
    made up of silver grains, and these grains are
    distributed all through here, so we have a good
    idea of their size and distribution. This line is
    a line that is much finer than the silver grains
    themselves. It is much too continuous to be a
    photographic line. A line that had been
    photographed from some kind of montage would have
    had the grain pattern of a discontinuous line, but
    this line is quite continuous. Indeed, we can
    follow this line down up to here and then back
    around to here. It is a closed loop.

    MR. MEE. Now, when you talk about what has been photographed--
    what you see in the picture--that has no bearing on the grains in
    the negative emulsion. The grains are more a characteristic of
    the film itself than what has been produced from a photographic
    print. So, when he ways, "This line is a line that is much finer
    than the silver grains themselves. This is much too continuous
    to be a photographic line"--this, to me, holds no water at all.
    He's looking at the A print, not at the negative, so his argument
    holds no water.

    [Mr. Mee again reads from the extract] "A line that had been
    photographed from some kind of montage would have had the
    grain pattern of a discontinuous line." Now, again, that's
    coming from a print, but what you'd need to look at would be the
    negative, and he didn't examine the A negative. So his
    argument is not valid. It doesn't prove anything. You see,
    the grain is a characteristic of the negative, not the print.

    I mean, even forgetting about that part of his argument, what
    he's saying is that it [the line] doesn't have a grain pattern
    running through it. The line is so fine that he says it's
    getting in between the grain, which would put it in the emulsion.
    It's like a sandwich, kind of like with two pieces of plastic,
    and then the water spot would be sitting on top. But I think
    that would be so obvious that there would be no doubt about it.

    When he says the line on the chin is part of a closed loop, I'm
    sort of at a disadvantage because I don't have the exhibit he was
    using. So it's hard for me to comment. But if that irregular
    line is part of a closed loop and was caused by a water spot,
    then the loop is the outline of the water spot. Now that line is
    almost straight, and water spots don't normally have edges like
    that. I mean, water spots . . . well . . . they're just that--
    they're spots. They're usually more oblique. They're not going
    to have long straight edges.

    And I'd like to see where the other edges of this loop are. I
    mean, they don't seem to be in the face. Just looking at these
    pictures here, I can see the line across the chin, but I don't
    see any other tell-tale lines in the face. So I'd like to know
    where the other edges [of the loop] are.

    MTG. Okay. What I'd like to do now is ask you about McCamy's
    point concerning what they saw when they examined the negative,
    the 133-B negative, with a phase contrast microscope. Let me
    just read that part, okay?

    MR. MEE. Sure.

    MTG. [Reading from the extract]

    We examined the negative with a phase contrast
    microscope, which would detect very, very small
    changes in thickness in the negative.

    He didn't come right out and say it, but I assume he was saying
    that they checked the negative with that high-powered microscope
    and didn't find any changes in thickness in the chin area in the
    negative.

    MR. MEE. Well, the thickness of the negative is not necessarily
    going to be relevant. What I'm saying is that the original
    photograph could have been copied and then a negative could have
    been made from that. So you're not going to see any difference
    in density in the negative if the negative came from a retouched
    photo.

    MTG. Uh-huh. Oh, let's go back to the water spot for just a
    second if we could. I wanted to ask you something else about
    what McCamy said about it.

    MR. MEE. Okay.

    MTG. He said, "We did not see water spots. . . ." Now, in the
    extract the word "not" is missing, but it's obvious that that's
    what he was saying. As you read on, it's obvious that that's
    what he was saying. [Resumes reading]

    We did not see water spots on 133-B, but we do see
    that this same spot occurs on both of these first-
    generation prints of the A negative, so we know
    that the spot must have been on the negative.

    Any comments on that?

    MR. MEE. Well, to me, what he's saying is inconsistent. He's
    saying that the water spot had to be on the A negative because
    it's on the print, and that it's not part of the photographic
    image. But unless you see the negative, you can't really say
    that.

    MTG. Now, just for the record here, let me read what the
    [photographic] panel said about the irregular lines that
    appeared on the scanned image of the B negative. I'm reading
    from Groden and Livingstone's book HIGH TREASON.

    MR. MEE. Yes.

    MTG. Let me go ahead and read that out of the book.

    MR. MEE. Okay.

    MTG. They're quoting directly from the photographic panel's
    report. Let's see. . . . Here it is. [Reads from page
    201 of HIGH TREASON]

    Under very carefully adjusted display conditions,
    the scanned image of the Oswald backyard negative
    did exhibit irregular, very fine lines in the chin
    area.

    The panel went on to say that the lines were probably caused
    by "very faint water stains." Comments?

    MR. MEE. Yes, I meant to ask you about their reference to
    "lines," not just a single line. What other lines did they find?

    MTG. You know, to be honest, I don't know. I've wondered about
    that myself, because McCamy only mentioned one line that was
    found with digital image scanning.

    MR. MEE. Huh. Well, as far as what we just read, I would
    say it's evidence of tampering. I don't accept the idea that
    that line across the chin was caused by a water spot, at least
    not at this stage I don't. Now, again, I haven't seen the
    exhibit that shows the shape of the water spot that McCamy says
    caused the line, but I'd be surprised if it caused me to change
    my mind. I just don't think a water spot would leave that kind
    of a line.

    MTG. Okay. Now, McCamy said that they examined the chin area
    with digital image processing and that they didn't find any
    granular inconsistencies.

    MR. MEE. Well, if you matched the film speed, using the kind of
    film that was common back then, it would be hard to prove
    something either way. Back then there was pretty much one way of
    making film.

    If you had a forger who knew his stuff and who knew the kinds
    of things that would be checked for later on, you'd have to
    guess that he would have done his best to match the grain
    characteristics. This wouldn't have been impossible. If
    he had access to the negatives of the pictures of Oswald's
    head, it could have been done.

    What I'm saying is that the tampering, the pasting of the head
    onto the figure's chin, could have been done well enough to where
    they [the members of the photographic panel] would not have been
    able to pick it up with the technology that they had at that
    time.

    MTG. Ah, here's the part I was looking for you. If I could,
    I'd like to read this to you. This is about the grain pattern
    again.

    One of the things that we wanted to do was to
    study the nature of the silver grain in the areas
    above the chin and below the chin, because of the
    allegation that there were two different
    photographs in some way. And so we did
    that. . . . And as photographic scientists, we
    found nothing remarkable about the grain pattern.
    This was the same type of grain pattern.

    MR. MEE. But, again, if the forger matched up the film, there
    wouldn't be any noticeable difference in the grain. It [digital
    image processing] would be inconclusive. Now, I'm not saying
    this would be an easy process. It would all depend on if you had
    the negatives of the pictures of the head.

    MTG. To match the film, you mean.

    MR. MEE. Right. But it could be done. With the way film was
    made back then--there was pretty much one way of making film--if
    you matched the film speed, assuming you had access to the
    negative of each head shot you were using, you could match the
    film characteristics.

    MTG. So your position is that the things that they claimed to
    have observed through digital image processing in and of
    themselves cannot prove that these are authentic photographs?

    MR. MEE. No, I don't think that digital image processing alone
    can prove these photographs are authentic. With the technology
    that was available back then [in the late 1970s], I don't think
    they could have proven this. I don't know that it could be done today--possibly, with the scanning technology that's just
    coming out, you could do it. It would depend on how carefully
    the forger matched the film and on what steps he went through to
    fake the photographs. There are a lot of variables.

    MTG. All right. Vanishing point analysis. I'm a layman, and
    when I read this, I got the impression that they didn't want to
    deal with the shadow angles themselves, so they resorted to
    this vanishing point analysis. They tried to explain all the
    shadow problems in the pictures--the neck, the nose and the eyes,
    the body shadows--with vanishing point analysis. Let me read
    this so we have some context here:

    Mr. GOLDSMITH. Mr. McCamy, how did the panel
    address the question of the shadows in the
    backyard pictures?

    Mr. MCCAMY. This was addressed by a vanishing
    point analysis.

    Mr. GOLDSMITH. What do you mean by "vanishing
    point analysis"?

    Mr. MCCAMY. The sun is very distant, so far away
    that we can consider it to be at infinity, and as
    a result, if we draw a line from an object to the
    shadow of the object, and we do this in a number
    of places in a scene, all of those lines are
    parallel lines.

    Now you may recall, if you have ever seen a
    photograph of railroad tracks disappearing into
    the distance, the photograph shows those two rails
    converging at a point. That is called the
    vanishing point. The rails are parallel but in
    the photograph they converge. This is taught in
    art courses in high school and in mechanical
    drawing, so the converging of parallel lines is a
    well-known matter of perspective. In a photograph
    one should expect that these parallel shadow lines
    should converge at the vanishing point. . . .

    Mr. MCCAMY. Yes. Here we have 133-A and 133-B. A
    line is drawn from a part of this stairway, past
    the shadow of the stairway, down to here. A line
    is drawn from the butt of the pistol, through the
    shadow of the butt of the pistol, down to here,
    from the arm to the shadow of the arm, down to
    here. And when we do this for all the points in
    the photograph, we find that they all meet at a
    point, as they should.

    Now this is the line that passes through the nose
    and the chin down to here, and that one is the
    nose to the shadow of the nose. That is the one
    thing that has been disputed so frequently, and
    if you do the analysis properly, you see that the
    shadow lies right where it is supposed to lie.

    The same thing is true over here. Here we have the
    muzzle of the rifle, the shadow of the muzzle of
    the rifle, and so on down the line.

    Mr. GOLDSMITH. Mr. McCamy, if the lines were not
    parallel, would they all meet at one point as they
    do in these two exhibits?

    Mr. MCCAMY. No.

    Mr. GOLDSMITH. If the lines in these two exhibits
    had not met at one point, what conclusion or
    inference might you have drawn?

    Mr. MCCAMY. We might have drawn the conclusion
    that something had been drawn in rather than
    traced in by the hand of nature.

    Mr. GOLDSMITH. Did you do a similar vanishing
    point analysis for 133-C?

    Mr. MCCAMY. Yes.

    Mr. GOLDSMITH. And what were the results?

    Mr. MCCAMY. The results were the same.

    Now, when you read on, however, it gets a little more
    interesting. McCamy was asked about the sharp angles of the
    lines in his analysis. I'll find it here. It jumped out at me
    as soon as I read it. [MTG looks through extract for a few
    seconds] Okay. Here it is. Let me read this. He [McCamy]
    was being questioned by Congressman Fithian, who was the only
    guy to ask any challenging questions. He [Fithian] said,

    This morning I was listening carefully when you
    described the vanishing point concept, which I
    find fascinating. But I wonder why did the
    vanishing point lines converge in such a very,
    very short distance on your chart.

    Now, I look at a railroad, even an artist's
    conception of a railroad track, or a road where it
    sort of narrows off. It gives me the impression
    that we are talking about, you know, great
    distances.

    Yet, there are some very, very sharp angles that
    those lines from the bush and the nose and the
    rest of it come in, all within 2 feet on your
    chart. Could you explain that optical problem
    that I am having?

    And here's McCamy's answer:

    Yes. The vanishing point may be at infinity; that
    is, if we have parallel vertical lines and the
    axis of the camera is horizontal. Then we do get
    parallel lines, and of course that says that the
    vanishing point is at infinity.

    Now, a very slight tilt of the camera will cause a
    convergence, but it would be a very slight
    convergence. It starts at infinity and it begins
    to move inward.

    Now, on the photographs that we saw here, the
    vanishing point of the shadows was substantially
    below the photographs. If photographs had been
    made later and later in that day, I have estimated
    that these pictures were taken about 4 to 4:30 in
    the afternoon--if pictures were made later, the
    vanishing point would have continued to move up
    until finally it would be within the picture area;
    that is, as the Sun had moved behind the
    photographer.

    In the instance that you cite of the railroad
    track disappearing into the distance, the
    vanishing point is in the picture, and you
    are seeing the vanishing point.

    I think that is as far as I can go in describing
    that phenomenon. The vanishing point can be
    anywhere from at infinity to right in the picture
    itself.

    Now, I didn't quite understand exactly how McCamy explained the
    fact that the angles in his chart were so sharp and converged
    in such a short distance.

    MR. MEE. Well, not having looked at his chart, it's hard for
    me to comment on it. I'd have to look at it and see exactly what
    we're talking about. Those lines and sharp angles do sound odd,
    but I'd need to see the chart itself before I could really form
    an opinion here.

    But, really, I understand the principle of vanishing points,
    and I don't think it's relevant in this case. The real issue is
    the conflicts between the shadows. And, another thing, I can
    tell you that the sun that hit Oswald's face wasn't in a four
    o'clock position. You've also get to deal with the absence of
    shadow where there should be shadow. You've got to look at the
    shadows themselves--study their angles, determine the direction
    of your light source, those kinds of things.

    I mean, a vanishing point analysis is not about to explain
    why Oswald's nose shadow doesn't move or change form in the
    photographs. It's not going to explain why you seem to have
    two separate light sources hitting the body and the face. It's
    not going to explain those bulges [in the neck and the post].

    MTG. Okay. The disappearing chin. McCamy said that the
    edge of the chin disappeared in shadow. Now, the problem he
    was trying to explain is the fact that in the backyard photos
    the chin is broad and flat, but in all other pictures of Oswald--
    in all those that were taken from any kind of a frontal
    viewpoint--his chin is sharp and cleft.

    MR. MEE. It HAS disappeared in shadow, but not to the extent
    that Oswald's would have, and that's the difference.

    MTG. Okay. He [McCamy] was saying that Oswald's chin form
    vanished to the point that in the picture it looks like he has a
    broad, flat chin.

    MR. MEE. No, I would disagree with that. The sun was not in
    a position to have that much of an affect on the appearance of
    the chin.

    MTG. Uh-huh. Okay. Now, Mr. Fithian, bless his heart, he had
    a problem with this, too. Here's part of the exchange he had
    with McCamy:

    Mr. FITHIAN. Here is a thing that I had the
    greatest difficulty with in terms of my own
    viewing of the photographs, is the squareness of
    the chin.

    I wonder, Mr. Chairman, if we could ask that that
    multiple photograph, that chart with half a dozen
    Oswalds on it, plus the two, could be put back up.

    While we are doing this, let me preface my
    question by saying that sitting here and looking
    at your exhibit, I did not visually at least
    identify any other chin that was even
    approximately as square as the one in the backyard
    photograph--from all of the pictures that you put
    up.

    I could not see that. I hate to return to what you
    have already done. But it still puzzles me and
    troubles me. That seems to be one of the
    strongest points of the critics, is the misshape
    of the chin. I want to make sure I understood
    your testimony.

    It was your testimony that it was the light and
    shadow combination of an overhead Sun or whatever?

    Mr. MCCAMY. Yes.

    Mr. FITHIAN. Do I understand you correctly?

    Mr. MCCAMY. Yes.

    Then they went on for a bit, and then Fithian continued:

    Mr. FITHIAN. In the photo, in the two large
    blowups, the right-hand photo, is it your
    testimony, then, that the point of the chin, which
    obviously doesn't disappear--and I find it
    difficult to believe that just by changing your
    teeth or your mouth position it really makes that
    much difference--is it then that the point of the
    chin disappears in the shadow of the chin in
    layman's terms?

    Is that what you are saying happens in that
    photograph?

    Mr. MCCAMY. Yes, the lower part of the chin is not
    illuminated, so you don't see it. It just
    disappears in the shadow.

    MTG. Do you accept that?

    MR. MEE. Well, such a thing is possible, but not in this
    instance, because of the position of the sun.

    MTG. And that is what?

    MR. MEE. The position of the sun?

    MTG. Yeah.

    MR. MEE. Well, the sun is overhead and to his left.

    MTG. Based on the body shadows, you mean?

    MR. MEE. Yeah. The sunlight is coming down at him from about
    a four o'clock position. So I don't see how it could have made
    that much of his chin disappear. I mean, the underside of the
    chin is in shadow, but the edge hasn't vanished. The form [of
    the chin] is still there.

    MTG. What if the sun came from right around a twelve o'clock
    position?

    MR. MEE. Well, then you'd have to explain why both sides of the
    neck aren't in the same amount of shadow, and why the body shadow
    falls off to his right.

    MTG. Uh-huh.

    MR. MEE. I mean, if anything, it seems like there's more chin
    there, more than there should be, in terms of width, even if
    you ignore how flat it is.

    MTG. Yeah, I think so too.

    MR. MEE. That's how it looks to me. I would say the chin is a
    serious problem.

    MTG. Uh-huh. Okay. Now, I'd like to ask you about the
    fact that the panel found only very small variations in the
    distances between objects in the background of the pictures.
    Given the way that these photos were supposedly taken, does
    that seem possible?

    MR. MEE. No, the variations would be greater if these
    photographs were taken the way Marina said they were. I mean,
    like they showed in the video: She snaps a picture; Oswald walks
    over and takes the camera from her; he advances the film; he
    hands the camera back to her; he goes back over and assumes
    another pose; she aims with the camera again and then takes the
    picture; and they go through this process again for the third
    photo. No. . . . No way. The camera would have moved more than
    just a tiny fraction of an inch.

    Even with a professional photographer who's trying to hold the
    camera as still as possible, you're going to have more variations
    in distance than what they're talking about in these pictures.

    MTG. Now, Jack White mentioned that the small differences in
    distance could have been produced by keystoning. What do you
    think about that?

    MR. MEE. Oh, I think he's right. Now, when he was demonstrating
    the keystoning effect in the video, he was exaggerating a little
    bit to help you understand what he was talking about, but he's
    got the right idea. It would be a simple matter of tilting the
    easel just a little bit. I mean, any slight movement in the
    enlarger or the easel could cause the kinds of differences
    they're talking about here.

    MTG. Okay. Stereoscopic analysis. They said that when they
    analyzed these photos, they were able to view them
    stereoscopically. Let me just read some of what McCamy said:

    We were able to view these photographs
    stereoscopically, so we know that there was slight
    camera movement. We know that there were two
    pictures. But it has much more far reaching
    consequence than that.

    It tells us that there was a solid three
    dimensional field that was photographed two times.
    If one were to have photographed the background
    once, and then taken a camera and photographed
    that print and then rephotographed the print from
    two angles, when that is viewed stereoscopically,
    the human eye would tell you that you were looking
    at a plane print. That isn't what we saw. We saw
    depth, and we can still see depth.

    Now if one were going to do art work on actual
    stereo pairs, that art work has to be done
    exceedingly meticulously, because the slightest
    difference in the art work on one photograph and
    the art work on the other photograph would cause
    the points involved to appear to be too far away
    or too close. They would tend to float in space.
    So stereo viewing is an excellent way of checking
    up on the authenticity of the photograph.

    Mr. GOLDSMITH. Is any special viewer necessary to
    enable someone to see in stereo?

    Mr. MCCAMY. It is not necessary but it makes it
    more convenient for most people.

    Mr. GOLDSMITH. How many panel members examined
    these photographs in stereo?

    Mr. MCCAMY. At least, oh, a half dozen.

    MTG. Any thoughts about that?

    MR. MEE. If you have slight movement during the enlarging
    process or during the copying process, I think you could get a
    different perspective in the photographs that would cause that
    effect. So, that doesn't prove. . . . It doesn't convincingly
    say that these pictures are authentic.

    I mean, I think we've all at one time looked through those little
    children's viewfinders and have seen those cartoon slides in
    3-D. The reason you get that is that you're looking through two
    different eyes and seeing the result of a slight movement of the
    prints. The prints of the cartoons have been slightly moved--the
    prints you're looking at through the viewfinder. You've got two
    prints, and they've been moved slightly, and that's what gives
    you your 3-D effect, the slight movement of those prints.

    So, in the case of these photographs. . . .

    MTG. The backyard photographs.

    MR. MEE. Right. In this case, if you had slight movement in
    the enlarger or during the copying process, you could get the
    right amount of difference between the photos so that you would
    be able to view them in stereo.

    MTG. Okay. One thing that I'd really like to ask you about
    has to do with the DeMohrenschildt photograph and the frame edge
    markings. Actually, it doesn't just involve the frame edge
    markings. It involves matching the DeMohrenschildt photo to the
    IR camera's film plane aperture. We talked about this briefly
    last time. Now, when Jack White testified before the Committee,
    the House Select Committee. . . .

    MR. MEE. Uh-huh.

    MTG. Okay. Now, this involves the finding of the edge markings
    on the edges of the DeMohrenschildt photo and the determination
    that the photo is genuine because those markings are unique to
    the IR camera. Now, Jack White, when he testified back then,
    said. . . . Well, let me read what he said. [Reads from page
    205 of HIGH TREASON]

    The DeMohrenschildt picture shows a much larger
    amount of background around the edges than any of
    the photographs, 133-A, B, or C. To me, this
    indicates that the DeMohrenschildt picture is
    printed full negative. In fact, we can verify
    this because it is printed with a black border
    around the edge, the black border being the clear
    area around the edge of the negative.

    According to the FBI, the picture, CE-133-B, was
    identified as being taken with Oswald's camera
    because it could be matched to the film plane
    aperture. Yet, if the DeMohrenschildt picture
    shows a larger background area and it is taken
    from the same camera viewpoint, then 133-A, B, and
    C have been cropped and, therefore, if there is
    more background area in the picture, then it [the
    DeMohrenschildt photo] could not possibly be
    matched to the film plane aperture.

    Do you understand his point?

    MR. MEE. Yes.

    MTG. Can you explain it in layman's terms? Do you think he's
    right?

    MR. MEE. Well, there are certain things I'd have to know
    before I could say whether or not he's right. I'll put it this
    way: If the DeMohrenschildt photo has a lot more background than
    the B negative, and if both were taken from the same camera
    viewpoint, then, yes, that would tend to tell me that Mr. White
    is correct. What you'd have to do is make precise measurements
    of the DeMohrenschildt picture and the B negative, and then
    compare them. You'd also need to know if they were taken from
    the same camera viewpoint. You'd want a good, uncropped print of
    the B negative. These are the kinds of things I'd need to check
    out before I could really say anything about what he [White]
    says here.

    MTG. In his video, Jack White suggests that the DeMohrenschildt
    photo is a composite made up of 133-A and the border of the film
    plane aperture of the IR camera.

    MR. MEE. Can we see that segment again?

    MTG. Yeah.

    [Video segment is located on the tape and then replayed.]

    MR. MEE. No, that explanation. . . . I see what he's saying,
    but if you do that, you're going to have sort of a line of
    demarcation all the way around. This would be very easy to
    identify. Or, let's put it this way: It would be very difficult
    to cover up, extremely difficult to cover up, a line like that.
    It would be almost impossible to do that.

    MTG. Okay. Now to get back to the other point, about the fact
    that it's so much clearer than 133-A and. . . .

    MR. MEE. It's an earlier generation than the ones that have
    been cropped.

    MTG. Right. Now how would they have gotten the two scratch
    marks onto it [the DeMohrenschildt photo]?

    MR. MEE. Well, this gets into how these pictures could have
    been made. I'll tell you what I think they might have done.

    [Mr. Mee starts to draw a diagram, using squares to represent
    pictures and/or negatives. As he presents his explanation, he
    points back and forth to the different squares. For instance,
    when he refers to "this one" or says "here," he points to a
    certain square, and then when he says something like "and then
    this one over here," he points to a different square, etc.,
    etc.]

    You see, what I'm thinking is that there was a group of backyard
    photographs made long before the DeMohrenschildt photograph, and
    that at some point in this earlier group you have composites.

    The first pictures, the very first ones, would be taken with a
    high-quality camera, a very high-quality camera. So your first
    pictures are all very high quality. Okay?

    MTG. Uh-huh.

    MR. MEE. And then this group here would be taken from those
    pictures, again using a high-quality camera. Now the pictures
    in this group would be smaller than the first ones.

    And then, after that, just for example, way down the road,
    133-A, B, and C were taken from these. Okay? And every time
    along the way you're losing a generation.

    MTG. Uh-huh.

    MR. MEE. And, you never can tell, there may have been more then
    a couple generations in between these photos.

    Now, in the early stages, we're just talking about the
    background--one very high-quality picture of the backyard.

    So, then, you get down to here where you have your first pictures
    that include the figure holding the rifle and the newspapers.
    Okay?

    MTG. All right.

    MR. MEE. Now, there may have been more originals. You don't
    know how many could have existed before that.

    At this stage here, you introduce one or two heads, and you
    retouch those prints. Then, you photograph that print and
    you come up with a print and a negative here. And you do that
    for each picture. Now, these prints could be retouched, or the
    negatives could be retouched. Then, you'd make prints from those
    negatives.

    Now, you're down to here. This is where we introduce this stage,
    here. These photographs can either be the same or a generation
    or two down. Okay, then you've got these photos here--they've
    had the art work done on them and they've been reworked. Until
    now you're using a very high-quality camera. Then, you
    photograph one of these photos with the IR camera to make, for
    example, the DeMohrenschildt picture, which would give you the
    edge markings and the scratches.

    MTG. Now, what would happen if you were to analyze, say, the
    negative of this photo right here with digital image processing
    after all this stuff had been done?

    MR. MEE. Well, you've got to remember that you have these other
    pictures up here, where the heads are included. The grain
    pattern of this photo--the one that you're talking about--is
    going to be dependent on the film that has been used. If you
    have the negative of the photo of the head, then you know what
    kind of film to use.

    Let's say you saw that the film used for the head was, oh, 100-
    speed Kodak. That was a pretty common film back then, 100-speed.
    It might have even been less than that. Now, you would have to
    be sure, then, to use 100-speed Kodak to shoot the prints of the
    background and of the guy standing with the rifle and the
    newspapers. The key would be to keep your film consistent
    throughout. That would be very important. Now, if you did this,
    it would be extremely difficult, with the technology that they
    had during that time, to detect what little differences you
    would have with this process. We're talking about the late
    seventies?

    MTG. 1978 to 1979.

    MR. MEE. Right. I don't think they had the technology back then
    to be able to discern the small differences you'd have if you
    kept your film consistent. Today, possibly, with the
    sophistication of the computers and the scanning capabilities
    that they're just now coming out with, you might be able to spot
    the differences. But in the late seventies, I don't think they
    had the capability to detect them. As long as you maintained
    the consistency of the film for your photos, they'd all blend
    together. It's just like anything else. If your process is
    gradual enough, they're going to blend right in. This is how I
    think these photographs could have been made.

    MTG. Do you think there was only one forger?

    MR. MEE. No, I think you would have needed a team, a group of
    professionals.

    MTG. I'd like to show you a couple doctored prints that were
    released by Dallas authorities in 1992.

    [MTG shows Mr. Mee the two prints, both of which show a white
    human silhouette where Oswald is supposed to be. The whited-out
    figure corresponds closely in size and outline to the figure in
    the backyard photos.]

    MR. MEE. Is that right? Well, somebody was doing something.
    Now, this doesn't prove that this is how it was done. But these
    prints might represent an early attempt to produce the backyard
    photos. You never know.

    See, the thing is, though, I don't believe the pictures were
    made like this because you would have had too much area to
    retouch, even for a good retoucher. Here, in the head area, you
    would have only had a very small area to worry about. Mind you,
    these prints might have been a part of the process. It could
    have been done that way. But that's not how I would have done
    it.

    They [the forgers] probably looked at several different options
    for making these photographs, and they would have been looking
    for the best method. So these prints could have been one
    of the ways that they considered.

    MTG. All right. I'd like to ask you about varying exposure
    analysis.

    MR. MEE. Well, I understand what they were doing. The theory
    is that you're trying to. . . .

    MTG. Can I go ahead and read a little bit first?

    MR. MEE. Sure.

    MTG. Okay, I'm going to read some of what McCamy said about
    this.

    Mr. GOLDSMITH. Please explain the results of this
    varying exposure analysis.

    Mr. MCCAMY. Yes. In these illustrations, the
    greatest exposure gives the darkest print, and the
    least exposure, the lightest print. The advantage
    of doing this is that in the lightest areas of the
    picture we can see detail here that cannot be seen
    up here. Conversely, in the shadows, this is the
    best photograph on which to look for the detail.
    So that is a print ideally exposed to look into
    the shadows. This one is ideally exposed to look
    into the highlights, so we can see all the detail
    there.

    Mr. GOLDSMITH. After applying this method, did
    the panel discern anything unusual about these
    pictures?

    Mr. MCCAMY. No, nothing at all. There had been
    allegations that the shadows were painted in, and
    a simple examination of the shadows on these
    pictures shows that there is plenty of detail
    there. You can see grass, little stones. There
    is a newspaper lying back here. You can see the
    detail on it.

    Any comments?

    MR. MEE. I don't think it's an issue. I mean, I don't think the
    shadows were added. Now, I haven't had time to study these
    pictures long enough to give a firm opinion in this area. But,
    just from what I can see--again, without looking at the
    originals--I don't think the shadows were added.

    What he's talking about here is altering the exposure so
    you can see detail in the shadows. A black and white print has
    different grades from lightness to darkness. The full spectrum
    is called a zone system. The full spectrum is from 1 to 10--1
    being your whitest white, and 10 being your blackest black. Most
    cameras and film can only pick up a zone from about. . . . Well,
    let's say this is a sliding scale. Your camera might get a very
    white white, but it might not get a really dark dark, and it
    doesn't get everything in between. So, by altering the exposure,
    you can lighten these dark areas and see detail in them.

    Now that doesn't explain the problems of the different shadow
    angles and the bulges in the post and the neck.

    MTG. Right.

    MR. MEE. And I still have some questions about the shadow
    of the neck and the head in 133-A. It looks a little odd, but
    that might be due to using a different head. But the shadows of
    the bushes, the stairway, and all that--I don't see why a
    retoucher would have bothered with them. It would have been
    taking an unnecessary risk. So, really, I'd tend to agree with
    him [McCamy]. From what I can see, I don't think the shadows
    were added.

    MTG. Okay. . . .

    MR. MEE. Now, if he's saying that this analysis explains the
    shadow angles and those neck and post bulges, then I would
    disagree with him. You're not going to explain away those
    problems with that sort of analysis.

    MTG. It seems to me that the easiest way to explain the
    different body shadows would be to assume that they were
    photographed at different times of the day.

    MR. MEE. Yeah, I think they were just taken at different times
    of the day.

    You see, I understand what some of these guys [conspiracists] are
    saying. If you had a situation where you took a picture of the
    scene, and then took a picture of a person in a studio or
    somewhere else and then put the figure in the picture, then you'd
    need to add the shadows. But I agree with him [McCamy] here. I
    don't think the shadows were added. It would be a lot easier to
    just put a head on a body. I mean, you could put anybody in the
    picture. You could take the picture with the background and
    the body and everything, and then just take the head and put it
    on the figure. That would be a lot easier.

    MTG. Okay. I know we talked about this quite a bit last time,
    but I'd like to ask you again about the reenactment that McCamy
    cited to show that the nose shadow could remain the same even
    with the head tilted. I've already discussed this reenactment
    in detail in the forum [the JFK Assassination Forum on
    CompuServe]. I'd just like to get some of your views on it.

    MR. MEE. [Begins shaking his head from side to side in the
    typical "No" motion.] Right. Well. . . . [pauses and
    continues to shake his head]

    MTG. Well, you know, even Congressman Fithian pointed out that
    the chances that all those things would occur at the same
    time were very low. [Fithian was referring to the manipulated
    and unrealistic head and camera movements that were done in the
    reenactment.]

    MR. MEE. Yeah. Well, let's put it this way: What they did
    wasn't realistic. The bottom line is that the [nose] shadow
    should have shifted when the head tilted. I mean, with the head
    tilted like that, you wouldn't have a drastic change, but you'd
    get enough movement that you could easily spot the difference.
    There's just no way that shadow should look like that.

    MTG. Okay. Let's see. . . . Let me see if I can find it
    here. Okay, here it is. What I have here is a picture. . . .

    [Side two of the third tape runs out. The portion follows is
    reconstructed from notes taken by MTG. MTG showed Mr. Mee the
    notes at the conclusion of the interview, and Mr. Mee said
    they accurately reflected what he had said.]

    MTG. I'd like to show you a picture from Gerald Posner's book
    CASE CLOSED. The picture shows the grain structure analysis that
    was done on the right side of Oswald's face. Would you take a
    look at it and tell me what you think?

    [MTG shows Mr. Mee the bottom photo on the sixth page of pictures
    in Posner's book. Mr. Mee studies it for about a minute.]

    MR. MEE. I can see some variation in the grain pattern.
    However, I wouldn't form an opinion just from looking at a copy
    of a picture of this nature in a book. I would need to study the
    originals with a high-powered microscope so that I could see the
    grain structure. But, if the forger matched the film, and given
    the fact that for the most part there was one standard way
    of making film in the 60s, I wouldn't expect to see a big
    difference in the grain anyway. If the film was in fact
    matched, it would be difficult to reach a definite conclusion
    about the grain in terms of the authenticity of the backyard
    photos.

    MTG. When McCamy recognized that Mr. Scott's photograph was
    a fake, he did so because the shadows on the suit didn't match
    the shadows on the railing. McCamy explained:

    He [Mr. Scott, a fellow panel member] spent 40
    hours with an assistant preparing a fake
    photograph of a man standing in a backyard. When
    he presented the photograph, he mailed it to me, I
    pulled it out of the envelope, and as I pulled it
    out of the envelope I said it is a fake.

    I was rather surprised that it was that easy. As
    it turned out, what he had done was to make a
    photograph, a 6-foot photograph of a 6-foot man,
    and this was placed in the backyard, and it was
    photographed.

    But there was a thing that caught my eye
    instantly; that is, that there were shadows that
    were cast by parts of a dark suit. There were
    shadows cast by parts of a railing immediately
    behind the man.

    When the suit was in full sunlight, it exactly
    matched the railing. But the shadows on the suit
    didn't match the shadows on the railing.

    Now, that would not be the way it would have been
    if it had been a true photograph.

    When I read this, I thought it was strange that this was the same
    man who had just gone to such great lengths to dismiss the
    implications of the variant shadows in the backyard photos. Yet,
    he admitted that he concluded that Mr. Scott's picture was a fake
    because some of the shadows didn't match. What is your opinion
    on this matter?

    MR. MEE. McCamy was saying the same thing about Scott's photo
    that others have said about the backyard pictures. He was not
    consistent.

    Inconsistent shadows in a photo are a clear indication of fakery.
    McCamy was absolutely correct in immediately branding Mr. Scott's
    picture a fake based on the conflicting shadows, because we
    only have one sun. The shadow conflicts in the backyard
    photographs are at least, if not more, serious and telling. The
    head and the body were not photographed in the same sunlight.
    They were taken at two different times of the day.

    MTG. What do you think of the argument that a good forger would
    have done his pasting in a different part of the body, such as
    in the stomach or in the chest?

    MR. MEE. For one thing, in order to attach an upper body onto
    someone else's lower body in the stomach or chest area, you would
    have to match the shirt widths exactly. You would need to
    maintain consistency in any wrinkles or folds that came up to the
    joining point. You would have to ensure that the two persons'
    builds and figures were compatible. Also, the larger the object
    that your attaching, the harder it will be to hide the pasting.

    There is also the matter of the figure's pose. In order to
    attach Oswald's upper body onto a lower body, the forgers would
    have needed a picture of Oswald with his arms and hands in the
    necessary positions. They would have needed photos of him
    with his hands held in such a way that the rifle and the
    newspapers could have been inserted into them.

    Doing the pasting at the abdomen or lower would also present
    problems. The builds and figures would again have to be
    compatible. And you would be increasing the size of the
    object to be attached, thus making it even harder to hide
    the pasting.

    The chin area would be a logical place to do the joining, for
    a number of reasons. Most people have a natural cleft or
    indentation of some form in the chin, beneath the lower lip, and
    I notice that the line across Oswald's chin runs through this
    area. In joining only about 4/5 of a head onto a chin, the
    object to be attached would be small, much smaller than part or
    all of a man's upper body.

    The neck would be another place where the pasting could be done.
    The object to be attached would still be relatively small, at
    least when compared to an upper body. But, you would need to
    have necks that were identical in size and shape.

    MTG. Finally, what would you say in summary about the backyard
    photographs?

    MR. MEE. I am convinced they are fake. They show impossible
    shadows. The shadow conflicts are serious and telling. There is
    no way the backyard photos could have identical, or even nearly
    identical, backgrounds if they were taken in the manner described
    by Marina Oswald. The figure's chin is not Oswald's chin. This
    is readily apparent. Even if we were to accept the claim that
    the line across the chin was caused by a water spot, that would
    not change the fact that the chin itself is noticeably different
    from Oswald's chin. The neck bulge and the post indentation are
    further indications of tampering.

    MTG. I would like to thank you for coming here tonight and for
    taking so much of your time to answer my questions.

    MR. MEE. You're quite welcome, and it was my pleasure.

    Billy,
    telnet://ricksbbs.synchro.net:23
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