Mary Moorman - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Mary Ann Moorman was a witness to the assassination of U.S. President John F. Kennedy

John F. Kennedy assassination

John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the thirty-fifth President of the United States, was assassinated at 12:30 p.m. Central Standard Time on Friday, November 22, 1963, in Dealey Plaza, Dallas, Texas...

. She is best known for her photograph

Badge man

Badge Man is the name given to a photographic image that some President John F. Kennedy assassination researchers claim is a grassy knoll assassin seen within a Polaroid photograph that close witness Mary Moorman captured on November 22, 1963 within Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas...

capturing the presidential limousine a fraction of a second after the fatal shot.

Biography

Mary Moorman was born Mary Ann Boshart. She married Donald G. Moorman in 1952 and divorced him in 1973. She later married Gary Krahmer in 1980.

Assassination witness

On November 22, 1963, U.S. President John F. Kennedy was assassinated

Assassination of John F. Kennedy

John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the thirty-fifth President of the United States, was assassinated at 12:30 p.m. Central Standard Time on Friday, November 22, 1963, in Dealey Plaza, Dallas, Texas...

in Dallas

Dallas, Texas

Dallas is the third-largest city in Texas and the ninth-largest in the United States. The Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex is the largest metropolitan area in the South and fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States...

, Texas

Texas

Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...

.

Moorman was standing on grass about 2 feet (61 cm) south of the south curb of Elm Street in Dealey Plaza

Dealey Plaza

Dealey Plaza , in the historic West End district of downtown Dallas, Texas , is the location of the assassination of John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963...

, directly across from the grassy knoll and the North Pergola concrete structure that Abraham Zapruder

Abraham Zapruder

Abraham Zapruder was an American manufacturer of women's clothing. He was filming with a home-movie camera as U.S. President John F...

and his assistant Marilyn Sitzman

Marilyn Sitzman

Marilyn Sitzman was a witness to the assassination of U.S. President John F. Kennedy in Dallas, Texas on November 22, 1963...

were standing on, during the assassination. Moorman stated that she stepped off from the grass onto the street to take her Polaroid

Polaroid Corporation

Polaroid Corporation is an American-based international consumer electronics and eyewear company, originally founded in 1937 by Edwin H. Land. It is most famous for its instant film cameras, which reached the market in 1948, and continued to be the company's flagship product line until the February...

photo. Zapruder is seen standing on the pergola in the Moorman photograph, with the presidential limousine already having passed through the line of sight between Zapruder and Moorman.

She and her friend, Jean Hill

Jean Hill

Norma Jean Lollis Hill was a witness to the assassination of U.S. President John F. Kennedy in Dallas, Texas on November 22, 1963. She was known as the "Lady in Red" because of the long red rain coat she wore that day, as seen in the Zapruder Film...

, can be clearly seen in many frames of the Zapruder film

Zapruder film

The Zapruder film is a silent, color motion picture sequence shot by private citizen Abraham Zapruder with a home-movie camera, asU.S. President John F...

. Between Zapruder film

Zapruder film

The Zapruder film is a silent, color motion picture sequence shot by private citizen Abraham Zapruder with a home-movie camera, asU.S. President John F...

frames Z-315 and 316, Moorman took a Polaroid

Instant film

Instant film is a type of photographic film first introduced by Polaroid that is designed to be used in an instant camera...

photograph

Photograph

A photograph is an image created by light falling on a light-sensitive surface, usually photographic film or an electronic imager such as a CCD or a CMOS chip. Most photographs are created using a camera, which uses a lens to focus the scene's visible wavelengths of light into a reproduction of...

, her fifth that day, showing the presidential limousine with the grassy knoll area in the background.

Moorman's photograph captured the fatal head shot which killed President Kennedy. When she took it – approximately one sixth of a second after President Kennedy's head was shattered at frame Z-313 – Moorman was standing behind and to the left of President Kennedy, about 15 feet (5 m) from the presidential limousine.

Controversy

What was captured in the background of the photo has been a matter of contentious debate. On the grassy knoll, some claim to have identified as many as four different figures, while others dismiss these indistinct images as trees or shadows. Most often a figure is identified as the "badge man

Badge man

" because the figure is supposedly a uniformed police officer. Others claim to see Gordon Arnold

Gordon Arnold

Gordon L Arnold is a man who claimed to have witnessed the assassination of U.S. President John F. Kennedy in Dallas, Texas.Arnold served twelve years in the United States Army, after enlisting in 1963...

, a man who claimed to have filmed the assassination from that area, a man in a construction hard hat, and a hatted man behind the picket fence.

Moorman stated she heard a shot as the limousine passed her, then heard another shot or two after the president's head first exploded. She stated that she could not determine where the shots came from, and that she saw no one in the area that appeared to have possibly been the assassin. Moorman was interviewed by the Dallas County

Dallas County, Texas

As of the census of 2000, there were 2,218,899 people, 807,621 households, and 533,837 families residing in the county. The population density was 2,523 people per square mile . There were 854,119 housing units at an average density of 971/sq mi...

Sheriff's Department and the FBI. She was called by the Warren Commission to testify, but due to a sprained ankle, she was unable to be questioned. She was never contacted by them again.

Photo of Texas Book Depository

Moorman also took a photo of the Presidential limousine which shows the sixth-floor window of the Book Depository in the background, moments before the shots were fired. Developed on the scene, Dallas deputy sheriff John Wiseman asked for the photo from Moorman. Wiseman told the Dallas sheriff's department that he had looked at the picture, but he was not asked what the image on the photo showed. Mark Lane (author)

Mark Lane (author)

Mark Lane is an American lawyer who has written many books, including Rush to Judgment, one of two major books published in the immediate wake of the John F. Kennedy assassination that questioned the conclusions of the Warren Commission. Another book, Plausible Denial, published in 1991, continued...

told Playboy Magazine that Moorman's picture was
turned over by Wiseman to agents of the United States Secret Service

United States Secret Service

The United States Secret Service is a United States federal law enforcement agency that is part of the United States Department of Homeland Security. The sworn members are divided among the Special Agents and the Uniformed Division. Until March 1, 2003, the Service was part of the United States...

. In the February 1967 Playboy interview, Lane states that the photo has never been published. No one will say where it is, nor is it available in the National Archives. Lane assumed the United States Government was keeping the photo at an undisclosed place. However, he said no one would say where it is. Lane elaborated, saying that Moorman's photo probably showed Lee Harvey Oswald

Lee Harvey Oswald

Lee Harvey Oswald was, according to four government investigations,These were investigations by: the Federal Bureau of Investigation , the Warren Commission , the House Select Committee on Assassinations , and the Dallas Police Department. the sniper who assassinated John F...

or anyone who may have been shooting at the President's car, because it was taken just seconds prior to shots being fired, Lane speculated that it might have been published on the cover of the Warren Report. The Polaroid image would likely have shown without a doubt whether Oswald was guilty or innocent. It would have probably indicated irrefutably the origin of some of the shots fired at the Presidential limousine, as well. Lane left it open for readers to determine their conclusions as to what Moorman's picture did or did not show,

External links

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