The following excerpts are taken from three enclosures in ARRB Document
D-133, which was prepared by Doug Horne. You may obtain the complete doc-
ument from JFK Lancer Productions by calling Tom Jones, (972) 264-2007.
________________________________________________________________________
Document's Author: Douglas Horne/ARRB Date Created: 07/15/97
Date: 07/14/97
Topic: ARRB Interviewed Homer McMahon
. . .
Mr. McMahon was manager of the NPIC (National Photo Interpretation
Center) color lab in 1963. About two days after the assassination of
President Kennedy, but before the funeral took place, a Secret Service
agent named "Bill Smith" delivered an amateur film of the assassination
to NPIC and requested that color prints be mde of frames believed to be
associated with wounding ("frames in which shots occurred"), for purpos-
es of assembling a briefing board. Mr. Smith did not explain who the
briefing boards would be for, or who would be briefed. The only persons
who witnessed this activity (which McMahon described as "an all night
job") were USSS agent Smith, Homer McMahon, and Ben Hunter (McMahon's
assistant). Although no materials produced were stamped with classifi-
cations markings, Smith told McMahon that the subject matter was to be
treated as "above top secret"; McMahon said not even his supervisor was
allowed to know what he was working on, nor was his supervisor allowed
to participate. Smith told McMahon that the had personally picked up
the film (in an undeveloped condition from the man who exposed it) in
Dallas, flown it to Rochester, N.Y. (where it was developed by Kodak),
and then flown it down to NPIC in Washington so that enlargements of
selected frames could be made on NPIC's state-of-the-art equipment.
After the film (either an unslit original or possibly a duplicate)
was viewed more than once on a 16 mm projector in a briefing room at
NPIC, the original (a double-8 mm unslit original) was placed in a 10x
20x40 precison enlarger, and 5" X 7" format internegatives were made
from selected frames. A full-immersion "wet-gate" or liquid gate pro-
cess was used on the original film to reduce refractivity of the film
and maximize the optical quality of the internegatives. Subsequently,
three each 5" X 7" contact prints were made from the internegative. He
recalled that a mimimum of 20, and a maximum of 40 frames were duplicat-
ed via internegatives and prints. All prints, internegatives, and scraps
were turned over to Bill Smith at the conclusion of the work.
. . .
Document's Author: Douglas Horne/ARRB Date Created: 08/14/97
Date: 08/14/97
Topic: Processing of Zapruder Film by NPIC in 1963 (Revised August 15,
1997)
. . .
I asked both men [Homer McMahon and Ben Hunter] if they still recall-
ed that their event occurred prior to the President's funeral, and they
both emphatically said yes. Mr. McMahon said he believes they performed
their work the night of the same day the President was assassinated, and
Bennett Hunter said he was of the opinion they did their work on the sec-
ond night after the assassination (i.e., Saturday night).
. . .
Home McMahon remembered again that the Secret Service agent stated
definitively that the assassination movie was developed in Rochester,
and that copies of it were made in Rochester also, and that he personal-
ly watched one of those copies projected at least 10 times that night
prior to making the internegatives of selected frames. Mr. Hunter agreed
that it seemed very likely to him that the copies of the motion picture
film would "probably have been made in Rochester", but did not independ-
ently recall.
. . .
Document's Author: Douglas Horne/ARRB Date Created: 06/18/97
Date: 06/17/97
Topic: ARRB Staff Interviewed Ben Hunter (Grammatical Edits Made on
June 19, 1997)(Final Edit Made June 20, 1997)
. . .
-The Zapruder film was not copied as a motion picture; in fact, Hun-
ter said that NPIC did not have that capability for color movies, since
they were in the business of still, B & W reconnaissance photography for
the most part. He said that the assigned task was to analyze (i.e., loc-
ate on the film) where occupants of the limousine were wounded, includ-
ing "studying frames leading up to shots", and then produce color prints
from appropriate frames just prior to shots, and also frames showing shots
impacting limousine occupants. He recalled laying the home movie out on
a light table and using a loupe to examine individual frames. He does not
recall whether they received any instructions as to number of shots, or
any guidance as to where to look in the film.
. . .
Document's Author: Douglas Horne/ARRB Date Created: 07/15/97
Date: 07/14/97
Topic: ARRB Interviewed Homer McMahon
. . .
Although the process of selecting which frames depicted events sur-
rounding the wounding of limousine occupants (Kennedy and Connally) was
a "joint process", McMahon said his opinion, which was that President
Kennedy was shot 6 to 8 times from at least three directions, was ul-
timately ignored, and the opinion of USSS agent Smith, that there were
3 shots from behind from the Book Depository, ultimately was employed in
selecting frames in the movie for reproduction. At one point he said
"you can't fight city hall", and then reminded us that his job was to
produce internegatives and photographs, not to do analysis. He said
that it was clear that the Secret Service agent had previously viewed
the fim and already had opinions about which frames depicted woundings.
. . .
END