(Testimony of Lyndal L. Shaneyfelt)
Mr. Specter.
at this time showing the mounting of the motion picture camera on the weapon found on the sixth floor?
I now hand you a photograph which is being marked as Commission Exhibit No. 887 and ask you to state for the record who that is a picture of, and what else is in the photograph.
(The document referred to was marked Commission Exhibit No. 887 for identification.)
Mr. Shaneyfelt.
Commission Exhibit No. 887 is a picture of me that was taken on May 24, 1964. My location was at the sixth floor window of the Texas School Book Depository that we have designated as our control point. I have the rifle that is the assassination rifle mounted on a tripod, and on the rifle is mounted an Arriflex 16-mm. motion picture camera, that is alined to take photographs through the telescopic sight.
This Arriflex motion picture camera is commonly known as a reflex camera in that as you view through the viewfinder a prism allows you to view directly through the lens system as you are taking your photographs so that as I took the photographs looking into the viewfinder I was also looking through the scope and seeing the actual image that was being recorded on the film.
Mr. Specter.
Was the view recorded on the film as shown on Exhibit No. 886 the actual view which would have been seen had you been looking through the telescopic sight of the Mannlicher-Carcano itself?
Mr. Shaneyfelt.
Yes.
Mr. Specter.
How did you determine the level and angle at which to hold the rifle?
Mr. Shaneyfelt.
I placed the rifle in the approximate position based on prior knowledge of where the boxes were stacked and the elevation of the window and other information that was furnished to me by representatives of the Commission.
Mr. Dulles.
You used the same boxes, did you, that the assassin had used?
Mr. Shaneyfelt.
No; I did not.
Mr. Specter.
Were those boxes used by Mr. Frazier.
Mr. Shaneyfelt.
They were used by Mr. Frazier and used in making the measurements. I had to use a tripod because of the weight of the camera and placed the elevation of the rifle at an approximate height in a position as though the boxes were there.
Mr. Specter.
Was Mr. Frazier present at the time you positioned the rifle on the tripod?
Mr. Shaneyfelt.
Yes; he was.
Mr. Specter.
Did he assist in describing for you or did you have an opportunity to observe the way he held a rifle to ascertain the approximate position of the rifle at that time?
Mr. Shaneyfelt.
That is correct.
Mr. Specter.
May it please the Commission, we will, with Mr. Frazier, indicate, the reasons he held the rifle in the way he did to approximate the way we believe it was held at the time of the assassination.
What is the next position which has been depicted on one of your exhibits, please.
Mr. Shaneyfelt.
The next position that we established during the reenactment is frame 161 of the Zapruder motion picture film.
Mr. Specter.
Permit me to mark that if you would as Commission Exhibit No. 888.
(Commission Exhibit No. 888 was marked for identification.)
Mr. Shaneyfelt.
This position which has been designated by us as frame 161 and as Commission Exhibit No. 888, was established as the last position that the car could be in where the rifleman in the window could get a clear shot of the President in the car before the car went under the covering of the tree.
Mr. Specter.
How was that position located, from the ground or from the sixth floor?
Mr. Shaneyfelt.
This was positioned by Mr. Frazier in the sixth floor window. In addition we knew from the Zapruder photographs the relative position of the car in the street as related to the curb and the guidelines or the lane lines.
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