Report of the President's Commission on the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy

The camera

The Imperial camera (Commission Exhibit No. 750) was a relatively inexpensive, fixed-focus, single-shutter-speed, U.S.-made box camera. Shaneyfelt compared the camera to the negative by examining the microscopic irregularities along negative image margins—shadowgraphs of the camera’s film-plane aperture edge, illustrated in Commission Exhibit No. 751. Because manufacturing handwork and accumulated wear make each camera’s aperture edges distinctive (analogous to rifle barrel characteristics), Shaneyfelt could determine whether the negative had been produced by this specific camera.

第二章 With the assistance of Agent in Charge Sorrels of the

This chapter presents expert testimony by Shaneyfelt regarding photographic analysis of exhibits related to the assassination, followed by Appendix XI containing interrogation reports of Lee Harvey Oswald at the Dallas Police Department. The chapter covers Shaneyfelt’s analysis of photographs taken with Oswald’s Imperial Reflex camera (Commission Exhibit 750), the determination that certain photographs were not composites, and Capt. J.W. Fritz’s detailed report of his interrogations of Oswald between November 22-24, 1963.

Toolmark Identification Similarity

Shaneyfelt compared his photographic analysis methodology to toolmark identification, confirming the techniques were very similar. [A10-401]

Shadowgraph Camera Identification

Based on his examination of the shadowgraph visible on Commission Exhibit No. 749, Shaneyfelt determined that the negative had been taken with the Imperial camera. He also identified three edges of the shadowgraph of the film-plane aperture in one of the photographs of General Walker’s house, confirming it was also taken with Oswald’s Imperial Reflex camera. However, Shaneyfelt could not determine whether 133-A had been photographed with the Imperial camera because the negative was not found and the print did not show a shadowgraph area. [A10-402, A10-403]