Babushka Lady - Public Hearings of The Assassination Records Review Board

Public Hearings of The Assassination Records Review Board

On November 18, 1994, assassination researcher Gary Mack testified before the Assassination Records Review Board that he had recently been told by an executive in Kodak's Dallas office that a woman in her early 30s with brunette hair brought in film purported to be of the assassination scene while they were processing Zapruder film. According to Mack, the executive said the woman explained to federal investigators already at the film processing office that she ran from Main Street across the grass to Elm Street where she stopped and snapped a photo with some people in the foreground of Kennedy's limousine and the Texas School Book Depository. Mack said that he was told by the Kodak executive that the photo was extremely blurry and "virtually useless", and indicated that the woman likely went home without anyone recording her identification. After suggesting that the woman in the story may have been the Babushka Lady, Mack then told the Board: "I do not believe that Beverly Oliver is the Babushka Lady, or, let me rephrase that, she certainly could be but the rest of the story is a fabrication."

Also appearing that same day before the ARRB as "Beverly Oliver Massegee", Oliver stated that she was a 17-years-old at the time of the assassination. She told the Board that she was filming with an "experimental" 8 mm movie camera approximately 20 to 30 feet from Kennedy when he was shot and that the film was confiscated by a man who identified himself as an FBI agent. According to Oliver, she handed over the camera because the man was an authority figure and because she feared being caught in possession of marijuana.