26-05-2011, 04:49 PM
Hi all,
The Brass Armadillo, where Mary Ann Moorman's interview took place on May 24, is only about half an hour from where I live, so I went down there for the webcast.
By now the interview has been posted to the iantique website, so I won't belabor any of that. But I did get to talk with Mrs. Moorman for a few minutes afterward.
First, I should point out I've never been interested in where Mary Moorman was standing when she took her famous photo, so my questions about that were probably not too incisive.
During the webcast, Moorman told interviewer Gary Stover that she stepped into the street twice, to take pictures of two motorcycle cops in the motorcade, both of whom she knew. Stover then asked if she stepped into the street for her JFK photo. My scribbled notes have her replying, "I'm pretty sure I stepped back just on the very edge of the curb to get on the grass." (This is more or less accurate but I should probably check it with the video.)
In any case, I thought this answer was a little ambiguous. She stepped back before or after taking the picture? Stepped back after taking one of the cop photos? So after the webcast, I asked her about this explicitly. She told me that she took the picture from the curb, adding that between the presidential limo and the motorcycle cops there wasn't a lot of room in the street. It wasn't safe.
One of the themes of the May 24 interview, it seemed to me, was discrediting Jean Hill. I know many find her a problematic witness. I don't have a strong opinion about her. Haven't read The Last Dissenting Witness.
I was especially interested in comparing the Hill and Moorman accounts of being taken to that press room by Jim Featherstone. In particular, I wanted to ask her about one Jean Hill's statements, which I re-read a few nights before in the WC volumes.
I'd scrawled an abridged version of this statement into my notes, which I read to Mrs. Moorman. Jean Hill is telling the WC about her encounter with a man she took to be a Secret Service agent. "They keep saying three shots," she testified telling this man. "I said, I know I heard more…he said, Mrs. Hill, we heard more shots too, but we have three wounds and we have three bullets, three shots is all that we are willing to say right now.'" [WC vol. 6, pp. 220-21.]
Moorman told me she had no recollection of this exchange. But she acknowledged the scene was very chaotic. She could have missed it.
I chatted briefly with Mrs. Moorman before the interview began, too. I found her sitting alone at a small table near the set, signing copies of her picture. They were being sold for two bucks, and I bought one. (I hesitate to relate this anecdote. I do not think Mrs. Moorman makes a habit of signing and selling cheap prints of the picture. The copy I bought had a Brass Armadillo sticker on back, so I think she was asked to do this signing.)
The Brass Armadillo, where Mary Ann Moorman's interview took place on May 24, is only about half an hour from where I live, so I went down there for the webcast.
By now the interview has been posted to the iantique website, so I won't belabor any of that. But I did get to talk with Mrs. Moorman for a few minutes afterward.
First, I should point out I've never been interested in where Mary Moorman was standing when she took her famous photo, so my questions about that were probably not too incisive.
During the webcast, Moorman told interviewer Gary Stover that she stepped into the street twice, to take pictures of two motorcycle cops in the motorcade, both of whom she knew. Stover then asked if she stepped into the street for her JFK photo. My scribbled notes have her replying, "I'm pretty sure I stepped back just on the very edge of the curb to get on the grass." (This is more or less accurate but I should probably check it with the video.)
In any case, I thought this answer was a little ambiguous. She stepped back before or after taking the picture? Stepped back after taking one of the cop photos? So after the webcast, I asked her about this explicitly. She told me that she took the picture from the curb, adding that between the presidential limo and the motorcycle cops there wasn't a lot of room in the street. It wasn't safe.
One of the themes of the May 24 interview, it seemed to me, was discrediting Jean Hill. I know many find her a problematic witness. I don't have a strong opinion about her. Haven't read The Last Dissenting Witness.
I was especially interested in comparing the Hill and Moorman accounts of being taken to that press room by Jim Featherstone. In particular, I wanted to ask her about one Jean Hill's statements, which I re-read a few nights before in the WC volumes.
I'd scrawled an abridged version of this statement into my notes, which I read to Mrs. Moorman. Jean Hill is telling the WC about her encounter with a man she took to be a Secret Service agent. "They keep saying three shots," she testified telling this man. "I said, I know I heard more…he said, Mrs. Hill, we heard more shots too, but we have three wounds and we have three bullets, three shots is all that we are willing to say right now.'" [WC vol. 6, pp. 220-21.]
Moorman told me she had no recollection of this exchange. But she acknowledged the scene was very chaotic. She could have missed it.
I chatted briefly with Mrs. Moorman before the interview began, too. I found her sitting alone at a small table near the set, signing copies of her picture. They were being sold for two bucks, and I bought one. (I hesitate to relate this anecdote. I do not think Mrs. Moorman makes a habit of signing and selling cheap prints of the picture. The copy I bought had a Brass Armadillo sticker on back, so I think she was asked to do this signing.)