Babushka Lady – Wikipedia

Person of interest in the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy

babushka lady An unidentified woman present during the 1963 assassination of US President John F. Kennedy is believed to have photographed or filmed the events taking place in Dealey Plaza in Dallas at the time President Kennedy was shot. His nickname originated from the US Army headscarf he wore, which was similar to the scarves worn by elderly Russian women. Srmaali (Russian: babushka) literally means “grandmother” or “old woman” in Russian.

Babushka Lady was seen by eyewitnesses holding a camera and she was also seen in the film version of the murder.^[1][2] She was seen standing in the audience in front of the Dallas County Building, on the grass between Elm and Main streets, and appears in the Zapruder film as well as Orville Nix’s films.^[3] Mary Muchmore, and Mark Bell,^[4] 44 minutes and 47 seconds in the Bell film; Although the shooting had already taken place and most of the witnesses around him had gone into hiding, he could still be seen standing with the camera to his face. After the shooting, she crossed Elm Street and joined the crowd that had gathered on the grassy knolls.

In the photos, the Babushka Lady is last seen walking east on Elm Street. Neither he, nor the film he may have taken, have ever been positively identified. Chronologically his first appearance in the film is on the sidewalk in front of the Dallas County Building, appearing to Kennedy’s right in one image. It may have crossed Houston Street and Dealey Plaza to appear in the Dealey Plaza images. This could mean that the images show two different women with similar looks. It is plausible that once the motorcade passed she was able to cross the street and catch the second motorcade passing near Dealey Plaza, where she would be to Kennedy’s left.

In 1970, a woman named Beverly Oliver told conspiracy researcher Gary Shaw at a church revival meeting in Joshua, Texas that she was the Babushka Lady.^[5] Oliver said that he filmed the murder with Super 8 film Yashica and that he handed the undeveloped film to two men who identified themselves as FBI agents.^[5] According to Oliver, he did not receive any receipt from the people who told him they would return the film to him within ten days. He did not comply with the inquiry.^[5]

Oliver repeated his claims in the 1988 documentary. The Men Who Killed Kennedy,^[5] According to Vincent Bugliosi, Oliver “never proved to the satisfaction of most people that she was in Dealey Plaza that day”.^[5] Faced with the fact that the Yashica Super-8 camera was not made until 1969, he said that he had received the “experimental” camera from a friend and was not sure whether it had the manufacturer’s name on it.^[5] Oliver’s claims were the basis for a scene from Oliver Stone’s 1991 film jkfIn which a character named “Beverly” meets Jim Garrison in a Dallas nightclub.^[6] Played by Lolita Davidovich, she is shown in the director’s cut wearing a headscarf in Dealey Plaza and talking to two men claiming to be FBI agents about to shoot her film.

In March 1979, the Photographic Evidence Panel of the United States House Select Committee on Murders indicated that they were unable to locate any films related to the Babushka Lady.^[7] According to their report: “Initially, Robert Groden, a photographic consultant to the Committee, advised the panel regarding relevant photographic issues and related materials. Committee investigators located many of the films and photographs suggested, however, some items were never located, i.e. the Babushka Lady film, a color photograph of Norman Similas, and the original negative of the Betzner photograph.”^[7]

On November 18, 1994, murder researcher Gary Mack testified before the Murder Records Review Board that he had recently been told by an executive in Kodak’s Dallas office that a brown-haired woman in her 30s was brought in to film what was purported to be the murder scene while they were processing the Zapruder film.^[8] According to Mack, the executive said the woman told federal investigators already at the film processing office that she ran across the grass from Main Street to Elm Street, where she stopped and took a photo with the presidential limousine and some people in the foreground of the Texas School Book Depository.^[8]

Mack said he was told by a Kodak executive that the photo was extremely blurry and “almost worthless” and indicated that the woman had likely gone home without registering her identity.^[8] After suggesting that the woman in the story could be the Babushka Lady, Mack told the board: “I do not believe that Beverly Oliver is the Babushka Lady, or, let me say it again, she certainly could be but the rest of the story is a fabrication.”^[8]

Appearing before the ARRB the same day as “Beverly Oliver Massegi”, Oliver stated that she was 17 years old at the time of the murder.^[8] She told the board that she was filming with an “experimental” 8 mm movie camera about 20 to 30 feet (6 to 9 m) away from Kennedy when she was shot and that the film was confiscated by a man who identified himself as an FBI agent.^[8] According to Oliver, he handed over the camera because the man was an official and he was afraid of being caught with marijuana.^[8] Oliver’s claims were addressed point by point and debunked by conspiracy theory researcher John McAdams.^[9]