The mysterious Babuska Lady
The ‘Babushka Lady is a nickname for an unknown woman present during the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy who might have photographed the events that occurred in Dallas’ Dealey Plaza at the time President John F. Kennedy was shot.
It is possible that she could be the key to either prove or disprove many of the conspiracy theories surrounding the assassination of JFK.
It’s clear that the Babushka Lady took numerous photos of JFK during the moments of his assassination. However, none of her photos have materialised, and she has never come forward or been positively identified.
The Babushka Woman Mystery in detail
Why is she called the Babushka Woman?
Her nickname arose from the headscarf she wore similar to scarves worn by elderly Russian women (– babushka – literally means “grandmother” or “old woman” in Russian). The Babushka Lady was seen to be holding a camera by eyewitnesses and was also seen in film accounts of the assassination.
JFK Evidence
She was observed standing on the grass between Elm and Main streets and can be seen in the Zapruder film as well as in the films of Orville Nix, Marie Muchmore, and Mark Bell (44 seconds and 49 seconds into the Bell film: even though the shooting had already taken place and most of her surrounding witnesses took cover, she can be seen still standing with the camera at her face).
Witness vanished!
After the shooting, she crossed Elm Street and joined the crowd that went up the grassy knoll. She is last seen in photographs walking east on Elm Street. Neither she, nor the film she may have taken, has yet been positively identified; no known photograph with her in frame captured her face, because in all cases she was facing away from the camera or (in the case of the Zapruder film) had her face obscured by her own camera.
She was never seen again
House Select Committee on Assassinations report?
In March 1979, the Photographic Evidence Panel of the United States House Select Committee on Assassinations indicated that they were unable to locate any film attributed to the Babushka Lady. According to their report: “Initially, Robert Groden, a photographic consultant to the committee advised the panel as to pertinent photographic issues and related materials. Committee investigators located many of the suggested films and photographs, however, some items were never located, i.e. the Babushka Lady film, a color photograph by Norman Similas, and the original negative of the Betzner photograph.”
Recent Developments
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 the 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 the presidential 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.
Polls have shown that the majority of Americans still believe that Lee Harvey Oswald did not act alone when he shot President John F. Kennedy at Dealey Plaza in Dallas on November 22nd 1963. The most common contention of JFK conspiracy theorists is that a second unidentified gunman fired at President Kennedy from the ‘grassy knoll’, as he and his entourage went by in the presidential motorcade. Some allege that the CIA, the Mafia, Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson, the KGB or President of Cuba Fidel Castro were involved in a conspiracy to bring JFK’s presidency to a violent end. Some have even alleged that his wife, Jackie Kennedy, was involved in a plot – or that she fired the fatal bullet herself.