Mary Moorman
Mary Moorman | |
|---|---|
 Mary Moorman in the Dallas County Sheriff's office on the evening of the assassination | |
| Born | Mary Ann Boshart August 5, 1932 |
| Spouse(s) |
Donald G. Moorman
(m. 1952; div. 1973)Gary Krahmer (m. 1980) |
| Children | 1 |
Mary Ann Moorman (née Boshart; born August 5, 1932) is an American woman who chanced to photograph US President John F. Kennedy a fraction of a second after he was fatally shot in the head in Dallas, Texas. The Badge Man, whom conspiracy theorists claim is one of Kennedy's assassins, is purportedly visible in another of her photographs taken that day.
Biography[edit]
Mary Ann Moorman was born Mary Ann Boshart. She married Donald G. Moorman in 1952 and divorced him in 1973.[1] She later married Gary Krahmer in 1980.
Assassination witness[edit]
On November 22, 1963, U.S. President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas.
Moorman stated that her 11-year-old son had wanted to see Kennedy, but was unable to attend because of school. She said she promised to take a picture for him.[2]
Moorman was standing on grass about 2 feet (61 cm) south of the south curb of Elm Street in Dealey Plaza, directly across from the grassy knoll and the North Pergola concrete structure that Abraham Zapruder and his assistant Marilyn Sitzman were standing on – during the assassination. Moorman stated that she stepped off the grass onto the street to take a photo with her Polaroid camera. Zapruder can be seen standing on the pergola in the Moorman photograph, with the presidential limousine already having passed through the line of sight between Zapruder and Moorman.
Both Moorman and her friend, Jean Hill, can be clearly seen in the Zapruder film.[3] Between Zapruder frames 315 and 316, Moorman took a Polaroid photograph, her fifth that day, showing the presidential limousine with the grassy knoll area in the background.
Moorman's photograph captured the fatal head shot that killed President Kennedy. When she took it – approximately one sixth of a second after President Kennedy was struck in the head at Zapruder frame 313, Moorman was standing behind and to the left of President Kennedy, about 15 feet (5 m) from the presidential limousine.[4] Moorman said in a TV interview that immediately after the assassination, there were three or four shots close together, that shots were still being fired after the fatal head shot, and that she was in the line of fire.[5] She later stated in a 2013 PBS documentary Kennedy Half Century that she was close enough to hear Jackie Kennedy exclaim that John had been shot.
In 2013, Moorman attempted to sell the original Polaroid through Cowan's Auctions in Cincinnati.[6][7] The photo was expected to sell for between $50,000 and $75,000, but did not meet its reserve.[7] It ultimately sold there. She had previously tried selling the photo to Sotheby's in New York, but the auction house deemed it to be "too sensitive to auction".[7] That same year, she expressed her opinion on the assassination; she was convinced that Kennedy was killed as a result