Warren Commission (10 of 26): Hearings Vol. X (of 15)United States. Warren Commission
History
Warren Commission (10 of 26): Hearings Vol. X (of 15)
United States. Warren Commission
Kennedy, John F. (John Fitzgerald), 1917-1963 -- Assassination; Oswald, Lee Harvey
This period is rather indistinct because all this was going on--it
isn't a case of being able to devote all of one's time to a training,
at the same time that he was being trained, there was other work that
had to be produced, so he didn't receive--the full benefit, shall I
say, of all of my time. I would say rather, he received just the time
that I could allow him, which I always wanted to give him more time but
never seemed to find that time, so little by little, as I say, this
period is very indistinct, but little by little he learned to handle
the various papers and the films and then we began teaching him how to
work the modification cameras beginning with straight shooting.
In other words--normal sizing of flax copy and also how to build jobs.
Each man is more or less an integrated supply of the work. The normal
thing in our department is for a man to pick up a job or jobs, go back
and shoot them, develop them, print them, dry them, bring them back up,
cut them out, and bring them back up to the front of the department.
Mr. JENNER. When you say "print them," you mean make prints from the
negatives?
Mr. GRAEF. Make prints from the negatives on photographic paper, bring
them back up to the front, reorganize them with their proper job
tickets, and then take those finished jobs up to the front delivery
desk. So, Lee began straight shooting--normal enlargement and reduction
of straight copy.
Mr. JENNER. Now, you mean by straight copy--do you distinguish that
from the--from distortion photographing?
Mr. GRAEF. Distortion work; yes. Now, the time that it took to bring
him up to this point may have been 2 or 3 months, at any rate. It was
at this time that we began, or he began to make a few mistakes on
sizing. He would take a job back and it might be that his orders were
to make it 4 inches wide and when the final print came up it might be
4-1/4 inches wide or 4-1/8 inches wide and this would have to be done
over.
Mr. JENNER. Now, as much a difference as one-eighth of an inch on
sizing as against an order for, let's say, exactly 4 inches or for
one-eighth of an inch, as the case might be, would make that particular
work unusable?
Mr. GRAEF. Correct.
Mr. JENNER. This has to be exactitude?
Mr. GRAEF. Right. This didn't mean that every job was wrong, but
little by little as the days passed and we got into--we'll say--into
the fourth and fifth month of his employment, more and more he was
being relied upon to produce this exact work and there were too many
times--it was his mistakes were above normal--he was making too many
mistakes. Of course, we helped him as much as we could to do a better
job.
Mr. JENNER. Was it your impression along about this area that the
errors were ones of lack of skill, or do you have a recollection now of
any attributing on your part of those errors to lack of interest, lack
of industry, dissatisfaction with the position--would you give me your
impression in this connection, please?
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