Sources
CD-Rom
JFK Assassination: a Visual Investigation
Wilbur Films Multimedia, Medio Multimedia Inc
Redmond, WA 98025-5515, USA, 1993.
[Note 2021. See also archive.org]
CD-Rom
The Encyclopedia of the JFK Assassination
Bob Harris and Jane Rusconi
ZCI Publishing, The Infomart, 1950 Stemmons, Suite 6048
Dallas TX 75207-3109, USA. 1994
The writer of this review is of the generation that still can not readily take on board the awesome amount of information that can be contained on one plastic CD-ROM. But here it is now, and it’s comparatively cheap and widely available.
We’ve always wanted the 26 volumes of the Warren Commission Hearings (and Exhibits), but how could we afford them and even if we could, where would we put them? Stick around, somebody will soon be producing them on one CD-ROM for under a hundred bucks, and the House Select Committee evidentiary volumes too. Further down the line I can see boxed sets of CDs containing every shred of (released) paper relating to the assassination from the files of the CIA, the FBI, the NSA….And then we’ll be complaining about CD-ROMs taking up too much room.
But what of the two CD-ROMs under review, the first I believe to have been produced on the subject of JFK’s assassination? JFK Assassination: a Visual Investigation, Investigation as I shall refer to it hereafter, is professionally produced, has marvellously clear graphics, good sound and, most importantly, is easy to navigate and use.
There are six main sections: Introduction, Overview, Dealey Plaza, Films and Photos, Analysis and Text; and each of these opens up to further divisions, all of them richly rewarding, even for JFK burn-outs.
The Films section has the Zapruder, Nix, Hughes and Muchmore films, in their entirety and these can be viewed at Normal or Slow speed in either ‘windowed’ of Full Screen size. The Zapruder film chapter also offers close-up sequences of JFK himself and the Little Girl Running (Rosemary Willis). Further the Z-film frames are numbered so identification has never been easier. There’s also an accompanying text that outlines the history of the film and how it has been interpreted by the Warren Commission, the House Select Committee, the critics and even Gerald Posner.
The Dealey Plaza presentation contains a witness map, a topgraphical map and plan of where the main photographers and cameramen were standing. By clicking on the topics of interest one can all up voice-over information, text, film footage and photos (including the two Altgens pictures and all twelve of the Willis slides).
The analysis and presentation of the Warren Commission, the House Select Committee and the critics’ cases is comprehensive and detailed. Clicking through these sections one is constantly reminded of people, incidents and ideas one has forgotten about over the years. An added bonus is the quite dazzling animated 3-D computer simulations of bullet trajectories, viewing angles and so on in Dealey Plaza. These have been painstakingly plotted and appear to be accurate.
The Text section constains the entire Warren Report, Jim Marrs’ Crossfire: the Plot that Killed Kennedy (New York, Carrroll and Graf, 1989) and The Assassination of JFK: A Complete Book of Facts, an almanac-style compendium of people, places, events and ideas compiled by Vincent L. Ricci and James P. Duffy, author of Who Killed JFK? (New York: Shapolsky, 1989, and under the title of The Web: Kennedasy Assassination Cover-up, Gloucester, England: Alan Sutton, 1988).
There are many hundreds of photos reproduced and described covering all aspects of the case, from Oswald’s early years through to the investigatory aftermath and beyond. All of the important Dallas pictures are here (colour and b and w) and I came across quite a few that I hadn’t seen before. There’s even a portrait of James Altgens.
If the Investigations has good clear graphics and is easy to use, the Encyclopedia is at the other end of the spectrum. The graphics are poor, many of the photographs and documents are illegible, and finding your way about is difficult and confusing.
The Encyclopedia opens with a thirty-six minute multimedia presentation on the assassination that is slow and superficial. Then there are some twenty original essays by Rusconi and Harris exploring various aspects of the case. These have their heart in the right place though I’m sure they’ll produce many a yawn from the seasoned critic.
However, the essays have some 15,000 active references (I didn’t count them all, I’m reading from the box) that tie in with the ‘documentation’ which here consists of the Warren Report, the House Select Committee Report, (both in their entirety), and letters, reports and interviews (some edited down) generated by both inquiries, many of which are hard to read.
I didn’t count all of the photos but the box assures us there are more than 1,100. A lot of them look as if they’ve been taken from poor (printed) originals and I soon found my eyes aching from straining at the monitor. Included here also are some 158 full screen frames from the Zapruder film, but unlike the Investigation they don’t move and they’re in b &w.
The Encyclopedia concludes with some 163 Questions and 600 hypertext Explanations (ex info, the box) an Exam (yet!), and even photos of Rusconi and Harris.
If you are only going to buy one of these CD-ROMs, the smart money will go with the Investigation but, alas, it does not contain the House Select Committee Report, so the Encyclopedia will have to go on the shopping list too for that reason alone.
I wish I could be more positive about the Encyclopedia. It is firmly pro-conspiracy where the Investigation is open-minded (you decide, it says) and Jane Rusconi certainly knows her way about this neck of the woods – she was responsible for the valuable research notes in JFK: the Book of the Film (New York: Applause Books, 1992)
I paid £35.00 for the Investigation in the UK and about $40.00 (I think, I can’t find the VISA slip) for the Encyclopedia in the States, but shop around, prices are continually falling.
Even if you have both the Warren and House Select Committee Reports on your bookshelf you still need them on CD-ROM for one very simple reason. The Warren Report sports a very unsatisfactory and selective index (running to only 8 ppps in the Doubleday edition I have) and the House Select Report is bereft of one altogether, whereas on a CD-ROM with the SEARCH facility every word is effectively indexed. So, call up SEARCH, type in the name or word you want and you’ll instantly get a list of all the references that appear, click on them, and you’re into the main text. This also applies to the rest of the textual matter elsewhere on the CD-ROM.
But there’s one small snag, however. Neither CD-ROM gives any indication of the original pagination of the texts they’ve included and there is no new pagination or referencing system substituted. You find yourself adrift in an ocean of words and you have to scroll up and find a chapter or section heading to get your bearings and identify your position. I’ve then been going back to the printed versions for the actual page number. It is tiresome I know, but there’s no choice if you want to give a reference. Perhaps in the future we’ll have footnotes like this:
SEARCH: Ferrie
CLICK: 16th listing
Anthony Frewin
Footnote for Techies: Both CD-ROMs are available in PC or MAC versions. I run the PC versions on a Dell Optiplex 466. This is a 486DX2 66 Mhz machine with a 24-bit graphic card, an internal double-speed Panasonic 562 CD-ROM drive and a Gravis Ultrasound sound-card. And remember, before you purchase, check the system requirements of both CD-ROMs with your supplier.