Courtroom sketch of Lyndal Shaneyfelt testifying during the Clay Shaw trial

Because cameras were not allowed in the courtroom during the Shaw trial, TV news employed sketch artists to create color drawings of the proceedings for their evening newscast. - Gary Mack, Curator

Lyndal L. Shaneyfelt (1916-2014) was a document examiner and photographic expert with the FBI. He joined the Bureau in 1940 and became a special agent in 1951. As a special agent assigned to the document section of the FBI laboratory in Washington, D.C., Shaneyfelt testified to the Warren Commission in 1964, having analyzed film and photographs to determine the site and angle of the bullets fired. Five years later, he was called to testify at the Clay Shaw trial in New Orleans. During his testimony, the defense objected to another screening of the Abraham Zapruder home movie of the assassination, arguing that it had already been shown in the courtroom three separate times--once at full speed, once in slow motion and frame by frame. [Filmmaker Abraham Zapruder had testified the day before.] With the jury removed from the courtroom, the film was screened once for Mr. Shaneyfelt. After the jury returned to the courtroom, the judge overruled the defense objection, and the film was shown once again with the jury present. Afterwards, Shaneyfelt was asked a series of specific questions about his study of the Zapruder film during the Warren Commission investigation. -- Stephen Fagin, Curator