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From: Jasper
Date: 8/11/03
Time: 9:15:26 AM
Remote Name: 68.73.56.249
Pat V,
Glad to have you back with us. Of course I remember the phone conversation you mentioned.
The crazy thing about anyone accepting the Harry Scull photo or the E.J. Flammer photos (the ones presented in the civil trial) is their dubious pedigree. The only thing certain about their origin is that they passed through one of the few photo labs on the planet at the time that could have produced convincing fakes.
The Scull photos were less than convincing – exactly what you would expect in a test run. The Flammer photos were very convincing – exactly what you would expect from a professional photographer who learned from his first mistakes. Rob McElroy, the “agent” for Scull and Flammer, was a professional photographer. He had the expertise to carry the fakes as far as the technology available to him would allow and to know whether the photo lab did its job correctly in carrying them the rest of the way.
McElroy’s “commission” for the Scull photos was several times greater than Scull’s. Now you tell me who did the work and why Scull’s friend E.J. Flammer used McElroy as HIS agent. Flammer’s cut of the sale of the pictures to the National Enquirer vs. McElroy’s cut was never disclosed.
I didn’t know that the “contact prints” disappeared after the civil trial. If so, the telltale emulsion numbers could explain why they disappeared. However, it seems to me that a professional photographer would have been aware of the significance of film stock emulsion numbers. If possible, wouldn’t he have used an emulsion that was manufactured at the appropriate time? Otherwise, it would have been like trying to sell a fake Van Gough on a canvas that was manufactured in 1980. The question is, how long was the self-life of the emulsion?
To me, the peculiar circumstances of the photos’ existence, which include the people necessary to fake them (McElroy and the lab) and to insure their exclusivity (Denny Lynch and Bill Munson), are more than enough to tell us they were fakes. --Jasper