Secrets of the Gardner Surveillance Video (The Indoor Camera) Part 1
The video seems more like raw footage than any kind of an
“excerpt.” The view switches back and forth pretty consistently between an outside camera and an inside
camera about every three seconds, for six minutes forty
seconds. The video timestamps of the two surveillance cameras reflect eight
minutes have passed, although there does not seem to be any glaring gaps in
what is presented.
Of greatest note, are:
a. 50 seconds of footage of the two guards prior to the Visitor’s arrival,
b. nine seconds of footage of the Visitor driving,
c. eight seconds of the visitor’s car with the visitor still inside of it,
d.12 seconds of the visitor outside of the museum, and
e. a total of twenty four seconds of footage showing the visitor inside.
Combined, that comes to: one minute forty three seconds of potentially germane, usable video footage. The fact that only about a quarter of the surveillance tape seems to show anything of potential value and is mixed in with what could be informative footage probably puts many off from making an effort.
a. 50 seconds of footage of the two guards prior to the Visitor’s arrival,
b. nine seconds of footage of the Visitor driving,
c. eight seconds of the visitor’s car with the visitor still inside of it,
d.12 seconds of the visitor outside of the museum, and
e. a total of twenty four seconds of footage showing the visitor inside.
Combined, that comes to: one minute forty three seconds of potentially germane, usable video footage. The fact that only about a quarter of the surveillance tape seems to show anything of potential value and is mixed in with what could be informative footage probably puts many off from making an effort.
Add to that the constant switching back and forth between
the well-lit security station inside and the dimly lit darkness outside. It is difficult to maintain a train of thought while viewing it. The
quality of these images, of the Visitor particularly have been described as
grainy, dark, shadowy and incomplete by the journalists and individuals in
authority.
Shortly after its release it was reported that “FBI
agents who investigated the case had been aware of the video for years but had
judged releasing it to the public of limited value, primarily because at no time is
the man’s face shown on camera,” Kevin Cullen of the Boston Globe
reported, attributing that line of thinking to the then outgoing head of the
FBI’s Boston office, Vincent Lisi. (Not exactly true).
Yet despite the low quality of the video and the position
of the cameras in relation to the Visitor there is a great deal of information
that is conveyed. It is not so much clues necessarily as bona fides perhaps to be used to authenticate control of
the paintings, and the narrative, by a person desperate for leverage, facing serious legal charges
at that moment in time.
My previous blog post "Secrets of the Gardner Museum Surveillance Video (The Outdoor Camera)" goes into some of the information that may be gleaned from outside of the Museum.
The meeting inside the museum between Gardner Museum Secrurity Guard Rick Abath and the visitor takes all of three minutes and 18 seconds. In addition, there is a continuous stretch of over two
minutes starting, at the 2:43 mark where the visitor is completely off camera. There
is no activity of note of any kind recorded by the camera facing outside onto Palace Road
In addition, the last one minute and fourteen seconds of the released video once the visitor’s car pulls away at the 5:26 mark is also utterly lacking in
any useful information.
The public was asked for help identifying the individual and perhaps the car from the night before the Museum robbery. Both the car and the visitor are gone for the final one minute and fourteen seconds of the “excerpt.” And there is nothing happening on either the outdoor or inside cameras during this time.
The public was asked for help identifying the individual and perhaps the car from the night before the Museum robbery. Both the car and the visitor are gone for the final one minute and fourteen seconds of the “excerpt.” And there is nothing happening on either the outdoor or inside cameras during this time.
Combined, these two increments of footage, represent very nearly half (49+%) of all the footage yet
they seem to offer no view of the visitor or any discernable insight into who the person in question might be.
In the other segments of the indoor portion, the visitor
comes in and out of the view of the surveillance several times. Nearly two thirds of the meeting between
Abath and the visitor take place off camera. Occasionally the top of Abath’s head can
be seen when the Visitor is off camera but it is impossible to even determine
what direction he faces with complete certainty.
Assuming that the Visitor is there for nefarious purposes
and that the guard Rick Abath is aware of that fact, then Abath could well have assisted the visitor in and around the camera's not quite relentless eye. We should assume he did advise the visitor about how to stay off
camera, which the visitor mostly did, but not completely.
Abath too, perhaps had provided a guide for getting on camera as well as keeping off of it. One
constant of the video’s indoor component, a Stetson cowboy hat, sits squarely on
the counter. It is positioned in such a way that the outer brim of the hat
camera serves as line of demarcation between what is on and what is off camera.
In addition there is a publication or stack of papers,
whose lower right corner appears consistently throughout the indoor portions of
the video on a table across from the counter.
Anyone or anything on the left side that paper is off camera, while anything to the right of it is picked up on surveillance. These unfixed items at the borders of the surveillance camera’s range, could have served as guides, like the colored chalk or tape on a stage floor during a theatrical production. CONTINUE TO PART 2
Anyone or anything on the left side that paper is off camera, while anything to the right of it is picked up on surveillance. These unfixed items at the borders of the surveillance camera’s range, could have served as guides, like the colored chalk or tape on a stage floor during a theatrical production. CONTINUE TO PART 2
Find out what might be learned from the surveillance camera that was positioned outside of the Museum in the first installment of this series called: "Secrets of the Gardner Museum Surveillance Video (The Outdoor Camera)"
