Tags
Doug Dorst, Havana Cuba, Hotel San Sebastian, ILFORD HP5, JJ Abrams, June 5 1946, June 6 1946, V.M. Straka, VM Straka
There are photos that are p
urported to be of the hotel room V.M. Straka was staying at in the Hotel San Sebastian in Cuba the night of June 5, 1946, when he was supposed to meet Filomela Caldeira for the first time. Pages x-xiii in the Foreword describe how FXC waited in the hotel restaurant for VMS until midnight. She persuaded the desk clerk to take her up to the room where she found the third-floor hotel room ransacked,
an open window, and what appeared to be a body in the alley being loaded onto a truck.
At least on photo is mentioned in “S”. Eric writes in the margins on xii…
JUST GOT WORD THAT A PHOTO OF THE SCENE IS UP FOR AUCTION. APPEARED OUT OF NOWHERE. I’M OFF TO NYC.
On p220, another conversation in the marginalia mentions the photo.
Here Eric and Jen are helping us understand that the doubt over the truth about what happened in Havana is strong.
Four photos appear on the site EOTVOSWHEEL.COM, which has generally been regarded as “in-game” to the “S” story, written by a Straka devotee not unlike Eric and Jen. The site is rife with great information regarding Straka candidates, the Santorini man murders, and more.
However, a closer examination reveals that the photos are fakes. Here are three reasons why…
The Film
The film used to take the pictures is revealed at the bottom-right-hand of each photograph: ILFORD HP5 PL (or PLUS). This film did not exist as HP5 until 1976, and as HP5 PLUS until 1989. If the photographs had been taken the day of the scene, another film entirely would have been utilized.
The Date
The date on the photographs is June 5, 1949. However, we know from FXC that she did not even visit the room until after midnight, which would have been June 6. These photographs are taken in daylight, which means it would have had to have been June 6 or later.
The Frame Number
My good friend Mike, aka @anabramsfan, pointed out that the frame number from the negative roll is the same for all four photos: 17. You can see it at the top of each photograph. What this means is that someone took staged photographs and used the same background template to form all four fakes – not bothering to worry about advancing the frame number.
Mike went so far as to find the actual source for the background template. It was taken by Kale Taylor Photography on April 10, 2011. You can tell it is the same template used in the fake photographs – check out the stock number 3965 at the bottom left of each photo. It matches the template. You might say this is truly a work of negative space (pun intended).
The Jen Heyward Tumblr Blog
Jen Heyward’s tumblr blog, which boasts the original ending to Ship of Theseus as written, so it is thought, by V.M. Straka, also has a photograph of his obituary. In the background of the obituary, you can see what appears to be a contact sheet from the “original negatives” of all four photographs. If this is true, and the photographs are fake, it means that Eric and Jen are the ones who faked them.
Conclusion
Others have pointed out before that the film was anachronistic with the supposed date of the photograph, but considered it sloppy production by the publisher. What if instead it was sloppy work by the in-story forger? And we are meant to discover this so that we can piece together the true story of “S” more accurately? This is just one more piece of evidence to prove that V.M. Straka did not die in Havana, Cuba.
One more thought. Note that in each photograph, there is a string of numbers and letters with the following pattern: two letters, six numbers, and a single letter. What if the forger knew that his intended audience would see these photographs and embedded a secret code into them so that he could get his/her message safely through? If so, then perhaps our next cipher is right here…
KV909562A
TR909267B
TY514728W
VX856712W
Thoughts On "S" 
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hi, interesting point! I only know am taking in consideration out of book material for analise. I liked your view point though. I would like to mention that it is quiet strange that all four photos provided are film negatives damaged like if it was a photo printed on paper. And the damage are the same in all photos. It is one more proof to your teory!
Francisco, you are correct! I didn’t notice that until you pointed it out. The first two photos have exactly the same damage and the last two have exactly the same damage. If they are negatives, then the paper wrinkles would not be there at all. Nice catch!
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I belive the first photo (grand plan of hotel room) is done in the same studio used to make the 2nd video trailer to the book publication.
@ Francisco I think you are correct about the first picture and Eric does say that the “photo” was up for auction. The pictures provided by eotvoswheel.com were in fact negatives, as you mentioned in your first comment. What police dept. or investigator would turn over the negatives or copies of the negatives to anyone outside the case. A copy maybe, but not the negatives. The first photo could actually be the photo that was auctioned off, but transferred to the Ilford HP5 PL negative or ‘photoshopped’ into the copy as noted.
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hey, one question.. on page 390 Eric says that he received a copy of the photo and Jen says to be carefull cause it might be fake, as someone could have changed something to mess up with them.
just because of Jen’s tumblr photo, you think they were the ones who faked the photos? do you know more about it?
That’s a great point to make. It leaves ambiguous whether the photo was fake at all and if it was, who faked it? Also, they do empahsize that it was just one photo. Here we have several. Are they related in any way at all to the photo discussed in the book? All unanswered questions.