PAUL GINSBERG, AUDIO ARCHAEOLOGIST

Recently we were presented with a large 10-inch diameter reel of tape containing 960 hours of 911 police telephone and two-way radio recordings from 1980. This 32-year old tape was made on a machine that is outdated, and the manufacurer is no longer in business. No parts, no support, no service. The assignment was to locate a 911 call from a business that was being robbed, where the off-duty police officer security guard had been shot and later died. After performing some tests and experimeting, not only was the call located and downloaded, but so were six hours of two-way radio communications including full descriptions of the perpetrators and their car. This evidentiary material will be used in the prosecution of the suspects, finally, 32 years later.

Radio personality and friend, Jackie Martling, asked if I could retrieve and download original broadcast recordings of a live club date of Jackie Mason, also recorded in 1980. The reels were recorded on a machine running at a very high speed. After downloading the reels at normal speed, I digitally changed speed, enhanced the recordings, and produced CD copies.

The oldest recording came to me in the form of a download from a small plastic record sent by a serviceman in 1944 (69 years ago ! ! ! ) to his wife while he was on leave in San Francisco. The record had severe scratches and was barely audible. After using some advanced forensic techniques, his voice was audible, and was played to his descendents around the Christmas table.

 

P.A.L. Expands to New All-Digital Facility

We have just completed our move to our new larger, all-digital laboratory, and it is exciting. After running digital, audio, video and power lines, our new laboratory is complete and in full operation. We can now digitally enhance, duplicate, and examine recordings of all formats, from consumer microcassettes and cassettes, to the newest, most sophisticated digital surveillance recorders, including the F-Bird, Eagle, and Hawk, all with immediate turn around so that the intelligence gathered can be returned to you for timely review.

Paul Ginsberg Discusses Newest Bin Laden Tape on CNN

 

As a recognized leader in the field of recorded evidentiary conversations and electronic surveillance, Mr. Ginsberg is a frequent guest on CNN, FOX, MSNBC, as well as the New York Times, Bergen Record, The New York Post and the Newark Star Ledger, discussing the newest Bin Laden tapes, the missing 18-1/2 minutes on the Nixon Watergate tape, 911 Port Authority recordings, and the President Kennedy Dealey Plaza assassination recording.

Dead Man Talking

That is the name of a segment on the “Geraldo at Large” television show in which Paul Ginsberg analyzed, and digitally enhanced a 911 call to police, to demonstrate that the wealthy elderly husband of a recent young wife calling to say that her husband had died, was still alive and calling for help at the time of the call. What was first thought to be death by natural causes, is now being questioned. The body is being exhumed.

Reel Old Tapes

Recently a large brokerage firm came to us with a large number of 10-inch diameter, 60-channel reels of recordings. There are two places to find machines capable of playback of these reels: the Smithsonian and our lab. We played the reels, downloaded the pertinent information, enhanced the files for intelligibility, and generated enhanced CD’s with the relevant conversations, ready for review and presentation.

Hollywood Calls –We Answer

A major Hollywood production company has contracted with Paul Ginsberg to assist in the production of a screenplay about the Nixon Watergate tape and its missing 18-1/2 minutes. It will be an exciting movie with a number of surprises. Mr. Ginsberg promises that the technical part of the movie will be accurate and as true to life, as possible. He lends his 30 years of expertise to the lead character while he tries to decipher the secrets of the missing 18-1/2 minutes.

Back to Real Life

Just a reminder that our main business is that of enhancing recordings that are evidentiary in nature. Please call so that we can provide you with a whole different level of support – expertise, experience, and quick turn-around. We look forward to assisting with your next case involving recordings.

Paul Ginsberg Explains How the Governor’s Telephone Was Tapped.

A cassette of telephone conversations with Governor Pataki, Mrs. Pataki, and an aide, was sent anonymously to the New York Post. The newspaper went to Mr. Ginsberg to see what he could determine about the manner in which the tape had been made. Mr. Ginsberg, using state-of-the-art forensic equipment and techniques, determined that there were 88 discontinuities in the recording, and concluded that there were other tapes of conversations, not yet released. Read the NY Post article on his analysis in the NEWS section of this website.

 

The Voice of a “Dead Man” Made Audible

In Sarasota, Florida, a 70-year old man was having a heart attack. His new wife, a nurse, called 911 to report his condition. After the man died, his son questioned the events, and the original call to 911 was questioned. The son claimed that his father was still alive at the time of the call. After finally receiving a digital distortion-free copy of the original recording, Mr. Ginsberg was indeed able to hear a male voice asking about getting an ambulance, while the wife was receiving instructions on how to administer CPR. Dead or alive, new questions need to be answered. Read the Sarasota Herald Tribune article in the NEWS section of this website.

 

Testimony at the Richard Scrushy Trial in Birmingham

The defense team in the criminal trial called upon Mr. Ginsberg to counsel them on the secretly recorded conversations produced by the F.B.I. during their investigation of Mr. Scrushy. After an analysis of the recordings, Mr. Ginsberg pointed out the obvious deficiencies in some of the recordings introduced at trial. Mr. Scrushy was acquitted on all 50 counts

Paul Ginsberg Testifies at Russian Missile Trial

The F.B.I. and the Department of Justice called upon Paul Ginsberg to enhance surveillance videotapes made in Russia, of a terrorist underground arms dealer selling shoulder-held Stinger type anti-aircraft missiles for use in shooting at American airplanes. Mr. Ginsberg first converted the videocassettes from one international video standard, to one compatible with that used in the U.S., and digitally enhanced the soundtracks for use at trial. The conversations were in Urdo. Mr. Ginsberg has worked on recordings in 20 different languages.

On NBC Nightly News – A 40 Year Old Dictabelt

On the 40 th anniversary of the Warren Commission investigating the facts surrounding the death of President Kennedy, the original Dictabelt used by the Dallas police department that day was the focus of investigators. Scientists were going to attempt, using laser technology, to retrieve more information from the recording of the motorcycle officer’s two-way radio transmission. Mr. Ginsberg explained the technique for the audience.

Inmate TelephoneTapes Deciphered

Paul Ginsberg was recently contacted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and asked whether he could develop a system to detect, download, and decipher telephone conversations recorded on a 60-channel Dictaphone logger, in order to determine the times and channels of specific pertinent conversations of an inmate who was continuing his criminal enterprise while in jail. Within two weeks Mr. Ginsberg designed the computerized system, and had initial output. Hundreds of conversations followed, including several pertinent ones that proved that inmate witnesses had been lying to prosecutors.