The famous backyard photos

oswald_backyard

This month 50 years ago, the famous backyard photographs were made by Marina Oswald. The photos show her husband Lee Harvey Oswald standing in his backyard, with a holstered pistol strapped to his waist, holding a Mannlicher-Carcano rifle and two communist newspapers, The Militant and The Worker. The authenticity of the pictures have always been the subject of discussion.

by PERRY VERMEULEN

After police arrested Lee Harvey Oswald on suspicion of assassinating President Kennedy, they searched the Paine residence in Irving, Texas, where Marina Oswald had been living. Among the belongings, Dallas Police officials found a brown cardboard box containing personal papers and photographs, including two snapshot negatives of Oswald standing in his backyard. Highly incriminating pictures: the rifle he was holding appeared to be the one used to shoot Kennedy. Oswald himself, when shown the photo in jail, claimed he had never seen it before and insisted someone had superimposed his head onto another body. Marina immediately recognized the photo, that became Warren Commission Exhibit 133-A.

Proud of his new weapon
Lee and Marina Oswald lived in this upstairs apartment. This is the location in Google Maps and here is a recent picture of the backyard. Late in the afternoon, most likely on Sunday, March 31, 1963, Oswald descended the back stairs of this house, carrying his just purchased rifle. He was very proud of it. He handed his wife a camera and asked her to take pictures of him with the weapon, the revolver he already owned and the two left-wing newspapers, dated March 11 and March 24, 1963.

Diferent versions of the same picture
One of the photographs later appeared on the cover of Life Magazine in February of 1964, on the front page of the Detroit Free Press, and soon in various other publications. But what happened? The photo appeared to differ from publication to publication. In particular, details of the rifle differed. Why did they tamper the picture? Among lots of critics, the differences created suspicions that the photo was fake. Skeptics still continue to argue the photo was fake, noting apparent inconsistencies in the shadows, conflicting body proportions, and a strange line across Oswald’s chin suggesting the head may have been pasted into the photo. Are they right? And why in hell were multiple versions of the same photo circulating in 1964?

An explanation of the tampering
The explanation came later. According to experts, the variations (and accidental erasure of the sniper scope on some versions) were caused by photo editors, touching up the photo in different ways in order to heighten the contrast between dark and grey areas. A common practice in the publishing industry at the time, due to the limitations of the printing process. To disprove all speculations, the Select Committee on Assassination of the House of Representatives commissioned a panel of photographic experts in 1978, to study the photo. No evidence of tampering was found. The mysterious line across Oswald’s chin was determined to be a water spot. Read the complete paragraphs of the commission here. A few sentences:

Lyndal L. Shaneyfelt, an FBI photographic expert, performed an analysis on the two backyard prints. (…) Shaneyfelt examined them under magnification andnfound no characteristics of compositing or retouching. Initial public controversy regarding the authenticity of the backyard arose after copies of CE 133-A, which appeared to differ in detail from the original as well as from each other, particularly with respect to the configuration of the rifle, were published in Life, Newsweek and other news publications. He testified that the apparent variations in the magazine versions were caused by retouching, a common practice the reproduction of photographs for publication.

Case closed – but not to all people. Some still think something is wrong with this pictures. Watch, for instance, some movies on this subject on YouTube.

What do you think?

Comments

  1. GARBAGEWEBITE zegt

    I think you’re dishonest by failing to point out the OBVIOUS FACT that the FBI’s job was to cover-up the assassination and the fabrication that is OBVIOUS on this photo when looking at the photos that were used to fabricate it and compare it to the EVIDENCE http://jfktruth.com/oswald/RiflePhotos/index.htm

    • Perry Vermeulen zegt

      Thanks for your comment on this article! Didn’t Marina confess that she took the picture? Have to look into this, has been a while ago. I don’t know if these photos are altered, but honestly, I’m skeptical. Which doesn’t mean that I think Oswald was a lone assassin.

    • DERRICK WILSON zegt

      THE JFK COVER UP.. WAS A SHOOTING..
      ZAPRUDER S FILM IS DOCTORED TO SHOW A SHOOTING…
      TRAJECTORIES FALSIFIED TO CREATE A SHOOTER ON 6 FLOOR…
      A CARS BACKFIRE IS MANIPULATED AT KNOLL TO A ILLUSION OF A SHOOTER…
      WHY DO YOU ALL AVOID THE OBVIOUS??
      CIA CREATED IT,
      CIA SET IT UP,
      CIA RAN IT….
      CIA KILLED IT…
      CIA COVERED IT UP…
      THE BULLET HOLES ARE THE COVER UP, SO THAT LEAVES A SLASH ON JFKS NECK… THE SLASH LINKS CIA, THATS WHY ITS COVERED UP. ITS NOT JACKIE IN THE LIMO BUT HER DOUBLE…WHO GOES INTO WITNESS PROTECTION…
      OSWALD DIDNT DIE, he too went into witness protection, you all think oswalds dead…

  2. GARBAGEWEBITE zegt

    Imagine yourself as a young 22 year-old, being raised to believe that the government is “the good guys” and they’re telling you that your husband murdered the president.

    Did you bother to look at the differences in the photos? Do you really think the fraud in those photos is the work of pro-Oswald people AFTER the fact? Isn’t that ABSURD to even consider?

    Women are emotional anyway and I’m sure her emotions were in an upheaval. Even if she said she took the picture *when she was in such a state* doesn’t address the fact of how easily she could have either been pressured or simply that she never noticed the fabrications of the photo.

    If the police brought you a photo of your husband in the backyard of his apartment, and said, “Did you take this?” would you give the photo a forensic examination before answering, if you were a 22 year-old female immigrant with two small children whose husband was accused of such a crime? Do you not think that she was extremely afraid of what they might do to her? Do you not think that she might have lied about many things just to try to appease the AUTHORITIES?

    You know that she’s changed her testimony. Having the CRIMINAL FBI announce anything to the public about JFK’s assassination makes it QUESTIONABLE, not credible. The fact that it’s 50 years later and the lies are STILL being perpetrated by the media says a great deal.

    Is it not common knowledge now that J Edgar Hoover hated both Kennedy’s and knew his job was on the line and wanted them both gone, which btw, is exactly what happened (because RFK would have opened a new investigation into his brother’s death).

    Is it not common knowledge by ALL who know anything about the Secret Service protocol that MANY RULES WERE VIOLATED THAT DAY and that upon hearing shots, INSTEAD OF RACING OFF, Kennedy’s driver SLOWED DOWN? How much clearer a message could that be?

    You need to make up your mind what you believe and name your website appropriately. If you’re going to ride the fence for the sake of $$$, then I’ll have no respect for you.

    The evidence on the Internet is MORE THAN ABUNDANT that the Dallas PD, the Secret Service and the FBI were ALL PARTIES in hiding the truth from the public in their EFFECTIVE PLAN TO STOP JUSTICE FROM OCCURRING in the aftermath of Kennedy’s assassination.

    Kennedy was not murdered by Oswald; that is ludicrous. Oswald’s history was a setup by the government to use him as a patsy. No one goes to Russia, renounces their US citizenship, offers secrets to the Russians and then just waltzes back in with the ease that Oswald did without government authorization and approval. If these charges of which Oswald was accused were true, the FBI would have met him at the airport and taken him directly to jail and he wouldn’t have been an available patsy.

    The holes in the government’s “stories” have been exposed and are too many, too detailed and have too much evidence THAT THE MAJOR MEDIA WON’T ALLOW TO BE SEEN for any honest man to believe the con that the government has sold us. The evidence against the government’s story is MASSIVE and convincing to any HONEST MAN.

    The Warren Commission was hand-picked by LBJ of men who DID NOT LIKE Kennedy and that it was a farce, a fabrication and a fraud is obvious on TOO MANY POINTS, again, for any honest man to deny. Examine the history of the men yourself and note, not only what Kennedy did to Dulles, but what position his brother held when Kennedy was assassinated and why he was never mentioned.

    Anyone who claims they believe the government on Kennedy’s murder is ignorant or a liar. There are no other options.

    • DERRICK WILSON zegt

      BRAVO….. TOO BAD OTHERS DONT SEE IT THAT WAY…
      THE COVER UP WAS THE SHOOTING…
      ZAPRUDERS LATER RELEASED MOVIE OF A SHOOTING ON A DOCTORED FILM…
      I KNOW THE CIA COVERED IT UP…
      I ALSO KNOW THAT CIA ANSWERS TO RUSSIA…SEE THE OBVIOUS…
      RUSSIA….CENTRAL COMMITTEE, CENTRAL ARMY, CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE…
      NOTICE ALL THE RUSSIANS IN CIA….
      NOTICE ALL THE RUSSIANS IN DALLAS INVOLVED IN JFK COVER UP…
      NOTICE THE RUSSIANS SMUGGLING ARMS THROUGH CIA TO CUBA…
      NOTICE EX CIA ARE PRESIDENTS….
      NOTICE DEMOCRATES WANT PEACE…
      NOTICE REPUBLICANS WANT WAR….
      NOTICE DEMOCRATES DIE…REPUBLICANS LIVE…WHAT REPUBLIC DO REPUBLICANS REPRESENT??? THE SOUTH??? AND SLAVERY??? REPUBLIC OF USA….
      HMMMM, THE
      UNITED STATES SOCIALIST REPUBLICANS… THE NEW USSR…
      THEY DIDNT DEFECT, THEY WERE PLACED WITH NEW IDS…
      OSWALD WASNT A PATSEY…
      ITS ALL OF AMERICA THEY LIED TO NOT OSWALD…see the obvious people…
      NO KNOLL SHOOTER, WITNESSES SAID IT WAS A CARS BACKFIRE, CIA MANIPULATED THE PEOPLE…. YOU LIE TO PATSIES NOT KILLERS…YOU LIE TO THE PATSIES ABOUT THE KILLERS….YOU LIE TO THE PATSIES ABOUT HOW JFK DIED… YOU LIE TO THE PATSIES ABOUT HOW YOU COVERED IT UP…
      AMERICAN PEOPLE ARE THE PATSIES AS CIA LIE TO THEM…
      REPUBLICANS MAKE MONEY OFF OF KILLING AND COVERING UP… DEATH AND LIES, SKULL AND BONES…
      I AM SO TIRED OF USA LIES…SEEMS AMERICANS CANT TELL RIGHT FROM WRONG ANY MORE.
      ITS NOT RIGHT TO MONITER AMERICANS UNLESS YOUR A MILITARY COMMUNIST GOVERMENT….
      CIA EVEN PUT THEYRE OWN KIND AS PRESIDENTS…
      RUSSIA FOUND IT VERY EASY TO INFILTRATE USA WHEN YOU HAVE “THE COMMUNIST SILVER FOX” IN YOUR CORNER…TOO BAD HER SONS A IDIOT, HAHAHA…
      2015 is the year the communist , 2000 yrs ago they took over ROME AND KILLED CAESAR AND JESUS….
      THE HISTORY THE WORLD KNOWS ARE OLD SOVIET ROMAN ARMY LIES…
      THERE ARE NO GODS EXCEPT WAR MONGERS AND DICTATORS…
      2015 is the year of the RED WHITES…. THE RUSSIANS ARE THE WHITE SUPREMMISTS THAT RAN KKK… THE SOUTHERN SLAVES… RUSSIA HAS CONTROLLED SLAVERY SINCE ROMAN TIMES…
      USA DOES RUSSIAS DIRTY WORK…. THEY BOTH PLAYED THE AMERICAN PEOPLE WITH CHINA AS 3 TOP NATIONS UNITED….
      SINCE 1970, NIXON SOLD OUT USA PRODUCTIVITY TO CHINA AND THATS WHY THE MADE IN CHINA…USA PRODUCTIVITY IS O…IN DEBT… CHINA PRODUCTIVITY IS 100%, CHINA RICH… WHO DOES USA OWE??? WHOS USAS DADDY ??? RUSSIA…
      SOVIETS FRONT IS US , IS U.S. USA BELIES IN GOD NOW, ITS PEOPLE BELIEVE IN CHRIST NOT GOD… CHRIST WAS FREEDOM…GOD WAS GOVERMENT OVER DEMOCRACY…. DICTATOR OVER THE PEOPLE…
      THERE ARE NO GODS…JUST MAN SETTING HIMSELF UP AS LEADERS…
      NO GODS HELP…. NO GODS PREVENT OWN PLANETS DESTRUCTION…
      MAN IS EARTHS CANCER…
      GOVERMENT OVER DEMOCRACY… IS COMMUNISUM…
      TURN OFF YOUR MEDIAS, WHY DO YOU THINK ITS OKAY TO WATCH LIARS AND ELECT THEM??? YOU VOTE FOR FRAUD… REPUBLICANS ARE TRAITORS FOR OVER 50 years… DEMOCRACY DIES, COMMUNISUM GROWS, learn from chinas people….
      THE NEW USSR AS GOD TAKES OVER USA…
      THE NEW WORLD HAS GONE COMMUNISUM AS IT IS NOW GOVERMENT OVER DEMOCRACY IN USA…

  3. Here’s a possible plausible scenario, old Marine buddy runs into Lee Oswald in early 1963. Lee takes a couple photos of his friend holding up a gun and newspaper. Lee gets film developed, is bored at work one day, and superimposes his face over Roscoe White’s. Figures himself clever and gives one to White and one to DeMorenschildt, and keeps one for himself. Maybe before, he did try to get Marina to take a photo of him like that and maybe they didn’t turn out so good if at all. I think DeMorenschildt was filling his head with how evil the right wing fascists were and what a threat they posed to the country. Oswald fancies himself a “hunter of fascists” and takes a shot at the biggest one in Dallas…Gen.Edwin Walker. This photo is used later to further incriminate Lee Oswald after being accused of shooting the President. Does anyone know what Roscoe White was doing or where he was working in early 63 before he joined the force in Oct.63?

    • DERRICK WILSON zegt

      AS FAR AS I KNOW, CERTAIN KEY PLAYERS IN THE JFK SHOOTING ILLUSION THAT WAS A CIA COVER UP, WERE PART OF A CIA SMUGGLING OPERATION THAT GOT BUSTED AND COVERED UP BY CIA….
      YOU ALL WATCH A CIA CREATED DOCTORED SHOOTING OF JFK ON A CIA CREATED ZAPRUDER FILM… 50 years cia lied…
      CIA HAS INFILTRATED USA… DOES USA SUPPORT USA OR CHINA??? DOES USA SUPPORT COMMUNISUM?? ALL USA PRODUCTS SAY MADE IN CHINA.. SINCE 1970, USA SUPPORTS COMMUNISUM AND COMMUNISTS…
      THE JFK COVER UP IS THE SHOOTING, OSWALDS A FALL GUY, AMERICAN PEOPLE ARE THE PATSIES….CIA MEDIA EVEN CONFUSES UP THE PUBLIC….
      CIA ARE THE RED WHITES… THEYRE COLOURS ARE WHITE BACKGROUND AND RED STRIPE… THEYRE SYMBOL IS A SHEILD WITH A WHITE BACKGROUND AND A RED STAR… THEYRE PLANES WHITE WITH A RED STRIPE ENTER AND LEAVE AREA 51 and VEGAS…CAESAR PALACE IS CIA OPERATED…TIME /WARNER IS CIA FRONTS…
      LIFE MAGAZINE LIED AND CREATED THE OSWALDS COVER STORY OF THE PAINES…

  4. Austin Schell zegt

    Jack white, a photographic expert, has shown why the photos are fake and has reverse engineered the method by which they were faked. You can find his presentation on YouTube. The Oswald face is identical in all the photos. It is impossible to take three photos of a face with a hand held camera and have the images come out identical. You can overlay them and they match up exactly. You can clearly see the line across the chin where the Oswald’s chin becomes that of another man with a wider, square chin. Oswald’s chin was sharp and had a cleft. The proportions of head to body are wrong from picture to picture. The background image is identical from shot to shot. The background was “keystoned” a bit in the compositing process to force the perspective to make them appear different. A high quality composite image was created first, then photocopied using the cheap camera that is supposed to have belonged to Oswald so that the negative frame and scratches, etc. would match. The photos are absolutely fake. Michael Paine lied when he said Oswald showed him one of the photos. Oswald didn’t know they existed until he was shown one while in police custody. This puts the testimony and actions of the Paines in a suspicious light. It was Ruth Paine who called Lee’s attention to the job opening at the Texas School Book Depository. It was Ruth Paine that claimed to have seen the rifle in her garage. Marina was in a precarious position after the assassination and would have said anything she was told to say. The fact that the photos are fake coupled with Michael Paine’s lie about Oswald showing one of the photos to him, proves a conspiracy to frame Oswald. It looks like the Paines and George DeMohrenschildt were in on it.

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