The evening of November 22, 1963
Backyard photographs begin to appear. On the
evening of 11/22/63 one or more unidentified FBI agents brought photos,
a color transparency, undeveloped film and/or developed negatives to
the National Photo Labs for developing and printing. Robert and
Patricia Hester worked at the National Photo Laboratory in the Oak
Cliff section of Dallas in 1963. Robert left work on the afternoon of
November 22 but was called back to develop and process film that was
taken in Dealey Plaza. Robert and his wife worked overtime, throughout
most of the night, developing film and printing photographs. Both of
the Hesters said they saw the "backyard photographs" on Friday night,
November 22, in the hands of the FBI. Robert said that he saw a color
transparency of one backyard photo and another photo in which there was
no image of Oswald-only the backyard. That same evening (November 22)
one or more of these photos were seen by several people at DPD
headquarters, including Captain Fritz, who questioned Oswald about
these photos the following day (11/23/63). There is no innocent
explanation for these photos, negatives, and a color transparency to
have been in the hands of FBI agents, DPD officers, and the National
Photo Laboratory on the evening of November 22, because the "backyard
photos" were not "officially found" by the Dallas police until the next
day (November 23) in Ruth Paine's garage. And a color
transparency of a backyard photo, seen by the Hesters, was never seen
again.
NOTE: Robert Hester died in the
late 1970s, but in 1986 Patricia Hester attended at a JFK course taught
by Jim Marrs at University of Texas at Arlington (UTA) and repeated
the same story to attendees. Patricia died in the early 1990s. The
appearance of backyard photographs, developed negatives, and a color
transparency at the National Photo Labs and the Dallas Police
Department during the evening of November 22 shows that these
photographs were in the hands of the Dallas Police and the FBI the day
before they were "officially" found in Ruth Paine's garage the
following day by DPD Detectives Rose, Stovall, and Adamcik. Geneva
Dees, the widow of Roscoe White, told the House Select Committee on
Assassinations (HSCA) that following the assassination of President Kennedy
her husband "was sent to the Oswald home in his capacity as a
plainclothes detective for the photography division."
Saturday morning, 12:35 pm (11/22/63). HARVEY Oswald
was brought to Captain Fritz's office for his 4th interrogation, where
Secret Service Inspector Kelley, Detectives Senkel and Tiernon of the
Homicide Division, FBI agent James Bookhout, and Capt. Will Fritz were
waiting. Fritz wrote, "I talked to Oswald about the different places he
had lived in Dallas in an effort to find where he was living when the
picture was made of him holding a rifle which looked to be the same
rifle we had recovered. This picture showed to be taken near a stairway
with many identifying things in the back yard."
CE 133-A (no negative found) NO SCOPE VISIBLE ON RIFLE
Capt. Fritz was in charge of the JFK homicide, questioned Oswald, and wrote “…
in an effort to find where he was living when the picture was made of
him holding a rifle which looked to be the same rifle we recovered.
This picture showed to be taken near a stairway with many identifying
things in the backyard….I again asked him about his property and where
his things might be kept, and he told me about the things at Mrs.
Paine's residence and a few things on Beckley" (WC Report, Appendix XI,
p. 607.) Oswald was then returned to his jail cell at 1:10 PM. Capt.
Fritz recalled, "Mr. Paine had told me about where Oswald lived on
Neely Street. Oswald was very evasive about this location. We found
later that this was the place where the picture was made."
When shown one of the backyard photographs Capt. Fritz said that Oswald made the following remarks: "He
said the picture was not his, that the face was his face, but that this
picture had been made by someone superimposing his face, the other part
of the picture was not him at all and that he had never seen the
picture before.... He told me that he understood photography real well,
and that in time, he would be able to show that it was not his picture,
and that it had been made by someone else.” Today, the
available photographic evidence indicates the body of the man in photo
133-A, upon whose body Oswald's face was superimposed, was most likely
Roscoe White, who moved to Dallas in 1963 and began working at the Dallas Police Department only
one month before the assassination (see below).
Roscoe White (left), Harvey Oswald (133-A, right)
The left arm on the body of the person in 133-A has a large
protrusion/bump on the outside of his right arm, a couple of inches
behind the wrist bone, which can be seen in the photo above. Oswald did
not have such a protrusion but Roscoe White did, which was caused by an
injury while in training at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. The protrusion on
White's right arm can be seen in a photograph that was obtained by the
HSCA (above left). This protrusion is in the same place and appears to
be the same size as the protrusion on the right arm of the man in the
backyard photo.
Roscoe White had a very prominent wide chin, while Oswald had a much
narrower chin. It appears that Oswald was telling the truth when he
told Capt. Fritz that his face was superimposed on the body (above the
chin) of another person. That person was most likely Roscoe White who
worked in the photographic department of the Dallas Police Department.
Roscoe and his wife, Geneva, moved to Dallas in 1963. White began
working at the Dallas Police Department on October 7, 1963 (likely
hired by Capt. Westbrook, who was in charge of the personnel
department), while his wife worked for Jack Ruby in the Carousel Club.
Roscoe White continued working for the Dallas
Police until Sept. 18, 1965, when he resigned, and died in an explosion
six years later at age 35.
NOTE: On December 30, 1976 the House Select
Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) obtained an 8 X 10 print of an
additional view of Oswald holding the rifle that was slightly
different from CE 133-A. This photo was given to the committee by Mrs.
Geneva Dees of Paris, Tex. According to Mrs. Dees the photo had been
acquired by her former husband, Roscoe White (deceased) while employed
with the Dallas Police at the time of the assassination. The HSCA
designated this photograph as 133-C (Dees). Mrs. Dees told the HSCA
that following the assassination her husband was "sent to the Oswald
home in his capacity as a plainclothes detective for the photography
division." She said that her husband was skilled in trick photography
and had once made composite photographs of their boys which showed they
were flying around a room. Significantly, the pose in the photo found
among Roscoe White's possessions was similar to the pose in one of the
"cut-outs" found in DPD files, and was the same pose used by the Dallas
Police in re-enacting the backyard photos for the Warren Commission
(Jesse Curry's book, JFK: Assassination File, p. 87)
When Capt. Fritz showed another backyard photo to Oswald (133-B), he
claimed this was also a trick photograph. Later that evening (11/23/63)
Oswald was shown an enlargement of one of the pictures (133-A).
According to the officers who were present, Oswald denied that he had
ever seen the photograph and claimed that someone has superimposed his head on another person's body.
13 years later, more backyard photos are located
In 1976, during
the Schweiker-Hart assassination investigation, another "backyard
photograph" emerged. This one was found by Mrs. Geneva Ruth Dees, widow
of Roscoe Anthony White, who began working for the Dallas Police, in
the photographic department, on October 7, 1963. The picture was found
among a collection of 40 photographs retained by White as souvenirs.
According to Mrs. Dees, White, her former husband, was skilled in trick
photography.
On April l, 1977 the HSCA obtained an enlarged print of 133-A
from the window of George de Mohrenschildt. In the manuscript of de Mohrenschildt's
book, which he was writing at the time of his death in 1977, de
Mohrenschildt stated that he and his wife had found the photograph in
February 1967 among personal belongings they had stored in Dallas
before departing for Haiti in May, 1963.
QUESTION: It appears that de Mohrenschildt and his
wife found this photo among their personal belongings in 1967, four
years after moving to Haiti in 1963. Where were de Mohrenschildt's
personal belongings stored in Dallas and who had access to them?
On April 14, 1978 the HSCA obtained one print of 133-A and one
of 133-C, from former Dallas Police Detective Richard S. Stovall, who
was one of the police officers who discovered the backyard photographs
in the Paine's garage. Stovall may have obtained these photos from DPD
Officer R.L. Studebaker, who told the House Select Committee on
Assassinations that in 1963, while working in the DPD photography
laboratory, he made numerous copies of photographic evidence for fellow
Dallas police officers. Among the photos he copied and gave to fellow
officers were copies of CE 133-A and CE 133-B as well as a third pose
not seen by the Warren Commission.
In 1991 the
Dallas Police opened their files on the JFK case,
and researchers found 5 additional photos. One of the photos shows only
the backyard at Neely Street. Two of the photos show the backyard with
DPD officer Bobby Brown posing with a rifle and newspaper. Two of the
photos show the backyard with the outline of a person holding a rifle
and newspaper cut from the photo. These "cut-outs" show that someone
within the police department may have been trying to superimpose a
figure or figures in the backyard photos, as Oswald told Capt. Fritz,
or trying to duplicate the process of superimposing figures onto a
photo with a "cut-out." These "cut-outs" could also have been made as
the result of a request by the Warren Commission or the police to
re-enact and/or re-construct the backyard photos.
During his 4th interrogation Oswald avoided discussing the Neely Street
property (where the "backyard photos were taken) with Fritz, but there
is no indication that Oswald lied. Captain Fritz's report clearly
indicates that he (Fritz) knew about Neely Street (from Michael Paine)
and he also knew about one or more of the "backyard photos" on or
before Saturday morning at 12:35 pm. Fritz's report is very significant
because it shows that he (Fritz) knew about the "backyard photos"
several hours before these photos were ''found" later that afternoon by
Detectives Rose, Adamcik, Moore, and Stovall in Ruth Paine's garage in
Irving, TX. This was only possible because the Dallas Police and the
FBI had one or more of the "backyard photos" before these photos were
officially "found" at Ruth Paine's house later that afternoon.
Commission attorney Joseph Ball asked Captain Fritz about the backyard photos:
Mr. Ball: "Your notes show at 11:33 he went back to the jail cell and about an hour later at 12:35 he was brought back."
Fritz: "Yes, sir."
1:10 PM. Immediately after Oswald was returned to his jail
cell at 1:10 PM members of the Homicide Division obtained a search
warrant from Judge Joe B. Brown. The search warrant authorized the
officers to recover any remaining items that belonged to Oswald from
Ruth Paine's home in Irving, TX. When the officers arrived at her
residence later that afternoon, Mrs. Paine once again invited them in
and told them they could search the house as much as they wanted. Mrs.
Paine then left the house with Marina and their children and told the
detectives they were going grocery shopping. Their absence from the
home avoided a potential problem if and when Marina had been shown and
asked questions about the backyard photos by the detectives.
The
search of the Paine's home was conducted by Detectives Gus Rose, H.M.
Moore, R.H. Stovall, and John P. Adamcik. Rose said they found two sea
bags, three suit cases, and two cardboard boxes, which contained
numerous items of evidence that belonged to Oswald. Rose said he found
two negatives and one snapshot of Oswald holding a rifle, while Irving
Police Officer John McCabe said he found a second "backyard photograph"
in an off-white colored sea bag. Detective Adamcik, however, disagreed
with both Rose and McCabe. Adamcik said that he found 2 "backyard
photos" in a packet of 47 photographs and initialed each photograph.
Two hours after they arrived at the Paine home the detectives took two
backyard photos (later identified as 133-A and 133-B), which were
initialed and dated, and two negatives to DPD headquarters (Rose, WC
Vol. VII, p. 231).
The two photos, 133-A and 133-B, are the only "backyard photos" found by the Dallas Police. The negative for 133-A was never found.
NOTE: The Dallas Police received two negatives from Gus Rose, but both the Warren Commission and the HSCA could only find one.
In 1978 Major John Picard, Canadian
Forces Photographic Unit, Ottawa, Canada, examined photographs133-A and
133-B and concluded, "the two heads were identical, thus raising the
suspicion that the same photograph of Oswald's head has been used to
prepare forgeries, that the head is photographically identical in two
separate scenes. It appears that Oswald's face was superimposed onto
large photos (11" x 14") of Roscoe White's body in all of the "backyard
photos," 133-A, 133-B. and 133-C. These large photos were then
retouched, and then photographically reduced in size to the small
3 1/2" x 3 1/2" prints found by the Dallas Police in Ruth Paine's
garage.
CE 133-A (left), CE 133-B (center), CE 133-C (Dees, right). 133-A and 133-B ARE THE ONLY "BACKYARD PHOTOS" FOUND IN THE PAINE'S GARAGE
We now know that Capt. Fritz knew about the "backyard photos" before he
questioned Oswald at 12:35 PM (11/23/63), and probably knew about these
photos on the evening of 11/22/63. In an attempt to show that Dallas
detectives found the "backyard photos" in Ruth Paine's garage, before
Fritz questioned Oswald at 12:35 PM, both Capt Fritz and Commission
attorney Joseph Ball conspired in an attempt to hide the truth.
Mr. Ball: "Your notes show at 11:33 he went back to the jail cell and about an hour later at 12:35 he was brought back."
Fritz: "Yes, sir."
Mr. Ball: "In the meantime your officers had brought back from Irving some pictures that they found in the garage, hadn't they?"
Fritz: "Yes, sir."
NOTE: The evidence and testimony shows the "backyard photos" were not returned to police headquarters until late afternoon, a serious problem for Capt. Fritz
that was dealt with during his WC testimony. There is no innocent
explanation for
these photos to have been in the hands of FBI agents DPD officers, and
the National Photo Laboratory on Friday evening, one day before they
were either "found" or "planted" in Ruth Paine's garage. Warren
Commission attorney Joseph Ball, with help from Capt. Fritz, attempted
to resolve the problem of when these photos were brought to police
headquareters. When Ball said, "in the meantime (11:33 to 12:35 pm)
your officers had brought back from Irving some pictures that they
found in the garage, hadn't they?" Capt. Fritz responded. "Yes, sir."
Ball and Fritz were now attempting to show that the backyard
photographs had been brought to police headquarters prior to Fritz
questioning Oswald, which was an outright lie.
THE TIMING AND DATES ARE CRUCIAL. It is important to understand that DPD officer Gus Rose was interviewed by the WC on April 8, 1964, BEFORE CAPT FRITZ WAS INTERVIEWED on April 22, 1964. Rose told the WC that after obtaining a search warrant (1:00 PM), and searching the Paine home and garage, he and fellow detectives returned to DPD headquarters with backyard photos more than two hours later that afternoon
(circa 4:00 PM, 11/23/63). The WC now knew that Capt. Fritz questioned
Oswald about the backyard photos BEFORE they were found in Ruth Paine's
garage by Dallas Police. HOWEVER, TWO WEEKS LATER (April 22,
1964) WC attorney Ball interviewed Capt. Fritz and said, "In the
meantime (between 11:33 am and 12:35 pm) your officers had brought back
from Irving some pictures that they found in the garage, hadn't they?" Fritz answered: "Yes, sir."
WC attorney Ball and Capt. Fritz both knew the backyard photos were
found several hours AFTER Fritz interviewed Oswald circa 12:35
pm. Both men knowingly conspired in an attempt to hide the fact
that Fritz knew for a fact that he had seen the backyard photos several
hours before they were "officially found" in Ruth Paine's garage.
A $12.78 MAIL ORDER RIFLE--WITHOUT A SCOPE
On the evening of
11/22/63 the Dallas Police and/or the FBI realized they had a problem.
The 6.5 mm Mannlicher Carcano rifle found by Dallas police on the 6th
floor of the TSBD had a 4 power scope, but the rifle shown in the
backyard photo that was found in the Paine garage (CE 133-A) did not
appear to have a scope. This was a serious problem that needed to be
resolved.
During the week following the assassination the FBI
and television newscasters, newspapers nationwide, and radio broadcasts
around the world reported that Oswald purchased a $12.78 mail order
rifle (from Klein's Sporting Goods) that he used to assassinate
President Kennedy. During the next week (11/23/63 thru 11/29/63), as
the media continued to focus attention on the cheap $12.78 rifle, the
FBI realized they had to resolve this problem (scope or no scope?).
They had to determine, or fabricate a story, as to when, where, and how
Oswald purchased and mounted a scope mounted on his $12.78 mail order rifle.
In early 1964 Paris Match, the largest circulated magazine in Paris,
purchased a photo of Oswald holding a rifle from LIFE Magazine. In
February, Paris Match published, and printed in their magazine, this
photo and it caused a furor throughout Europe. Other French
publications purchased a nearly identical photo from Newsweek, the
original source of which was said to be the Dallas Police. In both
photos the head of Oswald is much too large in comparison to his body
size and, more noticeably, the rifle does not have a scope. The
following article describes the impression of many Europeans, who in
early 1964 thought Oswald did not act alone, were convinced that Oswald
was merely a scapegoat and that "internal security was behind the
concealment of the truth."
Dial Ryder and the Irving Sports Shop
November 23, 1963. The day after the assassination
(Saturday, 11/23/63), when most people were home watching television
news about the assassination, 25-year-old Dial Duwayne Ryder drove to
the Irving Sports Shop (Irving, TX), where he worked as a gunsmith.
Ryder said that after arriving at work he found an undated repair tag
(#18374), written in pencil, for a customer named "Oswald" on his work
table. The tag read "drill and tap $4.50" and "bore sight $1.50," but
contained no address or telephone number.. The origin of this tag, the
identity of a customer named "Oswald," and payment for work performed,
receipts, etc., remain unknown to this day.
NOTE: Ryder or his boss should have checked the
tag number, #18347, with numbers on other repair tags to determine the
approximate date of the work order. Also, it should be noted there was
no address or phone number on the repair tag, and therefore no way to
contact the customer when repairs were completed (very unusual!)
Dial Ryder told the WC that HE DID NOT MENTION THE TAG TO ANYONE during the weekend of Nov 23/24.
On Saturday, November 23, someone telephoned Dallas Police
Detective Fay M. Turner, and said the rifle used to kill President
Kennedy came from Klein's Sporting Goods in Chicago.
That same day, November 23, an anonymous male telephoned Mr. Ray
Johns of channel 8 news and said that Oswald had his rifle "sighted in"
at a gunshop located at 111 or 212 Irving Boulevard on November 21. Mr.
Johns then telephoned DPD detective Turner and said that he had just
received a call from an anonymous male caller who said that Oswald had
his rifle sighted at a gun shop located on Irving Blvd. Turner checked
the criss-cross directory and telephone book and located the Irving
Sports Shop at 221 East Irving Blvd. in Irving, a nearby suburb of
Dallas. Det. Turner then contacted Woody Greener, the owner of the
shop, and asked if he would check his files and records for the name
"Oswald."
On Sunday, November 24, an anonymous male telephoned the FBI
and said that he learned from an unidentified sack boy at Wyatt's
Supermarket, in Irving, TX., that Oswald had his rifle "sighted in" at
the Irving Sports Shop.
It is worth repeating that Dial Ryder did not mention the "Oswald repair ticket" to anyone on the weekend of Nov 23/24.
On Monday, November 25, FBI Agent Emory Horton
arrived at Dial Ryder's house in Irving around 10:30 AM. How and why
the FBI knew how to contact 25-year-old Dial Ryder at his home,
instead of contacting Woody Greener, is unknown. Warren Commission
attorney Liebeler asked Ryder, "How did Horton know to come out to the
sports shop?" Ryder replied, "Actually, I don't know.....I told him I
had a ticket with the name Oswald, no date, no address, just for
drilling and tapping and boresighting-no address, or name; he didn't
say he'd like to see the ticket.....we went up to the Irving Sports
Shop and I opened it up and got the ticket and showed him." The
FBI had likely been told about the Irving Sports Shop by the Dallas
Police, who received this information by phone from an anonymous person.
Ryder told agent Agent Horton there was no record of
selling mounts for the scope and this indicated to him that the
customer (allegedly Oswald) brought the scope and mounts to the shop
with his gun. Ryder said the only work he would have performed was the
labor to drill, tap, and bore sight the rifle. Ryder said, ".....It
(work on the rifle) was done sometime between the 1st and 15th of
November.....Because the work was done while the Greeners (Woody and
Francis Greener), owners of the sport shop, were on vacation." In other
words, there were no witnesses to corroborate Ryder's story of mounting
a scope on an Italian rifle. The only other person working at the
Irving Sports Shop during this period was Carol Berry, a clerk who
worked in the front office. Carol told the FBI that she had no
recollection of a gun brought into the shop with a carrying
strap, but pointed out that a strap could be easily removed. Agent
Horton did not review the shop's repair tickets, nor their receipts,
but later took the repair tag. Charles W. Greene, owner of the Irving
Sports Shop, telephoned all of the Oswalds listed in the Dallas and
Irving telephone directories in an attempt to locate the "Oswald"
listed on repair ticket 18374, but was unsuccessful.
On Thursday, November 28 (Thanksgiving day), Dallas Times-Herald
reporter Hunter Schmidt Jr. said that he spoke with Dial Ryder by
telephone for 15 minutes at his home in Irving, Texas, at approximately
7:30 AM. Hunter claimed that Ryder gave him the information that
subsequently appeared in the Dallas Times-Herald article titled
"Oswald Gun Sight Mounted in Irving." The article stated, "An Irving
gunsmith Thursday told the Times-Herald he mounted and adjusted a
telescopic sight for a customer investigators believe was Lee Harvey
Oswald. Gunsmith Dial D. Ryder of 2028 Harvard in Irving said he
attached the telescope and "bore-sighted" a foreign-made rifle for a
customer named Oswald about a month ago."
Two days later, on December 1, Secret Service agent Elmer W.
Moore telephoned Dial Ryder at his home. Ryder told Moore the newspaper
story as reported was in error and that he was satisfied that he had
not done any work for Oswald. Four months later Ryder told the Warren
Commission that he said that he never spoke with a Times-Herald
reporter (Schmidt). Warren Commission Attorney Liebeler told Ryder,
"The FBI has attempted to find every Oswald in the whole Dallas and
Fort Worth area and the surrounding area and it has found many of them
and it has questioned all of them, some of whom have moved out of
Dallas and Fort Worth, as to whether or not they ever had any work done
in that gunshop, and you should know that none of them ever did."
Neither Dial Ryder nor his employer, Charles W. Greener, believed that
they had worked on the gun. There was no record of payment received, no
receipt, and no phone number or address for "Oswald," the name written
on the tag in pencil. Ryder told author Leo Sauvage the rifle Oswald
ordered from Kleins Sporting goods came equipped with a telescopic
sight. He then elaborated and said the rifle with the undated tag must
have been another weapon than the one Oswald received by mail, in March
1963. Ryder believed that a close inspection of the 6.5 mm rifle,
allegedly owned by Oswald, would reveal that neither he nor his shop
worked on the gun. Ryder said, "either it was another rifle or another
Oswald." Or, in my opinion, the undated tag with the name "Oswald"
had been planted on Ryder's work table in the Irving Sports Shop on the
evening of November 22, prior to Dial Ryder's arrival at the shop the
next morning.
The undated repair tag was "planted" on Ryder's work bench
There is no doubt that Dial Ryder found an undated repair tag with no
address or phone number on his
work bench on Saturday morning (November 23), the day after the
assassination. There is little doubt the repair tag was "planted," in
an attempt to show that the Irving Sports Shop had mounted a scope on
Oswald's $12.78 rifle. There is no doubt that several anonymous male
callers telephoned the Dallas Police, the FBI, and the press and told
them about the Irving Sports Shop. The purpose of the tag, of course,
was to was to show that a scope was mounted on Oswald's rifle by the
Irving Sports Shop. The unanswered questions are who created and
placed the undated tag on Ryder's workbench and who then notified the
Dallas Police, the FBI, and the press about the Irving Sports Shop.
In
the weeks following the assassination an enhanced (better quality) version of 133-A
appeared. This photo shows more detail that the 133-A photo found
in the Paine's garage. Now a scope could be seen on Oswald's rifle, and
soon the allegations that Dial Dyder had mounted a scope on Oswald's
rifle began to fade away. This photo was NOT found by the Dallas Police,
and to this day the origin and source of this photo remains unknown.
NOTE: the Dallas police found two 3 1/2" x 3
1/2" black and white photo prints. A copy print of 133-A, and
possibly the resulting copy negative, which was dark and showed very
little detail of the rifle and scope, were supposedly given to Life
Magazine. How Life was able to take this very small photo, enlarge it
10-15 times, and create a much larger photo with no loss of resolution,
no loss of sharpness, no loss of quality, but much sharper details is
unknown. Was this possible in 1963, or was Life given a much better quality photo and negative of 133-A to use for their magazine cover ??
Creating the illusion that Oswald purchased a $21.45 rifle, with scope, from Klein's
On November 29, for the first time, the FBI announced that Lee Harvey Oswald had purchased
an Italian rifle, with scope mounted, from Klein's Sporting Goods for
$19.95, not including postage ($21.45 including postage). The Atlanta Journal soon
reported, from a UPI dispatch, details concerning Oswald's purchase of
a rifle from Klein's Sporting Goods in Chicago for $21.45. The $12.78
mail order rifle (without scope), announced by the FBI, Dallas Police,
and media for the past week, and the unlikelihood that Dial Ryder had
mounted a scope on Oswald's $12.78 rifle, were all but forgotten. But the controversy surrounding the rifle without a scope, held by Oswald in photo 133-A, continued.
In early 1964, Newsweek magazine acquired a copy of photo 133-A from newspaperman C. Roberts of the Detroit Free Press, and published it in their issue of March 22, 1964. The February 29, 1964 issue of Paris Match magazine carried the same photo (133-A) on its cover. The photos in both magazines appear to show a rifle without a scope.
133-A found in Ruth Paine's garage on 11/23/63
Life Magazine allegedly obtained a copy of 133-A (below)from
FBI agent James Martin, who was entrusted with the care and protection
of Marina Oswald. However, I believe this photo was an enhanced version
of 133-A,that showed much more detail, including a scope that could now
be seen on Oswald's rifle. THIS PHOTO WAS NOT FOUND BY DALLAS POLICE,
and the origin and source of this photo (below) remain unknown. FBI
Agent Martin should have been asked who gave him this photo.
Enhanced version of 133-A. NEITHER A PHOTO NOR A NEGATIVE
WAS FOUND BY THE DALLAS POLICE
On February 21, 1964
LIFE
Magazine published a 3rd version of CE 133-A
that was retouched and showed even more details of the rifle and scope
than the enhanced photo. A nearly identical photo appears on page 80 of
the same issue of
LIFE Magazine. On the Contents page,
LIFE
published a list of credits for photos used in this edition, but
there is no credit given for either the cover photo or the nearly
identical photo that appears on the bottom of page 80.
WHY NOT?? IT IS
IMPORTANT TO UNDERSTAND, AND REMEMBER, THAT THE ORIGIN AND SOURCE OF
THIS PHOTO, PERHAPS THE MOST WELL KNOWN PHOTO EVER TO APPEAR ON THE
COVER OF LIFE MAGAZINE, REMAINS UNKNOWN.
scope can now be seen on the rifle
Was it possible in 1963 to "lighten up" and improve the contrast and
grey scales enough to bring out details hidden in a somewhat dark
photographic print, without the original negative (the negative for
133-A was never found)? Maybe....but only slightly. One possibility is
to take a photo of the original photo, 133-A, and create a "copy
negative." Passing additional light thru the "copy negative" when
making a new print could lighten up the resulting photo, but only
slightly. It is therefore doubtful the photo on the cover of Life
Magazine was made using a copy negative. A second possibility is that
the original negative for 133-A was not lost, but was used by whoever
created the backyard photos to make a much clearer print with
additional lighting. A third possibility is that the three original
"backyard photos" were taken with quality camera using 35 mm film. The
result would be clear and detailed photos of a man holding a rifle in
different positions. By using very large "backyard photographs" prints
(perhaps 11" x 14") Oswald's face could be superimposed/glued over the
face of the man in the photograph. The resulting composite photos
(perhaps 11" x 14") could then be re-photographed with a quality camera
and then retouched, resulting in backyard photographs of Oswald (Roscoe
White's body and Oswald's superimposed face) holding a rifle. Finally,
a cheap Imperial Reflex camera could be used to take a poor quality
photo of each of the three newly created "backyard photos." Two of
these small photos (133-A and 133-B) were found in Ruth Paine's garage
and it was determined they had been taken with an Imperial Reflex
camera. A much clearer version of 133-A could be made by simply
reducing the larger (11" x 14") retouched photo (133-A) to the same
size as 133-B and 133-C.
We know that a negative for 133-A, a poor quality photo, was never
located. We know the photo on the cover of Life Magazine is more
detailed than the original 133-A. Therefore, the photo on the cover of
Life Magazine could only have been made by photographing an enhanced
version of 133-A, re-touching the photo, and then using this photo for
the cover of their February 21, 1964 edition. We must never forget that
the negative for the original 133-A, the negative for the enhanced
version of 133-A and the negative for the re-touched photo on the cover
of Life Magazine, have never been found. I find it curious that the
nobody from the Warren Commission asked Life Magazine where they
obtained either the photo or negative used for the cover of their
magazine.
DIFFERENT SIZES OF 133-A.
Photographs are made when light is passed thru negatives and onto
photographic paper. During this process, in a commercial laboratory,
negatives are held in place by a metal plate that is matched to the
same size as the negative. The image that appears on the negative is
the same image that appears on the photographic paper. By comparing
133-A with two other versions of 133-A, deMohrenschildt and Stovall it
is clear that a matching negative was not used to create the original
133-A. When the edges of the image in 133-A are compared with the
edges of images in the deMohrenschildt version of 133-A (below), it is
easy to see that images in the deMohrenschildt photo are much wider
than images in the photo found by Dallas Police. The Stoval version of
133-A (below) is slightly taller than photo 133-A (found by Dallas
Police). This means that the original negative for 133-A was at least
as wide as the deMohrenschildt version and as tall as the Stovall
version.
All of these "backyard photos" were cropped from a larger photo.
Two bodies, two rifles, one scope
We now know that Roscoe White was likely the "body" of the person
identified as Oswald in the backyard photos. If the image of Oswald is
a composite, composed of White's body and Oswald's face, then perhaps
the rifle in the backyard photo (133-A) is also a composite and/or not
the rifle found by Dallas Police on the 6th floor of the TSBD.
A close look at the photo of the rifle found by Dallas police on the
6th floor of the TSBD (top), when compared with the photo of the rifle
on the cover of Life Magazine (lower), reveals major inconsistencies.
The
most obvious inconsistency is the length and location of the scope on
what appears to be two different rifles. Notice that in the top photo
the left end of the scope (red line) extends past the left end of the
bolt handle (blue line). In the lower photo the left end of the scope
(red line) is on the right of the bolt handle (blue line). Notice also
that the scope in the top photo is longer than the scope on the bottom
photo (yellow lines). It appears as though either a scope was
superimposed/added onto the rifle in the Life Magazine photo (133-A
lower photo), or these are two different rifles with two different
scopes.
Notice that the left side of the wooden stocks on both rifle scopes
appear to be shaped differently. The "butt plates" (left end of wooden
stocks) appear to be curved/shaped differently. The sling/strap on the
upper photo has been identified as black leather, while a portion of
the sling/strap on the lower photo appears to be white. A long white
sling/strap can also be seen in photo 133-B.
There is a real possibility that the rifle shown on the cover of Life Magazine is not the same rifle found by Dallas Police on the 6th floor of the TSBD. The purpose of enhancing the Life
Magazine photo (133-A) was an attempt to show there was a scope on
Oswald's rifle, and this rifle was the same rifle found by the Dallas
Police that is now in the National Archives. The disappearance of the
negative of 133-A prevented anyone from enlarging 133-A and discovering
that the rifle shown in the photo on the cover of Life Magazine, was
not the rifle discovered by the Dallas Police on the 6th floor of the
TSBD. Life Magazine, unknowingly, did provide the proof.
Other JFK researchers, including John Butler, have noticed numerous
discepancies in the so-called Back Yard Photo rifles(s). To see Mr.
Butler's visual comparison, CLICK HERE.
Below is the HSCA collection of all the "backyard photos."
