Oswald in the doorway: the blog of the Oswald Innocence Campaign, by Ralph Cinque

It was like comedy.  Lovelady informed the FBI that he wore a striped, short-sleeved shirt, and then they photographed him in it, posing like Doorman with the buttons undone, but they failed to notice that it was completely incompatible with Doorman's shirt.

That's what you call a bonehead mistake, and after making a bonehead mistake, they knew that just denying it and revising it wouldn't be enough. THEY HAD TO COME UP WITH AN IMAGE OF LOVELADY WEARING AN APPROPRIATE SHIRT. And so, they went into the movie business- the phony business- because that was the only way they were going to come up with such an image. 

And that is how we came to have images of Lovelady milling around in front of the TSBD minutes after the assassination. Unfortunately for the makers of these phony clips, they didn't check Lovelady's testimony to the Warren Commission. If they had, they would have realized that Lovelady said that he and Bill Shelley left the entrance within seconds- walking down to the first railroad tracks and then going around to the back of the TSBD and re-entering the building there, never returning to the front. So, a film of Billy Lovelady milling around in front after the assassination conflicts with at least three testimonies: Lovelady's, Shelley's, and Frazier's. 

Nevertheless, we have got a hefty, burly Lovelady milling around out front in the Martin film, and a small, slight, older Lovelady milling around out front in the Hughes film. Dwell on that for a moment, will you? Try this: estimate their weights. I say the guy on the left has to weigh at least 180 pounds, while the guy on the right can't weigh more than 140.  Different weights means different men.  

But, it's definitely the same scene, and you can't have two different men as the same man in the same scene. What do you do when you are faced with such an impossibility? You check your premises. 

The Hughes Lovelady displays freaky distortions, especially of his clothing, as you can see here:

It's the Hughes Lovelady on the left and the Martin Lovelady on the right: supposedly the same guy at the same time. Why does the Hughes Lovelady look so freaky, especially his shirt? It is because his image was implanted into the film, and for several seconds, it was unstable. That's the reason he looks so freaky on the left. 

But, let's hone in on the Martin Lovelady, whom we call Gorilla Man, for his image is the most widely cited and widely circulated image of Billy Lovelady from 11/22/63.

Disclaimer: The identification of Gorilla Man as Billy Lovelady is being said only in recognition of the widespread claim that he was Lovelady, a claim which I fiercely deny. This man was NOT Lovelady; he was a Lovelady impostor; and he was NOT there on 11/22/63. But, his image is the one most often used to substantiate and materialize Lovelady on 11/22/63, and that is why I refer to him as Lovelady. It should not be taken as a concession that he was the real Lovelady; he was not. 

But, it is a 6 second clip, and we are going to looks at key frames from the clip. And fortunately, we have very clear images to work with. This is how it starts:

First, notice the strangeness of the scene. You see the woman next to Lovelady. Is she wearing curlers? To me, it looks like curlers. Don't you find it strange for a woman to attend a motorcade of the President of the United States and Leader of the Free World with curlers in her hair? Personally, I find it strange. And I want to point out something else about her: she doesn't move. She doesn't budge. She doesn't flinch. Ever. She is like a statue, and that persists throughout the clip. You can see that Lovelady is taking a drag on his cigarette. It's strange that he has no pack or box of cigarettes in his pocket. You figure it was his last one? What did he do with the empty box? There was no trash can there. But, what really were the chances that he was down to his last cigarette? The chances were 1 in 20 if he had a pack or 1 in 25 if he had a box. Before we proceed, I want you to notice that it looks like Lovelady is in front of the woman with the curlers. 

Notice here that we actually see the cigarette, in case there was any doubt. And we're also getting our first peak at that prominent pocket flap on his shirt. When Lovelady posed in 1967, 1971, and 1976, his plaid shirt didn't have a pocket flap. 

That's 1967 Lovelady posing on the left and 1976 Lovelady posing on the right, and neither one has a pocket flap like the guy in the middle. But getting back to the frame above it.  

Everyone seems very interested in the man that the police have allowed to go inside. Lovelady seems particularly interested. But wait. Lovelady worked there, so couldn't he go inside? Why doesn't he? And it's weird because he said he walked down to the tracks, and then he said he went through the back door and saw Vickey Adams. Then, he had to guard the freight elevator as per Roy Truly. And then he had to give the police a tour of the 6th floor. So, how could he do all that and still be out in front here at this time? He couldn't. He didn't. It doesn't make sense.  

I put this next frame up because I wanted you to see that Lovelady is definitely well in front of the woman in curlers. Plus, he's even leaning forward. He is well in front of her. His face is in front of her face.  Hold that thought. 

For no particular reason, he swings his face around to his left, and his head now appears to be behind her. 

To my eyes, it definitely looks like Lovelady's head is behind the woman in curlers. He has to be because we're seeing his whole face. She isn't blocking him. Let's go in a little closer. 

There is a little distortion there, but he definitely seems to be behind her. Compare to before. In front of her:

Behind her:

So, he swung his head past her, we'll assume. But, they were very close. It's almost as though he swung through her. I've been in that doorway. It's a small place, and it feels like a cave. So, they were crammed together in a small space. She wasn't his wife. And she wasn't his co-worker either because who would go to work in curlers? So, he didn't know her. And she didn't know him. So, are we supposed to believe that a strange man and a strange woman were standing very close, and he swings his face towards her, and she doesn't even flinch? 

This is the same problem that we had in the squad room where I pointed out that nobody was reacting to Lovelady at the desk, even though it was a very cramped situation. They were packed in there like sardines in a can. By reflex alone, they should have visually synced on Lovelady for at least a moment, but nobody does.

And it's the same way here with this woman who seems to be oblivious to Lovelady. He's smoking next to her. He's swinging his head towards her. He's breathing down her neck. But she never looks at him or reacts to him in any way. 

That is a phony image. When you watch it in the film, it looks like he turning his head right through her as if he were a ghost. He was! He wasn't there. They installed him into the film. 

Here's the last frame I'm going to show. It's close to the end, and realize that the whole clip is only 6 seconds long. Can you imagine? Jack Martin returned to Dealey Plaza just to shoot 6 more seconds of footage, and he just happened to catch Billy Lovelady. Wonder of wonders. 

So, Lovelady has swung back around again- back from whence he came, and he's also back to peering again. He was as curious as Curious George. But, Lovelady worked there; so why didn't he just go inside? The police weren't going to keep him out, were they? Employees were allowed in. But, what's amazing is that he could do all that swinging past her without provoking the slightest reaction from her. She is like a rock. It's like he wasn't there. And he wasn't. He was embedded into the film. 

Billy Lovelady wore a short-sleeved, red and white striped shirt to work on 11/22/63. That's what he told the FBI, and they put it in writing.

The bottom line is that this one collage completely exposes the fraud that is Lovelady in the Martin film. On the left, he is clearly in front of her. But, on the right, he is clearly in back of her because he is covering up part of her hair, which means that he is between her and the camera.

But, all he did was unturn his head through an arc of less than 90 degrees. He did not move his body; he just un-rotated his head. Yet, his body jumped in relation to the woman. When you watch it in the film, it looks as though his head passes right through her. 

He wasn't there. They stuck him into the film. And they did it because they had to produce an image of Lovelady wearing a plaid shirt which he didn't wear. The FBI was right the first time when they said that Lovelady stated he wore a red and white striped shirt and blue jeans. And when you think about it, you realize it's not the kind of thing they could have gotten wrong. There was no room for error. They said it because he said it, and he said it because it was true. 

FBI agent: What clothes were you wearing?
Lovelady: I wore a red and white striped shirt and blue jeans.