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

Big, huge, humongous find! And I didn't realize it until I started writing this post and came to the end of it. That's when I realized that: Jim Leavelle couldn't pick up Oswald up and carry him out of the garage without first removing the handcuffs. It was physically, mechanically impossible. And yet, he said he didn't remove the cuffs until after they got inside. 

I am going to post this article just the way I wrote it, so that you can see that the discovery came in process. I honestly didn't know where it was leading until I got to the end. Here it is, in its natural evolution:

*     *      *      *      *     *      *       *      *      *       *      *

How did Jim Leavelle and Jim Combest carry the unconscious, sprawled Oswald? It's no simple thing picking a person up from the ground in that position. And the operative word is "unconscious" which means that he can't help in any way; he is just dead weight.

The way they did it in the Ruby and Oswald movie from 1978 was to have Oswald blasted back by the shot, which we know doesn't really happen: the momentum of the bullet does NOT transfer to the body; rather, it cuts through it. So, that was fiction. In real life, Oswald did go back, but that was after he crumpled forward. So, he changed direction after the shot. And obviously, the bullet couldn't have caused that. He had to do it himself, on his own power, his own energy. 

But, in the movie what they did was have Oswald blasted back by the bullet, but we don't see whether he falls flat to the ground as happened in real life. Leavelle and another man pick him up right away, but we don't really see how they do it.  It seems like Oswald just fell back into the one man's arms. We never see Oswald hit the ground. But, this is what it looked like when they carried him:

I don't get that. If Oswald was unconscious, then his head would flop down. Right? What would hold it up? Not him. And the men aren't holding it up. They presumably have their arms under his shoulders. And then, his head stays up.

What is happening there is that the actor playing Oswald is deliberately hunching forward. It's like he's doing an abdominal crunch. The victim is helping there. Obviously, an unconscious man couldn't do that. So, that is a very poor reenactment. And what irritates me is that the real Jim Leavelle was playing himself. And he was there on 11/24/63. So, he knew exactly how it went down. So, why didn't he show them and do it that exact way? And another thing that irritates me is that he and the other officer automatically and simultaneously start picking Oswald up and carrying him away, as if both knew they were going to do that, as if it was pre-arranged. There was nothing to talk about? They didn't have to discuss it? Again: it's like it was pre-arranged, and of course, it was pre-arranged. But theoretically, it wasn't. So, they gave away the store here. But, let's go back and see how it really looked:

So, at that point, Oswald is lying flat on the ground, and Leavelle hasn't extracted himself completely from the scuffle yet. That's Graves on the far right in the fedora hat. So, he is going off in that direction and will not be involved in carrying Oswald inside. So, Combest lied about that- and other things. Combest was the man inside of Lowery, who is the man on the outside with his hand on Leavelle's back. We can see Combest's hand, but that's about it. 

But, how would they have picked Oswald up in that position? It would have been very difficult to get your arms underneath him when he's lying on the ground. To get low enough would be very hard because you would have to bend your elbows to get your forearms underneath his back. And then, in that position, to get your strong lower extremity muscles into it would have been very hard. And if you don't believe me, just try it. But remember: the guy on the ground can't help in any way. Not a bit. He's got to be just dead weight. 

No, I don't see it going down the way they did it in the film. It would be different if he just fell into their arms and never hit the ground. But, he's flat on the ground there.

So, I think it would have gone something like this:

Again, we're talking about picking up an unconscious person from flat on the ground. 

But, the other difficulty was that Leavelle was handcuffed to Oswald. So, what we see in the movie is completely impossible. Because: how could Leavelle get his left arm underneath Oswald's upper torso if that arm was handcuffed to Oswald's right? Look at this below, and note that Leavelle's LEFT hand has got to be cuffed to Oswald's RIGHT. 

It was the Wizard who noticed that, in the movie, Leavelle didn't remove the handcuffs until AFTER they got into the jail office.

Here they are finally getting around to taking off the handcuffs inside the jail office after they have put Oswald down. 

But, the fact is that they couldn't do the proper carry either without removing the handcuffs first because Leavelle's left wrist was cuffed to Oswald's right wrist.

So, to do the proper carry, they obviously would have had to remove the handcuffs in the garage, which they obviously didn't do because there wasn't time. Oswald was vanished so fast that you know they could not have done that, removed the handcuffs. Plus, Leavelle said that he didn't remove the cuffs until they got inside.  

So, what are we left with from this position with Leavelle remaining cuffed to Oswald until they got inside?

It's important to realize that Leavelle's LEFT hand was handcuffed to Oswald's RIGHT hand and to think about the mechanics of it. So, in what we're seeing above, Leavelle's left hand had to cross Oswald's body. His left hand was cuffed to Oswald's hand on the opposite side of his body; opposite to himself. So, he would have had to step around Oswald's head and face him from the other side- just to get started. But wait. If his left hand is cuffed to Oswald's right, then it's down where his right hand was. But, he needed to use his left arm at the top of Oswald's body to do the lift, if he was facing Oswald on Oswald's right side. So, that means what? That he would have to swing Oswald's arm up to his head?  Because: they're handcuffed, remember? So, he's got to take Oswald's right hand wherever he takes his own left hand. But, arms only move a certain way, and he needed to get his left arm UNDERNEATH Oswald's body.

Look at the carry from the movie again, and remember that Leavelle's left hand had to be close to Oswald's right at all times, since they are cuffed. But, where is Oswald's right hand in the image below? 

It can't be at his side because the cuff-chain wasn't three feet long. And you can't tell me that Oswald's right arm was overhead. So, how could Leavelle possibly be doing what we see if his left hand is cuffed to Oswald's right?

Alright, that settles it. I am telling you right here and now that Leavelle could NOT have picked Oswald up and carried him out of that garage without first removing the handcuffs. You hear me, enemies? And you God-damn mudderpluckers better not try to say otherwise without getting a camera out and demonstrating it. 

This has been a farce all along. Leavelle couldn't do it. He couldn't pick up and carry Oswald without first removing the handcuffs, and yet, he denied doing it until they got inside. But, it was physically, mechanically impossible to make the lift because Leavelle's left hand was cuffed to Oswald's right.   

I will be demonstrating this soon with a camera.