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

 Do you realize how much LIFE magazine lied about the Zapruder film in 1963 and 1964?

I have both the November 29, 1963 edition and the October 2, 1964 edition, both of which have frames from the Z-film. What LIFE said in 1963 was that there were 2 shots. It just said that the “awful moment” came when JFK was out of view because of the freeway sign- which they and the CIA added. They did not describe what it did to JFK.  They just said that his wave turned into a clutch for his throat, as seen in 225. That was a lie because he stopped waving long before that- before they reached the phony sign.  Then, they claimed that Connally was struck by a separate bullet. And that was it; 2 shots. That’s all they mentioned.

Am I saying that they omitted the fatal head shot? Yes, that is what I’m saying. They just said that the President collapsed on his wife’s shoulder, and she cradled him in her arms. That is yet another lie.  You know, of course, that he was struck in the right temple, and it sent him veering “back and to the left.” He was like a ballistic missile flying at her, and her reflexes caused her to dodge him. You can see it in 315 where Jackie jerked her head leftward to avoid colliding with him. There was no thought involved because it happened so fast. It was just her reflexes. But, after she dodged him, she went back to him. And then she did her trek onto the trunk.

So, why did they exclude the fatal head shot? Was it just because they didn’t have a spare bullet for it? They cited just 2 shots because they knew about James Tague who got grazed from the missed shot. So, they had to save a bullet for him, although they didn’t mention him.   

Then, on October 2, 1964, LIFE changed their story. They claimed the Single Bullet for Kennedy and Connally. And they included the fatal head shot, now having a bullet for it. And they published 313, with the red cloud, and they claimed that JFK was hit in the back of the head and it blew out the front of his head. They said that the front of his head “exploded.” But, that was a lie. JFK’s blow-out wound was in the right posterior of his head, which all the Parkland medical staff demonstrated with their hands. There was no blow-out wound in front.

Now, I am going to tell you how they came up with the 313 they published in LIFE in 1964. It wasn’t the real 313. It was the instant before. They just painted the red cloud over the frame that preceded the fatal head shot. The reason the back of his head looks intact in 313 is because it was. And if you look at it closely, you’ll see that the front of his head isn’t blown-out. It’s just painted over in red.

But, they had a heap of work to do after that to fix all the frames that followed 313, which needed to show an intact back of his head. I don’t think it was done manually. I think they had to wait until computers advanced enough to do it digitally. If they had done it all manually with paint, they never would have sold it. The crudeness of it would have been apparent.

So, the editing of the Zapruder film took years. It was first shown to the public in 1975, and I bet it wasn’t ready until shortly before that.

But, someone please tell me why Americans are so obtuse. Why, in 1964, when LIFE showed them 313, didn’t they scream, “But wait! You had that last November. So, why didn’t you publish it then? Why did you exclude it? Why did you withhold it from us?”

The autopsy report was included in the Warren Report, which came out in September 1964. It described a blow-out wound on the right side of his head, mostly over the parietal bone, but also affecting the temporal bone and the occiput. It said nothing about the front of his head exploding. So, why didn’t people scream Bloody Murder about the discrepancy between what LIFE was claiming and what the autopsy said?

LIFE magazine lied flagrantly both times they published frames from the Zapruder film. And they changed their story from JFK collapsing into his wife to him being shot again, back to front, and blowing out the front of his head- which never happened. But, who altered the frames for them? I don’t assume their artists did it. I assume that the CIA did it, specifically Dino Brugioni’s team at the National Photographic Interpretation Center, who were all set up at Jaggars-Chiles-Stovall in Dallas on 11/22 altering the Altgens photo and more.  

So, they still claimed just 2 shots in 1964: the Single bullet that caused 7 wounds in 2 men, and the fatal head shot.

The claim that the front of his head exploded forward is outrageous. Imagine what it would have done to his face.

Here are 312 and 313. You can see how alike they are. If it didn’t occur to them to just paint their red cloud over 312 and call it 313, they were idiots.