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

 The "iconic" Beers and Jackson photos are the only images that show the middle finger. The films don't show it. The two main films, which are NBC and KRLD, don't even show the hand, let alone the finger. The camera, in both cases, was behind the shooter.

It seems like the still photos were taken to deliberately show the middle finger, while the films were taken to deliberately not show it. Why would that be? It's because they weren't really going to have the shooter use his middle finger. But, for the still photos, there was no shot. They were staged. They were posed. And the means to do it. Conside the testimony of Dr. Fred Bieberdorf.

Dr. Bieberdorf said that the press started gathering in the basement very early. Remember that they were expecting a 10:00 Jail Transfer. He said that at 9:45, everyone was ordered out- including him, and he worked there. Reporters were told that they could wait in the press room on the 3rd floor. They weren't allowed back into the garage until shortly before it went down. The KRLD film starts about 12 minutes before, and you can see reporters and cameramen entering and taking positions.

So, why did they clear out the garage? There were two reasons. The first was to collect Ruby. He told the Warren Commissioners that he sent his money wire to Karen Carlin at 10:17. It was presumed to be a mistake on his part, but it was not a mistake. He remembered it correctly. I know there was paperwork showing 11:17, but that was phony. The first thing they did when they got Ruby upstairs was strip him to his underwear. They did that for two reasons: to give his suit to Bookhout to wear and to get his paperwork so that they could replace it. He could have left the paperwork in his car, so they also got his car keys, and they asked him where it was parked, and he told them. To their dismay, he brought his dog along. Who brings a dog to a killing?

Ruby said that all he could remember was going to the basement and being jumped by the cops. He said that he never had any thought to shoot Oswald and no memory of doing it. He said that he was so baffled as to why the police jumped him that he started saying, "What are you doing? You know me. I'm Jack Ruby, not some criminal." Note that the reporters said that the Shooter did NOT speak. But Jack Ruby did- at his melee.

But, the other thing they did during the evacuation of the garage was take the iconic photos. Which happened first? Collecting Ruby came first. But, it led to complications. Detectives McMillan and Harrison were both involved in hustling Ruby up to the 5th floor and getting him settled, stripping him to his underwear, etc. But, time was running out, and while they were doing that, the photo-shoot was proceeding in the basement.

They must have taken the Jackson photo first, and in the Jackson photo, you don't see McMillan or Harrison. McMillan they just left out. Who would notice? But, they had a surrogate for Blackie Harrison, and I believe it was FBI Agent James Hosty. I am referring to the guy smoking the cigar on the far right of the photo who looks like Leonid Brezhnev. They also didn't have the reporter Ike Pappas. But, McMillan did get back there in time for the Beers photo. However, for some reason, they had him stand sideways and look down. I can't explain that. And in the Beers photo, there is a Harrison figure, but you don't see his face. So, was that him or someone else? I don't know. They may have excluded Harrison's face just because he looked so different than the "Leonid Brezhnev" Harrison of the Jackson photo.

]But, the reason it took so much longer to process the Jackson photo was because they had a lot more alterations to make to it. It was supposed to be AFTER the shot, but there was no shot. And even during the televised spectacle, although there was a shot, there was no trauma. But, for the Jackson photo, they had to get the area of impact covered up so that the absence of trauma to Oswald and his clothing would be explained. So, that's how they came up with Oswald slapping his arm to his chest and Leavelle having his arm in tight. It was all to cover up the area of impact of the non-existent shot.

So, Dino's boys had a lot of work to do to the Jackson photo, and it may have taken them a while to come up with a solution. And that's why the Jackson photo wasn't published until many hours after the Beers photo. Remember the story: that the Beers photo was taken a fraction of a second before the shot, and the Jackson photo was taken a fraction of a second after the shot. Since the story of the Beers photo was that there was no trauma yet, all they had to add was a squiggle for Leavelle's arm.

But, I will leave you with the thought that they were probably whistling Dixie about the middle finger. They were thrilled that they had something that was distinctly Ruby that would identify the shooter as Ruby. But, it turned into a disaster for them when they found out that they got it wrong; that Ruby had lost his left index finger; not his right. So, it turned out that Ruby had no reason to use his middle finger. Oh shit. You hate it when that happens.