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

 A British man named Bart Kamp claimed that this is James Bookhout, and he claimed that someone at the National Archives told him so. But, I went to the National Archives myself, and I asked to speak to the archivist who claimed that this weird pipe-smoker was Bookhout.

I was referred to the Chief Archivist of the United States of America, Colleen Shogan. I exchanged emails with her several times. And she told me, emphatically, that the National Archives does NOT claim that this pipe-smoker was Bookhout. She said she has no idea who he is. She said that the National Archives has a policy not to identify any figures in historical photos. She told me that they leave that to researchers.

So, the entire claim that this is Bookhout has been destroyed. It has been vacated. Don't anybody claim it again. And frankly, it is preposterous. Bookhout was the FBI laison to the Dallas Police. You could say that he was Will Fritz' puppetmaster. Fritz is on the right in the photo, engaged with the other men, all of whom are being attentive to him. It was Friday, November 22, 1963, and JFK had just been shot. James Bookhout of all people would have been totally focused on Fritz and not the least bit intereted in a pipe. Did Bookhout even smoke? He lived to age 94, so I doubt it.

But, take a close look at this photo because I say that the pipe-smoker wasn't there. He was plopped in there. He is not engaged with anyone in the room, and no one in the room is engaged with him. His shadow is not in the glass, while you can see the shadow of the man on the phone in the glass.

And notice that everyone on the room is listening to and focused on Fritz- except for Pipe Man. If you take him out, the photo not only still works; it works better. As of now, it's like the seated man on the phone has got x-ray vision because he's clearly looking at Fritz, even though Pipe Man is in his way. Pipe Man wasn't there. It is a phony image. It was a flagrant attempt to create a phony image of Bookhout, but Chief Archivist Colleen Shogan either didn't get the memo, or she refused to go along with it. There is no longer ANY basis to claim that that freak is Bookhout.