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

Joseph Backes doesn't want Ike Altgens to be regarded as a suspicious death. He seems to grant that people were killed during the Warren Commission and HSCA investigations, but he dismisses any such possibility for the ARRB. 

And, he is still claiming that carbon monoxide is odorless even though I have explained to him, repeatedly, that a strong odor is added to household gas.  

"In its natural state, gas is colorless, non-poisonous and odorless. The "rotten egg" smell you associate with gas is a chemical added by gas companies to make a gas leak easier to detect."

"Incidentally, the smell associated with household gas used as a fuel is actually added, as methane (which makes up most of the gas) has no smell. The addition of a smell (sulfur) is a safety feature so that leaks can be detected quickly." 

New Jersey Natural Gas: Since natural gas has no scent, a strong odorant that smells like rotten eggs is added to help you detect possible leaks.

And why wasn't gas poisoning mentioned in the original article? 

Altgens and his wife were found dead on December 12, and this article came out on December 15. Carbon monoxide poisoning causes a distinctive pink skin discoloration, which may even be cherry red. "The normally bluish postmortem lividity adopts a bright red or pink color due to resaturation of hemoglobin with O2." 

It's called pink hypostasis, and this is how it looks:

What is the life expectancy of a 76 year old man?

A 76 year old man has a life expectancy of 10.28 more years. 

And, his wife Clara was only 73. 

You want to say that a 76 year old and a 73 year old died together of natural causes at the same time? 

They were living alone, just the two of them, and they were both ambulatory. The Dallas Morning News reported that relatives said the couple had been suffering from the flu. On that basis, you want to say they died from it? Both of them? At the same time? 

Here is what the Baltimore Sun wrote 4 days after their deaths:

"James W. "Ike" Altgens, 76, the photographer who documented President John F. Kennedy's assassination for the Associated Press, died Tuesday of an undisclosed cause with his wife at their Dallas home."

Undisclosed? After 4 days? Involving two people found dead at the same time? And that's not suspicious? 

Forget it, Backes. Ike Altgens is staying on Cinque's suspicious death list whether you like it or not.