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

I wound up buying the May 25, 1964 Montreal Gazette edition with the story about Oswald in the doorway. Here it is: 

Is The Man In This Photograph Lee Harvey Oswald?  

"EXTRAORDINARY LIKENESS" On the right is a picture  (not retouched) of Oswald taken on the afternoon of his arrest. Left is the "Man in the Doorway" in the assassination scene.

Assassination scene: This is the picture of the assassination that has sparked the controversy over the circled onlooker. The New York Herald Tribune yesterday published this AP picture showing the circled man who closely resembles Lee Harvey Oswald. Through the windshield, the President can be seen slumping forward with Mrs. Kennedy's white-gloved hand reaching out to him.  

Millions of Americans studied the picture above this weekend and asked themselves if the circled man in the background of the Kennedy assassination scene was Lee Harvey Oswald. 

The picture, taken a split second after two fatal bullets struck the President in Dallas, was published yesterday in the New York Herald Tribune. The paper called it the most controversial photo of the decade. 

(Note, this was May 1964, and they were still referring to Kennedy having been shot twice prior to the fatal head shot, which was in conflict with the Single Bullet Theory.)

Now, a controversy is mounting across the USA over the man looking out on the passing motorcade from the steps of the Texas School Book Depository building. The FBI identified the man as Billy Lovelady, a co-worker of Oswald.

Many others, however, have insisted to the commission investigating the assassination that the man is Oswald. 

(Note, this article is based on the New York Herald article, so I presume they said the same thing, that there were multiple witnesses who identified Doorman as Oswald to the Warren Commission. The fact that we don't know who they are is no surprise and no accident. And notice that it says not just some but  "many others"; the key word being "many".)

The photo was taken by veteran AP photographer James Altgens. Through the windshield, it shows the President just beginning to slump forward.

"Standing in the background is a man who bears an extraordinary resemblance to Lee Harvey Oswald" stated the Tribune. "The high forehead, deep-set eyes, tapering jawline, the clothes. Even the set of the mouth. But, if the man in the doorway was Oswald, who then fired the bullets that killed the President?"

Billy Lovelady has told the FBI that he is the man in the picture. However, New York theatrical producer Jones Harris is one American who is not satisfied and is mounting a campaign.

Harris points out that Lovelady told the FBI that he wore a red and white striped shirt buttoned to the neck. 

"The figure in the doorway does not appear to be wearing a striped shirt, and it is buttoned very low, showing much of his white t-shirt," said Harris. 

Note: I'm a little surprised that a theatrical producer would not be able to express himself a little better. Why not describe Doorman's shirt as largely "unbuttoned" rather than saying that it is "buttoned low"?  And the most significant thing about Lovelady's striped shirt was that it was short-sleeved in contrast to Doorman's which was long-sleeved. 

But, I want you to think about what this campaign by the NY Herald Tribune and Jones Harris did NOT do. It did NOT stir anyone to cite any movies which captured Lovelady wearing a long-sleeved, plaid shirt. Why not? How come the response to this wasn't to point to Gorilla Man or Lovelady in the squad room? It's because they didn't exist yet; they weren't made yet. Gorilla Man wasn't noticed until 1966- two years later. How come? And Lovelady in the squad room wasn't brought to light until the 1970s. Again, how come? Why weren't they mentioned at the same time?

Well, I have to think that they (the FBI) didn't consider Jones Harris to be as formidable as Harold Weisberg. They must have been confident that the right response to Harris was to do nothing, that it would just blow over. But, when Harold Weisberg started bellyaching about it bigtime in 1966, they considered that a serious threat, enough to push them into the movie business, to start creating phony images of Lovelady in a plaid shirt to quell the striped shirt idea. 

And they really botched it too. They were careless enough to forget to unbutton and sprawl open his shirt.

  

And, they were so stupid as to plop a Lovelady figure there at a time that Lovelady could not possibly be there, having left the steps with Shelley during the pandemonium that ensued immediately after the assassination but was over within a minute. And then they re-entered through the back door and became occupied, leaving no chance that Lovelady was milling around in front 15 minutes after the shooting. And of course, the guy doesn't look anything like Lovelady, with starkly different features. 

  And likewise, with this Lovelady figure in the squad room, they forgot to splay his shirt open. Plus, they used a guy who is way older than 26, which was Lovelady's age. Does this guy below look 26 to you?

And even with this Lovelady figure below, his shirt sprawl doesn't even look natural; it is a shirt sprawl that cannot be duplicated. There is no such thing as a rectangular shirt sprawl for a button-up shirt; it defies the laws of physics. The sprawl begins from the highest secured button and separates on both sides above it. You can't get to anything that looks rectangular from that. It is artificial, as Jay Knowles pointed out two days ago.

A shirt can't behave like that. Then, they realized that they picked a guy who was too stocky, too muscular to be Lovelady. Look at the size of his arm. He looks like an Olympic weightlifter. So, they messed with the aspect ratio to slim him down.

Look what they did to him. Marone! The rashness; the nerve; the frank, in-your-face audacity of it is amazing.  

And, it was all in response to Harold Weisberg and the roaring noise that he was making about Lovelady having worn a short-sleeved striped shirt. 

And, I'm happy to report that Harold has made it to the home page of the OIC website- not as a senior member since he died before we got started, but as an honored trailblazer, which he was.