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

Now that we know that the thumbprint occurred after the photo was long dry and stable, it changes everything. It bursts this thing up to the stratosphere because, first, the very idea that some sloppy FBI agent accidentally did this to this highly historical photo is extremely far-fetched. But secondly, even if he did, there is simply no way that a thumb-touch could inflict such damage to a dry, stable photo. 

And again, if you don't believe me, take out your own photos, including Polaroids, and press your thumb to them. No such thing happens. It was plausible when it was supposedly a wet photo, but now that we know it was dry, it becomes completely untenable.

So, as far as I am concerned we don't have any choice but to assume that this was deliberately inflicted to cover up something in the photograph. But, what could that have been? 

We'll consider that, but first I want to address the issue of the motorcycle cops. We are told that the one that looms large in the photo is Hargis, but Hargis was on the inside. Take a look at it in the Altgens photo.

So, that was a few seconds before the Moorman photo, and on the far right, it is BJ Martin and on the inside, closer to the limo, it is Bobby Hargis. It appears that Hargis is slightly forward of Martin, but not by much, and anyone who photographed Hargis from the side of the road would have to have caught Martin too, for sure, at least to some extent. How could she not? 

But, in the Moorman photo, we only see one motorcycle cop on that side, whom they say is Hargis.

I think it was Joseph Backes who mistakenly said there was another motorcycle cop on the inside of him, but there can't be because if that's Hargis, as assumed, he was on the inside. Then the other guy we see is Cheyney on the other side of the limo, and then very, very faintedly, there is supposedly Jackson's motorcycle along the right edge. 

So, how could BJ Martin not be captured in the photo? Look again at the Altgens photo.

How could someone on the grass a little farther down from where that man is clapping on the right not capture Martin?

Are you going to assume that Martin fell behind? Well don't because you have no grounds to assume it. They had been in formation ever since Love Field, and I think we can safely assume that Martin knew what was expected, and he knew how to do his job.

This was a formation. Think of a formation of birds flying across the sky, or a formation of military planes flying similarly. And this was much easier to do and maintain than either one of those formations. The idea that he fell way behind is absurd.  

So, what happened? I can only speculate but what I think happened is that the Moorman photo was originally a larger photo that got cropped and then turned into a Polaroid. And when they cropped it, they cropped out Martin. 

Now, why would they do that? For one thing, it would have meant that the Kennedys were even more off-center and less the subject of the picture than they appear. 

Look at the Moorman photo again. 

Imagine if there was another layer at the bottom featuring Martin. The photo had to be the same size, so everything would have had to shrink to accommodate that.  And the Kennedys would have been higher in the picture.  But, the result would have been to fill the photo with motorcycle cops, at the expense of the Kennedys. Mary Moorman was standing on the side of the road, facing the Kennedys directly, and all she had to do was snap her shutter either before they reached her or when they reached her. But, she surely would not have waited until after they reached her because she would have known that the motorcycle cops were coming and would fill up the picture. They would have been an obtrusive presence in the picture, which she didn't want. I suspect that was true here, and they dealt with it by just cropping one of them out, so that it seems more about the Kennedys and less about the motorcycle cops. 

Now, if you don't like that idea, then you tell me how she could have photographed Hargis without capturing the least little bit of Martin.  Remember: she is on the grass, and Martin is between her and Hargis. And he was not far enough back to be excluded. That is ridiculous. This was a dressy, flashy motorcycle escort, and they stayed in formation. That was the whole idea.

So, what did they see in the photo that caused them to want to impose a thumbprint? 

And let's be clear that when we look at versions without the thumbprint, we are looking at Photoshop work. You can't assume that we are seeing what it really looked like before the smudge. 

Is it possible there was some flying debris from his head that manifested in the picture?  He said he was hit. This is from his WC testimony:

Hargis:  "It seemed like his head exploded, and I was splattered with blood and brain, and kind of a bloody water."

So, maybe there was bodily "stuff" there, and if people realized that it came from Kennedy, they would be more likely to think the force came along the same vector as that between Hargis and Kennedy.

If you are a conspiracy advocate and an Oswald defender, what reason do YOU have to dismiss this thumbprint as an innocent development when you now know that the thumbprint didn't happen on the 22nd. It happened much later at a time when the photo was perfectly dry and stable. Such a thing is utterly preposterous, and only in the wild weird wacky world of the JFK assassination would anyone consider it innocent and accidental.