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

Lots of people have helped themselves to the conclusion that the thumbprint on the Moorman photo occurred while it was wet and developing- but, that conclusion is wrong. Mary knows better, and she says, and has always said, that it did NOT occur then, that it occurred later, much later, while the photo was in the possession of the FBI- the second time they borrowed it from her.

Now, if you think there is anything innocent about that, then there is nothing remotely innocent about YOU. 

The fact that the thumbprint occurred later, when the photo was dry, and inflicted by the FBI is undoubtedly the most important and jarring but little known fact about the Moorman photo.

So, exactly how stupid do you have to be to believe that that thumbprint happened accidentally? You've got to be pretty damn stupid. 

They actually had the nerve to return it to Mary that way saying, "Oops, Sorry"? 

So, I'll tell you what I think. I think they must have done a psychological profile of Mary Moorman. They must have had experts weigh-in on how SHE would react. If they thought she was the kind of person who would react by saying...

"What the fuck are you talking about 'accidentally?' What the hell did he have on his thumb? A clean, dry thumb could NEVER have done that. I'm not buying your shit, and I'm telling the world."

...they never would have done it. They would have had to come up with something else. 

But, you see, Mary Moorman was NOT the kind of person who would react by saying that. Ralph Cinque is the kind of person who would react by saying that, but not Mary Moorman. And they knew that. They calculated that. They knew that Mary respected authority. They knew that Mary viewed the FBI and Secret Service as good guys, as protectors, as part of the great American establishment that makes America the greatest country in the world. She trusted them, and she believed what they told her. She accepted their claims because she could never doubt them. 

What was Mary Moorman's marital status at the time of the assassination? We know that she had a young son whom she lived with, but did she have a husband? If she was married, we know they eventually got divorced, since we know she acquired a different last name. But, was she divorced at the time?

It's an important question because if she was married at the time and living with her husband, then the FBI would have had to gauge her husband's reaction as well as hers to the idea of a dry Polaroid photograph being returned with a white thumbprint in the center of it. But, if there was no husband, if it was just Mary and her young son, then it would have been easier. 

We're dealing here with pure Orwellianism, and it's easier to carry out solo than in pairs. 

I am reminded of an experience I had in college selling Colliers encyclopedias. During the training, they told us that once you thought you landed a sale- where all that was left was to sign the contract- at that point, you wanted to KEEP THE HUSBAND AND WIFE APART. You separate them. You don't let them talk to each other privately because one or the other might talk the other out of it. So, they suggested going with something like,

"Harold, if you would go grab your checkbook, and Gladys, if you wouldn't mind going to get me a tall glass of water, I would greatly appreciate it. I am so parched from all this talking."

That's what they suggested. Another thing they suggested that always stayed with me is that when you were flipping through the volume on art, which had pages and pages of images, that you turned the pages slowly to show them, and then you stopped turning at the image of the Madonna and Child.

You let it settle there. After all, that is pure. How could there be anything wrong with an operation that was swimming in that?

I didn't last too long as a Colliers encyclopedia salesman.

But, what a decision it was to impose that thumbprint on the photo. So bold. So daring. So brazen.

But, they didn't do that. They did something entirely different. They replaced the whole photo and then installed the thumbprint on the replacement. They used that thumbprint to take out a whole person- Officer BJ Martin.

That's what they needed the thumbprint for. That's what Babushka's photo looked like before they turned it into the Moorman photo.