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

An Open Letter to a Photo Expert

To: XXXX

I know about your work. I learned about it from the XXX case. And I am hoping that you will take a look at another case that is of great interest to me and many others.  

That case is the assassination of John F. Kennedy. I'm sure you know the story about Lee Harvey Oswald having done it, but there is a famous photograph that was taken during the shooting in which it appears that Oswald was standing in the doorway of the Texas Book Depository at the time. Obviously, if Oswald was standing there, he wasn't also up on the 6th floor shooting at Kennedy. 

The photograph is the Altgens photo, named after the photographer, James Altgens. The "man in the doorway" looks like Oswald, and he appears to be wearing Oswald's clothes, the same clothes in which he was arrested. 

Authorities quickly announced that the Oswald-like figure was another employee of the Depository, Billy Lovelady. But, many researchers, then and now, have believed that the man was Oswald. 

So, we have the image of the disputed man, and we have images of Oswald. I was wondering if you could use your expertise to determine if he was Oswald, as you did for XXX. I am attaching the images.

However, there is a wrinkle; a complication. Many researchers believe that the photo of the Doorway Man was altered, that he was given a different forehead and top of his head, including his hairline, what I call his "crown," which was derived from an earlier photo of Billy Lovelady. It's not a match to Billy Lovelady in 1963. Billy was a rapidly balding young man, and by 1963, he had lost most of his hair. What we see on Doorway Man is Billy Lovelady's hairline from a photograph of him that was taken in the 1950s. That match is perfect, and I can show it to you. 

They must have used that 1950s photograph to impart a new hairline to Oswald. And that is what gave them the confidence to claim that he was Billy Lovelady. They were never going to just say it. These people were arrogant, but they weren't that arrogant. They had to do something to turn him into Lovelady; and that is what they did.

So, in light of that, I am asking you to do your image comparison excluding the hairlines and the top of the head. Just go with the face, from the eyes down. Include the eyes because they are definitely Oswald's eyes in the Altgens photo. But at some point above the eyes, he was replaced with a partial image of Lovelady- Young Lovelady, from the 1950s. 

I won't say more right now because I don't know if you're even interested. I deeply and earnestly hope that you are, but I can't presume it. Do you require payment? If so, please tell me how much.     

Here are the two photos. Please compare them. Is it the same man? Again: just ignore the hair and the shape of the top of the head. 

Thank you.

Ralph Cinque, administrator, Oswald Innocence Campaign