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

You've got to read this. It is hilarious. It's by Vincent Bugliosi from his book Reclaming History. Now, I know he defends the Warren Commission, that Oswald did it alone, etc. But, that should not stop us from using islands of lucidity that are in the book, and this is one of them. He is addressing the very stupid idea that Jack Ruby was a Mafia hitman, and that he took out Oswald on order of the Mob. It starts with an imaginary conversation between a Mafia capo, Vito, and Jack Ruby.

Indeed, this is very funny and very good. However, it leaves some unanswered problems for Bugliosi. Indeed, why didn't Jack Ruby shoot Oswald in the head or otherwise in the heart? You don't have to be in the Mafia to know that that's the surest way to instantly kill someone. People do survive abdominal gunshots; it happens all the time. Everyone knows that the surest way to kill someone is with a head shot or a heart shot. So, why wouldn't that apply to Ruby? 

And, Bugliosi never explained why Jack Ruby would fire with his middle finger. He ridiculed the idea that that was the Mafia way to do it. And why would it be the Mafia way to do it? There is no truth to that. Do a Google search for "Mafia way to shoot with middle finger"; and you won't find a thing. It's not as though there are cameras at Mafia killings to capture the shooting method. And the victim is hardly going to notice which finger his attacker is using. and since the victim is going to be dead within seconds, what difference would it make if his last thought was, "Say, he's shooting me with his middle finger on the trigger. I wonder why he's doing that." So, as a Mafia gesture it would be pointless. One blithering fool suggested that the Mafia did it that way to "guide the gun" but that is ridiculous. And leaving your index finger out by the cylinder gap exposes it to the hot, toxic gases that burst out. A Mafia hit man would certainly know that.  

Bugliosi cited Ruby's lawyer who suggested that Ruby used his middle finger because he was mentally ill. But no, that makes no sense either. There is only one image that shows the use of the middle finger, and that is the Jackson photo. Ruby's lawyer needed to question the validity of that image and whether it even displays Jack Ruby.  But, that would mean the State was involved in the crime, and his mind was unable to go there. He was too loyal an American. Talk about mental illness. It's too bad he couldn't snap out of it. 

No, the right explanation for why we see the middle finger in the Jackson photo is because in setting it up, the plotters were under the mistaken notion that Jack Ruby's right index finger had been severed. And they wanted everyone to notice the use of the middle finger, so they stuck it out like he was giving the world the finger- sideways. Obviously, no one could fire a gun like that. Even if you were going to use your middle finger, you would wrap it around the trigger just as you would your index finger. 

If only people in 1963 could have woken up to photographic alteration and manipulation.  If only, if only, if only, if only, if only.