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

I am very surprised at the gullibility of Sylvia Meagher in Accessories After The Fact. She cited the testimony of Detective Combest as if she believed him:

First of all, Oswald was NOT wearing his own handcuffs, as you can see in the Jackson photo:

Can you, or can you not see that there is no handcuff on his left wrist, and there is no chain going from his left wrist to his right wrist, and his two hands could not be that far apart if they were cuffed together? Can you see all that or not? So, you've got a choice; either you can admit that the Jackson photo is bogus (as I informed Robert Jackson by mail, so he now knows) or that Oswald's hands weren't cuffed. And actually, both are true: the Jackson photo is bogus, and Oswald's hands weren't cuffed. Nor was he cuffed to Leavelle. Oswald's hands were cupped and clasped in front of his body, so if he was cuffed to Leavelle, then Leavelle's hand had to be there too because the chain was very short. 

Note that Leavelle's forearm coming over is totally bogus. How could his forearm be so short? How could it jut over like that? It couldn't. But, look how far his wrist is from Oswald's. The chain between the cuffs is pretty damn short. 

Getting back to Combest, he also lied about Graves being involved in moving Oswald inside. Graves stayed with the shooter, wrestled the gun from him, and wound up on the other side of the ramp. He was not involved in transporting Oswald into the jail office. So, Combest lied about that too. But, that's petty stuff. The big lie was in saying that Oswald was responsive after being shot, that he opened his eyes and made eye contact, and nodded his head to answer questions, etc. All of that is complete, total, utter bull shit. Remember that Oswald's circulatory system was obliterated. Upon being shot, he immediately went into circulatory shock. Blood from a severed artery travels 13 feet in one second. So, a severed artery is like a fountain. Oswald had multiple severed arteries, including the largest artery in the body, the aorta. The idea that he could have remained conscious after losing that much blood is preposterous. The idea that he could have heard anyone speaking to him and responded by shaking or nodding his head is preposterous. And no one else claimed it; just Combest. The testimony of all the other cops, contradicted Combest. Fred Bieberdorf, a doctor, thought that Oswald was stone cold dead. 

So, why didn't it occur to Sylvia Meagher that Combest was lying? LYING, LYING, LYING, LYING, LYING. People lie, for Christ's sake. Cops lie. Detectives lie. And in this case, the fact that Combest lied is very meaningful. It means that the whole story of Oswald being shot in the garage was a lie. If he would lie about what happened afterwards and Oswald's condition and his capability to respond, then how can any of it be true? You can't tell a lie that big without the whole story being false. 

This book by Sylvia Meagher is TERRIBLE. Sylvia had the disease: the disease of Americana, the belief that in America, cops and detectives don't lie. She died totally oblivious to what really happened. I'm sure she was well-intentioned and sincere, but still, she was wrong about way too many things.