Photo of Joe Molina, circa 1963?

[Robert Prudhomme]

Does anyone have a photo of Joe Molina from around the time of the assassination? All I have been able to find is this photo, reputedly taken 25 years after the assassination.

Edited March 22, 2015 by Robert Prudhomme

[Guest Mark Valenti]

In case it hasn't been posted before, here's an interesting Joe Molina thread from a while back:

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/alt.assassination.jfk/7eHsdbQirtE

[Robert Prudhomme]

The reason I am asking for a photo of Joe Molina is that his testimony to the Warren Commission places him in almost exactly the same position on the TSBD steps as we see Prayer Man in. Here is a longer piece of Joe Molina's WC testimony:

"Mr. BALL. Did you see Mr. Truly go into the building?

Mr. MOLINA. Yes.
Mr. BALL. Where were you when you saw him go into the building?
Mr. MOLINA. I was right in the entrance.
Mr. BALL. Did you see a police officer with him?
Mr. MOLINA. I didn't see a police officer. I don't recall seeing a police officer but I did see him go inside.
Mr. BALL. Did you see a white-helmeted police officer any time there in the entrance?
Mr. MOLINA. Well, of course, there might have been one after they secured the building, you know.
Mr. BALL. No, I mean when Truly went in; did you see Truly actually go into the building?
Mr. MOLINA. I saw him go in.
Mr. BALL. Where were you standing?
Mr. MOLINA. Right at the front door; right at the front door.
Mr. BALL. Outside the front door?
Mr. MOLINA. Yes, outside the front door I was standing; the door was right behind me.
Mr. BALL. Were you standing on the steps?
Mr. MOLINA. Yes, on the uppermost step.
Mr. BALL. You actually saw Truly go
Mr. MOLINA. Yeah.
Mr. BALL. You were still standing there?
Mr. MOLINA. Yes.
Mr. BALL. How long was it after you heard the shots?
Mr. MOLINA. Oh, I would venture to say maybe 20 or 30 seconds afterwards."

I know this is a bit of a downer but, is there any way of establishing, beyond this testimony, where Joe Molina was standing?

[Linda Giovanna Zambanini]

Hello, Robert, kudos on finding that photo of Molina! I've been searching forever for one! I don't have another photo of him but, I do have the next best thing from 1964, the FBI Wood Report on Molina - Commission Document 1429 - with Molina's own personal description of himself, 5' 7 1/2", 164 lbs, brown hair, greying, "balding in the front," "stocky" (his words) etc... (see pgs 17-18).
http://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=11821#relPageId=20&tab=page
So, no, Prayer Man can't be Molina. No doubt in my mind, whatsoever, that PM is LHO!
I used to believe Molina was the stocky guy to the far right in Altgens 6 with his arms over his head/eyes. Now, since reading this post in another edforum thread ("Joe Molina's connections to gun-runners" post #11) I'm thinking he might be the guy with the black suit and tie to the right of Lovelady, whom I had always thought was Shelley. I'm not totally convinced - it could still be either one - but he's definitely not PM.:

In this interesting correspondence between Shirley Martin & Harold Weisberg, 7/8/67 (Weisberg Archives) near the end of Shirley's reply she says:

"Joe Molina claims to be the man in suit standing next to Lovelady-Oswald figure in Altgens photo. My inclination is that Molina was lying about this. He was a frightened man when I spoke to him; I have always felt he had someone in the house the night I interviewed him, and that he had notified someone ahead of time that I was coming. He was in the process of buying a new home when I last talked to him. However, this could have been only an inference. I have no way to be positive. At any rate, he was leaving Brown Street. I do not know where he is now."

http://jfk.hood.edu/Collection/Weisberg%20Subject%20Index%20Files/M%20Disk/Martin%20Shirley/Item%2016.pdf

Edited July 18, 2015 by Linda Giovanna Zambanini

[Steven Gaal]

see posts

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http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=16815&p=300264

http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=16815&p=300521

[Linda Giovanna Zambanini]

Hello everyone - I came across a better photo of Joe Molina. This one has a nose. Now if we only had a photo of him from '63!

Btw...does anyone have a photo of Carolyn Arnold? I was just looking today and came up empty.

[Guest]

Molina in 1969 graduation pic.

Credit: ROKC

[Robert Prudhomme]

Thanks for the photo, Bart. Just out of curiosity, is he the one graduating from something?

More and more, I'm starting to believe Molina is the man in the black tie and suit to Lovelady's right, originally thought to be Shelley. I also feel the man with his arms over his head in Altgens 6 is not Shelley either.

This leaves us with a problem. Where is Shelley? If he was chums with Lovelady, and Oswald was "out front with Bill Shelley", shouldn't we be able to see him in their vicinity?

From the WC testimony of Bill Shelley:

"Mr. BALL - Why did you go to the front?

Mr. SHELLEY - Oh, several people were out there waiting to watch the motorcade and I went out to join them.
Mr. BALL - And who was out there?
Mr. SHELLEY - Well, there was Lloyd Viles of McGraw-Hill, Sarah Stanton, she's with Texas School Book, and Wesley Frazier and Billy Lovelady joined us shortly afterwards.
Mr. BALL - You were standing where?
Mr. SHELLEY - Just outside the glass doors there.
Mr. BALL - That would be on the top landing of the entrance?
Mr. SHELLEY - yes."

[Guest]

Nah Shelley wears the suit/tie. Molina wore the white shirt and stood just behind Williams, they were colleagues.

Molina went back to college in the late 60's.

I am working on a piece on him so I am not divulging any more :-)

[Robert Prudhomme]

Shelley was quite lean. The fellow in the suit and tie is way too stocky to be Shelley.

[Robert Prudhomme]

The basic problem is that, at the top of the stairs, you have to place Shelley, Frazier, Williams and Molina, and there just aren't enough people in that location to account for all four, plus PM.

[Thomas Graves]

On 4/19/2016 at 10:49 AM, Robert Prudhomme said:

Shelley was quite lean. The fellow in the suit and tie is way too stocky to be Shelley.

I agree.