60th anniversary of the backyard photos

[Charles Blackmon]

How can anybody look at this photo for the first time, with no prejudices based on previous impressions, and argue that the placement of Oswald's head on the torso does not look odd?

 

 

[Joe Bauer]

First impressions?

Lee Oswald's head seems hugely overly large relative to his very small shoulder frame body.

Weirdly so. Almost alien ET big.

And Oswald also had a noticeably wider neck than most people.

Was that possibly a thyroid deficiency thing?

Why does Oswald always look older than his listed age?

In this photo he is what...24, maybe even 23?

If I saw Oswald on the street ( face mostly ) I would guess his age at 30.

Oswald's rings and where he wore them have always been curious to me.

In this photo I can see a ring on his right hand 4th finger. Not a common hand and finger wearing one.

I assume he has at least one other ring on his left hand ( wedding band?)

Why take such a provocative photo? How many people would ever think of taking a photo like this of themselves?

Rifle in one hand. Communist Russia newspaper in the other.

Pistol holstered and showing on his outside hip?

Dressed all in black?

Kind of a modern day "Have Gun Will Travel" Palladin, with a Marxist Russian twist?

Only thing missing is a Russian military Ushanka hat.

Was Oswald a fan of that iconic 1800's American West gunslinger television show?

You have to wonder what Marina was thinking about this overly theatrical posing show.

Most young fathers would probably want a picture of themselves holding their cute little girl...versus this rifle/pistol "gun for hire" get up.

Marina was probably upset about the whole weird affair.

Honey, we need food and clothes for Junie more than rifles and pistols and subscription fees for Russian newspapers. Don't you think?

And was Oswald so dumb, that he would have pictures of him taken that are more incriminating than anything anyone could imagine, knowing that he was planning future violent actions like the Walker shooting and then JFK?

You'd think he would have destroyed these photos, especially right after the Walker shoot out.

These photos are graphic examples of the extremely illogical and nonsensical puzzle that Oswald's personal history was.

The question is...was this whole crazy persona thing intentionally contrived?

Edited April 2, 2023 by Joe Bauer

[Michael Crane]

24 minutes ago, Joe Bauer said:

First impressions?

Lee Oswald's head seems hugely overly large relative to his very small shoulder frame body.

Weirdly so. Almost alien ET big.

And Oswald did also have a noticeably wider neck than most people.

Was that possibly a thyroid deficiency thing?

Why does Oswald always look older than his listed age?

In this photo he is what...24, maybe even 23?

If I saw Oswald on the street ( face mostly ) I would guess his age at 30.

Oswald's rings and where he wore them have always been curious to me.

In this photo I can see a ring on his right hand 4th finger. Not a common hand and finger wearing one.

I assume he has at least one other ring on his left hand ( wedding band?)

Why take such a provocative photo? How many people would ever think of taking a photo like this of themselves?

Rifle in one hand. Communist Russia newspaper in the other.

Pistol holstered and showing on his outside hip?

Dressed all in black?

Kind of a modern day "Have Gun Will Travel" Palladin, with a Marxist Russian twist?

Only thing missing is a Russian military Ushanka hat.

Was Oswald a fan of that iconic 1800's American West gunslinger television show?

You have to wonder what Marina was thinking about this overly theatrical posing show.

Most young fathers would probably want a picture of themselves holding their cute little girl...versus this rifle/pistol "gun for hire" get up.

Marina was probably upset about the whole weird affair.

Honey, we need food and clothes for Junie more than rifles and pistols and prescription fees for Russian newspapers. Don't you think?

And was Oswald so dumb, that he would have pictures of him taken that are more incriminating than anything anyone could imagine, knowing that he was planning future violent actions like the Walker shooting and then JFK?

You'd think he would have destroyed these photos, especially right after the Walker shoot out.

These photos are graphic examples of the extremely illogical and nonsensical puzzle that Oswald's personal history was.

The question is...was this whole crazy persona thing intentionally contrived?

If I'm not mistaken,the ring that you are talking about doesn't appear in backyard pic 2 (and maybe 3?)

 

Surprised that you didn't notice the fingers.

 

Right hand looks cut off

 

Left hand looks extended.

 

Roscoe White body IMO.

[Pat Speer]

16 minutes ago, Joe Bauer said:

First impressions?

Lee Oswald's head seems hugely overly large relative to his very small shoulder frame body.

Weirdly so. Almost alien ET big.

And Oswald did also have a noticeably wider neck than most people.

Was that possibly a thyroid deficiency thing?

Why does Oswald always look older than his listed age?

In this photo he is what...24, maybe even 23?

If I saw Oswald on the street ( face mostly ) I would guess his age at 30.

Oswald's rings and where he wore them have always been curious to me.

In this photo I can see a ring on his right hand 4th finger. Not a common hand and finger wearing one.

I assume he has at least one other ring on his left hand ( wedding band?)

Why take such a provocative photo? How many people would ever think of taking a photo like this of themselves?

Rifle in one hand. Communist Russia newspaper in the other.

Pistol holstered and showing on his outside hip?

Dressed all in black?

A real life "Have Gun Will Travel" Palladin, with a Marxist Russian twist?

Only thing missing is a Russian military Ushanka hat.

Was Oswald a fan of that iconic 1800's American West gunslinger television show?

You have to wonder what Marina was thinking about this overly theatrical posing show.

Most young fathers would probably want a picture of themselves holding their cute little girl...versus this rifle/pistol "gun for hire" get up.

Marina was probably upset about the whole weird affair.

Honey, we need food and clothes for Junie more than rifles and pistols and prescription fees for Russian newspapers. Don't you think?

And was Oswald so dumb, that he would have pictures of him taken that are more incriminating than anything anyone could imagine, knowing that he was planning future violent actions like the Walker shooting and then JFK?

You'd think he would have destroyed these photos, especially right after the Walker shoot out.

These photos are graphic examples of the extremely illogical and nonsensical puzzle that Oswald's personal history was.

The question is...was this whole crazy thing intentional?

I believe I've read where Marina thought of it as a silly masquerade. As I recall, she wrote "Hunter of Fascists ha ha ha" on the back of one of the photos. As far as Lee, he supposedly thought these photos could help him convince the Cubans and Russians he was a serious revolutionary. Well, this cuts both ways. it could be that he wanted as much because he personally wanted their approval. Or, more likely, IMO, he created these photos as a dangle, to see how the Cubans and Russians responded. 

Of course, my memory is not what it once was. Does anyone recall if Lee actually showed these photos to anyone? Or if anyone saw them, outside Marina, Marguerite and Michael Paine? (I think the DeMohrenschildts claimed they found a copy in a record album returned to them by Michael Paine, and that they had no recollection of the photo before they moved to Haiti.)

If not, then maybe the whole thing was just a joke, or a strange game between Lee and Marina. 

[George Govus]

If it was a joke, it was very "meta." There's more than one newspaper he's gripping in his fist, correct? Two newspapers, both identifiable to those in the know as being either Communist or Socialist. But, juxtaposing those two newspapers wasn't commonplace. Weren't they antithetical to one another? Incongruous, at least?

[Tom Gram]

1 hour ago, Pat Speer said:

I believe I've read where Marina thought of it as a silly masquerade. As I recall, she wrote "Hunter of Fascists ha ha ha" on the back of one of the photos. As far as Lee, he supposedly thought these photos could help him convince the Cubans and Russians he was a serious revolutionary. Well, this cuts both ways. it could be that he wanted as much because he personally wanted their approval. Or, more likely, IMO, he created these photos as a dangle, to see how the Cubans and Russians responded. 

Of course, my memory is not what it once was. Does anyone recall if Lee actually showed these photos to anyone? Or if anyone saw them, outside Marina, Marguerite and Michael Paine? (I think the DeMohrenschildts claimed they found a copy in a record album returned to them by Michael Paine, and that they had no recollection of the photo before they moved to Haiti.)

If not, then maybe the whole thing was just a joke, or a strange game between Lee and Marina. 

I think the SWP later claimed that Oswald sent them at least one of the BYPs in the mail, but of course they lost their copy and the accompanying letter. I don’t really remember the details of this story so I could be way off, and it could just be total BS so don’t take my word for it. But it was something like that. 

[Joe Bauer]

1 hour ago, Michael Crane said:

If I'm not mistaken,the ring that you are talking about doesn't appear in backyard pic 2 (and maybe 3?)

 

Surprised that you didn't notice the fingers.

 

Right hand looks cut off

 

Left hand looks extended.

 

Roscoe White body IMO.

My gosh MC...you are right!

I never noticed the discrepancies you mention. Yet, they are there.

Oswald's fingers on his left hand do definitely look longer than the ones of his right hand. The fingers on his right hand have shortened, square block ends.

The fingers on his left hand seem longer and tapered down to less blockish ends.

And is it true that rings showing in one photo do not appear in others?

Why remove rings like that in between photos with the entire photo shoot only taking a few minutes?

And was Oswald's Marine Corp ring ever worn and displayed? If so, wouldn't that be an incongruous ideological message to be sending to Marxist others? 

 

[Joe Bauer]

These BYP pictures which Pat Speer surmises may have been taken to show Oswald as some type of Marxist revolutionary mercenary to impress who knows who...reminds me of one or two well known pictures of Frank Sturgis where he is brandishing about a pistol while dressed in Cuban jungle military attire, complete with a stylishly one-side-turned up safari hat.

Same with David Ferry and Gerry Patrick Hemming.

Tough guy just cause mercenary fighter trophy photos?

[Mark Ulrik]

The ring issue again ... not a slam dunk, but I think I can see both rings in 133-A.

Edited April 2, 2023 by Mark Ulrik

[Joe Bauer]

26 minutes ago, Mark Ulrik said:

The ring issue again ... I don't think the photos are clear enough to say for certain if the rings are there in all instances.

IMO opinion you can definitely see there are rings on those fingers. Both hands.

Curiously however, the lowest right side pic shows a ring much heavier and pronounced than the one shown on the same left hand finger in the photo two pics above it.

So, where most men wear a wedding band on their left hand fourth finger Oswald is instead wearing his larger more chunky Marine Corp ring?

And again, the blow up of Oswald's right hand clutching the newspapers really does show his fingers being very different than the fingers of his left hand. Almost like their ends have been cut off!

Just a curious observation thought.

I keep looking at Oswald's disproportionately large head relative to his small frame body in the first thread BYP photo.

The thought occurred to me that this overly large head discrepancy hypothetically could be duplicated by superimposing another photo of Oswald's head that was taken of Oswald from a position noticeably closer to the camera than these BYP pics.

Or, did Oswald have some dwarfism characteristics in his genetic make up?

Generally dwarfism includes heads disproportionately larger than their small body frames.

 

[Pat Speer]

53 minutes ago, Mark Ulrik said:

The ring issue again ... not a slam dunk, but I think I can see both rings in 133-A.

15 years ago or so, I spent way too much time obsessing on the rings. I wondered if a body double hadn't left his own wedding ring on. In the end, however, I ended up concluding photo C was too blurry to come to a conclusion. I think we can say, however, that the ring on the left hand is most probably Oswald's Marine Corps ring, and the ring on the right hand is a wedding band. As I recall, I looked through dozens of photos of Oswald and found Oswald sometimes wore his Marine Corps ring on his left hand, including on 11-22.

[Joe Bauer]

Here is an BYP observation I think we can all agree on.

Look closely at Oswald's hands in the original thread photo.

The middle finger of the left hand ( digitus medius ) is very clearly longer than the index finger and the ring finger next to it. Very clearly so.

Now look at the fingers of Oswald's right hand.

Look at the length of the middle finger relative to the other two fingers on it's sides.

Tell me you do not see the difference.

It's quite stark.

[Mark Ulrik]

3 minutes ago, Pat Speer said:

15 years ago or so, I spent way too much time obsessing on the rings. I wondered if a body double hadn't left his own wedding ring on. In the end, however, I ended up concluding photo C was too blurry to come to a conclusion. I think we can say, however, that the ring on the left hand is most probably Oswald's Marine Corps ring, and the ring on the right hand is a wedding band. As I recall, I looked through dozens of photos of Oswald and found Oswald sometimes wore his Marine Corps ring on his left hand, including on 11-22.

True, and he probably picked up the habit of wearing the wedding band on the right hand in Minsk.

[Joe Bauer]

What person who hates America and is trying to find any way he can to leave it and live in countries that also hate America...proudly wears his American Marine Corps service ring, even while supposedly shooting at JFK and plugging a police officer three times in the body, and then sadistically adding on an unnecessary cold blooded "coup de grace" fourth shot into the head?

Surprised none of the press ever asked Oswald about his rings. Especially his Marine Corps service one. And maybe also his shiny silver wrist bracelet? What was the bracelet representing?

Wearing loving oath and comradery honoring rings ( versus simple vanity jewelry ones ) means something in that person's mind set and values a little more sentimentally decent one would think ... imo anyways.

 

Edited April 2, 2023 by Joe Bauer

[Charles Blackmon]

1 hour ago, Joe Bauer said:

 

 heads disproportionately larger than their small body frames.

 

The thing is, why do we not notice weird stuff like this in the many other non-BYP pictures we have seen of Oswald? Inquiring minds and all...