A Dartmouth computer scientist says an iconic photo of Lee Harvey Oswald — in which he clutches both a bolt-action rifle and a stack of Maoist newspapers — is authentic, and could not possibly have been faked with the technology of the 1960s. The photo has long been a lightning rod for conspiracy theorists, who dispute its authenticity:
Farid and his team have developed a number of digital forensic tools used to determine whether digital photos have been manipulated, and his research is often used by law enforcement officials and in legal proceedings. The tools can measure statistical inconsistencies in the underlying image pixels, improbable lighting and shadow, physically impossible perspective distortion, and other artifacts introduced by photo manipulators.
The scientist even went so far as to construct a 3D model of Oswald’s head in order to prove that the shadows depicted in the image could have been caused by a single light source. Farid’s findings — to be published in an upcoming issue of Perception — are intended to debunk a key argument of those who believe Oswald was set up by the government and its fancy photo-shop-o-trons.
Unfortunately Farid did not have access to the equipment we have at Pax HQ. We ran the photo through our home-built magnophoto scantronomic oscillating refibrillator and noticed a peculiar anomaly in the upper right-hand corner. Let’s take a closer look at the highlighted area:
Now let’s get even closer:
And finally we’ll jump to 10x zoom and enhance. I think you’ll be shocked at what we’ve uncovered:
You can expect my full report “Panda Fucking: The Unifying Conspiracy Theory?” in the next issue of Cat Fancy magazine.
Incriminating Photo of Lee Harvey Oswald Not Faked [LiveScience]
