Backyard photo of Lee Harvey Oswald isauthentic, study shows19 October 2015

A new Dartmouth study confirms the authenticity of thefamous backyard photo of Lee Harvey Oswald holdingthe same type of rifle used to assassinate PresidentJohn F. Kennedy. Credit: Warren Commission

A new Dartmouth study confirms the authenticity ofthe famous backyard photo of Lee Harvey Oswaldholding the same type of rifle used to assassinatePresident John F. Kennedy.

The findings refute continued claims that the photowas faked because Oswald's pose is physicallyimplausible. The study, which uses a new digitalimage forensics technique and a 3-D model ofOswald developed by the Dartmouth researchers,appears in the Journal of Digital Forensics,Security and Law.

"Our detailed analysis of Oswald's pose, the lightingand shadows and the rifle in his hands refutes theargument of photo tampering," says senior authorHany Farid, a professor of computer science and apioneering researcher in digital forensics whoseteam develops mathematical and computationaltechniques to detect tampering in photos, videos,audios and documents.

Oswald was killed before his trial, so he never gavea full accounting of the assassination, which fueledtheories that he was part of a conspiracy. Thetheories point to purported inconsistencies in theevents of Nov. 22, 1963, and in the evidencecollected against Oswald. One such example is aphotograph of Oswald in his backyard holstering apistol and holding a rifle in one hand and Marxistnewspapers in the other. The photo was particularlydamning because it showed Oswald holding thesame type of rifle that was used to assassinateKennedy.

At the time of his arrest, Oswald claimed the photowas fake. In addition, it has long been argued thatthe lighting and shadows in the photo areinconsistent; that Oswald's facial features areinconsistent with other photos of him; that the sizeof the rifle is inconsistent with the known length ofthat type of rifle; and that Oswald's pose isphysically implausible (it appears as if he isstanding off balance).

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Dartmouth researchers used new digital image forensicsand 3-D modeling techniques to confirm the authenticityof the famous backyard photo of Lee Harvey Oswaldholding the same type of rifle used to assassinatePresident John F. Kennedy. Credit: Hany Farid

The Warren Commission and the House SelectCommittee on Assassinations concluded claims ofphoto tampering were unwarranted. Also, Farid'sstudies in 2009 and 2010 refuted the claim that thelighting and shadows are inconsistent, but thesestudies did not address claims that Oswald's poseis physically implausible. In the new study, Faridand his team conducted a 3-D stability analysis to

determine if this claim is warranted.

Dartmouth researchers built and posed a physiologicallyplausible 3-D model of Lee Harvey Oswald to match hisappearance in the famous backyard photo. Their analysisof the 3-D model revealed that although Oswald appearsoff-balance, his pose is stable. Credit: Hany Farid

Farid teamed with Assistant Professor EmilyWhiting, who specializes in architectural geometry,computer-aided design and 3-D fabrication. Withthe help of graduate student Srivamshi Pittala, theybuilt a physiologically plausible 3-D model ofOswald and posed this model to match hisappearance in the backyard photo. By adding theappropriate mass to each part of the 3-D model,they were able to perform a balance analysis on the

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3-D model. This analysis revealed that althoughOswald appears off-balance, his pose is stable.The analysis also revealed that the lighting andshadows are physically plausible and the length ofthe rifle is consistent with the length of the rifle usedto kill the president.

"Our analysis refutes purported evidence ofmanipulation in the Oswald photo, but moregenerally we believe that the type of detailed 3-Dmodeling performed here can be a powerfulforensic tool in reasoning about the physicalplausibility of an image," Farid says. "With a simpleadjustment to the height and weight, the 3-Dhuman model that we created can be used toforensically analyze the pose, stability and shadowsin any image of people."

Provided by Dartmouth CollegeAPA citation: Backyard photo of Lee Harvey Oswald is authentic, study shows (2015, October 19)retrieved 10 May 2018 from https://phys.org/news/2015-10-backyard-photo-lee-harvey-oswald.html

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