TSBD Doorway man - Oswald or Lovelady?

[Greg Burnham]

Look, this has not really been an important issue with me until recently. I'm simply stunned at the way so many good people are figuratively shrieking "it IS Lovelady" in the doorway. It has certainly not been proven to be Lovelady. There is still a great deal of doubt, and I, for one, still strongly suspect the figure is Oswald.

Harold Weisberg analyzed this thoroughly over 40 years ago. His arguments still make sense to me. When people first noticed a figure in the Altgens photo that looked quite a bit like Oswald, wearing a shirt similarly distinctive in nature, the government knew it had a problem. Enter Billy Lovelady, looking reasonably like LHO from a distance. They weren't going to admit it was Oswald in the doorway, because the photo, IF the figure was Oswald, obviously proved he was not the shooter. No more arguments about the SBT or anything else. So...it was crucial for the figure to be someone else.

Why did Lovelady tell the FBI he wore a short sleeved shirt with broad stripes on it the day of the assassination? Weisberg thought that kind of thing was important, and so do I. CTers have given ground on way too many of these tangential issues, and it makes no sense. Steven Witt wasn't the Umbrella Man. There were many mysterious deaths of witnesses. There was a huge gaping hole in the back of JFK's head. The backyard photos are obvious fakes. There is more than reasonable doubt about what kind of rifle was found on the sixth floor, or whether there was a hole in the windshield. It is senseless to continue giving ground on these kinds of issues.

Jim Fetzer is ofen his own worst enemy, and certainly can turn others off with his demanding, rigid certainty in his own beliefs. However, from what I've seen on this thread, he has been personally attacked more than any counter evidence has been produced by his critics. Seamus Coogan again displays his courteous attitude by speaking of Fetzer in diapers, and then demands he be banned from this forum. What kind of debating tactic is that? If you ignore Jim Fetzer's bluster and impatience, he posts a great deal of solid data. Whatever you think if Ralph Cinque's work, the identity of the figure in the doorway remains an open question, imho. And to those of you who are lambasting Fetzer, please read some of your own posts.

As you know Don, Jim remains one of my closest friends in this community. We privately communicate on a daily or near daily basis. However, you are also correct that Jim has a tendency to become extremely certain about some of his work prior to it having been vetted by the critical community, here and elsewhere. This type of strategy is counter-intuitive to his own cause. He has admitted as much. Jim once told me after I had reminded him that he sometimes can't get out of his own way due to having little tact...he said: "Monk, I know that. If I had any tact at all I'd be the president of Harvard by now! As it is...no way." And then we both had a great belly laugh.

But as one who knows him well, even I will draw the line at some point. I did. We worked it out. No problem.

I think Seamus is completely off base at times in his attempt to make a name for himself. Jim has been a great living resource in the past and I'm sure he will continue to make great contributions in the future despite some stumbling about social niceties now and again.

I also agree that the case is not closed on this Doorway Man issue. I did some deep looking at high resolution copies of Altgens 6 and I am unconvinced that it is either Lovelady or Oswald for sure. I would not claim CERTAINTY either way at this point. Jim is, of course, free to claim what he believes to be true, but he has no "right to expect" others to accept his conclusion and no "right to expect" anyone to either "accept it as true or prove it's wrong" if they are disinterested in that aspect.

In my opinion, claiming certainty about this type of issue is akin to painting a bull's eye on one's chest and then wearing a sign that says, "Please don't shoot me" which makes it almost irresistible to pull that trigger.