Familiar Faces in Dealey Plaza

[Jack White]

Jack, recall that everyone is an expert in facial recognition, we all got up the learning curve rapidly ("study" from the crib onward) and continue to practice it daily, so virtually everyone is good to excellent at it. Photo experts like you do not add so much value in comparing facial images as in pointing out non-obvious things likely to be overlooked by the layman like a magazine on the ground of the Apollo moon set or things moved around at the Pentagon crime scene. And even then it's the "aha!" moment that is important, the persuasive impact on jurors (bystanders, observers, etc.) that validates the utility of an expert. Yes, I take your analysis into account but I continue to be my own expert in facial recognition.

You don't know what the unimpeachable, direct evidence is by now? Sigh. It is Imogene Adams' testimony and the verified facts supporting her testimony. The failure of you and Fetzer to stipulate as much is telling. Oh that's right, you're just a singer in a..., er, photo analyst.

Your renewed assertion of expertise in identification of the "Conein-like" face in Dealey Plaza reminds me of the general issue of reliance on specialists, bureaucrats and professors vs. thinking for yourself. You know where that leads. As Ludwig von Mises aptly wrote in "Bureaucracy" (1944, p. 130):
"The plain citizens are mistaken in complaining that the bureaucrats have arrogated powers; they themselves and their mandatories have abandoned their sovereignty. Their ignorance of fundamental problems of economics has made the professional specialists supreme. All technical and juridical details of legislation can and must be left to the experts. But democracy becomes impracticable if the eminent citizens, the intellectual leaders of the community, are not in a position to form their own opinion on the basic social, economic, and political principles of policies. If the citizens are under the hegemony of the bureaucratic professionals, society breaks up into two castes: the ruling professionals, the Brahmins, and the gullible citizenry. Then despotism emerges, whatever the wording of constitutions and laws may be.
Democracy means self-determination. How can people determine their own affairs if they are too indifferent to gain through their own thinking an independent judgment on fundamental political and economic problems? Democracy is not a good that people can enjoy without trouble. It is, on the contrary, a treasure that must be defended daily and conquered anew by strenuous effort."

If a specialist cannot explain his claim in convincing fashion to me, I don't care how technical the field, I will not adopt his claim. No need, and I am mighty suspicious if an expert cannot reduce his "80 story edifice" to its fundamentals. The root of the truffle is the whole truffle.

To return to the case extant, both Allan and I and probably all of us would like the photo to verify CIA Conein's presence at the assassination but verification has failed. Is that a big deal in the JFK assassination investigation? Not really but the failure to change minds here with new evidence is disquieting.

Convince a man against his will and he is of the same opinion still. --Anon

Let me try a medical textbook on the muscles controlling the eyebrows.

Raising or lowering the eyebrows uses the Occipitofrontalis muscles. Using
these muscles causes transverse (horizontal) wrinkles of the forehead.

Frowning or squinting uses the Corrugator Supercilii muscles. Using these
muscles causes deep VERTICAL wrinkle BETWEEN the eyebrows.

Frequent use of the Occipitofrontalis muscles activates the Procerus muscles.
Using these Procerus muscles causes a deep HORIZONTAL wrinkle BETWEEN
the eyebrows.

The man in Altgens is NOT squinting from the sun, or he would have a
vertical wrinkle between the two eyebrows.

Believe it or not.

Convince a man against his will and he is of the same opinion still. --Anon

Jack