Dartmouth professor and digital forensics expert Hany Farid recently published an article in the journal Perception detailing his analysis of the infamous “backyard photos” of Lee Harvey Oswald, John F. Kennedy’s assassin. Farid’s work indicates that the photos are genuine, and thus the photos cannot be used to support theories of a broader conspiracy regarding Kennedy’s assassination.
When these photos-featuring Oswald holding a rifle in his backyard-were found in 1963, they served as incriminating evidence against the accused man because they linked him to the murder weapon. However, Oswald claimed that the photos were fakes, and to this day many people believe that the photos were manipulated in order to frame Oswald as the lone suspect.
If the photos were indeed fabricated, it might suggest that an organized group had conspired to frame Oswald and use him as a pawn in their plot to kill Kennedy. The single element in the photos that is most frequently cited as evidence of manipulation is the shadows cast by Oswald’s face and body. Specifically, it seems that there are two separate shadows in the picture, which gives the impression that there was more than one source of light in the picture, which should be impossible.
Farid, who teaches in the computer science department at Dartmouth, knows that the human visual system is unreliable at looking at shadows and judging them, so he decided that an advanced technological analysis of the images was warranted. He set about constructing 3-D models of Oswald’s head and portions of the backyard to determine if the shadows seen in the photo could have been caused by a single light source, which would prove their authenticity.
Farid says he “went into this with an open mind,” but was still surprised at his findings.
Farid determined the 3-D locations of the camera, Oswald, and the light source and found that the lighting and shadows in the original picture were consistent with the position of a single light source.
Based on this conclusion as well as his additional yet-to-be-published analysis of other elements in the photos, Farid can confidently say, “the evidence people have pointed to suggesting the photo is a fake is incorrect.” However, he adds, “I have no opinion on the conspiracy theory.”
Logically, the authenticity of the photos are not the deciding factor in the probability of a conspiracy. Farid’s research simply means that these photos cannot support the conspiracy theory.