AND THE BACKYARD PHOTOS:
Some conspiracy theorists seem to believe that the Mannlicher-Carcano rifle
with serial number C2766 on it (marked as CE139 by the Warren Commission) is not the same rifle that is being held by Lee Harvey Oswald in the famous backyard photos.
I will mention just a few things here which re-confirm the obvious fact that the backyard photos are definitely genuine (i.e., they have not been faked) and the common-sense fact that the rifle Lee Oswald is holding in those backyard pictures is most certainly the same rifle found by police in the Texas School Book Depository on 11/22/63:
1.) Marina Oswald has ALWAYS maintained that she took the backyard photographs. And we know LHO was holding a RIFLE in all of those pictures she took.
2.) We know the pictures were taken in the early portion of the year 1963, probably on March 31, 1963, which was a time period when the Oswalds were living at the Neely Street address in Dallas.
3.) We know for a rock-solid fact (despite the crazy theories of conspiracy theorists like Jim DiEugenio and others) that Oswald was shipped Carcano Rifle C2766 from Klein's Sporting Goods on 3/20/63. (And the timing of that shipment is in perfect harmony with Oswald receiving the rifle [plus his revolver, which was also shipped on March 20] in time for the March 31st backyard photo shoot.)
4.) The backyard pictures were determined by Lyndal Shaneyfelt of the FBI and by the HSCA to be real and genuine and had not been faked or manipulated by anyone.
5.) There is absolutely no indication to show that Lee Oswald owned more than just the one Carcano (C2766) rifle in the year 1963. This fifth point is also crucial, when placed in conjunction with #1 through #4 above, because it indicates (logically) that the rifle Oswald is posing with in the backyard pictures MUST be C2766....because he owned no other rifle in 1963.
Conspiracy theorists, of course, can always argue that just because Oswald OWNED only one rifle (C2766), this wouldn't necessarily have to mean that C2766 is positively the rifle he is holding in the backyard photos.
But that logic is about the same as making the following statement (which, incredibly, some CTers have actually tried to say in the past): Just because Lee Oswald was brandishing a pistol and trying to kill policemen with it in the Texas Theater on November 22nd, this doesn't have to mean it was THE SAME pistol that was used to kill Patrolman J.D. Tippit.
That latter hunk of insanity is also nutty from a "ballistics" standpoint too, of course, since we know beyond all doubt that the revolver that was used to murder Officer Tippit is positively the same gun that Seaport Traders shipped to Lee Harvey Oswald in March of '63.
Which would mean that if that latter piece of "CT logic" were true, it would
mean that somebody OTHER than Oswald killed Tippit WITH OSWALD'S OWN GUN, and then somehow managed to get Oswald to take his gun back after the Tippit murder, with Oswald then proceeding to pull that gun on Dallas police officer M.N. McDonald in the theater. (Yeah, right.)
Here's something else for conspiracy theorists to chew on and ponder (which is something that probably should be "pushed" more often by the conspiracists who think Oswald was just an innocent patsy):
CTers want to believe that some unknown force was trying to frame poor Lee Oswald for President Kennedy's murder. And many of these conspiracy buffs also acknowledge the fact that Oswald did own the C2766 Carcano rifle. (Which, of course, couldn't be more obvious, with Waldman Exhibit No. 7 being the PROOF-POSITIVE that Oswald [aka A. Hidell] was shipped that exact rifle.)
Therefore, why wouldn't any plotters simply attempt to frame Oswald WITH HIS OWN RIFLE IN THE FIRST PLACE -- vs. attempting to frame him by using a Mauser rifle or some other weapon to kill JFK?
Conspiracy theorists cannot logically answer my last question, because it would make no sense at all to leave a "Mauser" in the Book Depository to frame Oswald if the C2766 rifle was REALLY OSWALD'S all along (which it was, of course).
But I have found that conspiracists almost never ask such logical questions of themselves. Instead, they are "piecemeal" investigators. They look at one singular anomaly and apply that anomaly or discrepancy (or whatever) to the case, without ever once looking at the "totality" or the "whole" of the case, or the mere illogic of their isolated, piecemeal theory.
Take the backyard photos as yet another example of this:
Many goofy conspiracy believers actually seem to think that the "plotters" who supposedly faked the pictures would have WANTED and NEEDED to fake up to THREE (or maybe even FOUR) different backyard pictures....even though just ONE such "fake" photo would easily suffice.
It's just silly beyond all belief to think that even if the photos had been faked, that anyone would have felt the need to fake three or four different pictures, when they all show the exact same thing--Oswald holding weapons in the same backyard in Dallas.
To reiterate a key point:
When my above-mentioned "Point #5" is added into the mix regarding this matter concerning the rifle, it then becomes even more crystal clear that the rifle Lee Harvey Oswald is holding in the backyard photos can only be ONE particular rifle -- and that is Mannlicher-Carcano Rifle #C2766.
David Von Pein
September 7, 2011
