JOHN McADAMS SAID:
A well known piece of conspiracy lore -- repeated by Jean Hill, for example -- is that LBJ was "ducking" down in the limo *before* the shots were fired in Dealey Plaza.
I've heard that the Altgens photo shows LBJ -- not having ducked -- at about Z-frame 253.
I frankly haven't seen that, but I may not have a good enough copy of the Altgens photo.
Can anybody shed some light on this?
DAVID VON PEIN SAID:
Click on picture for extra-large version:
JOHN McADAMS SAID:
Very good copy, but according to the testimony, LBJ was to Lady Bird's right, in the same seat. I'm not sure I can see anybody there.
DAVID VON PEIN SAID:
Yeah, I think you're correct, John. I don't see LBJ in the blown-up version of the picture either.
In the regular-sized (non-enlarged) version of the Altgens picture, I always thought it looked like LBJ seated to Lady Bird's LEFT in the car. But in the blow-up, we can easily see that that is not LBJ on Lady Bird's left -- that's Senator Ralph Yarborough.
Plus, I just remembered that there is also amateur film footage that shows LBJ sitting on the RIGHT side of the car during the Dallas motorcade on 11/22/63 [see the photo below]. So it's fairly clear that the person sitting to Lady Bird's left can't be Vice President Johnson.
Lyndon Johnson can't be seen at all in James Altgens' photograph, in my opinion. At least he can't be seen very clearly in the picture at any rate; and LBJ certainly cannot be seen clearly enough to make a definitive determination on whether he's "ducking" the rifle bullets or not.
But even if it could be proven beyond a reasonable doubt that Johnson is "ducking" in the Altgens picture, it's another "So what?" type of situation for the conspiracy theorists who like to drag this topic out of their stale closets every now and then -- because by the time the Altgens picture was taken, TWO GUNSHOTS had certainly already been fired in Dealey Plaza.
And there had positively been enough time for two of the Secret Service agents in JFK's follow-up car to react to the shots (since we can see two agents turning and looking directly toward the Book Depository Building in the Altgens picture).
So, it stands to reason, that other people could have conceivably been "reacting" (and possibly "ducking") by the time Altgens took his famous photo as well.
But for some reason, conspiracy theorists seem to think that if LBJ can be seen ducking in the Altgens photo, this indicates that Vice President Johnson MUST have been ducking BEFORE the first shot was even fired, and hence, per the conspiracy kooks who like to raise this point, LBJ had advanced knowledge that shooting was going to be occurring on Elm Street at exactly 12:30 on November 22nd.
A silly notion altogether, isn't it? (Yes, it is.)
David Von Pein
April 24, 2009
