November 2014 Auction Ends Thursday, November 20th, 5pm Pacific
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 11/20/2014
Archive of materials by Cecil Kirk, a police photographer who gave expert testimony on John F. Kennedy's Assassination in 1978, before the House Select Committee on Assassinations. Archive includes a 30 page original typescript of Kirk's testimony used before the House Committee, two photographs related to the investigation, and other photographs and ephemera from his 20 year career in the department. In his 30 page testimony, Kirk challenges the widely held belief that the infamous photos of Lee Harvey Oswald holding the rifle in his backyard were doctored in order to frame him: ''...A NUMBER OF PEOPLE HAVE LOOKED AT THESE PHOTOGRAPHS OR COPIES OF THEM AND HAVE CLAIMED TO FIND EVIDENCE THAT THE PHOTOGRAPHS WERE FALSIFIED...THE ASSASSINATION COMMITTEE PHOTOGRAPHIC PANEL EXAMINED ONLY FIRST GENERATION PRINTS...SUBSQUENT [sic] GENERATION MAY PICK UP ARTIFACTS AND LOSE DETAIL IN HIGHLIGHT AND SHADOW AREAS, IN ADDITION, TONE QUALITY WOULD BE LOST.'' Kirk continues, point-by-point, dismissing the various critiques of the photographs and concluding that not only were the images never altered, the rifle pictured was the same one picked up at the Texas School Book Depository on 22 November 1963. Kirk then goes on to challenge the famous ''Man in the Door'' photograph that conspiracy theorists cite as proof that Oswald was not on the sixth floor. The archive also features a composite photograph produced by the D.C. Metropolitan Police Photo Lab showing several images of the Dallas police motorcycle that was believed to have recorded the sound of four shots fired at the Kennedy motorcade, raising the suspicion that a second shooter was involved. However, the photograph shows that the motorcycle officer's switch was turned to channel two, which would invalidate the four-shot theory. Kirk's papers also include an enlargement of a photograph taken by Life photographer Arthur Rickerby showing the infamous ''umbrella man'' seated on the curb. Conspiracy theorists posit that the man may have opened the umbrella as a signal to an assassin. Also found in the archive is a four page typewritten statement, likely done sometime after Kirk testified before the House committee, discussing the circumstances surrounding the ''latent palm print'' that conspiracy theorists alleged was faked to frame Oswald. Using photographic analysis, Kirk demonstrated six defects on the gun that matched the flaws on the palm print taken by the F.B.I.: ''The photographs of the barrel were in effect an aerial survey which was used to locate those six craters (metal defects) that were recorded by the latent print lift 15 years earlier. Indeed, they were found to still exist and can be recognized in the photographic documentation.'' The balance of the archive includes a file folder and binder filled with news clippings related to the 1978 hearings, together with numerous personal photographs and other related ephemera. A comprehensive lot regarding the investigation into JFK's assassination.
Archive of Material Used in the 1978 Senate Hearings on the Assassination of John F. Kennedy
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