James Altgens

[Dealey Joe]

James William "Ike" Altgens[1] (April 28, 1919 – December 12, 1995) was an American photographer and field reporter for the Associated Press. Based in Dallas, Texas, in 1963, Altgens took arguably the most famous photograph of the in-progress assassination of President John F. Kennedy—a snapshot that led to a years-long debate among researchers over whether accused assassin Lee Harvey Oswald is visible in Dealey Plaza as the shots were fired.Altgens spent more than 40 years with the AP, then did advertising work until he retired altogether. Both Altgens and his wife were in their seventies when they died in 1995, at about the same time, in their Dallas home.Altgens had been employed by the AP for nearly 26 years when he was assigned on November 22, 1963, to photograph the motorcade that would take President Kennedy from Love Field to the Dallas Trade Mart, where Kennedy was scheduled to deliver an address. Working that day as the photo editor, Altgens asked instead to go to the railroad overcrossing known to locals as the "triple overpass" or "triple underpass" (where Elm, Main and Commerce Streets converge) to take pictures. Since that was not originally his assignment, Altgens took his personal camera, a 35 mm Nikkorex-F single-lens-reflex camera with a 105 mm telephoto lens, rather than the motor-driven camera usually used for news events. "This meant that what I took, I had to make sure it was good—I didn't have time for second chances."[2]Altgens later told investigators for the Warren Commission that he was denied access to the overcrossing by uniformed officers; he took up a position in Dealey Plaza instead.[3] Though he took seven snapshots altogether, Altgens described to Commissioners only the photographs that were published; of those three, the first came as the Presidential limousine turned from Main Street onto Houston Street. Afterwards, he ran across the grass, roughly east to west, toward the south curb along Elm Street, and stopped across from the Plaza's north colonnade. As he snapped his first photograph from that spot, he heard a "burst of noise [that] he thought was firecrackers." Kennedy had just begun to react, thrusting his hands toward his throat; Jackie Kennedy's gloved left hand could be seen through the windshield, holding her husband's left arm.Just as Altgens was preparing for a second snapshot along Elm Street, he heard a blast that he recognized as gunfire and saw the President had been struck in the head. "I had pre-focused, had my hand on the trigger, but when JFK's head exploded, sending substance in my direction, I virtually became paralyzed," Altgens later told author Richard B. Trask. "This was such a shock to me that I never did press the trigger on the camera.Altgens' final photo taken just after the fatal shot shows Jackie Kennedy and Secret Service agent Clint Hill on the back of the Presidential limousine."[T]o have a President shot to death right in front of you," Altgens continued, "and keep your cool and do what you're supposed to do—I'm not real sure that the most seasoned photographers would be able to do it." Still, he said, "there is no excuse for this. I should have made the picture that I was set up to make. And I didn't do it."[2]Seconds later, Altgens had recovered enough to take his final picture of the limousine—showing the First Lady on the vehicle's trunk as Secret Service agent Clint Hill was climbing on behind her—as the driver had begun to speed away toward Parkland Memorial Hospital. Hill later told the Warren Commission that Jackie Kennedy appeared to be "reaching for something coming off the right rear bumper" of the limousine—described later as pieces of her husband's head—though Mrs. Kennedy's testimony suggested that she saw Altgens' photograph (or the corresponding still picture made from the Zapruder film) showing "me climbing out the back. But I don't remember that at all."[4]Very interestingly, Altgens (standing to President Kennedy’s left and front when his head first exploded) stated during his Warren Commission testimony, "I wasn't keeping track of the number of pops that took place, but I could vouch for number one, and I can vouch for the last shot, but I cannot tell you how many shots were in between." Altgens further stated to author Richard Trask (in Trask's book, "Pictures of the Pain") that pieces of President Kennedy's head landed near his feet. Altgens also stated to attorney and author Mark Lane (in Lane's best selling book, “Rush to Judgment”) that shortly before the limousine arrived inside the Dealey Plaza kill zone, Altgens observed several persons arrive up into the grassy knoll near the picket fence, and that one of these persons that Altgens distinctly observed was dressed in a uniform as a Dallas policeman: No policeman was, ever, officially ordered before, nor pre-stationed before, nor admitted to afterwards as, ever, being stationed near or on the grassy knoll.Altgens testified that after the shots ended he followed officers and spectators up the grassy knoll on the north side of Elm Street. "I wanted to come over and get a picture of the guy—if they had such a person in custody."[2] When they came back without a suspect, Altgens then ran to a telephone to report the shooting, and hurried back to the AP offices in the Dallas News Building on Houston Street to file his report and develop the film.[5] His first phone call, from the AP wirephoto office to the news office, led to one of the first bulletins sent to the world:Dallas, Nov. 22 (AP)— President Kennedy was shot today just as his motorcade left downtown Dallas. Mrs. Kennedy jumped up and grabbed Mr. Kennedy. She cried, 'Oh, no!' The motorcade sped on.[2][edit]Controversial photographOf the three Altgens photos published by the Associated Press, the first snapped along Elm Street would receive the most scrutiny: taken simultaneously with Zapruder film frame 255 from the front and to the left of the Presidential limousine after Altgens had briefly walked out into the southernmost street lane while the shots were still being fired. Kennedy can be seen with his arms akimbo and his hands near his throat, apparently reacting to a shot fired by an assassin. Secret Service agents in the car a short distance behind the limousine reacted differently to the sound; at least three are facing towards the front possibly looking at the President, Kennedy friend and aide David Powers is facing towards the front possibly looking at the President, one agent is facing towards the front possibly looking at the onlookers on the north side of Elm Street, and two agents have turned rearward and are facing behind themselves, to their right-rear.The man in the doorway Several people can be seen standing in the main doorway to the Depository; one man bore a striking resemblance to Oswald. His presence there should have been impossible because, according to official investigations, he was on the building's sixth floor, firing bullets at Kennedy from a Mannlicher-Carcano rifle (Oswald claimed he was in the second-floor lunchroom, where he was spotted moments later by a Dallas Police officer). The Warren Commission paid careful attention to the image, as did private researchers: if the man was not Oswald, it did not necessarily prove nor disprove that Oswald was the assassin; if, however, the man was Oswald, here was photographic proof that he did not kill Kennedy.A second Depository employee, Billy Lovelady, identified himself standing[6] in the picture, and other employees who had been nearby agreed;[7] a supervisor, however, signed an affidavit stating that Lovelady was "seated on the entrance steps".[8] Ultimately, the Commission decided that Oswald was not in the doorway.[6] That conclusion was bolstered several years later when photographs taken by a researcher[9] of Lovelady, wearing what he said was the same shirt, appeared to match the image in the Altgens photograph (Oswald—who also claimed to have been outside having lunch with his supervisor, according to a police Captain's notes[10] written "several days" after the interrogation—had been photographed wearing a similar shirt inside the Dallas Police station).[11] In 1979, the House Select Committee on Assassinations also identified Lovelady after studying an enhanced version of the Altgens photograph and several amateur films.[12] If that didn't clinch it, there is the famous newsreel film of Oswald being escorted down the hallway in Dallas Police headquarters. Asked whether he was in the "building" (the Depository) at the time of the shooting he replied "I work in that building. . . . Naturally if I work in that building, yes sir."[13] Ten years later, Texas journalist Jim Marrs wrote, "[m]ost researchers today are ready to concede that the man may have been Lovelady."[14]Also of note in Altgen's famous image is the Dal-Tex Building, visible with its white fire escape in the far background of the photo. At least one of the prominent JFK conspiracy theories suggest there was a gunman in this building and/or on its roof, which, as can clearly be seen in this photograph, afforded an unobstructed view of the president's motorcade.

[Ed Teach]

Altgens story is an interesting one. I guess at least the AP knew the parade route that morning because Ike pulled rank and went down Dealey Plaza to position himself and his new fancy camera (using the semi long to one day become legendary in it's own right lens instead of his kit 50 - he wanted to get an upclose image) at just the right spot to get the money picture. He would have had the money picture that day too had he not froze at that particular moment. It is also intriguing how if they would have let him stay at the bridge he would of gotten a nice telephoto shot of the actors in this drama and by using the 105 and the compression it affords would make it much easier to see nested snipers. And of course all that witness evidence never asked for until way after the fact especially things he said about the Knoll.One controversial figure to come from Altgens photo - Lovelady. Interesting he looks just like Oswald and dies at the ripe old age of 41. And then there is Mr Altgens himself and his wife Mrs. Altgens nee Halliburton!? Both die at the same time in their Dallas home and forever close another chapter in this horrible book.