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Photograph of Lee Harvey Oswald holding a rifle
Photograph of Lee Harvey Oswald holding a rifle

Photograph of Lee Harvey Oswald holding a rifle

Object number2004.037.0114
Date03/31/1963
ClassificationsPhotographs
Photographer Marina Oswald
ObjectPhotograph (b&w)
Credit LineLyndal L. Shaneyfelt Collection/The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza
MediumPaper
Dimensions14 x 11 in. (35.6 x 27.9 cm)
Collections
DescriptionBlack and white photograph of Lee Harvey Oswald holding his Mannlicher-Carcano rifle in his left hand, two Socialist and Communist newspapers in his right, and wearing a Smith & Wesson revolver on his right hip. This famous photograph was taken by Oswald's wife Marina with her husband's camera in the backyard of their Oak Cliff apartment probably on March 31, 1963. It was collected as evidence the day after the assassination of President Kennedy and was closely scrutinized by investigators. The image is also known officially as Warren Commission Exhibit 133-A. This copy of a photograph was part of FBI Special Agent Lyndal Shaneyfelt's Kennedy assassination file; Shaneyfelt assisted in the FBI investigations of the assassination conducted on behalf of the Warren Commission in 1964.
Curatorial Commentary
Lee Harvey Oswald told investigators this picture was a fake, that his face had been placed on someone else's body, though every official investigation into its authenticity concluded the photo is real.  Dallas police officers found several negatives and prints of these "backyard photos" in a search of the Oswalds' belongings.  Marina Oswald has always confirmed that she took the pictures, and both she and Marguerite Oswald, Lee's mother, admitted destroying, on the day after the assassination, a print of a fourth pose in which Oswald held his rifle over his head.  No copies of that image are known to exist. - Gary Mack, Curator