The famous backyard photos: are they for real?

This two-story blue wood frame structure is in an advanced state of disrepair: windows are broken out and the porch has been removed. The neighborhood is questionable and is not an area that welcomes tourists—if you decide to drive by, don't linger. Note also that the only number on the house is 212 (214 was the address of the upstairs apartment). Although the authenticity of the photographs has long been disputed, the location wasn't. The back staircase railing, prominent in the background of the Oswald photo, is still intact and recognizable.

SAYS DAVE PERRY: My question about the fakes is, What would have been the purpose of making fakes? Marina had no reason to lie about the photos, but it was hard to know what she really believed because she changed her mind constantly.

SAYS JIM MARRS: I could convince you beyond a shadow of a doubt that these photographs are fakes. We don't know for certain who made them, but they were made to incriminate Oswald. The backgrounds are identical in each photo. Also Marina originally said she had only taken one, but there were four versions. Where did they all come from?

SAYS GARY MACK: If the photo had been faked in an effort to incriminate Oswald, then one would have expected it to have been released the moment Oswald died. The Dallas Police never released the photos; they only came to light when an unofficial copy was published three months later.

SAYS GERALD POSNER: The tests show that these photos are real, and the best witness available—Marina Oswald—says she took them and that Oswald posed for them. That seems to settle the issue.

SAYS JIM MARRS: Everybody went to the Carousel Club—it was THE after-hours place in Dallas. Students, attorneys, police officers all mingled here for what was basically the last vestiges of vaudeville. There would be a singer, followed by a ventriloquist, a stripper, and then a comedian. The Carousel Club was where the action was in 1963.

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