# Is this photo real? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 26, 2016, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-photo-real/758381 "2016-06-26T01:09:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![koufax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/7ea924/32.png) [@koufax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/koufax)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2016, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-photo-real/758381/1 "2016-06-26T01:09:21Z")
WARNING:EXTREMELY GRAPHIC SHOCKING PHOTO!!! IF this photo of JFK with his head opened up is real, why is there a person standing down at the end of the table in shorts?? Is this photo even real? Why the shorts? Again…EXTREMELY GRAPHIC [https://www.google.com/search?q=jfk+autopsy+photos&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjYj5r9tMTNAhUCxGMKHSdADUsQ\_AUICCgB#imgrc=jUFGcwlvhjJFbM%3A](https://www.google.com/search?q=jfk+autopsy+photos&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjYj5r9tMTNAhUCxGMKHSdADUsQ_AUICCgB#imgrc=jUFGcwlvhjJFbM%3A) ---
**Author:** ![Bear\_Nenno](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bear_nenno/32/3358_2.png) [@Bear\_Nenno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bear_Nenno)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2016, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-photo-real/758381/2 "2016-06-26T01:13:45Z")
It’s not real. It’s from the Oliver Stone movie, JFK. ---
**Author:** ![Hail\_Ants](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/dc4da7/32.png) [@Hail\_Ants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hail_Ants)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2016, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-photo-real/758381/3 "2016-06-26T02:11:31Z")
> [@Bear\_Nenno](#): > > It’s not real. It’s from the Oliver Stone movie, JFK. It looks like it is also a ‘behind-the-scenes’ photo taking between takes during the production of the film. The guy in shorts is probably not an actor, but a crew member or effects guy. You can sort of notice how the realism of the prop body starts to taper off the further away you get from the head & upper torso. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2016, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-photo-real/758381/4 "2016-06-26T03:13:12Z")
It’s not even of Kennedy. It’s Dallas police officer Davis Tippit, according to [this page](http://www.wakingtimes.com/2015/11/21/the-who-how-why-jfk-assasination-52-years-on/), which is so darn convincing that it just has to be true. Doesn’t it? > [@](#): > > The JFK assassination was, in fact, a triple assassination or triple sacrifice in the open-air temple of Dealey Plaza. Kennedy, Oswald and Tippit were all murdered for different reasons. Patsy Lee Harvey Oswald was murdered on live TV by Jack Ruby (mafia) so that he wouldn’t spill the beans and declare what he knew of the plot. Tippit, however, was murdered because the conspirators had decided they needed his exact corpse to do the body switch with JFK’s body – and he looked so similar they thought they could do the switch without anyone noticing. In this interview with Jeff Rense (9:20 mark), Robert Morningstar mentions how there used to be footage from Tippit interviewing a suspect on the Grassy Knoll – footage which later got permanently erased down the memory hole. This may be because Tippit was interviewing a man who had said he was Secret Service, but he had dirty, greasy fingernails, looked like a mechanic and in all likelihood was one of the many conspirators using fake Secret Service IDs. . ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2016, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-photo-real/758381/5 "2016-06-26T03:27:29Z")
The photo in the OP is very close to the actual autopsy photo: [https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/43/Jfkautopsy.jpg](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/43/Jfkautopsy.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2016, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-photo-real/758381/6 "2016-06-26T04:03:09Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > The photo in the OP is very close to the actual autopsy photo: OK, but how do we know _that_ photo is authentic? My understanding is that official sources have released only monochrome drawings made from the autopsy photographs. I would consider photos from unofficial sources to be suspect unless there’s solid evidence for their authenticity. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2016, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-photo-real/758381/7 "2016-06-26T16:23:07Z")
> [@bibliophage](#): > > OK, but how do we know _that_ photo is authentic? My understanding is that official sources have released only monochrome drawings made from the autopsy photographs. I would consider photos from unofficial sources to be suspect unless there’s solid evidence for their authenticity. It appears to be [authentic](http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/robertson.htm). > [@](#): > > On November 23, 2015, authorized by Senator Paul Kirk acting for the Kennedy family, I visited the National Archives at College Park. My intent was to review and re-study the original JFK autopsy materials, as well as the autopsy photographs made from the exposed roll of 120 Ektachrome E3 autopsy film. These enhanced photos were created by Kodak for the ARRB in 1998 and they produced images that had been recorded – but were not seen by anyone since the night of the autopsy in 1963… > > I can attest with absolute conviction that all these materials are authentic and unchanged since they were taken the night of the autopsy. > > Randolph Robertson M.D. November 2015 ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2016, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-photo-real/758381/8 "2016-06-26T16:32:22Z")
The photo in the OP is not real. On the other hand, [this photo](https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10153613524726860&set=p.10153613524726860&type=3&theater) is genuinely, terrifyingly real. :smack::eek: ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2016, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-photo-real/758381/9 "2016-06-26T16:56:58Z")
As **Exapno Mapcase** reports the photos linked later are authentic\*, but the one in the OP is clearly a recreation, for sure made for the JFK movie. [http://thetfs.ca/2011/03/23/bodies-of-work-series-mr-smith-goes-to-hollywood/](http://thetfs.ca/2011/03/23/bodies-of-work-series-mr-smith-goes-to-hollywood/) [NSFW warning] You can scroll down to the full size prosthetic created by special effects artist Gordon Smith. And looking at the pictures it can be noted that the cloth that is under the head of the president is all bodied and with “brain” matter in the OP picture; when one sees the original autopsy pictures the insides of the brain were already removed or all drained, in the recreation the cloth is bodied and with a lot of brain matter falling and dirtying the cloth. For sure all added/made for dramatic purposes. On Edit: except **Jackmannii** ’s. :smack: 😛