The Wink*

*From Steamshovel Press #12: An example of the weird mix of brilliant 
technical detail and lousy assassination history comes early in the book
[Pictures of the Pain by Richard Trask] when Trask interviews 
White House photographer Cecil Stroughton about the swearing-in of 
LBJ. Trask virtually pinpoints the exact frame in which Stroughton 
switches from his Alpha to his Hasselblad camera. The images are
beautifully reproduced from the contact prints, save one that Trask 
explains as being reproduced from a copy negative. This is the 
"wink" photograph, a shot of LBJ receiving  a wink from Congressman 
Albert Thomas after the swearing-in, with all the onerous 
implications it has in David Lifton's Best Evidence, where 
the photo appeared in 1980. Trask supplies no reason why this 
particular negative original is missing, no indication that he asked 
Stoughton about it, no suggestion that he is even aware of its 
controversy, despite references to Lifton in the same chapter.


Click on the photo to get up close and personal.

Steamshovel!