Person doing a backbend or hanging upside down in dense foliage

[norest4thewicked]

I suppose I was remiss in not soliciting your reaction when I made this post later.

Websleuths Crime Sleuthing Community - View Single Post - Man Hanging Upside Down In Dense Foliage

It contains a link to this image:

Oh, well! Better late than never. How much of that is the twig?

It is not a twig. It is the shadow of a twig.

 

[WildHuncher]

People are talking about an "it." What about "them?"

 

[Redbird]

Looking closer at "them" I don't see how "they" could be twigs. "They" seem too small to me and would a twig fall like that? They are very wisp-ish.

 

[WildHuncher]

Alcala for sure didn't photoshop the pictures as they have been in police custody since 1979. Computers were mostly still rather large affairs owned by banks and other institutions. It was another world.

...

Going to modify this a little. When Photoshop DID come along, it borrowed a lot of concepts and terminology from pre-existing retouching and other doctoring. The Soviets made an art out of painting people out of group shots with Stalin once they had been arrested for treason or whatever.

Minor retouching was routinely done to paint out blemishes, etc. Extensive doctoring of pictures was rare in the pre-photoshop era because it was tedious and hard to do well.

 

[Redbird]

This person seems to have very straight hair. Not at all wavy. I notice because I always wanted to have hair like that. When I was looking for matches, I was looking for someone with straight brown, or reddish brown hair.

 

[WildHuncher]

Don't see a swastika but I see a circle within a circle. Obvious bump on the head. Could it be a bump within a bump?

I see the nested circles too. They lie neatly between the upper and lower arms of the X-stika thing just left of them.

 

[norest4thewicked]

To answer a previous poster...if you look at a low resolution photo that has been blown up as this one has been done, there will be twigs, leaves and other greenery at varying distances away from the face. We don't know how far away the person taking the photo was standing. He appeared to be of some distance away, but the head was pushed down into the ground, which could have been a few inches deep (it looks that way to me). So, the person on the ground was getting shadows of leaves, twigs and whatever else was sticking up out of the ground as well as some other shadows coming from above.

When a web sized photo is blown up as this has been done, the artifacts that make up the pixels in the photo can become defective. All pixels have some degree of "leakage," but hot pixels always cause a darker form of leakage. They happen most often in poor lighting conditions (which this photo would be considered poor lighting even though we do see sun) and they tend to turn up dark, red, orange or sometimes even white. These dark pixels are famous for contributing to image "noise" in the photo, which makes it look distorted.

Another type of defective pixel is a dead pixel. This always reads the minimum value, which is black. A dead pixel has no power.

I could also go into the way the exposure can affect this process, but somehow I don't think that this will make a difference to those who already have their minds made up that this is blood on the persons face (and can't possibly be defective pixels and shadows) as well as bumps and other frightening details.

None of us know the truth about this puzzling photo; I sincerely hope that this photo at least is explained some day. Personally, I feel that the person is alive because of the facts that have been previously stated. The person may have been in the process of dying or at least heavily drugged.)

Whether we want to like them or not, there are certain things that can't be disputed (by rational people) and I'm not a person that tends towards jumping to conclusions. I do know though that I can tell you facts about photography. As I said before, when we are out of winter and finally have some leaves back on our trees, I'm going to recreate this as best I can to show you first hand that the pixels can make something appear out of nothing.

It's like the clouds in the sky...people see things in them all the time...but they are simply just clouds.

 

[WildHuncher]

This person seems to have very straight hair. Not at all wavy. I notice because I always wanted to have hair like that. When I was looking for matches, I was looking for someone with straight brown, or reddish brown hair.

It may be straighter than the dancer's hair. (And perhaps shorter.) A problem is that, like her hands, hanger's hair disappears into the greenery and you can't see all of it. To further complicate things, dancer's hair looks pretty straight on the top of her head but starts to curve and swirl at about her ear level. Below that it's all curls and kinks. The hair's not a rule-out for me but it's not the best matching feature, either.

Dancer's hair IS kind of reddish brown in most pictures, though. Darkness and redness vary with the light, or something. Not sure what. It also seems to lighten as you go down. Whuzzup widdat I don't know.

 

[Enchanting_eyes]

I suppose I was remiss in not soliciting your reaction when I made this post later.
*Snipped by Enchanting_eyes*
Oh, well! Better late than never. How much of that is the twig?

I may have missed the post, I tend to jump around this place a lot and just read.

But yeah I still don't see blood that others might see. What got me to thinking it might be a twig ( or something along those lines) because it seemed to me like a pine needle.

 

[WildHuncher]

To answer a previous poster...if you look at a low resolution photo that has been blown up as this one has been done, there will be twigs, leaves and other greenery at varying distances away from the face. We don't know how far away the person taking the photo was standing. He appeared to be of some distance away, but the head was pushed down into the ground, which could have been a few inches deep (it looks that way to me). So, the person on the ground was getting shadows of leaves, twigs and whatever else was sticking up out of the ground as well as some other shadows coming from above.

...

There are two reasons I would rule out the trails being shadows of foliage.

One, they cross from sunlight into shadow. Some of them are entirely within shadow.

Two, they are extremely fine and thin. Anything casting such a shadow would have to be right next to the skin surface and would itself show in the picture. A shadow spreads out more and more the farther it gets from the object casting it. You can see this on the far arm. There are blurry-edged shadows from relatively far-off leaves and sharp edged shadows of the breast (or male pecs, for those so inclined), chin, nose, etc.

 

[Redbird]

These are comments I have wanted to make but didn't want to appear argumentative and tick anybody off. I was very much a hippy in 1968 to 1971 living in an apartment on Haight St. Hippies were part of a subculture mostly shunned and hated by mainstream culture. It amuses me now to hear aging cheerleader types claim they were hippies. Go figure. Anyway, with that said, although Alcala pictures show him to look like a hippy, most the these girls do not look like hippies to me. One exception being singer girl. I think he zeroed in on a certain type. Prepubescent looking girls and atttractive girls that he thought would be flattered to have a photographer feed them a line. Most of them look like "straight" young women. The fad of girls not shaving was a very brief fad probably not practiced by more than 10% of the girls who were hippies. I myself tried not shaving for a few weeks a couple of times but it made me feel very unfeminine and it was a turn off to guys. For this reason I would not easily dismiss hairy armpits when deciding if someone was male or female. Alcala saw women as sex objects and I don't think au natural earth mother types were his thing. Person hanging is a male, guys!

I did find WildHuncher's diagram of a person being hoisted up by another man brilliant because until that explanation, I could not figure the picture out at all, with the legs being too close for a backbend.

There, I've finally said all I have been wanting to say.

 

[dsntslp]

Could the "W" shape be a hair comb? Not a regular comb to comb hair but the kind that worked like barrettes? The shape that appears to look like a serpentine shaped headband also reminds me of a metal spring thingie but I can't place it. Like something I have seen in a tackle box??? It does look like it has a link like a chain too.

If this person were being suspended by their hair the hair were be more taught and perfectly straight right? So many things are seen when this picture is blown up. I wish I knew more about photography like some here do.

Thanks all for the opinions, professional and amateur alike. It amazes me how so many can look at the same image and see so many different things.

 

[norest4thewicked]

These are comments I have wanted to make but didn't want to appear argumentative and tick anybody off. I was very much a hippy in 1968 to 1971 living in an apartment on Haight St. Hippies were part of a subculture mostly shunned and hated by mainstream culture. It amuses me now to hear aging cheerleader types claim they were hippies. Go figure. Anyway, with that said, although Alcala pictures show him to look like a hippy, most the these girls do not look like hippies to me. One exception being singer girl. I think he zeroed in on a certain type. Prepubescent looking girls and atttractive girls that he thought would be flattered to have a photographer feed them a line. Most of them look like "straight" young women. The fad of girls not shaving was a very brief fad probably not practiced by more than 10% of the girls who were hippies. I myself tried not shaving for a few weeks a couple of times but it made me feel very unfeminine and it was a turn off to guys. For this reason I would not easily dismiss hairy armpits when deciding if someone was male or female. Alcala saw women as sex objects and I don't think au natural earth mother types were his thing. Person hanging is a male, guys!

I did find WildHuncher's diagram of a person being hoisted up by another man brilliant because until that explanation, I could not figure the picture out at all, with the legs being too close for a backbend.

There, I've finally said all I have been wanting to say.

I totally agree with this. In fact, I see Alcala as more of a "preppy" type hippie. It's hard to say what he liked in terms of women because he attacked two children and murdered one (that we know of) and the women he killed were attractive women. Even most of the women in the photos are what would be considered attractive. I think though that he can't always have what he wants and took advantage of when opportunity knocked and if it presented itself as a girl less than attractive, he would probably take it.

I've wondered something else. I haven't counted, or looked at the photos definitely for this, but the two photos that trouble me the most are this one and the girl with long dark hair and the coat on her shoulders. The photos of these 2 people (I'll say people instead of women, just for the benefit of all beliefs) are single photos in a mass of other various series of photos of women in an intimate setting. Sure, he took an occasional single photo as a peeper and always outside. But, these two are definitely in intimate settings and there is only one of each. Could it be possible that these two were victims and he just threw them in with other photos to try to keep a trophy, but for it not to be obvious and somewhat hidden in a mass of other photos?

Just something that I've been thinking.

 

[rosierider]

Someone COULD settle this once and for all by writing Alcala and asking him. I don't want to do it, and I'm not going to do it, but I really bet he might answer. I think he loves attention.

 

[not_my_kids]

On more hat in the arena. I honestly have no idea on gender, every time I think it's a woman, I look at it again and become convinced it's a man. No clue, I give up on that for the moment.
What I do have on opinion on; The person does not appear to be dead. Bear with me.
Badly out of it, yes, as in drugged or concussed, but I don't see dead. The person's elbows appear to be bending a bit in the wrong direction, which leads me to assume that they are locked, and elbows only really lock like they when they are supporting weight.
I think what we are seeing on the face is not a dead expression, but rather an extremely strained expression, almost to the point of unconsciousness. This is not a comfortable or natural position, and if you spend too long with your head hanging back like that, it gets hard to breathe and it feels like your eyes are going to pop out of your head.

So, if the person isn't dead and wasn't comfortable, why not get up? I Believe that their hands are restrained, either tied to something that we can't see or buried in the ground. You'd stay that way if the only way not to was to break your wrists...I also believe that this person may be being actively tortured in this picture, or has already been mutilated in some way, thus the reason that the mid section was cropped out.

Just my perspective.

 

[plait]

Something else weird. It's faint but it looks like a finger-painted X or swastika (in blood?) on the forehead. The lower branches basically connect the eyebrows.

Wouldn't surprise me if a lot of people don't see anything, but let 'er rip!

Don't see a swastika but I see a circle within a circle. Obvious bump on the head. Could it be a bump within a bump?

I do see it. I also think I see an X like mark on the forehead of the boy sitting in chair with native American Print Background. Where the hair part should be. Its the photo where is hair is messed up, and he seems like he's standing. NOT the photo where he is smiling.

 

[WildHuncher]

I do see it. I also think I see an X like mark on the forehead of the boy sitting in chair with native American Print Background. Where the hair part should be. Its the photo where is hair is messed up, and he seems like he's standing. NOT the photo where he is smiling.

Just realized left and right are reversed. (That picture has been posted every which way many times over.) If it's a swastika, not an X, Mr. Mensa drew it backwards.

 

[plait]

Just realized left and right are reversed. (That picture has been posted every which way many times over.) If it's a swastika, not an X, Mr. Mensa drew it backwards.

If its a swastika wonder why Alcala drew it on. If he did draw it on was he trying to blame the alleged murder, or assault on a nazi group? The alleged victims looks white. Anyone know Alcala's heritage ?

 

[plait]

http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2010/images/04/21/alcala.photos.pdf

PIC--44 could this guy beside the girl be a possiblity. Has adams apple.

 

[WildHuncher]

If this person were being suspended by their hair the hair were be more taught and perfectly straight right?

To clarify, the hair (most of it, anyway) is actually hanging down from her head and disappearing into the weeds below. It's apparently longer than the head-to-ground distance. On some of the brightened shots you can see where down near the ground it starts to lay sideways because of the excess length off to one side.