Ike Altgens

Altgens shared a story about Billy Lovelady for No More Silence: An Oral History of the Assassination of President Kennedy (1998). Lovelady had contacted Altgens and asked him to deliver a copy of the first photograph along Elm Street. Altgens was met instead by Lovelady's wife, who said her husband would never agree to be interviewed. The couple had moved several times, but they were still being harassed by people who wanted the shirt Lovelady was wearing when Kennedy was shot.

On December 12, 1995, Ike and Clara Altgens were found dead in separate rooms in their home in Dallas. A Houston Chronicle article quoted a nephew, Dallas attorney Ron Grant, as saying his aunt Clara had been very ill with heart trouble and other health problems, and both of them had long suffered from the flu. Carbon monoxide poisoning from a faulty furnace may also have played a role in their deaths. Altgens was survived by three nephews, and his wife by two sisters.

In November 1993, Altgens took part in Reporters Remember 11-22-63, a panel discussion at Southern Methodist University in Dallas including journalists who shared their experiences from 30 years before. Moderator Hugh Aynesworth introduced Altgens and reminded attendees of the controversy over the man in his picture who resembled Oswald.

Starting in 1984, Altgens shared personal details and recollections in letters and telephone conversations for the book Pictures of the Pain: Photography and the Assassination of President Kennedy (1994). His story would be expanded and highlighted for the 1998 follow-up That Day In Dallas. In his correspondence, Altgens said he expected that some controversy over the details of the assassination would always exist, but those researchers who tried to sway him from the Warren Commission's conclusion (that Oswald, acting alone, killed Kennedy) had failed to do so.

Altgens appeared briefly as a film actor and model during his 40-year career with the AP, which ended in 1979. He spent his later years working in display advertising, and answering letters and other requests made by assassination researchers. Altgens and his wife Clara died in 1995 at about the same time in their Dallas home. Both had suffered from long illnesses, and police said poisoning by a malfunctioning furnace also may have contributed to their deaths.

In 1979, after 40 years with the AP, Altgens retired rather than accept a transfer to a different bureau. He stayed in Dallas and took a job with the Ford Motor Company working on displays and exhibits. Altgens also spent time answering requests by assassination researchers, and his reminiscences were included in several publications and discussions:

In 1978, the House Select Committee on Assassinations studied several still and motion images, including an enhanced version of the Altgens photograph, in the scope of its investigation. The committee also concluded that Lovelady was the man pictured in the depository doorway.

District Attorney Jim Garrison subpoenaed Altgens to appear in New Orleans, Louisiana for the 1969 trial of businessman Clay Shaw on charges of conspiring to kill Kennedy. A check for US$300 was sent to cover the airfare, but Altgens did not want to go; he thought Garrison was acting in his own self-interest.

When CBS television interviewed him in 1967, Altgens said it was obvious to him that the head shot came from behind Kennedy's limousine "because it caused him to bolt forward, dislodging him from this depression in the seat cushion". He added that the commotion in "the knoll area" after the shooting struck him as odd, since he believed the assassin would have needed to move very quickly to get there.

On May 24, 1964, six months after the shooting, the New York Herald Tribune reported that Altgens—the man responsible for "probably the most controversial photograph of the decade", and one of the few people standing near the motorcade when Kennedy was shot—had not been questioned either by the FBI or by the Warren Commission. A newspaper column printed in Chicago's American the following day made the same observation. FBI investigators interviewed Altgens eight days later, on June 2, 1964; he testified before the Warren Commission on July 22. By this time, Altgens was aware of the individual who resembled Oswald; Lovelady had been interviewed for the Herald Tribune article, and Altgens testified that he too had been contacted. He said there was nothing to share because he had not taken part in any assignments involving depository employees.

In 1964, Altgens testified for the Warren Commission and was asked about the gunfire and whether he knew its source. He said he had not been keeping track of the number of gunshots fired in Dealey Plaza because he believed them to be fireworks, but he was certain of at least two. Altgens believed Kennedy's wounds suggested a final shot that came from the vicinity of the book depository building, but he could not say with any certainty.

Altgens was on assignment for the AP when he captured two historic images on November 22, 1963. The second, showing First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy toward the rear of the presidential limousine and Secret Service agent Clint Hill on its bumper, was reproduced on the front pages of newspapers around the world. Within days, Altgens' preceding photograph became controversial after people began to question whether accused assassin Lee Harvey Oswald was visible in the main doorway of the Texas School Book Depository as the gunshots were fired at JFK.

On November 22, 1963, Altgens was scheduled to work in the AP offices in Dallas as the wirephoto editor. He asked instead to go to the "triple overpass" (the railroad bridge under which Elm, Main and Commerce Streets converge at the west end of Dealey Plaza) to photograph the motorcade that was to take President Kennedy from Love Field to his scheduled appearance at the Dallas Trade Mart. Altgens was not assigned to work in the field that day, so he took his personal single-lens reflex camera rather than the motor-driven equipment normally used for news events.

Altgens was featured in two AP dispatches issued on November 22, 1963. He initially reported hearing two shots, but thought someone had been setting off fireworks. For a November 25 story, Altgens wrote that he did not know the origin of the gunshots until later, but he believed they came from the other side of Elm Street, opposite the presidential limousine from where he was standing.

Altgens photographed President Kennedy for the AP in 1961 at Perrin Air Force Base. Kennedy and his predecessor Dwight D. Eisenhower were traveling to Bonham, Texas, in November to attend the funeral of Sam Rayburn, three-time Speaker of the United States House of Representatives. Earlier that day, Altgens was the only photojournalist to climb to the 29th floor of the Mercantile National Bank Building in Dallas to cover the rescue of a young girl from an elevator fire.

Starting in 1959, Altgens made occasional appearances as an actor and model in motion pictures, television and print advertising. Credited as James Altgens, he played Secretary Lloyd Patterson in the low-budget science fiction thriller Beyond the Time Barrier (1960); his role included the film's final line of dialogue. Altgens' acting career also included a role as a witness in Free, White and 21 (1963), and as a witness (not as himself) in The Trial of Lee Harvey Oswald (1964).

Altgens' career was interrupted by service in the United States Coast Guard during World War II; he moonlighted as a radio broadcaster during this time. Following his return to Dallas from military service, he married Clara Halliburton in July 1944. Altgens went back to work for the AP in 1945 and was assigned to its news bureau. He also attended night classes at Southern Methodist University, earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in speech with a minor in journalism.

James William "Ike" Altgens (/ˈɑːlt.ɡənz/; April 28, 1919 – December 12, 1995) was an American photojournalist, photo editor, and field reporter for the Associated Press (AP) based in Dallas, Texas, who became known for his photographic work during the assassination of United States President John F. Kennedy (JFK). Altgens was 19 when he began his AP career, which was interrupted by military service during World War II. When his service time ended, Altgens returned to Dallas and got married. He soon went back to work for the local AP bureau and eventually earned a position as a senior editor.

Ike Altgens was born James William Altgens on April 28, 1919, in Dallas, Texas, to Willie May Altgens (née Pitchford), a housewife, and J. H. Altgens, a machinist. He had a younger sister, Mary. Altgens was orphaned as a child and raised by a widowed aunt. He was hired by the Associated Press (AP) in 1938 when he was 19, shortly after his graduation from North Dallas High School. Altgens began his career handling various assignments and writing some sports articles. He showed a talent for photography and was assigned in 1940 to work in the wirephoto office.