Hi Dan, I believe that the piece of "cloth " is actually a piece of paper ( look at the way it is torn ) Cloth doesn't tear in that fashion. But the material of the item isn't important ..... You could be right that the rifle is lying in a manner that has the butt plate vertical....( but it's certainly far from clear.) And this video has to have been taken at a different time than the Tom Alyea video...because the two men ( detectives) who were standing in the aisle at the top of the stairs are NOT the same two men who are seen in Tom Alyea's video. A what's more, Captain Fritz can be seen already standing to the east of the rifle when Tom Alyea films detective Studebaker perched atop the boxes..
Hi Walt.
been busy of late.
It's definitely Aleya, no-one else with a camera up there.
It's not very clear but it's there. The rifle is upright, just as Alyea reports (as do others).
You make a point about Studebaker's knee in the pic. The pic of the rifle in-situ is obviously taken with a flash but we don't see a flash in the Alyea footage of Studebaker. However, it must be noted there is something slightly "staged" in the footage the way Studebaker seems to be taking a pic but actually doesn't. It's not enough to say the pics of the rifle are faked, I just don't accept that.
What's of more interest to me is that every shell/bullet found at the scene ends up in Fritz's pocket at some point.
Alyea actually reports seeing Fritz pick the shells up, put them in his pocket then give them to Studebaker who throws them down to create the images of the shells in situ in the WCR.