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The eBay find of Justin Whiting of the UK was promoted worldwide as being an image of Jesse James. Decrying Whiting as a fraud and a merchant of identity theft, the James family enjoined Mark David Bampton of Great Britain to analyze the image and make public his findings. Below is Bampton’s entire report for free download, plus highlights of his findings.

MARK DAVID BAMPTON’S FORENSIC ANALYSIS

DOWNLOAD Mark David Bampton’s paper in pdf format.

DOWNLOAD Kent Gibson’s & Will Dunniway’s declarations for comparison

HOVER over slideshow for directional pages.

HIGHLIGHTS

Bampton-Analysis of Purported Photograph of Jesse James-Plate 4 — Plate 4-eBay find comparison

There is generally good alignment for most lines.

• Top of the head

• Centre of the eyes

• Bottom of the nose

• Edge of the top lip

• Where the lips join

• Edge of the bottom lip

• Bottom of the chin

• Top of the shirt collar

Bampton-Analysis of Purported Photograph of Jesse James-Plate 5 — Plate 5-eBay find comparison

The distance between the bottom two lines indicates that the man on the left has a significantly longer neck than the man on the right.

The parts of the yellow line marking the tops of the shoulders are significantly below the shoulders highlighted with red lines. This is consistent with the significant difference between the top of the shirt collar and the bottom of the chin and confirms that the man on the right has a much shorter neck than the man on the left.

Bampton-Analysis of Purported Photograph of Jesse James-Plate 6 — Plate 6-eBay find comparison

There is considerable misalignment of the template and the lower part of the lapel in the right hand photograph is significantly wider than in the left photograph. The lower part of the lapel is also much longer as highlighted by the length of the yellow template line.

In contrast to what the experts say these are definitely different jackets in each photograph.

Bampton-Analysis of Purported Photograph of Jesse James-Plate 7a — Plate 7a-eBay find comparison

The horizontal lines are drawn through the following features although the top of the head is obscured by the brushed back hair.

• Top of the hairline at the parting

• Centre of the eyes

• Bottom of the nose

• Where the lips join

• Edge of the bottom lip

• Bottom of the chin

There is generally good alignment although the man on the right has a thicker bottom lip than Jesse James.

Bampton-Analysis of Purported Photograph of Jesse James-Plate 7b — Plate 7b-eBay find comparison

Vertical lines are created on the lower picture of Jesse James and continued up over the other photograph. They mark the following dimensions.

• The distance from ear edge to ear edge

• The distance between the centres of the eyes

It is not possible to align both eyes in the photograph at the top right so his right eye is

aligned. The left eye centre is noticeably inside the other vertical line indicating that his eyes are closer together.

Coincidentally his right ear is aligned with the relevant vertical line but there is a significant gap between his left ear and the other vertical line. Together with the shorter distance between the eyes this indicates that the man in the top right photograph has a much narrower head than Jesse James.

CONCLUSION

It is clear from my analysis that there are significant differences proving that Justin Whiting’s photograph is not an authentic one of Jesse James…

His two photographs were taken with different photographic processes and include two different men wearing different jackets. There is nothing left to indicate that they were taken on the same day by the same photographer.

Auction Update

In the worldwide publicity Justin Whiting promoted, Whiting advertised that his “7£ eBay find” was headed to Christie’s in London. There, Whiting imagined he would reap at auction a $2 million dollar windfall that the experts Whiting consulted told him to expect.

On March 31, 2018, Christie’s notified Whiting in writing that his artifact was not suitable for consignment. Christie’s further requested that Whiting refrains from associating Christie’s name with his promotion.

UPDATE: May 5, 2018

The Telegraph newspaper in Great Britain was the first to announce the story of Justin Whiting’s find. The Telegraph now writes the obituary to the story, announcing ” Collector stopped from selling his £7 eBay picture of Jesse James for £2m after Christie’s call in experts.”

UPDATE; May 6, 2018

In America, the New York Post formerly followed The Telegraph in first reporting the Justin Whiting’s story. Now The Post walks away from the story, too.

The story of Justin Whiting and his “7£ eBay find” is a story of self-delusion, false hope, and cognitive dissonance, abetted by unscrupulous enablers, all whom willfully sidestep reason and critical thinking for the dream of fleecing the public of an exorbitant amount of money. That is a crime unworthy of the name of Jesse James.

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ABOUT MARK BAMPTON

Mark David Bampton appeared in America in September 2018 to present his paper and findings on fake photos of Jesse James at the 2018 conference of the James-Younger Gang and family. He also is noteworthy for his work in debunking claims in the Jesse James ambrotype claim. Bampton also is noted for his analysis and findings in the Robert Johnson Photo Hoax.

“I was born and have always lived in the UK. Since 2000, I have lived in Ampthill, which is a small Georgian town in Bedfordshire.

“From my formative years, I was interested in a mixture of the arts and technical subjects, moving on to complete an art foundation course. There I decided to pursue a career in industrial design, combining both artistic and technical demands.

“My career progressed into product engineering and development. I became interested in quality management and moved into this discipline through establishing management systems and achieving ISO9001 certification for my employers. This included some project management.

“I have always worked in manufacturing industries, involving automotive accessories, motorcycle and industrial safety equipment, though the majority of my time has been spent in the medical device manufacturing industry.”

Qualifications