Has 'Kissing Sailor' Mystery Been Solved?

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Has 'Kissing Sailor' Mystery Been Solved?
By EMILY FRIEDMAN,
2007-07-28

NEW YORK (July 28) -- Yet another man has come forward claiming to be the sailor in the famous 1945 Life magazine photograph, "The Kiss." This time, though, experts say he's the one.

Glenn McDuffie, who joins the ranks of more than 10 other men who also claim to be the sailor, said he got photographed kissing the nurse, and has even taken lie detector tests to prove it.

The photograph was taken in Times Square Aug. 14, 1945, Victory over Japan Day, by the late Life photojournalist Alfred Eisenstaedt and has since become the single most reproduced image in the magazine's collection.

Despite this, the identities of the sailor and the nurse remain a mystery.

Life has never taken a position in any of the identity disputes regarding the identities of the sailor or the nurse, a Life spokesperson told ABC News in an e-mail, and said Eisenstaedt took no notes or names the day he snapped the photo.

Today, on the verge of his 80th birthday and the 62nd anniversary of the photograph, McDuffie said he wants the truth to come out once and for all.

The mystery kiss occurred amid the impromptu celebration in New York's Times Square following the news that World War II had finally ended. The image has since been referred to by many as a "manifestation" of the nationwide celebration.

McDuffie, who was 18 years old when the photo was taken, said he was traveling to Brooklyn from his naval base in Kannapolis, N.C., when he heard the news.

"When I got off the subway I got to the top of the stairs and the lady up there said, 'Sailor, I'm so happy for you,'" said McDuffie. "I asked her why and she told me the war was over and I could go home. I ran into the street jumping and hollering."

It was then, McDuffie said, he kissed the nurse.

"That nurse was out there and she turned around and put her arms out and that's when I kissed her," said McDuffie. "Then I heard someone running and I lifted my head and it was that photographer."

"She had the biggest mouth I've ever kissed," said McDuffie.

McDuffie has taken numerous polygraph tests and even let one forensic specialist recreate the photo pose, take his measurements, and compare them with the original all in an effort to prove that he is the real kissing sailor.

A polygraph test administered by polygraph examiner David Rainey and obtained by ABC News said that "no deception was indicated" in McDuffie's test.

Even so, this doesn't necessarily mean he's the sailor.

Criminal defense attorney F. Lee Bailey, who was also the host of the show "Lie Detector" on which McDuffie appeared and took yet another polygraph test, said that he could have passed based on the fact that he genuinely believes himself to be the sailor, rather than because he actually is.

"If you honestly believe something you won't flunk a polygraph," said Bailey.

But McDuffie didn't stop at polygraph tests, and went as far as to recruit the help of Lois Gibson, the Guinness Book of World Record's "Most Successful Forensic Artist" and facial expert.

Just more than three weeks ago, Gibson photographed McDuffie in the same pose seen in the photograph (the nurse was replaced by a large pillow), and then recorded all of McDuffie's measurements.

Using the U.S. Navy hat to establish a scale, Gibson compared the measurements of McDuffie's wrist, hand, ear and hairline in the new photograph with those from the original.

A self-proclaimed skeptic, Gibson said she's certain McDuffie is the right guy.

"I have looked at all the claimants that have pictures and the ears are way off or the skull shape is way off or the bridge of the nose is way off," said Gibson. "It's the right shape on [McDuffie.]"

McDuffie is also the only claimant that has a good explanation for the sailor's awkwardly twisted wrist.

"I was keeping my hand from blocking the view," said McDuffie. "I wanted to let him take the picture of her face."

While the identity of the nurse has also never been confirmed, a little more headway has been made.

Life told ABC News that in 1980, a Californian woman named Edith Shain came forward, claiming to be the nurse in the photograph. Photographer Eisenstaedt met with Shain and even did a piece on her for the magazine.

McDuffie said he's 99 percent sure Edith Shain is the nurse in the photograph.

"She's the one I kissed," said McDuffie of Shain. "I'm the only one who really knows who the nurse is."

Despite his intuition, McDuffie said he refuses to meet with Shain until she too takes a lie detector test.

McDuffie, who is now battling lung cancer, said that he tried to meet the photographer at one point -- Eisenstaedt was giving a talk at a local university -- but had no luck.

"I went down [near the stage] to talk to him and all [Eisenstaedt] said was 'not my sailor," said McDuffie.

McDuffie's evidence seems convincing, but without Eisenstaedt's side of the story it's likely the sailor's identity will always be shrouded in mystery.