I've been curious about this shot for about 35 years. I know about the controversial manipulation of removing the fence post, but was there other manipulation done? From what I gather, the original was on Tri-X taken with a Nikkormat. The finished photo was then transmitted to AP. I do not think that the technology existed to transmit a 35mm neg in 1970... so a print was likely transmitted ( 8 X 10 ?).
Looking closely at the highest resolution copy I could find on the web, there seems to be discrepancies in the stream of blood running from the body of the face-down student past and behind Mary Ann Vecchio's right foot and beyond her to the street gutter. It seems as though there was an attempt to remove some of the blood stream. Looking at other photos from this same period, the stream of blood seems to run unbroken the full length from the body to the street gutter.
The neg is far too small to allow direct manipulation but in the printing process common in darkrooms of the time, dodge and burn masks could have produced the discrepancies that I see in the photo.
Can anyone clarify and explain what I am seeing?