Report of the President's Commission on the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy

The Rifle Bullets

Three additional projectiles or projectile fragments were recovered outside the building: a nearly whole bullet weighing 158.6 grains found on Governor Connally’s stretcher, and two bullet fragments weighing 44.6 and 21.0 grains found in the front of the President’s car. The stretcher bullet was slightly flattened but otherwise unmutilated, weighing several grains less than the average Western Cartridge Co. 6.5-millimeter Mannlicher-Carcano bullet. The heavier car fragment was identified as a portion of a bullet’s nose based on its rounded contour and markings, while the lighter fragment was a base portion identified by its shape and the presence of a cannelure. The fragments were too mutilated to determine from their features alone whether they constituted parts of one bullet or two separate bullets, but each retained sufficient unmutilated area for identification purposes. Based on comparison with test bullets fired from the C2766 rifle, all three—the stretcher bullet and both fragments—were identified as having been fired from the C2766 rifle.

The Revolver

The revolver taken from Oswald at his arrest was a .38 Special Smith & Wesson Victory Model revolver bearing serial number V510210, the only S. & W. revolver with that number since the company does not repeat serial numbers. Originally manufactured in the United States, the revolver bears English inspection/proof marks indicating it was shipped to England before being returned to the U.S. market. The revolver showed signs of use but was in good operating condition. It was originally designed to fire a .38 S. & W. cartridge—lighter and shorter than the .38 Special but with a larger diameter—but was rechambered for the .38 Special prior to U.S. sale. While not rebarreled, the barrel had been shortened by cutting off approximately 2¾ inches from its original 5-inch length, a modification serving only to facilitate concealment. The weapon is a conventional double-action revolver with a swing-out rotating cylinder holding one to six cartridges, allowing six consecutive shots when fully loaded. Empty cartridge cases are extracted by swinging out the cylinder and pushing the ejector rod, which ejects all cases simultaneously. Live cartridges can be separated from spent cases by tipping the cylinder before ejection because spent cases, having expanded against the chamber walls, are lighter and will not fall out, while live rounds will.

chapter II. With the assistance of Agent in Charge Sorrels of the

chapter II. With the assistance of Agent in Charge Sorrels of the This chapter opens with a technical observation that a person in a crouched stance can fire five revolver shots in 3–4 seconds without training, and would need no training to hit a human body four times at 8 feet; a trained shooter would not notice the weapon’s recoil. The chapter then examines physical evidence related to Oswald’s revolver, including the cartridges, bullets, and the struggle over the weapon, before turning to the paraffin test performed on Oswald and, more broadly, to fingerprint and palmprint analysis of items recovered from the Texas School Book Depository Building.

Revolver Cartridges and Cartridge Cases

Six live cartridges were found in Oswald’s revolver upon his arrest (three Western .38 Specials with copper-coated lead bullets, and three Remington-Peters .38 Specials with lead bullets), and five additional Western .38 Specials were found in his pocket. The two brands of .38 Special cartridges are virtually identical, with the copper coating on Western bullets serving mainly as sales appeal. Four expended cartridge cases recovered near the Tippit killing scene—two Remington-Peters and two Western .38 Specials—were identified, through comparison with test cases fired in the V510210 revolver, as having been fired in that revolver.

Revolver Bullets

Four bullets were recovered from Officer Tippit’s body. Nicol opined that one could be positively identified with the V510210 revolver and the other three could have been fired from it, while Cunningham believed all four could have been fired from it but none could be positively identified because consecutive test bullets from the revolver could not even be microscopically matched to each other. The probable cause was that the revolver had been rechambered for .38 Special cartridges without rebarreling, leaving the barrel slightly oversized and causing erratic microscopic markings. Based on grooves and knurling, three of the four bullets were Western-Winchester copper-coated lead bullets and one was a Remington-Peters lead bullet, a mix that did not match the two-and-two split of the recovered cartridge cases. Three possible explanations for the variance are offered, with hand-loaded ammunition deemed extremely unlikely because the cases showed no signs of resizing.