Appendix X reproduces expert firearms testimony. Three experts testified: Robert A. Frazier and Cortlandt Cunningham of the FBI and Joseph D. Nicol of the Illinois Bureau of Criminal Identification. The appendix explains that all weapons of a given make share rifling characteristics but each bears distinctive microscopic markings from manufacture and use, allowing bullet or cartridge-case matching to the firing weapon under a comparison microscope. The rifle found on the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository was a 6.5-millimeter Mannlicher-Carcano Italian military rifle, Model 91/38, serial C2766, manufactured at Terni in 1940 and identified by markings and SIFAR. It was imported as surplus, common in the U.S., and sold with a Japanese four-power sight. The chambered cartridge was a 6.5-millimeter Mannlicher-Carcano round made by Western Cartridge Co. at East Alton, Illinois, with a 160- to 161-grain full metal-jacketed bullet. The rifle was dependable, with no misfires in over 100 test firings. Three expended cartridge cases near the southeast window were identified as fired from C2766, with an ejection pattern consistent with firing from that window. A nearly whole bullet weighing 158.6 grains was found on Governor Connally’s stretcher, and two fragments weighing 44.6 and 21.0 grains were found in the President’s car; all were identified as fired from C2766. Oswald’s revolver was a .38 Special S. & W. Victory Model, serial V510210, with barrel shortened by about 2¾ inches. Six live cartridges were in the revolver (three Western, three Remington-Peters) and five more in his pocket (all Western). Four expended cases near the Tippit killing were identified as fired in the V510210. Four bullets were recovered from Officer Tippit’s body; Nicol identified one positively and considered three possible, while Cunningham found all four possible but none positive, due to inconsistent marking of the rechambered but not rebarreled revolver. The testimony explained the paraffin test performed on Oswald’s hands and right cheek, and demonstrated its unreliability through FBI experiments, including one agent firing the C2766 rifle who tested negative on both hands and right cheek. Oak Ridge National Laboratory neutron-activation analyses found barium and antimony on the casts, but their presence in both rifle and revolver cartridge cases and prevalence in common items rendered results inconclusive. The section concludes with discussion of the Walker bullet.

Note on Source Material Limitations

The supplied source contains only Chapter II, Parts 7–10 of the Warren Commission Report, covering forensic evidence, wound ballistics, hairs and fibers, photographs, interrogation reports, and Appendix XII on rumors. None of the requested missing topics appear: presidential protection history, Secret Service authority/evolution, White House Police Force history, presidential protective procedures and legislation, the alphabetical person index (Ford–Postal), and Chapter index 21 structural identification would be in Chapter VIII and the appendices/index, which are not provided.

Two requested topics ARE present in this section:

• Conclusion of Chapter II at Parkland — covered in Part 10 (Kelley’s account of Oswald’s transport, treatment, and death; family viewing; protective security).
• Secret Service personnel involvement — Kelley’s reports, SAIC Sorrels, SA Grant, SA Tully.

Since fabrication is prohibited, the following section reproduces the current content as-is, beginning with Chapter II, Part 7.

Chapter II. With the assistance of Agent in Charge Sorrels of the (Part 7 of 21)

Forensic evidence from the Texas School Book Depository bound Lee Harvey Oswald to the sixth-floor sniper’s nest. An April 10, 1963 bullet from General Edwin Walker’s home, weighing 148.25 grains and severely mutilated, matched the C2766 Mannlicher-Carcano’s rifling; FBI examiner Robert Frazier deemed it too mutilated to identify, though James Patrick Nicol thought there was “fair probability” it came from the same rifle as test bullets.

FBI veteran Sebastian Latona (32 years in the Identification Division) and NYPD Detective Arthur Mandella testified that fingerprints—formed before birth and unchanged through life—contain 85 to 125 identifying points, though American experts evaluate them on their merits without a fixed threshold. Palmprints are equally distinctive and appear on objects requiring full-hand gripping.

The homemade paper bag by the southeast window yielded Oswald’s right palm print and left index fingerprint. The absorbent wooden and metal C2766 yielded only a faint right palm print on the barrel’s underside, identified as Oswald’s. Box A yielded nine fingerprints and four palmprints—one each from Oswald, others from Dallas Officer R.L. Studebaker and FBI clerk Forest L. Lucy, who shipped the cartons to Washington. Box D bore Oswald’s right palmprint. Because cardboard absorbs prints, FBI tests established powder could not develop such prints more than 24 hours after they were made; Latona estimated Box D’s print was no more than three days old; Mandella thought less than a day and a half. No prints appeared on the cartridge or three expended cases.

Questioned-document experts Alwyn Cole (Treasury) and James C. Cadigan (FBI) testified that handwriting identification rests on unique mental and physical writing habits accumulated over a lifetime, and that imitators betray themselves through defects in line quality—tremor, waver, retouching, and pen lifts. Standards included payroll endorsements, employment and passport applications, ACLU applications, library cards, and letters to the INS, Marine Corps, State Department, and American Embassy in Russia.

Klein’s Sporting Goods had microfilmed then destroyed the C2766 mail order, its money order, and the “A. Hidell, P.O. Box 2915, Dallas, Texas” envelope. From enlarged photographs, Cole and Cadigan identified Oswald’s handwriting by distinctive traits: the “A” in “Hidell” with a downstroke then upstroke, elongated right-slanting “i,” and “x” in “Texas” formed like a “u” with crossbar. The retained money order was also Oswald’s. The Seaport Traders V510210 revolver order, PO box applications for boxes 2915 in Dallas and 30061 in New Orleans, and two change-of-address orders were similarly identified.

The “Alek James Hidell” ID cards revealed a more elaborate forgery. Selective Service and Marine Corps service certificates in the Hidell name, both in Oswald’s wallet, were photographic counterfeits—Oswald’s genuine cards photographed, typed and handwritten information opaqued, negatives retouched, and new details typed (“ALEK JAMES HIDELL,” new SSN, mailing date). Stencil indentations showed practice runs; the “Alek J. Hidell” ink signature was Oswald’s. The forgery required only elementary photography but deceived casual inspection; retouched negatives were found in Mr. Paine’s garage at 2515 West Fifth Street, Irving.

The smallpox vaccination certificate, purportedly from “Dr. A.J. Hideel, P.O. Box 30016, New Orleans, La.,” bore rubber-stamped material Cole and Cadigan traced to Oswald’s rubber stamping kit—the impression matched in measurements and design. The circular seal proved to be the words “BRUSH IN CAN” printed in reverse from a cleaning fluid container top.

The Fair Play for Cuba Committee card (June 15, 1963) bore Oswald’s “L.H. Oswald” signature and an “A.J. Hidell” signature claiming chapter presidency. Both examiners identified Oswald’s signature but not the Hidell one; Marina Oswald testified she wrote the Hidell signature, confirmed by Cadigan through her handwriting samples. Commission Exhibit No. 1, an unsigned Russian-language note Marina said Oswald left before the Walker attempt, was confirmed as Oswald’s through English and Cyrillic comparisons.