Cartons Arranged as Gun Rest
Beneath the southeast corner window stood a large carton of books measuring approximately 18 by 12 by 14 inches, relocated from a south wall stack. Atop it rested a small “Rolling Readers” carton measuring approximately 13 by 9 by 8 inches, and in front of that on the windowsill sat another small “Rolling Readers” carton. These two smaller cartons had been moved from a stack about three aisles away. The three cartons together formed an improvised gun rest, while a fourth carton placed on the floor behind them allowed a seated person to look southwesterly down Elm Street over the top of the “Rolling Readers” cartons. The handmade paper bag bearing Oswald’s palmprint and fingerprint lay next to these cartons.
Oswald’s Fingerprints on Cartons
The FBI developed twenty identifiable fingerprints and eight palmprints on the cartons forwarded from the sixth floor. Neither the carton on the windowsill nor the large carton beneath the window bore prints attributable to Oswald. However, the other “Rolling Readers” carton contained a left palmprint and right index fingerprint identified by Latona as Oswald’s. A palmprint developed by Dallas Police with powder on the top edge of the floor carton—parallel to the long axis—was identified as Oswald’s right palmprint. Latona testified the print was less than three days old, and Mandella estimated it was placed within a day or a day and a half of November 22. Wittmus and Mandella independently confirmed the prints as Oswald’s. The Commission concluded that the cartons had not been disturbed by floor-laying operations and had been deliberately arranged at the window for a particular purpose.
KAPITEL IV.
This chapter covers evidence linking Lee Harvey Oswald to the sixth-floor window of the Texas School Book Depository from which the assassination shots were fired, including forensic identification evaluations, pre-assassination presence testimony, recovered physical evidence, and eyewitness accounts of the shooter.
Fingerprint and Palmprint Identification Assessment
The Commission assessed the probative value of fingerprint and palmprint identifications found on cartons at the sixth-floor sniper’s nest. It ruled out the possibility that other warehouse employees or law enforcement personnel who handled the cartons left the identifiable prints, as no other employees except Oswald left identifiable marks on the cartons. Combined with the freshness of one print and the presence of Oswald’s prints on two of the four cartons and the paper bag, the Commission assigned probative value to the identifications to support the conclusion that Oswald was present at the firing window, though the prints do not confirm the exact time he was there.
Oswald’s Pre-Assassination Sixth Floor Presence
The chapter includes testimony and evidence confirming Lee Harvey Oswald was present on the Depository sixth floor approximately 35 minutes before the assassination, tying him to the sniper’s nest location prior to the shooting.
Charles Givens’ Oswald Sighting Testimony
Charles Givens, the last known Depository employee to see Oswald inside the building before the assassination, testified that on the morning of November 22, he saw Oswald standing on the fifth floor as his elevator passed while the floor-laying crew descended from the sixth floor around 11:45 a.m. When Givens returned to the sixth floor around 11:55 a.m. to retrieve his cigarettes, he observed Oswald carrying a clipboard walking from the southeast corner of the sixth floor toward the elevator. Oswald instructed Givens to close the west elevator gate when he went downstairs, and the west elevator was no longer present on the first floor when Givens arrived. No Depository employees are documented to have seen Oswald again until after the shooting.
Recovered Sixth Floor Clipboard Evidence
On December 2, 1963, employee Frankie Kaiser recovered a clipboard hidden behind book cartons in the northwest corner of the sixth floor, located a few feet from where the assassination rifle was found. The clipboard was made by and belonged to Kaiser, who confirmed Oswald had taken it when he began working at the Depository. It held three November 22 invoices for Scott-Foresman books located on the first and sixth floors, none of which Oswald had completed, corroborating his presence on the sixth floor near the sniper’s nest.
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