Oswald’s Palmprint on Rifle Barrel
Additional evidence of ownership and possession was provided by a palmprint lifted from the underside of the rifle barrel near the firing end, approximately 3 inches under the woodstock, by Lt. J. C. Day of the Dallas police shortly after the rifle was found. The lift, performed before the rifle was surrendered to the FBI on November 22, was confirmed by FBI Laboratory tests showing the adhesive bore impressions matching the barrel’s irregularities. FBI latent fingerprint supervisor Sebastian F. Latona identified the print as Oswald’s right palmprint, a finding independently confirmed by New York City Police Department fingerprint expert Arthur Mandella and FBI expert Ronald G. Wittmus. Because the wooden foregrip covers this part of the barrel when the rifle is assembled, the palmprint on the underside of the barrel demonstrates that Oswald handled the rifle when it was disassembled.
Fibers on Rifle
A tuft of several cotton fibers in dark blue, gray-black, and orange-yellow shades was found lodged in a crevice between the rifle’s butt plate and wooden stock. FBI special agent Paul M. Stombaugh, assigned to the Hair and Fiber Unit of the FBI Laboratory, compared these fibers on November 23, 1963, with fibers from the shirt Oswald was wearing when arrested in the Texas Theatre, finding that the colors, shades, and twist of the tuft fibers matched those in Oswald’s shirt. Stombaugh cautioned that fiber analysis cannot yield absolute identification, testifying that while there was “no doubt” the fibers could have come from that shirt, the possibility of another identical shirt could not be eliminated.
Oswald’s Shirt Fiber Evidence
The Commission accepted Stombaugh’s probabilistic assessment and concluded the fibers most probably came from the shirt Oswald wore at his arrest, the same shirt he wore on the morning of the assassination. Marina Oswald testified she thought her husband wore that shirt to work that day, and former landlady Mary Bledsoe identified the shirt on Oswald approximately 10 minutes after the assassination by a distinctive hole in its right elbow. A bus transfer obtained when Oswald left the bus was still in the shirt pocket at his arrest, undermining his claim to police that he had changed shirts. Stombaugh also testified the fibers “looked as if they had just been picked up” — clean, well-colored, with no grease or fragmentation — indicating they were deposited “in the recent past,” which together with evidence that Oswald had not been at Ruth Paine’s Irving home (where the rifle was kept) for 10 days prior to November 21 and the absence of evidence he used the rifle between September 23 and November 22, supports a finding that the fibers were deposited on the rifle on the day of the assassination.
CHAPITRE IV.
Chapter IV examines the evidence establishing that Lee Harvey Oswald owned and used the Mannlicher-Carcano rifle (serial number C2766) to assassinate President Kennedy. The chapter covers fiber analysis linking the rifle to Oswald’s clothing, photographs of Oswald with the weapon, ownership verification, and the circumstances by which the rifle was brought into the Texas School Book Depository on November 22, 1963.
Fiber Analysis of the Assassination Rifle
FBI expert Stombaugh testified that fibers on the rifle might retain freshness if the weapon had been “put aside” after catching them. The rifle was likely wrapped in a blanket for about 8 weeks before November 22, and continuous storage in the blanket could explain the fibers’ relatively fresh appearance. While the Commission could not determine exactly when the fibers were deposited, it concluded that the fibers most probably came from Oswald’s shirt, reinforcing the conclusion that Oswald owned and handled the assassination weapon.
Photograph of Oswald With Rifle
Between March 2 and April 24, 1963, the Oswalds lived in a rented house on Neely Street in Dallas with a small back yard. On one Sunday, while his wife Marina was hanging diapers, Oswald asked her to photograph him holding a rifle, a pistol, and copies of two newspapers later identified as the Worker and the Militant. Two pictures were taken, and the Commission concluded the rifle shown in these photographs is the same rifle found on the sixth floor of the Depository Building (Commission Exhibits 133-A and 133-B).
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