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

第二章 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.