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

Objects in the Texas School Book Depository Building

A number of objects recovered from the Texas School Book Depository Building were processed for latent prints by the FBI, sometimes after Dallas police processing; these included the homemade wrapping paper bag found near the southeast corner window, the C2766 rifle, three small cartons stacked near that window (marked Box A, Box B, and Box C), a fourth carton on the floor nearby (Box D), three 6.5-millimeter cartridge cases found near the window, and the cartridge found in the rifle. On the paper bag, the FBI developed a palmprint and a fingerprint using silver nitrate, and both were matched to the right palm and left index finger of Lee Harvey Oswald. The C2766 rifle’s wood and metal proved too absorbent to record good prints, and the faint ridge formations the Dallas police developed on the metal magazine housing were insufficient for identification, but a latent palmprint lifted from the underside of the barrel was identified as the right palm of Lee Harvey Oswald.

第二章 With the assistance of Agent in Charge Sorrels of the

Chapter II, produced with the assistance of Agent in Charge Sorrels of the FBI, presents physical and documentary evidence analyzed in connection with the assassination investigation. The chapter opens with fingerprint analysis of the shipping cartons containing the C2766 rifle and the cartridge cases, finding that Lee Harvey Oswald’s prints appeared on Boxes A and D while other prints belonged to Dallas police officer R. L. Studebaker and FBI clerk Forest L. Lucy. The chapter then turns to questioned document examination, presenting testimony from Alwyn Cole and James C. Cadigan, who applied principles of handwriting identification to numerous items associated with Oswald and the alias “A. Hidell,” including mail orders for the rifle and revolver, post office box applications, and spurious identification documents found in Oswald’s possession.