Reclaiming History

by Vincent Bugliosi

  *It’s no secret that the Dallas police were put off by the intrusion of federal law enforcement and the federal request to turn over all of the physical evidence to the FBI for analysis. The implication, of course, was that the federal government thought the Dallas police were not equipped to resolve the basic facts of the assassination, or worse, were incompetent. Early in the afternoon of the assassination, Dallas crime-lab detective W. E. “Pete” Barnes said he was approached by a Secret Service agent who wanted Barnes to turn the rifle over to him “to make sure we didn’t mess up the prints on it.” Barnes told him, “Pardner, I’ll bet I’ve dusted more fingerprint powder than you’ve ever seen in your lifetime.” (Savage, JFK First Day Evidence, pp.80–81) Later in the evening, and before Day received instructions from Captain Doughty, Secret Service agent Forrest Sorrels approached Day and warned him, “The FBI is trying to get that gun.” Day told him it was fine with him if they wanted to work on it. Yet the request must have been a blow to the twenty-three-year veteran crime-lab lieutenant who had amassed fifteen years of experience reading fingerprints for the Dallas Police Department’s Identification Bureau. (4 H 249–250, WCT J. C. Day)

  *Fingerprint analysis in this country dates back to 1903 in New York. The FBI “went into the fingerprint business in 1924.” The French (with its famous Bertillon system), British, and Argentinians were into fingerprint analysis as early as the 1880s, and the first article believed to have been published on establishing identity by fingerprints was written by a Scottish doctor in 1880 and titled, “On the Skin-Furrows of the Hand.” (Moenssens and Inbau, Scientific Evidence in Criminal Cases, pp.350–351; 1903 and 1924 dates: 4 H 14–15, WCT Sebastian F. Latona)

  Latent fingerprints (as opposed to a fingerprint exemplar, which is the model for comparison taken in ink at the police station) is the technical term for fingerprints left on everyday objects. These prints are transmitted to the surfaces of objects by a residue of oil secreted from the body, and are eventually “lifted” from the objects by fingerprint specialists. Contrary to popular belief, the perspiration from one’s fingers and palms contains no such oily substance. The fingers and palms acquire that residue of oil when they come into contact with parts of the body that do have such secretions, such as the hair and face. Fingerprints are more popularly known than palm prints, most likely because people generally touch objects with their fingers rather than their palms.

  Most American law enforcement agencies consider ten “points of similarity” (between the latent prints and those on the exemplar) enough for a fingerprint expert to give an unqualified conclusion. In Europe, the minimum requirements are usually higher, going all the way up to sixteen at Scotland Yard. The FBI has never accepted the minimum-requirement doctrine, and the FBI expert in the Kennedy case, Sebastian F. Latona, told the Warren Commission he has given an opinion in court as to identity with as few as seven points of similarity. Arthur Mandella, a fingerprint expert for the New York Police Department who also compared the latent prints in the Kennedy assassination with Oswald’s exemplar, also said that no given minimum number of points of similarity is necessary for a conclusion. “A sufficient amount determined by the expert is the important factor,” he said, though he added that the usual range for him has been between eight and twelve. (4 H 13–14, WCT Sebastian F. Latona; 4 H 53, WCT Arthur Mandella; WR, p.563)

  The FBI found twelve points of similarity between Oswald’s right-palm-print exemplar and the latent palm print found “off underside gun barrel near end of foregrip” (CE 640, 17 H 292).

  *Craig also claimed to have been present during an Oswald interrogation, though he was not. See later text.

  *By 1975, the space between the shells had grown from one inch to “no more than two inches” (Letter, Roger Craig to Ed Tatro, April 9, 1975, p.2). A year later, conspiracy authors J. Gary Shaw and Larry Ray Harris tacked on an additional inch to the spread—“about three inches apart” (Shaw with Harris, Cover-Up, p.28).

  † A third set of lead fragments (CE 840), found under the left jump seat occupied by Mrs. Connally, were too small to connect to Oswald’s rifle. They were, however, linked to the shooting through neutron activation analysis. (See later text.)

  *In the common vernacular, and in books, television shows, and movies, a firearms identification test for a suspect weapon is almost always erroneously referred to as a “ballistics test.” But in the real world, very few criminal cases involve ballistics, which is a highly specialized branch of firearms identification dealing with the motion of a fired bullet through the barrel of a gun (interior ballistics), its movement and trajectory once it leaves the muzzle to its point of impact (exterior ballistics), and its movement after impact (terminal or wound ballistics). In the Kennedy case, of course, the issues of the trajectory of the bullets fired and their movement after impact do have enormous significance. But an expert in ballistics may be untrained in (and hence incapable of) identifying, from the striations (markings) on the surface of a bullet, whether it was fired from a particular gun.

  *The FBI laboratory “determined that the bullets used in the assassination of President Kennedy on November 22, 1963, were a military type manufactured by the Western Cartridge Company, East Alton, Illinois” (CD 107, p.2, January 13, 1964; 3 H 399, WCT Robert A. Frazier). The cartridges, which include the cases enclosing the bullets, were also manufactured by the same company, and were, as previously indicated, 6.5-millimeter Mannlicher-Carcano cartridges (3 H 399, WCT Robert A. Frazier).

  † Also, though no photograph of the bullet from the National Archives reflects it, visual inspection reveals it is “somewhat flattened in its lower half” (DOJCD Record 186-10006-10449, June 3, 1996, p.4). And my firearms expert at the London trial, Monty Lutz, who was also a member of the HSCA firearms panel, saw the bullet close up at the National Archives and testified at the London trial that “there was a slight curving to that bullet” (Transcript of On Trial, July 24, 1986, p.444).

  ‡ The HSCA’s wound ballistics expert, Larry Sturdivan, told the committee that extrusion of lead from the base is the first thing that happens when a bullet begins to deform. Under great pressure, the metal jacket begins to peel off and “the softer lead core is extruded through the only opening, that is, the opening in the base.” (1 HSCA 411–412)

  *Unlike other areas (like firearms and ballistics) where the HSCA conducted its own tests, the committee elected not to undertake further tests to determine if the stretcher bullet could have caused the wounds it did and end up in the condition it did. It did consider doing so, contacting the H. P. White Laboratory in Bel Air, Maryland, but was told that the “number of shots required to produce the chance result of Commission Exhibit 399 could range from one up to infinity.” And the first series of tests alone would cost $20,000, a lot for the austere budget of the HSCA. Because the number of shots fired to obtain a match or “statistical sample” could not be “reasonably determined,” plus the expense and the further realization that the “results of tests with materials other than human bodies could always be theoretically questioned by those who would quarrel with [the] results,” the HSCA decided to rely on the Warren Commission tests and Sturdivan’s testimonial interpretation and elucidation of them. (1 HSCA 382–383)

  † In Sturdivan’s 2005 book, The JFK Myths, he elaborates on and refines his HSCA testimony, adding, from an evaluation of the damage to the bullet and the wounds to Kennedy and Connally, the orientation of the bullet at the various points along its path. Starting with a muzzle velocity of 2,160 feet per second, at impact on Kennedy’s upper back it was traveling 2,015 feet per second, give or take 30 feet, and its orientation was nose first. At impact on Connally’s back it had lost 175 feet per second in velocity and was traveling 1,830 feet per second, give or take 50 feet, and its orientation was 60 degrees. Upon striking Connally’s right rib the bullet was traveling 1,450 feet per second, give or take 100 feet, and its orientation was sideways. At impact with Connally’s right wrist it was traveling 500 fee
t per second, give or take 100 feet, and its orientation was nearly backward. At impact with Connally’s left thigh, its velocity all but spent, it was traveling 135 feet per second, give or take 20 feet, and its orientation was backward. (Sturdivan, JFK Myths, p.144)

  *Two years later, in 1966, the FBI established an NAA group within the FBI laboratory (1 HSCA 559).

  † There were small differences in the tiny samples (taken from the fragments) examined by Guinn as opposed to the samples examined by the FBI, which were no longer available, owing to the fact that some of the 1964 FBI tests, those carried out by emission spectrography, were partly destructive in nature, and the FBI disposed of the rest of the minuscule samples (HSCA Report, p.599 note 33). As you might have guessed, conspiracy theorists chalk the discrepancies up to more evidence tampering by an ever-expanding list of conspirators. Partially addressing myself to this issue, I elicited from Guinn at the London trial that James Geer, of the National Archives in Washington, flew out to California and personally delivered the fragments to him. Question: “What security measures were taken to guard the evidence while in the state of California?” “Well, all the time that I was working with the samples, every place that I went with samples in my possession, I had two armed guards [U.S. marshals] on either side of me.” (Transcript of On Trial, July 24, 1986, p.501)

  *The nuclear reactor I saw at the University of California at Irvine, where Guinn was headquartered, was purchased in 1967 at a cost of around $350,000. It is still there and is submerged in a pool of water twenty-five feet deep and ten-by-fifteen feet in size. The reactor itself is only a four-by-four-foot cylinder, but with auxiliary equipment and pipes heading to it, it takes up a good part of the pool.

  *There is another piece of circumstantial evidence pointing to the stretcher bullet as the bullet that passed through Kennedy’s and Connally’s bodies. If it weren’t, then what happened to that bullet, which, its velocity nearly spent, barely penetrated the governor’s left thigh? Since we know that the FBI and Secret Service scoured the limousine for evidence and even found several small bullet fragments, surely they would have found the bullet, inside the limousine, that dropped from the governor’s left thigh. As author Larry Sturdivan writes, it would be “inevitable that the bullet that worked its way out of the governor’s thigh would be found” in the search (Sturdivan, JFK Myths, p.132 footnote 62). The fact that no such bullet was found in the presidential limousine is fairly strong circumstantial evidence that that bullet is the same one found on the governor’s stretcher.

  *Because of space limitations and the comparatively lesser importance of the Tippit murder in proving Oswald’s guilt for Kennedy’s murder, plus the fact that there were actual eyewitnesses to Oswald killing Tippit, this book has not gone into the same depth on the Tippit slaying as it has on the president’s murder. Although there are hundreds of books on the Kennedy assassination, remarkably only one, Dale Myers’s With Malice, has ever been written on the Tippit murder, and it fortunately provides an in-depth, detailed, and excellent analysis of the entire case. Since the Warren Commission and the HSCA did not examine the Tippit case in the depth they should have, Myers performed a singular service for the historical record by his work on this important and integral part of the case.

  *The HSCA neglected to have its handwriting experts, who examined the Carcano purchase documents and many others, examine the revolver purchase documents (8 HSCA 230).

  *Givens and his fellow workers almost assuredly came down to lunch at least five or more minutes after when he says they did. Not only would 11:45 a.m. be very early for the lunch break at noon, but their supervisor, William Shelly, didn’t come down until around 11:50 a.m. (6 H 328, WCT William H. Shelley), and they would not likely have left for lunch before he did. Also, Givens’s coworkers testified they came down for lunch later than 11:45 a.m. (see text).

  † Only the west elevator could be called, by push button, to any floor, but only as long as the two gates on it were closed. The east elevator required someone to be onboard to operate it by hand pedal. (3 H 171, WCT Bonnie Ray Williams)

  *The FBI policy in 1963 was not to tape-record interviews, only to take notes. That remained the bureau’s policy for many years thereafter, although today, FBI agents do tape-record many interviews.

  *FBI firearms expert Cortlandt Cunningham testified that Oswald’s rifle could be assembled in a little over two minutes using a screwdriver. It could also be assembled, though more slowly, with virtually “any object that would fit the slots on the five screws that retain the stock to the action,” including a dime. Cunningham then proceeded to demonstrate the process for the Warren Commission using a ten-cent piece, assembling the rifle in six minutes. (2 H 252)

  *Detective Robert Lee Studebaker, who lifted the print with Day at the crime scene, marked it as a “Left Palm” print. But later at the crime lab Lieutenant Day determined from a closer examination that it was a right palm print. (CE 649, 17 H 297)

  *Author Gus Russo reported that an FBI source told him in 1993 that the unidentified palm print belonged to Dallas police homicide captain Will Fritz, who didn’t have his own prints compared with the carton prints back in 1964. Fritz reportedly had his prints taken shortly before his death in 1984, allowing the FBI to do the comparison. (Russo, Live by the Sword, p.583, appendix A, note 2) The National Archives, which is now the repository of all FBI documents related to the assassination, says, “We have not been able to locate any documentation to substantiate the claim made by Gus Russo in his book” (Letter from James R. Mathis, archivist, special access and FOIA staff, to author dated September 24, 2004). Since the FBI would have every reason to make it known that the palm print belonged to Fritz, and no reason to keep it a secret, Russo’s FBI source was probably not a good one.

  *In fact, James Jarman and Harold Norman found that the west elevator was still on the first floor thirty-five minutes later, when they used it to ascend to the fifth floor to watch the motorcade (3 H 210, WCT James Jarman Jr.).

  *Secret Service inspector Thomas Kelley also recalls, like Fritz, that Oswald said he had lunch with the two black employees (Kelley Exhibit A, 20 H 440). However, FBI agent James Bookhout, who was also present during the interrogation of Oswald, recalls Oswald’s covering his bases by saying that “possibly” Jarman and another black employee “walked through” the first-floor lunchroom while he was there (WR, p.622).

  *Oswald’s telling Fritz this was understandable, since, as previously indicated, the domino room is where the stock boys normally had their lunch—that is, with the exception of this day, when, in anticipation of the president’s motorcade coming by, most employees apparently took their lunch outside or to a window facing Elm Street, (e.g., 6 H 383, WCT Eddie Piper; 6 H 338, WCT Billy Nolan Lovelady; 3 H 168–169, WCT Bonnie Ray Williams).

  *Although there was some slight ambiguity in Rowland’s previous statements as to precisely which window he allegedly saw the man with the rifle in, the matter was clarified in his testimony before the Commission when he placed an arrow on a photograph of the Book Depository Building at the window where he claimed to have seen the man. In the first pair of windows, it was the second window to the east on the westernmost side of the sixth floor. (2 H 169; CE 356, 16 H 952)

  *Case Closed author Gerald Posner concluded that after Oswald left the sniper’s nest, he “hurried diagonally across the sixth floor, toward the rear staircase” (Posner, Case Closed, p.264). An illustration in the back of Posner’s book (pp.480–481) also depicts this conclusion. But Oswald could not have cut diagonally across the sixth floor because of the numerous boxes stacked throughout the floor, a fact demonstrated by virtually every photograph and film taken on the sixth floor that weekend (e.g., CE 719, 17 H 502; CE 723, 17 H 504).

  *At the London trial, I asked Baker if, before he ran into the building, he paused “at all to survey the situation on Elm.” Baker: “Yes, sir.” Question: “How long would you estimate you paused?” “Oh, two to three minutes. Just a
short time.” Question: “Two to three minutes or two to three seconds?” “Two to three seconds.” He then said that as he “was going into the building, there were a lot of people going in with me that couldn’t get in.” Question: “So that slowed you down a little bit?” “Yes, it did.” Because of these things, he said the simulated reconstruction was not precise. (Transcript of On Trial, July 23, 1986, pp.170–171, 176)

  † Though Gerry Spence’s question at the London trial called for an inadmissible conclusion, the judge permitted Spence, on cross-examination of Baker, to ask Baker if Oswald acted like a man “who had just, seconds before, killed the president of the United States.” Baker answered, “No, sir.” (Transcript of On Trial, July 23, 1986, p.190)