Report of the President's Commission on the Assassination of President John F. KennedyUnited States. Warren Commission
History
Report of the President's Commission on the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy
United States. Warren Commission
Kennedy, John F. (John Fitzgerald), 1917-1963 -- Assassination; Oswald, Lee Harvey
In a crevice between the butt plate of the rifle and the wooden stock
was a tuft of several cotton fibers of dark blue, gray-black, and
orange-yellow shades.[C4-64] On November 23, 1963, these fibers were
examined by Paul M. Stombaugh, a special agent assigned to the Hair
and Fiber Unit of the FBI Laboratory.[C4-65] He compared them with the
fibers found in the shirt which Oswald was wearing when arrested in
the Texas Theatre.[C4-66] This shirt was also composed of dark blue,
gray-black and orange-yellow cotton fibers. Stombaugh testified that
the colors, shades, and twist of the fibers found in the tuft on the
rifle matched those in Oswald’s shirt.[C4-67] (See app. X, p. 592.)
Stombaugh explained in his testimony that in fiber analysis, as
distinct from fingerprint or firearms identification, it is not
possible to state with scientific certainty that a particular small
group of fibers come from a certain piece of clothing to the exclusion
of all others because there are not enough microscopic characteristics
present in fibers.[C4-68] Judgments as to probability will depend on
the number and types of matches.[C4-69] He concluded, “There is no
doubt in my mind that these fibers could have come from this shirt.
There is no way, however, to eliminate the possibility of the fibers
having come from another identical shirt.”[C4-70]
Having considered the probabilities as explained in Stombaugh’s
testimony, the Commission has concluded that the fibers in the tuft
on the rifle most probably came from the shirt worn by Oswald when he
was arrested, and that this was the same shirt which Oswald wore on
the morning of the assassination. Marina Oswald testified that she
thought her husband wore this shirt to work on that day.[C4-71] The
testimony of those who saw him after the assassination was inconclusive
about the color of Oswald’s shirt,[C4-72] but Mary Bledsoe, a former
landlady of Oswald, saw him on a bus approximately 10 minutes after
the assassination and identified the shirt as being the one worn by
Oswald primarily because of a distinctive hole in the shirt’s right
elbow.[C4-73] Moreover, the bus transfer which he obtained as he left
the bus was still in the pocket when he was arrested.[C4-74] Although
Oswald returned to his roominghouse after the assassination and when
questioned by the police, claimed to have changed his shirt,[C4-75] the
evidence indicates that he continued wearing the same shirt which he
was wearing all morning and which he was still wearing when arrested.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account