Warren Commission (04 of 26): Hearings Vol. IV (of 15)United States. Warren Commission
History
Warren Commission (04 of 26): Hearings Vol. IV (of 15)
United States. Warren Commission
Kennedy, John F. (John Fitzgerald), 1917-1963 -- Assassination; Oswald, Lee Harvey
Mr. STOMBAUGH. I was; however, it is not uncommon for fingerprint
processing to be given priority consideration. They wanted to know
whether or not the gun contained any fibers to show that it had been
stored in this blanket, and with all the obstructions and the crevices
on the metal parts of this gun, ordinarily a fiber would adhere pretty
well, unless you take a brush and brush it off, and then you brush it
on the floor and it is lost.
Mr. EISENBERG. Who was "they," you said "they" wanted to know?
Mr. STOMBAUGH. Well, this is our Dallas office. They sent the gun in
wanting to know this fact.
Mr. EISENBERG. Proceed.
Mr. DULLES. It was dusted by the Dallas police, was it, first?
Mr. STOMBAUGH. I don't know who dusted it.
Mr. EISENBERG. For the record, I believe that will be shown later that
it was dusted by Dallas police.
As far as you know, did it come into your office, into your laboratory
before it went to the identification division, latent fingerprint
section?
Mr. STOMBAUGH. Yes; I received this gun from Special Agent Vincent
Drain of the Dallas FBI office. It was crated very well. I opened the
crate myself and put my initials on the gun and at that time I noted it
had been dusted for latent prints.
So I proceeded to pick off what fibers were left from the small
crevices and small grease deposits which were left on the gun.
At this point of the butt plate, the end of the stock----
Mr. EISENBERG. Let's get that a little more specific if we can. Can you
point to that again?
Mr. STOMBAUGH. In this area, the butt plate of the stock, this is a
metal butt plate, you can see the jagged edge on it.
Mr. EISENBERG. That is on the left side of the butt plate?
Mr. STOMBAUGH. It is on the left side; yes.
Mr. EISENBERG. In approximately in the middle there is a jagged edge,
jagged inside edge, where the butt plate comes into contact with the
wood, is that what you are referring to?
Mr. STOMBAUGH. Yes; there is a jagged edge there. This area right here,
according to my notes.
Mr. EISENBERG. Yes.
Mr. STOMBAUGH. I found a tiny tuft of fibers which had caught on that
jagged edge, and then when the individual who dusted this dusted them,
he just folded them down very neatly into the little crevice there,
and they stayed. These I removed and put on a glass microscope slide,
and marked this particular slide "No. 2," because this little group of
fibers--little tuft of fibers, appeared to be fresh.
The fibers on the rest of the gun were either adhering to a greasy,
oily deposit or jammed into a crevice and were very dirty and
apparently very old.
You can look at a fiber and tell whether it has been beaten around or
exposed much. These appeared to be fairly fresh.
Mr. EISENBERG. "These" being the ones that you found in the butt plate
crevice?
Mr. STOMBAUGH. Yes; adhering to this small jagged edge.
Mr. EISENBERG. Before we get to those, were there any other fibers of
value on the rest of the Exhibit 139?
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