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. EISENBERG. Excuse me a second Mr. Mandella. That is No. 25 center
impression, marked by you "center impression No. 2 finger--Oswald," is
that correct?
Mr. MANDELLA. Yes; that is correct. And there is 11 points of identity
or characteristic.
Mr. EISENBERG. On No. 34?
Mr. MANDELLA. No. 34, the palmprint.
Mr. EISENBERG. That is marked by you "Oswald left palm--left side"?
Mr. DULLES. Palmprint on the box is it?
Mr. EISENBERG. Yes; box A.
Mr. DULLES. Box A?
Mr. MANDELLA. Yes; 18 points of identity I found on that particular
exhibit.
Mr. EISENBERG. Can you check your notes on that?
Mr. MANDELLA. I can explain this. On the reverse side I have 13 to 16
points.
Mr. EISENBERG. That is the reverse side of number----
Mr. MANDELLA. It is the reverse side of Commission Exhibit 656.
However, after going over this and looking at it again I found several
more. Of course in this case it is still more than 18. But 18 that can
be readily seen and recognized. And then Commission exhibit finally----
Mr. EISENBERG. 655?
Mr. MANDELLA. 655.
Mr. EISENBERG. Box D.
Mr. MANDELLA. Photo No. 13, the right palmprint of Oswald, and there is
eight points of identity on that one.
Mr. DULLES. Thank you.
Mr. EISENBERG. Mr. Mandella, do you have any opinion concerning the
ability to determine the freshness of a fingerprint?
Mr. MANDELLA. It is very difficult to tell. However, you can determine
if it was left within say a few days, but certainly you can't pinpoint
it. You can't say it was there so many hours or so many days. How many
days I don't know, but in the developing of fingerprints we will say
on an ashtray on this Commission desk here, if we just touch it now,
as opposed to a fingerprint being left there several days ago, the
impression that we recently left, as we applied powder to it to bring
it about would naturally come out sooner because of the freshness of
the oils on our fingers.
The others would come out, if we kept processing or powdering it with a
brush. They would later come out too. So this is the only indication to
me then, that the first ones that appear then were recently left. And
in this you can't even say this definitely either. It is very difficult
because at certain times it could be a little more oil on someone's
fingers and this could last longer and appear to be fresher. So it is
very difficult to tell positively.
Mr. EISENBERG. What you are describing is freshness, relative
freshness, between one print and another, rather than absolute
freshness of any given print?
Mr. MANDELLA. Yes; that is true.
Mr. EISENBERG. Now I give you Commission Exhibit No. 139, which is a
rifle, and ask you whether you think if you developed a print on a
steel portion of the rifle you could testify as to whether this was a
fresh or a stale print?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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