On November 22, however, before surrendering possession of the rifle to the FBI Laboratory, Lieutenant Day of the Dallas Police Department had “lifted” a palmprint from the underside of the gun barrel “near the firing end of the barrel about 3 inches under the Woodstock when I took the Woodstock loose.”[C4-52] “Lifting” a print involves the use of adhesive material to remove the fingerprint powder which adheres to the original print. In this way the powdered impression is actually removed from the object.[C4-53] The lifting had been so complete in this case that there was no trace of the print on the rifle itself when it was examined by Latona. Nor was there any indication that the lift had been performed.[C4-54] Day, on the other hand, believed that sufficient traces of the print had been left on the rifle barrel, because he did not release the lifted print until November 26, when he received instructions to send “everything that we had” to the FBI.[C4-55] The print arrived in the FBI Laboratory in Washington on November 29, mounted on a card on which Lieutenant Day had written the words “off underside gun barrel near end of foregrip C2766.”[C4-56] The print’s positive identity as having been lifted from the rifle was confirmed by FBI Laboratory tests which established that the adhesive material bearing the print also bore impressions of the same irregularities that appeared on the barrel of the rifle.[C4-57]
Latona testified that this palmprint was the right palmprint of Lee Harvey Oswald.[C4-58] At the request of the Commission, Arthur Mandella, fingerprint expert with the New York City Police Department, conducted an independent examination and also determined that this was the right palmprint of Oswald.[C4-59] Latona’s findings were also confirmed by Ronald G. Wittmus, another FBI fingerprint expert.[C4-60] In the opinion of these experts, it was not possible to estimate the time which elapsed between the placing of the print on the rifle and the date of the lift.[C4-61]
Experts testifying before the Commission agreed that palmprints are as unique as fingerprints for purposes of establishing identification.[C4-62] Oswald’s palmprint on the underside of the barrel demonstrates that he handled the rifle when it was disassembled. A palmprint could not be placed on this portion of the rifle, when assembled, because the wooden foregrip covers the barrel at this point.[C4-63] The print is additional proof that the rifle was in Oswald’s possession.
Fibers on Rifle
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.
In light of these findings the Commission evaluated the additional testimony of Stombaugh that the fibers were caught in the crevice of the rifle’s butt plate “in the recent past.”[C4-76] Although Stombaugh was unable to estimate the period of time the fibers were on the rifle he said that the fibers “were clean, they had good color to them, there was no grease on them and they were not fragmented. They looked as if they had just been picked up.”[C4-77] The relative freshness of the fibers is strong evidence that they were caught on the rifle on the morning of the assassination or during the preceding evening. For 10 days prior to the eve of the assassination Oswald had not been present at Ruth Paine’s house in Irving, Tex.,[C4-78] where the rifle was kept.[C4-79] Moreover, the Commission found no reliable evidence that Oswald used the rifle at any time between September 23, when it was transported from New Orleans, and November 22, the day of the assassination.[C4-80] The fact that on the morning of the assassination Oswald was wearing the shirt from which these relatively fresh fibers most probably originated, provides some evidence that they were placed on the rifle that day since there was limited, if any, opportunity for Oswald to handle the weapon during the 2 months prior to November 22.
On the other hand Stombaugh pointed out that fibers might retain their freshness if the rifle had been “put aside” after catching the fibers. The rifle used in the assassination probably had been wrapped in a blanket for about 8 weeks prior to November 22.[C4-81] Because the relative freshness of these fibers might be explained by the continuous storage of the rifle in the blanket, the Commission was unable to reach any firm conclusion as to when the fibers were caught in the rifle. The Commission was able to conclude, however, that the fibers most probably came from Oswald’s shirt. This adds to the conviction of the Commission that Oswald owned and handled the weapon used in the assassination.