Mr. Latona. Which came from exhibit 648 has been identified as a palmprint of Harvey Lee Oswald, the right palmprint.
Mr. Eisenberg. That is Lee Harvey Oswald, Mr. Latona?
Mr. Latona. That is right. Lee Harvey Oswald.
Mr. Eisenberg. Now, Mr. Latona, can you tell how this was developed, this print on 649?
Mr. Latona. The appearance is it was developed with black powder.
Mr. Eisenberg. You testified before concerning the aging of fingerprints. Considering the material on which this print was developed, 649, do you think you could form an opinion, any opinion at all, concerning the freshness or staleness of this print?
Mr. Latona. Bearing in mind the fact that this is an absorbent material, and realizing, of course, that a print when it is left on a material of this type it starts to soak in. Now, the reason that we in the FBI do not use powder is because of the fact that in a short period of time the print will soak in so completely that there won't be any moisture left.
Accordingly when you brush powder across there won't be anything developed.
Under circumstances, bearing in mind that here the box was powdered, and a print was developed with powder, the conclusion is that this is comparatively a fresh print. Otherwise, it would not have developed.
We know, too, that we developed two other fingerprints on this by chemicals. How long a time had elapsed since the time this print was placed on there until the time that it would have soaked in so that the resulting examination would have been negative I don't know, but that could not have been too long.