Mr. Eisenberg. Can you describe to us how this scraping was performed?
Mr. Stombaugh. Yes, sir. We suspend the blanket from a rack in the laboratory, place a clean sheet of kraft paper on a table directly under it and, using a spatula, thoroughly scrape it down. This knocks all the foreign material adhering to the blanket from the blanket, and it falls down to the paper. After we have thoroughly cleaned the blanket, then we scrape up all the debris and place it in the pillboxes for a microscopic examination.
Mr. Eisenberg. Why do you use this scrape method, as opposed to a fine-filter vacuum cleaner?
Mr. Stombaugh. We have found that the fine-filtered vacuum cleaner pulls all of the dirt and old debris from a blanket which are embedded on the inner portion of the fabric. We are not interested in this material. We are interested only in what is adhering to the top surface, which has been put there most recently. Through experience in the laboratory we have found this method to be the best so far.
Mr. Eisenberg. So that by use of the scrape you gathered the more recent debris, as opposed to the older debris?
Mr. Stombaugh. That is correct.
Mr. Eisenberg. And what type of debris did you find, Mr. Stombaugh?
Mr. Stombaugh. I found numerous foreign textile fibers of various types and colors, as well as a number of limb and pubic hairs.
Mr. Eisenberg. Did you draw any conclusions as to those hairs upon your initial examination of them?
Mr. Stombaugh. Yes; I did. They all had originated from a person of the Caucasian race and I compared these hairs with hair samples obtained from Harvey Oswald——