Mr. Stombaugh. No; it is not possible to determine sex or age from an examination of a hair.
Mr. Eisenberg. Could you make a determination as to the number of individuals who had contributed these hairs?
Mr. Stombaugh. No; I couldn't. You would have to have a hair sample from any suspected person, and hairs vary tremendously. Even on the same individual head hairs from the same individual can vary from one head area to another.
I have found as many as 12 to 15 different types of hair on the same person's head.
So, therefore, it would not be possible to estimate the number of different people whose hairs have appeared on this blanket.
Mr. Eisenberg. Now, Mr. Stombaugh, are you able to say that the limb hairs and pubic hairs which you found in the blanket and which you have matched with Oswald's in observable microscopic characteristics came from Oswald to the exclusion of any other individual?
Mr. Stombaugh. No; I couldn't say that. I could say that these hairs could have come from Oswald. I could not say they definitely came from him to the exclusion of all other Caucasian persons in the world.
In order to say this, one would have to take hair samples from all of these people and compare them and this, of course, is impossible.
Mr. Eisenberg. What degree of probability do you think there is that these hairs came from Oswald? And without putting a precise number on it, let's suppose you took head hairs from 100 Caucasian individuals, how many matches would you expect to find among those hundred different hairs on the basis of your experience?
Mr. Stombaugh. On the basis of my experience I would expect to find only one match.