Mr. Stombaugh. On the morning of November 23, 1963.
Mr. Eisenberg. Is your mark on it?
Mr. Stombaugh. Yes, sir; here is my mark.
Mr. Eisenberg. Which consists of your initials?
Mr. Stombaugh. My initials, and the date 11-23-63. Do you mind if I check to see if this is unloaded?
Mr. Eisenberg. Did you examine the rifle to determine whether it contained on its surface or crevices any hair or other debris?
Mr. Stombaugh. Yes; I did.
Mr. Eisenberg. Can you tell us how you made that examination?
Mr. Stombaugh. Yes, sir. The gun was to be treated for latent fingerprints also, so I wore a pair of white cotton gloves to protect any latents that might be present on the gun. I placed the gun under a low-powered microscope and examined the gun from the end of the barrel to the end of the stock, removing what fibers I could find from crevices adhering to the gun.
I noticed immediately upon receiving the gun that this gun had been dusted for latent fingerprints prior to my receiving it. Latent fingerprint powder was all over the gun; it was pretty well dusted off, and at the time I noted to myself that I doubted very much if there would be any fibers adhering to the outside of this gun—I possibly might find some in a crevice some place—because when the latent fingerprint man dusted this gun, apparently in Dallas, they use a little brush to dust with they would have dusted any fibers off the gun at the same time; so this I noted before I ever started to really examine the gun.