Mr. Eisenberg. Were you unhappy at all about that?
Mr. Stombaugh. I was; however, it is not uncommon for fingerprint processing to be given priority consideration. They wanted to know whether or not the gun contained any fibers to show that it had been stored in this blanket, and with all the obstructions and the crevices on the metal parts of this gun, ordinarily a fiber would adhere pretty well, unless you take a brush and brush it off, and then you brush it on the floor and it is lost.
Mr. Eisenberg. Who was "they," you said "they" wanted to know?
Mr. Stombaugh. Well, this is our Dallas office. They sent the gun in wanting to know this fact.
Mr. Eisenberg. Proceed.
Mr. Dulles. It was dusted by the Dallas police, was it, first?
Mr. Stombaugh. I don't know who dusted it.
Mr. Eisenberg. For the record, I believe that will be shown later that it was dusted by Dallas police.
As far as you know, did it come into your office, into your laboratory before it went to the identification division, latent fingerprint section?
Mr. Stombaugh. Yes; I received this gun from Special Agent Vincent Drain of the Dallas FBI office. It was crated very well. I opened the crate myself and put my initials on the gun and at that time I noted it had been dusted for latent prints.