General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy believed President Kennedy was killed by a conspiracy. [View all]stopbush
(24,396 posts)Last edited Mon Jan 21, 2013, 04:36 AM - Edit history (2)
Oswald was killed by Jack Ruby on Nov 24, 1963.
He was buried THE NEXT DAY, Nov 25, 1963.
His body did not "lay 3 or 4 days afterward in a mortuary." Jesus! this stuff is checkable in seconds. Yet here you are tossing out another lie about Oswald.
As far as Oswald's palm print being found on the rifle, if you knew the evidence in the case, you would know that - contrary to the scene in Stone's "JFK," where an FBI agent places Oswald's prints on the stock of the rifle - the prints were actually found on parts of the rifle that would be unreachable once the gun was assembled. This proves that Oswald handled the disassembled gun, and it strongly indicates that he assembled the gun as well.
Here is the section of the WCR that deals with Oswald's rifle and the plam and fingerprints on said weapon:
Oswald's Palmprint on Rifle Barrel
Based on the above evidence, the Commission concluded that Oswald purchased the rifle found on the sixth floor of the Depository Building. Additional evidence of ownership was provided in the form of palm print identification which indicated that Oswald had possession of the rifle he had purchased. A few minutes after the rifle was discovered on the sixth floor of the Depository Building it was examined by Lt. J. C. Day of the identification bureau of the Dallas police. He lifted the rifle by the wooden stock after his examination convinced him that the wood was too rough to take fingerprints. Capt. J. W. Fritz then ejected a cartridge by operating the bolt, but only after Day viewed the knob on the bolt through a magnifying glass and found no prints. Day continued to examine the rifle with the magnifying glass, looking for possible fingerprints. He applied fingerprint powder to the side of the metal housing near the trigger, and noticed traces of two prints. At 11:45 p.m. on November 22, the rifle was released to the FBI and forwarded to Washington where it was examined on the morning of November 23 by Sebastian Fritz.
Latona, supervisor of the Latent Fingerprint Section of the FBI's Identification Division.
In his testimony before the Commission, Latona stated that when he received the rifle, the area where prints were visible was protected by cellophane. He examined these prints, as well as photographs of them which the Dallas police had made, and concluded that:
"...the formations, the ridge formations and characteristics, were insufficient for purposes of either effecting identification or a determination that the print was not identical with the prints of people. Accordingly, my opinion simply was that the latent prints which were there were of no value."
Latona then processed the complete weapon but developed no identifiable prints. He stated that the poor quality of the wood and the metal would cause the rifle to absorb moisture from the skin, thereby making a clear print unlikely.
On November 22, however, before surrendering possession of the rifle to the FBI Laboratory, Lieutenant Day of the Dallas Police Department had "lifted" a palmprint from the underside of the gun barrel "near the firing end of the barrel about 3 inches under the woodstock when I took the woodstock loose. "Lifting" a print involves the use of adhesive material to remove the fingerprint powder which adheres to the original print. In this way the powdered impression is actually removed from the object. The lifting had been so complete in this case that there was no trace of the print on the rifle itself when it was examined by Latona. Nor was there any indication that the lift had been performed. Day, on the other hand, believed that sufficient traces of the print had been left on the rifle barrel, because he did not release the lifted print until November 26, when he received instructions to send "everything that we had" to the FBI. The print arrived in the FBI Laboratory in Washington on November 29, mounted on a card on which Lieutenant Day had written the words "off underside gun barrel near end of grip C2766." The print's positive identity as having been lifted from the rifle was confirmed by FBI Laboratory tests which established that the adhesive material bearing the print also bore impressions of the same irregularities that appeared on the barrel of the rifle.
Latona testified that this palmprint was the right palmprint of Lee Harvey Oswald. At the request of the Commission, Arthur Mandella, fingerprint expert with the New York City Police Department, conducted an independent examination and also determined that this was the right palmprint of Oswald. Latona's findings were also confirmed by Ronald G. Wittmus, another FBI fingerprint expert. In the opinion of these experts, it was not possible to estimate the time which elapsed between the placing of the print on the rifle and the date of the lift.
Experts testifying before the Commission agreed that palmprints are as unique as fingerprints for purposes of establishing identification. Oswald's palmprint on the underside of the barrel demonstrates that he handled the rifle when it was disassembled. A palmprint could not be placed on this portion of the rifle, when assembled, because the wooden foregrip covers the barrel at this point. The print is additional proof that the rifle was in Oswald's possession.
SO let's look at the actual evidence in the case, rather than your fantasy.
Oswald's rifle is sent to the FBI in DC on Nov 22 and examined by the FBI in DC on Nov 23. That examination REVEALS NO FINGERPRINTS on the rifle. What good would it have done to send the rifle back to Dallas to put Oswald's fingerprints on it when the FBI has already documented that no fingerprints were found?
Next, the Dallas police are able to provide the FBI with a palm print that was lifted from the rifle THE DAY OF THE JFK SHOOTING. NOT from Oswald's dead body, but lifted from the rifle while Oswald was still alive. Day's palm print-lifting efforts were documented with photographs, and negatives of those pictures taken Nov 22 which were provided to the FBI in DC on Nov 23 along with the rifle.
And yet, you would have us believe that a worker at the mortuary saw an FBI agent placing Oswald's dead hand on the rifle to produce a palm print sometime between the time he died at 1:07pm 11/24/63, and the time he was buried on 11/25/63, at the same time JFK's funeral was going on in DC.
Yes - Oswald's rifle was returned to Dallas by the FBI in DC on Nov 24. It arrived at the DPS about the time Oswald was being rushed to Parkland. But according to Day, the rifle remained in a box in his office, "and I was instructed not to do anything with it (by the FBI)."
And as Day had already provided evidence of the palm print on the 23rd to the FBI, there was no reason to fake a palm print off the now-dead Oswald on the 24th or 25th.