From John Ritchson

[John Ritchson]

Greetings All:

I wish to thank all of you that phoned, sent me cards, books, letters and emails during my convalescence. I'm getting better every day and can now negotiate the stairs to my workstation without assistance, although slowly. The show of support and the graciousness I recieved from the Assassination Research Community is a humbling experience to say the least. And more than ever, I concider it an honor and a privledge to be associated with this community. I will be posting this to all of the forums I'm associated with as well as emailing it to those researchers who seldom visit the discussion forums so if you happen to read the following article online and then recieve an email later...sorry about the redundancy. :wink:

That said, I think it important to elucidate a bit on the many discrepancies and issues of the physical evidence just to put things in perspective as it were. The following are those discrepancies and issues that I personally would have no problem placing before a grand jury for a legal finding of fact:

First and formost would have to be the Warren Commission official photo of the bullet designated

WC CE-399 which clearly, and without ambiguity shows a projectile which had been fired from a weapon rifled with 6 lands and grooves and possessed with a 1 in 7.5" twist which no M91/38 Mannlicher Carcano possesses. Conversely, the House Select Committee on Assassinations official photo of the bullet designated, HSCA-399 just as clearly and without ambiguity shows a projectile which had been fired from a weapon rifled with 4 lands and grooves and possessed with a 1 in 8.5" twist while comparison analysis of the two bullets produces not a single point of matching comparison proving that they are in fact the same bullet fired from the same rifle. [ The entire Single Bullet Theory falls apart in the face of this simple fact.]

In fact, to date and to my knowledge, no comparison bullets showing a forensic connection to either version of 399 or a forensic connection to the alledged murder weapon have ever been produced and made public.

The SBT itself is a farce in so far as it alledges ballistic behavior which under any concievable set of conditions and circumstances with respect to a projectile of this type, is an abject impossibility...Jet Effect and Neuro-Muscle Spasms not withstanding.

Dr. Guinn's Neutron Activation Analysis of the alledged bullet fragments and minus the necessary corraborative Mass Spectromony and Gaseous Chromotography tests to establish a forensic connection to the alledged murder weapon is hopelessly flawed and his conclusions dubious to say the least, if not outright false and misleading.

Then, there is the presence of spent cartridges which when precisely measured show them to be 6.5x54mm Mannlicher Schoenauer cartridges which cannot be chambered in a Carcano rifle along with an unfired cartridge which is a 6.5x52mm Carcano cartridge but possesses the nickle/copper alloy jacket, counter-bored

neck steps and odd sized Berdan Primer indicative of Italian G.I. ammunition and which would not have been produced in any American arsenal, added to the failure of the controling agency/s to produce and make public the Tool-Mark Analysis establishing a forensic connection of these cartridges to the alledged murder weapon tends to establish a case of outright falsification of material evidence coupled with the seperate crime of evidence tampering since the controling agency/s duly entered these cartridges into evidence as

Winchester/Western 6.5x52mm Mannlicher Carcano cartridges.

There are at least four different Carcano rifles which at one time or another has been entered into evidence as "The Murder Weapon" with the 1984 Mike O'Neal photo clearly showing a very rare cermonial rifle of Mussolini's Guard known as the Moschettieri del Duce Carcano stamped with the serial number C2766 which is completely different from the weapon currently in the National Archives that represents a rather poor forgery of the rifle depicted in the O'Neal Photo. [The other rifles all have features different from one another.] It should also be noted that whichever rifle was submitted to Edgewood Arsenal for ballistic tests was in so poor condition that it was deemed unfit to fire without extensive reworking by a gunsmith who also had to shim the scope before it could be sighted in.

The spent cartridges found at the Tippet murder scene were positivily identified by the Dallas Sheriff's Dept. firearms expert as .38 Super-Auto cartridges which are rimless cartridges requiring two half-moon rimmed spacer clips in order to chamber in a revolver which normally chambers rimmed cartridges. [This issue becomes especially important when one goes into the ballistic data because the .38 Super-Auto is a hotter loaded cartridge performing on par with the .357 Magnum cartridge rather than the lighter loaded .38 Standard or .38 Special cartridge, and excessive breech pressure becomes a safety factor especially when coupled to an old WWII Victory Model .38 Revolver.]

To my knowledge, no wax-cast was ever lifted off of Lee Oswald's face which would have not only shown he had recently fired a rifle but comparison analysis of the unburned and partially burned powder residue would have established a forensic connection between the man and the rifle. [such an event goes far beyond simple oversight or even negligence since it is inconcievable to me that any investigative agency would not have performed this simple and basic examination.]

Finally, last but not least, the chain of custody with respect to the physical evidence is so hopelessly flawed and compromised that about any good attorney should have been able to have it quashed in a court of law thus the physical evidence against LHO would have been excluded and he could have gone free. Thus, I think it incombant upon the Assassination Research Community to somehow get the judicial notice necessary to force a reopening of the JFK case as a murder investigation and sit a grand jury to examine the above enumerated issues.

Respectfully:

[Adam Wilkinson]

Greetings All:

I wish to thank all of you that phoned, sent me cards, books, letters and emails during my convalescence. I'm getting better every day and can now negotiate the stairs to my workstation without assistance, although slowly. The show of support and the graciousness I recieved from the Assassination Research Community is a humbling experience to say the least. And more than ever, I concider it an honor and a privledge to be associated with this community. I will be posting this to all of the forums I'm associated with as well as emailing it to those researchers who seldom visit the discussion forums so if you happen to read the following article online and then recieve an email later...sorry about the redundancy.  :wink:

That said,  I think it important to elucidate a bit on the many discrepancies and issues of the physical evidence just to put things in perspective as it were. The following are those discrepancies and issues that I personally would have no problem placing before a grand jury for a legal finding of fact:

First and formost would have to be the Warren Commission official photo of the bullet designated

WC CE-399 which clearly, and without ambiguity shows a projectile which had been fired from a weapon rifled with 6 lands and grooves and possessed with a 1 in 7.5" twist which no M91/38 Mannlicher Carcano possesses.  Conversely, the House Select Committee on Assassinations official photo of the bullet designated, HSCA-399 just as clearly and without ambiguity shows a projectile which had been fired from a weapon rifled with 4 lands and grooves and possessed with a 1 in 8.5" twist while comparison analysis of the two bullets produces not a single point of matching comparison proving that they are in fact the same bullet fired from the same rifle. [ The entire Single Bullet Theory falls apart in the face of this simple fact.]

In fact, to date and to my knowledge, no comparison bullets showing a forensic connection to either version of 399 or a forensic connection to the alledged murder weapon have ever been produced and made public.

The SBT itself is a farce in so far as it alledges ballistic behavior which under any concievable set of conditions and circumstances  with respect to a projectile of this type,  is an abject impossibility...Jet Effect and Neuro-Muscle Spasms not withstanding.

Dr. Guinn's Neutron Activation Analysis of the alledged bullet fragments and minus the necessary corraborative Mass Spectromony and Gaseous Chromotography tests to establish a forensic connection to the alledged murder weapon is hopelessly flawed and his conclusions dubious to say the least, if not outright false and misleading.

Then, there is the presence of spent cartridges which when precisely measured show them to be 6.5x54mm Mannlicher Schoenauer cartridges which cannot be chambered in a Carcano rifle along with an unfired cartridge which is a 6.5x52mm Carcano cartridge but possesses the nickle/copper alloy jacket, counter-bored

neck steps and odd sized Berdan Primer indicative of Italian G.I. ammunition and which would not have been produced in any American arsenal, added to the failure of the controling agency/s to produce and make public the Tool-Mark Analysis establishing a forensic connection of these cartridges to the alledged murder weapon tends to establish a case of outright falsification of material evidence coupled with the seperate crime of evidence tampering since the controling agency/s duly entered these cartridges into evidence as

Winchester/Western 6.5x52mm Mannlicher Carcano cartridges.

There are at least four different Carcano rifles which at one time or another has been entered into evidence as "The Murder Weapon" with the 1984 Mike O'Neal photo clearly showing a very rare cermonial rifle of Mussolini's Guard known as the Moschettieri del Duce Carcano stamped with the serial number C2766 which is completely different from the weapon currently in the National Archives that represents a rather poor forgery of the rifle depicted in the O'Neal Photo. [The other rifles all have features different from one another.] It should also be noted that whichever rifle was submitted to Edgewood Arsenal for ballistic tests was in so poor condition that it was deemed unfit to fire without extensive reworking by a gunsmith who also had to shim the scope before it could be sighted in.

The spent cartridges found at the Tippet murder scene were positivily identified by the Dallas Sheriff's Dept. firearms expert as .38 Super-Auto cartridges which are rimless cartridges requiring two half-moon rimmed spacer clips in order to chamber in a revolver which normally chambers rimmed cartridges. [This issue becomes especially important when one goes into the ballistic data because the .38 Super-Auto is a hotter loaded cartridge performing on par with the .357 Magnum cartridge rather than the lighter loaded .38 Standard or .38 Special cartridge, and excessive breech pressure becomes a safety factor especially when coupled to an old WWII Victory Model .38 Revolver.] 

To my knowledge, no wax-cast was ever lifted off of Lee Oswald's face which would have not only shown he had recently fired a rifle but comparison analysis of the unburned and partially burned powder residue would have established a forensic connection between the man and the rifle. [such an event goes far beyond simple oversight or even negligence since it is inconcievable to me that any investigative agency would not have performed this simple and basic examination.]

Finally, last but not least, the chain of custody with respect to the physical evidence is so hopelessly flawed and compromised that about any good attorney should have been able to have it quashed in a court of law thus the physical evidence against LHO would have been excluded and he could have gone free. Thus, I think it incombant upon the Assassination Research Community to somehow get the judicial notice necessary to force a reopening of the JFK case as a murder investigation and sit a grand jury to examine the above enumerated issues.

Respectfully:

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Some very good information here, hope you have a speedy recovery.