Jim Hargrove

16 hours ago, Larry Hancock said:

Thanks Gary, I thought this was an oldie and a questionable one at that.  Another commonly referenced source on people in the sixth floor window may also be questionable:

"many inmates on the 5th floor of the County Jail, including Johnny L. Powell who said, “Quite a few of us jail inmates saw two men in the 6th floor window of the Book Depository".

I explored that claim with Jim Marrs among others and was told that the holding areas for prisoners in that building did not have a view of the sixth floor of the TSBD.  I visited the county jail cells which DPD officers told me were the holding area and those most certainly did not have a view....neither Jim nor I could never confirm if there was another area in use that day which would have offered Powell and others a view so I removed to claim from the 2010 edition of SWHT because I couldn't verify it one way or another...

 

Larry,

That’s interesting.  According to the 1978 Earl Golz story (see below), a Ruby attorney told a WC investigator that the prisoners “had a good view of what took place.”  Do you know anything about that?
 

Bart,

Yes, I think you're correct.  Thanks.  After looking at the testimony again, it seems like Bob Jackson referred Dillard to the sixth floor window, and Dillard saw the men in the window below it.

I wouldn't dismiss this so quickly.  Tom Dillard was the top news photographer for the Dallas Morning News, and he testified as follows:

Mr. BALL - How many forms did you see in the window below? 
Mr. DILLARD - I saw two men in the windows, at least the arched windows. I saw them in my picture. I was making the picture my eyes were covering. 
Mr. BALL - You saw them as you were taking the picture? 
Mr. DILLARD - I may have; I don't know. 
Mr. BALL - Do you remember if you saw two or three figures? 
Mr. DILLARD - I don't remember. 
Mr. BALL - But you did see some figures and you can not be accurate? 
Mr. DILLARD - Right. 

Interesting little piece, in which a man claims his father took a photo of two men in the TSBD sixth floor window about the time of the hit.  The photo, he says, disappeared after it was given to a Canadian newspaper in 1964.

Many Dealey Plaza witnesses said they saw two men in the window, among them Charles L. Bronson, Carolyn Walter, Ruby Henderson, Dallas Morning News photographer Tom Dillard, and many inmates on the 5th floor of the County Jail, including Johnny L. Powell who said, “Quite a few of us jail inmates saw two men in the 6th floor window of the Book Depository. Everybody was trying to watch the parade and all that. We were looking across the street at the Book Depository because it was directly straight across. The first thing I thought is, it was security guards .... I remember the guys."

3 hours ago, David Josephs said:

So basically I am stuck at "a money order was purchased"....  Unlike DVP - I cannot pretend that the existence of the item is PROOF the item is authentic...  the Chain of events related to that item or the declaration of uniqueness give the item authenticity...  (i.e. that the rifle was found on the sixth floor does not prove Oswald bought it)

 

Jason - why aren't the most basic rules of evidence authentication applied?  If it came from a book that left stubs.... and a USP Inspector claims they found the PMO based on finding that stub... why isn't that book/stub in evidence?

If there were only 2 $21.45's... then this is not the correct deposit to prove anything related to that PMO - let alone that it was mailed from Dallas to Chicago (airmail), then received, opened, processed and deposited in less than 24 hours.  And then there's the fact the deposit is dated FEBRUATY 15 not March.... 

If the PMO was created from a different book (analysis of the numbering of the PMO reveals a problem) that evening at the USPS center very few things would be needed for this item to come alive...  the ONLY thing that could not exist would be the book/stub from where it came as that would prove the deception.

And Finally the PMO #2,202,130,461....    Books of these blank PMOs are sent all over the country... On Nov 14, 1962 Oswald uses PMO# 1,158,380,709 to send $10 to Uncle Sam to pay off his loan...   Is it really conceivable that between Dec 1962 and March 1963 over 1 billion PMOs would be used ?

DJ,

Thank you for providing so much more evidence that the Magic Money Order® was bogus.  In my arguments, I had completely forgotten about the stub that should have been in evidence but wasn’t, as well as the evidence that the money order was allegedly discovered in both Kansas City and Alexandria.  Amazing!

We both know how guilty Harry Holmes now looks.  For example, Holmes was the only man in the known universe who alleged he heard Oswald say he had traveled to Mexico City shortly before the assassination of JFK.  And what is a Postal Inspector/FBI informant doing in Dallas police headquarters immediately after the assassination there of a sitting US president anyway?

Thanks again for your work!

MORE AND MORE MAGIC!

Nearly two decades ago, John Armstrong noticed that the U.S. Postal Money Order allegedly used to pay for the 6.5 Carcano that allegedly killed JFK was apparently uncashed and undeposited, without being stamped with any bank endorsement whatsoever.  On page 467 of Harvey and Lee, John wrote:

The information that a Secret Service agent hand carried the original money order
to Dallas came from Harry Holmes. As we have seen, this did not happen and was
yet another of Holmes' fabrications. Copies of the money order were sent to Dallas but
the original uncashed and undeposited money order was turned over to the FBI 
laboratory.  [H&L, p. 467]

Starting on November 12, 2015, Sandy Larsen began this very thread, and, a few days later, Sandy posted his finished proof that current Federal regulations in effect in 1963 required that sending bank endorsements and ABA transit numbers had to be stamped on BOTH SIDES of various financial documents, including U.S. Postal Money Orders.

Sandy’s proof is HERE.

Since it lacked the necessary endorsements but included a file locator number supposedly printed on the document after being returned to USPS from other financial institutions, the money order clearly became MAGICAL!  A number of WC loyalists have tried over the years to debunk Sandy’s proof, all without success, though they will claim otherwise.

Now, let’s consider if the Magic Money Order® was just an inexplicable anomaly in an otherwise solid case by the FBI that the 6.5 Carcano was owned by Oswald. According to the Dallas police chief, the FBI indicated to him just hours after the assassination that it was DEFINITELY Oswald’s handwriting on a March 20, 1963 order for a $12.78 rifle with optical scope from Klein’s. 

This is strange, because according to documents now at the National Archives, in the early morning hours of 11/23/63 FBI agents at Klein’s offices in Chicago found microfilm evidence that a $21.95 rifle similar to the rifle allegedly found in the TSBD had been paid for with a postal money order issued March 20, 1963. 

The microfilm containing that evidence was immediately sent to Washington, DC, despite the fact that conflicting “evidence” from the FBI indicates the microfilm was placed in a safe at Klein’s offices in Chicago as well as in a safety deposit box at LaSalle National Bank in Chicago. 

According to the Warren Commission, however, neither the $12.78 rifle ordered in Oswald’s handwriting on March 20, nor the $21.95 rifle also ordered on March 20 according to Klein’s records, was the rifle found in the Book Depository.  That rifle, the FBI eventually announced, was actually a $21.45 Carcano ordered on March 12.  Amazingly, it turned out that this earlier order was ALSO in Oswald’s handwriting.  Clearly, the rifles also had become magical; the Magic Rifle® was paid for with a Magic Money Order®.

But the magic doesn’t end there.  As most of us know, the Magic Rifle was alleged to have fired the infamous Magic Bullet® that allegedly caused all those injuries in President Kennedy and Governor Connally without the enduring the usual damage to similar bullets causing even lesser injuries. 

There are two possible conclusions here.  Either there was an enormous cover-up involving the weapon that allegedly was used to assassinate President Kennedy, or a Magic Money Order® was used to purchase a Magic Rifle®, which in turn fired a Magic Bullet® in Dealey Plaza on November 22, 1963.  Do you believe in magic?

See....

Oswald Did NOT Purchase a Pistol from Seaport Traders

3 hours ago, David Von Pein said:

But to an Internet conspiracy theorist, however, virtually everything done by Officialdom is looked at as being part of some secretive and underhanded plot. So silly.

I think more conspiracy believers should embrace Hanlon's Razor....

Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.

J. Edgar Hoover wasn’t stupid, although he did make a dumb mistake reading the Klein’s ad for the $12.78 rifle, which he thought included a scope.  There is a reason, though, that it took a week after announcing it was Oswald’s handwriting on the March 20 order for the $12.78 rifle before the Magic Handwriting® could be transferred to documents supporting the final story (which, of course, was that the rifle cost $21.45 and was ordered on March 12).  Hoover had to get at least a working grasp on the bogus “documentation” for the Magic Rifle®, and the key was the Magic Money Order®.

The key is in a summary document sent to J. Lee Rankin in January 1964 by the Chief Inspector of the U.S. Post Office, Henry B. Montague.  Here is page 2 of that summary (Commission No. 296).

The March 20 money order for $21.95 was probably located by Postal authorities, who must have determined that it wasn’t originated by Oswald/Hidell. Therefore, an all new money order was needed to incriminate the Designated Patsy, which could easily be done with U.S. Post Office equipment.  Nearly impossible, however, would be the creation of legitimate bank endorsements and ABA transit numbers, which is why none appear on the Magic Money Order. The rest was relatively easy.

The FBI did whatever was necessary to convict the silenced patsy and cover it's own rear end, including altering witness testimony, and destroying, fabricating, and altering evidence.

The FBI’s malfeasance in this case was legion and is well known by most members of this forum.  The short (3 minute) YouTube video below demonstrates quite clearly how the FBI altered the observations of three critical Dealey Plaza witnesses who believed shots may have been taken at JFK from outside of the Texas School Book Depository, thus contradicting the official story.

The FBI went to extraordinary lengths to suppress evidence of what CIA accountant James Wilcott called the “Oswald Project,” including sending out agents within hours of the assassination to confiscate original school and teen-aged employment records of “Lee Harvey Oswald.” In the wee hours of the night of Nov 22-23, 1963, the FBI secretly took “Oswald's Possessions” from the Dallas Police Department, transported them to Washington, D.C. altered them, and then secretly returned them to Dallas, only to publicly send them to Washington. D.C. a few days later. Among a great many other alterations, a Minox “spy camera” became a Minox “light meter.” Tax records, not found by Dallas police who said they initialed each scrap of paper, magically appeared without DPD initials.  FBI agent James Cadigan inadvertently spilled the bean about the secret transfer during his sworn WC testimony, which was altered by the WC.

The FBI falsified so much testimony that it even had a process in place for routinely doing so, including over the objections of Warren Commission attorneys.  

For more about how the FBI altered evidence, see this link:

Manipulated, Fabricated, and Disappearing Evidence

5 hours ago, James DiEugenio said:

Thanks Jim H, I knew DVP would walk into my trap, and I knew you would nail him on it.

Well, he’ll probably just continue to wave Waldman 7 around and tell us how trustworthy the FBI was in this case.  (Interesting, though, that the Bureau worked so hard to hide the fact it had confiscated Klein’s microfilm—preferring to let people believe it was safely locked away at Klein’s!)  That’s how they had the opportunity to alter the documents.

Nice write-up on the Magic Bullet®, by the way.  A lot of magic seems to appear in this thread, but I do prefer magical thinking to thoughts of institutional corruption and cover-ups on a massive scale, don’t you?

7 hours ago, David Von Pein said:

Good gosh, the key and relevant rifle documents (CE773 and Waldman Exhibit No. 7) were, in fact, found in the Klein's files in Chicago, and were found by Klein's employees themselves early in the morning of 11/23/63.

Klein,s business records show that it microfilmed the method of payment received for mail order merchandise. And Klein's personnel in fact DID help FBI agents locate microfilm about a rifle, but it was for a different rifle than the one allegedly found on the sixth floor of the Book Depository!

For 7 hours in the early morning of 11/23/63 FBI Agents Dolan, Toedt, and Mahan reviewed Klein's microfilm records on two separate machines. They were trying to locate the identity of the person who purchased C2766 (supposedly Oswald/Hidell). These agents apparently found documentation on Klein's microfilm relating to the sale of a 6.5 Italian rifle, similar to the rifle found on the 6th floor of the TSBD, but this was not the rifle found on the 6th floor of the TSBD. This rifle was apparently sold by Klein's in late March, 1963, and paid for with a $21.95 postal money order issued on March 20, 1963.   (The copy of the Magic Money Order® currently in the National Archives was issued March 12, 1963 and was for $21.45--not $21.95.)

The following morning the FBI advised the Secret Service, and FBI informant/US postal inspector Harry Holmes, that a rifle similar to that found in the snipers nest had been sold by Kleins for $21.95 and was paid for with a postal money order issued on March 20, 1963 (CD 296). 

This information could only have come from the Klein's microfilm. This was probably the only information found on the Klein's microfilm by the FBI agents. If these agents found Oswald/Hidell's purchase of C2766 on the microfilm for $21.45, then they would have advised the Secret Service, the Dallas Police, Harry Holmes, and the press of their finding. But they didn't. And if they had found Oswald/Hidell's purchase of C2766 on the microfilm for $21.45, then they should have so testified before the Warren Commission. But they didn't.

A few hours later SA Dolan took the original roll of Klein's microfilm and boarded United Airlines flight #846 at 11:40 am for Washington, DC. The original roll of Klein's microfilm remained in FBI custody and was not seen again by Waldman until he testified before the Warren Commission on May 20, 1964. 

Someone within the FBI realized that their possession of Klein's microfilm could allow critics to claim that the FBI had an opportunity to alter the microfilm. The FBI solved this problem by fabricating reports that created the "illusion" that Klein's microfilm remained at the Klein's office in Chicago. The following FBI report, backdated to November 23 (2nd page of report by SA Dolan, Toedt, Mahan; 11/23/63), states "reel of microfilm was placed by Mr. Waldman in a sealed envelope in a safe in his control. He advised that same would be maintained in his control only as long as desired." 

To further create the "illusion" that the microfilm remained with Kleins, the FBI created a second memo on February 3, 1964. This memo is from the SAC in Chicago to FBI Director Hoover and states, "Enclosed herewith is one reel of microfilm of various business transactions of Klein's Sporting Goods....This exhibit was obtained from the LaSalle National Bank Safety Deposit Box on 2/3/64 by ASAC William Welte and SA Dennis Shanahan for this submission.

Both FBI reports are fabrications. We know, from numerous FBI reports and Waldman's and Scibor's WC testimony, that the microfilm never remained at Kleins, nor was it placed in a safety deposit box at LaSalle National Bank. On 11/23/63 Waldman gave the microfilm to SA Dolan, was given a receipt for the microfilm, and within hours SA Dolan hand delivered the microfilm to FBI headquarters in Washington, DC. The following FBI memo may give the appearance that the original microfilm was kept in a safe at Klein's business office, but this is not the truth.

Within hours of the assassination, the FBI was telling the world, through Dallas Police Chief Jesse Curry, that Oswald's handwriting was on a March 20 order for a $12.78 rifle.  Not known to the public was that FBI agents at Klein's had confiscated microfilm for a $21.95 rifle, also ordered on March 20.  Neither of these orders matched the date or final price of the Magic Money Order.

Not until a week after the assassination, On November 29, did UPI dispatch stories to, for example, the Atlanta Consitution indicating that Lee Harvey Oswald purchased an Italian rifle, with scope mounted, from Klein's Sporting Goods for $19.95, not including postage ($21.45 total). The $21.95 rifle, the $12.78 mail order rifle that was announced to the press, and Dial Ryder's claim of mounting a scope on Oswald's rifle were all but forgotten in less than a week. Why? Because a close examination of events shows that the FBI was just making up stories for a week following the assassination, before settling on the final legend.

To see how the FBI created more fake documents to support it's final story about the Magic Rifle, see....

MAIL ORDER RIFLE

Information above was largely excerpted from Mr. Armstrong's "Mail Order Rifle" article linked above.
 

17 hours ago, Jason Ward said:

To imagine Klein's is in on the assassination is why CTers are seen as the lunatic fringe.

The overwhelming majority of Americans are CTers, and always have been for well more than half a century. 

Klein's did not have to be "in on the assassination."  The FBI only had to create fake paperwork and alter testimony, as it did time and time again.  For example....

The short (3 minute) YouTube video below demonstrates quite clearly how the FBI altered the observations of three critical Dealey Plaza witnesses who believed shots may have been taken at JFK from outside of the Texas School Book Depository, thus contradicting the official story.

The FBI went to extraordinary lengths to suppress evidence of what CIA accountant James Wilcott called the “Oswald Project,” including sending out agents within hours of the assassination to confiscate original school and teen-aged employment records of “Lee Harvey Oswald.” In the wee hours of the night of Nov 22-23, 1963, the FBI secretly took “Oswald's Possessions” from the Dallas Police Department, transported them to Washington, D.C. altered them, and then secretly returned them to Dallas, only to publicly send them to Washington. D.C. a few days later. Among a great many other alterations, a Minox “spy camera” became a Minox “light meter.” Tax records, not found by Dallas police who said they initialed each scrap of paper, magically appeared without DPD initials.  FBI agent James Cadigan inadvertently spilled the bean about the secret transfer during his sworn WC testimony, which was altered by the WC.

The FBI falsified so much testimony that it even had a process in place for routinely doing so, including over the objections of Warren Commission attorneys.  

For more about how the FBI altered evidence, see this link:

Manipulated, Fabricated, and Disappearing Evidence

According to the Dallas police chief, the FBI indicated just a day or two after the assassination that it was DEFINITELY Oswald’s handwriting on a March 20 order for a $12.78 rifle from Kleins.  When the Magic Money Order® evidence is finally produced, turns out that the rifle was ordered more than a week earlier, and that it cost $21.75.  How did those finger prints travel back in time like that?  Or maybe...

Must have been TWO DIFFERENT ORDERS, eh?  From TWO DIFFERENT OSWALDS?  LOL!

For far more details on the FBI’s dramatically evolving story on the Magic Rifle, see:

Oswald Did NOT Purchase a Rifle from Kleins

and 

MAIL ORDER RIFLE

Both write-ups are by John Armstrong.

On 4/24/2018 at 1:04 AM, Jason Ward said:

No, Sandy, the phrase "Any Bank" is not the literal requirement.... any bank means INSERT the name of any bank - as in The First Natl Bank of Chicago.  I work at a bank and posted an endorsement above already.   Go to a bank, any bank in America, and ask someone who knows.

On 4/24/2018 at 6:55 PM, Jim Hargrove said:

Jason,

Please note the phrase "ANY BANK, BANKER, OR TRUST CO." in the endorsement on the top right photostat below of the 1963 voucher to Lee Harvey Oswald from the Texas Employment Commission.

23 hours ago, David Von Pein said:

So what?

You're kidding, right?

From the 11/24/63 UPI story shown graphically above (emphasis added):

Police chief Jesse Curry wove police evidence tighter around Oswald.  He said the FBI reported that Oswald bought the Italian 6.5 Carcano bolt-action rifle with a telescopic sight from a Chicago mail order house for $12.78.

The handwriting on the mail order was Oswald’s, Curry said.

This information could only have come from the FBI.  Harry Holmes had indeed shown around an ad for a $12.78 Carcano from Field & Stream, but the conclusion that Oswald’s handwriting was on the order for the $12.78 Carcano could only have come from the FBI.  It was nearly a week before the FBI publicly fixed Hoover’s error in thinking the $12.78 rifle included a scope.  It was fixed by simply creating an uncashed, unprocessed Magic Money Order® (most probably with Harry Holmes’ help), and by simply stating a corrected price for Klein’s mail order Carcano, which was $19.95 ($21.45 including postage).

WC loyalists are simply unable to explain the obvious absence of sending bank endorsements and ABA transit numbers, required to be stamped on BOTH SIDES of the Magic Money Order.  All they can do is speculate without offering any evidence whatsoever.

This is just the tip of the iceberg of all that is wrong with the so-called evidence for the Magic Rifle®. For one other example, Chief Curry also told reporters that "handwriting, analyzed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Washington as Oswald's, on an assumed name order to a Chicago mail order house last March 20 for a $12.78 rifle, similar to the assassination weapon."  Curry's information, that the postal money order used to pay for the rifle was issued on MARCH 20, 1963, is exactly what the FBI told the Secret Service and their informant Harry Holmes. If the FBI really determined the handwriting on a March 20 order coupon to be Oswald's, isn’t it remarkable that the WC eventually concluded that the order that was sent to Kleins by Oswald/Hidell from Dallas a week before it was allegedly created?

For far more details on the FBI’s dramatically evolving story on the Magic Rifle, see:

Oswald Did NOT Purchase a Rifle from Kleins

and 

MAIL ORDER RIFLE

Both write-ups are by John Armstrong.

31 minutes ago, David Von Pein said:

it's quite possible that the Hidell money order was part of a bulk transfer

Please offer even the slightest bit of evidence for your theory.

Please show how Federal regulations permitted your "bulk transfer," without bank endorsements AND/OR ABA transit numbers shown, on BOTH sides of the Money Order,  as required by Federal regulations.   Awaiting your EVIDENCE!

24 minutes ago, David Von Pein said:

So what?

First National Bank in Chicago most certainly satisfies the "any bank, banker or trust company" requirement.

David.... The

Pay to the Order of
The First National Bank of Chicago

stamp is just Klein's rubber stamp.  Please show me the endorsement of the sending bank(s), along with the ABA transit number(s), which Sandy has proved were required to be printed on both sides of the Magic Money Order by federal regulations.  

Have I missed all this?  All I see below are dated FBI initals.  Where are the sending bank endorsements and the ABA transit numbers?  Please point to them on the image below.

For the record, here are a few of the documents demonstrating how the Warren Commission lied to us about the 6.5 Carcano that allegedly killed President Kennedy. To look even more deeply into the untruths the Warren Commission presented, see...

Oswald Did NOT Purchase a Rile from Klein's

And to look deeper yet, see...

The Mail Order Rifle

In the meantime, here are the simplest documents to understand.  It should only take minutes to see what is going on here.  Following the money is easy....  Everything is under $25!  The phony money order (see top right of the image below) is for $21.45.

But the FBI for an ENTIRE WEEK said the rifle that killed JFK cost $12.78!

FBI informant/U.S. Postal Inspector Harry Holmes believed the Carcano was sold, WITH SCOPE, for $12.78,

and that's what confused J. Edgar Hoover!

17 hours ago, Jason Ward said:

No, Sandy, the phrase "Any Bank" is not the literal requirement.... any bank means INSERT the name of any bank - as in The First Natl Bank of Chicago.  I work at a bank and posted an endorsement above already.   Go to a bank, any bank in America, and ask someone who knows.

Jason,

Please note the phrase "ANY BANK, BANKER, OR TRUST CO." in the endorsement on the top right photostat below of the 1963 voucher to Lee Harvey Oswald from the Texas Employment Commission.

By the end of November, 1963, J. Edgar Hoover’s final story was that the 6.5 Carcano with a 4x18 power scope was priced by Klein’s at $19.95 ($21.45 including postage).  But the $12.78 mail order rifle was reported nationwide by news and television reporters for an entire week after the assassination of JFK (11/23/63 through 11/29/63).  If the FBI had REALLY collected and analyzed legitimate mail order documents, which obviously would have included the sale price, by the day after President Kennedy’s murder, and if the FBI had REALLY determined that the handwriting was that of “Lee Harvey Oswald,” on the mail order documents, isn’t it AMAZING that they didn’t even come close to settling on the final price of the rifle with scope until nearly a week later!  More and more magic!

Sandy has shown quite clearly that the Magic Money Order® for the Magic Rifle® didn’t have the endorsement of the sending bank(s) or the ABA transit number(s), which were required on both sides of the form by federal regulations.

What the Magic Money Order® DID have was all the typography, including a "File Locator Number," that could be applied using U.S. Postal equipment.  Legitimate bank endorsements, however, would have necessitated the help of an institutional co-conspirator, apparently unavailable to Harry Holmes.

Holmes should be remembered, however, for helping us unravel this mess.  After all, Holmes submitted the Klein’s ad from the November 1963 edition of Field & Stream magazine that SEEMED to show that the 6.5 Italian Carbine (shown right under the illustration of the rifle with a scope) sold for $12.78.

The ad may have been slightly misleading, since it gave the price the rifle WITHOUT A SCOPE directly under an illustration of the rifle WITH A SCOPE.  Was anyone fooled by that misleading ad?

J. Edgar Hoover was apparently fooled!  He told Jesse Curry that the price Oswald paid for the rifle was $12.78, and newspapers all across America reported that "fact," as well as the "fact" that Oswald's handwriting was on the Magic Money Order®.  You know, the one that clearly didn't exist yet!

It's magic!

Legitimate financial documents have numerous stamps on the front and back indicating transit through various financial institutions.  Below, for example, are vouchers issued to Lee Harvey Oswald by the Texas Employment Commission.  Note the many stamps in these photostatic copies reproduced in the Warren Commission Volumes.  

Similarly, below are Warren Commission photostats of cancelled paychecks issued by Leslie Welding, one of Oswald's employers.  Note the various stamps front and back. This is how REAL financial documents are processed! 

When the Magic Money Order® was created, probably via Harry Holmes,  Hoover had yet to get all his stories straight about the rifle.  Newspapers all across America reported that the FBI informed Dallas Police Chief Jesse Curry that Oswald bought the Italian 6.5 Carcano bolt-action rifle with a telescopic sight from a Chicago mail order house for $12.78. According to the UPI report, the "'handwriting on the mail order was Oswald's,' Curry said."

Funny the FBI could tell Curry all about that handwriting, and yet miss the price of the rifle by $8.67. Oops!

On 5/12/2017 at 11:30 PM, Sandy Larsen said:

Proof that Postal Money Orders required Bank Stamps in 1963

First you need to understand that Federal Reserve Bank requirements are set forth in "circulars" that are issued to member banks. My source for this fact is the Federal Reserve Banks' commercial website, specifically this page:  https://www.frbservices.org/regulations/operating_circulars.html . On that page it is stated:

"Federal Reserve Financial Services are governed by the terms and conditions that are set forth in the following operating circulars."

FRB Circular 4928, dated August 18, 1960, dealt with Postal Money Orders in 1963. Here is a link to that circular:

https://fraser.stlouisfed.org/docs/historical/ny%20circulars/1960_04928.pdf

I will now quote the pertinent parts of the circular. You need only read the parts I've highlighted in red.

 

Items which will be accepted as cash items

 

1. The following will be accepted for collection as cash items:

 

(1) Checks drawn on banks or banking institutions (including private

bankers) located in any Federal Reserve District which are collectible

at par in funds acceptable to the collecting Federal Reserve Bank. The

“ Federal Reserve Par List,” indicating the banks upon which checks will

be received by Federal Reserve Banks for collection and credit, is fur­

nished from time to time and a supplement is furnished each month

showing changes subsequent to the last complete list. This list is subject

to change without notice and the right is reserved to return without

presentment any items drawn on banks which may have withdrawn or

may have been removed from the list or may have been reported elosed.

 

(2) Government checks drawn on the Treasurer of the United States.

 

(3) Postal money orders (United States postal money orders; United

States international postal money orders; and domestic-international

postal money orders).

 

(4) Such other items, collectible at par in funds acceptable to the

Federal Reserve Bank of the District in which such items are payable, as

we may be willing to accept as cash items.

 

o

o

o

 

Postal money orders

 

11. Postal money orders will be handled in accordance with

an agreement made by the Postmaster General, in behalf of the

United States, and the Federal Reserve Banks as depositaries and

fiscal agents of the United States pursuant to authorization of the

Secretary of the Treasury; and with respect to matters not covered

by such agreement, the provisions of Regulation J, this circular and

our time schedules shall be deemed applicable to all postal money

orders. [ Here is the agreement: ] Immediate credit will be given to member banks and non­

member clearing banks for postal money orders as provided in our

time schedules and simultaneously with such credit we will debit the

amount of such money orders against the general account of the Treas­

urer of the United States under such symbol numbers as may be

xxxigned by the Treasurer of the United States. Said agreement fur­

ther provides in effect that no claim for refund or otherwise with

respect to any money order debited against the general account of

the Treasurer of the United States and delivered to the representa­

tive of the Post Office Department as provided in said agreement

(other than a claim based on the negligence of a Federal Reserve

Bank) will be made against or through any Federal Reserve Bank;

that if the Post Office Department makes any such claim with respect

to any such money order, such money order will not be returned or

sent to a Federal Reserve Bank, but the Post Office Department will

deal directly with the bank or the party against which such claim is

made; and that the Federal Reserve Banks will xxxist the Post Office

Department in making such claim, including making their records

and any relevant evidence in their possession available to the Post

Office Department

 

o

o

o

 

Endorsements

 

13. All cash items sent to us, or to another Federal Reserve Bank

direct for our account, should be endorsed without restriction to the

order of the Federal Reserve Bank to which sent, or endorsed to the

order of any bank, banker or trust company, or with some similar

endorsement. Cash items will be accepted by us, and by other Federal

Reserve Banks, only upon the understanding and condition that all

prior endorsements are guaranteed by the sending bank. There should

be incorporated in the endorsement of the sending bank the phrase,

“ All prior endorsements guaranteed.” The act of sending or deliver­ing a

cash item to us or to another Federal Reserve Bank will, however,

be deemed and understood to constitute a guaranty of all prior

endorsements on such item, whether or not an express guaranty is

incorporated in the sending bank’s endorsement. The endorsement of

the sending bank should be dated and should show the American

Bankers Association transit number of the sending bank in prominent

type on both sides.

 

 

THEREFORE...

Postal money orders did indeed require bank endorsement stamps in 1963.

 

The truth is that bank endorsement stamps were ALWAYS required on postal money orders throughout the 20th century. Even before the Federal Reserve System was set up. I have located legal documents dated 1911, 1925, 1960, 1969, and 2000 showing so.

 

Megathanks to Sandy Larsen for proving—again—that in 1963 and all other years from 1911 to 2000, postal money orders absolutely required bank endorsement stamps. Shown below is the Magic Money Order® for the Magic Rifle® that fired the Magic Bullet®.  There are no bank endorsements on it; just a Klein’s rubber stamp and lots of big FBI dates and initials that take up the blank space where the bank stamps should have been.

John,

Interesting theory.  It would be helpful to know how that photo got associated with "Alfred of Cuba."  My guess is something was written on the back.  John might remember, but he is traveling abroad and I won't be able to ask him for nearly a month.