"Transcript of ANSA video on the Carcano"

[Francesca Akhtar]

Here (finally!) is the transcript of the ANSA video of the ballistics test which is available to view here:

http://www.ansa.it/norep/video_new.jsp?t=&...1541.rm&dt=

I've also cross posted this on the Lancer forum as well, where I'm hoping Claudio Accogli who has written a book on the Carcano will be able to help me translate some of the technical terms that I found difficult. I will add any corrections in later.

This is the best translation in English I can come up with. Please bear in mind that I'm not a 'techie' and the carcano is not my area of knowledge so I'm not sure if all the technical translations are correct and some of them I wasn't sure how to translate into English.

Perhaps Claudio can make corrections to anything he thinks is incorrect as he is more of an expert on this than me!

Transcript of ANSA video report on the Mannlicher Carcano (translated into English)

Interviewer: "Did Lee Harvey Oswald really kill President Kennedy? Could the Carcano of Dallas fire three shots in such a short time? To have the answer to these questions, we are here with the Lt Colonel Bernigno (?) Riso, who in the meantime will tell us something preliminary about this gun."

Lt. Col. Riso: "Of course. I have here a Carcano (model) 9138 and we have attached the telescopic sight and we have found some problems with it. We had to mount to the sight in a very high position to be able to attach the clip. When the sight is mounted in this particular way, it isn't in an ergonomically correct position to be able to fire at a target. It creates problems of loading the gun but also of 'chambering a round'?

When the gun is being used, (the sight) interferes with the bolt of the gun and the aiming at a target."

Interviewer: "The Warren Commision has established that Lee Harvey Oswald would have taken the disassembled rifle into the Book Depository, the place from where he would have shot to kill Kennedy. What is your opinion regarding this?"

Lt. Col. Riso: "This is very unlikely, because the scope has been mounted in an amateur/sloppy way 'e l'azzeramento deve essere fatto preventivamente a poligono"

(I'm just waiting to see if Claudio can explain what this would be as I don't know what it is either in Italian or English)

Interviewer: "Ok, can we go now to the tests?"

Lt. Col. Riso: "Of course. Now we will go to the shooting range to see the ballistics tests."

Cut to clip of a sniper test firing shots at a target and being timed.

Lt. Col. Riso: "As we have established, the sniper had difficulty in loading the gun (operating the bolt) due to the sight being in the way. The time necessary to fire the three shots is definitely more than seven seconds. The maximum velocity of this gun, without aiming the telescopic sight, is twelve shots a minute, roughly one every five seconds."

Interviewer: "In 1978, in the Unites States, a commission of enquiry reopened the case and arrived at the conclusion that perhaps there was more than one shooter in Dealey Plaza. Can we also prove this hypothesis?"

Lt. Col. Riso: "Now we will try to test this with plastiline targets at 80

and 30 metres."

Cut to a clip of the Zapruder film.

Lt. Col. Riso: "As you can see, the targets do not simulate the head of a human being. You can see that with the target at 80 metres, the bullet goes through the plastiline and with the gravitational force, the bullet hole gets blocked and is unable to pass out through the other side. This proves the dynamics of the phenomenon."

(This is literally what he said in Italian but I'm not sure what he means by 'the dynamics of the phenomenon' or the bit about 'gravitational force'. This is the best explanation in English I can come up with)

Cut to more shots of bullets hitting the plastiline target, interspersed with clips of the Zapruder and Nix films.

Interviewer: "While we are here, can we test the theory of the magic bullet?"

Cut to diagram of bullet hitting JFK and Connolly, followed by shots being fired into two blocks of meat.

Lt. Col. Riso : "As we can see, after having gone through the targets of meat, the bullet's jacket was 'impacted' and when it was recovered, it was flat and notably deformed. When the bullet exited the meat, it had enough speed to cause this deformity. The magic bullet could not have hit two men

and remain intact as it states in the (Warren Comission)report."

End.

[Francesca Akhtar]

Claudio Accogli, the interviewer in the ANSA video has helped me with some of the technical terms so here is the new and improved version!

Incidentally, Claudio has said that there are 3 other videos relating to the tests and the Terni factory so I will translate those too at some point.

http://www.ansa.it/norep/video_new.jsp?t=&...1541.rm&dt=

Interviewer: "Did Lee Harvey Oswald really kill President Kennedy? Could the Carcano of Dallas fire three shots in such a short time? To have the answer to these questions, we are here with the Lt Colonel Bernigno Riso, who in the meantime will tell us something preliminary about this gun."

Lt. Col. Riso: "Of course. I have here a Carcano (model) 9138 and we have attached the telescopic sight and we have found some problems with it. We had to mount to the sight in a very high position to be able to attach the clip. When the sight is mounted in this particular way, it isn't in an ergonomically correct position to be able to fire at a target. It creates problems of loading the gun but also of 'chambering a round'?

When the gun is being used, (the sight) interferes with the bolt of the gun and the aiming at a target."

Interviewer: "The Warren Commision has established that Lee Harvey Oswald would have taken the disassembled rifle into the Book Depository, the place from where he would have shot to kill Kennedy. What is your opinion regarding this?"

Lt. Col. Riso: "This is very unlikely, because the scope has been mounted in an amateur/sloppy way and the allignment must be done beforehand in a Factory poligon.

Interviewer: "Ok, can we go now to the tests?"

Lt. Col. Riso: "Of course. Now we will go to the shooting range to see the ballistics tests."

Cut to clip of a sniper test firing shots at a target and being timed.

Lt. Col. Riso: "As we have established, the sniper had difficulty in loading the gun (operating the bolt) due to the sight being in the way. The time necessary to fire the three shots is definitely more than seven seconds. The maximum velocity of this gun, without aiming the telescopic sight, is twelve shots a minute, roughly one every five seconds."

Interviewer: "In 1978, in the Unites States, a commission of enquiry reopened the case and arrived at the conclusion that perhaps there was more than one shooter in Dealey Plaza. Can we also prove this hypothesis?"

Lt. Col. Riso: "Now we will try to test this with plastiline targets at 80

and 30 metres."

Cut to a clip of the Zapruder film.

Lt. Col. Riso: "As you can see, the targets do not simulate the head of a human being. You can see that with the target at 80 metres, the bullet goes through the plastiline and with the gravitational force, the bullet hole gets blocked and is unable to pass out through the other side. This proves the dynamics of the phenomenon."

(This is literally what he said in Italian but I'm not sure what he means by 'the dynamics of the phenomenon' or the bit about 'gravitational force'. This is the best explanation in English I can come up with)

Cut to more shots of bullets hitting the plastiline target, interspersed with clips of the Zapruder and Nix films.

Interviewer: "While we are here, can we test the theory of the magic bullet?"

Cut to diagram of bullet hitting JFK and Connolly, followed by shots being fired into two blocks of meat.

Lt. Col. Riso : "As we can see, after having gone through the targets of meat, the bullet's jacket was 'impacted' and when it was recovered, it was flat and notably deformed. When the bullet exited the meat, it had enough speed to cause this deformity. The magic bullet could not have hit two men

and remain intact as it states in the (Warren Comission)report."

End.

Edited July 6, 2007 by Francesca Akhtar

[Charles Drago]

A question, then, for contributors to this Forum who have had access to the "historic" Carcano held by the National Archives:

Is the scope on that weapon so positioned as to increase the time of bolt operation consistent with what was observed in Italy?

To my knowledge, the literature identifies the problem posed by the "Oswald" scope to the LN fiction as its misalignment only. And so the iron sights became the LN fallback position.

Has the problem cited in the Italian study appeared elsewhere?

Charles

[John Geraghty]

Thanks for this Francesca,

I will try to put togethert the video with subtitles and post it to youtube.

John

[Francesca Akhtar]

Thanks for this Francesca,

I will try to put togethert the video with subtitles and post it to youtube.

John

Hi John,

your welcome. I actually have learned something about guns at the end of it! It would be good if you can put it on youtube. Thanks.

Edited July 7, 2007 by Francesca Akhtar