The Most Important Error the FBI told the Warren Commission about the Rifle

[Robert Prudhomme]

When the short rifle was introduced as the 7.35mm calibre M38 in 1938, adjustable sights were dropped not only on the short rifle but on all the carbine versions of the short rifle as well. This pactice was maintained after the M38 was abandoned in 1940, and reintroduced as a 6.5mm calibre short rifle known as the M91/38.

The only Carcano to ever be fitted with an adjustable rear sight after 1938 was the M91/41 long rifle, introduced in 1941.

I find it strange indeed that they would advertise an M91 TS carbine with adjustable rear sight, and only have the M91/38 TS in stock, with a fixed rear sight.

It would be interesting to try to track down the other 99 Carcano short rifles. There is a Carcano registry that may be helpful.

What is more interesting is the specs chart you posted. Note the M91/38 carbines are listed as having "gain twist" rifling in their barrels.

[Michael Morrow]

along these lines but not exactly, i've always heard, and believe it's treated as a given, that there were THREE EMPTY shells found on the floor and ONE full round found in the breach of the MC (after Fritz accidentally ejected it when working the bolt at the scene - i'm always in awe of such "Fife-like" professionalism).

an article i came across shows two photos of the shells on the floor and the author points out what is clearly a loaded round stuck between the wall and the floor - he says he once thought it was an artifact of the floor making the shell appear to be loaded — he thereafter found with clearer pics (from Bonner who used a better camera than the DPD) that the one is indeed a loaded bullet.

what has been "decided" by way of some consensus, anyway? the story is three empties, right?

[EDIT] - I added a closeup of the bullet from the 6th floor Museum for length comparison only - regardless, this doesn't look like a piece of lint to me - the reflection of this "anomaly" is too much like that of the cylindrical shape of a bullet. and the author of this article states he looked at photos Bonner took that were of great quality AFTER he had decided that it was a piece of the floor.

man, i dunno - sure looks like a bullet to me...

I have seen an extreme close up of this "loaded" cartridge. What appears to be a bullet is something else entirely, perhaps a bit of lint.

Robert, I believe you are correct. It also appeared to me int he past that the shell stuck between the floor and the wall may be an unfired cartridge, but higher resolution close ups seem to indicate otherwise, at least to my eyes.

[Glenn Nall]

much better copy of this photo, isn't it - wow.

my eyes certainly wanted to tell me one thing, that's for sure. amazing that the anomaly happens to appear to reach the same length as a bullet would have.

thanks for the better pic.

[David Josephs]

From basic logic one would think that if anyone in the US ordered a C20-T750 between March 1962 and Nov 1963 and got the 40" FC rifle instead.... and then Oswald is accused of using the same rifle with the same shipping mistake - we'd have heard about it.

It is my belief that these 10 cartons of rifles may have still been at Harborside on Nov 23rd...

There were 86 cartons, 860 rifles, still at Harborside which were transfered to a "card". It certainly does not show that any more rifles were removed and none of the withdrawl receipts include rifle serial #'s or even carton numbers after the Aug 29th withdrawal that did NOT have carton #3376 listed which showed C2766 listed

Waldman has all of this inventory (M91/38 FC - the 6th floor rifle) removed by the 25th of Nov and they basically disappear.

the ten packing slips connected to the Feb delivery by the FBI is in direct conflict to what Feldsott told them on Nov 22d. These ten slips were part of the 520 slips which would have come from Italy with the shipment. They would have nothing to do with a shipment from Crescent to Klein's as evident by the "38 E" designation on each one. When Rupp ships these rifles they are listed as "T-38" whereas "38 E" is the international designation for the rifles in those cartons.

The WCR tells us that Waldman gave us those 10 slips in March 1964 yet the WCR docs says that Feldman provided these same 10 slips on Nov 22nd. Quite a trick, right?

I've spent the last 3 months focused on the Rifle evidence article I'm writing and have found things that may surprise a few folks...

11/23/63

At 7:55pm in DC the original PMO is recovered and sent to SS Asst Chief PATERNI

At 8pm SS SA Mroz in KC is told the PMO has been recovered

At 8pm a finance officer at the Postal Records Center in VA is asked to initiate a search for the PMO

At 8:30pm PATERNI asks SAIC Gaiglein to locate the PMO (??)

At 9:15pm SS SA Burke contacts this Postal Records Finance Manager and tells him that the computers require more time to warm up (meaning someone is already at the Postal Records center on a saturday evening) and another 20 minutes to locate the PMO once the computers tell them where it is

At 9:35pm this Finance Officer receives the PMO in question from a Management Analyst

At 10:10pm SS SA Parker is at the Finance Manager's home getting this PMO... the initials on the back are of the Finance Manager, the Management Analyst and SA Parker

11/24/63

At 9am SS SA Parker gives the original to SA Gaiglein in an envelope they both initial and put the PMO into the DC Field office safe

At 10am PATERNI authorizes SA Grimes to give the original PMO to the FBI

At 10:30am SS SA Grimes removes the PMO envelope from the safe, made 4 copies, and gave it to FBI SA Chisholm who in turn brings it to FBI SA Freeman at the FBI lab... CE1136 http://www.history-matters.com/archive/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh22/html/WH_Vol22_0073a.htm

Since the PMO does not have any of the marks the US Banking system would leave on such an item, I find one of the most important errors told related to the rifle was that this PMO was not created between 9:15 and 10pm on 11/23 but that Oswald bought it on March 12 at one post office and then traveled miles to another post office to mail it and that Klein's received such a PMO and deposited it within the US banking system.

The Money order was a creation orchestrated by the Postal Inspection and Records services in conjunction with the Secret Service... who, thru Asst Chief PATERNI at 8:30pm on 11/23 gives a detailed enough description of the PMO

Deputy USSS Chief PATERNI asks SS-SAIC GAIGLEIN to locate PMO 2,202,130,462 dated March 12 for $21.45 payable to Kleins by Hidell

to be able to create one from scratch...

Edited July 17, 2015 by David Josephs

[Robert Prudhomme]

One should also be aware in reading this bumped thread that the WCC did not make 6.5mm Carcano ammunition that was "loaded with...bullets that were .264" in diameter." As I believe I indicated elsewhere in a thread on this forum, the 6.5mm Carcano ammunition manufactured by the WCC, and in particular the bullet component, was constructed utilizing specifications from Italian ballistic drawings/schematics supplied to Western by the U. S. Army Ordnance Department, diagrams acquired by the army as part of the massive quantities of "paperwork" confiscated by Allied forces during their liberation of Europe in 1944, 1945. I possess 60 rounds of this ammunition, from three different lot numbers, and the average bullet diameter size is just slightly over .2677".

Following the assassination, SA Robert A. Frazier of the FBI had in his possession CE399, a 6.5mm Carcano bullet made by the Western Cartridge Co., plus the unfired 6.5mm Carcano cartridge found in C2766, also made by the Western Cartridge Co. On top of this, the FBI also purchased several boxes of WCC 6.5mm Carcano cartridges.

As part of his testimony to the WC, Frazier stated the dimensions of these WCC 6.5mm Carcano bullets that he had measured in his laboratory.

What diameter do you think he found the WCC bullets to be, and do you believe his measuring was accurate?

bump

[Kenneth Drew]

From basic logic one would think that if anyone in the US ordered a C20-T750 between March 1962 and Nov 1963 and got the 40" FC rifle instead.... and then Oswald is accused of using the same rifle with the same shipping mistake - we'd have heard about it.

It is my belief that these 10 cartons of rifles may have still been at Harborside on Nov 23rd...

There were 86 cartons, 860 rifles, still at Harborside which were transfered to a "card". It certainly does not show that any more rifles were removed and none of the withdrawl receipts include rifle serial #'s or even carton numbers after the Aug 29th withdrawal that did NOT have carton #3376 listed which showed C2766 listed

Waldman has all of this inventory (M91/38 FC - the 6th floor rifle) removed by the 25th of Nov and they basically disappear.

the ten packing slips connected to the Feb delivery by the FBI is in direct conflict to what Feldsott told them on Nov 22d. These ten slips were part of the 520 slips which would have come from Italy with the shipment. They would have nothing to do with a shipment from Crescent to Klein's as evident by the "38 E" designation on each one. When Rupp ships these rifles they are listed as "T-38" whereas "38 E" is the international designation for the rifles in those cartons.

The WCR tells us that Waldman gave us those 10 slips in March 1964 yet the WCR docs says that Feldman provided these same 10 slips on Nov 22nd. Quite a trick, right?

I've spent the last 3 months focused on the Rifle evidence article I'm writing and have found things that may surprise a few folks...

11/23/63

At 7:55pm in DC the original PMO is recovered and sent to SS Asst Chief PATERNI

At 8pm SS SA Mroz in KC is told the PMO has been recovered

At 8pm a finance officer at the Postal Records Center in VA is asked to initiate a search for the PMO

At 8:30pm PATERNI asks SAIC Gaiglein to locate the PMO (??)

At 9:15pm SS SA Burke contacts this Postal Records Finance Manager and tells him that the computers require more time to warm up (meaning someone is already at the Postal Records center on a saturday evening) and another 20 minutes to locate the PMO once the computers tell them where it is

At 9:35pm this Finance Officer receives the PMO in question from a Management Analyst

At 10:10pm SS SA Parker is at the Finance Manager's home getting this PMO... the initials on the back are of the Finance Manager, the Management Analyst and SA Parker

11/24/63

At 9am SS SA Parker gives the original to SA Gaiglein in an envelope they both initial and put the PMO into the DC Field office safe

At 10am PATERNI authorizes SA Grimes to give the original PMO to the FBI

At 10:30am SS SA Grimes removes the PMO envelope from the safe, made 4 copies, and gave it to FBI SA Chisholm who in turn brings it to FBI SA Freeman at the FBI lab... CE1136 http://www.history-matters.com/archive/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh22/html/WH_Vol22_0073a.htm

Since the PMO does not have any of the marks the US Banking system would leave on such an item, I find one of the most important errors told related to the rifle was that this PMO was not created between 9:15 and 10pm on 11/23 but that Oswald bought it on March 12 at one post office and then traveled miles to another post office to mail it and that Klein's received such a PMO and deposited it within the US banking system.

The Money order was a creation orchestrated by the Postal Inspection and Records services in conjunction with the Secret Service... who, thru Asst Chief PATERNI at 8:30pm on 11/23 gives a detailed enough description of the PMO

Deputy USSS Chief PATERNI asks SS-SAIC GAIGLEIN to locate PMO 2,202,130,462 dated March 12 for $21.45 payable to Kleins by Hidell

to be able to create one from scratch...

David, I wonder what this is going to reveal when you get to the end. It seems clear now that the PMO was created and never actually existed except for the WC. Who decided that a rifle 'should' have been ordered in March, and by whom? Do you suppose this will ever reveal the actual path traveled by 2766? Someone had to have some pretty good info to direct the Post Office on exactly when that PMO had to have been bought, but why would they show it to have been bought at one post office and then mailed from several miles away? Are there more details available?

[Vitali Zhuk]

I found a detailed article about the Rifle - http://www.whokilledjfk.net/salute_to_gil_jesus.htm

Notable notes from this article:

1. There is no record when carton number 3376 was removed from the Harborside Warehouse. It arrived at the Harborside on 10/25/60 and isn't seen again on record until it appears on Crescent Firearms invoice # 3178 dated 2/7/63.
2. That Crescent Firearms invoice 3178 lists 10 cartons shipped to Klein's Sporting Goods, but only nine are actually checked off. The tenth, carton # 3376 ( which allegedly contained rifle C2766 ) is not checked off.
3. A C2766 rifle sold to Klein's in June of 1962 would have been a 36" rifle. The time consumed in preparing the order would have required it to have been begun prior to 4/13/62, the effective date of the order change. That would have made the rifle a 91/38 TS ( troop special ) , which only came in a 36" length.
4. The envelope containing the money order was mailed from a postal zone that was 3 zones away from the main post office and Oswald's place of employment at a time when Oswald was documented at work.
5. The money order in evidence was not stamped by any financial institution that handled it and passed through the Federal Reserve System without any stamps at all.
6. The VP of Klein's bank told the FBI that the "$21.45" item on the tape ( Waldman Exhibit 10 ) between the $15.08 and $14.36 items was an American Express Money Order. This is the same one the WC claimed was the "Hidell" postal money order.
7. Using only manual labor and the money order amount as a guide, the Dallas Post Office employees found the money order stub in ten minutes, but it took an IBM computer in Washington 7 hours to find the money order with the number, amount and date info.
8. Part 3 of Oswald's Post Office Box application was destroyed in violation of Federal postal regulations.
9. Postal forms ( delivery receipt, seller's statement ) required to be filled out for firearms sales were never filled out for the rifle sale.
10. A "certificate of character" from a judge in the county where "Hidell" lived was also required for the purchase of the rifle. No such certificate exists.
11. The Klein's catalog number of the rifle "Hidell" ordered was different than the catalog number of the rifle found on the sixth floor of the TSBD.
12. The WC experts comparing Oswald's handwriting used first and second generation COPIES, rather than original documents. The HSCA experts also used copies but explained the problems when not using originals.
13. A document examiner's conclusion is correctly considered a professional opinion, not evidence.
14. The sling mounts on the Depository rifle are not the same as the sling mounts on the rifle depicted in the famous "backyard" photographs.

https://youtu.be/4XNHtUDEDAI?t=2m55s

Edited July 24, 2015 by Vitali Zhuk

[Glenn Nall]

I've not taken my time looking at the sling mount discrepencies between the two rifles; if good resolution photos can definitively show such a difference, this could be conclusive, largely irrefutable evidence of collusion at one level or another.

Some of you have some quite good photos of things, as evidenced earlier in this thread. I wonder what ya'll can provide in the way of these disagreeing sling mounts... I'd love to see something clearer than the common backyard pics.

How but one with j Edgar Hoover's pretty mug pasted on top of whosever face that really is...

j.k. maybe someone has some higher res copies...?

[Vitali Zhuk]

maybe someone has some higher res copies...?

http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=19990#entry268331

[Glenn Nall]

Robert,

My point is that Oswald was trained as a marine to respect his rifle. That was ingrained in basic training. Deeply. Respect for one's rifle is what kept one alive.

The alleged murder weapon was given no respect by the person who had possession of it on and immediately preceding November 22, 1963.

Oswald, having been trained as a marine, would have taken care of the rifle. Good care. That's how he was indoctrinated.

Ergo, that rifle was not possessed by Oswald.

this doesn't necessarily follow. this works only under the assumption that Oswald was a "good marine" after his service and did in fact habitually clean his rifle, and this is not a safe assumption. just because we know he was trained as a Marine to do something doesn't mean that he did these things. there are enough of "other than honorable" marines who are sloppy and careless to warrant that logic ineffective.

for that to work we'd have to know what his habits were regarding the care of guns. we don't know this at all, i don't think. his lifestyle i've read was less than pristine - i'm not sure about his service. was he a clean soldier? he did ask for a hardship release fraudulently. so...

i would agree that most people who are trained with weapons have some respect for them. I enjoyed cleaning mine almost as much as firing them. but we don't know his habits, and as Robert said, the cause of the corrosion in question isn't even known.

just saying that there are a lot of factors that play to a conclusion like the one you've asserted before it can be verified. perhaps it's, not likely possessed by Oswald because of this and other things.

[Glenn Nall]

maybe someone has some higher res copies...?

http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=19990#entry268331

beautiful - i meant of the backyard photos, tho - that's where it's hard for me to see the rifle slings (and the front of the trigger guard someone pointed out was different, slightly)...

correct me if i'm wrong, but isn't the entire proposed purpose of these backyard photos to show LHO's propensity for Communism (even though the two mags in his hands were of polarized schools of Communism...) AND to attach the MC that would later be found on 6 to him...?

which means that in order for the Lone Gunman theory to be true, that rifle MUST BE the one found on 6. right?

there's no way around that, right?

if that rifle in the backyard photo is NOT C2766, then the entire LN theory is a wash.

right?

[Robert Prudhomme]

maybe someone has some higher res copies...?

http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=19990#entry268331

beautiful - i meant of the backyard photos, tho - that's where it's hard for me to see the rifle slings (and the front of the trigger guard someone pointed out was different, slightly)...

correct me if i'm wrong, but isn't the entire proposed purpose of these backyard photos to show LHO's propensity for Communism (even though the two mags in his hands were of polarized schools of Communism...) AND to attach the MC that would later be found on 6 to him...?

which means that in order for the Lone Gunman theory to be true, that rifle MUST BE the one found on 6. right?

there's no way around that, right?

if that rifle in the backyard photo is NOT C2766, then the entire LN theory is a wash.

right?

It would be foolish of them not to plant the same rifle on the 6th floor as was used in the back yard photos.

[Glenn Nall]

so then why the speculation that the sling mounts are different? isn't this what's being speculated that the rifles in the photos are different?

and heck, there're about a thousand things they DID do that would be considered just as foolish.

i hear what you're saying; there are lots of things that people think they see that just simply should not be. one would think "there's NO WAY they'd post a shooter right there behind that fence where the possibilities of a camera or two seeing 'him' are fairly high!" ... this is the rational i find myself using often when i hear or see another theory. "don't waste your time looking at all of these extreme enlargements - you won't find a shooter; they're not that stupid. that CANNOT be a "badgeman" --- AND YET...

Edited July 20, 2015 by Glenn Nall

[David Josephs]

David, I wonder what this is going to reveal when you get to the end. It seems clear now that the PMO was created and never actually existed except for the WC. Who decided that a rifle 'should' have been ordered in March, and by whom? Do you suppose this will ever reveal the actual path traveled by 2766? Someone had to have some pretty good info to direct the Post Office on exactly when that PMO had to have been bought, but why would they show it to have been bought at one post office and then mailed from several miles away? Are there more details available?

It is my hope, Kenneth, that I can bring the information to a new level - It's one thing to say the PMO was created, it's another to show how the Evidence offered PROVES it.

It's one thing to say the 10 packing slips could not have been part of the Feb 1963 Klein's shipment - another to prove it using the evidence

It's one thing to claim the FBI took the Microfilm it's another to prove the Evidence not only conflicts on this topic but is blatantly fraudulent...

I find that the SS once again is at the center of yet another piece of dubious evidence (SS chief Rowley is the first person where CE399 comes into existence - until him, none or the witnesses identifies CE399 as the bullet they encountered)

This time it's the Money Order which Asst Dep Chief PATERNI supposedly has in his possession at 8pm yet is not found or delivered to the SS until 10:10pm...

edit: I need to add that "Beretta" or "Terni" - which the revised April 1962 Klein's order is asking for, the M91/38, does not exist as a rifle identified solely by those numbers.

Beretta and Terni are FACTORIES, not rifle types... I believe this ORDER BLANK was changed after the fact and would not be what was recorded on the Microfilm...

Gil Jesus did an amazingly good job summarizing the Money Order and Rifle info... John Armstrong is from where Gil began his search I believe...

I'm simply trying to compile the case which shows not only is the evidence a mess, but it was specifically created along with revisions of reports which are 180 degrees opposite of the original message.

It is my belief that the evidence related to the rifle is a closed loop self-corroborating process. As long as we are never allowed to see another C20-T750 order, another list of VC#'s assigned to rifles, or any of these other 99 rifles... the evidence proves itself - a tautology if you will...

LNers will claim that since C2766 was on the 6th floor, it MUST have been removed by Rupp from Harborside and sent to Klein's in Feb... These assumptions and conclusions do not fit the facts...

Notable notes from this article:

1. There is no record when carton number 3376 was removed from the Harborside Warehouse. It arrived at the Harborside on 10/25/60 and isn't seen again on record until it appears on Crescent Firearms invoice # 3178 dated 2/7/63.

   According to Rupp, #3178 was created by Crescent in NY and Penn Freight... it is a very generic, unsigned document which states the rifles were "T-38" and #3376 is not checked off

2. That Crescent Firearms invoice 3178 lists 10 cartons shipped to Klein's Sporting Goods, but only nine are actually checked off. The tenth, carton # 3376 ( which allegedly contained rifle C2766 ) is not checked off.

   Yes - yet does this actually mean anything?

3. A C2766 rifle sold to Klein's in June of 1962 would have been a 36" rifle. The time consumed in preparing the order would have required it to have been begun prior to 4/13/62, the effective date of the order change. That would have made the rifle a 91/38 TS ( troop special ) , which only came in a 36" length.

   This is NOT necessarily true at all... C2766 for our purposes is a 40.5" M91/38 Fucile Corto with a FIXED rear sight... Feldsott claims to have sold Klein's C2766 in June 1962 - there is no evidence for what was in that shipment other then the FBI claiming that Klein's records for June 1962 has a "N"2766, not "C"2766 - this is the only specific evidence that can be related to the June 1962 shipment. The original rifle order was NOT for M91/38 TS but a M91 TS... the ads for the 36" rifle starting in March 1962 all say "Adjustable Rear Sight" (see below)

4. The envelope containing the money order was mailed from a postal zone that was 3 zones away from the main post office and Oswald's place of employment at a time when Oswald was documented at work.

   The endge of Zone 12 was a 2 hour, or 5 mile round trip from the GPO in Dallas

5. The money order in evidence was not stamped by any financial institution that handled it and passed through the Federal Reserve System without any stamps at all.

   Not only that but it appears that the KLEIN's stamp on the back is not exactly the same as the test stamp they did and asked Waldman whether it was the stamp they used at Klein's... "

   

6. The VP of Klein's bank told the FBI that the "$21.45" item on the tape ( Waldman Exhibit 10 ) between the $15.08 and $14.36 items was an American Express Money Order. This is the same one the WC claimed was the "Hidell" postal money order.

   Not sure where this comes from - ROBERT WILMOUTH VP Operations for Chicago's 1st National Bank tells us the deposit had 2 $21.45's on it and that one was an American Express MO - the one described in point 6 above. He also says the other was a PMO - it appears on the 2nd page of Waldman 10 between $23.99 & $17.51. Wilmouth goes on to say that the PMO was sent to the Fed Res and would be rec'd March 18th.

7. Using only manual labor and the money order amount as a guide, the Dallas Post Office employees found the money order stub in ten minutes, but it took an IBM computer in Washington 7 hours to find the money order with the number, amount and date info.

   This comes from Harry Holmes and is without corroboration - there is no STUB in evidence nor the name of the person finding it. It did not take a computer 7 hours either... The SS reports related to this situation is quite amazing and will be covered in my monotath

8. Part 3 of Oswald's Post Office Box application was destroyed in violation of Federal postal regulations.

   It was only disappeared - WCR refers to this in saying that no one other than OSWALD was listed on this form - if they never saw it how would they know who was listed?

9. Postal forms ( delivery receipt, seller's statement ) required to be filled out for firearms sales were never filled out for the rifle sale.

   True

10. A "certificate of character" from a judge in the county where "Hidell" lived was also required for the purchase of the rifle. No such certificate exists.

    There's more to that than just no cert exists

11. The Klein's catalog number of the rifle "Hidell" ordered was different than the catalog number of the rifle found on the sixth floor of the TSBD.

    The SS concluded at 3pm on the 23rd that the rifle ordered was a "1981 Troop Special" - a 36" scoped rifle using 6.5mm ammo

12. The WC experts comparing Oswald's handwriting used first and second generation COPIES, rather than original documents. The HSCA experts also used copies but explained the problems when not using originals.

    I add the detail supporting this statement and the conclusions of the HSCA experts

13. A document examiner's conclusion is correctly considered a professional opinion, not evidence.

    If the expert is bona fide than the opinion can be entered into evidence - since we've never had a trial, none of the "evidence" is really evidence in technical terms... which is why I'm doing all these articles, to assume they needed to be authenticated to be allowed as evidence in the first place

14. The sling mounts on the Depository rifle are not the same as the sling mounts on the rifle depicted in the famous "backyard" photographs.

    What the rifle's sling looked like for those photos and on Nov 23rd should match - why?

    Did the rifles come equipped with straps?

    A (William Sharp: Klein's gunsmith) - No, because they were very cumbersome to pack. if someone would specifically order a sling with the rifle, a military strap would be sent. This would not necessarily mean a strap that was made especially for the 6.5 Mannlicher-Carcano

I went looking for the kind of sling that may have been sent with the rifle - my guess is they'd send the cheapest thing possible given the cost of the rifle... Carcano has both a cloth and leather vintage military sling... It may be the sling in the BY images is the cloth one...

Edited July 20, 2015 by David Josephs

[Kenneth Drew]

Robert,

My point is that Oswald was trained as a marine to respect his rifle. That was ingrained in basic training. Deeply. Respect for one's rifle is what kept one alive.

The alleged murder weapon was given no respect by the person who had possession of it on and immediately preceding November 22, 1963.

Oswald, having been trained as a marine, would have taken care of the rifle. Good care. That's how he was indoctrinated.

Ergo, that rifle was not possessed by Oswald.

this doesn't necessarily follow. this works only under the assumption that Oswald was a "good marine" after his service and did in fact habitually clean his rifle, and this is not a safe assumption. just because we know he was trained as a Marine to do something doesn't mean that he did these things. there are enough of "other than honorable" marines who are sloppy and careless to warrant that logic ineffective.

for that to work we'd have to know what his habits were regarding the care of guns. we don't know this at all, i don't think. his lifestyle i've read was less than pristine - i'm not sure about his service. was he a clean soldier? he did ask for a hardship release fraudulently. so...

i would agree that most people who are trained with weapons have some respect for them. I enjoyed cleaning mine almost as much as firing them. but we don't know his habits, and as Robert said, the cause of the corrosion in question isn't even known.

just saying that there are a lot of factors that play to a conclusion like the one you've asserted before it can be verified. perhaps it's, not likely possessed by Oswald because of this and other things.

he did ask for a hardship release fraudulently. I don't think that's been proven. Most evidence points to him getting a release for his assignment with ONI. That, of course, was his little trip to the Soviet Union.