Summary of Results from Oswald's Paraffin Tests

[Tom Neal]

In regard to the erratic GSR deposited by the same gun, it would be helpful to know if VP Guinn's tests were also conducted on rifles and automatic pistols.

[Robert Prudhomme]

The guns are now considered to be collectable curiosities that are unsafe to shoot.

Considering the popularity of this alteration at the time I guess safety wasn't much of a factor.

Did you see my comments in post #143?

Considering the expansion of the cases I suspect they were not so easy to remove after firing. Yet LHO lingered at the murder scene long enough to remove them AND reload. Apparently this wasn't a dumb enough idea, so he also left his brass at the crime scene. IIRC, a civilian placed the spent brass in a cigarette package and turned it over to the police. Do we know the name of this helpful fellow? Or like the fellow who gave the description of the DP shooter, not one of these highly trained and experienced cops thought to ask him his name.

Didn't LHO also leave his wallet at the crime scene? But he didn't stop to pick it up, because he STILL had one wallet on him when he was picked up, and had several more at various other locations...

I'm actually glad this topic came up. I had seen vague references being made to there being something odd about Oswald's alleged revolver but I never looked that closely at the subject before. As usual, truth is stranger than fiction, and a lot more interesting to boot.

[Tom Neal]

The guns are now considered to be collectable curiosities that are unsafe to shoot.

Considering the popularity of this alteration at the time I guess safety wasn't much of a factor.

Did you see my comments in post #143?

Considering the expansion of the cases I suspect they were not so easy to remove after firing. Yet LHO lingered at the murder scene long enough to remove them AND reload. Apparently this wasn't a dumb enough idea, so he also left his brass at the crime scene. IIRC, a civilian placed the spent brass in a cigarette package and turned it over to the police. Do we know the name of this helpful fellow? Or like the fellow who gave the description of the DP shooter, not one of these highly trained and experienced cops thought to ask him his name.

Didn't LHO also leave his wallet at the crime scene? But he didn't stop to pick it up, because he STILL had one wallet on him when he was picked up, and had several more at various other locations...

I'm actually glad this topic came up. I had seen vague references being made to there being something odd about Oswald's alleged revolver but I never looked that closely at the subject before. As usual, truth is stranger than fiction, and a lot more interesting to boot.

How about the bullets and cases? Did you know that 3 Winchester bullets and 1 Remington bullet were removed from JDT, but 2 Remington and 2 Winchester cases were introduced as evidence? DPD turned 1 bullet over to the FBI immediately. The other 3 sat in the DPD files for months until the FBI asked for them. Also, according to FBI testimony, the cases were turned over to the DPD by a neighbor near JDT's murder scene. I don't recall that they ever stated who turned the cases in, or how far from JDT they were found.

I just spent a while chasing down the name of the guy who actually picked up the brass at Tippit's murder site. It was Domingo Benavides. I remember reading about him, but I don't recall ever reading that he was the one who turned it over to DPD. He saw the shooter toss the shells aside while walking away from the crime scene. He scooped them up into an empty cigarette pack. But he only found TWO shells, not the 4 that are in evidence. He has no idea who the DPD cop was that he handed the evidence to.

Sergeant Gerald Hill later testified that Officer J.M. Poe showed him a Winston cigarette pack with THREE spent shells in it. Hill told him to be sure and mark them as evidence. Poe told the Commission that "he believed he had marked them, but couldn't swear it." Later he told FBI Agent Bardwell Odum that he recalled marking the cases with his initials "JMP" before giving them to DP Sergeant W.E. Barnes, but after a thorough exam of the four shells shown to him he cannot locate his marks. Barnes recalls Poe giving him the two shells, but according to Mark Lane was unable to find his mark either.

The other TWO shells were found by Barbara and Virginia Davis, who later could NOT identify the shells in evidence as those that they found.

Edited May 25, 2016 by Tom Neal