Tracking 2766

[Gil Jesus]

When it found out that some rifles had the same serial number, sans the letter prefix, the Warren Commission asked the FBI to track the rifle with the serial number 2766.

Commission Document 881 contains a list of the 700 rifle shipment that rifle # 2766 was a part of. The rifles were shipped in 25 cartons, some cartons contained 50 rifles, others 25.

All of the serial numbers are listed individually. At the top of the last page of that list, page 67, is written "Italian Carbine, 46" ".

( The document is upside-down, so you'll have to rotate it a couple of times to see it ) 

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=11277#relPageId=70

So here you have a different sized rifle with the same core serial number.

 

Edited August 11, 2022 by Gil Jesus

[David Josephs]

Gil,  I hate to disagree with you... but,

All 700 of those rifles are the FC model... same exactly as the rifle found on the 6th floor...

Furthermore, there were 6 of the same serial #'s in the batch of 700 that matched 6 of the 100 from the Feldsott packing slips. (which of course never had anything to do with tracing that rifle beyond the Harborside Warehouse.

Century also supplied the pistol which Oswald was credited with buying.

 

June 1962....  There's a lot more at K&K on the rifle and the impossibility of the FBI finding anything that night at Klein's...  the entire set-up is actually fiarly obvious and trackable...

DJ

 

What I find even more compelling about that 100 rifle order is the master sheet of VC assigned numbers... THAT sheet shows a different order number was originally accounted for with those 100 rifles... as there was no Feb 1963 order.  Order 1259 Page 1 of 2 is on the top right corner while the 2-22-63 order number seems to me a late addition...  also appears as if all the serial numbers where whited out and then rewritten..  none of the copier dot artifacts appear behind the written serial numbers only to the left and right of them... 

FWIW...

 

Edited July 20, 2023 by David Josephs

[Gil Jesus]

35 minutes ago, David Josephs said:

Gil,  I hate to disagree with you... but,

All 700 of those rifles are the FC model... same exactly as the rifle found on the 6th floor...

Furthermore, there were 6 of the same serial #'s in the batch of 700 that matched 6 of the 100 from the Feldsott packing slips. (which of course never had anything to do with tracing that rifle beyond the Harborside Warehouse.

Century also supplied the pistol which Oswald was credited with buying.

June 1962....  There's a lot more at K&K on the rifle and the impossibility of the FBI finding anything that night at Klein's...  the entire set-up is actually fiarly obvious and trackable...

DJ

What I find even more compelling about that 100 rifle order is the master sheet of VC assigned numbers... THAT sheet shows a different order number was originally accounted for with those 100 rifles... as there was no Feb 1963 order.  Order 1259 Page 1 of 2 is on the top right corner while the 2-22-63 order number seems to me a late addition...  also appears as if all the serial numbers where whited out and then rewritten..  none of the copier dot artifacts appear behind the written serial numbers only to the left and right of them... 

FWIW...

So if I understand you correctly ( and please correct me if I don't ) you're saying that these 100 rifles were part of that shipment of 700 rifles. 

But Louis Feldsott told the FBI that the rifles were packed 10 to a carton by his reps in Italy. ( FBI File 62-109060, Sec 19, pg. 113 )

These 700 rifles were shipped in 25 cartons, some had 25 rifles, some had 50.

So this has me confused. Did Feldsott lie ?

I think you should look at this first page of CD 881, where in the first paragraph, the FBI says its providing documents for rifles C2766 AND 2766:

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=11277#relPageId=2

Edited August 11, 2022 by Gil Jesus

[David Josephs]

Just now, Gil Jesus said:

So if I understand you correctly ( and please correct me if I don't ) you're saying that these 100 rifles were part of that shipment of 700 rifles. 

But Louis Feldsott told the FBI that the rifles were packed 10 to a carton by his reps in Italy. ( FBI File 62-109060, Sec 19, pg. 113 )

These 700 rifles were shipped in 25 cartons, some had 25 rifles, some had 50.

So this has me confused. Did Feldsott lie ?

Not at all Gil,

The 700 rifles was its own order to Century...  the 10 packing slips were actually part of the shipment from Italy to Feldsott in the US (the designation "38 E" was the international name of the FC rifles, "38 E" was never used to refer to these rifles in the US... plus both Feldsott and Waldman claim to have turned over the same 10 packing slips.. ) there was no Feb 22 1963 order to Klein's.  There NEVER WAS a shipment of 100 rifles including C2766 sent to Klein's..  it's just 3 pieces of self corroborating evidence.

Feldsott may have told the truth except for the part about Klein's having received that order on that date... that affidavit was prepared for him by the WC/Rankin as the letter which accompanied it shows. (yellow) and is not signed until July 23, 1964.

You described the 700 rifles perfectly except for their model.  To be frank, you will be hard pressed to find ANY ORDERS for a 36" TS rifle except for the after the fact changes to the order blank from Klein's. 

 

 

Another bit of proof about the rifles ordered and rifle sent...:  The SS determined the rifle described and sent in the order to HIDELL was a TS Troop Special.. yet as we both know, no such order was ever sent anywhere nor rec'd anywhere.

Not a single rifle listed in those 10 packing slips has EVER been seen.. the FBI took rifles from Klein's, FC rifles yet none with the same serial numbers as the 100...

I personally believe the serial number was placed on that rifle after the fact... as the serial number of that rifle from Italy shows C-2765, not 66.

Clear as mud? 🙂

DJ

 

[David Josephs]

I do have the contact report forms the FBI used when visiting Feldsott..  Seems to me just FBI rehash of what they wanted to show.

Below that is the actual FBI info rec'd showing C-2766 was not on the only 2 orders they found... one in June 18, 1962 and another not shown on any order form from Klein's on March 27, 1963.  There would be no way at all that anyone at Klein's could find the ORDER for C-2766 that night or even the next day.  Not until Sunday do they make a statement and it winds up being double speak.

They just say it was sold to Klein's despite there not being any proof of that, and that it was rec'd by Crescent from Italy...  well no sh!t.

DJ

 

 

[Joe Bauer]

Documentation research and discovery on this forum is simply amazing.

[Tom Gram]

1 hour ago, David Josephs said:

plus both Feldsott and Waldman claim to have turned over the same 10 packing slips..

This isn’t accurate David. See my comments on Gil’s other thread. Feldsott’s slips say “office copy” and Waldman’s say “customers invoice” - it’s just that Waldman’s were the only ones made a WC Exhibit:

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=62321#relPageId=9

Also that “contact form” you posted above is not from the FBI, it’s a witness evaluation sheet put together by HSCA staff members. There are three other ones just like it for Feldsott. The reference to the 6/18/62 shipment date is just staffers quoting off the affidavit. 

I have a lot more to add to this thread when I get home later today, including a few documents on the Century arms angle that have never been online. 

Edited August 11, 2022 by Tom Gram

[David Josephs]

14 minutes ago, Tom Gram said:

This isn’t accurate David. See my comments on Gil’s other thread. Feldsott’s slips say “office copy” and Waldman’s say “customers invoice” - it’s just that Waldman’s were the only ones made a WC Exhibit:

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=62321#relPageId=9

I have a lot more to add to this thread when I get home later today, including a few documents on the Century arms angle that have never been online. 

Yes, I am aware they are different copies of the same slips... yet since they were from Italy to Feldsott one has to wonder how Waldman gets copies of them...  The missing piece we are not including here is FRED RUPP.

I look forward to those docs on Century..  I've looked pretty closely at them as well as another arms dealer INTERARMCO.. aware of them?

[David Josephs]

21 minutes ago, Tom Gram said:

This isn’t accurate David. See my comments on Gil’s other thread. Feldsott’s slips say “office copy” and Waldman’s say “customers invoice” - it’s just that Waldman’s were the only ones made a WC Exhibit:

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=62321#relPageId=9

I have a lot more to add to this thread when I get home later today, including a few documents on the Century arms angle that have never been online. 

What are your thoughts on the Italian manifest showing C(?) - 2765 instead of 66?

[Gil Jesus]

5 hours ago, Tom Gram said:

This isn’t accurate David. See my comments on Gil’s other thread. Feldsott’s slips say “office copy” and Waldman’s say “customers invoice” - it’s just that Waldman’s were the only ones made a WC Exhibit:

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=62321#relPageId=9

Also that “contact form” you posted above is not from the FBI, it’s a witness evaluation sheet put together by HSCA staff members. There are three other ones just like it for Feldsott. The reference to the 6/18/62 shipment date is just staffers quoting off the affidavit. 

I have a lot more to add to this thread when I get home later today, including a few documents on the Century arms angle that have never been online. 

Sorry Tom. I didn't want to go too far with it because I knew you were working on the subject of the FBI's tracking of the rifle and I didn't want to steal your thunder. So I'll leave it where it is and let you post your stuff when you get a chance.

PS: It sounds like they couldn't find the sales documents from Crescent to Klein's for the serial number and the closest they could find was N2766 and C2746. Or why would they mention them ?

LNers jump in at any time to explain your documents.

Edited August 11, 2022 by Gil Jesus

[Tom Gram]

1 hour ago, Gil Jesus said:

Sorry Tom. I didn't want to go too far with it because I knew you were working on the subject of the FBI's tracking of the rifle and I didn't want to steal your thunder. So I'll leave it where it is and let you post your stuff when you get a chance.

PS: It sounds like they couldn't find the sales documents from Crescent to Klein's for the serial number and the closest they could find was N2766 and C2746. Or why would they mention them ?

LNers jump in at any time to explain your documents.

No apologies necessary. Right now all I have is a bunch of documents and a loose but detailed chronology of the rifle investigation - but it's such a massive topic that threads like this are great to bring attention to various aspects of the evidence. Keep at it! 

You are absolutely correct on your second point. The record reflects that FBI couldn't find a damn thing at Crescent on C2766 until the early morning hours on Sunday - that's almost 36 hours of so-called "exhaustive" searching. What may be even weirder is that the FBI didn't disseminate the actual details of those records until about 6:00 p.m., 15 hours or so after they were allegedly discovered and long after Oswald was killed. Based on the 11/22 10:41 PM EST teletype, it looks like the New York Field Office mentioned N2766 and C2746 in the context of information provided by Feldsott that Klein's sold rifles mounted with the same model scope found on C2766 - so New York ordered Chicago to head to Klein's and search their records for C2766 "in view of possible error in recording numbers". As you know, Waldman and Scibor told a very different story to the WC. 

I haven't seen any LNer ever even touch this topic in any depth. Hell I'm not even 100% convinced there was any malfeasance in the rifle investigation myself beyond a bunch of massive screw-ups and subsequent ass covering by the FBI, but the evidence is so bizarre, contradictory and ambiguous that the possibility of fabricated evidence is very real and basically undebunkable, which is why I think the lone assassin types stay away from it. Another comment to come shortly more in line with the topic of this thread. 

[Tom Gram]

15 hours ago, Gil Jesus said:

When it found out that some rifles had the same serial number, sans the letter prefix, the Warren Commission asked the FBI to track the rifle with the serial number 2766.

The reason the WC made this request in the first place in Feb '64 is that they figured out how badly the FBI screwed up the initial investigation. How it all played out is pretty damn interesting, IMO. I'll do a mix of images and links so it's not 20 pages long, but this is still going to be pretty long; all times in CST:

On the evening of the assassination, Dallas sent a teletype to New York at 4:50 p.m. ordering them to check the records of Crescent Firearms. New York's first reply was at 6:40 p.m. This teletype said that inquiries in New York reflect that InterArmCo in Virginia was the biggest supplier of the rifles, so New York ordered the Richmond Field Office to contact InterArmCo:

 

At 12:45 AM, New York brought up InterArmCo again to Richmond because the records at Crescent FAILED to reflect sale of C2766: 

 

 

(Interesting side note is as far as I can tell, New York NEVER contacted the JJ Edleson company) At 2:15 AM, Richmond responded, and said that InterArmCo didn't sell the rifle but Century Arms in Vermont was a likely candidate. The Albany Field Office was thus ordered to contact Century Arms:

Albany contacted Century Arms and responded at 12:14 PM, asking Dallas for a complete description of the rifle along with the serial number, since Albany wasn't included in any of the initial teletypes: https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=62263#relPageId=143

Dallas responded at 1:46 PM with a description of the rifle, but no serial number: https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=62259#relPageId=175

I initially thought this was intentional, but now I think it was just a mistake. Dallas just reused a teletype description of the rifle that was sent to New York and Richmond at 8:00 p.m. for Albany. Since Richmond and New York already had the serial number, it wasn't included in that teletype: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1UBSBXInY9IxNVA_HCVcQl6YBRP2H3Vgb/view

The error was resolved in about an hour:

 

 

At around the exact same time Albany got the serial number from Dallas, William Waldman finally located records at Klein's reflecting that C2766 was received from Crescent Firearms. (Recall that the corresponding Crescent records will not be "discovered" for another 12 hours or so.) Waldman called SA Sidney Neel to report his discovery. HOWEVER, the FBI did not rush back to Klein's to verify the records, they just took Waldman's word for it, called New York to update them at 3:45 p.m., and reported on Waldman's phone call via teletype a couple hours later at 5:39 PM: https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=62259#relPageId=64

TWENTY MINUTES LATER, Dallas sent out an admonishing teletype ordering Richmond and Albany to completely shut down their investigation into the rifle: 

 

At this point in the investigation, the official story was that Crescent records FAILED to reflect sale of the rifle, and the only information indicating otherwise came from a PHONE CALL from William Waldman. For Dallas to shut down this parallel rifle investigation without verifying the Klein's records, and without even FINDING the corresponding Crescent records is simply unconscionable, IMO. Even worse is that Albany was preparing a teletype mentioning that they found a rifle with SN 2766 that had been shipped from Century Arms to Aldens in Chicago. This teletype was to order Chicago to review the records of Aldens to track down the ultimate purchaser of 2766:

However, this teletype was not completed and was NEVER SENT because Dallas shut down Albany's rifle investigation - so the order to Chicago to review the Aldens purchase records on 11/23 NEVER WENT OUT.  

The information in this teletype did however make it into a FD-302 report that was written up on 11/26 and sent to Dallas. This 302 report was included in the 12/10/63 compilation report of Robert Gemberling: https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=10408#relPageId=213

The WC had a copy of the 12/10/63 Gemberling report, and when they saw the 302 on Century Arms they basically told the FBI to get their dooky together and finally track down the rifle with SN 2766. This requirement was levied on the FBI via letter on 2/21/64: https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=58210#relPageId=45

The FBI was not thrilled. They dragged their feet, made excuses, and never tracked down who ultimately purchased SN 2766 from Aldens.

TOO LONG; DIDN'T READ SUMMARY:

If the Dallas FBI hadn't shut down Albany and Richmond's rifle investigation at an obscenely premature time based solely on a PHONE CALL from William Waldman, Chicago would have been digging through the Aldens records to track down the rifle with SN 2766 on Saturday afternoon, 11/23/63. Instead, the FBI had to be ordered to do so by the WC in February '64 once they realized how badly the FBI had screwed up the investigation. The FBI  never tracked down the rifle. 

Edited August 12, 2022 by Tom Gram

[Mark Knight]

Tom, your most recent post has some of the same information that I got from the late Gerry Hemming. Hemming wasn't exactly known for telling the WHOLE story on ANYTHING, but he told me that the key to the Carcano rifle had NOTHING to do with Klein's Sporting Goods, but that it entered the US from Montreal. Hemming also hinted that there was a connection to OAS, the group that had tried to assassinate Charles DeGaulle earlier in the 1960s:

"To cut this short, I will simply state that:

 

(1)  The F.B.I. had a couple of "Legat" U.S. Embassy (Ottawa) Special Agents working with the "Mounties" et al. -- but the U.S. participation grew quickly once the "usual suspects" starting moving into New York City and its environs;

 

(2)  "Empire" and other weapons importers were originally set up by the Brits, and this: because the law in Canada permitted the importation of weapons without serial numbers stamped on the frame of the firearms.  The U.S. State Department's "Office of Munitions Control" prohibited any importing of guns with numbers not on the frame, i.e., the barrel or stock. [See the then extant regulations published in the C.F.R. -- "Code of Federal Regulations");

 

(3)  The alleged "LHO" Mannlicher-Carcano (and many others) came directly from Montreal, as did the "snub-nose" .38 cal. revolver;

 

(4)  A large batch of Mannlicher-Carcanos were scheduled for use in the coup d'etat planned against Sukarno's Indonesia regime during 1958, an operation that LHO, Roscoe White, et al. participated in;

 

(5)  About 200 Mannlicher-Carcanos found their way into the hands of then President of Costa Rica Jose "Pepe" Figueres, and were later flown to Fidel's rebels in Cuba during 1958.  The Curtis C-46 "Commando" transport aircraft was flown into the Sierra Maestra area by pilots Guillermo & Roberto Verdaguer, but the plane had to do a "wheels-up" landing, was damaged -- and had to be destroyed.

Fidel was highly pissed that there was little ammunition for the Italian rifles and the Mexican "Mendoza" machine-guns;

 

(6)  During 1960, the Miami anti-Castro leader Rolando Masferrer inherited some 100+ Mannlicher-Carcanos, which were useless to him because of the "No Ammo" situation, and;

 

(7)  During the "time-window" that LHO was allegedly in Mexico City, he was actually in Montreal, attempting to penetrate the "hostiles" forming up for travel down south.

---------------------------------------------------------

 

Some more clues:  LHO never possessed that revolver, and it was to be used as a "throw-down" gun as he was shot to death inside the theater (or elsewhere).  LHO saved his life by grabbing the gun away from the cop, which forced the scuffle instead of a shooting.

 

Chairs,

 

Gerry"

 

Regarding "the "hostiles" forming up for travel down south," Hemming said:

 

"Just after the "Cuban Missile Crisis", Robert Emmett Johnson was sent to Montreal by his bossman at I.S.I. ("International Services of Information") former O.S.S. Colonel Ulius Amoss.  I.S.I. was based in Baltimore, and published a right-wing intelligence bulletin styled as "Inform".  Shortly after his arrival, he joined with the R.C.M.P. OC/Task Force.  By then the "Mounties" et al. were surveiling and penetrating a cluster of devious groups which included Castro-Cubans, Nicaraguans, etc.; and who were being directed by K.G.B., G.R.U., StD (Czech), Stasi (GDR) case officers.  Amongst said groups were people being recruited purportedly for sugar cane cutting ("Volunteers") and a caravan march from Montreal through the U.S. to Key West, on to Havana, and with a final destination being the U.S. Naval Base at Caimanera, Oriente Province, Cuba. (N.B. & N.A.S. Guantanamo Bay - GITMO)"

 

Since this IS Gerry Hemming's information, take it for what you will.

[Gil Jesus]

11 hours ago, Tom Gram said:

The reason the WC made this request in the first place in Feb '64 is that they figured out how badly the FBI screwed up the initial investigation. How it all played out is pretty damn interesting, IMO. I'll do a mix of images and links so it's not 20 pages long, but this is still going to be pretty long; all times in CST:

On the evening of the assassination, Dallas sent a teletype to New York at 4:50 p.m. ordering them to check the records of Crescent Firearms. New York's first reply was at 6:40 p.m. This teletype said that inquiries in New York reflect that InterArmCo in Virginia was the biggest supplier of the rifles, so New York ordered the Richmond Field Office to contact InterArmCo:

 

At 12:45 AM, New York brought up InterArmCo again to Richmond because the records at Crescent FAILED to reflect sale of C2766: 

 

 

(Interesting side note is as far as I can tell, New York NEVER contacted the JJ Edleson company) At 2:15 AM, Richmond responded, and said that InterArmCo didn't sell the rifle but Century Arms in Vermont was a likely candidate. The Albany Field Office was thus ordered to contact Century Arms:

Albany contacted Century Arms and responded at 12:14 PM, asking Dallas for a complete description of the rifle along with the serial number, since Albany wasn't included in any of the initial teletypes: https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=62263#relPageId=143

Dallas responded at 1:46 PM with a description of the rifle, but no serial number: https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=62259#relPageId=175

I initially thought this was intentional, but now I think it was just a mistake. Dallas just reused a teletype description of the rifle that was sent to New York and Richmond at 8:00 p.m. for Albany. Since Richmond and New York already had the serial number, it wasn't included in that teletype: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1UBSBXInY9IxNVA_HCVcQl6YBRP2H3Vgb/view

The error was resolved in about an hour:

 

 

At around the exact same time Albany got the serial number from Dallas, William Waldman finally located records at Klein's reflecting that C2766 was received from Crescent Firearms. (Recall that the corresponding Crescent records will not be "discovered" for another 12 hours or so.) Waldman called SA Sidney Neel to report his discovery. HOWEVER, the FBI did not rush back to Klein's to verify the records, they just took Waldman's word for it, called New York to update them at 3:45 p.m., and reported on Waldman's phone call via teletype a couple hours later at 5:39 PM: https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=62259#relPageId=64

TWENTY MINUTES LATER, Dallas sent out an admonishing teletype ordering Richmond and Albany to completely shut down their investigation into the rifle: 

 

At this point in the investigation, the official story was that Crescent records FAILED to reflect sale of the rifle, and the only information indicating otherwise came from a PHONE CALL from William Waldman. For Dallas to shut down this parallel rifle investigation without verifying the Klein's records, and without even FINDING the corresponding Crescent records is simply unconscionable, IMO. Even worse is that Albany was preparing a teletype mentioning that they found a rifle with SN 2766 that had been shipped from Century Arms to Aldens in Chicago. This teletype was to order Chicago to review the records of Aldens to track down the ultimate purchaser of 2766:

However, this teletype was not completed and was NEVER SENT because Dallas shut down Albany's rifle investigation - so the order to Chicago to review the Aldens purchase records on 11/23 NEVER WENT OUT.  

The information in this teletype did however make it into a FD-302 report that was written up on 11/26 and sent to Dallas. This 302 report was included in the 12/10/63 compilation report of Robert Gemberling: https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=10408#relPageId=213

The WC had a copy of the 12/10/63 Gemberling report, and when they saw the 302 on Century Arms they basically told the FBI to get their dooky together and finally track down the rifle with SN 2766. This requirement was levied on the FBI via letter on 2/21/64: https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=58210#relPageId=45

The FBI was not thrilled. They dragged their feet, made excuses, and never tracked down who ultimately purchased SN 2766 from Aldens.

TOO LONG; DIDN'T READ SUMMARY:

If the Dallas FBI hadn't shut down Albany and Richmond's rifle investigation at an obscenely premature time based solely on a PHONE CALL from William Waldman, Chicago would have been digging through the Aldens records to track down the rifle with SN 2766 on Saturday afternoon, 11/23/63. Instead, the FBI had to be ordered to do so by the WC in February '64 once they realized how badly the FBI had screwed up the investigation. The FBI  never tracked down the rifle. 

So was the rifle's original serial number 2766 and someone stamped a "C" prefix on it so it couldn't be traced ?

Two pictures of the alleged rifle. The top one was taken by Michael O'Neill of Life magazine at the National Archives, November 1983 to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the assassination.

The bottom one is the FBI's photo.

Note the different script, especially on the "C" :

 

While the Life photo shows a C with a rounded bottom, the Warren Commission C has a serif on the bottom which somewhat resembles a G.

Are we looking at C2766 and 2766 with a "C" added ?

Was the rifle sold by Century Arms to Alden's and not Crescent Firearms to Klein's ?

And if so, who purchased "2766" from Alden's ? And when ?

Were the Klein's records faked ( as I have suspected ) after the assassination ? Klein's ( and Seaport Traders ) were under Federal investigation. How far would they go to "cooperate" with the FBI ?

Stay tuned, folks. My associates and I will get to the bottom of this. :-)

Edited August 12, 2022 by Gil Jesus

[Tom Gram]

17 hours ago, Gil Jesus said:

So was the rifle's original serial number 2766 and someone stamped a "C" prefix on it so it couldn't be traced ?

Two pictures of the alleged rifle. The top one was taken by Michael O'Neill of Life magazine at the National Archives, November 1983 to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the assassination.

The bottom one is the FBI's photo.

Note the different script, especially on the "C" :

 

While the Life photo shows a C with a rounded bottom, the Warren Commission C has a serif on the bottom which somewhat resembles a G.

Are we looking at C2766 and 2766 with a "C" added ?

Was the rifle sold by Century Arms to Alden's and not Crescent Firearms to Klein's ?

And if so, who purchased "2766" from Alden's ? And when ?

Were the Klein's records faked ( as I have suspected ) after the assassination ? Klein's ( and Seaport Traders ) were under Federal investigation. How far would they go to "cooperate" with the FBI ?

Stay tuned, folks. My associates and I will get to the bottom of this. 🙂

Dang, that really does look like different lettering. The offset 6 is weird too, but it looks to be in the same location in both photos, so I have no clue what’s going on there. 

Again, I’m very on the fence about this in general, and try to stick with highlighting the FBI’s joke of an investigation and the ambiguities in the evidence and leave it at that, but the images you posted gave me a thought - so I’ll speculate for the sake of discussion. There were several rifles in the Feb ‘63 shipment with 3-digit serial numbers. If Crescent shipped Klein’s a 40” rifle with SN C276, alteration of the paperwork would have been a piece of cake - and that would explain the seemingly arbitrary choice of Invoice 3178 to reflect shipment of C2766.

In this scenario, the offset 6 on the rifle would have been added after the fact by whomever obtained C276 from Klein’s to frame Oswald - and Oswald actually recieved the 36” rifle C2766. 

There are a ton of problems with this theory, but one way to get around at least a few of those problems is by assuming that somebody screwed up by planting a 40” rifle in the TSBD. There would have been a full chain-of-possession already in place to Oswald’s actual 36” rifle - possibly even to rifle 2766 if it had a C prefix (2766 did end up in Chicago. Did Aldens ever supply rifles to Klein’s?) - but once it was clear the rifles didn’t match it would have become necessary to link the paperwork to C276 instead, which was imported and supplied by Crescent.

The only thing that would need to be altered on (or just added to) Waldman Exhibit 7 would be the VC control number, which could have happened between the FBI leaving Klein’s and Robert Dolan heading back to get the microfilm. (The VC number was not mentioned in any communication prior to late Saturday afternoon, so it’s at least possible something like this happened.) Then all you’d need to do is add the number 6 to Waldman Exhibit 4, the shipping slips, and the Italian ship inventory list. Problem solved.

This scenario would explain the suspiciously long timeframes to turn up all the shipping-receiving records from Klein’s and especially Crescent, but you’d still have to explain what happened to the 36” rifle, and why it wasn’t just obtained and used in the frame-up. 

None of this works without Waldman being in on it, and I would need a hell of a lot more evidence to really believe it, but the rifle evidence is so jacked-up that I wouldn’t be surprised if something like this really happened.

Just for fun, here’s the index to the withheld in full Chicago FBI file on Waldman from 1953 when Guy Bannister was SAC: 

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=92595#relPageId=6

Edited August 13, 2022 by Tom Gram