Oswald and the Issue of Neutron Activation Analyses

[Denise Hazelwood]

On 3/20/2024 at 12:21 PM, Bill Fite said:

8. The FBI never told the WC about Guinn's tests, nor his results

Guinn’s tests were done for the HSCA, not WC.

[Denise Hazelwood]

On 3/20/2024 at 11:58 AM, Pat Speer said:

8. The FBI never told the WC about Guinn's tests, nor his results. Instead they had Cortlandt Cunningham, Frazier's partner, testify that his "personal expectation" was that no residue would leak from Oswald's rifle onto a cheek cast, and that the negative result on the nitrate test (the chemical test on the cast performed by the  DPD) was therefore as expected. This concealed that his partner had participated in the FBI's tests of the cheek cast and had established that the rifle could leak residue onto the cheek. 

9. A few weeks before the publication of the WR, however, Guinn, who was a bit of a showboat, bragged about his tests at an international conference. An article on his comments at this conference was then published in the states. An internal FBI memo reflects that the FBI was displeased.

So you’re saying that Guinn did the NAA tests for the WC? I’d like to see the article that you referenced. Can you post a link? (To both the conference article and the FBI memo.)

Edited May 24 by Denise Hazelwood
Add clarification to my request

[Pat Speer]

50 minutes ago, Denise Hazelwood said:

Well, there might have been a different reason for not releasing the NAA test results—not so much because of Oswald’s cheek but because of the (separate) test related to bullet metal content. I am thinking of Dr. Guinn’s (spelling doesn’t look right, but I am too lazy to look it up at the moment—you probably know who I mean) HSCA testimony on NAA tests done on bullet fragments, wherein it was clear that a substitution of the bullet fragments had occurred. I have no doubt that a lot of evidence against Oswald was manufactured, but I am also of the opinion that he was the shooter in the TSBD window. I could be convinced otherwise, but the reason for NAA tests suppression may have been because they showed that the Oswald gun didn’t match the “stretcher” (AR-15 “pointed” bullet) and if they released PARTS of the NAA results, then the rest would have been easier to interpret. My understanding is that Weisberg eventually got a “release” of the NAA results, but that they were presented in such a way as to be indecipherable.

Geez, Denise. I received the documents sent Weisberg 15 years ago or so, and deciphered them, and reported on them on Chapter 4f on my website. 

[Pat Speer]

50 minutes ago, Denise Hazelwood said:

Guinn’s tests were done for the HSCA, not WC.

He studied the bullet fragments for the HSCA. He had previously performed the controls on the cheek test. The story behind it all and his results are presented in Chapter 4f at the link provided below. 

Edited May 24 by Pat Speer

[Denise Hazelwood]

17 hours ago, Pat Speer said:

Geez, Denise. I received the documents sent Weisberg 15 years ago or so, and deciphered them, and reported on them on Chapter 4f on my website. 

I didn't remember seeing that, but I will look at Chapter 4f your website. I either missed that previously, or didn't remember it. (BTW, you could've said that without the "Geez." You've done a lot of good work, and I've learned a lot from your website, but that one word is off-putting, which I don't think you meant to be.)

[Denise Hazelwood]

Here's my question about potential GSR on Oswald's cheek and hands:

The TSBD shooter's face was inside the building, presumably his hands, also. The barrel of the gun was sticking out of the lower part of the window. The window was partly closed. The wind was blowing mostly towards Elm Street on the other side of the intersection than the motorcade route. Given the partial blocking of the window & wind direction, etc., could he have fired the Mannlicher-Carcano without getting GSR on his hands and cheek?

Later, at the Tippit shooting, using a revolver, his hand was closer to the muzzle of the gun, and (I presume) would absolutely have received GSR. Or are there any instances of someone firing a revolver outside not receiving GSR, or receiving very little GSR.

Here's my opinion:

Undoubtedly the DPD was trying to implicate Oswald, and undoubtedly the FBI was trying to do the same. The whole case was characterized by sloppy investigative work and cover-up. (Dallas was, after all, the site of one of the country's first Conviction Integrity Units for a reason.) I think Oswald was the TSBD shooter. But given all the sloppiness and predetermination to convict him, if Oswald had lived and gone to trial and had a decent lawyer, would he have been convicted? That, I don't know...

[Ron Bulman]

Damn.  How many have actually listened to the post?

It's historic.

Jim and Larry conversing civilly.  There is so much packed in here.  Surrogates .  . .  Thanks to Paul and Len Osanic.  Remarkable.