Day had plenty of experience of dating prints on the exact day he took them.
JohnM
CE 637 is the so called "palm print" that was allegedly lifted from the metal gun barrel of the carcano rifle C2766.
This is nothing but an unidentifiable smudge and it was NOT lifted from the metal gun barrel....It was lifted from the bottom of the WOODEN fore grip of a carcano.
Notice the two parallel lines at the right side of the smudge.... Those are the edges of the slot that is cut into the wooden fore grip of the model 91/38 carcano. That slot allows the blade of the bayonet to be folded back out of the way when it wasn't needed. That slot is solid proof that the so called palm print was NOT lifted from the metal barrel....
Just minutes after Detective Day picked the carcano up from the floor 15 feet 4 inches from the north wall he started examining the rifle for prints....He spotted the smudge on the wooden fore grip and knew the wood might absorb the "print"...so he decided to lift that "print" with cellophane tape. A reporter named Tom Alyea watched as Day lifted that smudge and placed the scotch tape on a 3 x 5 index card and jot down the pertinent information on that card. "Off underside gun barrell near end of fore grip c2766" ....He then signed and dated the card .....
At midnight 11/22/63 the card was among the evidence that was being released to the FBI....There are three signatures on the card ..JC Day...GMD ( Capt George Dougherty , and VED ( FBI agent Vince Drain) Dougherty represented the DPD and Drain represented the FBI.
That Smudge was NOT an identifiable print and it DID NOT come from the bottom of the metal barrel!.....
