The words of DPD Crime Lab Detective R.W. (Rusty) Livingston:
"JFK First Day Evidence" by Gary Savage, pages 77-78
"... I am sure that Lieutenant Day, who was in charge of the Crime Lab, dusted the rifle that was found on the sixth floor of the School Book Depository, and lifted a partial palm print off the underside of the barrel after the rifle was taken apart. They had the actual print there in the office that night [11/22/63]. I compared it myself with Oswald's palm print, and it looked to me like there was enough there to say yes, it was Oswald's palm print." ... "That happened all the time," he told me. "After we had made a comparison and felt as though we had a match, if someone else was in the office, they'd usually take a look too and help to verify the match."
Additional words by Gary Savage (pages 79-80):
...Today some assassination researchers do not believe that Lieutenant Day actually did lift the palm print of Oswald frim the rifle. He did, however, and most, if not all, other Crime Lab Officers saw and compared the palm print themselves, including Rusty, Pete Barnes, H. R. Williams, and Bobby Brown. Ample opportunity to compare the palm print lifted from the rifle existed since it remained in the Crime Lab Office for several days, and each officer recalled the lift and had no doubt that it was Oswald's.
Bobby Brown told Rusty and me that he remembered looking at the palm print lifted by Lieutenant Day. He stated that there was no doubt that it was Oswald's palm print and said he looked at the palm print the day after the shooting. His scheduled hours for work on Saturday were from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Brown said that he didn't come in on the day of the assassination.
Does anyone here know of any words (quotations or otherwise) by any of the Dallas Police Crime Lab officers that would either confirm or contradict this?
Thanks Charles, the rifle had to touch Oswald's palm to leave a print and considering that Oswald wasn't accessible after a few days, the stupid conspiracy theory that the palmprint "magically" turned up a week later is only endorsed by the extremely desperate.
The FBI confirmed that Day's print had to have come from the rifle.
This high res image of Day's print shows the random points that were used in matching the rifle prints.
JohnM