For many years now, a claim made by JFK assassination conspiracy theorists has been that the initials of FBI agent Elmer Lee Todd were not present on Warren Commission Exhibit 399.
Conspiracists such as James DiEugenio (among others) have made this claim even though the FBI agent in question (Elmer Todd) wrote up a report on 11/22/63 specifically saying that he
had, indeed, etched his initials into the nose of the bullet.
Here's a conversation I had with DiEugenio in 2010 concerning the topic of CE399 and Todd's initials:
JAMES DiEUGENIO -- "[John] Hunt then brought magnifying glasses and a computer scanner to visually inspect the documents, the bullet, and the photos at very close range and under magnification. Does anyone truly believe that he could not locate Todd's initials under those circumstances?"DAVID VON PEIN -- "Yes, I do. ALL of the markings that John Hunt found on Bullet CE399 from the NARA photos are very faint and quite difficult to see and discern. I can easily envision Todd's faint mark on that bullet being overlooked."--------------------
Well, as it turns out, I was correct when I said to DiEugenio that Elmer Todd's initials
are on Bullet CE399. And this fact was proven beyond any doubt whatsoever in 2022 by JFK assassination researcher Steve Roe, whose article concerning this matter, entitled
"The Unfounded Attack on CE 399’s Chain of Custody", was published online at the
Washington Decoded website on June 11, 2022. The article can be found
HERE.
That article by Steve Roe contains new high-definition photographs of CE399, including the picture below, which clearly shows that the initials
"ET" (Elmer Todd) have been scratched into the surface of the bullet near the nose, which is precisely where Elmer Todd himself said in
Commission Document No. 7 he had etched his initials:
So, with Mr. Roe's definitive discovery of Elmer Lee Todd's initials on that crucial and long-maligned piece of assassination-related evidence known as Commission Exhibit 399, it should forever put to rest yet another long-standing (and inaccurate) argument that has been made by conspiracy theorists—the argument that Todd's initials are nowhere to be found on CE399.
Because as everyone can easily see via the above high-quality photograph, Mr. Todd's markings are most certainly present and accounted for on that bullet.
http://jfk-archives.blogspot.com/2022/06/the-initials-of-elmer-todd-are-on-ce399.html