How the palmprint can be accepted as evidence is truly baffling.
According to FBI agent Vincent Drain, it was the opinion of his colleagues dealing with the palmprint that Day had faked it using one of the many palmprints that was taken from Oswald during the brief time he was in custody. I assume it is usual to take one set of prints from a suspect but it seems the DPD couldn't get enough of Oswald's prints.
It is the case that Day had an Oswald palmprint and the rifle in his possession on the evening of the assassination.
It is also the case that when the FBI received the rifle there was no sign of any fraction of a palmprint on the rifle. Not only that, there was no sign that the barrel of the rifle
had even been processed for prints!!There are two reasons why this would be the case:
1] The barrel of the rifle was never processed for prints.
2] The barrel was wiped spotlessly clean before the rifle was handed over to the FBI.
If Drain and his colleagues are correct it was probably option #2. After placing a fresh palmprint taken from Oswald on the barrel of the rifle, it was given time to dry and it was this fake print that was lifted from the barrel, after which the barrel was wiped clean.
What is the evidence that supports this sequence of events (other than the expert opinion of the FBI print specialists)?
1] NO PHOTO WAS TAKEN OF THE PALMPRINTI imagine that in the very first lesson, on the very first day of fingerprint school, the students are taught this absolutely fundamental lesson - BEFORE A PRINT IS LIFTED IT IS PHOTOGRAPHED.
It is one of the most basic rules of finger-printing.
It is done because, very often, when a print is lifted it can be damaged or even destroyed by the actual act of lifting it. So a photo is taken first because it is non-invasive. It causes no damage to the print.
It can then act as a back up if the lifted print is compromised in any way.
It is beyond comprehension that Day, the fingerprint expert for the Dallas Police Department, did not take a photo first.
His excuse, that he didn't have enough time to photograph it but he did have enough time to lift it, is laughable. It cannot be taken seriously (but it is by those who need to believe).
His neglect in not taking the photo cannot be put down to gross incompetence. He was aware he should have taken the photo and we are supposed to believe he just decided not to.
The real reason he never took a photo is because there was no palmprint on the barrel of the rifle to take a print of.
2] DAY NEVER PASSED THE PRINT ON TO THE FBI ON THE 22NDThe DPD was ordered to hand over the evidence to the FBI on the night of the assassination.
The most important evidence was not the shells found on the 6th floor indicating where the shots were taken from. It was not even the rifle, the murder weapon itself. The most important piece of evidence was the palmprint Day was supposed to have taken from the barrel of the rifle.
This piece of evidence directly tied Oswald to the murder weapon. The palmprint taken from the rifle could be examined against the palmprint of Oswald the second it was lifted, wrapping the case up there and then.
Let's not forget, this is the most important piece of evidence in the most important case in U.S. history. The murder of the President.
Not only did Day forget to hand this unimaginably important piece of evidence over to the FBI,
he forgot to mention he had it!And not only that, we are being asked to believe that in the hours and days that followed the assassination Day was too busy to compare the palmprint to Oswald's!
We are being asked to believe that, not only did he neglect to give this evidence to the FBI so they could identify the print, he couldn't even be bothered doing it himself.
If it was true, that he really had lifted a palmprint from the barrel of the rifle, it would have been immediately recognised as the most important piece of evidence collected that day and there would have been a team working on it around the clock until an identification had been made.
It would not have been put in his drawer and forgotten about
3] THERE WAS NO PRINT ON THE RIFLE WHEN IT ARRIVED AT THE FBI LABAs I've said, the reason a photo is taken is to act as a back up in case the print is damaged or destroyed in the process of lifting the print.
According to Day's bogus story, he never took a photo and he did damage the print.
He would have us believe that after he lifted the print some stuck to the tape and some stayed on the rifle, irrevocably damaging the original print. However, according to Day, when he examined the print still left on the barrel of the rifle he felt that this was the better part of the damaged print and that the FBI would have no problem identifying the print. It must be remembered that a print that cannot be removed by the tape is really stuck on the barrel. Yet, when the rifle reached the FBI there was not even the tiniest fraction of print left on the barrel.
Where did it go?
Where did the print, that couldn't be removed by tape, go?
Could every single trace of a print that couldn't be removed by tape be rubbed off in transport?
How could that be the case if the wooden stock was put back on protecting the print?
Seriously, what is the excuse given for the disappearance of this print? How is it possible?
Unless, of course, the barrel of the rifle was thoroughly wiped clean before it was handed over to the FBI and that when it left the DPD there wasn't even a speck left to show that processing (or forgery) had even taken place.
The fingerprint experts at the FBI believed Day had faked the palmprint.
If we accept that, then all these other 'mysteries' are solved.