A few quotes from Bill Simpich's research at JFK facts
Both 38 special and 38 automatic hulls are clearly identified at their base ?- Hill?s misidentification cannot be passed off as a simple mistake.
Officer J.M. Poe told the FBI that he marked these hulls with his initials ?JMP?. When he testified before the Commission, Poe stated under oath that he could not swear that he initialed these hulls. Hence, there was no chain of custody.
Officer Jerry Hill complicated matters still further by claiming that Poe showed him three hulls
In the face of a very carefully phrased question by David Belin, Hill denied under oath that he made the radio call about the finding of 38 automatic hulls at 1:40 pm. Hill claimed that he wasn?t using his call number ?550-2? as much as another officer, and that it was wrong to think that he made the call.
Twenty-two years later, in 1986, Hill admitted to researcher Dale Myers that he made the call. When he was asked how he determined that the hulls were 38 caliber, Hill said, ?Thirty-eight?s stamped on the bottom of it. I looked on the bottom.?
It could be argued that the two hulls found by two sisters, Barbara and Virginia Davis should be admitted because of the clear stories about two different officers that received them from the Davis sisters.
Hill told Dale Myers that all of the shells found within a foot and a half of each other. The problem with Hill?s story is that the police reports and testimony state that the four shells were found many yards apart.
Hill wrote in his report that one of the shells had a hammer mark on the primer.
Firearms and toolmark expert Cortlandt Cunningham testified to the Warren Commission, ?We found nothing to indicate that this weapon?s firing pin had struck the primer of any of these cartridges.? In other words, Cunningham called Hill a liar.
Furthermore, the Davis sisters said that the marked hulls were not the hulls that they originally provided to the police
On this last quote in regard to the Davis Sisters is from Volume XXIV, page 414 but no direct link to fin that
It seems the Davis sisters told officers said they saw a man running across their lawn shortly after the shooting but the officers cannot find them and the sisters find them later Just trying to see if I am getting this right Is there a clear time the Davis sisters found the shells? The area was not cordoned off apparently?
I assume there is at least a transcript of Hills call at 1:40 if not a recording
From D Perry
1) The Bullets
From page 250 ~ "The bullets removed from Tippit's body during the autopsy were marked and turned over to the FBI, along with the bullet and police button removed earlier at Methodist Hospital."
If this statement is accurate then what are we to make of the comment found in Warren Commission Volume III, page 474?
"Cunningham later went back to the Dallas Police Department at the request of the Commission and found three more bullets."
The truth is no bullets were ever turned over to the FBI. Cunningham returned to Dallas months later, went through some file cabinets and came up with the bullets. As far as I'm concerned a clear break in the chain of custody.
Your statement that "no bullets were ever turned over to the FBI" is incorrect.
One bullet and a uniform button were turned over to the FBI for testing on the night of 11-22-63. The three other bullets were turned over to the FBI on 3-13-64 after the first bullet proved insufficient to determine the source weapon. All of this information is detailed in With Malice (pp.641-42, endnote 697)
The Cunningham remark is a small part of how the FBI came to possess all of the bullets. (See endnote 697)
As far as "a clear break in the chain of custody," all of the bullets were identified by the markings placed on them. The bullet and button removed at Methodist was marked by R.A. Davenport and the three bullets removed at Parkland during the autopsy were marked by Earl F. Rose. (24H415 CE2011, p.9)
