What happened to the Mauser?

[Tim Nickerson]

I'll tell you what..I definitely am not a firearms expert. However, give me a MAGNIFYING GLASS and put a rifle in front of me and if the make and serial number are readable (and they were), I'll tell you the make and serial number. There was no timer running.Especially if I'm Will Fritz (Bonnie & Clyde fame I believe) and initially say it looks like a Mauser (Boone's testimony) when discovered between the boxes. The rifle never leaves the TSBD with an erroneous description going out over all news outlets until the next day when it is corrected BY THE FBI. You don't come off looking like Ned and the first reader. Same with Weitzman and Craig....I mean seriously how long does it take to ID a rifle with a magnifying glass ? Geez. And the first gun shown in the Alyea film seems to have a silencer on it. Keep in mind Alyea and Bittner are the only 2 newsmen there I believe.

Jim, I ask you again, when did Will Fritz say that the rifle was a Mauser?

[Tim Nickerson]

Thanks for all your information Denis and the Biffle video in particular. I am not sure how important it is but his story seems a bit odd, and seems to lack anything involving the finding of the rifle That is not a criticism of its value overall Biffle says he is 8 or so cars back from JFK when he hears the first shot and gets out. Then claims he is at the Grassy Knoll, which would seemingly be 150ft approximately, and that he gets there and nothing is going on ,has time for a chat with a derelict and then gets back to the book depository right as Oswald is leaving At a minimum he says he's there when they find the shells and I believe that was pretty early.

 In regard to Craig I will defer to your understandings and concede that Craig is not on record until 1971 But why does Belin not even ask him about any sort of description or Identification of the rifle? The Warren Commission and DPD knew they had a problem with the initial statement of a Mauser, so wouldn't they being looking to clarify a glaring error?

 If anyone can weigh in on whether close up photos of the rifle on the sixth floor were taken, but are not in evidence There was an official police photographer there as well? Do we know what pictures are Aylea's and which were official? It's hard to understand why no photo would exist from the scene on whatever was stamped on that rifle

Matt, they were able to clarify the glaring error in their questioning of Weitzman and Boone during their WC testimonies.

[Mitch Todd]

It is often claimed that Craig never said a word about the Mauser until 1968

 However In a response to David Josephs at the Education Forum last year

  Even in your article The Mauser, the Carcano & the Lt. Day Rifle," you wrote, "One of them, DPD Detective Roger CRAIG - a decorated officer, saw ?7.65? and ?MAUSER? stamped on the barrel both facing the same direction ? an extremely specific identification."

Yeah, but when did Craig say it? Earliest reference I know of is '73. Craig doesn't mention it in "When They Kill a President" which he wrote a couple of years earlier. Kind of an odd thing to omit. And he didn't mention it in either his LA interview with Penn Jones in '67/'68 or in his testimony in the Shaw trial.

[Matt Grantham]

 Wouldn't the most obvious form of identifying the rifle simply be reading what was stamped on it? Maybe an affidavit  might include what was stamped on the rifleI haven't read Weitzman and Bonne's testimony but I will ask in advance whether they were asked about a stamp? It is pretty clear what the answer is or we wouldn't be having  this discussion

[Denis Morissette]

Craig was presented with a photo of a rifle during his Shaw trial testimony. He said he had seen a rifle similar to the one in the photo. We'll probably never know what photo he was shown, but it's probably the pic of Oswald's rifle. He did not say what type of rifle it was.

[Matt Grantham]

Boone's W transcript at McAdams is missing at the moment. Weitzman says he was only able to glance at the rifle. You might not want to right an affidavit at something you glanced at

[Tim Nickerson]

Boone's W transcript at McAdams is missing at the moment. Weitzman says he was only able to glance at the rifle. You might not want to right an affidavit at something you glanced at

Boone said "And at first, not knowing what it was, I thought it was 7.65 Mauser."  He heard someone say "it looks like a 7.65 Mauser." He thought that that someone was Fritz. It was likely Weitzman.

[Mitch Todd]

Boone's W transcript at McAdams is missing at the moment. Weitzman says he was only able to glance at the rifle. You might not want to right an affidavit at something you glanced at

In the early late 50's and '60's, Argentina was dumping a lot of model 1891 rifles. These had single-stack magazines that extended below the the forestock to about the bottom of the trigger guard. Pretty much like a Carcano. The next version of the Mauser design --and all subsequent models-- used a two-stack magazine that was contained completely by the forestock. I suspect that Weitzman had run into an Argentine M1891 or two at some point, and mistook the similarly-magazined Carcano for a weapon he was familiar with.