Oswald's sack in the Sniper's nest.

[Pat Speer]

From the Sixth Floor Museum's Oral History by Carl Day 1996:


Bob: One of the questions that I think has come up is the bag that Oswald‟s rifle was in. There weren‟t any pictures made of that? Do you remember seeing that in that area?
Carl: Yes, there was a bag, a brown bag, there. It was made out of wrapping paper, and we collected that bag.
Bob: You did collect it, but you didn‟t photograph it?
Carl: There should be a picture of it somewhere.
Bob: Now where was it now, where was it? Kind of behind the boxes, do you remember?
Carl: To the best of my knowledge, it was to the right on the floor of where he was sitting, on the box that I showed you a minute ago. It may have been the right, it may have been the left, but there was a bag there.
Bob: Left would be like in the corner…
Carl: Yes, in the corner out back towards the north side of the building, where you headed up to it.
Bob: What did it look like to you, then, if you collected it, did you not know what it was?
Carl: I didn't know anything about a bag at that time. There was a bag laying there, at the first thing, there was a brown paper bag, it was too big for that. Later examination indicated that it was a bag had been made out of wrapping paper. It appeared to be shipping paper, and there was a roll in the shipping department downstairs that sent me the paper. Of course at that time, we didn‟t know anything about Oswald, didn‟t know anything about what happened. There was a bag there and it was collected.

(Emphasis added by me)

Please keep in mind that Carl Day had been retired for 20-years by 1996. And he had not kept up with the conspiracy theories...

I hope you're not trying to prop up that Day was present when the bag was "discovered." Because that ship has sailed.

From patspeer.com, Chapter 4c.

Day's post-1964 statements on the bag, in fact, confirm he was not actually present when the bag was "discovered."

A summary of Day's 10-18-77 interview with HSCA investigators Harold Rose and Al Maxwell (HSCA record 180-10107-10176) relates: "Lt. Day stated that he remembers the brown wrapping paper in the S.E. corner and stated that he believes his office processed it and it went with the other evidence to the F.B.I."

He "believes"? Really?

In 1992, when asked by researcher Denis Morissette if he knew who found the bag, Day similarly responded: "I don't know. It was on the floor next to and north of the box Oswald was sitting on when I arrived at the 6th floor. My men and I collected the bag at this place. As far as I know it had not been moved by any officers." Note that he never describes his initial spotting and inspection of the bag, or his dusting and signing the bag. He says only that there was a bag, that it was collected by his men, and that it was found by... someone... north of the sniper's seat. (His testimony had been that it was south of the sniper's seat, directly in the corner.)

In 1996, in an oral history recorded for The Sixth Floor Museum, moreover, Day had the chance to set the record straight and once again offered smoke. When asked why the bag hadn't been photographed, he responded "There should be a picture of it somewhere." When then asked by interviewer Bob Porter where the bag had been found, he replied "To the best of my knowledge, it was to the right on the floor of where he was sitting, on the box that I showed you a minute ago. It may have been the right, it may have been the left, but there was a bag there." When Porter pointed out that "left" would mean the corner (where Day had testified the bag was discovered), moreover, Day surprised him, and once again asserted that the bag had been found north of the sniper's seat. He responded "Yes, in the corner out back towards the north side of the building, where you headed up to it." He then admitted "I didn’t know anything about a bag at that time. There was a bag laying there...Later examination indicated that it was a bag had been made out of wrapping paper. It appeared to be shipping paper...Of course at that time, we didn’t know anything about Oswald, didn’t know anything about what happened. There was a bag there and it was collected."

Now, this, of course, supports that Day hadn't actually seen the bag where he claims it was found, and that others were, in fact, responsible for its collection in the depository.

This likelihood is further supported by Day's recollection to Larry Sneed, published in 1998, moreover. Day is reported to have told Sneed that "Also found on the sixth floor, as I recall, near the shell area, was a paper bag. It should have been photographed, but for some reason, apparently wasn't."

In fact, in what was to become his final word on the subject, in a 7-11-06 interview with The Sixth Floor Museum, Day came as close to admitting perjury as one can come. In opposition to his Warren Commission testimony that he'd signed the paper bag or sack "at the time the sack was found," Day ultimately admitted that when he and Studebaker left the sniper's nest to go photograph the rifle on the other side of the building "They had posted guards or something around it and they didn't have the sense to leave things alone. And they'd got in there and picked up a sack that was in this corner. And we didn't get a picture of it. But there was a sack right in that corner...the brown paper bag. It was the one he was supposed to have brought curtain rods in. Well, they picked it up while I was gone, and I didn't get a picture of it while it was sitting there."

[Charles Collins]

I hope you're not trying to prop up that Day was present when the bag was "discovered." Because that ship has sailed.

From patspeer.com, Chapter 4c.

Day's post-1964 statements on the bag, in fact, confirm he was not actually present when the bag was "discovered."

A summary of Day's 10-18-77 interview with HSCA investigators Harold Rose and Al Maxwell (HSCA record 180-10107-10176) relates: "Lt. Day stated that he remembers the brown wrapping paper in the S.E. corner and stated that he believes his office processed it and it went with the other evidence to the F.B.I."

He "believes"? Really?

In 1992, when asked by researcher Denis Morissette if he knew who found the bag, Day similarly responded: "I don't know. It was on the floor next to and north of the box Oswald was sitting on when I arrived at the 6th floor. My men and I collected the bag at this place. As far as I know it had not been moved by any officers." Note that he never describes his initial spotting and inspection of the bag, or his dusting and signing the bag. He says only that there was a bag, that it was collected by his men, and that it was found by... someone... north of the sniper's seat. (His testimony had been that it was south of the sniper's seat, directly in the corner.)

In 1996, in an oral history recorded for The Sixth Floor Museum, moreover, Day had the chance to set the record straight and once again offered smoke. When asked why the bag hadn't been photographed, he responded "There should be a picture of it somewhere." When then asked by interviewer Bob Porter where the bag had been found, he replied "To the best of my knowledge, it was to the right on the floor of where he was sitting, on the box that I showed you a minute ago. It may have been the right, it may have been the left, but there was a bag there." When Porter pointed out that "left" would mean the corner (where Day had testified the bag was discovered), moreover, Day surprised him, and once again asserted that the bag had been found north of the sniper's seat. He responded "Yes, in the corner out back towards the north side of the building, where you headed up to it." He then admitted "I didn’t know anything about a bag at that time. There was a bag laying there...Later examination indicated that it was a bag had been made out of wrapping paper. It appeared to be shipping paper...Of course at that time, we didn’t know anything about Oswald, didn’t know anything about what happened. There was a bag there and it was collected."

Now, this, of course, supports that Day hadn't actually seen the bag where he claims it was found, and that others were, in fact, responsible for its collection in the depository.

This likelihood is further supported by Day's recollection to Larry Sneed, published in 1998, moreover. Day is reported to have told Sneed that "Also found on the sixth floor, as I recall, near the shell area, was a paper bag. It should have been photographed, but for some reason, apparently wasn't."

In fact, in what was to become his final word on the subject, in a 7-11-06 interview with The Sixth Floor Museum, Day came as close to admitting perjury as one can come. In opposition to his Warren Commission testimony that he'd signed the paper bag or sack "at the time the sack was found," Day ultimately admitted that when he and Studebaker left the sniper's nest to go photograph the rifle on the other side of the building "They had posted guards or something around it and they didn't have the sense to leave things alone. And they'd got in there and picked up a sack that was in this corner. And we didn't get a picture of it. But there was a sack right in that corner...the brown paper bag. It was the one he was supposed to have brought curtain rods in. Well, they picked it up while I was gone, and I didn't get a picture of it while it was sitting there."

Now, this, of course, supports that Day hadn't actually seen the bag where he claims it was found, and that others were, in fact, responsible for its collection in the depository.

Is this your comment Pat? If so, please explain your logic in making the claim that Day hadn’t actually seen the bag. Thanks.

[John Iacoletti]

Were his prints found on it? We have the word of an FBI expert, and a police expert supposedly working from photos that were later published and didn't show much more than blobs. I have numerous books on fingerprinting, going back to the forties. These books show readily identifiable prints and matches. The matches presented in the WC's volumes, on the other hand, are little more than blobs. They show nothing. The government has had more than fifty years, moreover, to publish proper photos of the latents, alongside Oswald's prints, and has failed to do so. And the FBI has refused to releases its photos of the trigger guard. So, no, the fingerprint evidence is not a done deal, far from it. Every print connecting Oswald to the sniper's nest or rifle is suspect.

On top of that, the prints allegedly found on the bag were destroyed by the silver nitrate darkening over time, so there isn’t even any way to verify or repeat the analysis.

[Jerry Freeman]

Now, this, of course, supports that Day hadn't actually seen the bag where he claims it was found, and that others were, in fact, responsible for its collection in the depository.
Is this your comment Pat? If so, please explain your logic in making the claim that Day hadn’t actually seen the bag. Thanks.

J C Day said as much in his testimony---

Mr. BELIN. I'm going to hand you what has been marked as Commission Exhibit 729 and ask you to state if you know what this is.
Mr. DAY. 729 is a photograph of the inside wall, south and east walls, right at the corner of the building at the sixth floor of the Texas Book Depository.
Mr. BELIN. I notice some pipes on the right portion of this picture as you face it, and I also notice a box. I will first ask you to state if this picture was taken before or after anything was removed from the area.
Mr. DAY. The sack had been removed.

Mr. BELIN. You mean between--you said the sack.
Mr. DAY. I mean the pipe. The sack was between the pipe and the wall at the top of the picture.
Mr. BELIN. That wall at the top of the picture would be the east wall, would it not?
Mr. DAY. Yes, sir; laying parallel to the south wall.
Mr. BELIN. Did the sack--was it folded over in any way or just lying flat, if you remember?
Mr. DAY. It was folded over with the fold next to the pipe, to the best of my knowledge.

"To the best of my knowledge" basically means he was told what to say

[Pat Speer]

Now, this, of course, supports that Day hadn't actually seen the bag where he claims it was found, and that others were, in fact, responsible for its collection in the depository.

Is this your comment Pat? If so, please explain your logic in making the claim that Day hadn’t actually seen the bag. Thanks.

When one studies the statements of those involved in the collection of the bag, it's clear Day wasn't there when it was "collected." Montgomery, Johnson, and Studebaker never once mentioned Day in connection with the finding and dusting of the bag. Johnson makes clear, moreover, that it was "found" after Studebaker had dusted the pop bottle--which he did after he'd photographed the rifle. Day makes clear, moreover, that once the rifle was found he worked on the rifle on the west end of the building and then took it to the crime lab. He didn't come back till 3 or so. The bag was removed from the building at 3. Now, granted, this leaves a small window whereby Day could have been shown the bag when he returned, but the idea pushed in the WR that Day signed the bag upon its discovery in the sniper's nest is a flat-out lie.

And probably by design. Consider...

The FBI created a memo claiming Day found the bag and that the DPD had not shown it to anyone. Neither of these statements were true.
Montgomery and Johnson claimed Montgomery had found the bag, and Capt. Fritz's records on the assassination support their claim.
Lt. Day failed to even mention the discovery of the bag in his only report written on the crime scene.
Montgomery, Johnson and Studebaker all testified in Dallas, None of them mentioned Day in connection to the bag. And none of them were shown the bag during their testimony.
David Belin then flew Lt. Day to Washington, and put words into his mouth that suggested Day had found the bag.
Belin's chapter in the WR mentions Day and Day alone in connection to the bag.
When the FBI was asked to bring the evidence to Dallas and get those who'd discovered the evidence to confirm the evidence in possession of the FBI and WC was the original evidence,the bag was shown to Day and Day alone, even though the FBI's original evidence photo for the palm print showed Montgomery, Johnson and Studebaker's initials by the palm print, and not Day's.
When asked about the bag in his final Oral History, Day claimed the bag was picked up when he was gone. Well, let's recall that once he went to work on the rifle he did not return to the SN for 90 minutes or so, and that Montgomery and Johnson had taken the bag from the building near the end or at the end of that 90 minutes.

So this leaves the possibility Day saw the bag in the sniper's nest upon his first arrival, and that he thought he'd get back to it upon his return from the crime lab. But this fails the smell test, seeing as none of those arriving at the sniper's nest before Day's arrival had any recollection of a gun case/bag sitting on the floor of the sniper's nest, and no pictures were taken of it in the sniper's nest, and neither Montgomery nor Day (the two possible finders of the bag) could tell a consistent story regarding where the bag was "discovered."

[Jack Nessan]

When one studies the statements of those involved in the collection of the bag, it's clear Day wasn't there when it was "collected." Montgomery, Johnson, and Studebaker never once mentioned Day in connection with the finding and dusting of the bag. Johnson makes clear, moreover, that it was "found" after Studebaker had dusted the pop bottle--which he did after he'd photographed the rifle. Day makes clear, moreover, that once the rifle was found he worked on the rifle on the west end of the building and then took it to the crime lab. He didn't come back till 3 or so. The bag was removed from the building at 3. Now, granted, this leaves a small window whereby Day could have been shown the bag when he returned, but the idea pushed in the WR that Day signed the bag upon its discovery in the sniper's nest is a flat-out lie.

And probably by design. Consider...

The FBI created a memo claiming Day found the bag and that the DPD had not shown it to anyone. Neither of these statements were true.
Montgomery and Johnson claimed Montgomery had found the bag, and Capt. Fritz's records on the assassination support their claim.
Lt. Day failed to even mention the discovery of the bag in his only report written on the crime scene.
Montgomery, Johnson and Studebaker all testified in Dallas, None of them mentioned Day in connection to the bag. And none of them were shown the bag during their testimony.
David Belin then flew Lt. Day to Washington, and put words into his mouth that suggested Day had found the bag.
Belin's chapter in the WR mentions Day and Day alone in connection to the bag.
When the FBI was asked to bring the evidence to Dallas and get those who'd discovered the evidence to confirm the evidence in possession of the FBI and WC was the original evidence,the bag was shown to Day and Day alone, even though the FBI's original evidence photo for the palm print showed Montgomery, Johnson and Studebaker's initials by the palm print, and not Day's.
When asked about the bag in his final Oral History, Day claimed the bag was picked up when he was gone. Well, let's recall that once he went to work on the rifle he did not return to the SN for 90 minutes or so, and that Montgomery and Johnson had taken the bag from the building near the end or at the end of that 90 minutes.

So this leaves the possibility Day saw the bag in the sniper's nest upon his first arrival, and that he thought he'd get back to it upon his return from the crime lab. But this fails the smell test, seeing as none of those arriving at the sniper's nest before Day's arrival had any recollection of a gun case/bag sitting on the floor of the sniper's nest, and no pictures were taken of it in the sniper's nest, and neither Montgomery nor Day (the two possible finders of the bag) could tell a consistent story regarding where the bag was "discovered."

So this leaves the possibility Day saw the bag in the sniper's nest upon his first arrival, and that he thought he'd get back to it upon his return from the crime lab. But this fails the smell test, seeing as none of those arriving at the sniper's nest before Day's arrival had any recollection of a gun case/bag sitting on the floor of the sniper's nest, and no pictures were taken of it in the sniper's nest, and neither Montgomery nor Day (the two possible finders of the bag) could tell a consistent story regarding where the bag was "discovered."

News reporter Kent Biffle states the bag was discovered before the rifle was located. He mentions "We", this can only be assumed to be the various detectives,


Taken from Biffle's notes  page 6 and 7:

It didn't take the policemen long to find the cartridges by the ambush window. We all stood around staring at the brown wrapping paper found nearby. It was a reasonable conclusion that it held the rifle.
An officer in the northwest corner of the room yelled: "Over here!"
I ran over, dodging down narrow alleys in the stacks of packing crates. I was secure in the knowledge that my theory was materializing. They'd found the body of the gunman, I guessed.
I was let down when the policeman pointed among a jumble of boxes at the hidden rifle. The muzzle and the steel butt plate were barely visible.

[Charles Collins]

J C Day said as much in his testimony---"To the best of my knowledge" basically means he was told what to say

No he didn’t say any such thing. And who taught you English vocabulary? I suggest you consult a dictionary.

[Charles Collins]

When one studies the statements of those involved in the collection of the bag, it's clear Day wasn't there when it was "collected." Montgomery, Johnson, and Studebaker never once mentioned Day in connection with the finding and dusting of the bag. Johnson makes clear, moreover, that it was "found" after Studebaker had dusted the pop bottle--which he did after he'd photographed the rifle. Day makes clear, moreover, that once the rifle was found he worked on the rifle on the west end of the building and then took it to the crime lab. He didn't come back till 3 or so. The bag was removed from the building at 3. Now, granted, this leaves a small window whereby Day could have been shown the bag when he returned, but the idea pushed in the WR that Day signed the bag upon its discovery in the sniper's nest is a flat-out lie.

And probably by design. Consider...

The FBI created a memo claiming Day found the bag and that the DPD had not shown it to anyone. Neither of these statements were true.
Montgomery and Johnson claimed Montgomery had found the bag, and Capt. Fritz's records on the assassination support their claim.
Lt. Day failed to even mention the discovery of the bag in his only report written on the crime scene.
Montgomery, Johnson and Studebaker all testified in Dallas, None of them mentioned Day in connection to the bag. And none of them were shown the bag during their testimony.
David Belin then flew Lt. Day to Washington, and put words into his mouth that suggested Day had found the bag.
Belin's chapter in the WR mentions Day and Day alone in connection to the bag.
When the FBI was asked to bring the evidence to Dallas and get those who'd discovered the evidence to confirm the evidence in possession of the FBI and WC was the original evidence,the bag was shown to Day and Day alone, even though the FBI's original evidence photo for the palm print showed Montgomery, Johnson and Studebaker's initials by the palm print, and not Day's.
When asked about the bag in his final Oral History, Day claimed the bag was picked up when he was gone. Well, let's recall that once he went to work on the rifle he did not return to the SN for 90 minutes or so, and that Montgomery and Johnson had taken the bag from the building near the end or at the end of that 90 minutes.

So this leaves the possibility Day saw the bag in the sniper's nest upon his first arrival, and that he thought he'd get back to it upon his return from the crime lab. But this fails the smell test, seeing as none of those arriving at the sniper's nest before Day's arrival had any recollection of a gun case/bag sitting on the floor of the sniper's nest, and no pictures were taken of it in the sniper's nest, and neither Montgomery nor Day (the two possible finders of the bag) could tell a consistent story regarding where the bag was "discovered."

Thanks Pat. So you are acknowledging that:

“So this leaves the possibility Day saw the bag in the sniper's nest upon his first arrival, and that he thought he'd get back to it upon his return from the crime lab.”

Instead of saying “...Day hadn’t actually seen the bag...”

By the way I purchased the video of Day’s last oral history from the Sixth Floor Museum a while back. He was ninety something. And during the conversation he was looking at photos taken at the crime scene. He was having difficulty orienting things. It is apparent to me that his memory was somewhat faded. In 1996, he says that he hasn’t read any of the conspiracy books. So it is understandable that he might have remembered incorrectly and thought that the east wall was the north wall. The diagram he made shows where he saw the bag. “To the best of his knowledge” simply implies that he cannot be sure that it wasn’t moved before he got there and saw it in the corner.