RIP to the Single-bullet theory?

[Royell Storing]

 
     (1) SS immediately takes possession of JFK's body, + (2) FBI demands all the physical evidence = Game Over. Lt Day, Fritz, Curry saw/knew what was going down. No degree in rocket science required.   

[Dan O'meara]

1) Day could not make a positive identification of the print he had lifted.
    His claim is that he didn't have enough time to work on it but the fact of the matter is that he had the print for days. The importance of this
    print cannot be understated - above all evidence it connected Oswald to the murder weapon. It must have been a priority. Yet Day claims
    he didn't have enough time to work on it. Yet here we have Rusty making an immediate 'satisfactory' identification.


Dan, I think that some of your words could be better selected. It wasn’t that Day said that he could not make a positive ID. But rather that he hadn’t yet spent enough time on it to say for certain one way or the other. He believed that it was a match based on his preliminary comparison. But it would have taken him some significant more time to be able to document everything so that he could say for certain that he had enough similarities to satisfy the requirements for certainty. Sadly, he was told to stop the processing that he was in the middle of. And even sadder is that Day followed just orders without standing up for himself and saying to his superiors that he was in the middle of processing the best print that he had found on the gun and that he would like to finish his work (or at least come to a good stopping point) on that portion of his work. Day had earlier been told not to do any more work on the rifle, he had had to interrupt his work to let Marina see the rifle, then he had been requested to continue his work on the prints by Captain Fritz, and finally was again interrupted in the middle of the work on the palm print and told to cease all work on the rifle. Working in the ranks of a police department is somewhat like working in the military in as much as one is expected to follow orders from their superiors regardless of whether or not they make any sense. Second guessing after the fact is easy, but I sure wish that Day had at least tried to explain his predicament to his superiors instead of apparently getting frustrated and disgusted enough to just stop right in the middle of an important process. Rusty’s and the others’ IDs were only for their own satisfaction, and, if needed, another opinion.  I think that if they had needed to document their IDs enough to testify that the match was certain, their IDs would have required more time also. Day has said that if he hadn’t been instructed to stop, that he would probably have spent the entire night processing the evidence. Instead he went home shortly after the arraignment of LHO for the murder of JFK.


2) Day is absolutely insistent there was a print on the underside of the barrel when he sent it off with Drain. He was so confident they would
    be able to identify the print from the rifle he kept the print he had lifted. Yet, by the time it reached Latona, the morning of the next day,
    the print had completely vanished. There was no trace of it. Not the slightest part left. And no indication that any attempt had even been
    made to lift a print.

I think that there was a very faint print left on the underside of the barrel. And that the FBI probably just missed seeing it. Now if Latona had been told there was a print under the fore stock and still couldn’t find it, you might have a point. Sadly, Latona had no way of knowing to look for anything under the fore stock because Day only verbally told Drain and Drain failed to make it known to Latona. Now, remember that the FBI did later scientifically confirm that the print was lifted from where Day said he lifted it. This can be viewed as a concession (without Latona having to admit it) that they missed what was left on the barrel.

Thanks for your considered response Charles.
I still can't get my head around the DPD not realising the importance of the print, especially as it had appeared to be common knowledge according to Rusty.
I was unaware the FBI later confirmed the print was lifted from where Day said he lifted it and will have to further research that particular area before drawing any conclusions.

[John Iacoletti]

Dan, I think that some of your words could be better selected. It wasn’t that Day said that he could not make a positive ID. But rather that he hadn’t yet spent enough time on it to say for certain one way or the other. He believed that it was a match based on his preliminary comparison. But it would have taken him some significant more time to be able to document everything so that he could say for certain that he had enough similarities to satisfy the requirements for certainty. Sadly, he was told to stop the processing that he was in the middle of.

So what was stopping him? He already (supposedly) had the lift and didn’t turn it over. He had days to continue examining it. If Savage is to be believed, everybody else in the office did on Saturday.The “didn’t have time” excuse falls flat when you consider that he “had time” to photograph and cover the trigger guard prints and Drain didn’t pick up the evidence until after midnight. Day was processing the rifle hours earlier.

I think that there was a very faint print left on the underside of the barrel. And that the FBI probably just missed seeing it.

Once Latona got the lift on the index card, he knew exactly where the print had supposedly been. He said there was nothing there.

Now if Latona had been told there was a print under the fore stock and still couldn’t find it, you might have a point. Sadly, Latona had no way of knowing to look for anything under the fore stock because Day only verbally told Drain and Drain failed to make it known to Latona.

But Day didn’t tell Drain.

Now, remember that the FBI did later scientifically confirm that the print was lifted from where Day said he lifted it. This can be viewed as a concession (without Latona having to admit it) that they missed what was left on the barrel.

All we have is a letter from J. Edgar (to the rescue), and an indistinct smudge. There’s nothing scientific about it.

[John Iacoletti]

Thanks for your considered response Charles.
I still can't get my head around the DPD not realising the importance of the print, especially as it had appeared to be common knowledge according to Rusty.
I was unaware the FBI later confirmed the print was lifted from where Day said he lifted it and will have to further research that particular area before drawing any conclusions.

Dan, see CE 2637. Hoover’s letter gives no indication of how this was done, or by whom, or if they had even talked to Day about what specific location he had taken his lift from. Why would the WC not speak to the person who actually did the work?

[Charles Collins]

So what was stopping him? He already (supposedly) had the lift and didn’t turn it over. He had days to continue examining it. If Savage is to be believed, everybody else in the office did on Saturday.The “didn’t have time” excuse falls flat when you consider that he “had time” to photograph and cover the trigger guard prints and Drain didn’t pick up the evidence until after midnight. Day was processing the rifle hours earlier.

Once Latona got the lift on the index card, he knew exactly where the print had supposedly been. He said there was nothing there.

But Day didn’t tell Drain.

All we have is a letter from J. Edgar (to the rescue), and an indistinct smudge. There’s nothing scientific about it.

So what was stopping him?

He was told to stop.


Once Latona got the lift on the index card, he knew exactly where the print had supposedly been. He said there was nothing there.

He said that no latent prints of value were developed. That’s not the same as nothing being there.


All we have is a letter from J. Edgar (to the rescue), and an indistinct smudge. There’s nothing scientific about it.

There are several irregularities on the rifle barrel that match up with irregularities on the lift tape.

[Jerry Organ]

(GIF: John Mytton)

[Charles Collins]

(GIF: John Mytton)

Thanks Jerry those are some great graphics by you and John Mytton. For what it is worth, if there are any remaining questions regarding the width of the lifting tape, Gary Savage states this on page 108 of his book “JFK First Day Evidence”:

He [Carl Day] told Rusty and me that he could tell it wasn’t put on there recently by the way it took the fingerprint powder. He said what makes a print of this sort is a lack of moisture, and this print had dried out. He said he took a small camel hair brush and dipped it in fingerprint powder and lightly brushed it. He then placed a strip of 2” scotch tape over the developed print and rubbed it down before finally lifting the tape containing the print off and placed it on a card.

So, it appears that Carl Day stated to Gary Savage and Rusty Livingston that he used 2” tape.

[John Iacoletti]

So what was stopping him?

He was told to stop.

Stop processing the rifle. Since he didn’t turn over the index card lift he claims he took that night, he had all the time in the world to examine that.

Once Latona got the lift on the index card, he knew exactly where the print had supposedly been. He said there was nothing there.

He said that no latent prints of value were developed. That’s not the same as nothing being there.

He’s talking about the trigger guard prints, not the alleged location of the partial palmprint. He said there was no indication of the existence of any other prints.

All we have is a letter from J. Edgar (to the rescue), and an indistinct smudge. There’s nothing scientific about it.

There are several irregularities on the rifle barrel that match up with irregularities on the lift tape.

Yep, that’s Hoover’s claim. Where’s the science?